Persona 4 Goldenmay be about 10 years old, but it’s far from irrelevant. It belongs to Atlus' broad movement of reviving oldPersonatitles for the modern era, which will seriously pick up steam in the coming years.Persona 4 Goldenand its predecessorPersona 3 Portableare coming to major gaming platforms sometime in the near future, presumably afterPersona 5 Royalreleases for more platforms in October. This comes afterPersona 4 Goldenhad a very successful return to form through its release on Steam. The Investigation Team’s search for the truth is now well-known toPersonafans new and old, so there’s a new appetite for stories that focus on them.
That’s why Atlus should strongly consider making aP4Gspinoff in the same vein asPersona 5 Strikers,the hack-and-slash action RPG developed in collaboration with Omega Force ofDynasty Warriorsfame. The explosivePersona 5 Strikerswas a very different game from the original turn-based RPG, butPersonahas never been afraid of surprising spinoffs, and the game was a huge hit.Persona 4 Golden’s characters deserve another day in the sun, and using them to turnStrikersinto a new spinoff series would be a great way for Atlus to buy time forPersona 6.
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Persona 5 Strikers is Successful and Malleable
Persona 5 Strikerswas a clear success. The game received strong reviews, and it has sold over 1.5 million copies, which is a big deal considering thatPersonaas a franchise has only sold about 15 million unitsworldwide. Adoration towardsPersona 5’s Phantom Thieves certainly has something to do with that, butPersona 5 Strikers' concept and gameplay formula are compelling in their own right. Due to that success, Atlus would be wise to carry theStrikersbrand into the future, making more spinoffs of its kind.
While making a direct sequel toPersona 5 Strikerswould be one potential route, it might be more exciting to applyStrikers' ideas to a differentPersonageneration, since that can generate fresher dungeon designs, plotlines, character interactions, and so on.Persona 4 Golden, which sold very well on Steam, is the ideal generation to approach. Aside from thePersona 5games, theP4series is freshest in the minds of fans between theP4GSteam port and the recentPersona 4 Arena Ultimaxrevival. An action-packed Midnight Channel mystery in Inaba starring slightly older versions of the Investigation Team members could offer a great new take onPersona 5 Strikers.
Persona 4 Golden’s Cast Deserves Another Adventure
Persona 4 Strikerswould be a great idea thanks in large part to the game’s protagonists and the crime-solving adventure they went on. Certain Investigation Team members may be strikingly similar to the newer Phantom Thieves, but they’re still all unique characters.Persona 4 Goldenoffered a lot of invaluable moments for these characters, ranging from Yukiko’s uncertainty about taking over the family business to Kanji learning to subvert his own concept of masculinity. Much like howPersona 5 Strikersfocused onthe Phantom Thievespassing on the life lessons they’ve learned,Persona 4 Strikerscould use these experience to drive arcs pairing protagonists with new antagonists.
The murder-solving focus ofPersona 4would also be a great focus for anotherStrikersgame. The Phantom Thieves have solved plenty of crimes, especially inStrikers,but the Investigation Team’s year-long struggle to get to the bottom of a streak of murders in the Japanese countryside remains an entirely different experience.Persona 4 Strikerswould give Atlus an opportunity to weave another complicated crime that the Investigation Team solves over the course of a reunion, possibly leaning more into supernatural culprits thanPersona 5 Strikersdid.
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Perhaps the best reason forPersona 4 Strikersto happen is the presumably distant release ofPersona 6.Atlus confirmed relatively recently thatPersona 6is in the works, and it hasn’t given any sign that further information is around the corner. Considering just how manyPersonaprojects Atlus has had on its plate in the last few years,Persona 6is probably still pretty early in development, meaning fans need something to tide them over between now and then.
Persona 4 Strikerswould be a great new game to fill that void. Atlus would presumably collaborate with Omega Force again to develop such a game, meaning it wouldn’t have to do all the work itself, so it could still focus onPersona 6.Whilefans want to seePersona 6, they’d also prefer not to go several years without any newPersonacontent; after all, the ports are exciting, but they’re more valuable for new fans brought in byPersona 5. They aren’t an entirely new experience that the community can share. A short but rich game likePersona 4 Strikerscould fit nicely into the years between now andP6.
Persona in the Near Future
Persona 4 Golden’s age hardly keeps it from getting a new game in the modern age ofPersona.Atlus has a history of revisiting previous generations of the franchise many years after they’ve aged out. For instance,Persona 3’s casthas a constant presence in the IP, getting a dancing game in 2018 and regularly cropping up in spinoffs likePersona 4 Arenaand thePersona Qseries. If the SEES can be such aPersonamainstay, then so can the Investigation Team, especially afterPersona 4 Goldenled the charge for bringingPersonagames to non-PlayStation platforms.
AStrikers-flavoredPersona 4spinoff would be the perfect combination of something old and something new. NewPersonafollowers and fans who playedPersona 4on debut could both enjoy this game, and the classic characters could stand to benefit from a fresh style of gameplay. While Atlus certainly hasn’t confirmed any plans to make moreStrikersgames, it wouldn’t be surprising to seegames likePersona 4 Strikerscrop up in the future as a way of appealing to new and old fans at the same time. Atlus' fanbase has expanded significantly, and in the coming years, it’ll need to find ways to cater to all sides of it in order to keep everyone engaged.
Persona 4 Goldenis available now on PC and PS Vita. PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S versions are planned for 2023.
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