Highlights

  • P6, like P5R, could bring Tokyo to life with more content and exploration opportunities for players to enjoy.
  • The city of Tokyo is a crucial part of Persona 5, providing a backdrop for engaging storylines and thematic significance.
  • P6 has the potential to expand on P5R's successful formula with larger, more vibrant environments and a deeper world to explore using the depth of detail pushed by 2024's Persona 3 Reload.

Unlike previous entries in the franchise, Persona 5 Royal brought players to the real-life city of Tokyo. The setting of Tokyo allowed the game to provide more for players to do than previous entries, and it's expected that Persona 6 will also feature a large amount of content. Little is known about Persona 6 other than the fact that it is being made, but it has already become one of the most hotly anticipated JRPGs. This is the direct result of Persona 5's success, as well as that of its enhanced re-release, Persona 5 Royal. P5R delivers fans satisfying RPG combat, compelling characters, and an engaging depiction of Tokyo to explore. P6 could be even more exciting to explore if it reuses Tokyo in a bigger, more elaborate way.

Tokyo is one of the largest metropolitan areas on Earth, a fact which plays a big part in Persona 5's aesthetic. Countless citizens discuss the actions of the game's heroes and can be overheard in public areas. A landscape of the city with floating voice bubbles discussing the current events in the world of the game is a frequently used loading screen as well. The city itself and its population's differing opinions function as a significant part of the story. Persona 5 Royal showed that the developers understood the cities' importance in the game and expanded its map with the addition of Kichijoji, which contains P5R's jazz club. For P5, Tokyo is more than a mere backdrop; it's an integral part of the game's identity.

Aigis All Out Attack P3 reload
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What Do Persona 5 Royal, Persona 3 Reload's Environments Mean for Persona 6?

The latest release in the Persona franchise is a remake of its third entry. Persona 3 Reload is, in essence, a mainline game in the series, even if its story has been told before. P5 was made with the PS3 in mind, but P3R was made first and foremost to target current generation hardware. The result is that Persona 3 Reload features the series' best visuals and most densely packed environments to date. While P3R's world is faithful to the original and smaller than that of P5 as a result, the attention to detail makes it a large step forward. The game's inclusion of Twilight Fragments works to incentivize exploring it as well.

The world of P3 Reload looks great, rewards exploration, and matches the quality of Persona's UI and menu design. The game's faithfulness to the original means that its scope is somewhat limited, but this probably won't be the case for P6. Persona games tend to build on the foundations left by their predecessors, and Persona 5 Royal delivered the series' biggest map to date. Not only are there more places to go in P5R, but the city itself carries thematic significance. P6 could take P3R's excellent presentation and apply it to the series' largest world to date, giving players even more to do and see than there was in P5.

How Could Persona 6 Depict Tokyo?

There are plenty of reasons for Persona 6 to stay in Tokyo. The city is so large that another game could be set there and visit almost none of the same locations. This would be a missed opportunity though. Persona 5's maps for each area that it lets the player visit are mostly linear, which makes navigating them quick, but there is less to discover. Persona 6 could return to areas depicted in P5 and make them feel more alive by making each area larger. It could populate Tokyo's neighborhoods with more stores and activities, similar to how the Like a Dragon franchise features small but dense locales.

Bigger Environments Would Set Persona 6 Apart

Persona 3 Reload's world is the culmination of what the series has been working towards since the launch of the original P3. Given P3R's amount of detail and high visual fidelity, P6 will have to do something different to set itself apart. Persona 5 Royal's depiction of Tokyo is great in many ways, but limited in scale. Bigger and more open environments seem like a logical step forward for P6 to make, and Tokyo is vast enough that it could serve as a setting once again. Unfortunately, Persona 6 leaks indicate that the game is still far away from releasing, so fans will have to wait to see how it handles its setting.