It’s beautiful and we want it now, but the 2015 release date was too good to be true. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 5 has been pushed back to summer 2016.
The announcement was somewhat sweetened with the inclusion of a new trailer for the game. It’s all in Japanese but honestly, who cares. It gives us a look at some of the gameplay and and cutscenes that we’re all waiting for—wait, maybe this actually makes it worse.
Persona 5 is about a trio of students who moonlight as thieves. In the trailer we see them jumping into paintings and running through the landscapes (cool as heck!), as well as some other platforming-style play. The combat adds weapons this time around, with the characters actually firing guns at the monsters they fight.
According to Siliconera, the game involves “stealing hearts,” which is a pretty appropriate pun for a Persona game to make. The Persona series revolves around students battling Shadows that threaten the world. To fight effectively, they have to be able to wield a Persona, which is a physical manifestation of the way you feel about yourself. The main characters in Persona games often go through emotional journeys as they learn to accept themselves.
It’s a great metaphor for being a teenager. Building relationships with other characters is another big part of the games. In fact, my favorite parts of Persona 4 Golden just involved running around and talking to my friends. To be honest, I found the combat in that game repetitive. After watching this trailer I feel pretty optimistic for Persona 5. I enjoy some of the action gameplay we see here more than I enjoy turn-based fighting.
When it comes to Persona 5, it seems like the “be true to yourself” themes will still be present.
“The characters of this game, through sheer force of will, are out to destroy that which suffocates people in today’s society,” said producer Katsura Hashino in this fan-translated interview. “I want players to come away from the game feeling like they have the power to take on the world around them and keep going in life.”
Persona 5 will be the first Persona game released for the PlayStation 4. It will also come out for PlayStation 3.
