My persona sleeper agent self has been awakened, so below are my predictions and thoughts:
Here’s my 90-100% predictions, which are super obvious but the P5 purists might not realize:
- It’s gonna be high school students. However you feel about playing games centered on HS, Persona’s defining feature from its origin is that focus. There’s only one exception, but that was before the revitalization so it’s highly unlikely to change.
- We’ve fully got a pattern of “transfer student, non-parent guardian, based on a real Japanese region” with the revitalization, which is most likely continuing here.
- While the trailer gave a ton of good hints about the story, keep in mind that we were SO off about what P5 would be about based on the trailer alone. They feel designed that way, so I wouldn’t get attached to trailer material.
- You’ll probably see cameos/easter eggs of the earlier games, but don’t expect to see repeat characters or locations. (Looking at the P5 purists here). The only recurring character you’re seeing is Igor lol
- ATLUS has learned to test out UI, design, and mechanics in their spin offs and refurbished games, so while there will definitely be new things, don’t be disappointed if you see something from a previous game showing up. ATLUS is super fiscally-conscious, but that means that we tend to get the perfected version of mechanics in mainline games.
- The odds of us getting a weird age gap are not zero. It could almost be considered dead dove with this series at this point. Let’s just pray it’s not more than one…
- It’s a huge joke rn, but seriously don’t expect this game for years. Persona 5 was like 3-5 years late, but it was worth the wait. We can hope they learned from their mistake last time, but you never know. They missed the 30 year anniversary, so you better hope they don’t wait until their 35th (half-joking)…
My 30-80% predictions (aka, wants):
- Give us! The original lore back! Give us the gods betting on humanity, helping and hurting us along the way. Cowards!
- Disregard what I said about not making assumptions about the trailers: I saw someone say they wished it would be paranormal investigators and I’m hooked on that idea.
- With that idea, give us punk rock music. Grunge, baby!
- ATLUS, I will never forgive you if you don’t let us be a girl. I’ll allow it for the vanilla version, but if the update doesn’t give me a fucking woman, I’m losing it.
- I can’t wait to see how they adjust the UI, music, mechanics to their new theme. I love how ATLUS creates basically a dramaturgy when it comes to detail in their games, so I trust them with this.
- The biggest mistake they could make is not taking a big enough swing away from Persona 5. I absolutely ADORE P5, but the best part of this series is how each installation is completely different than the others. I know P5 was a smash hit, but I hope they don’t take that as permission to be comfortable and stick to the low-stakes story. I want someone dying if we don’t get them out! I want to feel devastated by failing (cough cough, Persona 4).