for context what I mean by that is from what I've observed the push for William tends to come from Sonic fans whose main familiarity with other SEGA stuff is the more Sonic-adjacent stuff. it's not literally "I hate Sonic fans because Billy is a Sonic character"
also like, even if we're to go for more cartoonish picks, your first thought is.....Billy Hatcher? Billy Hatcher the guy who was shilled by SEGA for a few years then completely stopped ever being acknowledged by them? Billy Hatcher the guy who's basically seen as a joke by a good number of hardcore SEGA fans i know? Billy Hatcher the guy who does not have a japanese Wikipedia page?
like I'm sorry but the mans is extremely low on the pecking order of SEGA characters, even if we were to add cartoony characters
Listen,
I know it was so bad that they cut my boy from All Stars Racing 2.
But Billy is still my boy. That was one of my favorite GameCube games even if it’s not perfect. The race course he got in the sequel was also peak.
Plus we have Sega Sataro. Granted he’s more iconic, but I wouldn’t say anyone else is a low chance.
Now I’m not familiar with every Sega franchise, but I’m pretty sure most of them are repped in project x zone. Or at least the bigger ones.
Off the top of my head, I don’t think Jet Set Radio, Billy Hatcher, Sonic, Burning rangers are repped. But I could be wrong.
Im in the process of playing through the second game because I lost my last save file when my 3ds battery blew up.
So I don’t know the full extent of 2’s roster. But I don’t remember those franchises in the first game either.