Persona 6has yet to rear its head, despite seeming inevitable, given how the franchise keeps on growing. As if the success ofPersona 5wasn’t enough, ports of the past games broaden the IP’s reach and give new fans plenty to enjoy. All this hype seems like the perfect leadup to aPersona 6reveal, but instead, Atlus and Perfect World have revealedPersona 5: The Phantom X, a mobile spinoff seemingly exclusive to China. InPersona 5: The Phantom X, players will encounter the Phantom Thieves once again while controlling a new protagonist, which makes it feel like a possible test run forPersona 6’s structure.
Due to the remarkable achievements ofPersona 5, there’s cause to wonder if Atlus wants to stick withthe Phantom Thievesbrand indefinitely. Joker and his team are certainly good for marketing, given how popular they are, but the franchise will remain freshest if it regularly introduces new Persona users with their own stories. Atlus could strike a compromise by making all future games revolve around thePersona 5canon, occasionally featuring the Phantom Thieves and preserving the picaresque aesthetic while focusing on new teams. It’d be a surprising direction for the IP, but it doesn’t seem out of the question.
RELATED:Persona 6: The Case for a Third Detective Prince
Persona 6 Could Be Its Own Persona 5 Spinoff
Persona 5: The Phantom Xhas the makings of a mainlinePersonagame – a brand-new team of characters with unique Personas and backstories – but it’s still a part of thePersona 5universe, as promotional material shows. At this point, it isn’t clear how involved the Phantom Thieves will be inPhantom X’s story, but whatever the answer is, the game reeks of an experiment. A mobile spinoff is a safe way for Atlus to search for the right balance of new characters andPersona 5nostalgia, since it’s not central to the canon and can be a smaller investment overall.
If players seem to likeP5X’s integration ofP5’s characters and lore, then the latter game could become the new centerpiece of the franchise’s entire universe. Although they belong to the same world, eachPersonagame usually brings its new incarnation of the Shadow world, but maybeAtluswants to introduce a little stability to the franchise. That’d certainly have its benefits; it could free up Atlus to focus on characters and real-world storytelling over new lore systems.Persona 6could further the character arcs ofPersona 5’s beloved characters too.
While letting the Phantom Thieves live on would be exciting, it’d be a risky choice.Persona 6shouldn’t lean too much onPersona 5’s characteristics and lore, or it could fail to stand out as the next evolution of the franchise. Part ofthe magic ofPersonalies in how Atlus keeps managing to tell completely fresh stories, introduce memorable settings, and shift between themes and aesthetics while keeping tons of mechanical franchise conventions in place. LockingPersonainto theP5design could make the franchise stagnate. Spinoffs looking at the Phantom Thieves from new angles are welcome, butPersona 6needs its own identity.
All in all, it’s relatively unlikely that Atlus will decide to makePersona 6a part of thePersona 5suite, butPersona 5: The Phantom Xsends an interesting message anyhow.Personaspinoffs don’t usually introduce a completely new team that has some kind of relationship with a mainline team. At the very least,Phantom Xcould suggest that Atlus wants to tighten the network of connections between the groups of Persona users. The likes ofPersona 4 Arena UltimaxandPersona Qalready form some ties between the main characters, but maybe Atlus plans to establish a much larger system of secondary teams orbiting around the protagonists from the mainline games. If that happens, thenPersona 6might have a particularly large pool of references and cameos to draw from.
Persona 5: The Phantom Xis in development for mobile devices.
MORE:Persona 5: The Phantom X Makes a Persona 6 Animal Companion Seem Inevitable
