Persona 5

[Jin.]

 

Remade topic since wipe.

 

The newest installment of the Persona series! Persona 5!

Now featuring EVEN MORE SWAG.

 

Thoughts? Speculation? Information? Post below.

and let's not get into the debate of same sex social links again

[Nintendoga]

Very nice to see Demons back. A little disappointed about the protagonist yet again being a transfer student who has the wild card and all that, but definitley one of my most hyped titles this year.

[Mania Pipe]

I said this before the breakdown, but I'll say it again; this game looks fan-fucking-tastic! I love the stylized visual it's got going for the credit sequence, fighting the demons again is going to be a treat and the music is as delicious as ever. Potter-kun looks like a real badass when he goes into his Tuxedo-mask/Kaito Kid mode!

 

Btw, is it just me or does anybody think Potter-kun that looks a bit like the protagonist from Persona 1? Except with darker hair, glasses and a bit of paler skin.

[Jin.]

I said this before the breakdown, but I'll say it again; this game looks fan-fucking-tastic! I love the stylized visual it's got going for the credit sequence, fighting the demons again is going to be a treat and the music is as delicious as ever. Potter-kun looks like a real badass when he goes into his Tuxedo-mask/Kaito Kid mode!

 

Btw, is it just me or does anybody think Potter-kun that looks a bit like the protagonist from Persona 1? Except with darker hair, glasses and a bit of paler skin.

 

 

 

I don't see it

[Dobkeratops]

Fingers crossed that when they said it'd be out in the west this year they didn't forget 'bout a little place called Europe.

 

 

Very nice to see Demons back. A little disappointed about the protagonist yet again being a transfer student who has the wild card and all that, but definitley one of my most hyped titles this year.

 

dat full HD Mara

 

 

my god

[Remy]

Kind of expecting europe /aus/nz to get completely fucked on release timing but I'm a little optimistic.

 

Game looks fantastic. I'm replaying P4 to get hyped for it.

[Junko]

Kind of expecting europe /aus/nz to get completely fucked on release timing but I'm a little optimistic.

I dunno, Atlus have been kinda on the ball as of last year; Persona Q was released: June 5th for JP, November 25th for NA, November 28th for EU and December 4th for AUS. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax (consoles) was August 28th for JP, September 30th for NA and November 21st for EU. Howeverrrrrrr, Shin Megami Tensei IV was May 23rd 2013 for JP, July 16th for NA and October 30th 2014 for EU. So uh, take that as you will.

[KrazyBean]

At first I was intrigued by it but now after playing Persona 3 and 4 it has skyrocketed to my most hyped game...of all years. I just HOPE that Europe doesn't get screwed over but if that's the case I'm importing this bitch. Then again I've heard rumors about a worldwide release and whatnot.

 

I find it hilarious that one of the main things I'm looking forward to in this game is using the menus. I mean, wow, if that isn't the best UI of all time I dunno what is.

[Junko]

We all love interviews, don't we? Well here's one with the director, Katsura Hashino and the lead(?) artist, Shigenori Soejima.

Persona Magazine: So you finally brought out the first big, proper trailer for Persona 5 recently at the Persona Super Live 2015 concert. How’s the reception to it been?

 

Hashino: It’s been a massive outpouring and we’re really happy to see people are into it as much as they are. It’s a huge relief to all of us on the team to have things turn out that way. Still, it’s also indicative that the anticipation is running really high among people who have enjoyed our work up until now, so it’s not without some pressure coming our way, too.

 

Soejima: I’d say that we managed to show off quite a bit of good stuff in that footage, too.

 

Hashino: For sure. The main reason we went for that is to reassure people that production on this thing is still going forward, that it’s doing just fine. I mean we went a long time without showing much of the game after we initially announced it, so it’s only fair. And we also just wanted people to see how excited we are to be working on it by showing off all of these different parts of it.

 

You’ve definitely made it abundantly clear that the art style is going for a poppy aesthetic with the color red sitting at its foundation. What are your impressions of people’s opinion on that direction?

 

Soejima: We’ve gotten a lot of kind people saying that the game’s even more stylish than what we’ve done before. That was kind of unintentional on our end, though; we weren’t trying to go out of our way to make people explicitly feel our game is stylish so much as just show that aesthetically, it’s picking up where Persona 4 left off, in a sense. A lot of time has passed since that game originally came out and the hurdles we’ve had to clear have only gotten higher since then, so this style is ultimately a reflection of those efforts on our end.

 

Hashino: I’d say the same is true with our character modelling, too. With Catherine, we made characters that were more realistically proportioned, but applying that philosophy back into Persona doesn’t necessarily work; it just gives off an altogether different vibe going that route. So there was some reshaping on that end that we had to do to make it work the way we wanted. Even the UI design got a similar treatment, too. It took a lot of trial-and-error to get right, but we’ve ended up with a style that we feel works well within the confines of the Persona series. The “gaya gaya” [Japanese onomatopoeia] you see during that trailer is also an extension of that.

 

The game’s themes have been described to be “picaresque” in nature. Could you elaborate on that a little more?

 

Hashino: If there’s one thing that lies at the center of our themes in the game, it’s the notion people have that there are things that they want to do with their lives but can’t actually realize for one reason or another. They’ve got something circumstantial holding them back or maybe it’s even just the rational half of their brain. Something along those lines. I feel as though people like that often tend to take well to thief and heist stories because they get a certain thrill from them that resonates with them in ways they can’t necessarily get out of other stuff. One of the goals in making Persona 5, then, is to give those people an outlet to explore those thrills and experience that sense of freedom that the protagonists themselves have within the context of a game. Although that being said, I won’t deny that a lot of us were also just way into stories about good-natured thieves like Lupin III growing up, too. (Laughs.)

