While Famitsu leaks earlier this week revealed the names and offered a short bio of some of the remaining cast members of Persona 5, more information has been officially revealed, including names and other information on the game itself. Keep in mind that there is one more character who it seems has yet to be fully revealed (towards the upper right in the featured image used for this article)…
In any case, here’s an introduction to more of your friends in this game!
Futaba Sakura is the navigator of the group, with the age of a first-year in high school and an exceptionally gifted level of intellect and talent for programming and calculation. However, she lacks for social skills and is a shut-in due to a certain incident in her life; Sakura does not attend school after her middle-school graduation. She is often awkward around others and covers her head in public, though she does not do this with the Protagonist. Her starting Persona is Necronomicon, which is UFO-like. Sakura has a special connection to the overarching events of Persona 5’s story.
Makoto Niijima is a third-year in high school and is the class president. Her personality is intense, uncompromising, and straight-laced – a strong believer in her own sense of ethics and her own perceptive abilities. Makoto begins to keep an eye on the Protagonist and his friends following a certain incident at their high school. Her starting Persona is Johanna, themed after a motorbike and inspired by the Middle-Age legend of Pope Joan. All in all, one can readily discern her forward and principled demeanor.
Haru Okumura is a third-year in high school and the daughter of the president of a major restaurant company. She is sheltered and isn’t experienced in the world, but is very observant and this trait carries her through. At the same time, Haru is described as naive, and even more startling so, socially avoidant. Her naivete and avoidance is a product of the distorted influence that the adults in her life have had on her. Her starting Persona is Milady, inspired by Milady de Winter of the Three Musketeers.
Besides Igor, there are two Velvet Room attendants – the twins Justine and Caroline who have the appearance of children.
Plus, this week we also learn more about some of the key concepts of the story, alongside some background for the prologue. Apparently, the prologue details the Protagonist’s rescue of a woman from a man who attempts to harass her. In the ensuing struggle, the Protagonist wounds the assailant, and the police use this as grounds to apprehend him and place him on probation. However, the Protagonist them assumes a new identity as a Phantom Thief and escapes his “imprisonment.” Skirting the boundaries of the law, the Protagonist and his friends will attract the attention of the police and the government throughout the course of the story, and a woman named Sae Niijima will also be of importance.
Using a mysterious app called Otherworld Navi, the Protagonist’s party can venture into the Palace, a world that depicts the twisted minds of adults. In keeping with the Phantom Thief theme, stealing a treasure called “Greed” can reform the targeted person.
Persona 5 Director Katsura Hashino also offered some interesting notes about the story to anxious fans patient. To start, apparently the separately and simultaneously existing lives of being an ordinary high school student and a Persona-user will more prominently figure into the plot of the story: which definitely makes sense, considering the theme of oppression and ennui brought upon by modern society and corrupted authority figures. The story is multi-layered and offers some “tricky” developments, too.
Also, each Persona is created to reflect being an outsider or an outlaw, in comparison to the organized society of the world of Palace. However, there isn’t anything to say that the Persona won’t evolve into something that isn’t an outlaw, or reforms into something that is more ingratiated into society. This would probably reflect the idea of some characters possibly making choices or developing into people who fit in more easily with polite society. An important idea in a world that presupposes the heroic struggle of teenagers who consider themselves on the outside.
We can expect to see more of Persona 5 at E3 2016. Be sure to stay tuned!
Credit for the information in this article goes to both Gematsu and Siliconera.
