Summary
Persona 6is following in the footsteps of a handful of games that have given the series a glowing reputation in the West as well as its native Japan. The most recent example of thePersonaformula done right isPersona 3 Reload, a re-imagining of the third title withstylish visual flourishes akin toPersona 5.
It’s a big legacy to uphold, and while what has come before will likely give a lot of inspiration, it also presents some obstacles to overcome.Persona 6will have to find a way to make combat feel well-crafted without losing that sense of unpredictability that randomly generated dungeons can provide.Persona 3 Reload’s Tartarus is a big step in a positive direction, marrying two philosophies to ensure it is fun, unique, and lends itself to immense replay value.
Persona 3is the firstPersonagame of the modern style, as the first few outings were not without merit, but feel largely different to the series' conventions today. The art style, camera angles, method of storytelling, andcolor palette ofPersonaas fans know it today started with the 2006 title. Tartatus was the setting for the battles inPersona 3and did well to keep the challenge up and give players a sense of progression throughPersona 3’s lengthy runtime. However, its procedural generation meant that it couldn’t deploy any kind of pre-planned level design, so often times it could feel repetitive and lacking in memorable moments.
Persona 3 Reloadmade significant strides to correct the issue. Its art style is far prettier, the hallways change appearance as players progress higher, and there are spots within Tartarus that players won’t randomly stumble upon. Because of this, the lines between random hallways and deliberately crafted environments start to blur, meaning it feels like a connected setting that pushes the player along at a decent pace andPersona 3 Reload’s Tartarusdoesn’t fall into the same traps as the game it is based on.
Persona 5was a huge successin more ways than one, and its art, story, characters, and gameplay were superb enough that many consider it the most definitivePersonagame to date. However, its two primary combat arenas felt largely disconnected from one another, which made the problems with each feel more apparent. Mementos is justified in the story ofPersona 5as the cognition of most people in Tokyo, and adheres to the procedurally generated norms of previous games, with the same issues persisting.
Palaces, however, feel much more meticulously engineered. It’s great in the sense that the developer’s vision can be effectively realized, but in being so pre-planned, it loses the sense of unpredictability and the ever-important replay value that comes with procedural generation. The two ideologies never truly mix inPersona 5. In contrast, the way thatPersona 3 Reloadhandles its combat and dungeon designin Tartarus feels like a wonderful compromise that is potentially future-proofed for later entries in the series.
Persona 6 Needs to Find a Way to Make its Turn-Based Combat Entertaining
Persona 6will have to find a way to mesh these two ideas, as it already has the task of finding new ways to makePersona’s turn-based combat exciting. Its predecessor made decent strides in this, but with so manyPersonaentries, it can get old quickly. Adapting the battle environment by merging the random with the pre-crafted is a good way to keep the time spent in, and leading up to, combat fresh and engaging.Persona 6has a lot to achieve and even more to prove, andPersona 3 Reload’s Tartarus is a big indicator that it can continue to be special moving forward.
