Summary
Despite the recent release ofPersona 5 Tacticaand the upcoming release ofPersona 3 Reload, many fans have their attention turned toPersona 6and how it will improve upon the success of its predecessor. A recent leak suggestsPersona 6won’t be released until 2025, so fans will have to wait a bit longer to play the follow-up toPersona 5. However, this release window would givePersona 6the honor of setting a new record for the franchise, setting it up to potentially be the biggest game thePersonaseries has ever seen.
While thePersonaseries has been fairly consistent with its releases sincePersona 3launched in 2006, the gaps between new mainline entries have been getting longer with each title.Persona 5originally launched in Japan in 2016, with a worldwide release the following year, meaning that ifPersona 6does launch in 2025, it will have been nine years since the release of its predecessor. This gap in development time betweenPersona 5andPersona 6would be the largest between mainlinePersonaentries and could be an indicator of a couple of different aspects of the series that bode well for fans and future titles.
What Persona 6’s Long Development Time Could Mean for the Series
Persona 5 Has a Lot of Staying Power
Although it will have been nine years sincePersona 5’s original release ifPersona 6does come out in 2025, the time in between these releases certainly hasn’t been without its fair share of new titles.Persona 5has seen multiple spin-offs inPersona 5: Dancing in Starlight,Persona 5 Strikers, and therecently releasedPersona 5 Tactica, in addition to the definitive version,Persona 5 Royal,being released. The fact that the popularity of this entry has warranted this many spin-offs over the past eight-plus years shows that Atlus did something right when creatingPersona 5, and its staying power could be a sign of the quality of future games.
Not only hasPersona 5seen multiple spin-off titles, but its popularity within the cultural zeitgeist has warranted several crossovers with other gaming franchises.Persona 5’s protagonist Joker appears as aplayable fighter inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate, and several characters appear as part of crossovers with multiple mobile titles, includingNieR Reincarnation,Dragalia Lost, andAFK Arena.Persona 5is even getting a mobile spin-off of its own inPersona 5: The Phantom X, which demonstrates the game’s ability to transcend traditional gaming spaces and audiences.
Persona 6 Could Be Even Bigger than Persona 5
It’s possible that the long release gap betweenPersona 5andPersona 6is to capitalize on the popularity of this most recent entry with as many spin-offs and collaborations as possible. However, it could also be a sign thatPersona 6will encompass even more content thanPersona 5, which already clocks in at around100 hours to beatPersona 5 Royaland is the longest entry in the series to date. The eight-year gap betweenPersona 4andPersona 5may have seemed like an eternity at the time but resulted in the most successful entries in the franchise, and the current development time forPersona 6could mean it’s in a position to topPersona 5.
For many players,Persona 5was an introduction to the series' calendar system and gameplay split between a social life sim and a dungeon-crawling JRPG. Now that the group of players who began theirPersonaexperience withPersona 5have become more comfortable with the series' mechanics,Persona 6could iterate upon these established design staplesin a big way. While surpassing the 100+ hours ofPersona 5 Royalmay be daunting for both players and developers, the potential scope ofPersona 6could be what players wanting to become engrossed in a newPersonagame are looking for.
