Lately I have found myself spending a lot of time thinking about Persona 5, spurred by the fact that I recently played Persona 4 Arena for the first time. As part of my contemplation about Persona 5, I've been thinking about what exactly I would want to see in the game, covering gameplay, story, presentation, and core design. Since I know Persona has a pretty large following here on Giant Bomb, I thought I'd share my personal Persona 5 wish list and see what others are hoping for. These are in no particular order.

• Better In-Engine Presentation: Even if by the time this games does come it ends up being a last gen (360 and PS3) game yet again, it will still be a generation leap from the last game, so obviously better visuals and such are too be expected, but I really hope they don't simply increase the poly count and call it a day. I think it would be awesome if they didn't need to use character portraits anymore, and instead had a more modern in-engine presentation. By this I mean changing camera angles, better animations, and an overall more cinematic presentation during all the dialogue, s-links, and in game events. I think it would be great if the game didn't animated cutscenes because the in-engine ones were nearly as good. If the presentation of Catherine is any indication, I think this is a great possibility.

• Voiced Social Links: The lack of voice acting in all of the social link scenes is one of the most disappointing aspects of the modern Persona games, and I really hope this is something that gets addressed. I realize that it is common practice for most JRPGs to feature significant portions of "non essential" dialogue that is unspoken, but it's one of those genre tropes that really feels out of place in the modern landscape. I know Atlus isn't a big company and they don't make games with the biggest of budgets, but I really hope they find a way to make this happen.

• Change in Dungeon Structure: I would probably still love the game even if they kept the same dungeon structure, but it is certainly something that could do with an overhaul. I don't really have anything in mind about how exactly they should change the dungeon design, I only know that the endless corridors that made up Tartarus, The Abyss of Time, and the TV World can get very monotonous.

• Background Leveling for Inactive Party Members: Something that has been talked about a lot, for obvious reasons. Being forced to spend hours upon hours grinding or just sticking with the original party are two pretty crappy choices, it'd be nice if that wasn't an issue at all.

• MIx Things Up: This is kind of a generic thing, but I just want Persona 5 to be different while still feeling like Persona. Persona 4 stuck very close to the Persona 3 formula, so it would be nice if Persona 5 was more of a change of pace. I'm not suggesting anything crazy like the abandonment of social links, but I think it would be pretty disappointing if Persona 5 stuck to exactly the same formula of the last two games. One thing that has mentioned by many people is moving the setting to college, and I think that could be really cool.

That's all I can think of right now, I know there were probably other things I was thinking about at some point, but these are the major ones. What are you guys hoping for out of Persona 5?

i want it to be a stand-alone story and not be related to p3/p4

i want it to be a stand-alone story and not be related to p3/p4

@FancySoapsMan said:

i want it to be a stand-alone story and not be related to p3/p4

I keep going back and forth on that one. With the way P4 Arena wrapped up, I know I want to see that story continued somewhere, but I still haven't decided if it would work as a Persona 5. There would certainly be a lot of challenges involved in having P5 be a direct sequel and the things that would have to change could possibly take it to far away from what I like about Persona games, but there is certainly a way it could be awesome.

I do know for sure that P4 Arena 2 would be the worst place possible to continue the story, because of the limits inherit to fighting game stories. I am referring to the fact that the only valid enemy types are the other playable characters, and it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to gin up another reason for all the character to fight each other again. 98% of fighting game stories revolve around a fighting tournament, and it simply wouldn't make any sense at all to have another one.

I just want this game to get a date/be released.

Background leveling would be cool. Hope they keep the P4G system where if you wipe you just restart the floor rather than from your last save. Keep direct control from P4 original. Can't imagine them getting rid of that. Allow me to pick which skills get passed down (like in P4G). I wouldn't mind a college setting, but I can't imagine that would change things too much either from P3/P4.

As long as the writing is still top notch and the combat is engaging I'm good. Again, I'm more concerned about actually knowing this game is a real thing/being able to play it than what the specific changes will be at this point in time.

@FLYmeatwad said:

I just want this game to get a date/be released.

Background leveling would be cool. Hope they keep the P4G system where if you wipe you just restart the floor rather than from your last save. Keep direct control from P4 original. Can't imagine them getting rid of that. Allow me to pick which skills get passed down (like in P4G). I wouldn't mind a college setting, but I can't imagine that would change things too much either from P3/P4.

As long as the writing is still top notch and the combat is engaging I'm good. Again, I'm more concerned about actually knowing this game is a real thing/being able to play it than what the specific changes will be at this point in time.

