Persona 5... 3?

Huh?

Wait, no- we were promised a sequel. As in a proper sequel. After waiting all this time for ATLUS to stop dragging their feet and announce that they are even thinking about making a Persona 6, another licenced team have slipped out of the nether realms to announce what appears to be a direct sequel to Persona 5. But that in itself is a bit of a red herring, because Persona already had a sequel called 'Persona 5 Strikers'. So what in Arsène's name is 'Persona 5: The Phantom X' then? This franchise's own 'Persona 5: Lightning Returns'? (I still think that was one of the worst Final Fantasy game names of all time.) Ah, why am I complaining? More reasons to jump into one of my favourite universes of all time, with one of my favourite styles of game design, is always a boon in my books. I mean, even if it looks like more-of-the-same, that's never a total negative to me! Fallout New Vegas got the same criticism when it was shown off, only to prove that content matters far more than appearances when it turned out to be the greatest game in it's respective franchise! What could be so questionable as to make my faith in the Persona game series waver?

Its... it's a mobile game? Oh no... I should have known this day was coming. It was obvious, really. Live Services and mobile games are always a big hit for the Japanese audiences, even if the rest of the world recoils in disgust from the platform after being burned countless times. Japanese developers have to make games that cater for their immediate demographic, it's a surprise that there aren't more exclusive Final Fantasy mobile games to be honest. (Although there are already a few). It's just a heart breaker- to see potential for a new solid game entry be whittled down to the cramped and ugly confines of a 'mobile gam'e- and the reason why is borne purely from my prejudice to this platform, I'll be honest; but man, do I have precedent! It's not as though modern mobiles aren't capable of holding well made games- heck you can literally play Genshin Impact on mobile phones, and PUBG- it's just that mobile exclusives always let you down in the most important way.

To say what I mean, I should start my saying that 'Persona 5: The Phantom X' is not a throw away trash phone title like that terrible city builder Final Fantasy XV game. This is a real playable title, with RPG battles, inbetween socialisation breaks throughout the city and a real written-out narrative with some actual full-animated cutscenes. This isn't a throw away title by any stretch of the imagination and I imagine the developers wanted to make a game of worth and purpose within the Persona 5 sub-universe which I would love to get my hands upon. But when it comes to putting any game on the mobile platform it's almost as though a switch of regard to the audience just flips in the creator's heads. They have to make it free-to-play in order to match the market, and that means they have to find the most invasive, and pervasive way to sully the play experience begging for monetary funds from their audience. The more grubby the tactic, the better the performance of the game on the soulless board of 'money made'.

But my god do I love Persona. So much so, that I am willing and ready pretend the inevitable actually won't be the case for this game. Just looking at the gameplay trailer recently released, though it's all in Japanese, I get those stinging call backs to that colourful and evocative game which stole my heart the second I saw it with a teaser trailer. It's not quite to the visual flourishes of the original game mind you, a title which ruled it's themes with masterful aplomb in it's colouration and music, but this new entry looks as though it's leeching off the greatest of a title that had plenty to go around. Apparently some with a better understand of the language than I have said that some of the story snippets in the gameplay trailer seem to touch on somewhat similar themes as well, which is why it makes sense keeping this new cast of characters tied to the P5 world, however I do find it exceedingly curious that the Velvet Room seems to have adopted a distinct attendant who is missing nearly all the hallmarks of traditional attendants aside from the uniform. (How curious) And though I think the new Penguin mascot doesn't hold a candle to Morgana or Teddy, (it looks too... militant) I can see myself coming around to... accepting his presence with prolonged exposure.

At it's heart, what gives a mobile game it's vampiric thirst for cash injections is the desire for those titles to be constantly supported via integrated servers. For some reason every single mobile game under the sun is running with servers so expensive that unless the team are making multiple hundreds of thousands a month, that game just isn't worth the development time or resources to keep continuing. And I fully understand 'moving on because making a new game would be more profitable', obviously; but why do all these mobile games have to then be shut offline? (Am I still mad about Elder Scrolls Legends, you bet I am!) Although by that very same merit, the inherently live-service style of mobile games would probably slide into the Persona formula in a really unique way if the team can pull it off.

