Baseless Pitch - A Sequel to Persona 5
For the record before we start I am aware that both Persona 5 Royal and Persona 5 Strikers both exist one serving as a sequel the idea below follows from Strikers think of it as Persona 5 2 of sorts. I will however incorporate characters from Royal as well in order to use the full catalogue of characters at our disposal. Thinks of this as a time line of Royal to Strikers to this idea just that Yoshizawa was just away during Strikers. Spoilers for all three games previously mentioned below.
One of my favourite games to play in the last few years was Persona 5. While Strikers comes out the end of February 2021 and I didn't play Royal the original game is probably one of my favourite games in recent memories. It was a fun immersive experience which left me wanting more (well obviously not enough to play a remake with some extra new additions thrown on) but in the form of a brand new story. Now obviously the first point of call is for this to take place post Strikers the Phantom Thieves meet up for one last adventure which I'll detail later but I'm writing it as the conclusion to the stories of these characters.
Playable Characters
To begin with let us detail who's coming back. As the finale to the Persona 5 series much like Smash Ultimate everyone is here so that means you can have a team consisting of the following characters.
- Joker
- Morgana
- Ryuji Sakamoto
- Ann Takamaki
- Yusuke Kitagawa
- Makoto Niijima
- Futaba Sakura
- Haru Okumura
- Goro Akechi
- Sumire Yoshizawa
- Sophia
- Zenkichi Hasegawa
Now I know one name sticks out massively and don't worry I will address how and why he's back but first off we need to cover new additions to the playable roster. I want to give 3 returning characters at least some part in the spotlight each for different reasons but I feel they would work and they are
Shiho Suzui
As one of the main causes of the Phantom Thieves getting together I wish they had done more with, if the player doesn't do Ann's confidant she really isn't seen or heard from. I think Shiho has a lot to offer in terms of a playable character, she already has a bond with Ann and being a survivor of the ways of one of the antagonists of Persona 5 we haven't played as yet it'd be a nice addition. Shiho also as a character seems like someone who when recovered would want to help others and where better than the Phantom Thieves. You could even have it that she is more of a healer then attacker for variety.
Hifumi Togo
My favourite non playable confidant I really wish she was playable in the core game. Not only does she go to the same school as Yusuke so he can have a friend. I really liked the benefits she gave which really helped out in battle for me and helped increase strategy. I don't have a storyline reason but it helps spread out where the Phantom Thieves come from but would add another strategist like character to the team and someone I wish had a bigger role.
Yuuki Mishima
The final of the three to get a Persona is Mishima. Someone who ran the Phantom Aficionado Website he felt like a non-playable Phantom Thief because of it. I think it'd be nice to give him some shine here as the Website isn't a major need and with Futaba and Sophia the more technology savvy members of the group can create something from that.
Gameplay & Features
Between the playstyles of Persona 5 and Strikers I prefer the original turn base format for this series. I think the story works better with this and allows you to work a battle and strategize instead of hack and slash your way through.
I want to give roles to certain members of the team. Much like how Futaba is a Navigator I want Sophia and Mishima to have the same role this is just a preference. While others can specialise in combat I'd have others like Makoto, Hifumi and Akechi take the roles of tacticians. This role would mean they could get a grip on the enemies weakness are even position the team to start with someone who has an effective Persona type or move at the start of the fight to aid in battle.
However, it should be noted if you did want to play with no Navigator characters you can and you can use them in battle. This effects map layouts and Navigator characters aren't the best on combat but people love to put self-imposed challenges on themselves like the Pokémon Nuzlocke challenge so I feel it would be good to include the tools to do as such.
With this Joker and Akechi are the strongest of the two given their roles as characters which makes sense you want an easier time regardless of the difficulty you are on when you can you'd want to use both. As well as this both will have two roles they specialise in with Akechi being a tactician and Joker being a fighter to begin with. However, both can use multiple Personas with Akechi having Robin Hood & Loki in the base game and Joker can get near on all Personas on his side. Both will share an unique ability of being able to use multiple Personas but in a different sense in line with how they work in game (although there's no reason to add a third Persona that isn't a fusion to Akechi to reflect this part of his arc).