Yeah, I didn't bother listing things like Party Control or the P4G fusion stuff simply because that would be totally insane if that stuff got removed. Though now that I think about it, some stuff that was added in P3 FES (weapon fusion comes to mind) did not carry over to P4, so I guess can we can only hope that the improved fusion does in fact make it into P5.

Honestly, I don't think it matters what they add. There is no I will like another Persona game as much as I do 4. I don't see it happening. But I agree with all that.

I just wish for it to be out soon.

Im down for whatever they want to do honestly. I will say that I doubt they will do the whole s link and calendar system for a 3rd time.

Instead of discrete dungeons/levels I would like the "shadow world" to be more of an open world, a little like Dark Souls in structure. This would allow for cool unique places in the world, and give more of a exploration feel. If the combat is basically the same, multiple support characters to choose from would be be interesting. I would like the range of elements to revert back to around persona 2 level, just add a little more variety to skills and combat.

Oh, I would like a EU release close to the US release date, but I'm just being crazy now.

It would be cool if it was set in a college rather than a high school again, where the themes can get a little more adult like in Catherine. And I hope it looks like Catherine. Love that game's visual style.

@AmatureIdiot:

The multiple support character could be cool, especially if each had their own unique properties. It would add an interesting layer of strategy if the different support characters had different skills or different proficiencies, such as being able to instantly identify weaknesses vs. identifying enemy skills.

Story wise I would love to see a college setting allowing for mature/dark themes which we all seem to be a sucker for these days. In combination with that I would like to see the choice of choosing gender which creates two varied playthroughs in terms of available social links and perhaps other gameplay mechanics.

Aesthetically and for my personal enjoyment, I'd like to see the Velvet Room take place in a jet. So far we've had a regular wide room in P1 and P2, an elevator in P3, and a limo in P4.

Gameplay mechanics that I want are background leveling, having persona recipes available to you because some of those persona fusing requests got annoying cause w/o a guide it was hard to determine what personas you needed to combine and the option to cherry pick the move set of the persona fusion result at the cost of money. I literally spent one hour reshuffling to get the skills i wanted for Thanatos. I think paying for your ideal moveset seems fair and do something like with Fox where the service starts off expensive but have the person doing it have a social link and thereby decrease the cost at higher Social Link Lvls.

What do you guys think?

@ll_Exile_ll said:

• Background Leveling for Inactive Party Members: Something that has been talked about a lot, for obvious reasons. Being forced to spend hours upon hours grinding or just sticking with the original party are two pretty crappy choices, it'd be nice if that wasn't an issue at all.

I usually go with the third option: Use everyone without grinding and still have no difficulties.

I honestly do hope that Persona 5 includes some person 4 characters to some extent, those characters are why I fell in love with the game and I think there are more stories to tell about charlie and the Investigation team, if with a whole bunch of new characters. I'd feel kinda let down if all that was left to dry. That being said, a whole new separate story would not be the worst thing.

Persona 3 was basically set in a college.

I'm gonna float this out here and see if anyone wants to kill me.

Would you be interested if Persona 5 took place outside of Japan? Like, set in the US, or England or something. I'm just thinking about how being set in a different culture would do to mix it up a bit. Different school schedule, different holidays, etc. Maybe starring a Japanese exchange to keep the Japan perspective, while still feeling new. Plus it starts expanding the shadows to a global threat, which might be how you'd start to tie into what SEES is up to and stuff.

Am I crazy here?

@Toug: Even if they had reason to set it outside Japan and felt that was the story they wanted to tell, people would complain about Atlus, one of the last remaining developers of Japanese games that don't really go out of the way to appeal to the west, "pandering to western audiences".

@Toug: yes your crazy

@SlightConfuse said:

Persona 3 was basically set in a college.

What? No it was not. Gekkoukan High School is, in fact, a high school. Just because the main characters live in dorm doesn't mean it's not high school.

I do know for sure that P4 Arena 2 would be the worst place possible to continue the story, because of the limits inherit to fighting game stories. I am referring to the fact that the only valid enemy types are the other playable characters, and it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to gin up another reason for all the character to fight each other again. 98% of fighting game stories revolve around a fighting tournament, and it simply wouldn't make any sense at all to have another one.

@DonutFever: I've thought about that as well, but that still isn't an ideal situation. Even if they could present it in a way that made sense it would still feel like a retread, which would be a shame for a set up with so much potential.

sexy anime girls

I like what they did with Golden, so all I really want them to add mechanically is a deck of personas that can be used for social links.

