Theoretical third-party series expansion limit

[TheYungLink]

Just a small exercise I thought up. Nintendo obviously wants to give Nintendo characters the foremost importance, but it also wants to include lots of third-party characters and content in Smash, given their gradually increasing presence over the series. So I thought of a small thought experiment that could expand on the existing non-Nintendo series in Smash, in terms of characters, which is:

Given the following parameters, how would you expand each series in terms of characters?

• One unique character
• Another unique character, and
• One Echo Fighter for one of the unique characters

I'm not factoring stages or assist trophies or music or spirits or anything like that into this, just characters. If you want to see a more ambitious take on this idea, I made a thread a while back in General Discussion that I don't feel like updating even if more news comes up, linked here. This thread is more minimalist.

While we currently don't have more than one unique character per third-party series in Smash, and thus there isn't any precedent for it, it's clear a lot of people would like to see it--maybe even Nintendo. Keeping it at a low number like 2 fulfills that demand while still keeping most of the focus on Nintendo's series. List your Echo Fighter characters under the unique fighters you want them to echo.

(At first I was going to say that characters who are already assist trophies or bosses can't be made playable because they're already in the game, but then I had my doubts on whether that would actually stop the Smash team / Nintendo / the owners of these series or not.)

Without further ado~

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Metal Gear

Unique Fighter 1: Snake

Sonic the Hedgehog

Unique Fighter 1: Sonic

Mega Man

Unique Fighter 1: Mega Man

Pac-Man

Unique Fighter 1: Pac-Man

Street Fighter

Unique Fighter 1: Ryu
Echo Fighter: Ken

Final Fantasy*

Unique Fighter 1: Cloud

Bayonetta

Unique Fighter 1: Bayonetta

Castlevania

Unique Fighter 1: Simon
Echo Fighter: Richter

Shin Megami Tensei*

Unique Fighter 1: Joker

*in Smash, Cloud and Joker are listed as coming from Final Fantasy VII and Persona 5 specifically, but for creative liberty's sake we'll expand it to their entire series.

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Above you see our current lineup. Fill in the blanks however you want! I'll start:

Metal Gear

Unique Fighter 1: Snake
Echo Fighter: Big Boss
Unique Fighter 2: Raiden

Sonic the Hedgehog

Unique Fighter 1: Sonic
Echo Fighter: Shadow
Unique Fighter 2: Tails

Mega Man

Unique Fighter 1: Mega Man
Echo Fighter: Proto Man
Unique Fighter 2: X

Pac-Man

Unique Fighter 1: Pac-Man
Echo Fighter: Ms. Pac-Man
Unique Fighter 2: nothing comes to mind, the ghosts are already their smash attacks, wouldn't know who else to choose

Street Fighter

Unique Fighter 1: Ryu
Echo Fighter: Ken
Unique Fighter 2: Chun-Li (awww yeah the whole reason I made this thread wouldn't it be awesome to see Chun-Li here along with Samus and Peach and Lucina and and and)

Final Fantasy

Unique Fighter 1: Cloud
Unique Fighter 2: Cecil (Final Fantasy IV)
Echo Fighter: Terra (Final Fantasy VI)

These two would represent the games most closely associated with Nintendo. Both characters learn to protect other people, have similar equipment (unlike Cloud they can have shields), and have character arcs revolving around transformation, so both can utilize that in their movesets in slightly different ways. That said this is kind of reaching a bit to try to fit them both in, and aren't as similar ability-wise as Simon and Richter canonically are, but it could be cool. Like the Belmonts, they could borrow each other's abilities to better implement each other in.

Bayonetta

Unique Fighter 1: Bayonetta
Echo Fighter: Jeanne
Unique Fighter 2: nothing comes to mind, I haven't played these games yet

Castlevania

Unique Fighter 1: Simon
Echo Fighter: Richter
Unique Fighter 2: Alucard

Shin Megami Tensei

Unique Fighter 1: Joker
Echo Fighter: Shin Megami Tensei 1 protagonist (Kazuya is the name I'll go with, they don't have an official name but he was called that in the strategy guide or something like that
Unique Fighter 2: Demi-fiend
Echo Fighter: we currently don't know how Joker plays, so I wouldn't know who to base an Echo Fighter off of, when we know their playstyle I'll edit this. Edited as of 4/26/19

 

[Idon]

Shin Megami Tensei

Unique Fighter 1: Joker
Unique Fighter 2: Demi-fiend

MY MAN!
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Anyway, back on topic:

MGS
#2: Raiden (MGR:R version)
ε: Big Boss (MGS3 version)

Sonic the Hedgehog
#2: Tails
ε: Knuckles

Mega Man
#2: X
ε: Proto-Man

Pac-Man
#2: uhhhhh
ε: Mrs. Pac-Man

Street Fighter
#2: Chun-Li
ε: Akuma

Final Fantasy
#2: Ramza Beoulve
ε: Zack Fair

Bayonetta
#2: "Masked Lumen Sage"
ε: Jeanne

Castlevania
#2: Alucard
ε: Soma Cruz (of Alucard)

