I mean, I agree with most of Fatmanonice's points, but some of them seem to be reaching:
- For one, the NoA tweet and the trivia during the Game Awards were more than likely (read: 99.99%) Nintendo of America's doing. Most of Geno's fanbase is in America, so it makes sense that Nintendo of America would acknowledge that. However, Nintendo of Japan is the one calling the shots, so promotion from Nintendo of America means almost nothing.
- The nods to Geno in base are likely just that, nods. The icons are literally just Spirits, and again, Sakurai likes Geno and knows that there's demand for him, so it makes sense for him to be an online icon. At the end of the day, it's a lot easier to negotiate for .png files than for character licenses, hence the Spirits.
- Any argument that Geno's Spirit is "special" seems like confirmation bias. The even stats are integer values that calculate the stats of the Spirit and nothing else, and his placement means little as well, other than it being thematic that he's in space (since he comes from Star Road) because the player can go about World of Light in any order they want. If you want to argue that him being a Legendary Spirit means something then yeah, I'd agree, and if Spirits don't disconfirm then I'd say that's a point for him, but stats and placement aren't.
- Fatmanonice acknowledged this himself, but the placement of Geno on Shulk is tin foil hat conspiracy-level speculation. It could be thematic, but it's just as likely that the person playing as Shulk liked Geno, or it was slipped in to soft-disconfirm him like what happened with Ashley's abrupt inclusion in the August Direct as an assist trophy
No one can argue against the Nintendo Dream interview, or how easy it would be to get the character license to Geno; there are valid points for him, but the above ones just aren't it.
...That's the point.
The point is that Isaac would be a unique addition to the roster, but if one were to judge him solely by appearance he is, by definition, an anime swordsman. It conveys the point that the "anime swordsman" argument is weak because it discounts a large variety of characters who could be unique additions to the roster.
I think it’s kind of weird to assume one branch of Nintendo would be aware of a characters popularity and not another branch. That would be horrible business when thinking about the long run. We can’t necessarily assume that just because NoA made those tweets, that NoJ is unaware of Geno’s popularity. I mean, we also can’t asaume that they ARE aware, but I find it hard to believe NoJ as a company would ignore that. Especially given we got the costume last game.
I would give you your icon point, but not all spirits made it to icons. For example, Geno is a player icon while Mallow is not. Rayman and Shankar are both icons, while Ness’ Dad (also legendary) and Hinawa (legendary) are not. What’s the criteria here? And why does Geno fit that criteria?
I think the points are worth looking at. Even with the nods, they are still nods that some other characters haven’t gotten.
Something I find funny is that people are calling Erdrick a shill pick but not Joker even though if the leak is to be believed he's there to promote the supposed P5 Switch port.
Either they both are or they both aren't.
Joker is less of a shill pick because (as of this post) he’s not promoting an upcoming game that will be coming on switch or releasing on a Nintendo platform soon. If we’re accepting the leak narrative it LITERALLY says “to promote expansion of the DQ series in the West” not “legendary grandfather of RPGs that was desired for cross over game” and again even if the leak is true, we didn’t KNOW P5 was getting a port as of Joker’s announcement. We already know about DQ’s port.
Not saying DQ doesn’t deserve its spot at all, it’s just business strategy. Capitalizing on potential.
Honestly I believe the one potential character who would be a real "shill" character to the very cynical connotation some people here are portraying would be Edelgard for Three Houses.
But yeah Atlus definitely wants there to be more advertisement for Persona. P5 was a great game and I am glad it did so well, but there is no guarantee P6 will get the same kind of success especially if they want to go more lighthearted in tone like P4.
But what’s the difference between Edelgard and Erdrick? I guess yeah, FE isn’t really failing out here. No need to promote an already successful series...but wouldn’t that imply DQ isn’t as successful as people keep claiming?
So put Joker in Smash? I mean...maybe? P5 has been out for what two years already tho? I don’t see a real reason to want to advertise more for it (unless of course there is some port coming) when it already did and continues to do really well. P6 would be a totally different game too, and probably won’t come out for a while so idk about that line of logic.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the way 5ch works, but it looks to me like he said that the 5 DLC characters will be Steve, Erdrick, Tracer, Leon Kennedy, and Sol Bad Guy. Correct me if I'm wrong here.
Please God no
You mean the series that is successful in Japan and is a cultural phenomenon here?
Is DQ REALLY a cultural phenomenon here tho? Like is it REALLY? In Japan, absolutely, but cultural phenomenon?? It’s popular, and getting steadily more so...but...
) Lotto (
) 2 color each of the Army Eleven
