Persona’s 25th Anniversary Leaves Fans Disappointed
This year, Persona fans celebrated the 25th anniversary of the first game’s initial release in Japan. The popular JRPG franchise was the subject of high hopes but, just as quickly as it started, it was announced to be over. With a recent tweet from the official ATLUS West Twitter account, the company has confirmed the end of Persona’s 25th-anniversary celebration:
The most notable of announcements was the reveal that the Persona was finally being ported to the Nintendo Switch and Xbox platforms. While we now know that Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4: Golden will arrive for all consoles on February 19th of next year, there was a notable lack of any big announcement to close the celebration. Although the ports are certainly an impactful moment for the series, many fans felt disappointed by the lack of any future plans for the franchise. Twitter user @Zelexen1 had the following to say:
It wasn’t only the lack of any future plans for Persona that got fans frustrated either. There has been a notable lack of any acknowledgment or love for the first two Persona games from Atlus since the franchise gained its big break in Persona 3. While quite different from the newer entries (and slightly outdated), these are still the roots of the franchise. The lack of any playability on any platform newer than a PSP also locks out a lot of fans from being able to experience where some of their favorite games originated. Twitter user @PowerJusho summed up a lot of fan’s sentiments:
Releases have come throughout the year, but not to the volume or quality that fans were expecting. It’s easy to understand why they would be let down. It’s been six years since Persona 5, and with the release of the Playstation 5, it would be the perfect time to announce a sequel or a remaster/remake of the original two games in the series to draw in as many fans as possible. @TheFunnyName1 wrote this on the wasted potential of the anniversary:
Although this anniversary was largely disappointing (aside from the news that Persona 3, 4, and 5 were finally making their way to other consoles), there is still hope for next year. For one, Atlus’s tweet explicitly asks fans to ‘look forward"‘ to the next stage in the Persona series. While it is not clear what this means, it certainly seems to imply that the sixth game is in development in some way or form. On top of this, there have been no plans announced after February for the series, meaning next year could see the reveal of whatever is next in store. Either way, Atlus is going to have to work quite hard to hype up any announcements in the future considering their track record with this and with the disappointing Shin Megami Tensei anniversary that also took place this year. It remains to be seen what 2023 holds for Persona, but hopefully, it houses something new and exciting for fans to finally be able to look forward to.
