>>53942608>showing any sort of emotionShe does show emotion through her dialogue. For example, in her match against you, she uses a lot of exclamation marks because she's enjoying herself, while in the distortion world, she uses a lot of ellipses since she's out of her element. Obviously, it's not much, but it's enough to convey some emotion in such tiny sprites. Yes, BW did it better, but people complain about the amount and length of cutscenes in BW. And of course a manga is going to do it better since manga is specifically a storytelling medium.
>being a legitimate help/obstacle instead of just a bunch of pixels with textboxesWhat does that mean? She gives you several items to help you through your journey. And she is obviously an obstacle in your way to become Champion.
It seems like you're just nitpicking because you don't like her. What you're asking for is essentially for the game to have a bunch of cutscenes where the characters emote more theatrically. That wouldn't improve the game at all, go play Xenoblade if that's what you want. But those aren't universal standards. These are video games, not movies, and the standard of what makes a good video game character is not having an fully developer personality and emotions. Good developers show just enough to let your imagination do the rest then get back to the gameplay. You don't see Cynthia interact with her grandmother or sister but you can imagine what their relationship is like based on the few dialogues they have. Most video game characters work this way. Fighting game characters aren't popular because they have fully developed personalities. Mario isn't popular for his deep and complex motives.
>>53942623She did get additional screentime in Platinum. But she still helped you out in DP by giving you items necessary to complete the game and guided you toward Celestic Town.
