The Persona spice must flow, but Atlus appears to be testing the waters as to whether or not Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers gets a release in the West. This seems like a silly thing to even question given today is the release date of Persona 5 Royal in America, the reimagining of a game in Persona 5 that sold over 3 million copies worldwide. Yet, here we are with Atlus sending out email surveys to Persona 5 Royal buyers and acting like Persona 5 Scramble is a risky venture that requires a questionnaire.
First reported on Twitter by the outlet Persona Central, the survey asks how interested a buyer of Persona 5 Royal would be in a Western release of The Phantom Strikers, a game already out in Japan on both PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. If anything this seems like yet another example of Atlus/Sega not fully understanding the popularity of the Persona franchise outside of Japan. The physical version of Persona 4 Golden on the Vita–which means ‘life’–sold enough to be in the top ten highest-selling games on the device and is a constant request as a Nintendo Switch rerelease.
The Persona 5 Royal Player Survey includes a question asking users how interested they would be in buying Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers if it were released in the West. #P5S pic.twitter.com/CKq5gyWzku
— Persona Central (@Persona_Central) March 30, 2020
The hesitation on part of Sega might stem from perceived poor sales numbers in Japan for The Phantom Strikers, selling around 200,000 units across both PS4 and Switch versions, as reported by Siliconera. That said, said hesitation ignores the fact that just about every Persona spin-off released in the West finds success and praise, but if you’re looking for some logic in all this mess then this might be it.
Perhaps time and a strong sales showing by Persona 5 Royal will tell if Atlus is ready to bring more adventures in moody teenagers solving murders and crushing capitalism under their leathery boot heels over from Japan. At the very least, one would think that a sequel to Persona 5 that plays like Diablo is more than enough to get people interested in one more adventure with the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.
