Persona 5‘s developer team has shared new details on the scenario and characters in the buildup to its release.
The level design for each dungeon is highly individualized, in sharp contrast to how previous Persona games handled dungeons. Each dungon has a different story to tell.
The phantom thieves theme is cliche, but Atlus deliberately chose this to surprise fans and expand the scope of ideas they can use.
Tokyo is also a vital choice for setting. Persona team wanted to use a setting the main audience would be familiar with. Clearly, Atlus is still prioritizing the Japanese audience with this statement.
The lead characters suffer from being steretotyped by society, and so a major theme of Persona 5 is changing the status quo.
Ryuji Sakamoto is the epitome of the change the world type, and in fact he is who pushes the protagonist into a life of crime.
Ann Takamaki is bright and lively, but also feels stigmatized from the discrimination she faces, because she is mixed race Japanese. Her story will compel the protagonist and Ryuji to take a fight in the other world, and she has a direct effect on the final fate of the protagonists.
Morgana is training everyone to be phantom thieves, and she has a special reason to hide as a cat. Persona team is looking forward to the reactions when fans learn why.
Finally, Yusuke Kitagawa comes off as eccentric, but the attractive type.
The Social Links from previous Persona games has been replaced, but the new system is very similar, and perhaps a step above in representing human relations.
Lastly, Persona team is thinking hard for an announcement to make this year to commemorate Persona’s 20 year anniversary.
Persona 5 will be released on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, and is planner for this summer 2016. You can read more details here and here.
