The annual CEDEC+KYUSHU Japanese game developer conference took place last month on November 23, 2024. One of the panels was titled “Persona’s Past and Future,” held by series general producer Kazuhisa Wada, as well as CyberConnect2 CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama as the panel moderator.
Presented by Famitsu, below is some of the notable information that came from the session.
Turning Point of the Persona Series
- Sales doubled from 2020 to 2024 because of an increased demand with people staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the series’ overseas expansion.
- Matsuyama points out that Atlus was late in releasing games worldwide and to multiple platforms, including PC. Wada says that they had their hands full making a single platform version to release domestically. However, because they were admittedly behind in overseas development and Steam releases, the expectations from users grew, which also led to explosive sales when it did happen.
- Wada states that the reason the Persona series concerts exist is because of “Persona Music Live -Velvet Room in AKASAKA BLITZ-” from 2008 for the anime Trinity Soul. If that concert had not been a success, there might not have been subsequent live concerts.
- According to Wada, the key points responsible for the Persona series’ growth are the following:
- Persona 5 Royal‘s release (receiving critical acclaim).
- Support for multiple platforms, including PC.
- Active participation in the digital market.
- Worldwide expansion through simultaneous releases in 15 languages.
- Expanding beyond games into various media, such as anime, live performances, and 2.5D stage adaptations, establishing an environment where each of these works can interact with each other.
- Revising video streaming guidelines [to be more lenient] to increase awareness.
Future of the Persona Series
- Wada places an importance on “sustainable Persona development” to manage longer development times and rising production costs.
- The first part of this is development efficiency. Since the development of Persona 3 Reload, Atlus has been integrating fundamental improvements to the development process, including the use of management sharing tools and coordination with parallel departments.
- Second is never losing the will to take on challenges. The workplace has become more structured, there are strict time constraints, and there are fewer opportunities for trial and error. While sticking to schedules is important, it is crucial to maintain a spirit of trial and error to create interesting games. It’s necessary, however, to make efforts to minimize revisions by proceeding with a strong focus.
- Finally, a transition from a top-down to a bottom-up organizational structure. Putting it simply, Wada states it’s about creating an organization that listens to opinions on the ground floor. There are many issues to consider to achieve this, and the team is currently in a of trial and error phase to implement this.
Q&A Section
- For Persona spin-off genres, the team refers to the annual Atlus Surveys to gather user feedback as a reference for planning.
- The Persona 4 fighting games and dancing game were planned before the surveys were conducted.
- The fighting games, came from a place of curiosity and interest, in wanting to expand Persona beyond RPGs and imagining how it would look like to see Persona in arcades. Once the concept was prepared, Atlus reached out to Arc System Works on a whim, thinking it wouldn’t work out. But ASW gave them an immediate “okay,” and so development began.
- The dancing game came from an idea that everyone would enjoy a game centered around Persona music.
- When asked how much freedom Wada has in thinking about the protagonist design during the planning stage, and what has inspired them to make students the main characters, along with a male protagonist, Wada gave the following answer:
Wada: Persona is a coming-of-age story. The setting that best encapsulates this theme features students who are on the cusp of adulthood. Another part of it is that being a student is something most people have experienced, so it’s easier to resonate with.
As for gender, mental age plays a role. For the same high school age, it’s said that girls tend to have a higher mental age compared to boys. Because we’re depicting growth, we feel that male students as the main character represent that the most. That said, I don’t think adults or women are necessarily off-limits either.
In 2017, a CEDEC+KYUSHU panel was held featuring Kazuhisa Wada and art director Masayoshi Sutoh discussing the creation of Persona 5‘s UI.
— Famitsu