Atlus announced today that Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers, new musou-style spin-off game in the Persona series, will release in Japan on February 20th of next year for the PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch. Persona 5 Scramble takes place chronologically after the events of Persona 5 and is being developed in partnership with the Koei Tecmo Omega Force team, best known for the Dynasty Warriors series.
A new trailer also debuted for Persona 5 Scramble today, but so far Atlus has only made it available in Japanese. According to the game’s official website, via translation from Gematsu, Persona 5 Scramble starts half a year after the end of Persona 5 and finds the Phantom Thieves getting set for their summer vacation. Not everything goes smoothly though as “mystery cases are occurring all over Japan” and the Palaces that come from the minds of maladjusted adults may be appearing once again.
In Persona 5 Scramble, the player can control more than just the protagonist Joker. The rest of the Phantom Thieves are playable too and are meant to be tactically selected as the battle situations call for it. Personas are summonable and previous trailers seem to show the elemental nature of combat will be preserved in this musou-style spinoff from the main turn-based Persona series.
There’s no news yet on when Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers will release in the West or what bonuses Atlus will offer for pre-orders or special editions, but the Japanese bonus DLC for “First Print Purchases” includes selectable background music from previous Persona games in the series going all the way back to the “Standard Battle” track from Revelations: Persona for the PlayStation One. A “Treasure Box” edition will include an art book, the Persona 5 Scramble original soundtrack, a making-of theme song “You Are Stronger” BluRay, a “Morgana towel” and a Persona Team-branded tote bag that Gematsu translates as “sacoche.”
Atlus’s next news on Persona 5 Scramble is set to debut during the first official live stream on November 4th, to be broadcasted on YouTube and Twitter. The stream will showcase live gameplay as well as feature host Chiaki Matsuzawa and speakers Koei Tecmo Games director Nobumichi Kumabe and Atlus producer Daisuke Kaneda.