Nintendo Switch Is Finally Getting Persona 5 Royal, Along With Persona 4 Golden And Persona 3 Portable

Persona 5 characters have been hanging around in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for years now, but if you wanted to actually play Persona 5 on your Nintendo Switch, you've been out of luck. That changes this fall, when Atlus is releasing a port of Persona 5 Royal on Nintendo's console hybrid, two years after its initial release--and it's just one of three Persona games coming to Switch.

The announcement came in Nintendo's latest Direct Mini showcase, which included some other surprises for turn-based JRPG fans. In addition to Persona 5 Royal, the Direct revealed that two more Persona games are destined for the Switch: Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 Portable. Though both Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 Portable were available on the PlayStation Vita (the latter by way of the backward-compatible PSP version), they never made it to any of Nintendo's consoles, handheld or otherwise.

The Direct dropped the additional detail of Persona 5 Royal's release date, which is October 21. That's also the date Persona 5 is set to launch on Xbox Game Pass. Nintendo didn't offer a release date for Persona 4 Golden or Persona 3 Portable for Switch, however--it only said they were "coming soon" during the Direct Mini.

Persona 5 Royal, released worldwide in 2020, marks the definitive version of the game, with additional content that wasn't included in the 2017 release of Persona 5. In GameSpot's Persona 5 Royal review, Michael Higham called the game "the definitive version of a modern classic" and awarded the game a rare 10 out of 10.

"But beyond a plethora of superb gameplay refinements and features that improve an already-rich RPG comes a momentous new story arc seeded within the original narrative and paid off in full by the end," Higham wrote. "It delivers something genuinely surprising, leading to awe-inspiring moments and emotional conclusions that recontextualize what I thought the game was."