Persona series director is stepping down. What could this mean for the series?

[Water Mage]

http://personacentral.com/persona-series-director-katsura-hashino-leaving-future-successors/

Katsura Hashino the director for the Persona series ever since Persona 3, is stepping down from his role as director. I wonder what that means for series. That might actually for the best I think. He worked on the series for more than a decade, and that could mean he was getting burned out. Which means that he could avoid the same pitfalls that many directors of long game series get into, and ended causing games of the series to drop in quality and the franchise to become stagnant.

Edited May 8, 2017 by Water Mage

[The DanMan]

I doubt it means as much as you think it does-- Sega will probably want them to emulate what makes money and the games (well, whenever a new one comes out after half a dozen pointless spinoffs) will likely stay mostly the same.

Edited May 8, 2017 by The DanMan

[Water Mage]

2 hours ago, The DanMan said:

I doubt it meas as much as you think it does-- Sega will probably want them to emulate what makes money and the games (well, whenever a new one comes out after half a dozen pointless spinoffs) will likely stay mostly the same.

Even so, from what I heard, it was he that started making Persona games more different that the mainline SMT games, and made Persona more "stylish" and "cool". I wonder with they will be replicate the same atmosphere of the previous games without him. I know that games aren't made by one person, but directors can change the course of how a game is developed. 

But then again, perhaps I am overestimating his importance to the series.

Edited May 8, 2017 by Water Mage

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Probably more of the same. A drought before the next main game while the new P5 cast gets thrown into a slew of crossover titles. I don't think mainline persona games are especially hard for a new team to make. Tokyo Mirage Sessions is basically a PG-rated Persona and they didn't need that director. Plus given how long it took to make P5 - a PS3 game released when the PS4 was about to turn three years old, it makes me think he wasn't especially good at keeping the team's focus on finishing it. I've yet to finish playing 5 though, so I can't comment on whether the game has solid evidence of its long development cycle in the finished product.

[Azure Sen]

It's hard to say. P5 was a step in the right direction but didn't divorce itself enough from Persona 4, so maybe with Hashino stepping down to work on that other game will work well for the series. On the other hand, it's impossible to tell how much of the stuff that carried over from P4 to P5 was executive mandated, and how much of Hashino's directing was responsible for the long delay.

5 hours ago, Gustavos said:

Probably more of the same. A drought before the next main game while the new P5 cast gets thrown into a slew of crossover titles.

Doubtful. While Arena and PQ sold decently, Ultimax and DAN both failed to reach the 100,000 units sold mark in their first weeks in Japan, and both failed to hit the 150,000 mark in lifetime units. Meanwhile,Persona 5 managed to outsell the lifetime sales of all four spin-offs in one week. Given that towards the end even the Japanese fanbase was getting sick of Persona 4 spin-offs, it's unlikely that Atlus will make the mistake the mistake of trying to make a bunch of pointless spinoffs. Then again Squeenix should have learned after the Crapilation of Final Fantasy VII but they didn't, so we'll see.

Edited May 9, 2017 by AzureSen

[Magical CC]

Persona 6 gonna be an open world first person shooter.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

1 hour ago, AzureSen said:

it's unlikely that Atlus will make the mistake the mistake of trying to make a bunch of pointless spinoffs. Then again Squeenix should have learned after the Crapilation of Final Fantasy VII but they didn't, so we'll see.

You know this FF7 remake is probably just to justify their long awaited Cloud Returns: Final Fantasy 7

Hot takes aside, I can think of one new direction an intern may bring up for the series. Setting the next game outside of Japan. Persona takes place in our world more explicitly than other SMT games that simply feature the Tokyo prefecture. Questions asked in class ask you to call on real world history, philosophy, and sciences. And really, now that we've gotten a game set explicitly in Tokyo, where else is there to go? "Fictional Japanese City" can only have so many variations.

[Radiant head]

On 5/8/2017 at 11:30 PM, AzureSen said:

It's hard to say. P5 was a step in the right direction but didn't divorce itself enough from Persona 4, so maybe with Hashino stepping down to work on that other game will work well for the series. On the other hand, it's impossible to tell how much of the stuff that carried over from P4 to P5 was executive mandated, and how much of Hashino's directing was responsible for the long delay.

it is a little funny how, despite p5 making massive improvements in all the right ways, we had a 9 year gap between 4 and 5, ps2 -> ps4, and yet they're not very different.  i'm not expecting persona 6 any time soon, but another 9 years would really suck.   

 

Edited May 10, 2017 by Radiant head

[saisymbolic]

On 5/9/2017 at 1:07 AM, Gustavos said:

You know this FF7 remake is probably just to justify their long awaited Cloud Returns: Final Fantasy 7

Hot takes aside, I can think of one new direction an intern may bring up for the series. Setting the next game outside of Japan. Persona takes place in our world more explicitly than other SMT games that simply feature the Tokyo prefecture. Questions asked in class ask you to call on real world history, philosophy, and sciences. And really, now that we've gotten a game set explicitly in Tokyo, where else is there to go? "Fictional Japanese City" can only have so many variations.

