Lord_Brand

Shantae and Crash Bandicoot for me, preferably in that order. Aside from my already-present desire to see them added to Smash, their presumed release dates in June and September happen to line up with their original game's releases in the same months. It would be even more profound if their packs released on the same days as their respective first games (June 2 and September 9th). Also, Crash is celebrating his 25th this year, making it an even more appropriate time to add the bandicoot.

I would love to see a Final Fantasy Collection of I-VI released for the Switch, with graphic updates (preferably in the territory of the PSP remakes of I, II, and IV) and bug fixes (like the spells and weapons in FFI that don't work properly, and the M.Evade bug in FFVI that makes regular Evade worthless). I could even handle splitting the collection into two halves, though a single collection would of course be preferred. I'd also like to see an HD Remake of Chrono Trigger, with 3D graphics in the vein of DQXI. As a bonus, CTHD could include a Chrono Crossover story where Serge, Kid, and at least one of their allies travel back in time to 1000 A.D. in pursuit of Lynx, and meet Crono's party. When Kid sees Lucca alive for the first time in ten years, she breaks down in tears and hugs her "Big Sis". Lucca is bewildered at first, but learns Kid's story and comforts her. Crono's party learn that Lynx is trying to eliminate them to keep Kid from meddling in his plans, so they agree to help find and stop him. Serge's party get to awaken true magic within themselves the way Crono's party did, by speaking to Spekkio at the End of Time. The eight Tech slots for the Cross characters consist of a mixture of their L3, L5, and L7 techs from Cross as well as Elements like Photon Ray and Fireball. Members of the two parties get to show off new Combo Techs like a "X-Over Strike" between Crono and Serge, or Lucca and Kid performing an extra-powerful fire attack on enemies by mixing Megaton Bomb with HotShot. We could also witness an epic battle between Magus and Lynx, tied to Magus' search for Schala and his attempt to alter fate by saving Schala from the Ocean Palace and thus keeping her from merging with Lavos to become the Time Devourer. I can even picture this exchange between the two scythe-wielding warlocks: Lynx: Do you believe you can change FATE? Magus: No...I believe I can destroy it!!! Cue an epic mix of "Decisive Battle with Magus" and "Final Confrontation". I even have an ending in mind for such a crossover:

Oh, whoops, I got my numbering mixed up! I should have said 10 and 11, not 11 and 12. I'll fix that. Would definitely love a Vol. 3, though. You know what they say: The more, the merrier! But should Vol. 3 have seven packs to keep the incremental pattern going?

General Scales

I decided to update the OP and add in candidates for first-party series as well, including those that already have villain fighters.

When I saw Triangle Strategy, first thing in my mind was "Octopath Sequel" followed by "Octopath Tactics". I'm getting a major FFT vibe, there. *ahem* Anyway! I feel kinda bad that Rex is left out as a playable fighter, but I am happy to see transforming return. Character switching is one of those gimmicks that are too good to limit to one or two fighters, along with MP (or an equivalent such as ammunition, weapon energy, etc.) and weapon switching.

I expect that Crash will be Pack #11, as its likely release window would coincide with the release of his first game. We're getting Pyra & Mythra in March, and so far the pattern for FP2 has been a release in the first month of each season with the exception of Steve, which means we're probably getting DLC Pack #10 in June and Pack #11 in September. Crash Bandicoot's release date? September 9th, 1996 (which means he's celebrating his 25th anniversary this year, making adding him to Smash even more appropriate). That leaves the matter of who Pack #10 will be. It's interesting that June would be the projected release month for #10, because do you know what game series debuted in June? On June 2, 2002, specifically? Shantae. I'm still holding out hope for the bandicoot and the belly dancer. The roster just doesn't feel complete without the fuzzy marsupial and the half-genie hero to round out the colorful cast.

Well, you've got a party, turn-based combat, EXP, levels, and even a prestige class-esque mechanic in the form of evolution. Sounds like the makings of an RPG to me. Though admittedly, "RPG" is technically a superfluous term since most video games have you play one role or another. I think terms like "turn-based combat adventure" would be more apt. But "RPG" has been cemented in the popular imagination to mean anything remotely similar to Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy in mechanics, so I digress. They need a Pokemon fighter who captures the concept of Evolution. Eevee would be perfect for that, as its ability to evolve into different Pokemon would give it some versatility.

You're forgetting the most successful JRPG by far: Pokemon. ; ) Still think Crash has good chances of making it in; he's a major name right now not to mention one of the most notable platform mascots alongside Mario and Sonic. He's also highly popular in Japan which definitely improves his odds. They may be saving him for last though, to coincide with the release of his original game in September. This year will be his 25th Anniversary, a perfect time to add him!