I'm kind of hoping it is some kind of follow up on the ending of Arena. I wouldn't mind a whole new cast of characters with a new story, but I really want to see the ending of Arena followed up by something other than another fighting game. If it is a different story, I'd like a college setting instead of a high school. Easier for me to relate to college students and it'd be cool to see some more mature issues come up. Other than that, just the standard stuff like better graphics and some more polish on the gameplay.

To me it felt like P4 Arena was a prologue for things to come; the return of  Nyarlathotep(referred to as Malevolent Entity in P4 Arena) was inevitable; as he is the counterbalance to Philemon
 
If  Nyarlathotep is the Antagonist in Persona 5; then Reverse Personas will no doubt return as well.  I would love to see Nyarlathotep create a corrupt version of the wild card and give it to P5's  villian-to-be. 
 

I want a day one Vita version.

OK OK OK OK OK. I just thought of this on the way home from school today. You know the fusing music? The Poem for Everyone's Souls? I want it to be sung by a man with a super deep opera voice. Change it up. Let's do it.

In the mountain Regions of Japan, replace grind dungeons with Drift Racing

Basically this...

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

In the mountain Regions of Japan, replace grind dungeons with Drift Racing

Basically this...

Hahahaha, goddammit, I like this idea way more than I should.

I stuck with that show way longer than I should have during high school.

I'd probably want more of the sim stuff. Also how about giving you the ability to add from an array of characters rather just 5 or 6, Each character mind you has their own storyline but wouldn't it be cool if you could go Chrono Cross and be able to work on getting peeps joining your party depending on your social link with them.

My real question is what kind of setting it will have. P3 and P4 were pretty much polar opposites (boarding school/metropolis and home life/rural village) so I'm not sure where they could go while avoiding retreading old ground/characters. Will they continue the story of P4A? Will we have brand new characters? Will it be at college? Will it be at a boring desk job? Why will the characters be fighting demons? What demons will the characters have?

I'm just too excited. It better come soon....

It might seem crazy, but how about if they drastically reduced the number of personae, and made them more detailed and important?

For instance, there is a constant reference to the persona as a mask you wear in social situations, but that's never reflected by the main character. What if when you equipped a persona of a certain arcana your dialogue options, and maybe even some animations changed? It would give the impression that by switching personae you are actually somewhat switching personalities.

Go all out with voice over

I know this will sound crazy but I always liked the idea of replacing the School with a police force.

You know, changing things up from high school to being on the job.

What's better is that they could make the MC a lowly patrol man which makes it easier to S-Link because your going patrolling the city getting to know the residents as well as your fellow police officers.

They could stop the whole idea of making the MC being able to call for back up by putting him in a situation in the beginning where he patrols the streets only to be attacked by a supernatural being that vanished once he called for back up and no one believes him.

Put a bit of Persona 4's murder mystery but sprinkle it with some Noire style to replace the scooby doo.

Okay, maybe I'm kinda over thinking it know but they could make something similar to that.

Edit: also, cooler atmosphere, less dark than P3, not as happy as P4, a perfect balance that is a lot more stylish.

I like Jeff's idea of combining the characters from 3 and 4 as one giant organization fighting the bad guys. How about also aging them significantly so they're in their early 30's and they have to join together once again to fight the evil ala' the horror book "IT".

I'd like the story structure and setting to be more varied and unpredictable than P3/P4. From a big-picture story perspective, in P3, you'd clear a new section of Tartarus every month until you reached the top, with minor "side missons" during full moons. In P4, every month or so you'd learn who was going to get kidnapped, you'd try (and fail) to stop that from happening, you'd go in and fight through a dungeon, they'd say "you're not me!" and you'd fight their shadow, they'd join your party, repeat a handful of more times until you reach the final dungeon.

Don't get me wrong, I love the overall story and presentation of both games, but after a while in P4 I ended up saying "oh, guess he's going to get kidnapped next, can't wait to go in and do it all again, so we can see who's getting kidnapped next month!".

Chie camio and better or easier detectable difference between endings. Having to use a walktrhough to not have spend multiple hours for nothing should be more easily avoidable

@jebara:

I'm loving everything you're putting down. Great ideas all round, and it agrees with what a bunch of us have discussed around the place as well. I love the idea of a good middle ground between the tones of P3 and P4.

