Alright buds this has been bothering me for QUITE some time and to tell you the truth, this bug has been growing ever since they announced and Sho'd Sho.

Let me back it on up first.

Back when they first announced P4U2 for the first time and began play testing (late August), they had this character select screen:

Yeah cool right? Yukari and Stupei make the scene and everyone's pants were knocked off seeing these two folks make an appearance.

Then things took a turn when Sho was announced:

Woah, wait a minute what the hell are those 4 character slots?

If I brought this up back then, this would've been a pretty hype mystery. However, since I'm super late with this, we all know that, well, we have two of those characters slots filled with Rise and Ken/Koromaru. Sexy.

That and it's been implied that Adachi will in fact be playable. Of course we have nothing solid yet, but the fact that he has a dramatic part in a trailer, has an in game sprite, and appears to have an important part in the story, I believe it's safe to say he'll be playable. No breaks on the Jester Train.

Now we theoretically have 3/4 of the characters: two who are from P4 and one from P3. I bring that detail up because of the half-subtle way AtlusxArc decided to layout the character select screen. Notice how the top row is essentially occupied by the Big D. OGs Investigation Team and Sho's, both groups originating in P4. Now look at the bottom row, we see that it's the Almighty Hype Lords of S.E.E.S, with the exception of Labrys who is a new member of S.E.E.S but had her first appearance in P4U (unless you wanna be 'that guy' and bring up that she actually was first mentioned in a Drama CD for P3.)

So if I were to predict the way the 3 characters were to be laid out I see:

Rise and Adach fill in the final two spots in the first row and Ken/Koromaru the second row.

So who will take the final slot?

And that my friends is what I want to discuss. If I'm correct in my assumptions it should be a character (preferably alive for the sake of story quality) from P3.

It might be you know who, but to be honest I seriously hope it isn't.

Well there was that pic of Theodore. It would be awesome/hilarious if it was Dojima but that will never happen.

It has not been implied that Adachi will be playable.

You are also looking too deeply into an element of a non-final character select screen that might be purely aesthetic.

The only real evidence of there potentially being another new character is the remaining "Coming Soon" character slot on the character page of the official website, but that might be replaced with the update next week. This is based off of too many assumptions to come to any reasonable conclusion.

Also, SEES doesn't exist anymore. They're the Shadow Operatives.

@irrelevantjohn: Nanako Persona, let's go!

The picture of Theodore makes pretty much anything possible. It could be a somehow revived P3 protagonist, the FEMALE P3 Protagonist, A living version of Shinjiro from the P3 Female MC's storyline, Theodore himself... honestly I want Margaret playable, but that's almost definitely not gonna happen. It's too bad, though! P4 Golden showed she'd have a hell of a command grab.

@fluxwavez: Well yeah it's nothing to be taken as, "This is what's TOTALLY going to happen." Just threw my 2 cents into the gutter for funzies.

Also yeah I can't believe I forgot the Whole S. Op thing, thanks for the correction.

Why does that make anything possible? Theodore has always been canon to the series. He is even mentioned in Persona 4 Arena, and not to forget that he's present in Persona Q. He's the younger Velvet Room sibling, that's it.

Tanaka.

Hamuko would be my everything but I'm on the side of Ken/Koro being the last character.

God I hope this games makes it out on time in the uk....

I see. Well, as long as it's not taken seriously, because I don't think people should be getting their hopes up for another new character. The roster is looking pretty good now, anyways.

Also, that Dojima/Nanako suggestion might be a joke, but Atlus already dismissed it as being stupid a long while ago.

And the female P3 protagonist will never be a playable character, for a multitude of reasons. One of them being that the male P3MC is just a more popular character.

I completely forgot he was mentioned in P4 Arena. I was thinking he was still only 'canon' or whatever in the P3 Female MC's route. Still, with space/time distortions going on (If that's still a thing, I'm not 100 percent up to date on all the information that's been coming out story-wise) anything is still possible. As soon as weird time/space warps start happening the list of playable characters can include almost literally anyone. There's also still the possibility of a 'boss' character taking that spot up, presuming that Sho/Persona'd Sho isn't filling the boss role in this game.

I wouldn't expect another character for the sake of filling out a slot to make it look even. As long as the game is decently balanced when all these characters are out, then I will be happy. I don't want another Kokonoe mess.

I guess that's where the question is. Years ago when people were speculating about P4A characters, it was obvious to see that there was a certain spot in the roster missing for a character that would bring the whole story together. Hence, Labrys and Shadow Labrys.

This time, though, there's Sho and Persona Sho. Sho seems pretty adamant about being the big bad, and there's Persona Sho who might very well be the final boss in the game already. It's hard to say either way but, still, I wouldn't say a new playable character is guaranteed.

Personally, I do expect there to be at least one remaining, however. One who would be crucial to P4AU's story.

I know. I know. I want to believe.

They should just do a Lutece Twins situation with the P3 Protagonist

I think we all know who will fill that slot

It'll be Takaya. You heard it here first, folks.

ADACHI/TAKAYA ULTIMATE VILLAIN TEAM-UP

IT WILL TOTALLY HAPPEN

totally

Chidori revival!

No but really, I'll be genuinely surprised if there are any more characters after Ken/Koro.

Fuuka, if Rise can why not Fuuka?

How about Marie? I no she doesn't have a persona but fuck it you can give her one.

Koromaru? Might be hard to balance, given how small he is compared to the rest of the cast, but he's pretty cool!

What about Ken, also? Everybody's favorite!

Brooklyn Rage.

Should have been a Koromaru / Mysterious Fox tag team.

@lordandrew: I forgive you for incorrectly spelling "Funky Student / Mysterious Fox" tag team.

@superkenon: You have to hold something back for the DLC.

I really, really, hope Adachi will end up being playable -- It would save me from the disappointment that Ken is even in the game. It also seems like a waste given how he was teased in that one trailer along with his recurring appearance in the Arcade Mode and apparent knowledge of what's going on in the story.

How about one of the new characters in Persona 5? That is, assuming that Persona 5 takes place in the same universe as 4.

I doubt important characters of Persona 5 would be introduced in a fighting game spin-off -- they aren't connected storywise. At best there'll be NPC cameos of smaller and less story-relevant characters from previous games. You know, like Persona 4.