A character whose only role is in a video game?
I didn't think Kumatora would feel right as an Echo Fighter until I saw the mod, all I'd need is PK Ground and I'd be golden.
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Super Smash Bros Ultimate has 19 white male characters (6 of which are blue eyed / blonde hair), and 0 women of color
- Thread starter BigBlue
- Start date
A character whose only role is in a video game?
I didn't think Kumatora would feel right as an Echo Fighter until I saw the mod, all I'd need is PK Ground and I'd be golden.
Just curious but wouldn't Ken and Snake be the only depictions of white American males? And they were still created by Japanese developers. Not sure if any of the other characters fall into this category as well.
She came from a video game, and IIRC only appears in video games
One of the biggest issues is that there really aren't a lot of historic women of color in video game rosters; it's only been in the last few years with the rise in multiplayer character-based games (i.e., Overwatch, League of Legends) that we've seen that happen. Nintendo has been decent about adding in nonwhite playable character options for games like Splatoon, Pokemon, and Animal Crossing, but even then most of their series have either had fairly stagnant rosters for a while (Mario especially, most grievously felt in the spinoffs like Paper Mario that used to have a wide array of characters across species types of multiple genders) or the human characters aren't even the focus (like...Pokemon and Animal Crossing).
There are still a lot of opportunities for new characters. Overwatch would be a left-field pull that would be well in keeping with the DLC strategy of Ultimate. Shantae was a popular choice in the DLC polls and while I'm not a huge fan of the way they've tried to stylize her more like a pinup model I think the team could make her work well in a Smash context. Urbosa from BOTW was a delightful character I'm pretty disappointed isn't available to play as in Smash. They could fix this is if they gave a shit.
There are still a lot of opportunities for new characters. Overwatch would be a left-field pull that would be well in keeping with the DLC strategy of Ultimate. Shantae was a popular choice in the DLC polls and while I'm not a huge fan of the way they've tried to stylize her more like a pinup model I think the team could make her work well in a Smash context. Urbosa from BOTW was a delightful character I'm pretty disappointed isn't available to play as in Smash. They could fix this is if they gave a shit.
Dixie would be great, even as an echo or semi-clone of Diddy but with Donkey Kong's Up+B, since I can't for the life of me get his shitty jetpack to work. Chrom using Aether really got me expecting they'd give us exactly that.
And yeah I dunno bout you, but I see a ton of Ness and Lucas players online, so providing more options (even if it doesn't change the gameplay) would be a big hit.
I think that's a pretty roundabout way to avoid how The Walking Dead in more known for its comics and TV runs. The anime video game OCs would face similar scorn.
So far it's Ken (even he's 3/4 Japanese who like to dye his hairs blonde), Snake, Terry and Little Mac.
Honestly, I would have expected Lee in a fighting game before Negan from the TV show
Clementine could be like one of Olimar's Pikmin
it'd be a bit dark
It's pretty much the same as digging up some characters that are only in Dragon Ball video games. Yeah, they originated in a game but why on earth would a spin-off of a much larger franchise (and not even a gaming one at that) even be remotely considered for Smash? As is, all of the third-parties are famous Japanese gaming icons, asking for a character from a Walking Dead spin-off doesn't make a lick of sense.
I actually thought about her while reading this thread. I never played TWD but she always seemed cool to me.
A TellTale rep would cause unprecedented levels of Smash meltdown too so that'd be fun haha
Barret can't even make it into Dissidia, he won't make it into Smash.
But Clementine is really, really popular elsewhere, and her games were critical darlings. She even has a pinball game!
Likewise, Ken isn't supposed to have blue eyes. Sakurai reflected a fuck-up from SFIV that even Capcom corrected in SFV.
definitely not american, despite what the cartoons would have you believe
I figured this time around, SE would be a little more open to putting stuff in and we'd have a Barret Mii Gunner costume, with a spirit battle on the Spirit Tracks stage.
Does Eagleland count as America?
Not saying they give a shit because they clearly don't, but I don't know why you singled out Urbosa when she's a minor supporting character who mainly appears in a few cutscenes in BOTW. She's far away from the typical characters they add in Smash. Elma, Impa or even Twintelle would have made more sense if we're looking at dark skinned women from Nintendo's roster.
There are female characters to play, but just not as much as you would like, so I can understand if that's your preference. I just don't see how it's problematic to the OP. What games wouldn't be problematic?
If there is underrepresentation, then that itself would be problematic. I'm also not only concerned with the number of women but also how much work goes into making them.
Dissidia depends of SE, Smash in the other hand depends of Sakurai...
and has lightning powers. Nothing against Twintelle but she's got no lightning powers
(Twintelle WOULD be another great answer though IMO, it's weird that not a single ARMS character is playable in Smash Ult)
Sephiroth and Tifa are far likelier to become the second FFVII rep, in that order. They're simply more popular, and have been in other spin-offs before Barret in the past. I'd even put Vincent and Yuffie before Barret in any consideration list.
I don't really agree since you can clear all four of the main dungeons and get to Ganon without barely seeing any (all?) of her cutscenes. The Champions are basically fluff in BOTW and none of them stand out over the other.
