When it comes to the most iconic video game characters of all time, Joker, the character from Persona 5 is near the top of the list. Despite being only a few years old at this time, Joker is already a beloved icon in gaming. This Joker Persona 5 guide will let you know everything about him.
In this Joker Persona 5 guide, we will go over the various details you should know. From his history in the game to multiple appearances and more. If you are an existing Joker fan like me or just someone looking to see what the deal is, you are in the right spot.
Bottom Line Up Front
Joker is one of the most iconic video game characters of all time. Synonymous with the Persona series now and Persona 5, he has transcended into pop culture. Appearing in various other media and games besides just Persona 5, Joker is a massively popular character.
In Persona 5, he is simply a high school student who leads the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. Together with his team, Joker can steal the hearts of bad guys in the Metaverse and cause them to change their ways.
Who Is Joker From Persona 5?
For starters, Joker is the main protagonist in Persona 5. When players boot up the video game, they will take on the role of this lead hero for the entirety of the experience. From start to finish, this is Joker’s story and puts him at the center stage as the leader of the Phantom Thieves.
What is fascinating to note about Joker is that he is a silent protagonist. This follows the trend from previous Persona games where they all speak almost no words. At least from the perspective of the players, that is. This is because the player molds and shapes Joker to what fits them.
In many cases, the player can select the dialogue options in the game for Joker to say. While we do not get to hear him say it, you make these choices. Those choices are not too radically different most of the time, but they do allow you to shape certain moments and relationships to your liking.
The Phantom Thieves is the group of high school students that Joker forms alongside his friends. Their goal is to steal the hearts of evil people in Japan and turn them into good people. Joker is the de facto leader of the group, making decisions for everyone and leading the charge.
This goes into the Persona 5 gameplay, too, as you will play as Joker leading the group through dungeons and the like. The team listens to what Joker prefers, which is why you lead the exploration and even battles with him. You can choose not only what moves he does in battle but everyone else’s, too. You can even select who you want on the primary battle team at all times.
Joker is simply the codename for the character in the game. People address him since you can pick his name for yourself. That said, there is a canon name for Joker, Ren Amamiya. But, again, no one uses it since they just refer to him as Joker.
While Joker is primarily a blank slate stand-in for the player, he does have a lot going for him. From the amazing game in Persona 5 that he stars in to his appearance, he has become a fan favorite. It is partly because of Joker that Persona 5 has reached such popularity as the most successful game in the series.
Appearance
When it comes to the overall appearance of Joker, he has two primary forms. While not forms in the traditional anime sense, these are his typical outfits. Depending on the situation that players are in, they will have one of these two. Those two outfit forms are his high school uniform and Phantom Thief outfit.
It is worth noting that there are other outfits that you can unlock for Joker through DLC and the like. But these are optional, and many of them cost extra money, so we will focus on the two that most players will deal with. However, you can change his appearance some if you want.
High School Uniform
The first of the outfits that Joker wears in Persona 5 is his high school uniform. Joker moves to Tokyo and attends Shujin Academy, a prestigious private high school. Since he goes to a significant school, he has a fancy little school uniform that is stylish and great.
Most of the time, Joker wears some glasses with his high school uniform. It seems that he needs to wear glasses, though this is never brought up in the game itself. He wears a black blazer on top of a white undershirt.
The blazer has the nice emblem of the academy on one side, with red accent buttons in the middle. On the bottom, he wears red, black, and white plaid pants with black shoes. Altogether, it is a very distinct school uniform and one that looks simple but clean.
When the player is attending school during the day and hanging out afterward, he is seen mainly with this uniform. That said, there are some other casual clothing that he can be seen with at different parts of the Persona 5 storyline.
Overall, the appearance of Joker in his high school uniform is oddly similar to another person. While wearing his familiar glasses, he certainly gives off some Harry Potter vibes. It is currently uncertain if this resemblance was intentional or not.
Phantom Thief Outfit
While the school uniform is stylish and simple, Joker’s other outfit is sleek and flashy. When he enters the Metaverse to take down targets and steal their hearts, he wears his Phantom Thief outfit. While not embodying the Joker motif, it is iconic gear nonetheless.
With this, Joker is wearing an almost all-black suit that is detailed and gorgeous. Every inch of the suit is dripping with style from the pointed shoes to the sharp coattails of his jacket. Atlus did a lot with this outfit, keeping it with a relatively tame color scheme and design but still wowing in the process.