Think about it: living through the daily life of a school kid slowly improving their talents and relationships between bouts to the otherworld in a narrative that unfolds itself in seasonal chapters spaced out over a few years- that really would make a lot of sense given the framing structure of what Persona actually is. Of course, the narrative would have to be written in a manner that is satisfying in each one of those released chunks, but the general formula of a typical Persona game does already kind of play into that supposed model. You embark on investigations into certain characters which culminates in a progressive dungeon based and themed around that target's larger personal insecurities. Only instead of that resolution leading onto the next chapter immediately, it could lead onto a 'too be continued' cliffhanger, which the Persona story enjoyed doing anyway.

It's really going to be the actual inbetween gameplay elements where the game makes or breaks itself. Persona has a very clearly defined JRPG playstyle of statically linear weapon and level improvements spruced up by a splice and combine 'spirits' system for in-battle complexity. This system is tested throughout countless RPGs, it's complete and it works just fine. What I'm trying to say is, throwing in a rarity system and endless loot drops would not only be creatively lazy, it would sully a gameplay model that doesn't need replacing. This needs to be said, because like the Ubisoft open world design method this crutch of design is becoming honestly painfully overdone to the point where even the titles in which it belongs, like the upcoming Diablo IV, are starting to feel stale for merely sharing the larger industries woes. I need some RPG developer out there to solve the problem of how to create prolonged improvement without resorting to the lowest common denominator of design. Convince me that this industry still consists of artists and problem solvers, not mathematicians and financial experts.

Persona is a beloved franchise of mine; for which I pray on hoping for a new entry that will alight it's fame clear across the industry as much as Yakuza 0 did for Ryu Ga Gotoku. And whilst Persona 5's applause and success was already a big moment for ATLUS, one which they clearly aren't ready to move on from judging by the two sequel games they've got based around it- I know that a global synchronous release of a brand new Persona 6 will propel their brand to heights that company couldn't  currently dream of. So in my heart, ignoring my head, this mobile game is a stepping stone on the way to a smash hit 6. When I look at it that way, I can feign ignorance to the baggage that any mobile game invites into the equation simply by being itself. Hey, at least Joker is going to be in it- right?

Persona come back

 Patience isn't my strong suit

Okay, so I inherently know that I'm going to sound a little whiney saying this; but when's the next game, ATLUS? I'm dying out here! Recently you may have remembered that long tradition broke when ATLUS, kings upon kings, decided to do the unthinkable and put a JPRG on computer. (What madness it this!) Yes, a game genre that typically demand hours of one's time pouring over incremental stat increases, strategizing over exact move orderings and combos, all whilst juggling packs worth of regenerative items. Why should that experience ever make it the PC? Of course, I'm being an ass; JRPGs were made for the PC audience and it's crazy to think how long it's taken things to actually catch on. When Persona 4 Golden finally made the jump, however, there was none of that early stigma of 'Will this work out', 'ain't this more of a Playstation thing', it was all just "Please god, let me have Persona I've waited for so very long." (Or at least that was me, I imagine others were a bit more muted.)

And it worked out! Heck, I couldn't have made Persona 4's PC launch a success on my lonesome, so that's proof there's an audience on PC that's dying to have more of this world! Just recently it was surmised that Persona 4 was one of the top games of the year to be played on Steam with a controller, which seems a little odd given that it is a turnbased game, but I was actually one of that number so I guess I can't really talk, can I? So we're talking about a game that smashed sales, challenged some records, and had folk literally begging for more. So are we actually getting that more? I feel like this is something that we need to know because... well... I hate this annoying limbo of never knowing enough! Capcom are kind enough to let us know what we can expect out of Yakuza's PC ports, and that's ten times more kind to us than letting fans longue around all year and wither. I remember several times seeing that glimmer of home in a trailer and jerking upright, only to see that it's just Persona Strikers, or an AFK arena crossover. (AFK Arena? Seriously!)