I personally don't find a real problem with it, but it does show how much domination male leads have in the industry's history. This is also probably a factor when considering DLC characters, because most of the well known acts are male.
Personally wanted Fio in there.
Personally wanted Fio in there.
While it's not Nintendo's fault, it's definitely indicative of a problem with the industry as a whole over the past 40+ years. It's a shame that it's taken so long for the industry to become more inclusive and improving representation in their games. My hope is that eventually we'll see more iconic video game characters that are diverse. Doesn't mean we can't and shouldn't have white iconic characters, just that it'd be nice to see some diverse characters rise up and become as iconic.
I definitely think it's problematic that Smash's roster is so homogenous, but I also understand that it's not solely Nintendo's fault, but it is a bit of a indictment of the industry's history at large when it comes to representation. With that said, Nintendo is honestly the last publisher that pops into mind when I think of inclusivity and diversity. I'm hoping they make better strides in that area going forward. Many of their contemporaries already boast quite the diverse lineup of characters that are, in their own right, becoming fairly well recognized. It's a shame PlayStation All Stars never found its footing. It was a fun game, with fun combat, but lacked 3rd party support and budget to really be as strong as it could have been.
I definitely think it's problematic that Smash's roster is so homogenous, but I also understand that it's not solely Nintendo's fault, but it is a bit of a indictment of the industry's history at large when it comes to representation. With that said, Nintendo is honestly the last publisher that pops into mind when I think of inclusivity and diversity. I'm hoping they make better strides in that area going forward. Many of their contemporaries already boast quite the diverse lineup of characters that are, in their own right, becoming fairly well recognized. It's a shame PlayStation All Stars never found its footing. It was a fun game, with fun combat, but lacked 3rd party support and budget to really be as strong as it could have been.
OP
OP
Zelda is, I hate to say it, basically a plot device in BOTW lol. But she isn't in Smash Bros. because of her role in BOTW.
Yeah, I do think Nintendo actually worked on those issues as their characters designs with Splatoon, Splatoon 2, Splatoon 2 DLC, Arms, Animal Crossing, Ring Con Trainer, etc were more diverse than before. So I think we could see more diverse characters out of them in the future.
You know, I'd always found that "Japanese characters with Eurocentric features thing" super weird. Like if other races did that it would be way more controversial. Like they can make a character with blonde hair and blue eyes and still say they're Japanese. No one else could get away with that lol
A lot of the time they just say they're half American which also means white.
This is a complicated topic but this is a decent summary of it:
But I do believe it also has to do with the Japanese history of whitewashing and colorism at least in part. But generally speaking in Japanese art there is less focus on distinguishing a Japanese character with specific physical features.
When other characters can have say, pink hair and red eyes, I don't think that matters at all.
Anime hair colors don't care.
It's amazing how "Please put more women and poc in your game and treat them like the they are the main attraction and not just a side addition" is so offensive to people here. And by amazing I mean sad but expected.
Nintendo is far from the last publisher I'd think of as far as inclusivity/diversity, even if I wouldn't call them the first. Going with the female Inkling as the main variant in Splatoon was a stroke of confidence, even more so having both Splatoon 2 and Octo Expansion feature black characters as the cover characters, as well as including a black character as one of the two main presenters. ARMS also has an incredibly rich and varied cast, Xenoblade X generally featured a black woman as its ostensible main protagonist, Breath of the Wild finally put one of its only middle-eastern analogue races in a way more positive light, on top of turning a character of said race into one of the four deuteragonists, they made the Ring Fit protagonist black, Animal Crossing has gotten more inclusive with its representation of PoCs, etc. Oh and who can forget Pokémon, that arguably has some of the most diverse character designs in entirety of gaming.
To say Nintendo aren't making better strides is selling them short, perhaps the only thing that really isn't making said progress evident being that they don't really talk or highlight themselves and the "value" they place in their representation, as they just treat it more as a matter of fact. That and I guess not putting some characters into Smash, but there's a lot more nuance to that situation.
The fact that I said Sakurai put relatively low effort into female character representation compared to make characters made them take that as lazy dev rhetoric.
Because a lot of those don't have ethnicities.
Like Cloud isn't seen as a white guy in Japan. He's seen as Japanese same with a lot of the Fire Emblem characters.
They're not actually white just anime.
I mean you already know the answer. It's harder to sell those types of characters to their main audience when Japan is pretty racist.
The FE characters aren't white either. They're just anime. Like would you classify Naruto Uzumaki as a white guy? What about Rangiku Matsumoto?
I find claiming the FE characters are Asian weird when the whole series is blatantly themed around European style fantasy and Fates straight up has a Japanese analogue.
seems counter-productive to pick anime characters with obviously japanese names for this comparison instead of, like, Monkey D. Luffy
It's amazing that a woman poc who's the most recurring character featured in every mainline game and majority of spin-offs for one of the biggest video game series of all time hasn't been mentioned once in this thread.
Behold, Bella Goth of The Sims.
Behold, Bella Goth of The Sims.