I want this to have a feeling all Phantom Thieves are saving the world. My run of Persona 5 my team was mainly Joker, Ryuji, Ann and Yusuke the others didn't factor in and well in the case of Haru she was introduced way to late into the game to care. Our teams are broken up into 3 team with 4 players and 1 navigator it's up to you how to balance that work with the stats and abilities or just use your favourites. I will also have the 3 teams have certain roles. This would be as follows:
- Joker's team is the player controlled team that handles all missions and any exploration that may occur the player can take control of
- The second team will explore the world to gather items and can do some side quests that aren't any form of rescue missions (such as you could set them to take down a powerful enemy on map depending on team power level)
- The third team set out more to scout get request and find places where items are held for either of the other teams to get
This way all members of the Phantom Thieves have a role to play nobody is sitting on the sidelines. I should also note here that different character would reach better in different teams. I'll use Zenkichi as an example. Being a police inspector I would be him at being best suited to getting more information then others making him a good pick for that team. If use on this team you could see more quest pop up for items or even rarer more powerful items.
If I had to lay a criticism at the Phantom Thieves as a whole is they are all connected through Joker. I don't see how the others interact or as friends it seems Joker is the epicentre of it all. I would want to implement a Heart-to-Hearts like mechanic seen in Xenoblade Chronicles for this game. Here we can see Phantom Thieves interact and flesh out their relationships. We can also use this further with non playable characters as well being used much like how the blades in Xenoblade Chronicles can have Heart-to-Hearts with each other. It's just a way of fleshing out these characters more and making the relationships built for the most part less Joker dependant. Plus it can be used to set up some fun combinations of characters we haven't seen as of yet.
Story
The story follows a premise of what if a third entity was locked in the battle of ideals with Akechi and Joker not one of pure destruction like Akechi and not one of societal reform like Joker. What if it was both a pure destruction to be reformed into their own image. While similar to Maruki this isn't giving people their dreams this is to start again, one nation one rule under them and all obey anyone or anything steps out of line and that would be quickly dealt with. The idea is that Akechi and Joker's ideals were so song in such a clash what if they manifested together became one all powerful entity a God created out of ideals it could enforce. For the moment we will call this antagonist Kami to give it a name so we can use that for the rest of this idea. Ideally I'd have this end with Akechi and Joker fighting Kami in the last boss fight destroying this 'God' and maybe coming to terms with their ideals and the battle between them.
The story starts with Joker waking up seeing Mona in his normal form the two realising something is up. They look out the window to see they are in a metaverse, legion of shadows swarm everywhere so they go out to fight but quickly get surrounded, we can reintroduce Sophia here saving them and helping them flee, right here we can take a look at the confusion surrounding everything, what is going on, where are they and Sophia is back what about everyone else, these brief moments of panic can only last quickly as they have a quiet hideout before setting a plan, the Phantom Thieves are needed one last time. With the world how it is they feel the best way to do is contact the rest of the Phantom Thieves but there's no signal. Being in a metaverse Mona can transform into a car and they use the train tunnels to end up around Café Leblanc after trying to establish what is happening and to their relief and surprise Café Leblanc is unharmed and the area around here is peaceful with no shadows almost like some form of barrier is keeping them out. They go to Leblanc and encounter Sojiro and Futaba also concerned over what has happened but pleased to see the protagonist and co. This is also the first time that Sojiro has met Mona in this form so we can engage in that as well. Here we can engage in a tutorial with 4 characters (with one being a navigator) in the first mission to try and gather info and see what they can do.
I want to implement a change in system here with a mission select here you can chose what to do, main missions, side missions or rescue missions (which will mainly be NPC's which can help with what items can be bought which I will cover more in a bit).
