Last night, Nintendo dropped a surprise reveal trailer for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate onto their YouTube page. The trailer announced that Joker, alongside the new 3.0. version update would be released today, seemingly out of nowhere.
The video goes super in-depth, showing Joker’s movesets (including his Final Smash, the new Mementos stage, new music tracks, and new Mii Fighter costumes based on characters from Persona 3 and 4.
You see, this first fighter pack as part of the season pass is not just bringing Joker into the roster, but instead, Nintendo is rolling out the red carpet for Persona 5, bringing in so many elements from Atlus’ triumphant JRPG.
Joker’s Final Smash is the famous All-out Attack from the series, which lets you cut through foes to launch a strike with the other Phantom Thieves. The attack is replicated perfectly from the JRPG, that if you were to show me the Final Smash, I would have thought that the game being played was Persona 5 and not Super Smash Bros.
But Persona 5 is not on the Switch and that’s just a tragedy in and of itself, but from looking at all of these assets that Atlus has given to Nintendo in part of the entire “Joker” package, it’s quite surprising that a Persona 5 Switch announcement hasn’t happened yet.
Atlus and Nintendo have always had a pretty good relationship with one another. Like for example, the company is publishing the upcoming Shin Megami Tensei V exclusively for the Switch. Also, the Etrian Odyssey, Devil Survivor, and Persona Q series of games are all only available on Nintendo systems – it only makes sense for Atlus to finally bring over the latest entry in the Persona series.
I know, I know; there has been nothing but rumors and leaks surrounding the JRPG coming to Switch, but with Atlus’ recent tease for Persona 5 S, there’s still hope out there that we could see a release soon.
Like, come on now; Nintendo is throwing in 11 different tracks from throughout the Persona series that changes the look of the Mementos stage depending on the track playing, Morgana makes an appearance whenever Joker taunts, and even the Morgana Car pops up on the stage, bringing out Ryuji, Ann, and Makoto into the background.
There’s just so much Persona love going on here that it’s shocking to me that the game isn’t on the Switch yet. Obviously, if Nintendo is proud and willing to give Joker a warm welcome for his inclusion into the Smash roster, I’m sure the same company would be ecstatic to see Persona 5 on Switch.
I wouldn’t care if it wasn’t even upgraded somehow on the Switch. The ability to take one of the most stylish and downright coolest JRPG’s with me anywhere would be just so freakin’ rad to see.
We only hope that all of this Joker stuff being put into Smash Bros is part of a bigger picture marketing scheme between Nintendo and Atlus, and if so, it’s a brilliant idea.
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