Now that Persona 5 has set a precedent for the series going forward, and Atlus isn’t undergoing any financial issues affecting development, the wait for the next Persona game shouldn’t be as long. Many are wondering about the future of Persona 5’s Phantom Thieves and the supposed several projects planned for their future. The love for Persona 5’s world and characters could prolong the wait for the next mainline entry in the Persona franchise. Either way, Atlus is preparing exciting news for something at the New Game+ Expo this year.
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Persona’s Most Recent Success
While Persona realistically has always been a popular JRPG series, the franchise struggled with a similar issue other JRPGs had faced before: the western market. While Persona 4: Golden saw great acclaim in North American and other western markets on the PlayStation Vita, Persona 5 was when the series’ popularity truly exploded worldwide. Persona 5 was a huge revolution for the franchise in a lot of ways, most notably updating the visuals to modern expectations as well as refining and streamlining a lot of the series’ classic RPG mechanics.
To no surprise there’s already been several spinoff games featuring the Phantom Thieves. Persona 4 received similar treatment, even though the game didn’t reach the same insane height of popularity that Persona 5 has. Persona 4 not only received a definitive version in Persona 4 Golden, but also got the Persona 4 Arena fighting game as well as the Persona 4: Dancing All Night rhythm game spin-offs. Not only has Persona 5 also received its own iteration of the Dancing spin-off games, but also has its own Dynasty Warriors-esque hack and slash game Persona 5 Scramble. That’s not even counting the Persona Q spin-offs on 3DS as well.
Prolonging the Phantom Thieves’ Reign
Considering Scramble hasn’t received a release date for western localization, it’s very possible Persona 6 may be a ways away. The spin-offs are worth mentioning only because in Atlus’ recent Persona history, these spin-offs usually release first before the next numbered entry is announced or begins the initial marketing blast. Several reports have pointed to more Persona 5 spin-off games on the way after Scramble and Dancing in Starlight. It’s very possible that fans will hear more about subsequent spin-offs during New Game+ Expo, but that doesn’t necessarily ruin any chances of Persona 6 being there.
The thing about Persona 5’s development is that the game was under a lot of circumstantial pressure compared to other Persona games. Atlus’ parent company at the time, Index Holdings, went bankrupt during the initial development of Persona 5 and halted things. Then on a more positive note, Persona 5 had moved over to a new engine created specifically for the game. Along with that, the game made some structure shifts in development to optimize for the better hardware on PS4, despite also releasing on PS3 as originally planned. Now that Persona’s developer P-Studio has acquainted itself to the new development engine, the development time for Persona 6 theoretically shouldn’t be as long or tenuous.
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Persona 5’s Impact on Persona 6
Along those lines, now that Persona 5 has taken the first leap into a modern revolution for the franchise, Persona 6 has the opportunity to refine and perfect that experience even more. There’s a lot Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal did to bring the series forward almost two entire console generations, overhauling the graphical aesthetics along with several key combat and classic Persona mechanics like Shadow negotiation. There’s also a ton of existing systems that were further refined in Persona 5 in many regards, like a focused linear design for Persona 5’s Palaces (main dungeons) instead of solely using the procedurally generated dungeon paths.
There’s also plenty of things that the Persona series can work on and improve in Persona 6 as well. The social simulator sections in Persona 5, like confidants and romance, have remained largely the same since their inclusion in Persona 3 initially. Persona 5 Royal in a lot of ways cleared up several of the minor issues in the base game, like the monotony of Mementos or some of the underrepresented confidants in the game’s plot. Now Persona 6 is likely in early development as a new console generation, meaning P-Studio is preparing a game for a modern console ahead of time.
Even if there are more Persona 5 spin-off games coming soon before an actual mainline sequel, there’s still the chance for a Persona 6 teaser at New Game+ Expo this year. Believe it or not, Persona 5 initially came out in 2016, so there’s been at least four years of potential early development already for another mainline Persona game. It’s not too far-fetched to expect a new Persona game reveal coming soon, just don’t expect the game to release any time soon.
Persona 6 is reportedly in development.
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