New characters can be cool, but they can also not be if they are not creative, are derivative, or pandering. T7 is on the right track with adding new characters to make the game seem new, but they don't have to do this, at least to the extent that they've done it. T7 has six new characters (so far), and it already has close to 30 characters. I don't think T7 needs more than three new characters. My premature opinion is that half of the new characters are either derivative or not exciting. Fighting games don't always need new characters, sometimes, what they need is to make unpopular characters more exciting. Jun Kazama has been in only one mainline Tekken game, the same with Kunimitsu. Wang is often perceived as a bland character, why is that? It's because Tekken has pushed him aside. Josie Rizal is cool, on paper, but in the game, she's close to being a Bruce palette swap. Why not delete Josie Rizal, and add a brand new Jun? Tekken already has a bunch of characters that no one cares about, I think they could transform old characters like Gun Jack, Forest Law, Wang, Michelle, etc.
Here's T4's character select screen, we've got three new characters, two if you count Christie as an Eddy clone, T7 could have looked like this, instead, in T7, we have a cast of a bunch of characters who are communal already, who have been in more than 1 Tekken mainline game, this makes the cast a little rote. I'm gonna propose a little silly hypothetical T7 roster of 21 characters, let's walk through this.
Before we start, this isn't the exact roster that I want, this isn't even a good roster, but to me, it's more interesting than the current T7 roster, here's why.
Like I was saying before, in my imagination, a timeskip happened in T7, what's happening here?
Anna is back, she's older, has a new look, that's cool. Forest Law is back, in his 30s, peep the facial hair. We've got Katarina, Yoshimitsu from T7, Ganryu is back, Miguel is back, Paul is back, but he ditched the hair gel. Kazuma is undoubtedly one of the best new characters ever added to Tekken, and Michelle is back, because she gets no love.
...Baek Doo San is back, why? He sucks right? He's bland, right? Well, in this hypothetical character roster, he's back, but only because Hwoarang decided to use all of Baek Doo San's best moves for T7, I don't know why, but it's explained in the story somewhere. Hwoarang is a palette swap for Baek Doo San, but he has his own storyline and ending. Shaheen is in because, why not?
Marduk is back, just because Marduk is awesome.
T7 is saturated with young women which is why in this roster, there are only two, two if you count Katarina into that same realm, I don't know how old she is, or two if you count Kunimitsu as being a young woman. Onto Sebsatian, this time around, Lili is too busy being rich, too busy being Lili, so her butler decided to enter T7. If you press start on Sebastian, you'll be able to use Lili. Wang is back, he has a new motive, that's cool.
That's Bob, but he looks different, what's different about him? He's healthy, but he's also been nerfed, supremely. Remember his T6 introduction?
Bob has already stated that he doesn't like being skinny. Let's just say, that hypothetically, Bob gets back into shape. This is the Bob that would be in T7. He looks less silly. But, for the people that really like Bob, the original, obese Bob would be a palette swap.
Bruce is back, and older, Jin remains unchanged from T7, instead of having Devil Jin as a separate character, he's a part of Jin as a rageart transformation, Jack-7 is in, Jun is back, Armor King is subbing in for King, and Kunimitsu is back, with a maskless costume being the 1P costume, and the masked version of herself being the 2P costume. With this kind of stuff, there are going to be some glaring omissions like Ling, Lei, Nina, Lee, characters like that. But, the reasons for them not being in the game should be explained.
Nina should appear in Anna's ending, or introduction. King should be in Armor King's ending, or introduction, do you see what I'm getting at? Just because a character isn't in a game, doesn't mean that they cease to exist. For me, this is what could make a Tekken game more exciting, you've got three brand new characters, palette swaps, brand new looks, brand new storylines, and a timeskip. I'm sure you didn't forget that Tekken 3 also had only 20 characters.