It’s not uncommon for a successful franchise to go and “expand” beyond its original style and themes. Just look at characters like Mario or Sonic and see all the ways their franchises have reached out to other genres for examples of that. But when it comes to the Persona franchise, they’ve tried to stay somewhat focused on what they’ve been. That is until they finally exploded in popularity via their 5th mainline title. Once that happened, Atlus opened the floodgates and started doing all manner of spinoff that continues to be released to this day. Plus, there are apparently more spinoffs in the works.
The latest rumor comes from a leaker known for their accuracy on this franchise. Specifically, they revealed that Atlus was making a remake of the 3rd entry, and they were right. But now, they’re predicting that a new fighting game for the series is coming out soon:
If that sounds familiar, it’s because Atlus has done this already in the past via Persona 4 Arena, which got an updated port recently. The game combined characters from the third and fourth titles, wrapped them up in a new story, and allowed people to see the characters in a new light.
If a new fighting title is indeed coming, then it’s not hard to see what game would take focus, as the 5th entry is the most popular, so we’d likely see characters like Joker, Morgana, Makoto, Akechi, and more.
The notion that this has been in the works since 2015 is interesting, as that means they were working on it while doing the 5th entry, which had two forms over the years. But as with all rumors, you need to wait for official confirmation before getting excited about it.
However, that is a question in and of itself. Will players be happy to hear about this? It depends. While the franchise has grown exponentially in popularity, you have to wonder if Atlus is merely trying to milk this popularity for all its worth. Since the 5th entry arrived, we’ve had a Warriors-style spinoff, a dungeon crawler, and soon we’ll get a tactics-style title. That doesn’t even mention the upcoming remake for the third entry of the series.
While these are interesting in their own ways, fans have been patiently waiting for news about the next mainline entry. Getting all these spinoffs will make them wonder if it’ll ever release. In other words, Atlus needs to be careful where they put their focus.
