Six Years Ago, Atlus Released One of the Greatest Video Games Ever Made

Atlus is one of the biggest and most respected JRPG developers in the world, responsible for the Shin Megami Tensei series and its sub-series, as well as the widely popular Persona series. It's hard to believe that it's been six years now since Atlus released one of its greatest games, one that brought turn-based combat back to having modern mainstream appeal.

Today, March 31, 2026, marks the sixth anniversary of the worldwide release of Persona 5 Royal, an updated version of the original Persona 5, which was originally released outside of Japan in April 2017. Persona 5 Royal added new story content, a new playable character, a new Palace (the game's dungeons), new music, new social link stories, and more.

Persona 5 follows the story of teenager Ren Amamiya (who originally had a player-created name, but his canonical name has been used in most Persona 5 media post-initial release) as he is accused of assault and then forced to move to Tokyo and live with a family friend while he is on probation. There, he discovers another world called the Metaverse and gathers friends and allies to "steal the hearts" of people who are corrupting society, changing their cognitive functions, forming the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.

Gameplay is split between two major styles: a high school life simulator and a turn-based battle dungeon crawler. During the day, Amamiya attends class, participates in extracurriculars, and forms friendships with others, which increase his abilities in combat as well as his ability to create new personas.

For Persona 5 Royal, a new playable character, Kasumi Yoshizawa, was added, as well as a third school semester, which greatly increased the amount of content in an already 90-plus hour experience.

According to Metacritic, Persona 5 Royal is currently sitting at an impressive 95 metascore, making it the best-reviewed game of 2020, even over The Last of Us Part 2, and one of the most critically acclaimed turn-based RPGs of all time. The game would see particular praise for its visuals, art style, engaging turn-based combat, narrative, and music.

Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal are often credited with reviving mainstream turn-based JRPGs, in an era during which most games were being developed around action experiences.

Since Persona 5 Royal, Atlus has released Metaphor ReFantazio, a new IP, and that game saw similar critical and commercial success to Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal. A remake of Persona 3, Persona 3 Reload, was also released in February 2024. Atlus is currently developing a remake of Persona 4, called Persona 4 Revival, and is rumored to be developing Persona 6, too.

According to some rumors, Persona 6 could be announced on June 7 at the Xbox Games Showcase.