A couple of weeks ago, we here at TheGamer noticed that Atlus promoted some Persona-related swag in a way that really got fans talking. At the time, we opted not to report on it, as nothing really screamed “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Today, however, something a bit strange happened. And, well, now it’s worth talking about.
Here’s the deal: T-shirts went on sale celebrating the first Persona games. You know, the ones from before Persona 3. Which is to say, before social links. Which is to say, prior to the Persona series taking on the identity that most players tend to equate with it. There were technically three games before 3—Persona, Persona 2: Innocent Sin, and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. (Those two are interconnected; one’s a sequel to the other.)
What caught folks’ eyes is that the shirts were marketed as Persona: Origins and Persona: Duality. This led to inevitable chatter that remakes with such subtitles are fast approaching. I shrugged. TheGamer.com shrugged. Now, Atlus has gone back and removed the subtitles outright, and… yeah. OK. Maybe something’s going on here.
Still, Don’t Get Your Hopes Up Too High
It’s gone. Erased. No more Origins. No more Duality. Just Persona and Persona 2. The very same merchandise—not just shirts, but hats, and mugs, as well—is no longer being sold with the peculiar subtitle labeling that got fans in an uproar earlier this month.
What does it mean? Quite frankly, it could simply be that Atlus is attending to put out a fire’s worth of miscommunication. Getting the fandom riled up over something that’s not in the works isn’t the safe play it might sound like; in time, it’ll turn to resentment, as these things often do. Personally, this is my guess, as bummer as it is (I love Persona 2, both parts of it, to be clear). They’ve got Persona 4 Rewind right now, and Persona 6, contrary to all the memes jesting otherwise, will eventually be announced.
Of course, it’s always possible that outside studios are doing loads of heavy lifting for 1 and 2 remakes. Remaking both Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, though? That’s a lot of lifting. And would Sega want Atlus and/or its partners to revamp the games so that they’ve got links, romance, all that stuff? If so, that’d be an enormous undertaking. If Origins and Duality truly are remakes-in-the-making, and they launch without Persona-3-onward mechanics, it’d be praised in some corners as staying true to its roots; but from a commercial perspective, I’m simply not sure that it’ll be an easy sell.
Right now, we have to put this in the camp of “who knows?” Like I said, I’m still skeptical. The studio could simply have noticed all the hubbub and wanted to set the record straight. But I get it. An argument could be made that they’ve brought that much more attention to the matter, and thus, they might indeed be hiding something. It’s always a boring way to end an article, but alas, all that can be said with certainty is that time will tell one way or another.
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