Before covering the missions to kick off the game let's look at the safe zone. I've chose Leblanc as our main hub between missions as well why not? From a story perspective it makes the most sense we can say that because of Joker's power he is able to protect the place he calls home from corruption and his hear sees Leblanc as that. It can also explain why Akechi doesn't have a place like this as he has no place to call home. The area keeps its look from previous games with a few NPCs scattered about it you can talk to. It has to feel really isolated so bar Sojiro, Futaba and Tae I'd have maybe 2 or 3 more NPCs maybe the shop owner you buy the second hand TV from and they can convey the general emotion at the point of the game.
Being in this metaverse in this safe zone I'd love a physical Velvet Room to explore outside of the cell talking with Igor and Lavenza. I'd also put Jose here in a similar position with exchanging special flowers for items as another way to get more items, weapons and armour.
Shujin Academy and it's surrounding area: Ryuji, Yoshizawa, Mishima and Kawakami
Streets of Shibuya: Ann, Haru, Shiho and Iwai
Kosei High School and it's surrounding area: Yusuke, Togo and Mifune
Tokyo District Police Department: Makoto, Sae, Zenkichi & Akane Hasegawa
In these missions the new Persona users get their Persona's as well. It confuses Mona with new users and why this is happening, it almost seems like more are being awakened with how bad this situation is. Once all these characters have been rescued we can then assess what is happening.
But before this we need to look into weapons. We know gun shop isn't in our main safe zone what you do is in battle items drop and treasure chests give us broken guns we can then bring them to Iwai who can fix and repair them and give them to characters some of these are better than what you have equipped it's more of a chance the later game you get better items. Medicine items can also be found this way as well.
With Leblanc as the main hub I want the safe zone to expand out, while your main NPCs only appear around Cafe Leblanc you can explore these new areas should you wish. This will expand to bring new item shops and activity opportunities. I like to keep the bonding exercises and with this being a battle heavy game it's nice to have something else to change the pace.
I want too quickly cover the rescue quests to implement to the game. As you can see we didn't save all characters we know from the games in the previously mentioned missions we can fits these into rescue quests in which we enter a sector of the world find them and get them out most likely encountering some sort of sub-boss in these missions. I'd have the likes of Ohya, Yoshida, Oda and Ichinose as main one's for this but as well as that we can have missions for character like the Makigami brothers from the Day Breakers animation. Key characters we know and for the most part can help provide new abilities. While Oda had good abilities and special moves to teach you for your gun weapon I'd like to keep that idea for him. Ichinose as a technology expert can help amplify any signal Sophia & Futaba work on to get side-quest requests and Yoshida as a politician and work to inspire the people and lead to more range of items being sold in stores ones you wouldn't get at all or later then at this point should you not rescue him (I don't have anything unique for Ohya I can think of here but I think you get the point). While it is padding out the run time of the game with rinse and repeat missions the idea is to keep the rewards different and to help get character you know back. Plus this can open more of the Heart-to-Hearts mechanic for more unique and fun interactions.
I have to preface this next bit where I am unsure if this work in line with the game. I like the idea in concept but execution I can't work in without it being really sloppy. Now these safe areas will need protection. I would like to look into the idea of rehabilitated Monarch's from Strikers. While personally as at the time of writing this part I have just finished Ango Natsume castle it is clear (except Hyodo as I'm not a fan of her Monarch design). Unlike the villains of Persona 5 they have room for redemption (and let's be real we aren't redeeming a mob boss like Kaneshiro or abuser like Kamoshida). Characters like Alice and Ango have the feeling of being manipulated by their feelings and situation and as such I felt they have more room for redemption. This can be they protect the citizens in the safe zone so the Phantom Thieves can go about their work. This is mainly because I like their designs for the most part and feel we might as well get some use out of them. I would also throw Sae & Maruki in here as all of these characters really look to atone for their actions and if I am honest I'm still confused why Sae even had a palace. I think we can get some fun developments to the characters and what happens post Strikers. I can imagine interactions about Yusuke and Ango sharing ideas maybe working together on a story and the art, if we are looking to close the chapter on the whole story of Persona 5 we might as well use what we have in the character bank to our advantage. If I had to put out an idea of a DLC roadmap I would 100% include these character to then be playable, we can create unique Persona's for them and increase the character bank which would increase the replay value.
