While many were expecting to see “Persona 5” at E3 this year, the game was a no-show, much to the disappointment of the franchise’s fans. Still, Japanese gamers who had preordered the first print of “Persona 4: Dancing All Night” got a special treat in the form of an exclusive bonus disc, preloaded with a short preview trailer for “Persona 5”.
And of course, it didn’t take long for the trailer to find its way online, as someone quickly posted it to YouTube – however, it was taken down with a copyright claim, and while various mirrors have been popping up here and there, it looks like the publishers of the game are trying to keep the trailer hidden and exclusive to those who have paid for the preorder.
In the new trailer, we can see the main characters of the game and a preview of some brand new mechanics that gamers will get the opportunity to play around with. All main characters are presented as regular high school students, but as soon as the sun sets, they turn into thieves. They each have their unique “persona” – hence the name of the game – and Phantom is the main protagonist of the game, wearing a bird mask and using pistols and knives.
He seems to resemble Arsene Lupin, a classic thief, only presented in a slightly classier version. The other two characters in the game are Ryuji Sakamoto and Anne Takamaki, both classmates of Phantom at school. Ryuji uses a skull mask for concealment, and uses bludgeoning weapons and shotguns, while Anne wears a cat mask and uses a whip and machine guns to fight.
Then we have Morgana who can shape-shift into a cat, and uses swords and slingshots as her primary weapons. She seems to be connected to the Seven Deadly Sins, and will be one of the main characters in the plot of the new game, but we don’t know the specific details yet.
Of course, the game will also introduce some new gameplay mechanics, such as “cooperation” – players can establish connections to various NPC characters which will grant them different benefits, and characters can now sneak around in order to avoid traps and other special obstacles as they make their way through the dungeons of the game.
We don’t know when the game will hit the market yet – there are different reports on that, and it’s all in the form of rumors so far. Some are claiming that the game will be ready for an August launch, but it’s already suffered from a few delays and August is approaching fast, so this theory might not be very plausible at this point.
However, fans are hopeful to at least see the release before Christmas, and there have been some hints that this is exactly what they are going to get. We don’t know what the company’s internal plans are right now, but launching the title on Christmas would indeed be a smart move for a title with as much anticipation as this one.
On the other hand, they should be careful not to rush the release just to meet the holiday season – it’s a well-known situation in the gaming industry where a company rushes their product to meet a deadline and ends up releasing something poor and not quite finished, leaving long-lasting negative impressions in the community. That’s something fans of “Persona 5” have been afraid of after the delays that the title suffered from.