Atlus has announced that Persona 5, which was scheduled for a worldwide release in 2015 on PS3 and PS4, has been delayed until Summer 2016 in Japan. Atlus U.S.A. has also confirmed the game will be released in 2016 in the Americas, but no announcement has been made for the European release.
At the same time, Atlus has released a new trailer, which shows more of the game’s gameplay and story elements (we embedded the video and an unofficial translated version below). The main protagonist is shown held captive and interrogated regarding his ability to “steal hearts”. Apparently, the concept of “stealing hearts” will be an important aspect of the story. Also making an appearance are the other playable characters: the cat-like creature Morgana (who doesn’t like being called a cat), and Anne Takamaki and Ryuji Sakamoto. In the first part of the video, these three can actually be seen running off a pyramid, suggesting that we may see more of the world than just Japan this time around. There’s also talk about a mysterious subway accident which hasn’t been resolved. Aside from the usual dungeons and Persona summons that fans of the series will be familiar with, we also see some interesting gameplay elements, such as the characters entering into paintings where the gameplay then shifts to 2D side-scrolling.
The delay of the game is not entirely unexpected, given how little we had seen of the game so far, but the extent of the delay makes one wonder why they waited this long to announce it. The Persona series director Katsura Hashino has appeared in a new video (the second video in this post) to apologize for the delay. He ensures development is going smoothly, and the delay will make sure the game meets the expectations of the fans. Additionally, he says Persona will be the biggest game in the series in terms of play time. Given how much time I spent on Persona 4 Golden, which had a lot of extra content compared to the original Persona 4, that seems like a bold claim. If they can even match Persona 4 Golden in terms of content, that would already be more than enough for me!
The Official Japanese trailer:
Unofficial Translated version of the trailer courtesy of Youtube user HiMyNameIsMaurice:
Staff interview (in Japanese):
Meanwhile, fans are also speculating about a possible hidden message in the trailer. The screenshot below has some words blurred out. Intentional or not? Atlus did in fact state that they still have another new game to reveal, so perhaps this may be a hint to that. We’ll probably have to wait to find out.
A hidden message?