Each mainline Persona game has made high school experiences crucial to the story, and odds are that Persona 6 will be no different. While Atlus will presumably whip up a new Japanese high school attended by its protagonists, it'll balance out the supernatural, demon-battling narrative with slice-of-life classroom elements. As the seventh central game, however, Persona 6 needs to make its educational side feel new. Perhaps the best way to do so would actually be to double down on Persona 6's high school and focus even more closely on the protagonists' relationships with students and teachers than ever before.
Persona games feature no shortage of memorable high school characters, from Persona 4's belligerent Morooka to Persona 5 Royal's gentle and complicated Dr. Maruki, but the school system is still often secondary to the supernatural threat. Atlus could try to elevate the school to be more on par with the supernatural this time. Persona games often strengthen the real world through a highly detailed town or city, like Persona 5's elaborate rendition of Tokyo, but Persona 6 could focus more on a unique school than the city. An acute, complicated school life on a level above Shujin or any other Persona school could be just what Persona 6 needs to establish unique characters and storylines.
Learning From Persona's Recent Schools
In Persona 5 Royal, Shujin Academy is quite important. The entire opening arc of the game which results in the founding of the Phantom Thieves happens due to the cruel and scandalous actions of Shujin's gym teacher, Kamoshida, which Joker and company hope to bring to light. In total, most of the Phantom Thieves stem from Shujin Academy, and the group's actions at the start of Persona 5 come back to haunt them in various ways. The school even provides a few non-playable Confidants for Joker, namely Kawakami and Mishima.
However, Persona 5 Royal also could've made significantly more use of Shujin. While it's important to the Phantom Thieves' origin story, most of their escapades from then on have little to do with the school and much more to do with their vigilante lives. Few recurring characters emerge from the school after the start of the game, and only a couple major plot beats take place at Shujin itself. Despite its well of controversies, Shujin ironically acts as a reprieve for the Phantom Thieves, since mundane events like exams and a school festival often break up their major heists, giving them time to breathe and lie low. In this way, Shujin is helpful to Persona 5 Royal, but always secondary.
Persona 4 Golden finds a little more success in making the player feel closely connected to their school. Except for Teddie, all of Persona 4 Golden's party members come from Yasogami High; several Social Links have to do with the school as well, including Ai Ebihara, Naoki Konishi, and the two members of the Sun Arcana in the school clubs. Naoki is a particularly important character from Yasogami, since his sister's death kicks off the events of Persona 4 Golden, and so his Social Link helps ensure that the game's plot looms heavily over Yasogami. In these ways, Persona 4 Golden could help inspire Persona 6's school.
How Persona 6 Can Improve School Life
Atlus can easily flesh out its next high school by adding lots of important characters to it, especially if they aren't part of the protagonist's party. Past Social Links and Confidants all provide good examples of Confidants Persona 6 could feature, although it could certainly innovate. Beyond tragic teachers and complicated students, Persona 6 Confidants could focus on other kinds of staff, like the school nurse, a janitor, or even the principal. Beyond this, Persona 6 could use more named tertiary characters from the school, like siblings or friends of the playable characters. All of these characters could make the player feel more closely connected to the school itself.
With these characters in place, Persona 6 could draw a lot more plot elements out of the school itself. For instance, if it features lots of human antagonists like Persona 5 did, it could establish their reach through these high school NPCs. Kaneshiro might have felt more menacing in Persona 5 if more named characters than just Makoto and the Phantom Thieves were threatened by his influence. Similarly, supernatural events might feel more tangible and impactful if they affect the player's school, or even come from the school itself, much like in the earlier Persona games.
Aside from tying the plot and cast into the school more closely, Persona 6 could add a lot more activities to its school. Persona 5 Royal lets players borrow books and meet up with Confidants at school, but otherwise the Persona 5 overworld is mostly spread across Tokyo. To make the school more interactive, the next game could bring back Persona 4 Golden's school clubs while building on top of them. Rather than making them Confidant avenues, school clubs could evolve into minigames that offer Social Stats and other rewards based on the player's participation. Similarly, if the protagonist could join the student council, Atlus could give players some control over the school's look and amenities, which would be a refreshing new level of customization.
Why Persona 6's High School Should Matter
Coming-of-age stories have always been central to the Persona franchise, but the importance of the player's school in the story has waned over the years, which has made the importance of the high school trope itself questionable. In response to this decline, Persona 6 could focus more closely on what high school life is like. A strong mixture of everyday high school drama and high-stakes supernatural battles at the core of the game's story could justify this franchise's conventions better than some recent games have. If Atlus is determined to stick to high school settings, then it needs to make the most of th protagonists' lives.
Leaning into school elements as hard as possible opens up a lot of new story opportunities. Persona 6 could take place at a boarding school, for instance, making all the player characters into fish out of water, rather than just the protagonist. A long-term antagonist who comes from the school could also add some great tension to the game. Whichever way Atlus goes, the more it leans on school, the better. The next Persona protagonist could become a worthy rival to predecessors like Joker if they establish a special relationship with their school.
Persona 6 is in development.