Keeping with the seafaring theme, I imagine Nino served as the chief mate of an imperial merchant ship until he was shanghaied into join Ryu's crew and discovering his former bosses were, in actuality, evil.
I crave another Breath of Fire. Thought it'd be fun to do a Ryu concept where the protag's a woman. Maybe it'd be sea fairing theme. I have an idea for Nina as well I might get to.
I hope Age of Calamity comes up with some interesting new baddies to play as. Wizzro and Volga were interesting new takes on previous enemies and dual wielding Ganondorf is one of my favorite designs for the character.