@ll_Exile_ll said:

• Better In-Engine Presentation: Even if by the time this games does come it ends up being a last gen (360 and PS3) game yet again, it will still be a generation leap from the last game, so obviously better visuals and such are too be expected, but I really hope they don't simply increase the poly count and call it a day. I think it would be awesome if they didn't need to use character portraits anymore, and instead had a more modern in-engine presentation. By this I mean changing camera angles, better animations, and an overall more cinematic presentation during all the dialogue, s-links, and in game events. I think it would be great if the game didn't animated cutscenes because the in-engine ones were nearly as good. If the presentation of Catherine is any indication, I think this is a great possibility.

I'm split on this. I loved the presentation of Catherine on many levels, but I also deeply love the basic P4 element of having beautiful, high rez character portraits. Somehow they've almost always managed to convey everything they've needed to with those simple tools, and I think it's definitely part of their story telling method in P1-4. I love Youske's "ah, jeez" face, and naotos "You guys are imbeciles" face and Kanji's blush. I'll miss things like that if they go polygonal for everything.

That said, Catherine did a great job with most of its storytelling - but I think it wasn't as ambitious with its characterisation outside of Vincent himself, and perhaps the diner-lady.

I could go either way, I have trust in the team and think they'll make a choice they can deliver upon - but I can't say outright that I'd leave the anime trappings behind.

That said if the next gen could deliver near-anime-in-real-time, I'm all the way with you - especially looking at what Ni no Kuni is doing.

• Voiced Social Links: The lack of voice acting in all of the social link scenes is one of the most disappointing aspects of the modern Persona games, and I really hope this is something that gets addressed. I realize that it is common practice for most JRPGs to feature significant portions of "non essential" dialogue that is unspoken, but it's one of those genre tropes that really feels out of place in the modern landscape. I know Atlus isn't a big company and they don't make games with the biggest of budgets, but I really hope they find a way to make this happen.

I 100,000,000% agree with you. The characters are why we love these games, and I've always wanted fully voiced s-links - especially given that they use fantastic actors in their localisation. I'm not even asking for a fully voiced game, if they do what they are doing now but add s-link VO to the mix, I'd be overjoyed.

• Change in Dungeon Structure: I would probably still love the game even if they kept the same dungeon structure, but it is certainly something that could do with an overhaul. I don't really have anything in mind about how exactly they should change the dungeon design, I only know that the endless corridors that made up Tartarus, The Abyss of Time, and the TV World can get very monotonous.

Agreed. I have no idea if it's a direction they could ever go down, but even having dungeons that aren't just hallways would go a long way. Cave systems, passes though mountains, forests, etc would be pretty interesting - given that much of the Persona games occur in alternate dimensions or magical places, I don't see why they can't go crazy with it.

Of course those examples don't fit with the Japanese city aesthetic - but why not throw curve balls in there? Descend down into the lower levels of the dungeon and the floor tiles slowly morph into frigid snow and before them and the walls suddenly stop like the edges of a tunnel, revealing a frozen forest under a purple sky. They see what look like birds chirping in the trees - but when they get close, they appear to be made of glass, somehow showing images of static cutting to what is clearly daytime TV.

Even if they stick with the city aesthetic, they could go crazy in different ways - just look at DmC Devil May Cry. Morphing environments, interesting manipulations of mundane settings. I don't know.

@ll_Exile_ll said:

• Background Leveling for Inactive Party Members: Something that has been talked about a lot, for obvious reasons. Being forced to spend hours upon hours grinding or just sticking with the original party are two pretty crappy choices, it'd be nice if that wasn't an issue at all.

Yes.

@ll_Exile_ll said:

• MIx Things Up: This is kind of a generic thing, but I just want Persona 5 to be different while still feeling like Persona. Persona 4 stuck very close to the Persona 3 formula, so it would be nice if Persona 5 was more of a change of pace. I'm not suggesting anything crazy like the abandonment of social links, but I think it would be pretty disappointing if Persona 5 stuck to exactly the same formula of the last two games. One thing that has mentioned by many people is moving the setting to college, and I think that could be really cool.

Moving it to college, having multiple cities, there are so many things they could do with the next persona. Having a more adult setting is #1 on my personal wish list, and not just because role playing hitting on 15-16 year old girls is creepy. Even something so simple as the MC being able to take a day off work to do other things if he needed to, and having your boss keep track of it and chew you out for skipping too many days - those are cool things I'd totally like to see.

S-Links at night are another thing. They dipped into this in past Persona games, but I really liked the bar setting of Catherine and would love to go out with my mates at night - or be dragged along to boring office parties on fridays - or any number of other things at night that make sense in today's world.

