Persona 5 is one of the most iconic JRPGs of modern times, and so it goes without saying that Joker and the gang could do more. However, we can’t say that we had a smartphone gacha adaptation on our bingo card, but that’s exactly what was announced earlier this week. There is currently no launch date tied to the project, and only a Chinese release has been confirmed at the time of writing.
However, a game called Persona 5: The Phantom X will immediately feel familiar to fans of the mainstream console game. While it introduces the new Phantom Thieves, the gameplay trailer is filled with recognizable locations and action. It is being developed by Perfect World Games and Black Wings Game Studio, but supported by SEGA – the protagonist was designed by Atlus’ Shigenori Soejima.
The premise and game loop is pretty much identical to the main game: you’ll spend a day at school doing your homework, and then you’ll be able to participate in a variety of extracurricular activities, including playing baseball and visiting other worlds. Obviously the twist here is that there will inevitably be a gacha element, so expect to unlock other characters and maybe even Personas by investing in-game currency into slot machine style systems.
Obviously, this is all heavily inspired by the console game, so it will be interesting to see how much original content ends up included here. But to be honest, we won’t bet on a western release anyway – it’s definitely aimed at the smartphone-obsessed Asian market.
