LogFAQs > #976544572

Smash Ultimate doesn't even have Trophies. Instead, it has Spirits, which are just JPGs taken from their original games.

It was done that way because Sakurai has said that making Trophies takes tremendous work (modeling and/or posing the characters along with writing and translating descriptions for them), and on top of the heavy workload that Ultimate already required, they were unfeasible this time around (the same reason why Ultimate's Adventure mode doesn't have side-scrolling levels). So, they went with Spirits, and also gave them various effects that can affect gameplay when equipped.

However, there is some reading material in the form of short Info tips that pop up on loading screens which can also be read in one of the side modes that tell you about the Fighters.