My idea is kinda unorthodox so let me know if it doesn't the criteria and I'll change it.
Horror stage: America (Death Stranding/Silent Hill)
The stage is set in the Eastern Region of America explored early on in the game (I'm mainly taking inspiration from the area between the Waystation and the Distribution Center, where you first run into MULES). The layout consists of a flat plain interrupted by a trench and a river to the middle-left. However, in keeping with Death Stranding's online component, some stage elements will have a random chance of appearing, such as ladders, bridges, ropes and even abandoned trucks. In the background you could see the MULE camp, the Ludens Fan's bunker, and random porters delivering packages on foot.
However instead of Timefall and BTs, the stage would be engulfed in fog. The fog slightly clears, allowing players to see that they are suddenly and jarringly in Silent Hill now. From this point onwards iconic monsters from the series could spawn and attack players, such as the Nurses, Abstract Daddies, and even Lisa from PT.
I think this mashup makes sense because Death Stranding is kind of a spiritual version of Silent Hills in many respects so the two series are linked. Plus this is basically my only way to get a Death Stranding stage in the game as there's no way people are going to vote for Sam Porter Bridges as a fighter (and issues with Norman Reedus' likeliness might make it unrealistic anyways).
My concern is that, as far as I know, Death Stranding is a third party franchise (Kojima Productions owns it, from what I've seen), and I'm not sure if they'd get the licensing just for a stage. (it's like the Spyro stage that someone brought up earlier)
We don't need to have a stage based on horror games; I figure one of the stages will be a neutral one where the rival battles take place, so we can have an odd number of stages for now.
If people want to submit stage ideas for Resident Evil or Silent Hill, feel free, but in the meantime, we can vote on the stage based on the post-2014 games, along with having another vote.
Stages (pick one)
-Tsushima Island (Ghost of Tsushima/Motorstorm)
CapitaineCrash
-Tallneck (Horizon: Zero Dawn/Shadow of the Colossus)
Yokta
I vote for Tallneck.
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For our other vote today, we'll be voting on characters that were previously considered or used as placeholders, but didn't make it into the original game. From what I can tell, the list is as follows:
-Abe (Oddworld)
-Chimera (Resistance)
-Hatapon (Patapon)
-Kulche (Loco Roco)
-Rau Utu (Mark of Kri)
-Soldier (Fat Princess)
-Worker (Fat Princess)
-Blasto (from the game of the same name; not the Hanar Spectre from Mass Effect)
-Buzz (Buzz)
-Dr. Nefarious (Ratchet & Clank)
-Eucadian Soldier (Warhawk)
-Chernovian Soldier (Warhawk)
-Doberman (Sly Cooper)
-Ellen (Folklore)
-Spyro the Dragon
There’s also
a bald/balding man between the Loco Roco character and the Warrior from Fat Princess who I don’t recognize – if anyone could identify him, that would be great. (he's on the bottom row) Other sources for this include
concept art of trying to find a unified style for the roster, along with
a developer interview by Matt McMuscles and mock-up artwork (that I posted earlier) pointing to the idea that Spyro (along with Crash, who's already in this game) was considered or at least hoped for.
I can’t find a source on Tomba actually being in development for the original game – the only place that claims that’s the case is a Wiki article with no sources.
Characters like Ryu Hayabusa (from Ninja Gaiden), Jin Kazama, and Kazuya Mishima (both from Tekken) allegedly appeared on an image on the official website, but it’s unclear how legitimate it is. (the image uses pre-existing artwork for all three, one of the people involved with the game said that Heihachi was the only planned playable character for Tekken, and Photoshop is a thing)
For Chun-Li and Sub-Zero, all we have to go on is that a Superbot employee might have seen their names on a whiteboard at some point, which isn’t a reliable source. It’s unclear which Final Fantasy character was considered or asked for. (the concept art that I found earlier has Squall and Lightning, but it’s unclear if that’s who the development team wanted, who they expected they’d get, or wishful thinking on the part of one concept artist) If anyone can find proof that other characters were considered, let me know and I'll add them to the list.
Also, if there's a character that you want to make a case for, feel free - we've already had people nominating
Hatapon,
Spyro, and
Ellen in the past, so it might help to get people interested in characters that people might not be as familiar with. There are no limitations on who you can vote for. (so even if you nominated them on a previous day, you can put them in first or second here)
My vote for this is:
1. Spyro (I feel like he has to be in here)
2. Dr. Nefarious (while I haven't played much of Ratchet and Clank, the game could use more villains - the closest that we have so far are Heihachi and Pyramid Head)
3. Chimera (going by the amount of icons and backgrounds that Resistance has, they just barely missed out on the original game, and going by videos that I've seen online, it could have an interesting moveset - maybe a mix of guns from the Resistance games and summoning
different types of Chimeras)