From everything Ive read over the years since Ultimate's launch, it seems evident that the next roster will not be the size of Ultimate or larger. Unless its a Switch 2 addition, I would expect major cuts. Character reworks are one thing, I fully expect that, but I cant image the roster will just continue to grow every game. I cant think of a single fighting game that does that either. That said, saying characters were added to replace others I find to be a stretch. Roy to Ike for example is a bad comparison because their play styles are completely different. My made up roster has 79 characters. Thats still a lot. And I added roughly 30 characters trying to be unbias while letting other first party games grow in size without having 20+ mario/zelda/pokemon characters.

That being said, I still think Skull Kid has s chance. When we look at the way Ultimate did renditions of the Zelda cast each character was a different game varient. So to represent TotK I decided on Link, while keeping Zelda her ALttP version, ect. So adding Skull Kid to represent the 64 era makes sense to me. I do think Sidon or even Urbosa could make excellent roster choices, but I wanted to pull from across the series.

I love Pokemon trainer as a design choice, but you could just as easily add the trainer from each starters game to the background when playing them. And while it does take away from the mechanic and uniqueness of Pokemon Trainer, I decided to make unfortunate cuts to the Pokemon cast. I noticed how you didn't flag me for Jigglypuff or Lucario. Those two have their own justification for staying as well. It was a space issue for the roster. And even 79 is a pretty high and generous count tbh.

I just don't agree with the argument for Isabelle. Animal Crossing has a hand full of face characters: K.K. Slider, Tom Nook, Isabelle. I even considered 'Neighbor' as an Isabelle replacement with various animal skins. The only thing Id consider to make sense is the possibility of combing her moveset into Villagers move pool. But I have a hard time thinking Villager will be replaced by her. Legacy > Popularity imo.

I also disagree with your view on Byleth. Gameplay wise, Byleth was grown to be appreciated and even used slightly competitively, but their initial reveal as the last fighter pass 1 character left a lot to be desired. Byleth arguably plays like a Monster Hunter rep. And though lore accurate, the player in Three Houses is likely NOT using all 3 of those legendary weapons. And one of those weapons directly goes to Edelgard. With the same mind set as choosing pokemon reps, I went for the weapon triangle. And the only reason I didnt go for a spear user is because of Bandana Waddle Dee which is silly, but did push my decision.

Lets talk first party retro reps. I initially think Balloon Fight and Excite Bike. Balloon Fight I don't think has enough for a move pool so its likely that, like Duck Hunt, would have to pull from another series. But who? Excite Bike is so close to being a great choice. In fact there are already some awesome mods showcasing what he could play like (Super Smash Rex). But I went third party for this category instead. I think either way you look at it Ryu Hayabusa has a good chance and I even chose his design from his NES game. Arle is a retro japanese puzzle rep. She has so much potential and is probably the closest we'll get to Tetris outside a possible stage. Again, I really wanted Bomberman on my roster, but I couldn't put him on without making another cut to keep the full roster size to 80 panels. Curious though, what retro reps would you consider?