Shin Megami Tensei*
#2: Demi-fiend
ε: Raidou Kuzunoha (For Joker. Hesitant answer, but outside of their sword, they're similarish)

 

[Wunderwaft]

Metal Gear Solid
#2: Raiden
Echo: Big Boss

Sonic the Hedgehog
#2: Eggman
Echo: Tails

Mega Man
#2: Zero
Echo: Proto Man

Pac Man
#2: I was gonna say the ghosts but then I remembered they're part of Pac's smash attacks, besides them I don't know of any other potential character
Echo: Mrs. Pac Man

Street Fighter:
#2: M. Bison
Echo: We already have Ken

Final Fantasy:
#2: Terra
Echo: Zack Fair

Bayonetta:
#2: Rodin
Echo: Jeanne

Castlevania:
#2: Alucard
Echo: We already have Richter

Shin Megami Tensei
#2: Demi-Fiend
Echo: Kinda hard to tell, the closest thing I can get to an echo fighter is Raidou for Demi-Fiend, even if it's a bit far-fetched

 

[Idon]

Raidou for Demi-Fiend, even if it's a bit far-fetched

I was actually thinking more Raidou for Joker.

Both being suave teenagers in black flowing clothing wielding a blade and gun, summoning help and such.

Of course, one solves crimes and the other commits them.

 

[NomadLuminary]

Metal Gear

Unique Fighter 1: Snake
Unique Fighter 2; Raiden from Metal Gear Revengeance
Echo Fighter: Venom Snake (robot hand, plus he could have faster speed thanks to the sprinting mechanic. Plus Fulton for recovery)

Sonic the Hedgehog

Unique Fighter 1: Sonic
Unique Fighter 2: Tails
Echo Fighter: Espio?

Mega Man

Unique Fighter 1: Mega Man
Unique Fighter 2: Roll
Echo Fighter: Mega Man X (Make him have way better frame data)

Pac-Man

Unique Fighter 1: Pac-Man
Unique Fighter 2: Ghosts
Echo Fighter: Ms. Pacman

Street Fighter

Unique Fighter 1: Ryu
Echo Fighter: Ken
Unique Fighter 2: Chun Li or Sagat
Echo Fighter 2: Akuma

Final Fantasy*

Unique Fighter 1: Cloud
Unique Fighter 2: Sephiroth/Tifa Lockhart
Echo: Zack Fair

Bayonetta

Unique Fighter 1: Bayonetta
Echo: Jeanne


Castlevania

Unique Fighter 1: Simon
Echo Fighter: Richter
Unique Fighter 2: Maria Renard/Soma Cruz

Shin Megami Tensei*

Unique Fighter 1: Joker
Unique Fighter 2: Demi-Fiend
Echo: Makoto Yuki/Minato Arisato or Yu Narukami

 

[Wunderwaft]

I was actually thinking more Raidou for Joker.

Both being suave teenagers in black flowing clothing wielding a blade and gun, summoning help and such.

Of course, one solves crimes and the other commits them.

It's better than what I thought, I originally thought of Raidou being an echo fighter for Demi-Fiend since he appeared in Nocturne and seemed similair to him. But him being an echo fighter for Joker is more accurate.

 

[Idon]

It's better than what I thought, I originally thought of Raidou being an echo fighter for Demi-Fiend since he appeared in Nocturne and seemed similair to him. But him being an echo fighter for Joker is more accurate.

If you wanted something like a Demi-fiend echo, I suppose Serph from DDS might work. He is kinda human kinda demon, but in a sliiightly different way.

 

[osby]

Metal Gear
#2: Raiden
ε: Big Boss

Sonic the Hedgehog
#2: Tails
ε: Shadow

Mega Man
#2: Zero
ε: Roll (please let me have this)

PAC-MAN
ε: Mrs. Pac-Man

Street Fighter
#2: Chun-Li
ε: Ken (I feel like these three should be together in crossovers)

Final Fantasy
#2: Terra Branford
ε: Zack Fair

Bayonetta
ε: Jeanne (I don't think Bayonetta really "needs" a second unique character)

Castlevania
#2: Alucard
ε: Richter Belmont (of Simon. Boring choice is boring)

Persona
#2: Aegis (not interested in adding a SMT character. A battle robot summoning Personas would be really cool, Aegis is popular, plus my P3 bias. No suitable echos for neither her or Joker)

 

[dezeray112]

Metal Gear:
#2: Raiden

Sonic:
#2: Tails or Eggman
Echo: Shadow

Megaman:
#2: Zero
Echo: Protoman

Pac-Man:
Echo: Mrs. Pac-Man

Street Fighter:
#2: Chun-Li
Echo: Ken Masters (already confirmed.)

Final Fantasy:
#2: Tidus
Echo: Zack Fair

Bayonetta:
Echo: Jeanne

Castlevania:
#2: Alucard
Echo: Richter Belmont (already confirmed.)

Persona:
#2: Yu Narukami (Persona 4)

 

[TheYungLink]

Edited my OP because it looks like a Shin Megami Tensei protagonist can be an Echo Fighter of Joker with a little tinkering like I wanted.