Earlier this morning, we finally got a look at the gameplay in Atlus’ hotly anticipated Persona 5.
On the game’s official website, we’ve now received a nice welcome message from the Persona team’s producer-director, Katsura Hashino:
Good evening, everyone. This is Persona Team’s Hashino here.
Today, we revealed a video for our much-anticipated game. So, what did you like about it?
At the time of my writing, I haven’t seen your reactions, so I’m a bit nervous when I think about comments like “the next Persona is about a masked thief haha” or “is that Lupin?!” and so on – but I do look forward to positive responses. Even if only a little bit of the video appealed to you, I will be very happy.
With Persona 5, we’re taking a challenge with combining a teenager school setting that is larger than life, alongside something like a picaresque romance. In the previous game, we had a story featuring a group seeking a bad guy for justice, while risking their own lives.
In this game, the story revolves around a group of highschoolers that are being “chased” by unforeseen circumstances, due to the type of justice they believe in. We’re penning [the story] to hopefully portray an everyday, yet exciting life from the perspective of these characters.
The team are working together as we progress through development phases, so as you can expect the sound and graphics will evolve, alongside party members. You can expect the protagonists to be a little bit more behaved in comparison to previous characters.
We’re all pouring lots of emotions into this game. This is a product of Atlus, who is known to embrace unique traits, although some people say that a strong personality can go against common rules or social norms – so this could be seen as chaotic as well.
Despite this, we see a person’s character as being able to affect others in both good and bad ways, and it can even affect how you might think or behave yourself. This is the potential that we see in this sort of thing.
All of us might feel a sort of suffocation in our modern world, but so long as we’re involved with other humans in varying relationships, it’s the person’s own character, or a group’s character as a whole, that will be able to transcend that feeling of being trapped.
I sincerely hope that our game will develop into something that can harbor these emotions, something that will forever remain in your hearts.
However, in order to meet all of your wishes, our development team are working very hard, so I want to say thank you for all of your support!
Katsura Hashino,
Persona 5 Director and Creative Producer.
Persona 5 is currently in development for Playstation 3 and Playstation 4.
Loli-Nox-Tan
February 5, 2015 at 11:53 amI got a serious Phantom R (Rhythm Thief) vibe from the main Protagonist
Nin
February 5, 2015 at 11:57 amGahaha, time for thievery! I was a bit worried that it would be too much like Persona 3 and 4, but I’m less worried now. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy them, it’s just that a little variety is nice.
Dimi Gronnings
February 5, 2015 at 12:21 pmFinally, a good-looking Persona game. I know that sentence will anger some, but the graphics of previous Persona games always bothered me, even if I did enjoy the games.
chaoguy
February 5, 2015 at 3:16 pmSuper-hero/thief/vigilante JRPG? YES PLEASE!!
Previous Persona games never interested me, but this has piqued my interest. There are some things I’ve never liked about the franchise, but those things are core to the series (and wouldn’t want it to change for my tastes), so I’m curious about giving it a try via a demo (or seeing a bit of gameplay footage).
Based on the original teasers (the chains around the ankles), could the theme be based around people feeling “trapped” by things beyond their control (circumstance, economical, etc)? The train driver in the trailer could be “trapped” in his job, and then goes berserk because of something similar to the shadow-self from persona 4.
Still no clue, but I’m curious now.
TheCynicalReaper
February 5, 2015 at 3:41 pmI can’t be more interested than I am. I haven’t heard of “picaresque” narrative style in years. Seems the Persona Team are finally ready to evolve beyond P3/P4 style of writing.
sanic
February 5, 2015 at 3:53 pmMy penis can only become so erect.
gigan
February 5, 2015 at 4:36 pmFREEEDOOOOOME!
Carl B.
February 5, 2015 at 6:55 pmNo, I actually agree with you. I like how the art in P5 looks jagged, disorienting and chaotic. Plus it really does look slick, next-gen’ish. Smooth animation too.
It’s like the first videos I saw of Tales of Xillia and how I was glad we finally had a graphically superior Tales game.
Thanatos2k
February 5, 2015 at 8:03 pmGahhhhhhh hurry up. Please no delay into 2016.
IkaNam
February 5, 2015 at 9:05 pmApparently it’s about being a metaphorical slave to the norms and expectations of society. So i think it’s more about being rebellious and doing the right thing even if you have to go against society to do it.
Mike Campbell
February 5, 2015 at 10:06 pmQuestion Do I have to play the previous persona games to enjoy p5
Brandon Orselli
February 5, 2015 at 10:17 pmNope! The story is entirely standalone, while the only reoccurring thing is the velvet room (and its characters), but they are part of the series. So yeah, you can just dive into P5 and enjoy it :D
Mike Campbell
February 5, 2015 at 10:22 pmthanks
Barret Somerville
February 6, 2015 at 8:01 amI totally agree, it would of been unfortunate if it was too similar to p3 and 4.
Barret Somerville
February 6, 2015 at 8:52 amThis looks sooo fucking good, I seriously can’t wait for this game to come out. looking at the graphics gives me fond memories of Catherine, ty based game engine. Probs gonna pre-order.
disqus_PTi35oMzfO
February 6, 2015 at 1:18 pmI dunno, it was probably the fact that, y’know, P3 and 4 were released some 2 generations ago on the PS2, not exactly known for its’ power, yeah?
chaoguy
February 7, 2015 at 8:41 amHeh. VERY relevant to whats going on around the word right now.