A lot of people thought Persona 5 Royal, the enhanced version of the base Persona 5, would be the last we would see of the Phantom Thieves, and maybe Atlus will then start work on Persona 6. It may be a while until we see Persona 6, but until then there's more Persona 5 coming our way, with a brand new cast of characters, designed by regular SMT artist Shigenori Soejima. If P5R is "Persona 5 but more of it", this new spin-off is "Persona 5 but different". 

Persona 5: The Phantom X shares a setting with Persona 5 but follows a different group at a different school in Tokyo whose Personas awaken and they traverse the metaverse. The new protagonist, codenamed Wonder, can be seen in the first trailer meeting with Igor in the redesigned Velvet Room alongside a new attendant waifu named Merope.

The white owl, called Luffy and codenamed Cattle, is this new group's Morgana, the resident exposition dumping cute animal mascot that also transforms into a car. The only other new teammate revealed so far is Suwa Arai, codenamed Closer, a cute classmate of Wonder. P5X lets players explore neighborhoods and meet NPCs featured in the base game like sexy doctor Takemi and weapons shop bro Iwai, as well as new ones. There are minigames and jobs, just like you'd expect from Persona. Finally, judging by the end of the second trailer, the OG Phantom Thieves of Hearts will appear in some capacity. Here are both trailers in one video, with added English subs for your convenience:

Here's the hard part: P5X is a free-to-play mobile game with microtransactions. While Atlus and Sega were involved with the game's development, developer Black Wings Game Studio and publisher Perfect World Games are both Chinese companies, and so far it's scheduled for release only in China. Even Japan aren't sure if they're getting it eventually, so us westoids can't do much but wait and hope for the best. If you do happen to be in China, playtesting begins March 29.

What do you guys think of the new Phantom Thieves? Is a Persona 5 mobile spin-off a good idea? Are you hoping for that western release announcement soon? Drop your thoughts in the comments!