A free-to-play 'Persona 5' mobile game is on its way

A new group of Phantom Thieves will be stealing hearts in Tokyo. Black Wings Game Studio, the developer owned by Chinese company Perfect World Games, has unveiled a new mobile game set in the Persona 5 universe. The previous spinoffs of the title, Persona 5 Strikers and Dancing in Starlight, feature the original gang, but this one comes with a brand new cast of characters. While it wasn't created by Atlus itself, Persona: Phantom of the Night (or Persona 5: The Phantom X, shortened as P5X) had SEGA's blessing. It was also developed under the supervision of P-Studio, the team behind the mainline Persona games.

So far, its trailers show us a red-haired protagonist who's juggling high school life and Metaverse thievery, a brown-haired girl reminiscent of P4's Chie and a talking owl who, like Morgana, can transform into a getaway vehicle. The developer has also released character artwork for another female character with long black hair and another for Igor's new assistant in the Velvet Room.

According to the game's announcement, franchise character designer Shigenori Soejima created the game's protagonist and exclusive Persona. And if you watch the trailer below, you'll see that Black Wings was able to capture the look and feel of the original Persona 5 game quite well. It uses the same gameplay and battle effects, and it features the same victory close-ups, as well as the popular P5 battle soundtrack Wake Up, Get up, Get Out There.

Unlike the original Persona 5 game, P5X will be free to play, which means it will have in-app purchases. It will be available to beta testers on Android, iOS and Windows (as a port) starting on March 29th, but only in China. The developer has yet to announce if it will be released outside the region.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/free-to-play-persona-5-mobile-game-114009191.html?src=rss