I HOPE it's minimal, and the series history would suggest it will be, but a lot has changed since Persona 4 came out, so I really can't say for sure. I'll be pretty disappointed if they overly rely on P3/P4 fanservice though.

I really have on idea what will happen with Igor though. He seems integral to the series, but I know Japan is not big on replacing voice actors, so who knows. Maybe Philemon will finally return!

I HOPE it will be a return to the completed unrelated nature of the SMT series as whole, but I doubt it because Persona 4 was infinite money. I think Margaret will be the new master of the Velvet Room. Also @zeik Philemon is in P3 and 4, he's the blue butterfly you see everywhere.

I want the main character to be more like Vincent from Catherine. IE You're a full-grown adult that's not in high school and you have a job. You work for a large company with many different teams/departments and those are the people you social link with.

Cameos should be minimal. For example, an adult Chie shows up as a rookie beat cop for a crime scene. Or maybe you take a vacation at the Inaba Amagi Inn and the manager is adult Yukiko.

Look, Persona 4 is the best JRPG of its generation, but I'd like a new plot/characters that don't rely on nostalgia for me to like it/them.

Minor, or else they've fucked up.

Persona has always had some connections to past games. Persona 2 is one of the most referential games in the entire franchise. But up until now they've made sure to keep the focus on the new characters and events. I don't want to see them treat P5 as just a straight continuation of P3/P4.

And I meant an actual legitimate appearance by Philemon, not a butterfly that may or may not be a represenation of him.

@fitzgerald: Persona has always had high schooler main characters, even from the start. Social links however were only introduced in P3, along with most of the things people consider Persona staples.

Hopefully none, since I barely remember 3 and never even played 4.

Even with the very very minimal info we have about the game so far it's very obvious the game is still set in high school.

@zeik: They've actually confirmed the game is still set in high school.

Hopefully none. The way to mess up things is to start doing contunality where it is a blessing they can wipe the slate clean with most of the characters and systems.

I hope it's minor. Cute little throwbacks for fans, but otherwise completely standalone original stories.

I would be shocked if it was anything other than winks and nods, though I can certainly imagine ways more connectivity between the recent installment could be handled well. If they tied some of the overarching events into each other without making this game Persona 4-2 I think that would be cool, but going as far as to have returning party members or things like that would be a bad idea in my opinion.

Something like the field trip in Persona 4 would be cool, but I don't want much more than that. I would not be opposed to seeing Elizabeth back in the Velvet Room.

I hope they don't go too deep with it. I really want to see an entirely new cast of characters. I'm also assuming that by putting that 5 at the end, that that is going to be the case.

Bunch of whiners in this thread. Persona is a franchise full of amazing characters and I hope they have some role in Persona 5. A whole new cast of main characters is essential but some old characters should have more than cameo appearances.

Cameos and random callbacks at most.

I'm hoping none. Especially 4. I am beyond tired of that cast at this point.

whine (hwīn, wīn)

v. whined, whin·ing, whines

v.intr.

1. To utter a plaintive, high-pitched, protracted sound, as in pain, fear, supplication, or complaint.

2. To complain or protest in a childish fashion.

3. To produce a sustained noise of relatively high pitch: jet engines whining.

From the looks of things, you're the one who's whining by name calling people who have a different opinion than yours. The spin-offs to the Persona games exist to support the already existing characters and settings that people have come to love from the recent Persona games, but I have more faith in Atlus than them having to constantly recycle and depend on old material for their mainline title because they can't come up with new content that will appeal to people as much or even more than the Persona games of the past.

Fortunately, that seems to be what they plan to do, instead of staying shackled to the desires of fans who can't move on past Persona 3 or Persona 4.

When I first read the title I thought you meant influence, in which case I would say they would have a ton of influence. Those games were very successful and I don't know if they're in the position to risk changing too much of the formula, especially when I would say a majority of its modern fans know it as its P3 and 4 incarnations.