I suppose the reason this really digs at me goes back to the very first moment I heard of Persona, because I can actually pinpoint that. It was during the lead-up to 'Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain', and I had been scouring Youtube for videos in any language that would tell me more about the game. Now I cannot say if watching all those Japanese videos had a hand in influencing my slice of the recommendation algorithm, but that certainly doesn't seem completely out the realms of possibility, does it? Either way, I found myself with the announcement trailer for Persona 5 in my feed and just ended up clicking on it. I kid you not, by the end of that trailer alone I was sold. It looked vibrant, exciting, kinda crazy, brimming with personality and just a hint of these great anime cutscenes; I was hooked. From that moment I've been constantly looking for a way to get my hands on the game, but it's always been just out of my reach. First it was because the game was destined to be a Playstation exclusive, and then because- no wait, every bit of my waiting has been because this game is a Playstation exclusive. Damn it Sony, why won't you share the love?

Now don't get me wrong, I understand why the Xbox hasn't exactly seen it's share of Japanese titles. Sony is a Japanese company with ties to all studios from that side of the world, so when it comes to exclusivity talks you can't really blame these devs for going with what they know. But what's the excuse for PC? Ya'll making these games on personal computers, are you not? Why can't they be for them? Yes, I'm getting to the point where my arguments are as simple as that, because do they really need to be any more complicated? How often is it necessary for a game to be made for consoles and then ported to PC; does that ever make more sense than the inverse? I doubt it. And if Sony are worried about losing market ground, that's fine, but what the heck do PC players have to do with that argument; we don't care about this whole 'company loyalty' nonsense, we just want to buy the games! Let us buy the games, Sony, you avaricious gold-hoarding flying lizards. (Yes, this rant is slightly inflamed by Final Fantasy XVI too, can you blame me?)

So why am I writing this blog? Because now that I've actually had the chance to sit down and play the heck out of Persona 4, I'm hopelessly in love with this franchise. I mean, head over heels, can't live without it, need more in my system, addicted to the thrill, lost in the beat, addicted to the pain, insert analogy here, kind of fascination with these games, and I need more. Seriously, I've played a great many RPGs in my time of all different shapes and sizes, including a recent spat of old school western isometric-style games, and I've never seen one that so frankly nails the juggling of life and combat. Even fully blown open world RPGs like Skyrim and Fallout, that literally make you play ever waking second of your character's life, don't make me feel like I've inhabited the mundanity and humanity of the character in question. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say, I feel less an avatar in a new world and more a person from that world in Persona.

Yes, I know it sounds weird to say; but I adore all of those times when I'm just interacting with the inhabitants of the game world and getting to know the regulars and finding out what makes everyone tick. It's a perfectly natural way of establishing personal attachment to the personalities of the game world and I haven't seen anyone pull it off as neatly as the Persona franchise does. Which isn't to say the combat isn't great, because the very act of getting to know people actually contributes, even in those little ways, to the combat experience, and that's another layer of ingenuity in the formula. I knew from the start that Persona would be a game right up my alley, but I had no idea how much it would end up rubbing off on me and now I need my next fix, gosh darn it! When are ATLUS going to get to it?

Right now I'm at an impasse; I've reached the point where I want to experience the whole series, from the beginning if I have to. (Well, maybe not 1 and 2, I don't know what they're like, but certainly 3 onwards.) And this isn't a case of wanting to see the whole story, like many other Japanese RPG titles each entry is independent of the last one, I just love the premise so much that I want to experience it as much as possible. It's the same sort of addiction that struck the world after Metroidvania became a thing, or Souls-likes, I'm not calling Persona's playstyle it's own genre by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm hooked to them as though it were. I'm sure that a few years down the line I'll be picking two-bit demos on Steam that so much as resemble what these games do. But the more content ATLUS provide me, the longer I can stave off that dark eventuality; so hit a brother up, guys!

Were I to make a wild prediction into the future, I would predict that 'Persona 5 Royal' will hit us in April, as a surprise. (Of course, I can't say whether that's April 2021 or 2025) April, May or June, I say, because that's around about the start date for each Persona game and that would make a nice bookend. ATLUS have, for their part, commented on wanting to port more of their games over after the success of Persona 4 Golden, but I'm slightly worried it's going to end up being Shin Megami Tensei. (I'm sure that series is great too, but it's not what I want, ya know?) So thank you for coming to my TED talk where I whined about wanting to play more Persona; I know, I'm bored too.