One of Persona's major staples is illustrating the Japanese high school experience. Granted, I wouldn't mind if they did take it out of Japan, but I doubt they will.

Speaking of "staples," I'd like to see a reboot or reimagining of Shin Megami Tensei: if... to be honest. I mean, it's said to be the inspiration for the Persona series. However, the story line and structure most likely wouldn't work well by modern standards. Plus, the absence of Social Links (or it's equivalent) probably wouldn't go over well with fans. It could possibly make for a good side game, though. 

[Water Mage]

8 hours ago, Radiant head said:

it is a little funny how, despite p5 making massive improvements in all the right ways, we had a 9 year gap between 4 and 5, ps2 -> ps4, and yet they're not very different.  i'm not expecting persona 6 any time soon, but another 9 years would really suck.   

 

I have been told that reason that Persona 5 was because a completely new engine was created from game, when originally they were going to use the Catherine engine. If P6 uses the same engine as P5, the wait won't be nearly as long. It's also worth noting that games went through many, many changes during it's development. For example, originally the Protagonist was going to live with Sae, instead of Sojiro, and they even had the base for her apartment already done, which by the way is different from the one she lives in the actual game. 

[Nobody]

It's worth noting that atlus wouldn't even necessarily need to create a new engine or use persona 5's

japanese developers have started using external engines as of late, and they're actually using unreal engine 4 to make SMT switch, so they could do the same for an eventual Persona 6

Edited May 10, 2017 by Nobody

[Jedi]

12 hours ago, saisymbolic said:

One of Persona's major staples is illustrating the Japanese high school experience. Granted, I wouldn't mind if they did take it out of Japan, but I doubt they will.

Speaking of "staples," I'd like to see a reboot or reimagining of Shin Megami Tensei: if... to be honest. I mean, it's said to be the inspiration for the Persona series. However, the story line and structure most likely wouldn't work well by modern standards. Plus, the absence of Social Links (or it's equivalent) probably wouldn't go over well with fans. It could possibly make for a good side game, though. 

SMT:If would appeal more to us more traditional SMT fans (I like Persona but I like the mainline SMT more). 

But the more hardcore Persona 1 & 2 fans would be happy to see If's protagonist again.

[Azure Sen]

On 5/9/2017 at 1:07 AM, Gustavos said:

You know this FF7 remake is probably just to justify their long awaited Cloud Returns: Final Fantasy 7

Worse, it's going to lead to a sequel starring Nomura's Mary Sue virtual boyfriend version of Gackt.

On 5/9/2017 at 1:07 AM, Gustavos said:

And really, now that we've gotten a game set explicitly in Tokyo, where else is there to go? "Fictional Japanese City" can only have so many variations.

Mainline SMT games (i.e. I-IV) are actually mandated to take place in Tokyo, many of the spin-offs (including Devil Survivor 1 + 2, the Majin Tensei games, the Raidou Kuzunoha games, Dancing All Night and TMS) are set in Tokyo, and those that aren't are usually set in metropolitan areas similar to Tokyo (Soul Hackers, the first Devil Summoner game, Personas 1 and 2, maybe Catherine). At this point, I doubt Atlus will set a Persona game anywhere but Tokyo/Japan.

3 hours ago, Jedi said:

But the more hardcore Persona 1 & 2 fans would be happy to see If's protagonist again.

Eh, as someone who loves Innocent Sin and leans more towards the older Persona games as a whole I'm pretty neutral on Tamaki, she doesn't do much in the Persona games she's in aside from send in sweepstakes entries and give you a sword in P1. I'd be happier to see some of the actual important P1 and P2 characters show up again in spin-offs instead of Atlus jerking us around with alternate color palates and not even bothering to give Amon Ra, Artemis or Apollo a DLC appearance in P5 despite it supposedly being a celebration of 20 years of Persona seriously what the hell, Atlus?

[saisymbolic]

2 hours ago, AzureSen said:

Eh, as someone who loves Innocent Sin and leans more towards the older Persona games as a whole I'm pretty neutral on Tamaki, she doesn't do much in the Persona games she's in aside from send in sweepstakes entries and give you a sword in P1. I'd be happier to see some of the actual important P1 and P2 characters show up again in spin-offs instead of Atlus jerking us around with alternate color palates and not even bothering to give Amon Ra, Artemis or Apollo a DLC appearance in P5 despite it supposedly being a celebration of 20 years of Persona seriously what the hell, Atlus?

lol

What are you talking about? P1 and P2 don't exist, silly. They're only myths.

It'd be best if everyone just forgot about them just like Atlus has.

[Superbus]

What's the worst that could happen?

 

Edited May 11, 2017 by Superbus
Image didn't post.