When could we see Persona 6 and what would make the community happy?

The Persona series is a Japanese role-playing game or jrpg that was originally a spin-off from the jrpg series Shin Megami Tensei developed by the Japanese developer Atlus. Persona has spawned 5 main title iterations along with several spinoffs like a fighting game, several dancing games, and more. As much fun as those games are they don't hold a candle to the excitement that a brand new main title would bring to the community. With all the critical acclaim that the last game received the questions we're left with are; when will we get the next one and what could make the game even better.

The very first Persona game, Revelations: Persona, was released on 9/20/96 in Japan coming to North America in November of 1996 both iterations on the original Playstation. In fact,  while many of the large JRPGs have gone towards release parity between territories the Persona series of anything has drifted further away from any sort of simultaneous release, with the latest iteration, Persona 5 Royal, having a 5 month delay. 

With that being said there is always hope that Atlus will finally release the English version of the game at the same time as the Japanese version but I'm not holding my breath for a miracle. Narrowing down the Japanese release date will give us a more reliable idea of when the next game will come out. Over the course of the series' 24 year history, we have received a new mainline game on average every 4 years. With that mindset, we'll get a new one this year. Considering the revamped version, Persona 5 Royal, came out barely 6 months ago in Japan, the likelihood of that happening is near zero, but who knows maybe we’ll get a miracle.

 As the architecture of consoles has become more complex the longer it has taken for the next entry to surface. Persona 1 to persona 2 was about 3 years but Persona 4 to Persona 5 was over 8! For anyone who has played the game, they know that the wait was well worth it. After all good things come to those who wait.

Looking at it logically and given the ever expanding popularity of the series, it makes sense that Atlus would pour more resources into the next game and try to get the next game out. Obviously, at this point, 4 years between releases isn't going to happen but it stands to reason that they have been working on Persona 6 since Persona 5's release in 2016. A 2022 release date would be nice and would make sense with the development team's timeline. But, only time will tell when we'll get the next entry in this storied franchise. 

10. Demons

Arsene defeats an enemy

Shin Megami Tensei, the series that spawned the beloved persona series, uses demons as the creatures that you battle until you capture them and they become persona. However, every iteration has changed them to shadows, during localization to western territories.The term demons seems much more like an enemy you should fight than shadows. It would be nice to get more parody during localization and keep the term demons for the most common type of enemy.

9. HDR

Ann and Carmen finish off an enemy

Persona 5 is a gorgeous looking game. Despite the fact that it was made to run on a PlayStation 3, the graphics are so stylized that it doesn't need high-end 4k or lifelike graphics to be impressive. However, what would improve the look is HDR in future titles. For those of you that are unaware, HDR stands for high dynamic range and its purpose, without getting too caught up in the technology,  is to make bright colors brighter and dark colors darker in order to expand the range of colors making colors seem more flashy without having to do a lot.

8. PS5

Mockup of the PS5 dev kit

So far the last 2 main entries have been planned for a console release that is a generation behind current console technology. Persona 4 was released on the PS2 in 2008, 2 years after the PS3's release and Persona 5, although was released on the ps4 was also released on the PS3 in 2017, 4 years after officially being replaced. For the next entry, especially with all of Sony's promises for the imminent PS5, it would be awesome if the title could take full advantage of all the technology it has available. 

7. Parity release

Persona 5 protagonist

This is a simple request. No Persona game has ever come out in Western territories the same day it comes out in Japan.  We just want to make the avoidance of spoilers for major plot points easier by having a day and date release between territories.

6. Clearer path of choices to 100% completion

Celestine, the upgraded version of Ann's Persona

Persona games have a plethora of choices for your daily activities. These activities range from hanging out with friends, to going to work, to going into alternate dimensions to slay shadows, and so many more choices. Although freedom is something that can be reveled in it can also quickly become overwhelming, especially to new players. Although recommended main path guides exist to help players know the best choices for the day to day, an in-game method that isn't dependent on the community would be great for those who want to get the most from their experience without having to constantly check a guide.

5. Romance men

Yosuke, a team member in Persona 4

One of the biggest draws of persona is its relationship building mechanic. Eventually, you'll become close enough to a character that you have the option to choose whether you want to enter a relationship with that character. Unfortunately, it's still only women that your male character can choose to romance. Data mining of previous titles has suggested that the developers have thought about including male romance options. But to date, unfortunately, no title has allowed that upon release. Please Atlus, let us romance Yosuke!

4. Female protagonist option

Persona 3 portable box art

On that note of romancing men, a mechanic that has been seen once in Persona 3 portable and never again, the option to choose your main character’s gender. Persona is a role playing game full of male and female characters who join your party. Why can't we choose our own gender? Every title has a mostly silent protagonist. The protagonist rarely talks outside a handful of small voicelines, it wouldn't be much work to add a female model. Hopefully, persona 6 will be the title that will stop assuming our gender.

3. Better new game plus

Persona 5 Royal boxart

New game plus is a mode that many rpgs, or games with any kind of character progression system, often have that allows players to carry that progression to a brand new game. Unfortunately, persona games have often had a rather bare-bones way of implementing this system. Missing features such as level progress and money accumulation, new game plus can often feel more of a struggle than people on their second or even third playthrough want. Adding a few commonly implemented progression carryovers would vastly improve this mode in the next game.

2. A more cohesive and expanded world

An overall view of Momentos, the procedural dungeon in Persona 5

Persona often takes place in a city with several locations for the player to explore. While Persona 5 had dozens of locations most of them did not have any activities outside of planned date type scripted scenes. Because of this the more locations that are unlocked the more cluttered your map became for more locations. Persona 6 doesn't need to be an open world rpg, but, more of those locations having some point to them and to be able to walk to more locations without a loading screen would make  the world feel more connected.

1.Ditch the 15+ hour tutorial

Kamoshida's Shadow boss fight

If there's one complaint that's commonly launched at Persona games it is their egregiously long tutorial section. Often it doesn't feel like the game lets you truly play it until you're 10 hours or more in. Granted, a single Persona game playthrough can easily take you upwards of 100 hours, my personal first playthrough of persona 5 had a final game clock of 127 hours, but to someone's first time playing the game they should be able to see what the community has been raving about without playing the length of some AAA action games just to learn the baseline mechanics.

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