Spoiler warning: this article will contain minor spoilers for Persona 5. There will also be mild spoilers for Persona 5 Scramble, but only information that has been released in promotional material.
In September I made an article analyzing the introduction animations of Persona 5 and its rerelease, Persona 5: The Royal. In this piece I looked at the presentation of both and connected this to the role of the two games, as well as their perception in pop culture. I highly recommend checking it out, but the gist is this: the original Persona 5’s intro centered on the mystery of the new characters and a more subtle introduction of the theme of rebellion, whereas the intro for Royal shows off a more celebratory ensemble, since everyone knows the Phantom Thieves at this point and the original game was a massive success.
https://steemit.com/persona5/@paigeautumneve/comparing-the-intros-of-persona-5-and-persona-5-the-royal
So now next month we have the Japanese release of Persona 5 Scramble, a game that serves to continue the game’s story while also presenting an entirely new combat system. There has been no news on a western release, presumably to not overshadow the release of Persona 5 Royal in the west in March. But, we do have an intro, and I think it’s worth analyzing how this intro draws from both Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There, and Colors Flying High, in order to bring the series into its next chapter.
Immediately the intro begins with a return to the vanilla intro with a shot of a 3D cityscape in that sweet red and greyscale pallet we all know and love. This pallet is maintained as every member of the Phantom Thieves is introduced one by one. They each get two shots in the beginning. The first shot is of them bouncing around the city in their Metaverse outfits in this pallet, and the second is of them in their summer outfits. The pallet remains the same until the scene turns into a splashcard showing their code name and bringing them into full color. (For Joker and Panther, the shot order is reversed.)
This is a shift from the original Persona 5 intro, as not only does every character get equal representation, but it also goes the Royal route of not leaving anyone’s identity up to mystery. In fact, Scramble is even more in-your-face on this front, as rather than have a montage for each Metaverse identity and then have sporadic scenes of the characters’ real world appearances, Scramble juxtaposes the real and Metaverse counterparts. This makes sense. Even in the context of Royal’s release and the success of these characters, it’s still important to note that not everyone who has played Royal will have played the original. Royal is a rerelease of the original with added content, and in addition to providing new content to fans, it’s also meant to provide a new entry point to people who played Joker in Smash and were interested in seeing what the hype was all about. While that could also be the case with Scramble since it’s coming to the Switch, this game is meant to be a sequel, so the hope is at the very least the player is familiar with the story before they dive in. This is truly meant to be a roll call of characters we know pretty well at this point.
The way the characters are also presented is also changed in terms of the pallet itself. The pallet is taken from the original intro, yes, but it’s expanded quite a bit.
In the original, the characters are kept strictly to the color pallet with very small exceptions made for the hair and eyes of some characters. Here, however, the characters are allowed to be much more colorful. The colors are more muted to fit the pallet, but there’s a much wider variety to choose from, and the changes apply to clothes as well. This is particularly noticeable in the scene where the team is throwing Joker’s phone around on the train. Many of the characters’ outfits have some degree of color, from Joker’s blue pants to Futaba’s neon yellow shirt. Not only is there more color, but the colors are more accurate to the characters as well. In the original intro, for example, Ann is colored with bright yellow hair and bright green eyes. Here, her hair is allowed to be much more subtle to reflect her real appearance, and her eyes are her natural pale greenish-blue.
There are two exceptions to this in the form of new characters. Two are featured in the new intro: Sophia, the newest Phantom Thief; and Zenkichi, who’s an investigator of some sort. Both are depicted strictly in greyscale.
This serves to build off of the previous intros’ use of color in depicting the characters. In the original theme they conformed on the surface but had highlights that made them stand out, a more quiet rebellion to reflect their secretive nature. Royal was a complete departure from this, showing the colors in bright colors to reflect the more loud and proud side to the Thieves’ rebellion (and, as I’ve discussed, to celebrate their huge success). Scramble’s pallet is a happy medium of this. By breaking the pallet of society and yet still respecting it, the Thieves have shown that through the events of the game and the reflection in the months after, they have found their identities and how to thrive in the world around them without forsaking this identity. It also shows our found familiarity with these characters- something the audience does not have for the new ones.
Of course, all of this flies out the window during the second half of the intro, which shifts pallets entirely. The pallet is no longer limited and is fully colorful, taken directly from the pallet of one of the levels in the game. Here we see a shot of all of the Thieves once more, and we get to see them in action and working with one another. The scene is reminiscent of the heist scene in the Royal intro, but with two distinct differences. One is that the pallet is fully realized, with a level of detail in the backgrounds not seen in Royal’s pop-art style. The second is that this is a fight scene, which is a far cry from both intros.
This is meant to highlight the new gameplay style. Persona 5 is turn-based, but Scramble is an action RPG with real-time fighting. In addition to highlighting this change, the intro also serves to give the audience a taste of each character’s gameplay style and how they will fight in the game. We get a taste for Sophia and (presumably) Zenkichi’s Metaverse outfits and fighting styles as well, and the intrigue around them continues to build. But most importantly, we see through this vibrant scene that the Phantom Thieves are completely within their element here, and ready for another go-around.
As a whole, Scramble’s intro also feels like a successor to the intro to the original, but in a much different way than Royal’s. While both have a focus on the characters as an ensemble and play with the original’s pallet, Scramble feels much tighter and more true to the original than Royal. This could be because Scramble is a direct sequel whereas Royal was an alternate timeline, but I think it’s because Royal shows how far the characters have come, and Scramble shows how far they have grown. The difference is, dare I say it, striking.