If I were playing armchair developer though, I’d probably leave out the guests, bosses and remixes, so no more Raam, Arbiter, Rash, Gargos, Omen, Eyedol, Shadow Jago, Shin Hisako or Kilgore.
That’s already nine characters out of the game. I think I’d be MORE than happy with everyone else returning and then having ten new characters for a total of 30.
However, if I’m cutting a bit deeper, I think I’d be okay with letting these characters miss a game:
Thunder: I kinda think it’s Eagle’s time to shine. Maybe Thunder gives his tomahawks to Eagle, which helps expand his movelist slightly. Maybe he’s still in the story as more of a guide or maybe Eagle has to help him somehow?
Riptor: Seems odd leaving out two of the three original KI characters that were left out to begin with, but with Fulgore being the symbol of KI, I could see Ultratech needing a new pet project.
TJ Combo: He’s got a great backstory, but he’s not really tied to any other characters, he’s just sort of “one more good guy” right now. Not saying he can’t have a bigger part, but right now, he seems somewhat expendable.
Tusk: His main reason for being seems to entwine more with Gargos than anyone else. If that’s the case, then maybe he’d be best off getting released from his immortality somehow and maybe having his sword be a plotpoint in the next game.
ARIA: Honestly, I loved what she did in the current game, but would her motivation really match up with a corporation post-Gargos? I’d love to see her displaced by the board of directors or something along those lines and have a charismatic, evil human installed as CEO. An executive / suit, but one with superhuman powers, perhaps modified due to Ultratech expirements. Some sort of hybrid of Geese Howard, Calypso from Twisted Metal (the long haired comic one, not the potato headed guy from TM:Black) and Agent Smith from the Matrix.
Ravan, we’re just talking hypothetically here, man, do we really need to get in to stuff like this in this thread? Also, I’m not saying we all need to be on our best behavior whenever a developer strolls in to a thread, but man… Adam asks a question about which ten characters you’d bring back and you come in with characters without stages and special moves? 
Maybe it wasn’t in response to him and it was just a general statement in the thread, but still.
Who’s being hypocritical about what now? I’m not sure what you mean. Also, why should fame have anything to do with a character’s budget? If we’re talking the cost of a standard character versus a remix or whatever, how about we just skip that and assume for the next game that character costs are, for the most part, equal and go from there?
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