For a while I was one of those guys who was talking about how the JRPG seemed all-but-dead. I mean, in a way, it made sense at the time. The Final Fantasy games have gotten increasingly more confusing if not flat-out bad and the rise of Western game developers has left Japanese game developers running on a wheel like a hamster trying to catch up. It’s probably fair to say that Square has been grasping at straws over the past ten years or so, with their focus scattered over traditional, narrative-based games and online MMOs, with both sides getting mixed receptions.
Thankfully, though, there are other game developers who have been doing marvelous things in Japan with RPGs. The Shin Megami Tensei: Persona games by Atlus have been, to put it mildly, incredible. The only problem is that the last one, Persona 4, came out in 2008. The re-released Persona 4 Golden was immediately the best game available on PlayStation Vita and did a lot to remind everyone just how glorious JRPGs can be. Needless to say, with Personal 4 Golden, Bravely Default and Fire Emblem: Awakening it has really felt like the JRPG belongs on handhelds now.
That’s why this announcement about Persona 5 was so damned exciting. Persona 5 was originally scheduled for winter 2014 for PlayStation 3, which really didn’t seem that weird considering that Persona 4 was released on PS2 near the end of the PS2’s lifecycle. So Persona 5 at the end of the PS3 made sense. It was still kind of a bummer, though, because the PlayStation 4 is this new console that should be used. The PS4 is also not selling quite as well in Japan as everyone might have hoped, so what better way to help give it that nudge than have one of the most anticipated RPGs released for PS4?
