I am so, so serious about this.

Sub-Personas are a system in Persona Q and Persona Q2 (2018), based on the main classes and sub-classes from Etrian Odyssey. How it works is that every character gets to keep their Main Persona the entire game. The only exception is if their main Persona evolves into their ultimate Persona, which also stays on that character for the rest of the game. This is true for the protagonists, who normally swap their main persona with pixie or whatever 5 minutes into the game.

In the Q series though, everyone also gets sub-Personas. Sub-personas can be equipped or removed from any character, Wild Card Protag or not. These sub-personas are the ones that are fused and upgraded in the Velvet Room (no relation). The skill set of each character is a combination of their main persona's skills and the skills of the sub-persona they have equipped.

It's. Fucking.

Awesome.

It is without a doubt the best part of Persona Q, and I fully believe it should be in every single Persona game. I think this for a few reasons.

For starters, it brings Persona more in-line with the series it's based off of, Shin Megami Tensei. In those games, you aren't just fusing demons for your main character to swap out at will - you're fusing your entire party. This leads to a significantly larger amount of gameplay customization that doesn't exist In Persona games. In those, your team is determined by whatever elements you need for a dungeon, but that's about where it starts and ends.

But in the Persona Q games, you have so many more options. Now Ann can cast Agi, Bufu, and Garu. Or maybe you want Ryuji to cast some healing spells in a pinch, despite his low magic stats. You're not just fusing Persona for your MC anymore - you have 5 party members to consider, and it makes my scungly little goblin brain and nice and happy and covered in copious amounts of goop.

It also gives you more reason to experiment with Persona. When they're not all just going towards your MC, you actually have reasons to create Persona that don't revolve around your build. I always run Magic for my MCs in these games, so I was never spending too much time with Physical Persona, but in the Q games I have an incentive to create them because I can stack them on characters like Akihiko, who'll get some use out of it. Overall it's just a great system that doesn't deserve to be left behind in a poorly selling (and poorly marketed) spin-off series.

So Why Won't it Ever Happen?

I've thought about this for a while too, and I think I have the answer.

You see, the Persona team is absolutely obsessed with ludo-narrative cohesion in its games. There's an explanation for everything that happens in a Persona game. You can't just making a rhythm game spin-off, you have to explain how and why Yu Narukami is shaking his ass to the greatest rendition of Your Affection in existence. You have to explain who sells the items, how the Velvet Room shows up in the spin-off, how the characters still have their powers. And you have to explain why Sub-Personas exist.

In the Q games Sub-Personas are said to exist because multiple Wild Card Protagonists are all in the same...room? Universe? Something like that. And that's why anyone can swap out a Sub-Persona. That's cool I guess, but this rigidity when it comes to mechanical depth needing to be tied to story explanations ends up being the series' undoing. And normally I like that sort of thing! But sometimes, when you explain why a mechanic exists within the context of the game's plot, you lock yourself out of interesting opportunities.

So my guess is that we might never see the Sub-Persona system in a mainline Persona. And that sucks, 'cause I've spent the last 700 words explaining, it's really good! Hopefully Atlus reneges, but this is the same company that put Persona 5 Royal on the Switch in 2022, so...

Oh hey, Persona 5 Tactica has sub-personas! Add it to the list.