Persona 5has already had a fair few victory laps by now. Although Atlus’Personafranchise was already a heavy-hitting JRPG to begin with,Persona 5is where Atlus really struck gold and found a huge international fanbase for the games. It’s no surprise, then, thatPersona 5quickly got an expanded edition and spinoffs meant to capitalize on the game’s success. Even so, Atlus is probably going to sunset thePersona 5era sometime soon.2021 is the year ofPersona’s 25th anniversary, and many fans are expecting Atlus to announcePersona 6soon. Since odds seem low that the next game is still about the cast fromPersona 5,it looks like the Phantom Thieves' days are coming to an end.
However, that doesn’t mean that the Phantom Thieves are gone forever. In fact, it’s much more likely that they become a permanent, recurring touchstone for thePersonafranchise. Atlus has an interesting habit of bringingPersonacharacters back in spinoffs.Persona 5’s Phantom Thieves are sure to get the same treatment at the very least, but what if they get treated even better? Atlus knows that it has some extremely popular characters on its hands, and it wants to get the most out of them. MaybePersona 6will still feature the Phantom Thieves, but as supporting members of a new group of protagonists, rather thanPersona 6continuing the Phantom Thieves' adventures.
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Atlus' Persistent Persona Protagonists
Atlus has a pretty consistent history of crossovers betweenPersonaprotagonists in side games. Perhaps the best example is thePersona Qgames, which are specifically designed to bring thePersonaprotagonists under the same roof in a dungeon crawler RPG.Persona Q: Shadow of the LabyrinthbroughtPersona 3andPersona 4togetherin 2014, and a couple years laterPersona Q: New Cinema Labyrinthbrought the Phantom Thieves into the mix. Each of the games focuses on the various teams of Persona users working together to solve a mystery together.
That’s not the only timeAtlus broughtPersonacharacters together.Persona 4Arenaand its upgraded versionPersona 4 Arena Ultimaxare a pair of fighting games that also putPersona 3and4’s characters under the same roof. It’s also worth nothing thatPersona 5is full of Easter eggs referring to previous games, mentioning where the protagonists ofPersona 4are at the time ofPersona 5.It’s clear that Atlus likes to tie all their previous games together and see what happens when otherwise separate characters interact with each other.
So far, though, face to face interaction has been mostly relegated to spinoffs and non-canonical games. In thePersonalore, the protagonists of the various games lead very different lives and have had very different experiences with the world of Personas. That’s precisely why it would be interesting for a core game to break from that tradition and give the Phantom Thieves a role in the next game.Persona 6is most likely to be its own game,rather than anotherPersona 5game, seeing how consistently Atlus has hunted for new perspectives on Persona users. That doesn’t have to mean the previous characters have to stay out of the story for good, though.
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Adding the Phantom Thieves to Persona 6
There’s no denying that it would be a huge break from convention for the Phantom Thieves to show up in major characters inPersona 6.If the next corePersonagame is about a new set of characters, one would expect them to get the whole spotlight, rather than sharing it with the Thieves. However,the Phantom Thieves' popularitymight be just be the right reason to break tradition this way. They’d go a long way in reeling in fans who joined the franchise inPersona 5.
Atlus has a few options in terms of how to incorporate these characters.Persona 6could reuse the Metaverse and Palaces, rather than coming up with a new way for Persona users to explore the world of Shadows. In that case, if there’s some reason that the Phantom Thieves can’t go to the Metaverse anymore, then they’ll be excellent mentors toPersona 6’s new heroes. It’d be interesting tosee a relationship build betweenPersona 5’s JokerandPersona 6’s new protagonist, since odds are they’ll share the same power of the Wild Card. Joker might be an even more talented teacher about Persona usage than Igor.
Alternatively,Persona 6could approach the cognitive world very differently. A changing world of Shadows could be reason enough that the Phantom Thieves can’t go there anymore. In aPersona 6where new Persona users have very different experiences fromPersona 5’s characters, the Phantom Thieves could still teach new characters what they’ve learned about Personas. That could result in a further subplot about the Phantom Thieves growing up and becoming adults as newcharacters inPersona 6take up their mantle. There’s lots of ways that the Phantom Thieves could appear and contribute a lot toPersona 6.
Persona 5 and Persona 6’s Relationship
There’s tons of questions to ask about whatPersona 6will look like. There’s still the distinct possibility that Atlus decides it wants to play it safe and keep capitalizing on the Phantom Thieves for now. It wouldn’t be surprising; they’re so popular that there’s probably a lot to gain from focusing on them some more. Still, it’s looking a lot like Atlus is satisfied withPersona 5 Strikersas a sequel to the original game. WhilePersona 5 Strikersis excellent, it doesn’t quite deliver the same experience as a 100-hour turn-based RPG with deep social elements. Those are the the things thatPersona 5fans really want out of a sequel.
It does sound like Atlus isn’t done with the Phantom Thieves yet, at least.Rumors abound about aPersona 5fighting gamethat’s supposedly in development. A game like that sounds like a logical follow-up toPersona 4 Arena,and it’d be a good way for Atlus to keep capitalizing on the Phantom Thieves while lettingPersona 6stand on its own two feet. Atlus has been pretty quiet so far despite promising some bigPersonaannouncements this year, so it’s no surprise that fans are starting to get antsy. If there’s really more news on the way, hopefully Atlus doesn’t wait much longer. Whether or notPersona 6includes the Phantom Thieves, just knowing it’s in the works will do a lot for the franchise.
Persona 6is rumored to be in development.
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