The Persona "Phandom" may be in for an eventful start of the decade, with the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Persona franchise slowly approaching in 2021.
Popular Japanese video game publication Famitsu recently released their annual year-end article, where over 100 directors, writers, designers, and creators of some of today's most popular and beloved video game titles shared some of their personal aspirations and new release teasers for what gaming fans can expect in the coming year. Creators from some of the biggest video game companies, including Koei Tecmo Games, Kadokawa Games, Square Enix, Sega, and the Persona series' Atlus all shared comments on the upcoming year.
One such representative from Atlus was Kazuhisa Wada - a video game producer, director, and designer. Some of his credits include directing several Persona 4 titles (Dancing All Night, Arena Ultimax, and Arena) and serving as the chief designer on Persona 4 Golden, Catherine, Persona 4, and Persona 3.
When asked for his thoughts on the upcoming year, Wada shared only a short comment. However, he decided to focus on the upcoming 25th Anniversary of the Persona series, saying, “I am valuing and taking one step at a time towards the 25th anniversary of Persona approaching in 2021.” The first Persona game, Revelations: Persona was released back in 1996, making 2021 25 years since the series was born.
So what does this mean? Well, it's a vague statement, but we can probably discern from Wada's careful and thoughtful words that Atlus is likely planning something special for the two and half decades of Persona games.
2020 is already shaping up to be a pretty big year for Persona fans. Persona 5 Royal, which was released this past October in Japan, is getting its Western release on March 31, 2020. Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers, the upcoming hack-and-slash fighting style game that serves as an official sequel to Persona 5, is scheduled for a February 2020 release in Japan for both PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch consoles. No word yet on a Western release date for the sequel game, but considering the five-month window between Japan and the West's release date for P5R, fans are hopeful the game will be ported West before the end of the year.
Unfortunately, there's not much else we know so far regarding any other releases from Atlus. But if Wada's statement is anything to go off of, there's a good chance we'll be hearing more about Persona as the 25th anniversary comes closer.
Source: Gematsu