The stand-outs of the outfit, though, are the red gloves and his mask. The red gloves are a nice accent, sticking out in just the right way and emphasizing his thief quality. And then there is the mask, which is the most important part of the outfit.
Instead of his usual glasses, Joker wears a white mask over his eyes. It gives that Phantom of the Opera vibes to it, being white and black. Again, it is a simple design but everything comes together in such a flashy way to make his character unforgettable.
Personality
The personality of Joker is tough to pin down since he is mostly a blank slate. You pick what he says and does in many cases, shaping him to your liking. That said, there are a couple of key details that I have picked up on in my time with Persona 5 and Royal.
For one, I think that Joker is a pretty cocky guy. He seems a bit full of himself or at least quite confident. This is seen in his smirks and the fact that you can literally romance every love interest at the same time if you want to (don’t do this).
But he does care about his friends, at the very least. He might not be the typical hero type but he is passionate about his goals nonetheless.
Key Relationships
The key relationships that Joker has are mostly dependent on the player. The core group of characters includes the Phantom Thieves and his guardian Sojiro, and that is mostly it. Sae Niijima and Mishima are two exceptions, along with the denizens of the Velvet Room.
These are the only forced relationships that Joker has in the game, with the rest of them being up to the player to decide. There are about a dozen more characters known as optional Confidants that you can encounter and build a relationship with.
It can be argued that, canonically, Joker has a relationship with a politician, fortune teller, troubled doctor, and more. However, it is ultimately up to the player to pursue those relationships if they want. As such, the key relationships are with the Phantom Thieves.
These include Ryuji Sakamoto, the best bro, and Ann, the aspiring model. Later on, it also includes Yusuke, the genius artist, and Makoto, the class president, and number one student. Joker also has a strong relationship with Haru, the daughter of a corporate president, Akechi, the genius high school detective, and Kasumi, the dancer in Royal. Above all else, his very best friend in the world is Morgana, the (not a cat!) talking companion mascot for Persona 5.
Voice Actor
The voice actor for Joker in Persona 5 is Jun Fukuyama in Japanese and Xander Mobus in English. Yes, there is a voice actor for Joker in the game and other media, despite not talking much. He does have random signature lines he will say in battle and the like where these actors come into play more. The same goes for the Persona 5 anime where he has a more vocal role.
Abilities
For the most part, Joker is a normal high school student who just so happens to be able to save the world. He does not have the superhuman strength, crazy transformation into another being, or the supernatural powers of other heroes out there. But he is able to summon Personas, which is perhaps more useful in the end.
Persona Summoner
Joker awakens early on in the story of Persona 5 to be able to summon Personas. These Personas or the representation of the other-self and Joker is one of the few able to summon them. In practice, this means that he is able to use them to attack, cast magic-like skills, and fight enemies.
The catch to all of this is that it only takes place in the Metaverse. Outside of that Metaverse location, he is unable to summon his Personas.
Wildcard
The other members of the Phantom Thieves are also Persona summoners but the catch with Joker is that he has one extra ability. That is the wildcard ability, which allows him to be free from restraints. While everyone else in the group has basically one Persona, he can have infinite.
He is able to wield basically all Personas out there if he so chooses. This includes negotiating with ones he meets in battles to join him. He is also able to visit the Velvet Room as the wildcard. In this special place, he is able to fuse existing Personas to create new ones to use in battle.
Playstyle
The playstyle for Joker revolves around his ability to summon Personas. You will fuse and acquire new Personas, and then use them in turn-based battles. You can command your Persona to use various skills and attacks against enemies in strategic combat.
Outside of combat, you will explore dungeons, complete puzzles, and find treasure. When not in dungeons that are known as Palaces, Joker is a normal student. You go to school, answer questions from the teacher, and engage in after-school activities.
The player is able to explore Tokyo as Joker, work part-time jobs for money, buy items at shops, and build relationships with friends. The playstyle in Persona 5 for Joker is as chill or stressful as the player wants it to be.
History
Joker is the main character of Persona 5 so the entirety of the time is spent with him. Going over the history of the character and the events that happen with him, as such, is going to involve spoilers. In reality, it going to involve a whole lot of spoilers for the entire game.
As such, if you do not want to know anything at all about what happens with Joker and where his story goes, now is the time to turn around. I will attempt to refrain from talking too much about his party members and some other characters in the game but some parts are unavoidable.
