Atlus, the developer of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, has said that the company wants to remake Persona 1 and Persona 2.
Although Persona was originally a spin-off of the above-mentioned much larger over-arching series and derives much of its design from there, the success of the fifth main entry, Persona 5, has now given it enough influence to truly stand on its own.
Back in 1996, Atlus released the first game under the title of Revelations: Persona, originally for the PlayStation 1. It wasn’t translated well in localizations outside of Japan and while many of the mechanics that are commonplace in the series now were there, they weren’t nearly as refined as they are now.
Several years later, the company released a sequel in the form of a duology. The two games were Persona 2: Innocent Sin (1999) and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (2000). These games are considered major improvements over the original and tell an entirely new story with a fresh cast of characters.
Revelations: Persona received a remake on the PlayStation Portable (PSP) way back in 2009 under the title of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona, and was released worldwide with regional localizations. Despite this, only the first game of the Persona 2 duology received the same treatment.
Persona 2: Innocent Sin was remade for the PSP as well under the title Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2 – Innocent Sin back in 2011. Persona 2: Eternal Punishment was remade for the same system in 2012 but it wasn’t released outside of Japan nor did it receive regional localizations.
Atlus is hoping to bring more of the early days of the franchise back to fans, seeing as how Persona has become so incredibly popular now. In a recent interview, Atlus said in a quote that their company is experimenting with SEGA on many ideas, including P1/P2, but nothing is in end production the same way that Persona 3 Reload is, for instance.