What Do Atlus’ Persona Spinoffs Mean for Persona 6
In the recent Xbox Summer Showcase, Atlus announced a bunch of new Persona (or Persona-esque) games that led more than a few people to question the current development status of Persona 6. The sequel to the immensely popular Persona 5 was announced by Atlus to be in development a few years back, but we’ve received nothing but sparse rumors since. No teaser or release window in seven years since the initial release of Persona 5 has left a lot of fans a little bit worried.
It’s important to note that Persona fans haven’t been starving in the last seven years, though. From Persona 5: Royal’s additional content in 2020 to the action-centric sequel Persona 5: Strikers, there have been no short of new experiences for fans of the series. On top of that, this year’s rereleases of Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden for all modern consoles have pumped more life into the franchise. This was only amplified even more by the recent Atlus announcements.
At the Xbox showcase, no less than three Persona-related projects were announced. The first was Persona 5: Tactica, which is a tactics-based potential sequel to Persona 5 where the Phantom Thieves are transported into a new dimension. If you’re a fan of other tactics games like Fire Emblem and XCOM, this should be an enjoyable fusion of fun gameplay with a great established cast of characters. The next announced project was the long-rumored Persona 3: Reload, which looks to be a faithful but heavily upgraded version of the PS2 classic. With so many new fans of the original from the rereleases this year, this is certain to be a big hit for Atlus.
The final game shown off was a completely new IP, but some aspects may look more than a little familiar to some fans. Metaphor: ReFantazio was revealed with a fascinating trailer showing a blend of traditional fantasy with the familiar Persona social sim elements. Although details are still quite sparse, if we go off of the trailer alone, this is an evolution of the Persona formula y thrusting it into completely unfamiliar territory. As a result, the majority of fans loved the reveal- but there was one caveat holding some back from overwhelming hype.
The question on a lot of fans minds was ‘What about Persona?’. With Metaphor: ReFantazio being made by the same team behind Persona, did that mean that Persona 6 was put on indefinite hold until the release of this new IP? Well, unfortunately, Atlus has not announced anything about the successor to Persona 5 since the showcase, and it’s likely that they’ll stay tight-lipped on the subject too. With the team behind Persona working on Metaphor: ReFantazio, it’s likely that, while not stopping completely, development on Persona 6 has slowed substantially.
This rebuts rumors of a Persona 6 release in 2024, which had been circulating around the internet prior to this reveal. With a remake, spin-off, and a completely new IP in the works, it would be very surprising to see any news on Persona 6 until at least two of those have already been released. With Metaphor: ReFantazio supposedly coming in 2024, that places Persona 6’s release at some point in 2025 or beyond. While a blow for mega-fans hoping for the next entry in the series as soon as possible, there is certainly no drought for Prersona content at the moment. If it takes a few more years to perfect Persona 5’s successor, I’m more than happy to play some spin-offs and other titles while we wait.
