Persona 5

Unreleased

Persona 5 is the sixth game in the Persona series. It is an upcoming role-playing game developed by Atlus' P-Studio.

Plot
The story focuses on the 16-year-old protagonist after he is transferred to Syujin High School in Tokyo, Japan. He is currently staying with Sojiro Sakura, his parents' friend, at a coffee shop called Cafe Le Blanc. At school, the protagonist meets up with problem student Ryuji Sakamoto, the withdrawn Anne Takamaki, art student Yusuke Kitagawa, and a talking, shape-shifting cat-like creature known as Morgana.

The prologue consists of the protagonist confronting a man who harasses women, and subsequently being detained by the police because of the injuries he inflicts on that man. The protagonist is then sentenced to probation. He becomes a Phantom Thief afterwards to fight against that.



During the protagonist's time there, feeling suppressed by their environment, the five form a group known as the "Phantom Thieves of Hearts". They work together to explore The Palace, which represents the distorted minds of adults, and the goal of the heroes is to steal hidden "treasure" from the world in order to help reform their targets. During this quest, they confront adult authority figures opposing them, along with a greater enemy revealed by their activities.

Later, more members join the Phantom Thieves: Makoto Niijima, Futaba Sakura, Haru Okumura, and Goro Akechi.

Themes


While the focus and main theme of Persona 3 is death and the focus of Persona 4 is identity and seeking truth, the main theme of Persona 5 will be slavery - whether it be in the form of slavery to countries, government, authority figures, rules and laws, societal expectations, money, bills, debt, school, jobs, etc. Persona 5 will discuss the hardships of modern-day 21st century society and feature characters that are restrained by the rules set by this society, especially in Japan where the game is set. As a result, players will be confronted with trials and chains that they will have to overcome.

However, the mood and tone will be different. Persona 5 is about how humanity is engaged in a system of slavery, and about a kind of freedom that is different from the other games in the series. This freedom is meant to liberate those who "are bored and discontent with their lives".

Atlus expects and wants players of Persona 3 and Persona 4 to feel at home with this game. Persona 5 is meant to be an emotional experience that stirs up its audience and finally lets them go with a strong message of catharsis after everything is said and done.

Gameplay
Players engage in combat with demons of unknown origin using both melee and ranged weapons, instead of only one weapon type.

Players can plan their heist (seen in the PV04 Trailer) whether the player should do it or not will affect the story.

The primary dungeons are not randomly generated, consisting mainly of places a phantom thief would want to infiltrate, and will feature elements of real-time gameplay such as platforming, stealth, and traps. The game also brings back the old way of aquiring Personas: negotiating & making contracts with the Demons, a feature returning from absence since Persona 2, in vein with the Shin Megami Tensei games. Players can trigger a negotiation during a "Hold Up" or an "All Out Attack" during battle.

The Cooperation system will be similar to the Social Links of Persona 3 and Persona 4 and will involve building relationships with helpers around the city for various benefits in battle.

The third trailer released during Tokyo Game Show 2015 also teased a variety of minigames.

The SNS system seen in the PV03 trailer will have players chatting with other characters using phone text messages. This will allow players to personalize and expand their stories.

Players will be able to explore various locations in the Greater Tokyo Area, as seen in trailers.

While activating into battle when the player is in stealth mode and is able to encounter it in time. The player has a head start during battle displaying "CHANCE". When the player has encountered a "WEAK" spot on the enemy a new feature called a "BATTON TOUCH" where's players can pass on another character to boost up their stats during battle.

Unlike previous Persona games where players have to go though menus in order to give in a command in battle. Persona 5 improved battle system (seen in the PV4 tralier and Staff interview) where players can take advantage of the UI.

In the E3 2016 Footage. Players can take out part-time jobs, go to restaurants, study, go to the movies, play baseball, go to the bathhouse, exercise in your own home. These certain activities can increase the players stat performance. Where they have a lot of activities compared to Persona 3 and Persona 4.

Players can select the difficulty from Safety, Easy, Normal and Hard. Like previous Persona titles you can not change the difficulty afterwards until the player has finished the game.

Playable Characters

 * Protagonist / The Phantom: The player character and also a delinquent moonlighting as a gentleman thief. He wears a bird mask and uses knives and handguns in combat. His persona is Arsène, after the literary gentleman thief of the same name.
 * Ryuji Sakamoto: A blonde-haired boy who attends the protagonist's school and joins him in his heists. He wears a skull mask and wields bludgeons and shotguns as weapons. His Persona is Captain Kidd, after the notorious privateer-turned-pirate.
 * Anne Takamaki: A blonde girl in the protagonist's homeroom, who joins him in his heists. She wears a cat mask and uses whips and sub-machine guns. Her Persona is Carmen, after the heroine of the novella of the same name.
 * Morgana: A shape-shifting cat-like creature that meets the protagonist at the start of the game and joins him in his heists; she has some sort of connection to the Seven Deadly Sins and will play a key role in the story. She wields cutlasses and slingshots. Her Persona is Zorro, after the literary outlaw.
 * Yusuke Kitagawa: A blue haired art student dressed in a white uniform. He wears a fox mask and uses katanas and rifles. His Persona is Goemon, after the legendary Japanese bandit.
 * Makoto Niijima: The student council president, a woman with a strong sense of justice. Uses brass knuckles and revolvers. Her Persona is Johanna, after the legendary Medieval female Pope.
 * Futaba Sakura: A bespectacled girl with orange hair who is the dungeon navigator. She participates in battle through her Persona Necronomicon, named after a mystical book from H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.
 * Haru Okumura: A third-year student and daughter of a major food manufacturer, she is refined but has seen little of life. She fights using axes and grenade launchers. Her Persona is Milady, after the antagonist Milady DeWinter from The Three Musketeers.
 * Goro Akechi: A high school student and a detective.

