Okay, I swear the hype has died down…a little bit, at least. I’ve watched the Persona 5 trailer at least 10 times now, and each time I’ve noticed something different. So I figured I’d give a play by play of what I’ve seen, as well as what I’m expecting, from one of my most anticipated anythings in the history of anything.
First, watch the trailer below.
All done?
THEN LET’S DO IT.
So first we have that shot of the city. It turns out that the man in the mask that was teased recently is actually our protagonist. We seem him leaping about, in what sort of felt like a scene from the Phantom of the Opera — I’m sure that was intentional.
An alarm sounds, and our protagonist leaps through the window and lands on the ground below him unharmed. One thing I’m interested to know is how far ahead into the game this particular cutscene is. This may just be a hunch, but this particular protagonist feels a little more characterized than the P3 or P4 main characters. Like he has a history he’ll be drawing from throughout the game, as opposed to the blank slates of the other two games. In fact, this first scene might even be before the game even starts!
Also of note in that regard: Kudos to Atlus for totally trolling Persona fans — many people complained that this new protagonist – henceforth referred to as “Glasses” just to speed things along – looked too much of a wet blanket/boring to be a main character. Turns out, this guy is a badass! Or at least, he is when he’s wearing his mask…that’d fit with the game’s theme of “putting on another face”, so to speak.
Music starts. Hype increases even further. We get our first glimpses of the Glasses’ partners! They, too, are wearing costumes. Where in P3 we got SEED, and P4 had the investigation team, it looks like P5 will have a sort of vigilante team of super-persona heroes. And I am OK with that!
Then we get our first glimpse of Igor! Glad he’s back. And our new blue-wearing assistant seems to have split in two – in that there are assistants. And they’re twins! I wonder what each character will do in terms of services for the player.
Also of note is that the Velvet Room looks to be inside a prison, as opposed to the Elevator and Limousine of P3 and P4, also fitting into the juvenile theme of the game.
Then we see a flash of red in the middle of the game’s interpretation of Shibuya. From it emerges a winged beast, wearing a top-hat. It also seems to have horns, if you pause the video and look closely. Our villain, perhaps?
And then…our first in-game glimpse! I love the new look of the timer at the top-left – fits the Shibuya setting perfectly. I get a lot of World Ends With You vibes from it. There are also, if you notice, way more NPCs on screen at once in this game, as you see again while Glasses walks down the train station/mall. I love how much more the camera has been pulled in – it sometimes felt like you were too far away from what was going on on-screen in Persona 4. I also really like the effect on Glasses’…uh Glasses. The white tint helps to hide his face, much in the same way his mask does when he’s on a mission.
A classroom shot — wouldn’t be a Persona game without some learnin! If you look closely, you also see the first female party member in this shot. She’s wearing red pants, and a four leaf clover is on the back of her uniform. I wonder what the significance of that could be. Her name also appears to be Takamaki Anzu.
We see the party hanging out on a bridge, and get a closer look at the two new introduced party members. The other boy’s name seems to be Sakamoto Ryuuji. Their conversation seems super animated – way more than in Persona 3 or 4.
A shot appears of what looks to be the party’s hangout. On the table is a map – probably to plan out one of their missions. But for what? Robbery? Are they anti-heroes? I’m not sure. In this shot a cat-character is introduced. It looks to be a party-member.
Some more anime cutscenes. Dancing seems to be a theme in the game. We also see the cat transform from a regular cat into its more monster-like form. What I wonder is — is the regular cat a disguise? Or is the transformation into a persona (purrsona?). Also of note is that the cat is surrounded by the seven deadly sins. My guess is that, rather than being arcana based, personas will be based on the seven sins this time around. Quite a shake up, if it turns out to be true!
Some ridiculously sexy menus are shown off in absolute style. I love how dynamic they look, and Atlus was able to pull off the red-theme without having it grate on the eye. It looks as if Glasses is trying to push the camera away, with the subtitle “Don’t Look at Me Like That” appearing next to him. You also see that the protagonist is carrying a gun, and a menu opens showing access to some sort of knife or sword.
A train conductor goes nuts and crashes the train. Possessed by a Shadow?
Then we see Glasses jump into what is probably the first game’s dungeon. Right off the bat, you see how more dynamic the dungeons are going to be, with Glasses jumping about, and even sneaking behind objects Metal Gear Solid style.
We get a glimpse of a nurse-looking character. This is further confirmed by the “Takemi Medical Clinic” posted above the menu. Could Takemi be the name of the party’s school?
More cutscenes, followed by a show of a military shop run by Munehisa Iwai. You’ll be buying weapons from him, for sure. This scene also confirms that each character carries a melee and a gun weapon.
We see Glasses behind bars. Catherine reference, for sure. But are they more intimately connected then they first appear? Some have said even Glasses looks like a younger version of Catherine’s main character.
Combat! Glasses and crew lay waste to…personas? Not shadows!? Interesting! Fighting personas is a Shin Megami Tensei thing. I wonder what’s up with that!
The characters do some kind of slow-motion attack, which leads into an epic all out attack. The character portraits look straight villainous in before they do damage.
More dancing on a road that blazes by – something tells me that racer-like logo of the game is no coincidence.
The last shot shows Glasses get hyped up. He gets covered in blue flames, and then that familiar glass-shattering sound appears. Do the characters transform into their Personas when they attack? I don’t know!
BUT I NEED TO KNOW. Atlus, for the love of all that is holy, please release Persona 5 in America in 2015! I can’t take it anymore!
Eight-Bit Samurai 