Today Atlus released a trailer that clues us in to a few of the characters and a little bit of the gameplay we might see in Persona 5, and leaves us some hints as to what to expect from the game’s plot and story.
This game’s Wild Card, that protagonist who can make multiple facets of his or her psyche manifest in combat as gods or monsters, appears to be a cat burglar. He is accompanied by his classmates Ryuji Sakamoto and Anzu Takamaki and a scarf wearing cat named Morgana as they trapeze about places they likely shouldn’t be, taking things that don’t belong to them.
I must admit in a series whose prior entries had kids spread rumors to alter reality, shooting themselves in the head as a symbol of overcoming their fear, and wrestling their way through nightmarescapes to realize the true meaning of friendship, heists and grand larceny is not a direction I could have seen the series taking in a gajillion years. Apparently running around with a bunch of lawbreakers fits in with this game’s theme of taking on the role of kids who feel “chained down by society’s rules.” Yeah. Screw the man.
The director behind Persona 5 says the game uses its own engine, separate from Persona 3 and 4 and Catherine. The improvements definitely shows over its predecessors, with more fluid animations and more dynamic camera angles. I’m also in love with the new character models and character designer Shigenori Soejima is always a treat.
The platformer elements and sneaking mechanics of the game look a bit odd, but not entirely out of place, the last iterations of the series saw you able to get the jump on enemies with the right timing, so I’m excited to see if they expand upon some of the out of combat mechanics. In combat looks to be more of the same but I’m always down for an improved UI.
The release date for the game is still a very general “2015”, and though we’re supposed to see a bit more footage with Persona 4 Dancing All Night, the rhythm title isn’t scheduled until a summer release. We’ll have more Persona news as it comes. As usual the disclaimer here is we never know how the final product will look or play, but I don’t think I’ve been this hype for a JRPG since, well, Persona 3.
