I mentioned it in the OT but it honestly doesn't matter who's responsible because the pass has overall been really solid and have all been the kind of picks Sakurai would've made on his own terms anyway.
There's two narratives at war here: the idea that Sakurai is a rock star given free reign in his own passion project, and the idea that Sakurai is being whipped down by greedy Nintendo into marketing upcoming games and partnerships. It's why all the conversation circles around Byleth, it's why it used to circle around Hero, it's why you'll get people suggesting that Joker is somehow meant to be an advertisement for Persona 5 Scramble of all goddamn things. It's all either personalizing too hard or depersonalizing to the point of sterility, and the reality seems to be more in the middle than a lot of us online folk would probably like to accept at first glance. Because that requires accepting that a faceless corporate entity like Nintendo is somehow capable of valuing fanbase goodwill.
There's two narratives at war here: the idea that Sakurai is a rock star given free reign in his own passion project, and the idea that Sakurai is being whipped down by greedy Nintendo into marketing upcoming games and partnerships. It's why all the conversation circles around Byleth, it's why it used to circle around Hero, it's why you'll get people suggesting that Joker is somehow meant to be an advertisement for Persona 5 Scramble of all goddamn things. It's all either personalizing too hard or depersonalizing to the point of sterility, and the reality seems to be more in the middle than a lot of us online folk would probably like to accept at first glance. Because that requires accepting that a faceless corporate entity like Nintendo is somehow capable of valuing fanbase goodwill.
