Ever since its announcement in April 2019, fans have been desperately awaiting a localization announcement forPersona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers. The game, which is a mashup of thePersonaseries of turn-based RPGs with social sim mechanics and Koei Tecmo’sDynasty Warriorsfranchise of action games, was seemingly indirectly announced a few months ago during Koei Tecmo’s financial earnings report. It seems now that the publisher has walked back this announcement, asPersona 5 Scrambleis absent from its newly published Q2 earnings report.
Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikerspreviously released in Japan on February 20th 2020, and ever since fans have been eagerly anticipating an announcement from Atlus West regarding a localization, especially afterPersona 5 Royal’s debut as the highest rated game of 2020 so far. Unfortunately,the game’s localization has still not been announced, with Atlus West already releasing a localization of 2019’s13 Sentinels: Aegis Rimand future localizations ofShin Megami Tensei: Nocturne HDandShin Megami Tensei 5, coming in 2021.
RELATED:Shin Megami Tensei 3 Remaster is Doing Something Persona 5 Fans Have Been Dying For
Koei Tecmo’s newest financial report, which highlights games released in the second quarter of the company’s fiscal year 2020, does not mention a European and North American release ofPersona 5 Scramblewhatsoever, only mentioning the game’s Asian release, which was on June 18th 2020. The only upcoming game the report alludes to is the upcomingLegend of Zeldaspin-offHyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.
What this means for Persona 5 Scramble is that, while it is an inevitability that the game will release outside of Japan given the critical and financial success ofPersona 5and its spin-offs, it is unlikely thatPersona 5 Scramblewill release any time in 2020, and may be pushed until after February 2021, given that that’s when Koei Tecmo’s FY 2020 will end. Fiscal earning reports are aimed towards the company’s investors, meaning it is highly unlikely that the company would leave out titles it is intending to release in its current report.
While Koei Tecmo’s Omega Force handled primary development ofPersona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers, the game was developed under Atlus' supervision and given Atlus’s protection of its properties, it is easy to assume that Atlus West wants to handle the game’s localization instead of handing it off to Koei Tecmo. The team did the same thing with theShin Megami TenseiandFire Emblemcrossover titleTokyo Mirage Sessions #FEon the Wii Uinstead of having Nintendo handle the game’s localization.
During the release of13 Sentinels: Aegis Rimthe western branch for Atlus was also outspoken about the difficulty of finishing the game’s English voice acting recording from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that the team is also creatingan English dub forShin Megami Tensei: Nocturne HD, and likely another forShin Megami Tensei 5, it can also be assumed that a localization forPersona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikersis either on hold or at a standstill due to the troubles surrounding recording the game’s English dub during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is all speculation and should be treated as such, but for now a localization ofPersona 5 Scrambleseems like a question of “when” rather than “if”.
Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikersfor Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 released in Japan on February 20th 2020.
