Atlus Starting Work on Persona 5

[John Funk]

Atlus Starting Work on Persona 5

The developer of the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona JRPG series is now set to start work on... Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 5, says the man behind Persona 4 [http://www.amazon.com/Shin-Megami-Tensei-Persona-Playstation-2/dp/B000FPM4WC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1278962769&sr=1-2].


It's been a long time since we last heard anything about the followup to PS2 swan song Persona 4 - the last we heard, longtime Atlus composer Shoji Meguro had been credited with doing the soundtrack to Persona 5 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/93706-Persona-5-Shows-Up-on-Sony-Site], but nothing concrete materialized from those rumors.

Now, however, we may have something definite, reports Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5500764/persona-developers-making-newpersona]. Katsura Hashino, who previously worked as producer and director on both Persona 3 and Persona 4, told Japanese game mag Dengeki PlayStation that work was beginning on the next Persona - but that things might be changing up a bit.

"We are preparing to start work on the next Persona," said Hashino. "I want to add things that are being expected of the series," he elaborated, but added that he also wanted "to change things that can be changed within those boundaries."

Smart money says the next game will likely be about Japanese teenagers who have the ability to summon powerful alter egos based on their innermost selves, and who each fall into a different category of the tarot arcana. The power of said alter egos will depend as much on how much time the teenagers spend hanging out after school together as it does on how much time they spend level grinding in dungeons recreated out of the human psyche.

But that's just a guess. He did say that he wanted to change it up, though. So maybe they'll be... Japanese college students this time around? What would you like to see in a new Persona?

In other news, Kotaku's Brian Ashcraft has excellent taste in pairing preferences.

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[Cherry Cola]

What I would like to see in Persona 5?

More suicide summonings.

Except with guns, they use swords.

Or grenades.

Or ponies.

Yeah, let's take that.

In Persona 5, I want to see people kill themselves with ponies to summon demons!

 

[Jack and Calumon]

I would like it to be on PS3 or PSP. It's hard to play or even go into a shop and BUY PS2 games here in the UK anymore. Also, I would like to play one of these Persona games, as I feel like I'm missing out.

Calumon: High school? Takato is only in middle school, and high schoolers are always shoving him and henry around. Hehe, until guilmon pops out the trash can! ^^ They left a puddle!

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Kick Ass! Hopefully it isn't too much of a departure though, Persona's 3 and 4 are some of my favorite games of the last decade!

But as long as they keep the Social Sim + Fantastic Characters + Snappy Battle System + Awesome Soundtrack I'll be happy.

Overall though I'd like to see them stick with the more "character driven" plot of Persona 4 rather than the grand world saver in Persona 3, it just worked better in my opinion.

But yeah, playing as Adults or College Students would be interesting as well.

 

[Therumancer]

Sounds awesome, I just hope they don't try and turn it into some kind of action game to "draw in the twitch obssessed crowd" like we've been seeing with other RPG franchises.

That said Persona 3 and 4 rock hard, I really hope we don't have to wait 5 years for a localization of Persona 5, I also hope it remains very similar, and doesn't kowtow to censors.

 

[Sam G]

I want a character who uses motorbikes as a weapon.
Just ploughs 'em into a Shadow, then keeps driving.

 

[Dudeakoff]

Make it so that I don't have to pick the correct response in 5 multiple choice responses to be able to get the last dungeon and a decent ending. Having to go onto gameFAQs is annoying.

 

[FrancoDHorse]

I want it on the PS3. K thanks

 

[Alufear]

Motherfuck Yeah!!!!!!

Imagine the psychological strain that college students are under. We'd have some messed up Persona popping out!

 

[King Kupofried]

Please don't make the support character anything like Rise again ; ;
I can deal with repeated messages over and over again through battle just fine when it has a nice voice like Fuuka, Rise just made me cringe whenever she spoke.
I would like to see more done with your Teammates Social Links, sorta like in Persona 4 how they would evolve when you reached rank 10, in the sense of being able to influence what kind of Person they would change into and what abilities they would obtain based on how you how you interact with them.

 

[Jared]

Oh nice! Another persona!

Hehe, loved the last one, despite some of the controvacy it caused with people >_>

Looking forward to seeing my brain explaode with more psychological trauma, heh

 

[xDHxD148L0]

PS3 plz, I will no longer be able to play it if its on the PS2.

 

[The DSM]

Oh god lord yes.

Please be on the X box 360....

 

[Milkman Dan]

It's kind of sad that I haven't even finished Persona 3 yet. And it wasn't even Persona 3 FES.

 

[SUPA FRANKY]

Eh...As much as I love those games...they really are starting to milk it. Well, it WAs the series that finally put SMT on the map in the U.S, so that is expected. But please Atlus, after this one, give that series a rest, and focus on the Main series!

 

[esteban138]

Hey, the protagonist in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment were all Japanese ADULT PROFESSIONALS who have the ability to summon powerful alter egos based on their innermost selves... and it's probably my favorite JRPG of all time. Here's hoping they go that route again.

 

[That's Funny]

I want it for the Xbox 360, but that's never going to happen in the near future *sigh*.

 

[Korten12]

Oh god lord yes.

Please be on the X box 360....

I want it for the Xbox 360, but that's never going to happen in the near future *sigh*.

yeah sorry, I found this on wikipedia in the persona future section.

In September 2009, Shoji Meguro, a member of Atlus, was listed in Sony's site as the producer on Persona 5 exclusively for the PlayStation 3.

 

[Grayjack]

I want an SMT game on the next-gen consoles. PS2 is good and all, but it's time to move on.

 

[midpipps]

Hell yes I am ready for another Persona game. Please if you are talking about changing it do not make it some stupid action RPG leave it as a turn based style system. It is so sad to see games that have great turn based systems completely throw away that system just to put in a crappy action system.

Nothing particularly wrong with the real time action systems just that it always pisses me off when there are so many cool spells/summons and I never use them because they either miss because the enemy moved, or take to long to cast and you get completely spanked waiting for the spell to fire off.(I am looking at you Final Fantasy Crisis Core.)