So, Zelda/Sheik-style transformation is back. This makes X & Zero and the Warriors of Light officially possible as DLC. We could also see stuff like the Magus Sisters from Kirby Star Allies, Team Rose from the Sonic series, Victor and Gloria as Galarian Pokemon Trainers, and Zacian & Zamazenta.

That's right, Pyra & Mithra are a 2-in-1 DLC! So now X & Zero or the Warriors of Light (a 4-in-1 fighter) are officially possible. Victor and Gloria as the Galarian Pokemon Trainers are also possible, to give SWSH some Smash rep. But, what if Zacian and Zamazenta are the playable Pokemon rather than the starters? I mean, who better to represent Sword & Shield, am I right? Then again, Dynamaxing was a major feature of SWSH, which they'd presumably want to represent in Smash. Whoopsie! My bad! I think the reason we didn't see a lot of request for Sephiroth is because A) fans are still focusing on getting heroes of new series in; and B) most fans probably expected that he'd be a boss like Dracula (not like that stopped Bowser or Ganon, of course). I want so badly for the "ATs deconfirm" argument to be disproven like "Spirits deconfirm" was, but when talking about the idea of including Spring Man in Smash, Sakurai did bring up the fact he's already in as an AT.

Well, okay. I'll add Krystal to that list. Mallow from SMRPG is owned by Square Enix though, just like Geno. Kind of a waste if you ask me, since it's not like SE has used them for anything outside of Mario RPGs. At this point they might as well just sell them to Nintendo so they can join the Kart/Party/Sports crew. But, I think there are a lot of third-party candidates who are in much higher demand than, let's be honest, second bananas and B-list franchise protagonists. I see far more requests for Crash, Shantae, Eggman, etc. than I do for Andy or Captain Rainbow. Of that list, Waluigi, Isaac, and Skull Kid do get a lot of requests, but they're already Assist Trophies in SSBU, and until we get an official "Trophy Fighter" that confirms otherwise, that means they won't be joining the roster this time around (and the same goes for Krystal). But, let us not forget that Little Mac and Rosalina were once Assist Trophies too, back in Brawl. Come Smash 4, they made the leap to the playable fighter roster. So, there is always hope that a future Smash installment will promote these oft-requested characters, just as Smash 4 did for Little Mac and Rosalina.

Except, we're still missing Crash, Spyro, Shantae, Ryu Hayabusa, Arle Nadja, Eggman, X, Dante...what first-party fighter do you want them to add when there are so many good third-party choices left?

Oooh, new fighter reveal!? Unfortunately, I'm likely going to be at work when it starts.

They should just replace the Casino with a full-on minigame arcade, like what Pokemon Stadium 1 and 2 had. That way the tokens you earn are based on skill moreso than luck. They could even pay homage to classic arcade games, like a fighting game featuring Fighting-types that pays homage to titles like Street Fighter, Virtua Fighter, and Tekken, or games similar to Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Bust-a-Move.

And yet, DP were the top-selling Pokemon DS games (followed by BW, then HGSS, then finally Platinum) and introduced many of the series' most popular characters and Pokemon, including Cynthia, Looker, Riley, Staraptor, Lopunny, Luxray, Garchomp, Gallade, Weavile, and of course none other than freaking Lucario, who is now considered a face of the franchise alongside Pikachu itself. They may have been divisive and polarizing, sure, but that doesn't mean they weren't popular. And modern HD remakes that do away with the issues seen in the original releases will only make them more popular. Since they have SWSH's assets to start with as a base, including a large majority of the Pokemon, they can simply add in the remaining 234 with DPR and that will basically undo Dexit. They also have 3D models from XY and SM to use as a starting point for characters like Cynthia.

A step in the right direction. Then SM removed HMs outright, and all was well. I mean, yeah, it kinda sucks not to use your own Pokemon to explore. Being able to fly using Latias and Latios in ORAS is how I think many players have always wished Fly could work in the Pokemon games, something akin to Flammie in Secret of Mana. And it was always nice to Surf around on your own Pokemon, maybe go fishing on the back of your Lapras. I'm all for bringing back the ability to explore using your own Pokemon, I just don't think HM moves were the best way to implement the concept.

