The Persona Series might be the most famous of Atlus’s IPs, especially in Western markets. It is a relatively well circulated fact that Persona comes from a spin-off of the mainline Megami Tensei games, born from Shin Megami Tensei IF. Now Persona 5 and its definitive edition Royal have all but guaranteed a place in the JRPG hall of fame alongside Final Fantasy VII or Chrono Trigger. However, despite the massive popularity of Persona 3, 4, and 5, the first three games – Revelations: Persona and the Persona 2 duology – haven’t had the same exposure or popularity.
The games operated more like a traditional JRPG than the dungeon crawling, social simulator back and forth that defines the later Persona games. Instead, the games focused almost solely around a central narrative that necessitated solving by the protagonist and their allies, often involving dungeon crawling. Persona 1 and 2 also allowed all party members to use different personas, although all members would have a unique starting and ascended persona connected to their arc. Unlike the later Persona games, and the upcoming Metaphor: ReFantazio set to drop October 11th, 2024, the original three Persona games were directed by Kazuhisa Wada, who has expressed interest in a possible remake or port of the games in an interview with PC Gamer. However, any possible remakes aren’t even being seriously talked about at Atlus as of now, so any remakes are way beyond the horizon.
For players who are big fans of the Persona series, checking out Persona 1 and the Persona 2 duology might help with the wait for any news about Persona 6. While both might be hard to acquire and play through, there are loads of playthroughs and information on Youtube and other sources. Sadly Persona 2, which allows players to play as adults and even have queer relationships, was never ported onto any other consoles. Persona 2 Innocent Sin didn’t even get a Western release until 2011 – twelve years after it was originally released, with Eternal Punishment being released in Japan and North America simultaneously in 2000. Revelations: Persona was available for PC and the Playstation Portable, but hasn’t received any updates since those ports in 1999 and 2009 respectively.
Hopefully plans to remake these games, or even just port them to modern consoles, are in the works. With the massive popularity of the later Persona games: 3, 4, and 5, making the original three as widely available might give new fans a chance to experience the franchise’s beginnings. Here’s to hoping that Kazuhisa Wada can get talks started soon.