Masahiro Sakurai on the future of Smash: ‘I’ve been doing too much of the work myself’

[Heroine of the Dragon]

An interview with Masahiro Sakurai.

...last question and answer by Masahiro Sakurai... ........so, how would you feel about a smaller roster?

What would convince you to come back to make another Smash? Do you think, if you did return, your role would be different or reduced?

I think we’ve reached the limit, at least in terms of volume of content and fighters. Basically, if I were to have the opportunity to work on another Super Smash Bros. game, that means we would have to shrink the roster, but we need to think about whether fans would be pleased about that.

Also, I’ve been doing too much of the work myself, so I’d need to resolve that, too. The current Super Smash Bros. has too much of my personality poured into it. In order for a long-time series to continue thriving today, we need to think about eliminating the series’ dependence on just one person’s vision.

Of course, this is the way it is now because we weren’t successful in splitting the vision between multiple people before. This would be a challenge for the future and something that needs to be discussed with Nintendo, if there were to be a next installment in the Super Smash Bros. series.

-https://www.theverge.com/22823897/masah ... ndo-switch

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

I could tolerate a smaller cast of total characters if absolutely necessary, but they'd need to add bunches of new ones. They can't just cut it in half, add a couple new ones and call it a day.

Best thing to do would be cut the clones and 3rd party characters, then go from there.

[CaptHayfever]

I have absolutely no expectations of all these 3rd-party characters coming back again. A few of them, sure: Sonic, Pac-Man, Mega Man, Bayonetta (since Sega shares her with Nintendo anyway), & maybe Simon (Konami has nothing better to do). The Square characters are too big of a licensing hassle, especially Sora. Kazuya is ridiculous. Joker, TheHero, Terry, & Steve are great, but they won't come back.
Turn most of the echoes into alt skins like Alph or the Koopalings: That'll scratch Lucina, Doc, Daisy, Dark Samus, Dark Pit, Ken, & Richter.
Re-merge Young Link & Toon Link.

As for "not being successful splitting the vision before," just don't repeat the single-player mistakes from Smash 4.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

I have absolutely no expectations of all these 3rd-party characters coming back again. A few of them, sure: Sonic, Pac-Man, Mega Man, Bayonetta (since Sega shares her with Nintendo anyway), & maybe Simon (Konami has nothing better to do). The Square characters are too big of a licensing hassle, especially Sora. Kazuya is ridiculous. Joker, TheHero, Terry, & Steve are great, but they won't come back.
Turn most of the echoes into alt skins like Alph or the Koopalings: That'll scratch Lucina, Doc, Daisy, Dark Samus, Dark Pit, Ken, & Richter.
Re-merge Young Link & Toon Link.

As for "not being successful splitting the vision before," just don't repeat the single-player mistakes from Smash 4.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

SSB4 & SSBU both had uninteresting single player content imo. Despite its faults, Brawl did it pretty well. It's too bad they don't do a proper story mode, but I understand why they focus their resources on the multiplayer content.