Hello Lumia Island Survivors,

Our collab with Persona 5 Royal is almost coming to an end.

In this Dev Journal, we would like to cover the collab episodes, elements included in the game, the dev team's mindset toward partnerships, and our future plans.

The Beginning of the Persona 5 Royal Partnership

The start of this partnership goes back a full year and a half. The Persona series was the undisputed "#1 most-desired collaboration" IP with many hardcore fans in every department. However, given the popularity of Persona around the world, we initially felt cautious, and wondered whether a discussion about a partnership with us would even be possible.

Because of that, when we received a positive response regarding negotiations from the original creators, the fact itself made our hearts race. We can vividly remember the key developers preparing the proposal over several nights.

Of course, we weren't without concerns while preparing the initial proposal. At the time, Persona 5 Royal had no precedent for collaborating with a Korean game developer, and because the collaboration period was somewhat long at about two months, we were internally worried about whether they would fully accept the proposal.

For the first meeting, which took place after a long wait, we explained in detail our specific plans for how to implement these attractive characters on Lumia Island. And finally, on the day the news of the confirmed partnership with the Persona series was shared internally, a massive cheer erupted within the dev team.

Because it was an IP that the dev team themselves truly loved and were enthusiastic about, this sincerity became a major driving force in making this project a reality. We would like to take this opportunity to once again express our deep gratitude to SEGA and ATLUS for their generous consideration and support throughout the entire process, from the realization of the partnership to its execution.

Selection of the Collab Characters

Ult Draft for Nicky’s Queen version

Once a skin collaboration becomes a reality, or sometimes even before then, the most rewarding yet grueling task for the team is 'character matching.' This is because we must find the specific character who can best showcase the guest's charm without compromising the identity of the original work.

It’s not just matching concepts, but a very intricate process that requires close consideration of different external factors such as character popularity, timing of skin releases, and play difficulty of the character.

In fact, many of the characters players anticipated were already in our initial candidate pool. There were also instances where pairings shifted after intense internal debate; for example, we originally discussed matching Queen with Eternal Return's Nicky.

After marathon discussions that went well past the scheduled time, there was only one ultimate selection criterion we reached: how much of a unified experience can we create between the "charm of the collaboration character" and the "charm of the Eternal Return character" within the game. And that hard-earned standard became the most important premise not only for this work but also for all partnership-related decision-making in the future.

Lore & Background Story - Area Dialogue

Hospital: "Feels like the kind of place that’d test your nerves."

A partnership is, at its core, a meeting of two different worlds. From a narrative standpoint, we are always thinking about how to present this crossover in the most appealing way. For this project, when recording new lines for the Epic skins, we focused on expressing those small, pleasant "details" that would instantly evoke the feeling of Persona 5 Royal.

We noticed that many locations in the original Persona 5 Royal share conceptual similarities with areas on Lumia Island. We leaned into this for the newly recorded area dialogue, working hard to make those connections feel as natural as possible.

The dialogue is peppered with homages to characters who couldn't appear in person, as well as nods to memorable events that are sure to make fans of the original smile. We hope you'll listen closely to the location-specific lines while playing with the Joker Alex and Queen Silvia skins.

Character Skin Implementation

The Persona series is a work with very deep and complex settings. There were so many variables to consider, such as the conditions and situations for each character to use their Persona.

We went through countless processes of inquiring, confirming, and revising with ATLUS to bring and melt every single detail into our game as naturally as possible without damaging the original, such as how to handle the masks or how outfits should change when using a Persona.

 
When creating dance or rest motions, we watched all the video clips not only of the main story but also of the spin-off works, and held meetings while watching numerous video clips that each person found, or even filmed or made themselves.

One of the principles we paid attention to was that we tried not to take too many things from just "one single element." If you look closely at Joker and Queen’s dance and rest motions, you can see that they were composed complexly by homaging various scenes like daily life, Showtime, and story events.

It was also an important part to capture the point that "the outfit is a Persona character, but the inside is an Eternal Return character." The final direction change seen in Joker’s victory motion, which was highly praised in the community, is also the result of intense contemplation to save the charm of both Joker and Alex together. Like the other characters, the soon-to-be-revealed "Queen Silvia" will also show a finish motion production that highlights Silvia's original bubbly personality.

We also put a great deal of thought into how to integrate these concepts into character skills. Sometimes, an idea that seemed promising in the initial concept stage turned out to be underwhelming once implemented in-game. To solve this, our team collaborated closely on every effect and animation to find the perfect visual presentation. We’re thrilled to see that players have really enjoyed how the original's signature effects were seamlessly blended into the skill animations through this process.

Other Details

The teaser trailer for the Persona 5 Royal collab was revealed as a surprise during the highlight replay of the Eternal Return Masters Group Stage Day 1. It was an experimental approach, but the payoff was satisfying and made for a thrilling start.

We also poured our passion as fans into elements beyond just the characters and lore. To produce a trailer lasting barely a minute, we completely scrapped and redrafted the storyboard several times.

  ​
The same level of care went into our in-game items, like the emotes and tombstones; we went through over five different drafts just to get a single box design approved. A great example is the Joker Alex dynamic emote, which has been a huge hit. Originally, the design didn't even include the lyric elements. However, thanks to the unwavering passion of our team and endless rounds of internal discussion, we were able to greenlight the cool version you see today.

 
The decision to change the End-game BGM (for the Temporary Safe Zones) was another idea that sparked simultaneously across our art, planning, and character teams during the very first stages of the collab. I believe this was only possible because everyone on the team was fully immersed in both Eternal Return and Persona from the start, viewing them as a single, cohesive experience.

The Uniform and Rebel With A Cause items were born from an experimental idea: "What if we incorporated the iconic symbols of the Persona series into items already planned for the game?" Since we were already preparing to add new clothing-slot items, it was the perfect opportunity to introduce these designs.

Please note that these items will remain in the game even after the partnership ends. However, their visuals will revert to their original Eternal Return designs, while maintaining their presence in the gameplay loop.

Our Journey So Far, and the Road Ahead

Following the feedback we received from our previous IP survey, it’s clear how much you value these collaborations and how much you care about the game's overall balance. Moving forward, we want to be more mindful of the frequency of these major partnerships. Our goal is to avoid overwhelming you with back-to-back collabs that might disrupt the regular Eternal Return update cadence.

We know the recent schedule stretching across two seasons felt a bit packed. As we candidly discussed on the last Dev Stream, we were so excited to bring this legendary IP to life that we were a bit too ambitious with the timeline. It was never our intention to place an undue burden on you, and we truly appreciate your patience and feedback.

Despite those growing pains, the response to this project has been incredible. Your support made this partnership an absolute success, and we couldn’t have done it without our fantastic "Co-op" partners at SEGA and ATLUS. Most importantly, a huge thank you goes out to you, our survivors, for sticking with us.

We’re now putting the finishing touches on the Queen Silvia skin, so get ready for her debut! We’re committed to bringing you more authentic content and keeping this partnership with our community going strong.

Thanks for being part of the journey!