In a recent interview with Game Informer, Persona 5 director Katsura Hashino answered several questions regarding the games plot and characters.

Although there was some retreading over known information, he did share some new bits of info on some of the characters and better elaborated on others. He also went into more detail on the games plot and themes.

Here’s what we found interesting:

• Hashino explains that the main difference between the casts in Persona 3 and 4 and this game is that with the former two, the characters were thrust into a situation against their will. The cast in Persona 5 thrust themselves into the heat of the plot in search for self identity and social reform.
• The characters’ Personas are a manifestation of the general public’s love towards famous, fictional characters.
• Their “mischievous” sides are released and visualized in The Palace through their phantom thief disguise.
• Yusuke is described as being a great artistic talent, but is seen as an odd person with a different thought process from most.
• Morgana (unlike Teddie in Persona 4), is very knowledgeable of The Palace, and has very high standards for the “aesthetic and conduct” of the Phantom Thieves
• Similarly to Teddie, she is unaware of his or her own origins, and is on quest to find these answers (They would not specify Morgana’s gender.)
• Morgana is described as having a very close relationship with the protagonist, much closer than it appears. Hashino says that they are much closer than any other relationship we’ve seen in the past games.

You can read the interview in it’s entirety over on their site.

Persona 5 is set to come out in Japan in the summer of 2016 on PS4 and PS3, with a North American release later in the year.