Persona has had a big year thanks to the release of Persona 5 for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3, which has sold over 1.8 million copies worldwide since its July release. But Atlus has plans for the franchise beyond 2017. Today, it announced a sequel to the 3DS crossover Persona Q and two more dancing game spinoffs.
Persona 4: Dancing All Night came out for the PlayStation Vita in 2015. It’s a rhythm game featuring songs from Persona 4. Now, Persona 4’s predecessor and successor get their chances to boogie with Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night and Persona 5: Dancing Star Night. Both are coming out Spring 2018 in Japan for PlayStation 4 and Vita. While Atlus hasn’t announced U.S. release dates yet, they’re likely. The series has developed a following over here, with all other recent Persona spinoffs making the trip west so far.
Persona Q is a dungeon-crawling role-playing game that borrows aspects from another Atlus RPG franchise, Etrian Odyssey. It came out for the 3DS in 2014. Persona Q features both casts from Persona 3 and Persona 4 (with an adorable, chibi redesign). Persona Q2 is coming to the 3DS at an unspecified time (again, no U.S. release confirmed, but it’s likely). The game’s teaser site shows a logo made famous in Persona 5, so we can expect to see its cast join the fray.
Persona started as a spinoff of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise of role-playing games, but it began to break out as Atlus’s big star after the success of Persona 3 in 2006. Subsequent games have attracted more fans, helping to turn Persona from spinoff to RPG powerhouse.