Persona 5was a momentous JRPG, not just for its own franchise, but the genre as a whole. The shear style of the game and its character stories helped sell players on the niche turn-based combat and mechanics. That being said, it’s thePersonagame that spent the most time in development for a number of reasons. Now the next game is presumably in development with Atlus and P-Studio, and with the huge success ofPersona 5, the scale and scope of the nextPersonagame could be even bigger.
However, that extra ambition could prove problematic for a game likePersona 5, which strode a very delicate line between mechanical complexity and narrative pacing. The nextPersonagame would have to be in development for next-gen consoles at this point, considering the PS5 and Xbox Series X are out this holiday. That means there’s a ton more horsepower to work with, in terms of graphical fidelity and processing.Persona 5marked a huge step forward for the franchise, but a potentialPersona6may take things a step further.
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Persona Games Are Long, Very Long
Obviously taking things a step further isn’t always a bad thing, but forPersona, that could equate to an even longer amount of time spent in the game. Of course, nobody wants to complain about fans getting as much value as they can from games, but extending the playthrough of aPersonagame is a tough ask.Personagames, even on their base releases without extra content, typically clock in at about 100 hours of playtime to completion.Persona 5 Royalin particular, on average, takes around 130 hourswith the third semester unlocked.Persona 4 Goldenhas a similar playtime of around 100 hours.
Nothing wrong with a long JRPG. In fact, that’s typically the draw with games likePersonaorDragon Quest.Personain particular has become well known for having long playthroughsever sincePersona 3modernized the franchise into its current framework.Personagames are all about balancing this JRPG version of a work/life balance. Characters spend their normal days in high school being an honest student and exercising their social freedoms after class, whilst also taking down evildoers in society and saving the world when not in school.
Innovation/Expanding Could Make Persona 6 Even Longer
The thing is, with a game likePersona, any kind of narrative or mechanical innovations run the risk of being a double-edged sword. Obviously veterans of the franchise will want fresh takes on thePersonaframework, likedifferent ways to expand the social links/confidant quests with characters, or potentially different ways to make exploring dungeons/palaces more interesting. However,Personastill has to maintain that balance between JRPG and social simulator equally. If certain aspects of the game end up taking too long, or makes things too busy all the time, that gameplay/narrative balance could fall apart fast.
Weighing too far into either side ofPersona’s unique gameplay balance means players are going to start favoring one over another. The goal of aPersonagame, at least from a player’s perspective, is to generally have players place an equal amount of investment into both sides of the game’s dynamic. Sure, there will always be players who suffer through the JRPG segments to get to the story or vice versa, butmost players ofPersonagenerally enjoy both aspects of the game. If ranking up social links takes too long before dungeon deadlines, or grinding character levels requires too much dungeon crawling over several days, then the game experience becomes woefully unbalanced.
Persona 6: Maintaining Proper Gameplay Balance
Of course, that could just be a vulnerability of the calendar system thatPersonahas been using sincePersona 3. At the same time, that calendar and days-go-by mechanic is part ofwhat makes adventuring through aPersonagame interesting. The calendar helps contextualize in-game decisions in a subtle yet impactful way for players. Depending on how ambitious new mechanics become, and how they balance with gameplay time and in-game time, too much innovation could hurt the nextPersona. Making dungeon crawling or the social simulator too busy has a great chance could be detrimental for the average player who just wants to enjoy the game.
That being said,the nextPersonagame will certainly try new things, especially with the series' director moving on to a new studio.Personacould significantly revamp for the next generation, which frankly could be yet another groundbreaking JRPG experience. So long as that gameplay dynamic between JRPG and social simulator aspects is well balanced, it shouldn’t be a problem. There’s just an inherent worry that any expanding of mechanics could turn a 100 hour JRPG into a 200 hour JRPG. No matter how big of a fan someone is, if a game’s too long, player’s attention spans will eventually dwindle and the game will never be completed.
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