(Chun-Li)
Newcomers: Ridley, Shulk, Greninja
At long last, I get to add Shulk. I briefly considered Wii Fit or Little Mac, but Xenoblade is the most significant series of the bunch to add right now. Mac is someone I really want to add sooner than later but I can hold off for a bit.
My other two choices seem to be par for the course, wish I could be more innovative but I think it’s the right way to go. Ridley and Greninja give major series an additional character. I feel Ridley is the next step for your rivals after Bowser / Ganon / Dedede / Mewtwo are accounted for. And then Greninja adds a more modern flair to the Pokemon lineup and a pretty fresh moveset to boot.
I considered Robin to give us a mage archetype, but he got snubbed… also wondering if that would feel like too much Awakening, but I think it’d be fine for now. Could have thrown Ryu in there too so I can round out Street Fighter, and Mega Man should probably be here too, but I don’t want to prioritize third parties right now. I could have chosen to be a bit more bold here but I just think these were the right decisions to make.
Question while we’re at it, does Pyra / Mythra count for two characters? It said that in the original OP but I wasn’t paying attention whether or not that applied this time.