Prerelease:Persona 5

This page details prerelease information and/or media for Persona 5.

To do: Prerelease stuff. [1], https://personacentral.com/persona-5-developer-interview-graphics-modeling/ https://personacentral.com/persona-5-director-hashino-development-interview/ https://personacentral.com/persona-5-panel-concept-development-ui/ Early UI https://blog.lhyeung.net/2017/02/25/persona-5-official-design-works-artbook-review/ This should be useful [2] https://twitter.com/kalai_chik/status/1162805489870094336/photo/1

Persona 5 had a lengthy development process, initially starting out as a "travelling" concept before changing to a phantom thief-like genre, the team getting used to the new hardware on the PlayStation 3 (and later PlayStation 4) and Hashino wanting to make this game the biggest entry in the series. It received critical acclaim and attention far more than that of Persona 4, and became one of Atlus' best-selling titles.

Development Timeline

2008-2010

• Jul. 2008 - Persona 5 starts conceptual development, after Persona 4 is released in Japan.
• Jul. 2, 2009 - Persona 5 is accidentally leaked on pachinko gaming website 7-Rush before it was quickly removed.
• Mar. 24 2010 - Hashino confirms in Dengeki PlayStation that the next numbered title of the Persona series is in development, saying that he wants to add in stuff "that fans wouldn't expect".

2011

• Feb. 2 - "Preliminary development" begins on the next Persona entry after the release of Catherine, using a new engine rather than GameByro.
• Mar. 11 - The initial idea gets completely reworked due to the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake.
• Aug 31 - Preliminary development of the new Persona game "nears completion" in the August issue of Famitsu.

2012

• Aug 8. - Hashino says in Famitsu that the developmental team is focused on creating the new entry in the series.

2013

• Jun. 25 - The domain name for the website "persona5.jp" is registered by Atlus.
• Sept. 26 - A countdown on p-ch.jp was posted, where it said that "a new title" would be announced.
• Nov. 24 - Persona 5 is officially revealed by Atlus, where the game is confirmed to be coming to the PlayStation 3 in Winter 2014.

2014

• Feb. 24 - Atlus confirms that Persona 5 is coming to the west, with an English release date of "2015".
• Sept. - A teaser trailer was posted, where the game was confirmed to be coming to the PlayStation 4, while its release date was moved to "2015".

2015

• Feb. 5 - PV 01 trailer was released, showing off the gameplay.
• Jun. 24 - At E3 2015, Persona 5 was confirmed to still be coming in 2015 in English.
• Sept. 17-19 - Persona 5 was shown off at Tokyo Game Show 2015, revealing that the game was delayed to "Summer 2016". A new trailer was released.
• Dec. 5 - Date of the December build.

2016

• Feb. 25 - Build date of the debug prototype.
• Apr. 22 - Atlus announces a countdown on April 22, where it would end with a livestream on May 5, 2016.
• May. - Persona 5 finishes development.
• Sept. 15 - Persona 5 is officially released in Japan.

2017

• Apr. 4 - Persona 5 is officially released in America and Europe.

Sub-Pages

Early Development 2008-2011.

Later Development 2011-2014.

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2015

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2016

Localization

Full Development (2011-2013)

On August 31, 2011 in Famitsu #1187, Hashino said that preliminary development for the next Persona game is "nearing completion" and full-on development would happen afterwards. Shigenori Soejima and Shoji Meguro were confirmed to return as the musical composer and character designer, respectively. The game's themes have been fully determined and the staff to challenge more new elements in the game enough to create a drastic difference caused from the Persona 2 duology to Persona 3. Hashino said that the wait for the game's release will be lengthy.

On August 8, 2012 Hashino says that the team is "fully focused" on developing the new Persona game. When Katsura Hashino asked Atlus writer Kaoru Takeuchi about the next numbered title in the Persona series on October 16, 2012, he said that development is making progress but he cannot reveal any information "until the time is right".

Early UI

The UI for the pause menu was designed differently, shown off at the CEDEC+KYUSHU 2017. There are unused animations of Joker imitating the pause menu animations, which were likely used at this point for designing the menu.

2013

November

Announcement

Persona 5 was officially announced by Atlus, where it would be released for the PlayStation 3 with a Winter 2014 release date.

2014

February

English Localization Announcement

The English Atlus channel confirms that Persona 5 would be localized for the west in 2015.

July

GameInformer Interview

In the July 18, 2014 issue of GameInformer, Soejima hopes that he will be able to show more information about Persona 5 very soon.

September

Teaser Trailer

A new trailer was posted, this time showing the protagonist and the general setting of the game. It was also confirmed to have PlayStation 4 support, and the release was moved to 2015.

