Earlier last month, the director of Persona 4‘s fighting series announced the possibility of a Persona 5 fighting game ahead of the U.S. release of the 5th game.

Kazuhisa Wada said: “Regarding a Persona 5: Arena title… We’ve just finished putting our all into Persona 5 itself, so it’d have to be something we’d discuss further down the line.

But I definitely want to make it happen.“

The original Persona fighting game came out in 2012 and featured characters such as Yu Narukami and Yosuke Hanamura from the Persona 4 franchise. Players also got to experience their favorites from Persona 3 with the release of the sequel fighting game Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. Each game features the usual characteristics of fighting games, including 2-D, back and forth movements with jumps and button heavy moves.

What makes the game special though is the introduction of new characters outside of the old ones we knew and loved, as well as the ability to use each characters persona for special moves. The personas encompass a similar bar that powers up over time, similar to the special moves in Injustice or Skullgirls. The Persona 4 Arena games were also easier for new players, with some characters being powerful enough to win through sheer button mashing tactics alone.

While most fighting games require skill to learn move sets for a character, releasing a Persona 5 Arena game will give fans of the franchise more characters to explore and see whether or not they like the specific move sets of those characters.

Persona 5‘s theme revolves around thieves, whereas Persona 4 focused on friendship, so if the game follows what it’s based off of, we can expect the game to look grittier than the Persona 4 Arena series. Persona 4 made use of a lot of yellows and bright colors, whereas the color palette associated with Persona 5 is black, dark reds and other dark shades. I don’t think any fighting game can look as gritty as Mortal Kombat or Injustice, but Persona 5 will definitely look different when compared to Persona 4 based on colors alone.

Fans can also expect fun move sets from various Persona 5 characters based on what we’ve seen through teaser videos that led up to the Japan release in September. We can assume that characters such as Makoto Niijima might have a similar playstyle to Kanji, especially after seeing her outfit and persona in a teaser. Makoto has spiked knuckles and a motorcycle as a persona, so when she uses her persona, they may animate it so she runs over the other player with a special move. Kanji, on the other hand, looks like a delinquent, and in the Persona 4 Arena franchise, he would hit you with a chair repeatedly. Maybe Makoto hits similar to Kanji. Otherwise, the closest character to Kanji would be Ryuji Sakamoto. His persona is Captain Kidd, so when he uses his special move, he may have the giant pirate ship fire its cannons at the other player.

Regardless of how it all turns out, the idea of a new Persona fighting game sounds like a lot of fun. The color schemes will definitely change, but they may bring back older places from the previous installments. It would also be awesome if they end up incorporating more characters from the third and fourth installments of the Persona franchise. I remember playing Ultimax and only seeing Elizabeth as playable, but there are other people from velvet rooms past that would be fun to play.

There is also a lot more Atlus might be able to do with the franchise by incorporating some other elements to the game. If Atlus made a decision-making factor for the story mode so that you could have a few endings for characters, or if they add scene changes like the Injustice franchise as well as usable pieces in each arena, that could be fun. By doing that, it may take a lot away from the fighting aspect since you would need to know the arena to make it better, but I’m sure Atlus, Wada included, has some tricks up their sleeves to make a great Persona 5 Arena game.

Collegian blogger Kevin Avis can be reached at blogs@collegian.com. Leave a comment!!