The Phantom X Missed a Big Opportunity With Its Protagonist

It might be remarkably different courtesy of its gacha mechanics and free-to-play elements, but Persona 5: The Phantom X still feels like a Persona game, at the end of the day. It’s got the same charm and sleek appeal of other entries in the series, and its specific parallels with Persona 5 make it a treat for returning fans, especially those coming off the heels of 2019’s Persona 5 Royal.

That said, Persona 5: The Phantom X isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Naturally, the typical free-to-play woes that plague so many modern games are a concern for many P5X players, and have likely driven away many of those looking for a more traditional gaming experience. Much like other contemporary gacha games such as Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves, The Phantom X requires players to cough up cold, hard cash to enjoy the entirety of the experience. Moreover, since it’s still being expanded via a seasonal model, P5X can often feel incomplete. But these live-service traits are to be expected; there’s one other, less-discussed shortcoming that could have been addressed, and perhaps it someday will be.

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Persona 5: The Phantom X Would Have Been the Perfect Opportunity for a Female Protagonist

The Persona Franchise Has Dropped the Ball With Female Leads

There have only been two female protagonists in the Persona franchise, with one of them being optional and effectively erased from the modern canon. There’s Maya Amano from Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, and Kotone Shiomi of Persona 3 Portable, but the latter is just an alternate protagonist option, and was left on the cutting-room floor for Persona 3 Reload, much to the chagrin of many fans. These two leading ladies have engendered strong respective followings, though: not only are they among the franchise’s strongest female characters, but they are interesting and lovable in their own right, making them easy to get attached to.

And yet, Atlus has shied away from including female leads in the rest of the Persona series; Persona 3 Portable was released sixteen years ago, after all. And while Persona 3 Reload‘s director offered a reasonable explanation for the female protagonist being excluded in Persona 3 Reload, the lack of other heroines is still sorely felt. There have been several opportunities for the franchise to improve in this area, and Persona 5: The Phantom X is a fitting example of one.

Why Persona 5: The Phantom X Would Be the Right Choice for a Female Lead

As a long-term, live-service gacha game, The Phantom X would have been a nice venue to introduce a female protagonist, even if she were only an alternative option like in Persona 3 Portable. With the game’s story being informed by updates, P5X could have offered a wider variety of narrative elements, tweaked by the arrival of a different main character. P5X‘s global release also could have been a good chance for Atlus to redeem itself a bit in the wake of the aforementioned Kotone Shiomi debacle, which drew attention to the Persona franchise’s history of favoring male leads over female ones.

But hopefully, this dream could still become a reality. Indeed, if there were ever a Persona game that could feasibly loop in a new player-character through post-launch content, it’s The Phantom X. Maybe, if the game continues to grow a healthy worldwide playerbase, Atlus could integrate a different lead character, giving audiences a chance to engage with its story and social sim elements from a different perspective. And since it’s a live-service game, this option could start small—perhaps even as small as some cosmetic and dialogue differences—before evolving into a more complex and differentiated playstyle, not unlike what was offered in Persona 3 Portable.