“There would still be a lot of things I would like to share with you about our future prospects…“, notes Kazuhisa Wada, the creative producer and chief director of the saga, at the end of a long file devoted to Persona by the famous weekly.But we will do our best to reveal them when the time is right.“, he tempers immediately when asked about the future of the series. A comment that echoes that published in the concert leaflet, where the manager “deeply apologized“to not be able to announce anything new, six years after the release of Persona 5, and three years after that of the Royal version.
As his sidekick Shigenori Soejima, the artist inseparable from the franchise at Atlus, puts it, “Persona series themes change with the times. The challenge is how we can continue to produce work that makes an impression.“
For now, the future of the series is combined with the upcoming release of Persona 5 Royal on new platforms, on October 21. A large-scale undertaking directly carried out at SEGA, which required many adjustments according to the different versions, such as the many visual effects accompanying the fights, in particular the number of projectiles fired by the Phantom Thieves. “This was my first porting project and I didn’t realize how difficult it would be.“, concedes Shinji Yamamoto, general producer of the franchise.
We know indeed how much Atlus has shown itself cautious, or helpless, when it comes to adapting its productions on several platforms. A trend that is visibly in the process of being reversed, between the worldwide release of Soul Hackers 2 last August, and more generally the numerous ports implemented in the wake of the success of Persona on PC.