I liked the trailer. Added some more details. The more I watch it the less I think I know about whats going on.

All the gameplay from the very first day. So I wonder if you already know your comrades? Or you have just organised to catchup for the first time online? to pull this heist?

The first day game play also looks like during the heist, you get captured, locked in a cell... at which point you appear in the velvet room, also in a cell... sign your contracts, then return to reality and awaken? There are a couple of flashes of the velvet room before he 'startles' awake. The reality prison has some chains on the wall behind him and the two shadows? in front of him, barring his way.

What's thought to be Arsene's voiceover kind of supports this, but the order of events in the trailer is disjointed. At the end of the trailer in the velvet room, Arsene says "We will meet again... at the moment your destiny has been determined. Hahahaha!". This could then be immediately followed by signing a contract with Igor and waking up.... or... since you seem to do so much more damage than your counterparts, you lose Arsene for a large portion of the game? and summon him again later?

Interesting to note the icon by the date, looks like it occurs during the daytime or the weather forecast is important again since its a Sun.

curious curious :)

Hey everybody, Persona novice here. I am genuinely curious after watching that trailer though (SO MUCH STYYYYYLLLE): Why does everybody love these games so much?

What do you do? Is it more than another JRPG? I have watched a little of the ER of Persona 4 and I don't understand yet, but also feel like I am on board for Persona 5.

Is it a turn-based battler where you play as high schoolers who have alternate monsters who fight for/with them? Is the appeal the style? The gameplay? The story? Or everything? At some point do you jump into a television? I feel like I have gleaned some details through osmosis, but at the same time am clueless. I am at this point interested because to me on the outside it just looks INSANE in the dripping with style best way possible.

Persona 5 looks really cool, but I just don't feel like I know anything about it. So I have come to the well.

People, tell me of Persona.

@straightgrizzly: Hello, my name is Ryan and my favorite game of all time is Persona 4 Golden. I'm happy to assist you!

Persona 1 and 2 existed and they were ok for their time, I think? But nobody really talks or cares about them anymore, and I'm not in anyway trying to be an asshole about that. Nobody really talks or cares about them anymore since Persona 3 happened, which completely revitalized the series and made it more accessible for other regions like the states. Persona 3 is dripping with style- that's the big change. But what else, you ask? Something called social links. You see, Persona(when I say persona, i mean persona 3 and 4, as those represent persona for what it is today,) is half JRPG turn based dungeon crawling and half social simulator. When you're not hanging out with you friends, you're battling in a dungeon.

the dungeon battles are turn based. an enemy heads for you and when it hits you or you hit it, you go into battle. Battles are done with Personas. to put it in terms you can understand, they're pretty much pokemon that you can fuse together and stuff like that. skill sets to build. that kind of thing. but what makes these battles so good you ask? THE FUCKING MUSIC AND ENERGY.

You hear that? That's the battle music. THAT'S THE BATTLE MUSIC. Persona is stylish as all fuck and that very may well be the most distinguishable thing about it. Now, the social sim aspect is the other half of the game. Here you can hang out with friends, build your "social link," go eat, sing karaoke, and junk like that to build your social stats like courage or charm so that you can hang out with even more people. and hanging out with people and building strong bonds=stronger Personas for battle. yup, relationships and character development is used as both a game mechanic and a story telling tool.

But what about the stories? the characters? the FEELS? enthralling, I say. fucking enthralling. Persona 4 has the best story ever told and the best characters ever represented in an RPG in my opinion. Persona 3's is also great but not quite as good. Mysterious, heart break, and genuine moments of hilarity and happy feelings.

Eh, I'm typing a lot. bottom line: should you play persona? that's not a question. everyone on the planet should play persona. "where do i begin" you ask? Persona 4, preferably Persona 4 Golden if you've got a PS TV or Vita. it's my favorite game of all time for a reason. You won't want the game to end. Ever. You will feel like you lived a small life.

@straightgrizzly: I think the best thing about Persona games is different for a lot of people. There's the Pokemon collect-them-all aspect, where you go all-in on trying to complete your compendium. Then there's the part where you're a Japanese teenager doing Japanese teenager things in a Japanese town, with Visual Novel style character interactions. The combat itself is simple with enough depth to keep it from being too tedious, and you get a lot of flexibility in your combat options when it comes to your main character. My goal in each of these games is to make an uber Alice so I can magic nuke everything with insta-kill dark spells and Almighty damage for anything else depending on resistances, but you could also go in a different direction and get a Cu Chulainn and just beat up shadows with physical attacks.

That's another aspect that appeals to me personally. The demons that you use are notable religious, historical, mythological or fictional figures, and it just never gets old for me to be able to have a personal roster which consists of guys like Thor, Beelzebub, Yoshitsune and Metatron.

