'Persona 5' Gameplay News: Meet Your 3 New Girlfriends

This week’s issue of Famitsu has an extensive feature on Persona 5, which reveals further information about the characters, plot and gameplay for the long-awaited next entry in the beloved RPG franchise. The new details come after Atlus released a fourth trailer for the upcoming game last week.

Persona 5 Gameplay

The heroes will use an app called Isekainabi to enter the alternate reality world of the Palace, a representation of the warped, corrupted inner world of adults. This is similar to the Dark Hour in Persona 3 or the Midnight Channel in Persona 4.

The aim of our heroes, the Phantom Thieves, is to steal hidden treasures from these adults in order to reform them. Judging from the settings like the casino, pyramid, temple and bank vault that appeared in the last trailer, it’s likely that each dungeon will have a theme to suit the personality of its boss, like Persona 4.

Persona fans with fond memories of the “Miss” Yasogami High Pageant, Group Date Cafe and Akihiko’s fetching speedo-and-tee ensemble for the beach trip in P3 will be delighted to know that the calendar structure of the game will be retained, and feature more lighthearted events including swimming, a cultural festival, social studies tours and school trips.

At this point, we still know relatively little about how P5 will handle the mechanics of Persona Fusion and Social Links. According to Persona Central’s reading of the Famitsu article, “The requirements for a persona to evolve are completely different from one another.” However, it’s not clear whether this refers to every persona in the game (i.e., fusing new and better persona for battles), or the personas linked to characters in your party (which don't change but often "evolve" after certain plot events.)

Persona 5 Story

Famitsu also dropped some intriguing new details about the prologue to the story, in which the main character / Phantom / Joker confronts a man who harasses women, and is detained by police after roughing up the creep. He is sentenced to probation, and rebels by becoming a thief. The Phantom Thieves quickly attract unwanted attention from the police and government. It’s not clear if these will be playable events in the game, or feature as the storyline of the Persona 5 anime.

Twins Caroline and Justine are the new Velvet Room hosts, and will presumably be the ones handing out sidequests and infuriating Fusion challenges. P5’s creative producer and director Katsura Hashino told Famitsu the twins are “correctional officers” or “jailers,” who act with an “innocent and sharp attitude.” This interpretation of the Velvet Room differs from previous entries in the series, where the Velvet Room has been represented as some kind of vehicle (an elevator in P3, a limousine in P4) moving the main character toward a discovery or destination. In contrast, it would seem the Phantom is being contained or controlled in Persona 5's Velvet Room.

Persona 5 Character Bios

Atlus revealed a handful of new characters in the latest Persona 5 trailer, and now Famitsu is following up with more info about them. Some of them revisit tropes or character types from previous entries in the Persona series. For instance, Sakura is clearly P5’s support/navigator character, and will likely fill a similar role to Fuuka in P3 and Rise in P4.

While we still don't know exactly how Social Links will work, it's safe to assume based on previous games that the protagonist will be able to forge relationships with party members, and presumably one or more of these Social Links will offer a "Lovers Route." Here's the lowdown on the three new party members / potential girlfriends for your main character:

Sakura Futaba

• Great with computers and a skilled programmer, she has trouble communicating with others.
• She is a first-year high school student, but became a shut-in after a bad experience in junior high. (Hermit arcana, anyone?)
• Sakura has a key role in the story and is changed by meeting the hero.
• One-on-one, she behaves normally, but has a tendency to wear odd headwear in group settings.

Makoto Niijima

• She attends the same high school (Syujin High School) as the protagonist and is a third-year student.
• She is a diligent honor student and student council president.
• Hashino comments that Makoto becomes a focus in the story after the first incident at Syujin High School.
• She is an unlikely member of the Phantom Thieves, with a righteous, do-gooder nature.
• Her persona is a motorcycle!

Haru Okumura

• Haru is a third-year student of Syujin High and daughter of the head of a major restaurant company.
• Elegant but naive to the ways of the world, she tends to hang back and observe those around her.
• Though a skilled communicator, she does not find value relationships, and places herself at a distance from others.
• Born into wealth and privilege, her life has always been somewhat atypical.
• Hashino notes Okumura’s relationships with adults have been shaped by negative past experiences.

If you still can’t get enough Persona 5 news, Persona Central has posted extensive scans of the Famitsu article, which can be found here.

Persona 5 comes to Japan Sept. 15. Atlus has confirmed a North American release sometime in late 2016. A fifth trailer for the game will debut at E3, which takes place in Los Angeles June 14-16.

Are you excited for Persona 5? What would you like to see in the new game? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.