Everyone was hoping Persona 5 would come to the Nintendo Switch after Joker was announced for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Unfortunately, Persona 5 S didn’t stand for Switch but rater Scramble! Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Striker is the official title and was revealed during the Persona Live Special last night in Japan. The game is another spin-off from Persona 5. It is a Musou/Warriors style game where the Phantom Thieves will fight swarms of enemies using their Personas and weapons. The game is being produced alongside Koei Techmo (Dynasty Warriors series). The game will be for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 but has no release date.
While fans are understandably disappointed, hopefully, the game will be as good as Hyrule Warriors. (Legend of Zelda muso game) In the trailer, a young girl was showcase so the game may have a unique story for The Phantom Strikers.
An official trailer for Persona 5 The Royal was released during the Persona live event in Japan. The trailer showcases many new features in the updated version including a 3rd semester of school, a new classmate/party member, updated combat and dungeons, and more. Persona 5 The Royal will release in Japan on October 31st and worldwide in 2020.
Another semester of school is significant because, in the original title, the game ends in December. In Persona 3 and 4, the game lasted until May while starting around the same month as Persona 5. What the 3rd semester includes remains to be seen but from the trailer, it involves the casts hanging out more which is something I wanted more of. They may spread the dungeons times further apart. An unknown young man will appear during the 3rd semester whose name has not been revealed.
Could this be Morgana?
The new party member is Kasumi Yoshizawa. She is a new transfer student that comes to Shujin Academy at the same time as the protagonist. Unlike him, she has outstanding achievements as a rhythmic gymnast since middle school and people think highly of her. She admires the protagonist but dislikes the Phantom Thieves.
There is also a new confidant known as the “Le Consultant.” Takuto Maruki is a part-time student counselor hired after the events in April regarding a certain teacher. With his good looks and listening skills, he is popular among the students. I have suspicions that he is secretly a villain.
Sexy; but evil?
Student life is also expanded. You can hang out together and play darts which will unlock new skills for your party member similar to Bike Rides in Persona 4 Golden. There are new dating spots, you can hang out with twins outside of the Velvet room, and a new spot in Kichijouji. The new spot has many conflicting cultures and personalities which leads to many clashes between men and women of all ages.
DatingĀ hanging out with the Twins
Combat and dungeons have slight changes. There are more special moves from the party members. Futaba also seems to have a special attack! There are duo attacks but it hasn’t been shown in detail yet. Dungeons have also been expanded. There are new puzzles and treasures to find! There are also new strong enemies called Kyouma which glow with evil purple energy.
Kyouma in Persona 5 The RoyalDual Attacks
There is a lot more but I am excited for Persona 5 The Royal. Hopefully Persona 5 S will be shown tomorrow.
The live concert for the Persona series will start in Japan on April 24 – 25. The concert is called āPersonaĀ Super Live P-Sound Street 2019: Welcome to No. Q Theater!ā
It will be live streamed at 19:30 JST (3:30 AM PST) on Niconico (Japan Streaming Service). It will also be streamed on the Persona Twitter account for users unfamiliar with Niconico.
There will be performances from Lyn (Persona 5), Yumi Kawamura, Lotus Juice (Persona 3), Shihoko Hirata (Persona 4). The composer for the Persona series composer, Shoji Meguro, will also be present.
Wired released an article about interviewing the specs and capabilities of the “next PlayStation console” according to Mark Cerny (Lead Architect for PlayStation 4 and Vita). A lot focused on the internal parts and systems that will make it great but let me break it down for people who are unfamiliar with specs and gaming hardware.
Mark Cerny
3rd generation Ryzen cores designed for the 7nm fabrication process, based on the upcoming Zen 2 design:Ā The “PlayStation 5” will be as strong as a standard gaming PC and be able to run games even better. More stuff on the screen and being able to show everything without the game slowing down at all.
Ā A custom variant of AMD’s upcoming Navi architecture: The games for the new PlayStation console will look amazing.
Ray Tracing: Game audio quality will be good. You’ll be able to even hear the footsteps of characters or hear audio from different sources in the game in one area. Audio quality from PlayStation 3 to 4 was quite minor but expect big changes to the next one. You won’t need to buy new audio equipment; you should be able to hear everything from a television speaker.
The current PlayStation VR model will be compatible with the PlayStation 5.
Solid State Drive: Your games are gonna be able to run way faster. Cerny demonstrated how long it took in Spider-man for PlayStation 4 to fast travel. In the PlayStation 4 Pro model, it took 15 seconds; in the developers kit for the prototype of the “PlayStation 5,” it took 0.8 seconds. Your game and its environment will be able to move much faster and you can accelerate motion in the game while still looking good.
Backwards Compatability:Ā You’ll be able to play your PlayStation 4 games. It will still accept physical media so you don’t have to worry about your games becoming obsolete.
In regards to other features, that still remains to be determined but don’t expect the PlayStation 5 to come out in 2019! Cerny also didn’t state anything about cloud services but he did say āwe are cloud-gaming pioneers, and our vision should become clear as we head toward launch.ā
The Gaming News Corner 