@frostyryan: Just wanna correct you on one thing. Persona 2 is so fucking cool. The gameplay is just extremely dated but it has a really interesting story and Maya is an amazing character. I'll grant you that I didn't get very far in either of them, but it is definitely worthy of being lumped in with 3 and 4. Otherwise, yeah, spot on. Though, I think some of the stuff in P4 golden is kind of gross and dumb. Very clearly not created by the same team.

@yi_orange: Oh I don't know much about the first two other than the fact that I played a few minutes of them and was turned off. Just me personally.

When you say they should be lumped together though, surely you don't mean in regards to gameplay because it's more similar a beast to the first one than the third by a mile

so much hyppuuu for P5.

Also not really that relevant, just wanted to add that Persona 3 to me has one of the best endings in video games, period.

@tothenines: Seconded definitely.

It LITERALLY makes me cry every time. (that's not spoilers because it could be happy or sad)

so beautiful and cathartic.

That. Looked. Fucking. Fantastic.

Bloodborne? P5? 2015 has been a pretty damn good year!!

@frostyryan: I mean in terms of style and quality of story/characters, allowing for the fact that's is PS1 localization of course. Again, I didn't beat them, but that's because the Persona system is terrible and the rate of random encounters is way too high for the speed of the battles. Basically what I mean is, if someone wants to make the claim that Persona as a franchise is worth playing and includes IS and EP in that statement(you can leave out the first one), then I fully support it. I wish I could get through those games.

For me, Persona 3 and 4 are the first games were I was just completely and utterly absorbed by the characters and their stories. Like, I love FF4 and FF10, and Mass Effect etc. I like RPG's... but these are the ones constantly on my mind... Love the battle system, love the music, love the gameplay.

I am so thankful that I made an impulse by one day and picked up Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 from gametraders just because I vaguely remembered having heard good things about shin megami and the cover was appealing. Now Shin Megami is my number one game franchise, rising above my love of Zelda. Have gone through SMIV and Devil Survivor overclocked, have nocturne/lucifers call on the go, with Digital Devil Saga in the wings.

If you like RPG's you owe it to try one of them. Persona 3 is my favourite, many prefer 4. Either will do as a starting point.

@frostyryan: Thank you so much for the info! I am more than likely going to get myself a copy of Persona 4 and get to it!

@redyoshi: It really sounds cool, and something that is normally out of my wheelhouse, but I am willing to explore! Cheers! Thanks for the info!

Question for both of you though: What do we know about Persona 5? Is it connected to the others in any way? Are all the games separate completely, sharing only the concept of teens and personas?

@straightgrizzly: 3 and 4 take place in the same universe, but are their own stories. At a guess, going by how they've continued to keep the characters around for all of the side-games, there'll likely be a cameo or two like in the previous games, but aside from that the narrative will probably be self-contained.

As stated previously, 3 and 4 take place in the same universe--a couple years apart from each other, though in Persona 4 Arena the two groups get together and interact. As far as we know, P5 isn't connected to either of them save for the fact that it also takes place in the same universe (a few years after P4). I think P1 is in the same universe as P3/P4/P5, but I can't remember. Same goes for P2, I just don't remember.

Since no one else seems to know much about it, I'll give P2 a recommendation. The gameplay isn't as polished as P3/P4 but the story is fantastic. Definitely a rival for the newer games' stories.

@vasta_narada: man I really gotta play P2. The gameplay seems much much more tolerable than the first game so I really gotta finally give it a shot sometime for the sake of the story. Maybe I'll put it on easy mode....

100% agree. In fact, the entire run-up and climax is also incredible. THIS JAM:

@frostyryan: The combat still isn't very good, from memory. At the very least the communicating with demons part still sucks and is basically guesswork/luck. You also need to grind out cards (by talking to demons, no less) if you want to summon a new Persona, which is what eventually led me to getting frustrated with not being able to get any good Persona and using a walkthrough for the rest of the game.

The story was okay though. I heard a bunch of vague spoilery stuff about Persona 2 which is what made me want to play it in the first place (because it sounded totally nuts), only it turns out that stuff is all in the sequel. It sure did have Hitler wearing shades though.

Ditto. I really wanted to play P2 because the story and art were intriguing, but as soon as I hit the combat, my enthusiasm died very quickly. It's a bit too tedious and obtuse, and I don't have as much patience for that type of thing as I used to. I may try going back to it with a guide at some point.

But man... I NEED P5 INSIDE ME.

If anyone else is looking to get a good Persona fix. THEY'RE ALL ON SALE THIS WEEK!

Since the PSTV is so damn cheap now ($40 at most places for just the unit; bundle is still $99 for whatever reason?) I picked up a physical copy of P4G on the Vita. Gonna buy P3Portable as well. Haven't played any but damn if I'm not sold on this series, only because I never gave them a chance.