Mobile spin-offs based on beloved console games can be hit and miss at times. But based on an initial couple by trailersI am cautiously optimistic about the newly announced Persona 5: Phantom of the Night (aka The Phantom X). After a teasing in April 2021, “P5X” is now officialand is under development for Android, iOS and Windows. Sadly, none of the press materials mention an international launch, so it sounds like it’s a China exclusive.
That’s a shame, because (at least from the trailers) this looks like a pretty faithful Persona experience. The game appears to be set in the same locations as in 2016 Person 5but revolves around a new cast of characters including protagonist Wonder, their owl sidekick Luffy and friend Arai Suwa, according to Person Central. There’s footage of the protagonist going about their daily life in Tokyo interspersed with scenes of their dungeon crawling through the Metaverse (which thankfully has no connection to Zuckerberg’s money sink).
Although the game is being developed by Black Wings Game Studio instead of Person 5‘s P-Studio, Publisher Perfect World Games said in a press release that series publisher Atlas participates in development, and Persona character designer Shigenori Soejima was involved in the creation of the game’s protagonist. Characters from the original Person 5 are shown in official images alongside the game’s newcomers.
The big unknown right now is how exactly this game is going to make money. That seems to be the consensus Persona 5: Phantom of the Night will be a free-to-play release (which makes sense considering it’s intended to be a mobile title) with Gematsu report that it will contain item-based in-app purchases. But there’s a fine line between making reasonable money with a mobile game and making it feel like an exploitative slot machine.
I don’t know if I’m ready to invest more time in the world of Person 5 since I’m currently working seventy hours Persona 5 Royals recent Switch port, with seemingly no end in sight. But I hope P5X is ready and there for me when I am. A beta test of the game will start in China at the end of this month.
