Atlus Announce Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 5

November 25, 2013

After what feels like an eternity, Atlus have announced a brand new entry in the Persona series, Persona 5, to be released on PS3 in Winter of 2014.

The announcement came as part of a live event that was not only broadcast on NicoNico, but on six large screens across Japan. Specifically, the announcement came as a minute long trailer that was the most cryptic of teasers – leaving us with the phrase “You are slave, want emancipation?”. What is known for sure (aside from it being a 2014 PS3 game), is that the core Persona team members (designer Katusura Hashino, character designer Shigenori Soejima and composer Shoji Meguro) are involved, and that red will be the primary colour of that game (conversely, Persona 3 was blue, Persona 4 was yellow).

Before the Persona 5 announcement, we got treated to extensive looks at three other Persona related products, two of which were announced during the stream. The first announcement was Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, an dungeon crawler in the vain of Atlus’ own Etrian Odyseey series, even being helmed by the director of EO4. It once again brings together the casts of Persona 3 and Persona 4, and scheduled for a Japanese 3DS release in June of 2014. The second announcement was a Vita title – Persona 4: Dancing All Night. Not much is known about this one, except it’ll be a rhythm game featuring P4 characters and remixes of that games soundtrack. It’s being developed by Dingo, who were the original developers of the Hatsune Miku: Project Diva series.

Finally, we were treated to an extensive look at the upcoming Persona 4 Arena sequel, Persona 4: The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold. We got a few more release dates (the Arcade release is out in a few days, and the newly announced PS3 version gets released next year), as well as looks at two new characters – new character Sho Minazuki, as well as Persona 4 character Adachi – who may be a cutscene exclusive character.