2015

February

PV 01

The very first trailer showing gameplay was officially uploaded on February 5, 2015 by Atlus, containing a fair number of differences from the final game;

• Many of the angular scenes look somewhat different in color, looking more brighter and shiny than the final.
• The scene of the subway train bumping along with the animation isn't in the final game. The camera angle is also similar to the prototype build that was seen in the Persona Stalker Club.
• The angle of the classroom scene is different, and shakes when the chalk hits the protagonist.
• The cut-ins behave differently; they act as if the scene is "torn" from a piece of paper rather than being ripped up.
• There is a scrapped location where Ann, Ryuji, the protagonist and Morgana overlook. It remains in the final game as an unused location.
• The meetings took place inside the ground floor of Café Leblanc rather than on the school's rooftop for Kamoshida's Palace. Though the location would be used again for later heists, it takes place in the attic in the final.
• Morgana, interestingly is seen using his Metaverse form rather than as a cat in the real world.
• Weapon icon items weren't colored.
• The protagonist cannot enter Kamoshida's palace through over the front doors in the final.
• There are a lot more enemies present than usual in the reception of Kamoshida's palace.
• The Takemi clinic looked different.
• The player is shown to perform a Bullet Hail rather early in the game, rather than being learned after the player grants access to Confidant in September. The effects are also different.
• The All-Out Attack seemed to have worked differently, where the characters attack in slow-motion before proceeding to do it. The protagonist's portrait is also different.

Screenshots

Several screenshots were posted on the website, along with some on a survey in March and higher resolution ones on the PlayStation product page; https://personacentral.com/official-persona-5-website-updated-with-screenshots/ https://personacentral.com/atlus-has-released-an-online-survey-to-learn-more-about-what-fans-want/ https://personacentral.com/persona-5s-official-playstation-japan-product-page-has-been-updated/

Persona Magazine Interview

https://personacentral.com/p-studio-interviews-about-persona-5-persona-4-dancing-all-night/

March

Survey Images

Several new images were released via a Persona 5 survey.

June

PV 02

The second trailer for Persona 5 was released via a bonus edition Persona 4: Dancing All Night disc before it eventually came out in the Tokyo Game Show later on in September. A few number of differences are present in the trailer;

E3 2015

The English subtitled PV 01 trailer was released, where the game was still confirmed to be coming in 2015. An Atlus USA representative was asked why no new information wasn't shown at that time, because they didn't have it ready at this time.

September

Tokyo Game Show 2015

Delay Announcement

Persona 5 was shown off at the Tokyo Game Show 2015, where it was revealed that the game was even further delayed to "Summer 2016". The reasoning for this is that Hashino wanted to make the game feel "more complete".

PV 03 Trailer

A new trailer was released, where many of the elements are now close to the final game, such as most of the climatic spoiler cutscenes being present.

• The map icons weren't color-coded.
• The rain effects were different and looked more realistic.
• There is a cut cafeteria area marked on the map just before the player checks the phone; despite only being seen in cutscenes in the final, this area is fully functional, complete with a usable vending machine!
• Morgana's awakening didn't take place in Kamoshida's cells.
• Like the last trailer, the characters could do a Bullet Hail before they gain access to the Confidant in September, as Futaba's Palace is visited during August.
• An unused room where the characters originally turned into mice were present, before the puzzle was likely moved to Shido's Palace.
• Shadow Kaneshiro's skin color is the same as his normal self. Portraits for this design are still left unused in the final game

Persona Series 20th Anniversary

The opening theme, Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There was confirmed to be the opening theme of the game, as sung by Lyn Inaizumi. It was first shown as the PERSONA PRESENTS SPECIAL STAGE livestream. Though the vocals are identical to the final release (aside from a slight echo filter), the instrumentation is slightly different.

https://personacentral.com/persona-5-opening-theme-revealed/ <dailymotion width="471" height="265" >x379piz</dailymotion>

December

Game Informer Interview

https://www.ign.com/articles/2015/12/09/persona-5-director-on-how-p5-is-different-from-prior-entries

2016

April

Atlus announces a countdown on April 22, where it would end with a livestream on May 5, 2016.

May

PV 04

The fourth and final trailer for the game was released to coincide with the Persona series' 20th Anniversary, where it now reveals the final Japanese release date of September 15, 2016. Much of the content present in the trailer is now closer to the final.

• The Ambush animation was slightly different.
• Futaba's support animation was also different; it doesn't show a view of the party in the final game.
• There is not a point where the game skips from April to May, but it may have been done for the trailer.

Resources

• Concept Art
  • Persona5 Official Design Works scans here.