Story influence is entirely different. I expect them to make as clean of a break as they had before, having small references to events and people in the previous games. Having the P3 and P4 characters play any significant role in the story risks changing the focus a bit too much. Typically these games are about growth and those characters have already grown past where they would typically set a Persona game.

if they attempt to integrate the P4A storyline into the game I would be incredibly disappointed. I can't say one way or another whether its worthwhile or not, but I have no actual intention of playing those games. It would just confuse the state of the world a bit much for my taste where Persona 3 and Persona 4 were at least clear enough on that end that any confusion cleared itself up without any extensive backstory.

Two questions being asked. I think the connections will be minor, but I'd hope that a few familiar faces show up. If they ARE in a unified setting, then it's getting past the point of consistency that once again people that absolutely know what the stakes are....will once again allow a bunch of high schoolers to stumble around hoping they can get their shit together enough to save the world. At some point, hoping the apocalypse is delayed once again based on the coincidences that occur in Persona games is kinda crazy. They don't have to be main characters, but yeah maybe getting a few pointers along the way might be cool.

They've been fairly good at keeping things on a cameo level. I hope Atlus continues this with 5 and can make a great standalone!

Hopefully it's totally standalone.

Continuity isn't depending on old material it's using the best parts of the past games to enrich the current game. I honestly don't know where this ire for continuity is coming from. If you have faith Atlus will make a great JRPG with deep gameplay mechanics, great characters and meaty storyline, you should also have faith they would treat continuity with the same level of care and craft.

I don't care about continuity. I loved the Persona 2 duology's story. I loved Persona 3. I loved Persona 4. They did not intersect in any big way, nor did I want them to because I prefer a new world to discover, a new cast to learn about, a new setting to be engrossed in... I do not need to revisit these elements that I loved so much in the past as they will no doubt feel unnecessary and recycled. Significant continuity might be what you want from Persona 5, but obviously most people don't and, thankfully, it's most likely that the developers don't as well.

The real question is...

How long do I have to wait for enough fan fiction ecchi manga to pop up, so I can flesh out the romance-side of the game with some naughty bits?

I really hope the references are minimal. Personas 3 and 4 have had enough time in the spotlight and enough spinoff games for me to be super interested in those characters anymore. The only direct involvement I'd be okay (not happy) with would be if we go get Minato out of the Great Seal, which probably won't happen. Hopefully Atlus doesn't fall into the trap of putting the Persona 4 characters in 5 as major characters to further capitalize on their freak popularity.

I wouldn't mind some minor references here or there as games are want to do. But I'd like for it to be all it's own thing.

Although I wouldn't mind seeing Funky Student make a return, depending on the timeline maybe he could have moved up in the world Funky Mayor!

By the time it comes out in English you'll have all the doujinshi you could ask for.

I hope very minimal as in some minor references eg, the relative of a social link vaguely referencing their relative or someone mentioning a character or just seeing a social link character that wasn't a party member (like Chihiro appeared in 3 and then 4) ).

I want them to come out and forge a brand new cast and build a new story around them and have fun referencing stuff but not too overt.

I'm interested though, do you want it to be different from Persona 3/4? As much as I love P3 and 4, they are the same game in many respects with some very slight variations. I want them to see them develop a brand new system for the game that still has the combat system there but the basic design for day-to-day and social links being different.

@vaddixbell: I EXPECT it be different. If it's just P4 with some tweaks and additions and a new coat of pain then they scewed up. Not that I expect a complete overhaul like they did with P3, since they basically struck gold with that formula, but it has to be much more significant then what they could pass off as a new FES or Golden.

History suggests we'll see something like that though. New hardware is when Atlus likes to change things up.

Come again? There's not even anything to whine about yet.

I'm not sure how much they should cross over until we see what that do with Arena 2. Because as it stands with just Arena it would not really make any sense if there was no crossover between the previous game unless the game takes place in a completely different universe.

With the shadow operatives being a thing now, narratively speaking they would have to know about the events of 5 and get involved. Unless all the shadow business happens in another contained world like the TV. Since it was pretty much explicitly stated that was the only reason the shadow op didn't sense the trouble in Inaba until the end, where it was resolved before they could intervene. It would kind of be a shame to do contained world again since that made the stakes in P4 feel smaller than they did in P3. Also I feel like doing that again would probably lead to retreading a lot of the P4 plot.

