Atlus proves that sometimes, name value is all you need. The 2014 game lineup is looking pretty exciting so far. With the upcoming release of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in Japan, Japanese gamers have a lot to look forward to.
Japanese gaming magazine Weekly Famitsu asked its readers what games they were looking forward to the most for 2014. Number one with a bullet — or a chair with a ball and chain — was Atlus’ latest chapter in the ever-popular RPG series, Persona 5.
Here’s what some gamers wrote:
“I’ve been waiting forever for the next numbered title in the Persona series. To be honest, I wish they’d release it on the PS4 too.” — 27 year old male
“In terms of scenario, graphics, game play, etc. the Persona series is the greatest series. I expect Persona 5 to be a game that everyone will be satisfied with.” — 35 year old male
“The series has tons of devoted fans and the PS3 is a console with both the specs and the circulation rate that [Persona 5] will undoubtedly be a huge hit.” — 39 year old male
“The announcement was the biggest shock for me last year. I’m looking forward to it.” — 24 year old male
“With the anime and movie, the series has gathered a lot of recognition across a wide audience, so my friends and I are looking forward to it.” — 30 year old male
Interestingly, of the top 20 anticipated games, the one that Japanese gamers are looking forward to the most is the one they know the least about, which certainly says something about the quality of its predecessors, since that’s all anyone really has to gauge it with.
If you’re tired of the constant barrage of franchise sequel releases from game companies, things like this are why they keep putting them out. Not that that’s a bad thing.
Persona 5 is scheduled for release in Q1 2014 (which means it could come out as late as March 2015). No news on an international release, but considering the series’ popularity, we can be pretty sure there will be one.
ファミ通.com[ファミ通.com]
Comments
18 responses to “Devoid Of Details, Japanese Still Want Persona 5 So Damn Bad”
Still disappointed it’s on PS3. By the time it’s localized and released here the PS4’s probably going to be about 2 years old.
Who gived a shit? (Yes, you, I know).
Seriously, there’s a silver lining here. It’s called persona 5
At least it’s not on Wii U or something.
Ouch! That was uncalled for.
Persona 4 came out at the very end of the PS2s life cycle as well, that didnt stop it from being amazing or even selling well in the west.
Sure stopped me playing the copy I bought properly though. 🙁 I find it really hard to go back to really old hardware when I’ve already moved onto newer stuff.
Maybe it’s because atlus has a good track.record?
I am currently playing (and loving) Persona 4 Golden on Vita. Would definitely be interested in another one, although if it’s on PS3 then I doubt I’ll be getting it by the time its released. If they do a PS4 or Vita version I’d be all over it.
I don’t want to seem like I’m being negative regarding your certainty of an international release, but I feel I need to remind you who owns Atlus now. Sega in the past really haven’t cared much for the fanbase of many of their titles outside of Japan and Eastern Asia. For example look at the fans still waiting for the next installment of Shenmue and to a lesser extent Phantasy Star Online 2.
As much as people love Atlus and the Persona/Shin Megami Tensei franchise, I’m certain we’ll likely see another 4 subpar Sonic games before we see Persona 5, and that’s if we’re lucky
I’m still waiting for Yakuza 5 🙁
Sega aren’t dictating what Atlus does, they’re keeping a hands-off approach. Atlus is a very, very niche publisher compared to Sega’s scale, and Persona is by far their biggest-selling franchise, especially outside Japan. It’s also one of the few JRPG series to be consistently praised by western media as well. Persona 5 would be about the last game on Atlus’ list that Sega would prevent them localizing. If they can’t do Persona they might as well shut down their localization team completely.
Then again, it is Sega and sometimes they make absolutely baffling decisions. But so far it’s looked like things are continuing like usual at Atlus USA, eg they’re releasing Spike’s crazy niche JRPG Conception II on Vita and 3DS next month.
If anything, Sega’s acquisition of Atlus could put Atlus USA in the position where they have access to some of the still woefully unlocalized Sega back catalogue like Yakuza Kenzan, Sakura Wars, Valkyria Chronicles 3 and many others.
Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t Sega recently shut down their US based localisation team?
Their localisation team, not Atlus USA
Sega of America laid off their entire marketing, design, development and social media team back in 2012. All that stuff is handled in Europe now.
Also, whilst Sega will likely keep a hands off approach to Atlus in Japan, they will be paying for the game to be published, and for it to be localised and published internationally, while the first part I can see Sega doing, the latter I’m not too sure of. It’s a well known rumour that an English based localisation for PSO2 exists, since Sega need it for the Eastern Asia roll out this year, despite this however, any question regarding a western release is met with silence.
As negative as it may sound, I would not be surprised if Sega did the same with Persona 5. Hell the only reason I think we’ll ever see SMTxFE is because Nintendo will strong arm Sega.
How about we wait and see before deciding the sky is falling? PSO2 is just one data point, and we have no idea what might be going on on the business side to prevent Sega releasing it in English. Also bear in mind that their silence on the localization predates the Atlus takeover so their presence or absence has no bearing on anything.
Atlus USA is a profitable business, though not hugely so. I’m going to assume that Sega have no reason to fuck with them. At least not yet. Nothing suggests otherwise.
it’s not so much the fact that PSO2 has been delayed, but rather it coupled with the fact that since it missed it’s initial launch date back in February last year, there has been utter silence on the part of Sega both in the US and Japan regarding the process, the last time the Phantasy Star Online Facebook page was updated was September of 2012. Since then not only have Sega announced a handheld port of PSo2 for Vita but also a standalone new title for the franchise in Phantasy Star Nova, both titles also will likely not be released outside of the Japan/Asia region.
But as I said, Phantasy Star is just one title, one data point as you put it, but what about Yakuza, The Hatsune Miku: Project Diva series (which admittedly finally got it’s 4th installment localized last year after people had to damn near protest Sega) or as you mentioned, the Sakura Wars and Valkyria Chronicles games, amongst many others. While most of this did occur before Sega acquired Atlus, their track record when it comes to localising content for the international market leaves a lot to be desired, and makes me wonder if Atlus’ success with the Shin Megami Tensei series and Persona series will be enough for Sega to actually care about releasing content for it’s international fans for once, who knows they may again resort to forcing fans to beg for it.
None of those were Atlus games. Sakura Taisen’s ship sailed way back in the 90s – ironically Atlus tried several times to license it from Sega! – and it’s made a whole lot more complicated by the fact that the franchise was a joint project between RED Entertainment and Sega. RED is owned by Namco Bandai now. Additionally eventually Sega did allow a Sakura Taisen game to be released, but it was around the same period as Persona 4, on the PS2 more than two years after the PS3 was introduced. Also the worst game in the series, well after the whole franchise had waned even in Japan.
Valkyria 3 they passed over for the same reason a lot of great PSP games got passed over: the market for PSP games in the west imploded. Lots of other publishers sat on games too, it’s just that Sega had several really good PSP installments (eg the Yakuza PSP games, Valkyria, Phantasy Star) so they hurt more to lose.
Yakuza Kenzan and Yakuza 5 were both skipped because there was no one free in the developer’s office in Japan to work on localization programming. Most of the actual coding for localization work is done by the original developer so if they have no capacity, then stuff simply can’t happy. Kenzan was skipped because they were doing Yakuza 3, and 5 is being skipped because they’re busy with Ishin.
Either way, none of this affects Atlus and honestly the fact that Project Diva F got a localization at all suggests that Sega are pretty unlikely to be silly about things. A far more pertinent question about the Sega acquisition is where it leaves Atlus USA’s partnership with NISA Europe to release all Atlus’ games in PAL territories. It’s fair to assume that Sega could handle that distribution now.
It’s Sega Sammy that owns them; which is the parent company of SEGA and other related brands. SEGA (the game company) doesn’t have direct control over them
This is probably the only scenario where SEGA can help us by using its publishing arm and releasing it in the U.K, AU at the same time as the U.S. Atlus doesnt publish EU and I think we deserve this title the same time as the U.S.