Moving to the Big City
The story for Joker begins just prior to the start of the game. In the town that Joker lives in, he has a run-in with a man and a woman. The unknown man seems to be harassing the woman on a dark street. Given that Joker is the heroic type, he moves in to save the day.
Unfortunately, the cops are called and the unknown man turns it against Joker. He is able to manipulate the situation to make Joker look like the bad buy and he gets in trouble. Because of this unfortunate turn of events, Joker goes to stay with Sojiro, a family friend, in Tokyo.
Moving to the big city is tough for Joker as Sojiro initially sees him as the guilty party while he navigates a new school. Thankfully, he quickly gathers a group of friends who are in similarly unfortunate situations. It starts with Ryuji and Morgana and eventually expands to include Ann.
In the opening part of the story, Joker investigates the volleyball coach at his new school, Kamoshida. The coach is doing terrible things to his students and Joker discovers Palaces, Personas, and the Metaverse. He uses these to stop Kamoshida alongside Ryuji, Morgana, and Ann.
Afterward, the group formally creates the Phantom Thieves to stop other evildoers out there. From there, Joker begins his next mission of helping Yusuke deal with his trauma and villain.
Stealing Hearts
This leads Joker to eventually move to bigger targets like the famous mobster Kaneshiro. Through this, he gains the help of Makoto. From there, the world starts to acknowledge the Phantom Thieves, including a famous hacker. Joker investigates the identity of the hacker and ends up with his next target.
Through this, he gains the help of Futaba. After that, he moves on to the corrupt president of the Okumura Corporation in Japan. During this time, he gains Haru Okumura as an ally.
Afterward, it comes time to stop the police who are targeting Joker. He gets the group to go after Sae Niijima. During this time, he gains an ally in Goro Akechi, the final member of the group in the base Persona 5 game. During the final assault on the casino Palace to stop Sae, he is betrayed and captured.
Joker is then sent to prison where he is questioned by the police. A person attempts to assassinate him in this but he survives through cunning deception.
Saving the World Again and Again
With that, the group gets back together and moves on to their final target: Shido. Shido is the aspiring prime minister of Japan and a vile human being who will lead the country down a dark path.
While attempting to take down Shido, Joker learns the identity of the traitor and has to fight them. He and the group eventually make their way to Shido and defeat him. Doing so turns him from his evil ways but it causes an uproar in society.
This leads to the final section of the game as Joker now has to stop the entire country from going off the deep end. After beating the final boss and saving the nation, it seems as if it is over. And the story for Joker is literally over if you are playing the base game.
For those who play Persona 5 Royal, though, you will experience the extended ending. After saving the world, events change for Joker. In the base game, he is taken in for questioning again by the police after saving the world. Though nothing comes of it, this eliminates an entire period of time for him.
However, in Royal, the events change as Akechi steps in and takes Joker’s place, instead. This allows Joker to experience the final semester of living in Tokyo, instead of being incarcerated for a time. A new villain appears who turns Tokyo into a dream world where everything someone could ever want exists.
In the process, most of Joker’s teammates become useless. Fortunately, he is able to turn to Akechi, who gets away from the police, and a new party member, Kasumi. Joker is able to visit the final Palace with these two and investigate the new villain.
This is a character-driven time for Joker as he becomes very close to both Akechi and Kasumi. In the end, he finds out the truth about the villain’s plans for the world and is able to stop him. Thus ends his time as a Phantom Thief and yet another mission to save the world.
After this time is over, Joker now returns to his hometown with Morgana. Now that the year is up, he is able to return as a free man with a clean slate. The epilogue shows that Joker does come back in the summer, though, of the same year for a little vacation and reunion with his teammates.
Joker in Other Games and Media
The Persona 5 and Royal games are far from the only stories of Joker. He is an immensely popular character in gaming and has appeared in many different games and other media since. For one, there is a direct sequel to the original Persona 5 in Strikers.
In this game, it picks up from the summer vacation reunion with the team at the end of Persona 5. Joker learns about a new threat facing the country and goes on a Japan-trotting adventure to stop it. He is once again the lead protagonist in this action-RPG spin-off but you are able to directly control others in battle.
Joker also stars in Persona: Dancing in Starlight where he and the cast of 5 enter a dancing competition. In Persona Q2, Joker and the Persona 5 crew meet up with the heroes of 3 and 4 for a dungeon-crawling adventure.
