Persona 5 Tactical is just around the corner, and with that we wonder: why does the Joker-led team have so many playable propositions?
Marketing. That’s the best answer you’re going to find when googling the question I just asked you. We can analyze the success of Persona 5 and Phantom Thieves by attributing to it the massiveness it generated to its mother saga. Persona is the prodigy son of Shin Megami Tensei, which knew how to create its niche and that through the fourth and fifth installment of its spin off Persona, took off completely outside of Japan.
In Persona 5, the Joker team is presented as an alternative to the distorted desires of corrupt adults. Youth and their sense of justice are, in this plot, the solution to the vices of adulthood that corrupt behaviors, and breed selfish people.
All this the fifth installment of the saga and his team live it from a theoretical metaverse heavily influenced by cognitivist psychology. The mind is a computer, which affects and distorts our perception of reality. Adults, or the “kings” of the “palaces” that we travel throughout the fictional universe of Persona 5, are equivalent to the places where youth and society are oppressed by those with more influence and power.
Japanese society is characterized by a culture of respect for elders and no fight against the status quo. According to Persona 5, this generates masses of alienated humans who take everything for granted. The fire of rebellion, present in the youth, comes to break the bonds of monarchs from different contexts that will gradually escalate to greater and more dangerous conflicts.
Just a few days before the release of their next game, Joker and Morgana’s team will return to a new metaverse called “Kingdoms” in a tactical RPG proposal. Their signature art direction, soundtrack, voice actors and what makes Persona so “unique” return in a game that will leave the turn-based battles of its base genre.
Just as Persona 5 Tactica will look to change the formula, there are seven other proposals ranging from a Japanese musou in the best Dynasty Warriors style to a dungeon explorer for portable consoles and the incredible spin-off of its main game. A proposal for mobiles and a Japanese rhythm game are other consequences of what Persona 5 is in its art, its soundtrack and the charisma of its characters.
Maybe it’s not just marketing, maybe it’s that Atlus and its recent merger with Sega created a new golden goose that continues to give people something to talk about. There is Persona 5 for all tastes and, being a fan of this genre, it is impossible not to fall in love with the number of doors that the Phantom Thieves open for us to join the rebellion. Maybe it’s time for us to ask ourselves if we are not governed by what society expects of us.