The Persona franchise has been a major success thanks in part to its loyalty to a well-loved structure. Its various stories about high schoolers visiting supernatural worlds and learning about themselves all manage to be distinct from one another while repeating conventions that define Persona. Odds are good that Persona 6 will still lean on many of these conventions, even if it experiments in some ways. Persona 6 will likely be another story about ordinary teenagers thrust into extraordinary circumstances, which sounds great for lovers of that Persona convention. What really matters is how Persona 6 changes the formula by tweaking its details.
One detail particularly worth tweaking is the inclusion of supernatural companions who've lost their enemies. In several recent Persona entries, the playable human teens team up with a being that they meet in the Shadow world. While that being doesn't remember where they come from, they do have valuable skills and knowledge that help Persona's human protagonists wield Personas and explore this alternate dimension. Persona 6 ought to have a supernatural companion similar to Persona 5's Morgana and his peers, but it shouldn't lean on the recent pattern of amnesiacs. To avoid repetitiveness, Persona 6 needs a supernatural ally whose knowledge is limited in new ways.
Persona's Amnesiac Pattern
Anyone who has played Persona 4 is well acquainted with Teddie, the anxious but eager bear-shaped ally that the Investigation Team meet in the TV world when they start investigating Inaba's murders. Although Teddie spends much of the game worrying about his forgotten origins, he still proves to be a useful companion, thanks to his basic knowledge of the Shadow world and his unique ability to sense Persona 4's dungeons. Teddie's journey of self-discovery works well in Persona 4 and Persona 4 Golden, adding a new layer to the Investigation Team's adventures in the mysterious Shadow world.
Atlus clearly liked Teddie's structure, because Persona 5 has a strikingly similar character: Morgana. Although the cat-like Morgana has profound knowledge about Persona 5's Palaces and Desires, he doesn't know where he came from. Much like Teddie and the Investigation Team's friendship, Morgana bonds with Joker and the Phantom Thieves over his amnesia; uncovering the mysteries of Morgana's past becomes an increasingly important subplot as Persona 5 goes on. Anyone playing Persona 4 and Persona 5 back to back is sure to notice the similarities between Morgana and Teddie right away, but their different personalities and circumstances at least manage to set them apart.
Still, these two amnesiacs apparently weren't enough for Atlus. Persona 5 Strikers' Sophia adds a third recent amnesiac to the list. While her journey to learn about the human heart often puts her amnesia in the background, Sophia still serves an extremely similar role to both Teddie and Morgana in their respective original games, sniffing out Jails for the Phantom Thieves. By now, Shadow world guides with forgotten origins are well-trodden territory for the Persona franchise. If Persona 6 features a fourth character of this type, there's no doubt that it would feel repetitive, which could seriously hamper the game's overall plot.
A Different Style of Persona Guide
Although Persona 6 shouldn't have a character whose backstory resembles that of Morgana, Teddie, and Sophia, there's definitely value in giving Persona 6's human characters a guide first found in the Shadow world. After all, without characters like Morgana and Teddie, Persona protagonists would have no way to learn the basics of the Shadow world, like Persona usage. No matter how clever Persona 6's protagonists are, it's hard to believe that a few human teenagers could navigate the Shadow world on their own. Persona 6 needs to offer its protagonists a guide.
Atlus is already sitting on the perfect blueprint for a new style of Shadow world guide: Jose from Persona 5 Royal. In Royal, the Phantom Thieves meet the mysterious Jose in Mementos as he studies humans. Jose does tell Joker and the Phantom Thieves new things about the Shadow world, but he clearly knows exactly where he comes from. Rather than telling the Phantom Thieves everything there is to know about the supernatural world, Jose avoids answers and keeps working toward his own agenda, even while cooperating with humans.
Jose seems like the ideal model for a supernatural companion in Persona 6. A character who clearly knows a lot about Shadows and Personas but refuses to tell Persona 6's protagonists everything sets up all kinds of interesting potential narratives. As Persona 6's characters learn more about their otherworldly guide, they might question the guide's intentions, interact with other supernatural entities like Philemon, and so on. There's major value in giving Persona 6's characters a guide, but there's also something to be said for straying from the recent guide archetype. Persona 6 will be far more compelling if its characters aren't just tweaked versions of earlier Persona stars.
Persona 6's Cast of Characters
It's entirely possible that Atlus is actually setting Jose himself up to be the next Persona companion character, although that's probably not likely, due to Persona 5 Royal's dubious place in Persona canon. It's more likely that Persona 6 will conjure up an original character who reflects the game's representation of the Shadow world, whether it leans into Persona 5's concept of Palaces or comes up with its own representations of the human psyche. While it would be great to see Jose again, a new character handcrafted for Persona 6's story and aesthetic would probably be better.
Since Persona 6 seems to be in early development, it could be years before fans get even a glimpse at the game. In other words, it'll be difficult to say what the game's cast will be like for a long time. Fans can safely assume that there will be a few characters who resemble some of Persona 4 and Persona 5's Persona users, but if at least one character archetype gets a drastic change, it should be the supernatural companion. Persona 6 needs to tell a unique story about Personas and Shadows if it wants to be as successful as Persona 5, and one great way to ensure that it has a distinct identity is through a new style of supernatural guide.
Persona 6 is in development.