Wolverine and Persona's 25th Anniversary

 

So Sony's PlayStation showcase was a little while ago and I just wanted to talk about one particular game announcement. Insomniac revealed that they're working on a Wolverine video game. I have not played either of Insomniac's Spider-Man games, but I heard they're fantastic so I'm excited for this Wolverine game. The most I've played of Wolverine in a video game was in the X-Men arcade game from the 90s and the Marvel vs. Capcom games. The X-Men Origins: Wolverine game has been said to be underrated. That being said Wolverine seems like a perfect character to make a video game around. He's violent and has a snarky attitude. I imagine it being like a character action game like the PS2 God of War games. I'm also intrigued by the story as well. I heard the Insomniac Spider-Man games have an original story that feels like something from the comic book so I'm eager to learn more about Wolverine myself in my favorite entertainment media.

As far as the game design goes I feel like it should be a linear game. An open world structure like with Spider-Man doesn't seem right to me considering Wolvy doesn't have a special way of traversal like Spider-Man, Superman, or Cole from inFamous have. A media representative a couple weeks ago mentioned that this game will be mature in tone so I'm expecting an M rating though the cg trailer gave me those vibes anyway, and that the game will be standalone. That wording worries me. Although I have yet to play a Spider-Man game I think it would be neat if the two of them could pop up in each other's games. I hope Insomniac's Wolverine will set a trend at more superheroes getting their own games and good ones at that. There's been less of them since the HD era, but the ones we've gotten have mostly been good. 

Also in other news Persona's 25th anniversary is today! The first Persona released on September 20 1996 in Japan. Persona started out as a spinoff of the Shin Megami Tensei series, but stood crown to be a series of it's own with five mainline entries and several spinoff games, anime, and manga. I got introduced to Persona with Persona 3 FES. I can't quite remember how I learned about it, but it was back in the PlayStation 2 days, but it wasn't until 2009 when I actually picked it up. I've always been a JRPG fan so I probably heard it recommended somewhere on the internet or even maybe X-Play when that was on TV.

I didn't get to play Persona 3 FES long, but I do remember really getting into the social aspects of the game. Leveling up stats like knowledge and taking classes. I've never seen this in a video game before. The more traditional RPG stuff I actually didn't like that much. Tartarus was generic and a randomized dungeon and then in battle you couldn't even control your main characters, only the protagonist and if he died then it was game over. Still, I did have fun, but I only got into a few hours of the game before the worst thing ever happened. My PlayStation 2 died one day. I can't recall exactly what happened, but I remembered trying to turn my PS2 on and it wouldn't just come on. I think I took it in to a shop too and whoever worked there told me it was dead. I think my copy of Persona 3 FES was still in there too. I vowed to get another PS2 so I could finish it, but that never ended up happening.

I wouldn't actually get to have my first real playthrough of a Persona game until 2019 when I decided to buy Persona 5 for the PlayStation 4. At the time I hadn't played anything new in a while and I remember Joker being added to Smash back and I knew it had to be good so I went to Best Buy and bought a copy. The cashier was apparently a gamer too because he asked me if I liked JRPGs and I was like "yeah I do," and then told me that Persona 5 is really long.

"Longer than a Final Fantasy?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's going to take you at least 90 hours. The thing with that game is you have to go day by day and you can't skip your days."

I guess he really wasn't as engaged with the social aspect as I was because I didn't mind not being able to skip days when I played it. I actually never imagined just how much I would love this game. It is now in my top ten games of all time. If I was born much later and played this as a child it would have been a life changing experience like Final Fantasy IX was for me when I played it for the first time. That's how much I love Persona 5. After my first playthrough I played it again and then bought and played Royal twice when it released. When I heard Persona 5 Strikers would not just be a mousu game, but a direct sequel I preordered it right away and I liked that game a lot as well. Atlus also put Persona 4 Golden on Steam and I recently beat that, though I do need to go back and see the true ending and that is my Persona journey so far.

Atlus announced a few months ago that they had some surprises for Persona's 25th anniversary with a number of projects planned. Could one of those be a Persona 3 port or a remake? Could I finally have the chance to finish this game without having to buy another PlayStation 2? There is going to be a livestream today for the celebration and we might found out just what Atlus has in store. The 25th anniversary website is up now with some Persona merch that will be available to order in October such as plushies, pins, and a Velvet Room watch. But I know what people really want to know is what games will be announced for the series in the future. Two nights ago Atlus had a stream for this celebration. It was all disappointing nothing was announced but that Velvet Room watch, Lynn performing at Tokyo Game Show, a concert in Japan (as expected), and an announcement in November.

So the real gist of it is that we're not going to have a real announcement until this November. So all we can do again is speculate and speculate I shall. As much as people have been wanting Persona 5 on Switch ever since Joker got announced for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and the direct sequel oddly enough made it to Switch, maybe Persona 5 or Persona 5 Royal will finally end up on it. I am expecting a port of some kind. Persona 4 Golden was just released to Steam last year and Atlus seemed surprised at how well it sold so I can see them adding more Persona games to Steam; most likely Persona 3 or one of the first two entries.

Everybody is looking forward to the new entry in the franchise so Persona 6 just may be announced, but if so I expect it to be a minor teaser trailer or just a splash image like with Persona 5 when that was first announced ages ago. I know for certain we will not see any gameplay. A personal wish is the announcement of a new Persona fighting game featuring the cast of Persona 5 Royal and Strikers. I play fighting games competitively and enjoyed the time I had with Persona 4 Arena so I would be down for a new fighting game. Aside from that, that's it. Let me know what you all are expecting to come from this anniversary celebration and also let me know what your opinions are on the upcoming Wolverine game.