New Persona 5 Spin-Off Is Missing A Beloved Character For Unclear Reasons

Persona 5: The Phantom X is a new spin-off of the series designed for the Chinese smartphone market. And while it features familiar environments and characters, one of them is suspiciously absent: Joker's barista friend, Sojiro Sakura.

We've already seen that the mobile game will feature both new and returning characters, including the Phantom Thieves themselves, as well as a new cast of misfits. However, while the coffee shop Cafe Leblanc features as a location in the The Phantom X, a screenshot posted to the Persona subreddit indicates that it's run by an unidentified woman, not Sojiro. That's an odd choice, to say the least.

As some fans argue in the thread, Sojiro does tell Joker in Persona 5 that he'd like to sell the shop and do something else. However, this might also be a hint that the spin-off takes place in an alternate timeline, a story trope that's been used in the series before.

It's worth noting that The Phantom X is only available in Chinese at the moment, and it's still in beta, so everything's subject to change. That said, it's an interesting choice that's sent fans into a tizzy, and we'll have to see how it shakes out in the end.