By all intents and purposes to the Nintendo Switch DQ11 was being presented as a New game. This is the only character that had a promotion for their “new game” directly after their character reveal trailer in the Direct. The precedent could be the same in a possible September Direct with the SMTV protagonist. Byleth’s game was out by the point of their reveal as well, the DLC was promoted separately shortly after the reveal, sure, but I’d say Hero has a much more substantial use of advertising for a character in Luminary than Byleth did. Even if they were going to get DQ in Smash either way the point still stands that they used Smash to promote DQXIS. That’s not even debatable. They put it back to back in the E3 Direct.
I think what Ness means is the Original reason the characters were chosen
While Dragon Quest 11 did get alot of promotion alongside the addition to Smash, unlike with Byleth, Dragon Quest probably wasn't added to promote a recent game coming to the Switch, but because of the Legacy and popularity of the Franchise that has been established
When it comes to Shin Megami Tensi, alot of people (including me) are looking at this case in a similar way to Byleth, in that Nintendo is wanting a Character from a game people would be playing now, which is why Byleth was included, and that SMTV would fit this
Of course there is the theory that Nintendo had wanted to Include the Shin Megami Tensi even back then, and that adding Persona in FP1 might have been a way of aiding in the popularity of Atlus games like Shin Megami Tensi, so when they do add in Shin Megami Tensi, they get more love, However part of me kind of doubts that since Shin Megami Tensi is kind of niche, and the franchises where Nintendo were specifically namedropped as a reason for their inclusion (Dragon Quest, Minecraft, Tekken) are much bigger franchises in comparison, with even Persona being a bigger franchise at the time of FP1 decision
So I think the Byleth Angle fits more for Shin Megami Tensi, than the angle for Hero
I mean, Persona 5 straight up don't have a comeback mechanic, yet Arsene works as one in Smash.
I don't think Sakurai is that interested in adding snowball mechanics into Smash, seeing how it's fundamentally built on leveling the playfield.
The thing is that in the case of Persona 5, it's a case of adding a type of mechanic that wasn't present in the game, instead of
Replacing the type of mechanic established
Looking at the characters with Comeback Mechanics (Lucario, Little Mac, Cloud kind of, Joker, Terry, Sephiroth, Kazuya), the Mechanics they are using in Smash either have been used as Comeback mechanics in the past, or didn't have a particular mechanic attached to it
I do think Sakurai is more willing to add Comeback Mechanics than Snowball Mechanics, but I don't think he'd be against the idea of a Snowball mechanic, and I don't think he's gonna change what has already been established mechanically in the home series, especially if 3rd party.
Devil Trigger has worked more like a Snowball Mechanic since it's Inception, and it ties into a Main element of DMC of being stylish. Getting bodied is not stylish, so while you may still get a little Devil rune when you get hit, you don't get as Much when you are doing good, and I think Sakurai would keep that element when Transitioning Dante to Smash as Hypothetical character perhaps next game
Plus I think a Snowball Mechanic could work even within the Casual game of Smash, but it really depends on the character we are talking about here. I know a Certain character that would work better with a Snowball mechanic since not only has this type of mechanic been established in the Series, but it also works as a balancing tool while still allowing this character to feel as Powerful as they can be without breaking the game
.