Even thoughPersona 5found a lot of great ways to build on the fundamental mechanics of the franchise, there’s still plenty of ways thatPersona 6can grow beyond it. WhilePersona 5cleverly upgraded Social Links into more beneficial Confidants,Persona 6can look for ways to make Confidants more consistently valuable and mechanically creative.Persona 5introduced all kinds of changes to combat thatPersona 6can both imitate and build on, potentially upgrading the Baton Pass system and giving players even more options in combat. Perhaps most importantly, though,Persona 6needs to write its cast of characters even better thanPersona 5did.
There’s one clear area for improvement inPersona 5.Lots of fans have commented onthe unfortunate absence of Haru Okumurathroughout the first half ofPersona 5.Although Haru goes on to become a Persona user and one of the Phantom Thieves, she gets shockingly little screentime throughout the majority of the game, despite deserving a consistent place in the story.Persona 6has to make sure that it doesn’t create another Haru. Whoever might belong to its party of Persona users,Persona 6needs to make every eventual party member feel like a main character from the earliest chapters of the game.
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Haru’s Place in Persona 5
Haru is involved inPersona 5’s plot for a shockingly short amount of time, even though she’s supposed to be a main character.Even inthe expandedPersona 5 Royal,Haru gets virtually no screen time until after players have completed the fourth Palace, which is about halfway through the entirety of the game. That’s particularly jarring because there’s no clear reason that players never see Haru’s face in the early days ofPersona 5.As another student at Shujin Academy, it seems like she really should’ve been given space to react to events like Kamoshida’s change of heart, but instead, it’s like she was never there.
What’s particularly weird about Haru’s estrangement is thatPersona 5generally integrates other main characters into the story well ahead of time.Makoto develops a significant relationshipwith the Phantom Thieves well before she joins the party, and although Futaba doesn’t become a Phantom Thief until the end of the fourth Palace, she interacts with the party a lot during that Palace’s plot arc and quickly integrates herself into the main cast as a sisterly character to Joker. Considering how smoothlyPersona 5integrated other characters into the plot, it’s odd that Haru has such an estranged relationship from the game’s story.
None of this is to say Haru herself is a bad character. Her Confidant storyline weaves together a lot of interesting narratives that round Haru out, from her love of gardening to her uncertainties around Okumura Foods to her struggles to escape an unwanted fiance. Unfortunately, players can’t actually experience this story until the sixth plot arc of the game, and it’s impossible tofinish Haru’s Confidant progressionuntil the month of the seventh Palace.Persona 5fans get almost no time to familiarize themselves with Haru, which makes her seem like she has no characterization at all. That’s more than enough compelling evidence thatPersona 6shouldn’t introduce a main character in the game’s final hour.
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Persona 6 Should Unite the Party Early
Instead of adding new characters down the line,Persona 6should introduce its entire cast of Persona users well within the first half of the game. Even if these characters don’t become playable immediately, players want time to understand every character’s personality, motivations, and beliefs outside of a plot arc solely focused on that character. Giving each Persona user small but significant appearances throughoutthe early stages ofPersona 6’s plotwill help players get acquainted with them well before they get entangled in the world of Personas. Showing characters off early on in this way would hardly be a spoiler, after all.Personagames famously love to tell players exactly which characters will join their party.
Persona 6canlook toPersona 4as a blueprintfor integrating characters into the plot early on. For example, Teddie takes quite some time to get his Persona and truly become a member of the Investigation Team, but he follows and helps them on their journey for a long time beforehand, giving players plenty of time to understand Teddie better. Similarly,Persona 4does a great job of integrating Naoto Shirogane into the plot, even though Naoto takes a long time to become a party member. The Investigation Team has various run-ins with Naoto as she moves through her own investigations that help her feel like a major part ofPersona 4early on in the game.Persona 6should do its best to imitate these aspects ofPersona 4,finding ways to build bonds between the player and every playable character as early as possible.
A True Team in Persona 6
It’s a shame that Haru ended up with such a strange relationship with the Phantom Thieves, jumping on board at the last minute. She’s a charming character who could’ve had some great interactions with her fellow Shujin Academy students early on. It’s nice that she gets somemore attention and development inPersona 5 Strikers,but it doesn’t completely make up for how the originalPersona 5handled her. Atlus should pay close attention to how fans responded to Haru’s integration intoPersona 5and keep that information in mind moving forward.
If there’s any clear area wherePersona 6can outperformPersona 5,it’s this one. A more well-rounded depiction of its central cast will servePersona 6well, making its narrative feel more cohesive in the long run and giving every character more meaningful connections to each plot point. Atlus may be tempted to focus on taking risks ormaking big changes to thePersonaformulain order to makePersona 6stand out, but it should remember that fundamentals are key too.Persona 5perfected most of its core features, but the handful of places where it faulted leave ample room forPersona 6to achieve new things. Hopefully, Haru’s true legacy in thePersonafranchise is that no future character gets as late an introduction as she did.
Persona 6is in development.
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