With this in mind when it comes to playable characters I think that is covered what we need to look at is the villains of the game. We will address Kami at length later I want to speak to the other bosses his subordinates. Kami takes people in prominent positions to serve as his generals to keep law and order. While the bosses of the original games were based off of the 7 Deadly Sins I want these bosses to be based off the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse in Pestilence, War, Famine & Death. While I couldn't say who each of these people are in a specific capacity that Kami manipulates their ideas of control war (for example I'd have the leader of the national military or army serve as the host for War ideas like that). While every area has a main boss you work up to send your calling card beat and save the area from control I want each sector of the map to feel different. While I want to place The Reaper in Death's sector the following is how I would make the enemies in each of the four sectors.
Pestilence - The enemies in this area are more likely to inflict status aliments and look to kill you off with these as well as taking away your health as well.
War - The enemies are more aggressive they charges at you and use more physical attacks and do not look at any point to heal
Death - The enemies are more zombie like so they can get back up and have to be defeated twice in some instances should you not finish them with an element they are weak to
Famine - This would effect the area more with less items found to help recover health and SP this map would require you to stock up well before going in
I know many different interpretations have Conquest over Pestilence (and I know Darksiders uses Strife as the name) but I went with Pestilence over Conquest just because you can separate them more from War than you can with Conquest and War.
While I'd like to have it you can choose who you go for in what order I want to start with War. It's the one with the gimmick with the least amount of complication to strategy as it's more of a straight up fight. Each sector much like the in Persona you have to find the treasure and defeat the boss to free that part of the map. I would like each place to have a sub boss in the respective Horseman's horses before the calling card is sent. Think of each map as a bigger palace and once defeated you open that bit of the map up for shops maybe group activities as well (although I don't think going to the cinema with your friends should be the priority here).
Back to War and his sector. Here at the end if where I want to reintroduce Akechi being held captive War is looking to get as much information out of him. I feel Akechi had a lot more room to explore as a character (especially Royal) and I'd want to see that explored here. Joker & Akechi have a link to Kami they are all part of the same game (although Kami is generated from their clashes) so he prove a valuable prize. When War is defeated his treasure taken and that part of the map freed Akechi joins the team. He is more remorseful for his actions but keeps that same blood lust and with this would prove and interesting team member and one we get to use more (plus you can switch between his Personas which would make him probably one of the more used team members).
With this the game format really set out here it's more of the traditional rinse and repeat the Persona 5 series of games has done with different layout but some concept for each palace/jail. The palace for Kami is locked until the other 4 are dealt with. Kami's palace would feature ideas and concepts from each of the Four Horseman sectors. While I'd like the final fight to be Kami against Joker & Akechi I don't feel would be fair to others who use a different combination and to those who want to use four characters.
I imagine now you'll get the idea of the story and lay out so I'll skip to what the end will be. With Kami defeated and the world restored Akechi for his efforts is granted his life back atoning for his previous actions. I think this is the right way to conclude his character arc he's gone from enemy to temporary ally to friend it's a full transition for him.
And what of Joker? I want him to end moving and living above LeBlanc to be closer to his friends and those he holds close. It makes sense to me for him to conclude his arc, the home doesn't feel like one or he was wanted there (mainly due to the lack of information we get from his hometown). But with this he is somewhere he's happy and no matter what if they are ever needed the Phantom Thieves will always be ready to jump in.
Conclusion
In the end Persona 5 has created a strong cast of characters who we have seen over the course of a game series grow and develop. If we don't get a final game I don't think it is the worst thing in the world we have had a good series developed and if anything it would be interesting to watch how the series grows. Persona 5 opened my eyes (and I can only imagine a lot more peoples eyes) to the series and I would be very interested in what happens be it another instalment for Persona 5 or even if we see Persona 6 but we will see.
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