Smash Roster Glass Ceiling

I don't remember where I saw a comment (I think GP made the comment), but there is a term that might be applying to Smash eventually down the road. The term is a "Glass Ceiling", which for those that don't know means that there is a maximum limit that something that can go only so high before hidden things prevent it from going higher. These things can be data space, availability of characters, time deadline, budget, number of workers...amongst other things as well.

If/When that glass ceiling is reached, then how will the roster be affected? Let's say that it reaches it in Smash 5 at like 70 characters. What woud they do for later Smash games (and I know this is like talking over a decade from now, but like with Mario Kart, if they keep on making consoles, they'll keep on making Smash). Will major cuts happen to veterans, will they cycle through the characters so that some won't be one one game but will be returning on the next one (so characters appear bi-gamely (not sure if that is a word, but I say it would be)), will they just have newcomers be just for that game and then leave it at that, or will there even be newcomers from that point on?

I think it would be a good discussion, even if we don't have to worry about it right now. I don't know where that Glass Ceiling will be at, but the current roster for Sm4sh is 3x the original of SSB64, and still growing. With the amount of Newcomers that will be in Sm4sh, if it is smaller than Melee and Brawl, it might be a sign of eraching the time deadline. Of course, Melee was done really quickly, which resulted in many rash decisions and many clones in order to add to the roster. For Sm4sh, 9 out of the 10 newcomers have completely unique movesets, with the other being like a bonus character that was meant to be a skin. In the future though we might be at an impasse where in order to have more newcomers, they would have to be semi-clones or share a few smiliar moves with other characters. Quality vs. Quantity you could say for that.

Where do you think the glass ceiling will be at? How do you think the Smash team will handle this? Do you even think there will be a limit to how many Smashers there'll be?

I think that the glass ceiling is higher than 70, but things such as custom movesets can keep things fresh.

As I said in my post, I don't think Smash 4 will effected much by this. I feel this issue will start coming up when we reach Smash 5.

The problem arises partially because Sakurai rebuilds the characters each game and doesn't seem to like reusing assists. At least, that's what I've heard. Sakurai has already said adding a lot of characters is a long process. Balance is also an issue. Even in Melee where the roster was 26, there are clear imbalances in the roster. You start having 50 some characters, it starts becoming all the more harder to balance. This issue is somewhat being addressed because Namco is helping with game balance as opposed to Sakurai doing it all himself. They have experience with balancing fighting games. There will always be imbalances, but hopefully the won't be as noticeable. We've already seen some of the lesser characters from the past like Bowser and Zelda being improved, especially Bowser.

As for what that upper limit is? I don't know. I think it will depend on how big this roster will be. We have 36 right now. I can think of nine veterans that are almost guaranteed so that bumps it up to 45. This is assuming all Brawl characters return except Snake, Squirtle, Ivysaur, Wolf, and Lucas. Sakurai has also confirmed there are only a few newcomer videos left. We may see a roster of around 48-50. This is also assuming there is no DLC. That could bump it up to 51-53 depending on how many characters they use for DLC.

One thing that might fix the glass ceiling problem. Even if they don't use alot of DLC in Smash 4 regarding characters, Nintendo could take full advantage of DLC the next time. So they can finish all the characters they can possibly fit in during development and before release. And then bring everybody that alot of people care about through DLC should they have to. That is Smash 5 matters though. I think Smash 4 can still get somewhere close to 45 characters from it's release.

That said, another thing is that we don't really have alot of really important inclusions to include right? Even if say Ridley and/or King K. Rool were left out. That still only makes 1-2 characters. Who else are they going to add? They might have an Inkling from Splatoon or any other new IPs. But I feel Nintendo's running out of options of characters that are truly worth a spot in Smash Bros. They might have to go into B-List or C-List characters if they don't have enough new characters to go around for Smash 5. Or they might even go as far as putting more emphasis on 3rd Party inclusions even though Nintendo purists will hate it. (Ex: Having Rayman playable in the next game, as well as giving the Sonic franchise more characters then just Sonic)

I think character DLC would be rather good all around.

I mean, there was 7 years between Melee and Brawl, and then 6 between Brawl and SSB4. I mean, within the first 3-4 years of the release they can keep the game interesting by giving character DLC.

Though, I'm not sure how much effort is put into the characters, but it's very evident that they are the main focus of SSB, so I'm assuming a lot.

Not BMB said:

I think character DLC would be rather good all around.

I mean, there was 7 years between Melee and Brawl, and then 6 between Brawl and SSB4. I mean, within the first 3-4 years of the release they can keep the game interesting by giving character DLC.

Though, I'm not sure how much effort is put into the characters, but it's very evident that they are the main focus of SSB, so I'm assuming a lot.

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I'm pretty sure most DLC characters will be clones or semi-clones.

I'm pretty sure budget, time, and stuff won't be an issue. Technology also improves with every iteration, making it easier and cheaper to build video games up but the games themselves get more complex, that's why they cost more and more. Sometimes though, you might need help from other companies. Look at Ubisoft with that Rayman trophy.

Many fighters have much more characters than Smash and they're even more focused on balance than Smash. Smash is still, first and foremost, intended to be a party fighter more multiple people, not really a serious fighter in say, those traditional fighters like Soul Caliber. I'm not saying balance SHOULD be ignored in favor of adding more characters, but I feel this fear about a glass ceiling for this series is paranoia at best.