The video game industry loves to celebrate an anniversary thoroughly. Nintendo announced a wide range of products for the Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, and Pokemon milestones that it recently reached. Meanwhile, Sega is celebrating Sonic the Hedgehog's 30th anniversary, as well as the 25th anniversary of one of its subsidiary studios: Atlus, the creators of the Persona series. Atlus did say in late 2020 that it wanted to celebrate the Persona anniversary, but for a long time, fans didn't know when anything would actually happen. Now fans know to keep their eye on September.
Atlus revealed in July that it'll hold events celebrating the history of the Persona franchise in September. For now, details on what these events actually look like and what fans will learn are scarce. However, it's not hard to imagine how much Persona fans have to gain from September. Signs already indicate that Atlus has around seven game projects in the works meant to celebrate the Persona birthday that'll get announced over the course of the next year and hopefully released soon after that. There's no question that September will be a defining month for Persona—it's mostly a question of how many projects Atlus reveals.
Persona's Potential in September 2021
Atlus has a staggering number of projects in the works for Persona fans. Even though The Legend of Zelda's fans wanted The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess ported to Switch alongside Skyward Sword, even that level of engagement with an anniversary doesn't compare to Atlus' list of seven projects. Fans should expect Atlus to announce an online conference sometime in September where several Persona events and games could get announced. It's mostly a question of how much Atlus wants to frontload the anniversary year versus how much it wants to scatter between September 2021 and Autumn 2022.
Although the teaser website for the Persona anniversary reveals that seven different projects are on the way, it doesn't share any particulars about their release dates besides the broad window that they'll all be announced within. Atlus could reveal every upcoming Persona project in September, or it could only reveal a few and announce events for early 2022 that'll chart the course of the remaining anniversary. No matter how Atlus organizes the Persona events, though, everything leans on the September event. From the sounds of things, it'll be an explosive starting month to a very busy year for the Persona series.
The Persona Anniversary Reaches Far
Part of what makes the Persona anniversary so remarkable is its implied wide reach. One of Atlus' main promotional images for it acknowledges all five major installations in the Persona franchise. That includes references to the first couple of Persona games, which borrowed more apocalyptic imagery from Shin Megami Tensei than the more colorful and grounded Persona 3 and its successors. That suggests that not only will Atlus have a ton of projects to offer Persona fans, but that there'll be something for fans of every Persona generation to enjoy.
As ever, Atlus is doing well to keep the details on its Persona projects under wraps. It doesn't seem likely that fans will learn anything concrete about the September events unless Atlus itself offers a teaser sometime in August. A specific event date announcement seems inevitable, and that could come with some details on what Persona announcements await fans at the event. Atlus already indicates that it's going all-in on this event, which is a wise investment in the wake of Persona 5's overwhelming success. It may be creating a lot of work for itself, but it'll be worth it considering how many Persona fans it can delight. It's been quite a wait for some proper celebration of Persona's birthday, but it's finally around the corner.