Cognition Dissemination: The Persona 5 Sequel Atlus Could Have Made
There’s an unusual Persona sequel coming in the form of Persona 5: The Phantom X, the first significant mobile effort in the franchise, the development for which is being spearheaded by Chinese developer Black Wings Game Studio. Atlus, who owns the Persona franchise, is acting as an overseer. The trailers released thus far show how this will very visibly be a sequel to Persona 5 and the updated Royal version through the identifiable Tokyo-based locations shown, but the central cast will be brand new. Some side characters will return, like Tae Takemi of the Takemi Medical Clinic and Munehisa Iwai of airsoft shop Untouchable, but hints suggest that Persona 5’s main characters could return in certain roles.
The game looks great for a mobile gacha Persona effort, regardless of how it’s heavily reusing assets. Persona series team members are also involved, including Shigenori Soejima for the design of the protagonist and his Persona (other P-Studio Art Unit members might have handled the others), and performer Lyn Inaizumi for new songs. But Atlus could have done more. This is the kind of sequel they should have made and released themselves in the time since the original Persona 5 and Royal released.
By “themselves,” I’m referring to an installment developed largely by Atlus’ internal team, worth noting before anyone thinks I forgot that Persona 5 Strikers exists. Having an action/RPG sequel from Koei Tecmo’s Omega Force with the main Persona 5 cast members is one thing, but Atlus could have also made a direct turn-based follow-up to the game too.
This could have been the type of sequel Atlus has worked on before: A direct follow-up that heavily reuses assets from the previous installment that offered gameplay refinements over its predecessor. It would have followed in the footsteps of titles like Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner — Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon (which our own Angela Moseley is streaming right now) and Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse. Though both of those titles came from Team Maniax (named such after finishing Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Maniax — the version localized on PlayStation 2), there’s no ostensible reason why a similar effort couldn’t be made as a Persona sequel.
The same new characters being introduced in this installment could have been used, including the new Soejima-designed protagonist and his Jánošík Persona, definitely-not-Chie character Suwa Arai and her Awilda Persona, and mascot character Luffy (not Monkey D.) and his Rob Roy Persona. The game will even have its own new Velvet Room attendant named Merope. Seiji, Mont, and Yuki will serve as companions known as TAs, who will have their own Personas. Yuki, notably, is the mysterious lady seen in the first trailer from 2021.
A direct sequel for consoles could have used the same turn-based battle system and dungeon exploration style, which The Phantom X appears to be keeping, along with reusing plenty of dungeon assets and music tracks.
It would have been ideal for this figurative sequel to arrive around a few years after the original Persona 5 released, to lessen the long wait between Persona games. Around 2019 or 2020 would have been the best opportunity, 2021 at the latest. (This is, notably, around the time Persona 5 Strikers released.) Either way, it’s too late for this to happen now; I expect Atlus is very deep in development on the next mainline Persona game, which should be confirmed sometime soon.
It’s easy for me to say that Atlus should have made a direct sequel themselves in retrospect now. I imagine they didn’t envision that it would take this long for them to merely announce that Persona 6 (or whatever they’ll call it) is happening, let alone confirm a release date or timeframe. A number of Persona 5 development team members also went to Studio Zero to work on Project Re Fantasy, a title for which no details have been revealed since the 2016 announcement. Both titles will ideally be shown soon, but the clear takeaway here is that Atlus still hasn’t adjusted to HD console development, further evinced by the company only releasing a handful of internally-developed examples. The COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020, of course, didn’t help.
Future gameplay demonstrations should show just how similar and different The Phantom X will look and play compared to its predecessor. But it’s alone impressive for a mobile game to capture the look and feel of a console title from the glimpses already shown. The game is only planned for release in China at the moment, but Persona series producer Kazuhisa Wada commented that a release outside the country is possible. It’s still worth considering what this could have been had Atlus developed it themselves as a direct sequel, but perhaps they can revisit the idea following the next Persona title’s release.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