Yukiko was kidnapped? Freeking drive over to her place and look around, do some investigation. Give my MC a usable cell phone that I could dial numbers with and check in on people. How cool would it be if you found something in the world relevant to the plot and you could optionally call your friends and tell them about it on the spot and get reactions.

Anyway, yeah.

In the end, I just want more damn persona in my life - and I trust the team with it, but you covered most of the basics with your first post : )

The only thing I'd add is I hope they keep promoting the sound track for these games more and more - maybe giving you a download code with P5. I believe Shoji Meguro is already confirmed, so I'm happy with where it's going already.

Bring back Chie with the original voice actress. That is all...

I only have one Persona 5 related wish: That there is a Persona 5... soon, preferably.

1) More spells - Bring back Magna, Aqua and Frei spells.

2) P3 physical 'elements' (Slash, Strike, Pierce) - I don't even know why they got rid of these.

3) You know that fireworks event in the Golden and Valentine's Day where the other party members acknowledge your romance choice? Yeah, more of that. I don't have a concise phrase for that.

4) New Personas - There's gotta be more mythology to use. I would also accept returning Personas (or making SMT demons into Personas, I want to summon Nyx)

5) No more high school - I wouldn't mind a high school setting but after Catherine I'm convinced they could do other settings too.

6) Main Character can wield any weapon they want.

7) Male and Female main character.

I have more but that'll do for now.

EDIT: OH! Wait! 8) Less annoying navigation character/option to mute navigation character.

There was one thing in P4 that bugged me through out the game. Every time a scene came up that involved money (eg, Teddie's clothes, make-up steak, etc) the characters would make a stink about overspending or not being able to afford something. Meanwhile, I'm standing there with hundreds of thousands of Yen, and I would love to "make it rain" but never really get an opportunity. To top it off, when I do splurge on something like equipment, no one even says thanks. I just want some goddamn recognition for all the scratch I manage to save up.

Anyway, if P5 somehow integrates money spending into the social part of the game along with a bunch of other stuff mentioned in this thread I'll be a happy camper.

@Neurotic: I saw a suggestion somewhere to set P5 in a Police Station, I think that would be fantastic personally. Having to meet a quota of arrests/cases solved against trying to solve a mystery involving a power that you simply can't explain to most other officers.

@McGhee said:

It would be cool if it was set in a college rather than a high school again, where the themes can get a little more adult like in Catherine. And I hope it looks like Catherine. Love that game's visual style.

I'll second this and add in that I want S. Links to impact story beats. As much as I love the story of P4, each "story segment" wasn't at all impacted by how far you'd progressed a social link, most notably in the bar and the entire situation with the Dojimas. This goes double for a certain link in Golden that I won't mention for spoilery reasons. Even if it's just a few throwaway lines, at least acknowledge what's going on when it's under the player's control.

Other than that: I really want to see Arena's story continued if for no other reason than I think the combining of the two casts would make for an EXTREMELY compelling game.

A problem that arose in Persona 4 was that party members other than the main dude seem totally useless by comparison. This worked in Persona 3 because they were all AI controlled, but if they're going to let me control them then they need to find some way to make them more relevant in battle. Unique character specific attacks, a greater variety of move options while levelling up, more persona evolutions, possibly with branching paths, just stuff like that. Most importantly I think they need to rethink their dungeons, they either need to evolve them to make them more interesting, or go back to randomly generated ones, because trading random ones for bland ones was a bad move. Also a college setting would be cool, but I don't see it happening.

There was one thing in P4 that bugged me through out the game. Every time a scene came up that involved money (eg, Teddie's clothes, make-up steak, etc) the characters would make a stink about overspending or not being able to afford something. Meanwhile, I'm standing there with hundreds of thousands of Yen, and I would love to "make it rain" but never really get an opportunity. To top it off, when I do splurge on something like equipment, no one even says thanks. I just want some goddamn recognition for all the scratch I manage to save up.

Anyway, if P5 somehow integrates money spending into the social part of the game along with a bunch of other stuff mentioned in this thread I'll be a happy camper.

I kinda think that it would be cool if it could be a more mature cast and the game has a focus on nightlife, walking around a crowded city at night or in the evening with neon-lights everywhere. Kinda like the Yakuza-games but without the random streetfights. Then ofcourse change up the maze-dungeons a little. I think the themed P4 dungeons hit a pretty good spot, but they really should change it up.

Well, they experimented with a more "mature" cast with Catherine. Not so much walking around at night, but there was a night life (and a crazy story).

To ever come out, and to not be region locked.