Is a ‘Persona 5’ Switch port on the way?

Amidst the numerous requests fans have made for games and franchises to receive Switch ports, Persona 5 stands out as one of the most popular choices. It is a huge JRPG, which itself is a popular choice of genre amongst Nintendo players, as well as the inclusion of Joker into Super Smash Bros. making more and more people who have not had the chance to experience the original game want to try it on Nintendo’s hardware. With Atlus telling players to “keep fighting” for the game to release on the platform, hopes of a switch port are reaching a fever pitch.

Atlus’ Persona 5 was originally released in 2016 for the Playstation 3 and 4 in Japan and worldwide in 2017. The game quickly garnered a reputation as not only being a fantastic RPG with hours upon hours of content, but was also considered by many to be one of the best games released that year. Not only was the game received extremely well critically, but also financially, becoming the fastest and best selling game in the franchise. Cut to 2020, and the protagonist of the game Joker was announced and released as the first DLC fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate; the game was adapted into an anime; a spin-off was made called Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight; an enhanced port, Persona 5: Royal, is due to release in the West in March; and a sequel, Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers, was recently released in Japan, continuing the story of the original game six months after its ending. It’s safe to say, then, that Persona 5 has proven its popularity and relevance.

The core gameplay of Persona 5 is a mix of turn-based combat through exploring huge dungeons known as Palaces, whilst the other half is more of a life simulator where you play each day out on a calendar system. Thanks to the hybrid nature of the Switch, playing Persona 5 makes so much sense for the console. If you only have a small amount of time to kill, playing a day or two in-game could be the perfect thing to fill out the time. Moreover, the dungeons are not meant to be blitzed through, instead, they require you to gradually chip away at them until you finally reach the end, so would make sense as something to play in small chunks. Finally, because Persona 5 is such a long game, the ability to keep up with the story wherever you are is an attractive prospect.

Recent ports to the Switch have shown that it is more than capable of running current generation titles, admittedly at the cost of factors such as some graphical fidelity and framerate. Nevertheless, ports such as Dragon Quest XI, Doom, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice prove that the Switch can handle quite large and graphically intense games. So, seen as though Persona 5 was developed initially as a Playstation 3 game, I cannot imagine there would be much, if any, trouble getting it to run well on the Switch. Moreover, the sequel Persona 5 Strikers is being developed as both a Playstation 4 and Switch game, and based on the recent Japanese demo of the game, looks and plays very well on Switch. So, if the more demanding sequel can be played just fine on the Switch, surely the less technically demanding original game can too? 

I would love to see a  Switch port someday

Besides Persona 5, other ports I would love to see come to Switch include something like a collection of older Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest games, akin to 2019’s Collection of Mana. They would not require a lot of effort from the developers and I am sure would sell very well, especially given the recent resurgence in popularity for old school RPGs. For something more recent and daring, a potential Switch port of something like Microsoft’s Rare Replay would be great to see, not only for its value but just to give many Nintendo players to try out a variety of different games under the Microsoft umbrella. They allowed Cuphead and Ori and the Blind Forest to be ported to the Switch, so who knows? It could happen one day. Others I’d like to see would be the Bioshock Collection, Nier: Automata, and even something as out there as Red Dead Redemption 2.

Whilst I could list many more games that I would love to see a  Switch port someday, Persona 5 is genuinely the one I want the most, whether it’s the original version or the enhanced Royal version. I think it would work amazingly well on the Switch in terms of technical performance, and would no doubt make Atlus and Nintendo lots of money. Here’s hoping we get the good news in a future Nintendo Direct!