I've talked a lot about Persona on this blog. I was so excited for the upcoming release of Persona 5 in 2017 that I embarked on a partial marathon of the series with plans to finish up right before the release. I played Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, Persona 3 Portable, and Persona 4 Golden in succession, finishing just in time for the Persona 5 release date, which I then played nonstop for about 120 hours. Needless to say, I was pretty burned out on Persona at that point, even though I enjoyed the game a lot.
With the news that Persona 5 Royal is essentially an enhanced rerelease of the game, do I feel ready to embark on that 120+ hour journey again? Well, considering that the game doesn't come out in the US until next year, I think the answer to that is probably yes. It's been enough time. I'm perfectly ready to be stressed out by the planning needed to max out all confidants, especially since this version of the game will have at least two more of them than the original release. But that's okay, since it evidently contains an additional semester, just like Persona 4 Golden did.
It's clear at this point that the Atlus goal of branching out the Persona 5 brand into as many different revenue streams as possible is coming to fruition. First there was Persona 5 Dancing, which was surprisingly excellent. Next year will be Persona 5 Royal and announced just today was Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers, a musou game in the tradition of Dynasty Warriors with an as-of-yet unannounced release date. Considering how fun Dragon Quest Heroes and Fire Emblem Warriors were, I'm definitely on board for this Persona variety. I think there's a lot of cool stuff they can do with it as long as they retain the base game's sense of style and aesthetic.
What no one's really talking about at the moment is another Persona spin-off game coming up in just a couple months, Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth. I loved the original Persona Q, which featured characters from both Persona 3 and 4 in an Etrian Odyssey dungeon-crawler mashup. I liked it enough that it sparked my interest in the Etrian Odyssey series in general. Here I am several years later, playing Etrian Odyssey Nexus, having completed every main entry in the series up to that point. I'm really excited about Q2 because of course it adds Persona 5 characters but keeps all the old ones too. Sure, some might grumble about breaking out their old 3DSes again, but mine never really left the rotation in the first place.
With all of these new Persona 5 titles coming soon, it's not hard to see why Atlus decided to work with Nintendo to incorporate Joker into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, especially considering that Persona 5 Scramble will be releasing on Switch in addition to PS4. Sony seems to have a stranglehold on exclusivity for the main Persona titles, but Atlus is still giving Nintendo a lot of support in spin-off titles. Maybe one day we'll see Persona on Switch, but it seems at least for now that's not happening.
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