Persona is already a spinoff of the Shin Megami Tensei series. It’s strange then that the spinoff is even more popular than the main franchise from which it was spawned. That’s the case in North America at least, which may be due to the fact that Atlus hasn’t exactly been steady with its game releases in the West.
That is to say many of their titles are still trapped in Japan. The overall point is this spinoff series has seen spinoffs of its own, all based around the three most recent entries of Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5. Of the seven out there, which is the best amongst them?
6 Persona 4: Dancing All Night
This game debuted first on PS Vita in 2015. That’s not that surprising given the fact that it was thanks to the port of Persona 4 on the handheld that the series started picking up more traction in the West. Following this version was a port to PS4 three years later in 2018.
This was actually done in celebration of two other games which will be discussed later. What’s important now is the fact that this was a rhythm based music game crossed with a light novel. It is certainly the most unique and unexpected genre for this series to dive into which is not a bad thing. It has its charms to be vague.
5 Persona 3: Dancing In Moonlight And Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight
This entry should count as one because they are essentially the same game. These two released the same day in 2018 on PS Vita and PS4. It was like a Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue situation. The boxes were even colored as such.
The blue box was centered on Persona 3 characters while the red box was about Persona 5. Both games played predominantly like Persona 4: Dancing All Night, albeit improved in several ways. Of the the two here, Persona 5 has the catchier music that carries over better into a dancing, rhythm based adventure.
4 Persona Q: Shadow Of The Labyrinth
This spinoff dropped on the 3DS in 2014. It was developed by the Etrian Odyssey team and is thus kind of like a Persona style take on that popular dungeon crawler RPG. It crossed over Persona 3 and Persona 4, with players asked to choose a side.
It was fan service through and through with plenty of jokes to entertain the fans but perhaps it was too reliant on that at times. It was a good measure up of both franchises, but also not as good as either main one in which it tried to emulate.
3 Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
This was a sequel to the previous Person Q game. It is better in that the overly talkative narrative was toned down. It also adds in Persona 5 characters which was a nice treat to see all three modern Persona games collaborating with each other.
It was unfortunately overlooked however due to its late release. It hit Japan in 2018 on 3DS and 2019 in North America. That was the third year of the Switch by so by that point everyone had moved on. It would be great to see it get a port sometime to Switch because it is well worth a look.
2 Persona 4 Arena
This was the first spinoff in the entire Persona series. It first hit arcades in 2012 in Japan and later that same year for the PS3 and Xbox 360. It was co-developed between Atlus, who mostly handled the scenario stuff, while the gameplay backbone was designed by Arc System Works. They are best know for their fighting game franchises like BlazBlue and Guilty Gear.
Fans were not disappointed to find out the fighting was just as smooth as they would have hoped. The roster would expand with the release of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax in 2013, followed by the same set of console releases a year later. Speaking of which, the best thing about the characters in this game is that they aged, or at least in the case of Persona 3. Junpei, for example, turned into a baseball star and little Ken is now a full-fledged teenager.
1 Persona 5 Strikers
The latest spinoff is by far the best. That’s because it is treated like a full-on sequel to Persona 5. It picks up a few months after the first left off and features the same characters, written just as well, albeit in a summer adventure. The action combat fits well with this series too which was a big worry since this was co-developed with the Dynasty Warriors team, Omega Force. It has some mindless hack and slash moments, but combat is more nuanced than that.
It is more Persona 5 than it is Dynasty Warriors which may upset some people, but make others enjoy it more. It is the perfect spinoff game to Persona and hopefully not the last as by the end it does seem like another sequel could be on its way. What genre will they tackle next related to RPGs? A tactical RPG, or an RTS might be interesting, both of which have been done before in the Shin Megami Tensei overall franchise.
