LogFAQs > #967411932

Joker - Persona 5 Royal

In my experience, there are three total Persona party members - the MC, the healer, and they do damage sometimes and are my friends = ). The only exception Ive seen to this is Naoto, who manages to be a jack of all trades and master of either none or everything depending on the game. Joker is not an exception to this, pretty much playing the game by himself, occasionally passing off the baton to friends but mostly just weakness sniping. And its a really soothing pattern! Sometimes its fun to just be the entire Pokemon team all in one, and with all the style and added negotiation and role-playing aspects, Jokers a really fun character to be. I do hope Persona gets a bit of a stronger identity in gameplay, though - ever since they gave you the ability to choose what spells you inherit in fusion, the games become WAY too easy to make, like, three totally busted personas for the next 20 levels and then an array of fodder, making most encounters past the first dungeon totally trivial. Im not saying bring back the clunky mechanic, but something to compensate for how much easier the change makes the games would be nice. SMT at least still has the decency to spit in your face with press turns!

Best Smash Bros Appearance: Ultimate - If Joker were representing himself as he appears in the Persona 5 intro or Dancing In Starlight, hed be flawless. Effortlessly weaving through attacks, adding in flourishes to make certain moves very spinny and stylish, the grappling hook is probably the most snappy and enjoyable tether recovery in the game. However, as a representation of Persona, power of bonds, wild card, hitting weaknesses with a wide array of tools hes pretty crap. Joker hyper-fixates on the style and themes of Persona 5 to the point of neglecting a lot of the gameplay application that makes the Wild Card so interesting. And that CAN be fine - Yu is a fabulous rushdown character in Persona 4 Arena - but Arsene just isnt an interesting enough substitute. He functions a lot more like a Jojo stand than a Persona, and lacks the flourishes that Joker has. Part of this is likely that hes just a much weaker presence in P5 than Thanatos/Messiah in P3 and especially Izanagi in P4, but hes just a big red man who hits things rather than any sort of trickster god. Theres a lot of potential thats been left on the table to cash everything in with Jokers style, and I cant help but miss what isnt there. Everything is fine, its really flashy, but its just unexceptional for the wide breadth of what Joker could bring in. C+

Rosalina - Mario Tennis Aces

For a hot second, Mario Tennis Aces was gonna be one of the best fighting games on the Switch. Theres such a beautiful back-and-forth rhythm to the game, waiting to build up meter, considering whether your opponent has the nerve to survive a potentially racquet-shattering super with a perfectly timed counter, or whether to use your zone shots to really wear them down as you whittle away their positioning and zone time. It is an incredible back and forth until you realize that everyone plays the same with just a few key differences, so its like you got 10 Ryus, 10 Kens, 10 Sakuras, and 10 Ryus But From Alpha This Time hanging out on the roster. Gets old real quick. Rosalina is one of the few exceptions to this, being one of the Tricky characters who floats rather than walks. This gives her a really nice game feel amongst the cast, gracefully gliding to balls and feeling very ephemeral, almost maddeningly difficult to break through as she seems to change momentum on a dime. Its a really fun appearance for her where she feels as overwhelming as her goddess maybe? stature would imply.

Best Smash Appearance: Smash 4 - As a base concept, I like Rosalina & Luma. The idea is that Rosalina is the mother of the lumas, bringing out their potential until they form new stars and galaxies. Having Luma be the main fighter of the two makes sense - its the powerhouse here, Rosalina is just the caregiver meant to direct it. However, I find the actual caregiving aspect of the moveset a bit lacking. If Rosalina were able to buff Luma somehow, (perhaps with Star Bits - that attack that for some reason LUMA shoots out??) make it grow and increase its survivability, I think it would go a long way to furthering the bond between the two. As-is, Ultimate especially makes the lumas incredibly dispensable, which I feel is a pretty big disservice to what the character is all about. I like a majority of Rosalinas floaty moves and weird, galaxy and halo-themed attacks coming off her body, it gives her a unique feel that mixes in with the Galaxy games really nicely. I just think the dynamic of her and Luma, while not incorrect, is a lot weaker than it should be. At least Luma was really strong in Smash 4 and worked properly instead of just purely annoyingly! C-