With the games themselves set in a somewhat realistic society, the most recent Persona games have seen the protagonists defeat shadows in areas which most humans are unable to access. Battles in Persona 3 for example took place in the halls of Tartarus, a daunting labyrinth which appears during a hidden hour each day. Persona 4 on the other hand saw Yu Narukami and co duke it out in a hidden world contained within televisions.
The formula doesn’t change much with ATLUS’ upcoming release of Persona 5, where the Phantom Thieves are tasked with exploring Palaces, areas contained within what could be considered the “collective unconsciousness” known as the metaverse. Each Palace is a manifestation of the most distorted thoughts of an individual, and can be accessed through a nifty app known as the “Metaverse Navigator”.
Once the Phantom Thieves are in a palace, they do what you might expect – fight swarms of shadows which stand in their way, solve puzzles, defeat the Palace’s ruler and steal a “treasure”. Once successful, the target’s heart will be changed and they will understand the evilness of the desire which caused the Palace to appear… hopefully.
As the Phantom Thieves are meant to be thief-like, stealth is set to be a big key in navigating the Palaces. Sneaking up on or even ambushing Shadows is essential to ensuring you make it through the labyrinth… as if they are ambushed too many times themselves, they will be kicked out irrespective of their HP/MP levels.
This trailer also highlights some of the battle system, which is both familiar but also reminiscent to some of the earlier Persona and Megami Tensei games. While you can use a range of skills to defeat enemies which stand in your way, there is also the option of taking a diplomatic approach through negotiation. Depending on your response to the Shadow’s questions… you can recruit them to your team, net yourself some yen/items, or end the battle there and then.
Developed by ATLUS for the PlayStation 3 / PlayStation 4 and published by ATLUS USA (North America), Deep Silver (Europe) and Five Star Games (Australian / New Zealand distributor), Persona 5 will be available in western markets starting April 4th 2017.
