u/BrawlX

AA7 has to get around to this plot point and resolve it after nearly 20 years of waiting thanks to this cliffhanger. They would've been better off doing this in case 2 and getting it over with as thanks to it not being addressed, AA7 has to now account for it.

If this plot point was resolved in AA6, there wouldn't be any strings holding back an AA7 that can be anything it wanted. Sure, you could have Phoenix be the protagonist, but you could also have an entirely new set of characters unrelated to Phoenix take the lead instead. And if you really wanted the old characters back to do some fan service, you could throw some of them in a couple dlc cases and call it a day.

But because it wasn't resolved, Trucy, Apollo, Phoenix, and Lamiror/Thalassa have to appear in a case together. No matter what that case is about, we know Apollo and Trucy's connection to Thalassa is going to be a main plot point.

And you can't really do this story from a new protagonist's point of view. From their perspective, Phoenix knew that Trucy and Apollo - his daughter and former employee - are siblings, their mother is alive, and hasn't told either of them for years. Unless they do a lot of building up, that protagonist is going to think Phoenix is a prick. You could only do this revelation if Phoenix is the protagonist.

Because of this restriction you now need Phoenix as a protagonist in AA7 when his story is more or less done. There's no more room to develop Phoenix as a character.

It just baffles me they left this open when no one had a good idea on where they wanted the series to go for a decade.

Slayhem mode is apparently going to be bloodier and longer than the original scenario but the important bit of information the devs shared is it's recommended you play it after completing the other scenario. This could mean the story is written under the pretence that the player has already seen all the plot twists and maybe the FTE's.

This means plot points like Chiaki being the traitor, Future Foundation being good, this all happening in a simulated world, etc. are all things the player is expected to know about before starting Slayhem.

If the players expected to know all this, then either this information comes up almost immediately after the scenario starts, or is useless information for what ends up happening in the new story.

So with that in mind, here's my theory:

I think that the change up is a glitch occurring that doesn't separate their memories completely, and a little bit into the story everyone's memories are restored.

Since everyone knows what's happening, they would know about Chiaki being the traitor and that they are in a simulation, so when someone decides to commit murder they'll not be as restrained.

It would also explain how we'll likely get new FTE's with everyone. Interacting with remnant versions of the cast would lead to completely different talks about their personal lives.

A protagonist switch up could still happen since Hajime, Chiaki, and Nagito would be interacting differently with everyone. Hajime would have his Izuru side to deal with, Chiaki would have to handle being an outcast, and Nagito would have to wrestle with being a remnant and interacting with the others who love despair when he's all about hope.

I do think that the new scenario will more or less have the same outcome with everyone rejecting despair in the end and defeat Junko, not much they could really do there since everyone's in a simulation. The idea it could be a real killing game feels cheap, why would everyone decide to murder each other after the events of the anime? Doesn't really feel like they could give a good enough reason for doing it other than they watched the despair video again.

Throwing Makoto and the others in is something I think they could still do. Maybe they realise what Junko's plan is and they join the killing game to stop them from having a majority for choosing graduation.