Summary
Persona 6will take place in a high school setting, a prominent Atlus leaker has said. Their claim was offered in response to yet another wave of fan discussion about whetherPersona 6could benefit from going to college.
The high school setting has been near-synonymous with the long-running JRPG franchise since its 1996 beginnings. This part of its formula is actually even older, having first emerged in the 1994Shin Megami Tensei If, which proved successful enough to convince Atlus to create a spin-off series completely revolving around high school. But as thePersonafandom got older, calls for the franchise to try looking beyond high school started gaining momentum. In terms of the next mainline entry, it is nowadays not uncommon to seefans advocate forPersona 6to grow up.
Persona 6 Is ‘Not Getting Out of High School,’ Insider Claims
But that’s not going to happen, according to well-known Atlus leaker Midori. Taking to Twitter on February 26, the insider said that the upcoming game is “not getting out of high school.” Their claim emerged as part of the latest round of fan discussion about whetherPersona 6could benefit from leaving the high school tradition behind.
Persona Series Has Already Left High School Once, And It Didn’t Go Well
Atlus’s reluctance to make thePersonaseries grow up ostensibly comes down to a combination of factors. For one, the Japanese studio already did that once withPersona 2: Eternal Punishment. The experiment didn’t go well, as the 2000 RPG ended up being the lowest-selling entry in the franchise, moving fewer than 285,000 units, with the vast majority of its sales coming from Japan. The completePersona 2duology sold only 675,000 copies, a far cry from the global success of all the subsequent games in the franchise.
Another reason for the series' adherence to the high school setting that might be lost on Western fans comes down to the cultural context. Educational years are often viewed through a romantic lens in both Japanese and Western cultures, but the two tend to focus on different stages. While the West sees college as the pivotal time of freedom, exploration, and personal growth, Japanese often attribute those experiences to high school. Similar to colleges on the other side of the planet, Japanese high schools pair non-compulsory classes with rigorous academic testing. Yet their students still have plenty of time for self-discovery, at least relative to later stages in life.
These differences help explain why Japanese society tends to view high school as a more formative period of life than college, contrary to the Western perspective, which is also reflected in the themes explored by its media, video games included. One final reason why Atlus might want tokeepPersona 6in high schoolcomes down to maintaining the series' mainstream appeal: since more people attend high school than college, this setting is inherently more relatable than a university one would be.
Persona 6
The sixth mainline entry in the Persona series has been officially confirmed to be in development in July 2021. Subsequent insider reports suggested that the game is targeting a 2025 or 2026 release.
