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Joker, Persona 5's star, is the first DLC character coming to Smash Bros. Ultimate after Piranha Plant. We spoke to some pros about how he'll look once he graces Nintendo's fighter with his presence.
Nintendo blew expectations out of the water when they announced that Joker, the star of Atlus's JRPG Persona 5, would come to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at The Game Awards late last year. No one saw a character from a series that'd never been on a Nintendo platform coming, and now everyone's itching to see how Masahiro Sakurai transfers the Persona hero into a platform brawler.
Unfortunately, we know absolutely nothing about how Joker would fight in Smash. We don't even know when he'll be available to download. Instead of just waiting for new info like normal folk, we decided to break down what Joker could look like, including what movesets, character similarities, assist trophies and extras he might end up having – all from those in the know.
Joker, otherwise known as The Phantom to fans of the Persona series, is a juvenile delinquent transfer student who lives a pretty normal life by day, and fights other-worldly monsters by night. His main ability, like other characters in the series, is a persona or manifestation of his psyche that he uses for physical and magical attacks. He's a bit different from other persona users due to his Wild Card ability. He can switch between multiple personas, leaving a wide open variety of styles that his moves could resemble.
"Joker's honestly pretty different from most current Smash characters," says Smash and Dragon Ball FighterZ player David 'Dacidbro' Broweleit. "All I really know is that I expect him to be fast, and have good start up on attacks since he's using a dagger."
Players we spoke to believe that while Joker won't be too similar to any other character already in Ultimate, he could share similarities with Chrom and Bayonetta. Chrom's speed would be a good fit for Joker, and like Bayonetta (as well as Ryu and Cloud) his animations will most likely be directly pulled from his source game.
Personas, projectiles, and phantoms
There's so much history for Sakurai and his team to pull from with Atlus, the developers behind Persona, Shin Megami Tensei, and other Japanese titles. The Persona series has a wealth of source material, including manga, anime, spinoffs, and a handful of main series games. You only have to look towards Persona 4 Arena, a slick fighting game spin-off, to see just how the Personas could manifest on the fighting game stage – and that's not to mention the sheer breadth of the Personas themselves.
Many of the games' Personas, which are manifestations of a user's personality, are based on historical figures and legends. Joker's most well known psyche, Arsene, is based on the fictional character Arsène Lupin by the French author Maurice Leblanc. He's a Batman-esque character who delivers vigilante justice to criminals he deems worse than himself.
"I think his specials are going to include his persona, Arsene," says Smash Ultimate player Anthony 'Xmas' DiNatale. "The closest comparison I can make to current characters is Zelda's Phantom Knight, but instead of a Knight coming out, it'll be the Persona appearing on stage to attack or cast the special."
Arsene feels like a given since it's Joker’s trademark move, even though it's not a very powerful persona in Persona 5. We'll probably see other Personas, too, including well known ones, like Shiki Ouji and Trumpeter. They could be used for different directional smash attacks, similar to how all the Inklings weapons from Splatoon are used for their different attacks. Joker's moveset won't only be Personas and swords, though. He'll probably have several knife and fist-based moves, too.
"Yosuke is a decent reference for attack arcs using similar weapons in Persona 4 Arena so I'd expect slightly disjointed hitboxes and similar speed," Broweleit says. "Disjointed hitboxes are extensions of the character, but not damageable. I can see his swords stretching out, but his hitboxes won't extend with them.”
"I think Joker's dash attack or side special will resemble the dash he uses to launch a first strike on enemies that he surprise attacks in Persona," DiNatale adds. "Projectiles will mainly come from his pistol or, once again, Arsene in some form."
One final All Out Attack
Outside Joker's base kit, we're definitely going to see a ton of other Persona content fill up Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Someone like Morgana would be perfect as an assist trophy that puts enemies to sleep, and Mementos, the Prison of Sloth, would be a great map, since it's one of the places that Joker visits continuously in his adventures. If not Mementos, we could see one of Persona 5's palaces show up as a stage – or even all of them in a moving stage.
Final Smashes are always the best way to translate the vibe of the original game over to Super Smash Bros., and Persona is no different. We should definitely see All Out Attack, where all players in the party attack all the enemies at the same time in Persona 5, take shape as a Final Smash.
"His Final Smash will be All Out Attack," DiNatale says. "Pretty much like Shulk's Final Smash, Chain Attack, but instead, Persona 5's party members will appear in the cutscene to attack. We'd probably see Ryuji with a crowbar, Ann with whip, and Haru with axe, or something along those lines."
All Out Attack, as seen above, is the best example of the flashy style that Joker will bring to Smash. The vibrant highlighted text full of red, white, and black vibes will make Joker feel right at home, as he heads to rather different destinations, like Hyrule Temple, Corneriera, and Dreamland. Still, much like how Cloud, Bayonetta, Sonic, Pac-Man, and so many others before him have become part of the furniture, Joker will feel like he's been part of the Smash family for years after only a few days of fighting the likes of Pikachu and Samus. Watch this space.
