Persona games (3/4/5).
Sony did good nailing down exclusivity, at least for themselves. What that leverage they used was, I don't know, maybe they didn't do anything and Atlus just felt that's where the game belonged. But, I find this series to be one of the most successful of the SMT games and subseries in having broader appeal, modestly challenging (rather easy compared to the hardcore SMT fans). But, great gameplay, great characters and excellent localization from the writing and voice talent. Excellent balance between the social and dungeon crawling aspects. And visually, though they don't push the barrier with visual superficialities like character models, high polygon counts, resolution and framerate performance, all that stuff people care too much about, their visual flare is all in their art direction, and these games generally have some very decent soundtracks. It's a very palatable gateway game to the SMT series and even JRPGs in general. And, IMO, one of the more unique JRPGs. They have very one platform focused on all their games; and I feel, they're really selling themselves short this way.
In the 6th/7th gen overlap, when I got into Persona 3 & 4, there was such a long period of time I thought they were ignoring one of the best opportunities to expand the series. Mainly with the absence of Square Enix last gen for a considerable time. They spend years working on their White Engine / Crystal Tools development assets. Their development or publishing was limited to some generic and underwhelming JRPGs like Infinite Undiscovery and Last Remnant, Star Ocean, and even the long awaited FFXIII titles were met with overwhelming disappointment. Even those most enthusiastic JRPG fans seemed to latch onto some rather niche games and series of not much significance. Still, Atlus, who nailed two great JRPGs back to back with the Persona games, they didn't follow through on that momentum. They made Catherine, great game, but not a Persona sequel. They made a bunch of SMT games on DS/3DS, Devil Survivor 1 & 2, Strange Journey, Soul Hackers, SMT4, Devil Survivor 1 & 2 remakes, Persona Q, SMT4: Apocalypse, and on PSP/Vita like Persona 4 The Golden, Persona 2 Innocent Sin, Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, Persona 3 Portable, Dancing All Night, and on consoles the two Persona 4 fighting games... but all that, they failed to really make a big multiplatform entry in the series, or a timely follow up console sequel or re-release.
As an Xbox fan, I'd love to see the Persona series go there, yet I realize Japanese developers have very little interest doing that without incentive as it really has no place in their domestic market. But even that aside, they've sold themselves short not making use of other avenues like the Wii/WiiU or PC. Even if Sony might have tied down exclusivity or time exclusivity to Persona 5 on PS3/PS4, there's so much opportunity to make a collection out of Persona 3 & 4. Persona 4: The Golden is already made, updated, it could easily just be ported to existing consoles, wouldn't take much money or resources to put it on PS4, Xbox One, PC, heck, they don't even need to waste the talents of the studio working on Persona 5, it'd be the perfect thing to outsource to a competent third party. If they were to do a collection, then throw in Persona 3, at the very least give us the FES version as a straight upscaled port; and at the most ambitious, combine elements of P3P and FES, like P3P's full party combat control, the extra social links and female protagonist. And, that's not to say I'd expect such a move to be instantly beneficial; at the very least, I don't think it would lose them money, and rather it has the potential to lay roots to help the series grow in the future.
And, I also feel that making the older games modern multiplatform ports could really help sell their future entries, or could have. I already played Persona 3 & 4, so getting a PS4 to play Persona 5 was a must for me, I already got my PS4 last holiday season hoping Persona 5 was to release in 2016 (unfortunately the worldwide release was pushed to 2017). But, give everybody else that opportunity to dabble in maybe on of the best JRPG series of the last decade, maybe they too might show interest in this next entry in the series. Maybe some without a PS4 might rethink getting one. Maybe they might buy a 3DS to branch out with some of those other great SMT games. Maybe they might fire up their PS3, download some of those modest $10 SMT games in the PS2 Classics like Persona 3 & 4, Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2, or the two Devil Summoner games.
Even if making it on the Xbox is taboo among Japanese devs and western Japanophiles, seriously, don't sell yourself short Atlus, at least put it on PC. I'd really like to see the series be more successful, and I think at least branching out is the only way they're going to do it. The series has been at the top of their game so I don't think just making another fantastic entry is going to do them any better upping the value of the series, they really just need to reach more people with each release. And, at very least, give us a modern updated Persona 3/4 collection while you're at it.
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