Persona Producer Suggests More Ports And Remakes Likely On The Way

Persona series producer Kazuhisa Wada has told Sega Asia that ATLUS is currently working on more ways to bring the Persona series to a wider audience, suggesting that more ports and remasters may be on the way following the success of Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5 remasters.

“We are working on various ways to bring the Persona series to a wider audience. I can’t say any specifics at this time, but please look forward to it,” Wada says, adding at the beginning of the interview that the main reason for the recent advent of remasters is to establish Persona as a worldwide franchise (and not just to build on the success of Persona 5).

There are a lot of Persona titles that haven’t been released outside of their respective consoles. We have Persona 1 and 2, which are mostly available on the original PlayStation and PlayStation Portable. We also have the expanded version of Persona 3, Persona FES (currently only available on PS2), and the Persona Q series on the 3DS. Arc System Works’ fighting game Persona 4 Arena was recently released on PC, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, but it could use the remaster treatment or a port to Xbox with cross-play support.

The musical/rhythm Persona Dancing series (Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight, Persona 4: Dancing All Night, and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight) is also currently only available on PlayStation 4, and the reason for this seems to be the games’ support for VR. It’s not the most polished VR mode (more of a VR dressing room), but perhaps it will be expanded when the games are ported to PlayStation 5 with PSVR 2 support.

Persona 4 Arena Yukari and Aigis

The interview also elaborates on the developers’ philosophy for their remasters, in which they want to ensure a smooth and comfortable experience depending on the game. Optimizations like quick saving functions, implementing universal controls, and ensuring a stable framerate were all priorities. The director also believes that getting to experience the student lifestyle and adolescence is a big part of what makes the Persona series relatable, which is a sentiment we definitely agree on.

As for the future, the producer mentioned that he had already explored all the possible spin-off genres he wanted to create for Persona, such as fighting games and rhythm games, but he would like to try making another action game like Persona 5 Strikers after seeing how popular the genre is worldwide.

NEXT: Persona 4’s Inaba Is Why The Series Needs An ‘Exploration Mode’