Atlus, the legendary Japanese developer perhaps best known for their Persona franchise, has announced the end of the year-long 25th-anniversary celebration of the long-running JRPG spinoff. You might be forgiven for forgetting that such a thing was going on, as it didn't result in much, although we did get word of those highly anticipated PS4 ports of Persona 3 and Persona 4 in the end.
Over the weekend, the celebrations closed, not with a Persona 6-shaped bang, but instead with a whimper. Or, more precisely, with the Super Persona Live P-Sound Wish concert that was probably totally awesome. We know we were told not to get our hopes up, after all, and yet we can't help reflecting on this past year and what is to come, and it sounds like we weren't the only ones.
Flyers were handed out at the event that included a short message from Atlus Persona Team director and producer Kazuhiza Wada that read, in part: "It is also with great sadness that we must bring an end to the everlasting momentum of Persona‘s 25th anniversary... There are so many things I would like to tell you, but I deeply apologise for not being able to do so on this occasion. I would like to share them with you at the right time, so please look forward to more information about the Persona series in the future."
According to Persona Central, Atlus's five-year plan was substantially disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it seems like changes behind the scenes have affected that timeline. There is nothing else for it except to patiently wait, and in the meantime, we can always purchase Persona 5 for the third time, despite promising ourselves we wouldn't.
When do you think we will get word on Persona 6? Are you disappointed more didn't come of the 25th-anniversary celebration? Take your heart down to the comments section below, and commiserate with your fellow Phantom Thieves.
[source personacentral.com, via resetera.com]
Comments 24
Not losing sleep on things like this but if you have nothing new to announce it's probably not worth the trouble of celebrating a beloved franchise regardless of Anniversaries.
Do the concert and leave it at that.
Atlus' mistake here was they created unnecessary hype by announcing the 12 months of news thing, but it's hard to be overly critical (excluding the lack of PS4-PS5 upgrade for royal, and the - in my opinion - tone deaf naming of the one more time special edition), but at least we are getting the ports of P3P and P4G next year, and they brought back Arena too.
And when Persona 6 does arrive - lets hope its as enduring and excellent as the last few releases
@Rob_230 They could have released a dual pack with the P3P and PG4 on disc. 🤪
I did this dance before when waiting for persona 5 news back in 2013 (I just realised that's nearly 10 years ago now and I've made myself sad, wow.) There is absolutely no point in expecting news for this game any time soon. Anniversaries will come and go and every time they'll tease and tease something new and then it'll end up being personakart or a limited release of phone charms or something. P6 will land when they're ready, they probably don't want to repeat the never ending delays situation they had with p5 and honestly I'd much rather just not see any of it til it's almost ready for me to play it anyway. There's other games.
@Flaming_Kaiser haha this is fair, but this is Atlus we are talking about. They'll wait for us to buy the digital versions and then announce one
This ladies and gentlemen, is why I love leaks.
It one ups this devs who likes stringing their customers along with fake hype, just so they can increase viewership on their other products.
Meh, news would've been nice but barring a total screw up P6 is a guaranteed day one regardless of its hype cycle.
I'm more interested in news on Re: Fantasy or whatever it ends up being.
Im not bothered by no P6 announcement. The ports for 3 and 4 were enough for now. Plus they have to follow up P5. That's no easy task to say the least so take your time. Plenty to play in the meantime.
I thought it was a solid anniversary celebration, acting a lot like the SMB 35th anniversary celebration in 2020 where the game announcements were essentially preserving older games by bringing them to newer systems. Also I feel the Switch ports pretty much justified Joker's presence in Smash Ultimate (much like the PS FF games ported to Switch justified Cloud and Sephiroth).
On a side note, I do hope that as Persona has been allowed on the Switch that SMTV ends up being allowed on PS4/PS5.
I am excited to buy Persona 3, 4, and 5 all for the third time.
just looking forward to Persona 6 when they're ready to share (or when the inevitable leak comes, cuz, you know yay leaks! [sarcasm]).
also, I hope we get to see whatever Project Re:Fantasy is, unless it just got canceled quietly.
I'm not gonna buy Persona 4, but if my JRPG backlog doesn't get to be too much, I might play Persona 3 again.
Not a big deal. P3 and P4 had great dark stories compared to P5R and it's 'bad adults' junk. On top of that it's just too long of a game. 50 hours in I finished The Tomb then it forces a few weeks of vacation dialog instead of playing the game. Learning I'm less than half way through I just deleted it from my PS5.
@rachetmarvel Agreed.
I tend to be an Atlus apologist, but man was this event a bummer. After releasing Persona Q2, two dancing spin-offs, and Strikers, they announced this big year-long anniversary event that mostly consisted of a merch store and some Japan-only events.
They could’ve just said nothing and there wouldn’t have been any expectations at all. At least the ports happened - if only one thing of note was going to happen, I’m glad it was that.
I thought uncle Phil had locked the Persona games in as Xbox exclusives now, or did I hear wrong?
Not big on fighters so the arena port didn't do much for me, and p3 being the portable version kinda ruined it a bit so really it felt like for the people that weren't screeching for multiplat ports in every single article related to atlus, we only really got a p4g port on ps4/5 which should've happened ages ago even before the steam port
Would've definitely liked a little teaser for p6 even if people don't like the waiting 5 years in silence after that. But it is what it is. At least we know it exists. When they're ready, they're ready
@Rob_230 Persona 6? Surely 8-12months they'll announce PS5 versions of Persona 3 & 4 after the XB "marketing" deal finishes & they can milk the cashcow at least one more time! 😋
@Rob_230 That why ill wait i have a massive backlog and i notice the early adopter isnt that respected.
@AstraeaV I loved the more streamlined games without the unnecessary padding sometimes more does not make the game more fun.
Atlus owe me nothing so I am not disapointed. As a business I expect them to act like one and look to monitise thier exsisting properties as much as possible. As a consumer I mainly focus on enjoying the games rather than any kind of discourse around if's and whens. I am happy to see Persona on Xbox and Switch and a smart move to build the fanbase ahead of Persona 6.
@Sqush-Pare They are just multiplat now as far as I am aware.
i don't need another persona game anytime soon. i'm more disappointed that we have heard nothing about project re-fantasy from the persona 5 team (now studio zero). i am far more intrigued by this new IP set in a fantasy themed world.
@Grumblevolcano I would love to see the previous SMT games brought over to modern platforms! Shame that 5 is locked behind Switch.
I know about the SMT 3 port but I heard it's very divisive?
I just wanted a game where I could play as Makoto and beat the heck up out of Ryuji & Morgana for making me sit through their petty drama. Or even use Haru and her axe to chop ‘‘em up
What a garbage anniversary. We get nothing but crap to clutter your room, and a terrible version of p3 with p3p.
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