Highlights

  • Speculation arises over a rumored Persona "party game," called Persona ASA, featuring the main characters of the series.
  • Persona spinoff games incorporate narratives alongside new mechanics, emphasizing the series' characters.
  • The canon placement of spinoff games within the series' timeline can pose constraints but allows for exploration of different story elements.

As the Persona series continues in its trend of spinoffs while development on the sixth mainline entry is underway, speculation has arisen over a Persona "party game" in the works. Rumored to be a crossover title featuring the main characters of the Persona series, this party game, referred to as Persona ASA, is said to be an homage to the series. Though its validity has yet to be confirmed, the trend seen across prior Persona spinoffs, including the most recent Persona 5 Tactica, begs the question of whether ASA will include a story with its gameplay, and just how canon this might be to the series' greater timeline as a whole.

Persona spinoff games tend to incorporate narratives within the new contexts they introduce. From Persona 4 Arena to the Persona Q games and even Persona 4: Dancing All Night, the ability to frame stories alongside new mechanics allows the titles to hone in on what the series is most known for, its characters. While in some cases this use of story might have seemed unnecessary, a likely reason as to why the Persona 3 and 5 dancing games transitioned to being more social link-based rather than having an overarching plot, the prevalence of spinoff narratives doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. Both Persona 5 Tactica and Strikers demonstrated this, and despite the typical conventions of a party game, the rumored Persona ASA could as well.

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Persona 5 Tactica's Canon Place on the Timeline Raised Some Constraints On Its Story

Persona Spinoff Games and the Series' Timeline

Atlus strives to make its Persona spinoff games canon to the storyline, a feat that paints some constraints on their stories. Given the fate of certain characters in Persona 3 and 5, having to consider where a spinoff might take place per the mainline games' timelines has proven to be a bit tricky. Even though some of the spinoffs result in what is essentially a "mind swipe" for its characters, leaving them with no memory of what's occurred or how they interact with the team is still predicated on when the spinoff takes place. This can be further muddled by the spinoff games' release dates.

In the case of Persona 5 Tactica, the main story takes place after the events of Persona 5, focusing solely on the core Phantom Thieves team. This allowed the Thieves to reflect on the events that shaped them without having to reestablish their rapport with each other, though it left fans questioning the absence of Akechi and Kasumi, with the ambiguous fate of the former still being debated.

The reveal of the "Repaint Your Heart" DLC seemed to rectify this. However, in order to do so, it had to revert to a previous place in the Persona 5 Royal timeline, leaving Akechi's characterization at a point before his true motives are revealed.

With Tactica being before Strikers on the timeline, but after the title in its release, there was also the absence of Sophia and Zenkichi to contend with. Some fans were hoping the two would be playable as DLC given their popularity, though this wouldn't have made contextual sense given that Tactica takes place before the Thieves' summer road trip.

If the rumored Persona ASA party game wishes to include all of the main playable characters from the series while still being a canon experience, then it would need to contend with similar issues, not just for Persona 5, but for its other entries as well. This could work in a similar approach to the second Persona Q while adding the Persona and Persona 2 IS and EP casts, though the handling of a character like Akechi would be tricky to fit in if ASA were to include playable spinoff characters like Toshiro and Zenkichi as well.

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A Persona Party Game May Be Faithful to a Specific Point in Canon

The same can be said for other spinoff characters like Labrys, who is technically encountered by grown-up versions of the SEES Team in the Persona 4 Arena games, further muddling the chance for an appearance. Because of this, it's likely that Persona ASA, if real, will opt to include the casts of only the mainline entries at the ages/appearances in which they were first introduced.

This still brings up concerns over Persona 5 in particular, since it would require fitting ASA into the slightly complicated events of the Persona 5 timeline, given how Akechi is handled. If Persona 5 Tactica is anything to go off, then this might result in his pre-anti-hero role once again, though the opportunity to work from a post-Persona 5 Royal, Tactica, and Strikers' timeline might be a more advantageous and less unwieldy route to go, if Atlus chooses to verify the character's survival.