How Persona 5 Royal's Party Members Could Influence the…

Summary

Persona 5 Royal introduced a unique aesthetic by using literary characters as the party's Personas, which could be replicated in Persona 6 to maintain the game's success.
While enemies in Persona 5 Royal are based on mythological creatures, religious entities, or folklore monsters, the Personas for party members are based on literary figures.
Persona 6 could feature a variety of new enemy types based on popular literary characters, such as Poe, Cervantes, Tolkien, etc., which would add a fresh experience to the game.

The Persona series, as well as the larger Shin Megami Tensei franchise, is famous for its wide cast of creatures based on world mythologies, religions, and folklore that are depicted as both friend and foe throughout each game. In Persona 5 Royal, these creatures take on the forms of shadows that players will battle against with the chance to recruit them as useable Personas. However, while Joker has this ability in Persona 5 Royal, the other party members are each only able to summon their single Persona, with each of these unique Personas being based on literary characters.

Persona 5 broke the mold for the series in a variety of ways, but one of the most memorable aspects of the game is its aesthetic, which included the use of literary figures as the party's unique Personas. As a result, Persona 6 could look to replicate the success of Persona 5's aesthetic and incorporate similar literary themes into the game's design. If this is the case, an emphasis on literary themes in Persona 6 could be the perfect opportunity to add a variety of new enemy types based on other popular literary characters.

Persona 6 Could Feature New Enemy Types Based on Classic Literature

The majority of enemies in Persona 5 Royal that can become Personas for the player are based on mythological creatures, religious entities, or folklore monsters. A mythical creature like the Nekomata, a deity like Thoth, and a cryptid like Mothman are all examples of how the design philosophy of enemies in Persona 5 Royal follows these categories. However, when it comes to the individual Personas for party members like Morgana, Yusuke, and Ann, their designs are based on literary figures rather than the mythological beings that enemies are based on.

Morgana's Persona Zorro is based on the literary character of the same name who first appeared in 1919 from pulp writer Johnstone McCulley as a masked outlaw in Los Angeles who protects the innocent from villains during the Mexico's rule of the region. Yusuke's Persona Goemon is based on Ishikawa Goemon, a real-life person whose exploits have become exaggerated in stories and kabuki theater over the years to the point where he has become known as the infamous gentleman thief. Ann's Persona Carmen is a femme fatale from the novella and opera of the same name and is depicted as a seductress with a penchant for living by her own rules.

These characters only scratch the surface of the literary figures depicted as Personas in Persona 5 Royal and its spin-offs.Futaba has the Necronomicon Persona based on H.P. Lovecraft's works, Joker has Arsene as his original Persona who is based on the fictional Arsene Lupin, and even Zenkichi in Persona 5 Strikers has the Persona Valjean based on the character from Les Miserables. There are even more minor fictional characters that could be represented as enemies in Persona 6 from a variety of authors around the world like Poe, Cervantes, Tolkien, and many more who would be perfect candidates.

Persona 6 is going to have a hard time living up to the expectations created by Persona 5 Royal, but iterating upon the themes established in its predecessor could help immensely. Adding new enemies that can be recruited as Personas is a great way to ensure that Persona 6 feels like a fresh experience, and there are near endless possibilities of characters based on classic literature that could be the basis for enemy designs. As Persona 5 Royal has shown, using these characters as Personas and leaning into the literary figure aesthetic is quite popular with players, so Atlus would be wise to keep that in mind for Persona 6.