Also if they are going to use the velvet room siblings again I kind of feel they need to finish off the Elizabeth P3 plot thread. They only have three options to deal with it; to ignore it, mention it again, or resolve it. They really can't just ignore a hanging plot point that they keep building up with each mention. It goes with out saying that mentioning it only makes the problem worse. Resolving it in P5 would mean a huge cross over unless it was resolved as some bonus secret dungeon thing. The only way to avoid the crossover would be to resolve that in Arena 2 which I kind of suspect they will.

I wouldn't be surprised to see p4/3 characters show up in some form or fashion especially since they have been subtly hinting at what is cannon though all of the extended media.

Though I reserve the right to change my opinion until we know what the story modes from P4AU and PQ are since there both considered cannon.

@dizzyhippos: There have been cameos from characters in past games in *all* the Persona games, and other more subtle nods. I definitely hope the extent of the connection is kept that way. It was cool hearing about things tying together between the two P3 and P4 teams in Arena, but then Atlus went and milked all the cool out of it. Sadly, the end-sum of that turned the 3DS Persona game into a cheesy crossover hybrid of different games and different game series.

i actually would love to see connections from 3 and 4 into 5, but id like them to do it properly. similar to how they connected 3 in 4, something along that sorts. nothing too direct direct

save the direct, direct, ties for something like a persona 5 arena or something.

was there a trailer at last nights conference? anyone got a link?

Agreed. I thought the cameos in 4 were done well. Enough for people who cared, while not going so overboard that it felt out of place for people who haven't played/don't remember 3 (like Vinny and Jeff).

Also it needs Igor because, you know, Igor.

------------

This post has spoilers for P3, P4, P4A & P4AU

------------

My heart says major significance but my brain says minor significance. I like to see new characters but I also want to see the world that Persona is based in, because in all types of media I'm all about world building, as opposed to games/books/TV shows/films which take place in unrelated cities with no relation whatsoever to previous games/books/TV shows/films. One example of how this was done really well while keeping the focus on a given game's characters was the P4 cast's trip to Tatsumi Port Island.

If it makes sense then I say not only should it be in the game, but it would be worse off for not doing, for example:

• Mitsuru Kirijo's government sanctioned Shadow Operatives group - The Shadow Operatives must have had a hand in every high alert shadow incident since it was formed after Persona 3, as seen in P4A & P4AU. They will no doubt take notice of the events of Persona 5. If not an appearance by a combination of Mitsuru, Akihiko, Aigis or Labrys then new members of the organisation unrelated to the events of P3 and P4. Maybe we've already seen them, the people questioning a battered and bruised P5 protagonist?
• Naoto Shirogane's detective work - Naoto is no stranger to leaving her grandfather's estate to take a job whenever a case interests her. In P4A and P4AU the government trusted her as an independent contractor (who they knew before they hired her is a persona-user) to keep tabs on the Shadow Operatives. I could easily see her being the P5 cast's enemy.
• Going to a Rise Kujikawa concert - Less story themed and more on the fan service side, but I have no doubt that Rise is more popular now than ever before, her comeback will have been a success and she'll be a nationwide star again.
• Elizabeth's quest to free the Persona 3 protagonist from the Nyx - Erebus seal - Elizabeth now has the combined powers or a Velvet Room attendant and the wildcard (usually only given to protagonists). How many times has she beaten up Erebus since? Does her efforts have any effect on P5? I hope it does. And where has Margaret and Theodore disappeared to? Are the attendant twins related?

not from Persona, But I think Vincent, from "Catherine", might show up at some point.

I would love a non-spoilery confirmation on anything to do with the previous games being part of P5 now that importers can play it.

Not sure if true but i've heard Dojima turns up to investigate a case. Again can't be 100%

I'll take it if it turns out to be true, that would be a good one.