 

Soejima: To that end, it’s why you see the protagonist smiling wryly and whatnot in that main promotional image we’ve put out, to emphasize that tonal undercurrent running through our game.

 

Hashino: We wanted people to look at that imagery and get the impression he runs with an intriguing crowd, one with enough gall to potentially pull off some daringly intriguing stuff. He’s a trickster at heart; he and his crew stir things up and along they way, maybe they bring a little change to the world around them, too. It’s not the most stable of lives a person can have, but it’s also a life of limitless possibility. The world really is his oyster. If people get that impression from looking at him, then we can rest easy knowing we’ve done our job.

 

Soejima: In the trailer we showed at the concert, there are a handful of other friendly characters you can see as well and they’re all also very much so people who aren’t afraid to express themselves on their own terms. How well they can actually lead such a life, that’s a question that has deep ties to both the picaresque and thieving aspects of the games.

 

Hashino: You even get hints of that freedom they have here and there just seeing the opening cinematic. That’s why you see them hurtling around the screen so much, for instance.
 

The masks that you also see in that footage during the plundering segments also seem to have close ties to all of those themes you’ve mentioned, too.

 

Soejima: Definitely. Of course, the word “persona” inherently has the connotation of things being masked. In a broad sense, it’s true in how the cast leads a double-life. They go to school during the day and then at night, they’re out on the prowl to steal. But it’s also true that the plotline more overtly plays up the mask motif in a very literal sense compared to the previous games, so I wanted to ensure that such visual elements of the game were similarly straightforward, too.
 

I take it the urban setting also plays into the picaresque aspects of the game, too?

 

Hashino: Oh yeah, without a doubt. In big cities all throughout Japan, every day, people get on their trains, pack in tight, and the masses all flow this way and that during their ride as they make their way over to school or work. There’s nothing inherently good or bad about that sort of mass ritual on the face of things, but these characters who are in the center of all that as well are still different; they’re out doing stuff that nobody else can hope to imitate. That dichotomy between what’s ostensibly real and surreal, what’s divergent from reality as what people often know it, that’s something that belongs right at home in a Persona game, I’d argue. Really, I’d say it’s true for a lot of the games we make at Atlus and that continues to be how we’re approaching this game from as we make it.
 

Lastly, do you have anything you’d like to share with people who are anxiously awaiting the release of Persona 5?

 

Soejima: We still have a lot left to show, so hopefully people keep an eye on us and wait to see what’s coming up. Chief among those, in fact, are more allied characters that we have yet to show, but I’d say that we won’t be running out of new stuff to reveal anytime soon. So stay hyped and sit tight until we finally get this game out in your hands!

 

Hashino: We’ve been very fortunate to have created a series of games where people feel so attached to each of the protagonists, so we hope that with Persona 5, we’ll be able to make a game where the events of it really hit home and make for really impactful experiences. There are people in this industry who feel that feel traditional console and handheld games are losing their edge and I think it goes without saying that the very definition of games and the potential that they hold has started to really broaden. But we’re still of the opinion that there are some things that can only be experienced on a console, especially when it comes to RPGs. We’ve heard from people that games like Persona are the reason they’ve started playing RPGs again and we’re working really hard to make this new one another such game that can reach out to people and grab them. I know it’s been a long wait, but I hope you’ll give us just a little more time. Hopefully once it’s out, it’ll all be worth it in the end.

[Junko]

Persona's JP PlayStation site got updated. Few new screens. Some of battles we've seen, but from different angles. Some higher-res ones of stuff we've already seen.

 

P5 is gorgeous.

[kboyrulez12345]

This game is looking gorgeous. I hope it really does come out this year. I know what I'll be saving my money on.

[KrazyBean]

Damn this game looks clean! Quite the step up from this don't you think.

 

[Xenos]

That's what happens when the last official game came out in 2008.

[Solkia]

That's what happens when the last official game came out in 2008.

[KrazyBean]

That was a screenshot from Golden, but yeah, Persona 4 is a pretty damn old game nonetheless.

[Solkia]

Golden didn't improve visuals much from my limited experience with the original.

[Sami]

I'm so glad I didn't become a fan of Persona until 2010 or so because having a PS2 exclusive pre-ordered in 2008 would have been upsetting

[kboyrulez12345]

I hope when Persona 5 gets released there won't be an updated re release later down the road like P3 and P4. 

[Remy]

I'm so glad I didn't become a fan of Persona until 2010 or so because having a PS2 exclusive pre-ordered in 2008 would have been upsetting

It was pretty awesome having it come out so soon after I played P3, I could roll from one to the other. 

[Junko]

http://personacentral.com/persona-5-release-window-revealed/

Persona 5, Atlus’ upcoming RPG for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, was previously slated for a 2015 release in Japan and North America. In the recent full year 2015 earnings release for SEGA SAMMY (the company that owns Atlus), Persona 5‘s release window has been revealed as an October to December 2015 launch, both in Japan and North America.

[Jin.]

AAAAAATLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

wathever ill just import it

[KrazyBean]

Time for Europe to get FUCKED again. Oh well, I was expecting this. Import time. NO way I'm waiting another 6 months for this game.

[Remy]

No region lock this time, at least

[Xenos]

AHA, Worldwide release! I knew it-Well except for Europe, but I kind of expected that at this point. But they can just import so technically worldwide release!

[Kuzu]

I'm just here sipping my tea expecting the best. God I love America.