Just like we didn't know for sure that HGSS and ORAS were coming? Yeah, no, we all know DPR would be easy money. HD remakes of DP for Switch? They'll sell like hotcakes! It would be cool to see something akin to Gigantamax for certain Pokemon, but I think most players preferred Mega Evolution over Dynamaxing (not to mention SWSH themselves state that Dynamaxing is exclusive to Galar, though I could still see it being programmed into DPR for online compatibility with SWSH). The Legendaries and Mythicals could get their own Gigantamax-esque transformations, something like Primal Reversion but cooler. 1000-Armed Arceus does sound like an epic superboss. Maybe they could add a new Temple of Arceus that involves Lugia, Ho-oh, Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Xerneas, Yveltal, Zygarde, Solgaleo, Lunala, and Necrozma? Or a Tower of Arceus with tiers for the Lesser Legendaries, Greater Legendaries, and Mythicals. I wonder: Could they be planning to remake most if not all the previous generations for Switch? Graphical facelifts for the previous games with some neat new content would be a good way to tide fans over until Gen IX is ready. They sorta remade Gen I already with Let's Go! Pikachu and Eevee, but those didn't feel like true remakes, they were more like spinoffs. 3D FireRed and LeafGreen is what fans want, I think. Only, maybe they could go back to the Red/Blue naming convention? Ah, but that's getting off-topic. This topic is all about Gen IV remakes. I'm tempted to make a separate topic for the prospect of remaking all the Generations for Switch, though. Or should I retool this topic into that? Just got a cool idea: What if DPR introduced a Dialga-Palkia fusion? Dialkia, the Space-Time Pokemon! Basically a dragon centaur with the signature move, Rending Roar of Space-Time! Fusions with Giratina could be epic, too.

You know, I'd actually forgotten that you used to need certain Badges to use HM moves outside of battle. That's another layer of BS on top of the other two issues already outlined: the inability to replace HM moves normally even though HMs are reusable, and the fact most HM moves are junk in battle. So, that's three good reasons to remove HMs altogether.

Ever since Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen came out for GBA in 2004, the Pokemon series has slowly been rolling out remakes of past-generation games, continuing the trend with HeartGold and SoulSilver on DS in 2009 and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire on 3DS in 2014. Now Diamond and Pearl are about due for remakes, presumably headed to the Switch like Pokemon Sword & Shield before them. In this topic, we speculate on what we think and hope we'll see in these presumably inevitable remakes, and maybe discuss issues in the original Gen IV titles as well as Sword & Shield that we'd like to see addressed here. What will the titles be? How will they incorporate the fully 3D style of Sword & Shield? What new characters might we see? Will there be new mechanics? New Pokemon? New types? Time to speculate! First, to go over Gen IV's most notable changes and flaws: Then we can also look at SWSH's major changes and flaws: Now, what kinds of changes could we see in the DP Remakes? Pokemon Trainers Moves Battles Story Other I'm sure I'll come up with more in the future, but for now I'll leave this as food for thought. Feel free to speculate away!

Aqua would be cool. Maybe Terra and Ven as well? Last I checked, they don't have any Disney imagery associated with them, so they should be OK.

Yeah, I hate when they do that. They build the Pokemon for one type of attack, then give it mostly attacks of the other type. Why?

I hear ya! In the past, I'd suggested a villain-themed Fighter's Pass that would add major video game bad guys like Eggman, Wily, and Cortex to the roster. I definitely want more villains in Smash so the heroes have someone to fight besides each other. While I know he isn't as popular as Sephiroth, I think Garland would be another excellent Final Fantasy villain to add to Smash. I mean, who else is going to knock us all down? Heck, I could even see him boasting such in his trailer! "SUPER SMASH BROS.? You impertinent fools. I, Garland, will knock you all down!!"

Having MegaMan use Style Change, Double Soul, and/or Cross System as a gameplay gimmick could be interesting. The Styles would be easier to adapt as costumes; not counting Hub style, there are seven: Guts, Custom, Shield, Team, Shadow, Ground, and Bug. Then there's Double Soul and/or Cross Systems. Of the two, Cross System was undoubtedly the more popular as it didn't require a Chip sacrifice and it lasted the entire battle, so that's the one I would pick. Beast Out could be implemented as a Final Smash, which when combined with Cross System, becomes Cross Beast. But it might be preferable to keep things simple and just stick with Battle Chips as attacks and Program Advance as a Final Smash.

They could also include Roll.EXE, GutsMan.EXE, ProtoMan.EXE, and Bass.EXE, the Navis who most often appear alongside MegaMan.EXE. MegaMan, Roll, GutsMan, and ProtoMan all could have a Battle Chip gimmick that gives them five random chips pulled from personalized pools, which they then use with their N Specials. Bass doesn't have an operator, so he'd have to make do without Battle Chips. His ability to absorb data from programs such as Gospel, Alpha, and the Cybeasts would more than make up for that, however.