Persona 5 Scramble First Trailer Reveals It’s a Proper Sequel to Persona 5, Launches in February 2020 in Japan

Iyane Agossah October 24, 2019 6:53 AM EST

Persona 5 Scramble takes place in the summer following Persona 5's ending and has all Phantom Thieves playable except Futaba.

Sega, Atlus, and Koei Tecmo revealed the first trailer for Persona 5 Scramble The Phantom Strikers, revealing its Japanese release date. Persona 5 Scramble launches on February 20, 2020, on PS4 and Switch, for 8800 Yen, (tax excluded). There’s no release estimate for a western release yet.

Let’s take a look at the trailer and analyze it:

The narrator at the beginning mentions the incident happening now could be linked to the Phantom Thieves incident which shook the world 6 months ago. Moreover, multiple times through the trailer, the characters reveal how Persona 5 Scramble takes place in summer. This means it’s set after Persona 5 ‘s story. Persona 5 Scramble is an actual sequel with new story elements. The official site confirms so as well and explicitly says “after Persona 5‘s ending” rather than “after Persona 5 The Royal‘s ending” so maybe Kasumi won’t be appearing in P5S.

We also learn that this new incident includes a new parallel world similar to Palaces. And powerful shadows appearing all over Japan. So the Phantom Thieves, after reuniting for summer vacation, start traveling to investigate all Japan. It explains why the previous teaser trailer showed the names of various big Japanese cities.

Players can bring up to 4 characters in battle and can rotate through them at any time. The official site confirmed: “all Phantom Thieves are directly playable except for Navi/Futaba”. This is surprising as I was expecting Futaba to be playable and thought that was what the Star Ocean Anamnesis collab was teasing.

The mysterious new character shown in the very first Persona 5 Scramble teaser trailer is playable as well.

Joker, as a Wild Card, is able to switch between different personas.

While the battles seem like the usual Musou game, we have some exploration phases as well, like in a traditional Persona game. Omega Force highly pushed the RPG side and it seems we’re really getting “Persona 5 Action RPG” rather than “Persona 5 Musou”.

We also have multiple new characters. In particular, we have a man leading the police force. This new character is voiced by veteran seiyuu Shinichiro Miki. (My favorite roles he did are Allen in Escaflowne and Jin in Pretty Rhythm by the way.)

That’s everything we can make out of the trailer. The official site and online shops also include the screenshots above.

Atlus also announced those who preorder Persona 5 Scramble in Japan will receive BGMs from the Persona series as DLC. Players will be able to play these tracks during normal battles in Persona 5 Scramble. Here’s the tracklist:

(PS version) Megami Ibunroku Persona: “Normal Battle Theme” (Refine version)

(PSP version) Persona: “A Lone Prayer”

(PSP version) Persona 2 Sin: “Normal Battle Theme”

(PSP version) Persona 2 Punishment: “Normal Battle Theme”

Persona 3: Mass Destruction

Persona 3 Portable: Wiping All Out

Persona 4: Reach Out To The Truth

Persona 4 The Golden: Time To Make History

These will also be sold as DLC sometime after P5S‘s release, with each game having its own DLC OST pack.

A limited edition was also announced. It’s titled the Persona 5 Scramble The Phantom Strikers Otakara Box, sold for 13,800 Yen (tax excluded). Here are its contents:

A PS4 or Switch copy of Persona 5 Scramble The Phantom Strikers

The Persona 5 Scramble Setting Collection: a 48 pages book containing information and materials related to the game.

Two CDs of Persona 5 Scramble‘s OST, made by a collaboration of the Atlus Sound Team and the Koei Tecmo Sound Team. 45 tracks in total.

A making-of bluray for Persona 5 Scramble’s theme song “You are Stronger”, by Lyn and Lotus Juice.

A “sacoche” in nylon designed by the Persona Team. (“Sacoche” is basically how we call small personal bags in France, Atlus used this word instead of “handbag” because like every Japanese company they think french is cool for no reason).

A Morgana towel (size is 350mm×900mm).

All the above comes in a special box designed by the Persona Team.

Persona 5 Scramble‘s boxart was also revealed.

Lastly, Atlus and Koei Tecmo mentioned more info on Persona 5 Scramble will be coming through a livestream on November 4, at 20:00 JST. (Click here for time conversions)

Personally speaking, I never play Musou-related titles that aren’t the original Three Kingdoms and Sengoku themed games. The only one I was ever interested in was Fire Emblem Warriors, but I lost all interest when the game focused on Awakening and Fates characters. It’s pretty much the first time I’m so excited for a licensed Musou game. Because it seems much more than “Persona 5 Musou”. I’d even say I’m much more hyped than for Persona 5 Royal since everything about Persona 5 Scramble is a much bigger surprise. Persona 5 Royal launches on PS4 on October 31 in Japan. I’m getting it day one so look forward to my impressions.