Outside of the Persona series, there are other media that has featured Joker in the past. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is one of the most notable ones. In that fighting game on Switch, Joker was one of the main DLC fighters and one of the most shocking. He stole the attention of The Game Awards when he was announced as a fighter in that game.
There is also Another Eden, a mobile JRPG. In that game, Joker is a playable character in a story event. There are plenty of other games where Joker either appeared in a crossover event or his outfit did. These games include:
- Catherine: Full Body
- Granblue Fantasy
- Phantasy Star Online 2
- Sonic Forces
- Puzzle & Dragons
And there are still more. Beyond games, though, Joker made a splash in other media. There is a stage play in Japan as well as an anime adaptation. The anime adaptation of Persona 5 includes Joker as the main character once again and reveals his canon name of Ren Amamiya.
Fun Facts About Joker
Finally, let’s end the Joker Persona 5 guide with some quick fun facts about the most famous Persona character that you might not have known.
- His appearance greatly resembles Harry Potter
- His personality is based on sneaky cats
- The manga adaptation gives Joker the name “Akira Kurusu”
- Joker’s initial Persona, Arsene, is fittingly based on the fictional thief created by Maurice Leblanc
- Leblanc is also referenced in Persona 5 as the name of the cafe Joker lives at
- He is not the first Joker in the Persona series, with the Persona 2 games having their own unrelated Joker main character
- Joker was possibly not the only protagonist in Persona 5 at one point; Violet/Kasumi was seemingly going to be the female option for Joker originally
FAQs
Question: What is the best Persona for Joker?
Answer: The answer is pretty simple: Satanael. This is a Persona that most players will not even encounter, outside of the main story, but is the best that Joker can have. This is due to the fact that Satanael is unbelievably powerful and has abilities that triumph over almost every other Persona out there.
With this Persona as your main companion, you will be able to decimate most enemies and battles with ease. Unfortunately, the way to unlock Satanael is going to be long and tough. In all honesty, it is unlikely that you will even be able to use him to the fullest in your first playthrough.
It is in the New Game+ mode that most players will be able to use him since fusion requires Joker to be level 95 or higher. He is the final Persona that you can fuse in the game and the most powerful without a doubt. It is unfortunate, though, that you have to wait so long to use him.
Question: Is Joker a hero or villain in Persona 5?
Answer: This is an odd question to have. Joker is certainly a hero in the events of Persona 5. The reason that the confusion comes about is that some characters in the story see the Phantom Thieves and, in turn, Joker himself as the villains.
These people either do not fully understand the good deeds that the group is doing or are the villains. That said, the other reason that someone might be confused is because of the beginning of the game. Accused of assault, the beginning of the story can paint Joker in a bad light. However, the truth is that he is falsely accused of the crime when someone else was the aggressor in reality.
Question: What is Joker’s real name Persona 5?
Answer: In Persona 5, Joker is simply the codename for the character that most people call him by. You are able to pick his real name and make it whatever you want. That said, there is a canon name that Joker has. That canon name is Ren Amamiya, however, it does not matter since everyone just says Joker.
Question: Who is Joker’s girlfriend Persona 5?
Answer: This is a tricky question since you get to pick who Joker romances in Persona 5. You can even pick for him to stay single and not pursue anyone at all. There are several romance partner options in the game, and even more when it comes to Persona 5 Royal.
That said, I do think that there is a canon girlfriend for Joker in my mind. Prior to the events of Persona 5 Royal, the base game seemed like Makoto or Queen was the correct choice for him. Their personalities match quite well and she is the Queen to his Joker card. Even if she was not my personal pick in the original game, it made sense.
However, it was not until Royal that we see who is likely the real canon romance choice for Joker. Both Goro Akechi and new party member, Kasumi, seem romantically interested in Joker in that game. While you cannot romance Akechi, you can do so with Kasumi.
Kasumi matches up with Joker perfectly in every way from the designs to personality to her canon storyline. Everything about them feels made for each other so if there is a canon girlfriend in the story, it would be Kasumi without a doubt.
Conclusion
Joker is one of the most iconic characters ever released in video game history. This includes fans who played Persona 5 and those who just appreciate his design alike. That said, I do recommend that people who like Joker play Persona 5, even if it is not your usual cup of tea.
Joker is not the only iconic part of this series as Persona 5 is a near-masterpiece experience, too. To get started with the game, you should read our Persona 5 overview guide. In it, we cover everything that you need to know about the game to get started, even if you are a complete newcomer to JRPGs.
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