Supporting Characters

 * Igor
 * Caroline and Justine: Two young assistants to Igor in the Velvet Room. They both wear an eyepatch over one of their eyes and a blue prison guard outfit. One has a long braid, the other hair buns.
 * Sojiro Sakura: Owner of a coffee shop Sumikon and protagonist's parents' friend who looks after him.
 * Munehisa Iwai: Owner of the Military Shop Untouchable.
 * Tae Takemi: Owner of the Takemi Medical Clinic.
 * Black-haired boy: showed up on a train in PV3 and also on an airplane in PV4.

Downloadable Content


Persona 5 will launch for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 in Japan for 8,800 yen on September 15, 2016.

A 13,800 yen 20th Anniversary Edition will include the following additional content:
 * A copy of Persona 5
 * Persona 5 art book
 * Persona 20th Anniversary All-Time Best Album (five CDs)
 * Disc 1: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona
 * Disc 2: Persona 2: Innocent Sin / Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
 * Disc 3: Persona 3 (FES)
 * Disc 4: Persona 4 (The Golden)
 * Disc 5: Persona 5


 * Special Collaboration DLC Set #1: “Orpheus Picaro” and “Izanagi Picaro”
 * Special Collaboration DLC Set #2: Persona 3 “Gekkoukan High School Uniform” costumes and Persona 3 battle BGM set
 * Special Collaboration DLC Set #3: Persona 4 “Yasogami High School Uniform” costumes and Persona 4 battle BGM set
 * Special Custom Theme
 * Special Persona 5 Art treasure box

Development
The game was first mentioned to be under development in August 2011 in an interview with Katsura Hashino, the producer of the Persona series. Hashino confirmed that the basic preparations for the development were finished and announced the return of Shigenori Soejima and Shoji Meguro as character designer and music composer, respectively. Both Soejima and Meguro previously worked together with Hashino on Persona 3, Persona 4 and Catherine.

Unlike Catherine, which used the Gamebryo engine, Persona 5 uses a new engine. Before it was decided that the game would be released exclusively for the PlayStation 3, it was also discussed internally to move the series to mobile gaming devices like the PlayStation Vita or smartphones. Eventually, Hashino and his team chose the PlayStation 3 as they felt that fans would love to see another game for home consoles.

Persona 5 was officially revealed on November 24, 2013 following a 72-hour countdown that eventually resulted in a series of announcements that included Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth and Persona 4: Dancing All Night. A Persona 5 website domain was previously registered on June 25th, 2013 by Index Corporation, the former parent company of Atlus. An American release was confirmed on February 25, 2014 with an originally estimated release in 2015. A PlayStation 4 version of the game was announced on September 1, 2014 during Sony's Tokyo Game Show conference with a new trailer that gave a first look on the setting and the game's protagonist. A bonus Blu-Ray containing a variety of Persona 5 related content was released as preorder bonus for the Japanese version of Persona 4: Dancing All Night on June 25, 2015, which also included the second trailer for the game.

On September 17, 2015 a third trailer for Persona 5 was shown as part of the company's Tokyo Game Show 2015 broadcast which revealed that the release date would be postponed to Summer 2016. According to Katsura Hashino, this decision was made so that game could become the biggest out of all the games he has directed so far.

Videos
Teaser 1= Teaser 2= PV1= PV3= PV4= TGS Interview= Staff Interview=|-| E3 Trailer=|-|

Trivia

 * Unlike previous Persona titles, which were set in fictional locations, Persona 5 takes place in Tokyo, primarily in the Shibuya ward.
 * The dates shown in gameplay footage line up correctly with the 2016 calendar; however, the calendar in the game displays the year as 20XX, leaving the exact year ambiguous.
 * According to Hashino, Persona 5 will have the most content out of any of the games he has directed. During an interview with Hashino, Persona 5 is said to have more hours of gameplay than the previous Persona titles to keep long-time fans and newcomers interested.
 * The box art of Persona 5 has a similar style to Persona 4's, in that the main cast is featured surrounding the Protagonist, who stands at the front of the group, with the game's setting and the Protagonist's Persona in the background.
 * Persona 5 includes Nuclear and Psy elemental skills, which have not been seen in the franchise since the Persona 2 duology and Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner, respectively.
 * Persona 5 was early mentioned in Catherine before the second stage of the fourth floor saying about "stealing somebody else’s future". Refers to the Tagline of Persona 5 of "Stealing back your future" seen in PV02. Implying the story themes around stealing the innocent hearts of rotten adults to win back modern society.
 * The Arcana written on the tarot cards use French instead of English, matching the French origin of most initial Personas such as Arsène, Carmen and Milady.