Prerelease: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]

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

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 was 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 it's 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.

2016

• 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.

Early Development (2009-2011)

Initial Concepts

Persona 5 was initially planned when Persona 4 came out for the PlayStation 2 in 2008. The developmental teams had split into half since then, working on Persona 3 Portable and Persona 5. Hashino had always wanted to make a Persona game with the "phantom thief" genre, so a design draft was created during scenario planning for Persona 3 Portable, labelled as "Persona The 3rd"..

One of the main concepts for Persona 5 had two keywords which were "Self-discovery” and “journey” along with an image of "jumping out of school and taking a journey into the outside world" in mind, as well as "backpacking and flying all over the world" which would be a drastic change from the previous two Persona games. They considered incorporating historical background to convey the connection of “bonds” with other people, which would have been a big change in the series. It would be loosely revisited in the game's spin-off sequel, Persona 5 Strikers where the central plot of the game involves the Phantom Thieves travelling around the country.

The developers wanted to implement "real-time elements" into the game, so an "action-combat" system was considered then, but it was rather short-lived because it would have been a drastic change and departure from the turn-based system.

Concept Sheet

Several concepts of the backpacking theme were drawn in the form of a concept sheet, along with some text below;

Translation
PERSONA5 GAME DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS VER_1.0 Be personal for change.	Just Game Play is possible.

Two pieces of concept art can be seen, although in a lower resolution, of a character stopping in the middle of a desert with a red car, and the protagonist exiting from an airplane door of some sort. The protagonist's design doesn't seem to resemble the one seen later on in development.

Development Beginnings

On July 2, 2009, Japanese gaming website 7-Rush accidentally mentioned "a Persona 5 for the PlayStation 3" in an article about the then-forthcoming Shin Megami Tensei K pachinko machine. Many Japanese gaming sites asked that website for more information, but the article was quickly edited to remove the mention of that game. In 2010, the team that worked on Persona 3 Portable merged into the team working on Persona 5 after development had concluded.

On March 24, 2010 in Volume 469 of Dengeki PlayStation, Katsura Hashino publicly confirms that the next main numbered title of the Persona series is confirmed to be in development. Hashino said that he wants to add elements that fans would usually expect, while also changing them within those constraints.

To make sure that the team was prepared for bigger-scale projects, Catherine was developed as a "test" for life-sized models, detailed backgrounds and motion-captured cutscenes in tandem with the new Persona 5 game. However, it proved to be a tough challenge for the company itself because half of the team were already working on various other titles, while the other worked on Persona 5 and Soejima would make sure that the details were exactly as he wanted it to be, trial and error.

"Active development" of Persona 5 would begin after Catherine was released in February 2011 in Japan, where they took advantage of the resources created by the GameByro engine, which would later evolve into a in-house engine.

Change of Direction

The exploration-themed idea had to be completely reworked due to the Tohoku Earthquake in March 2011. Katsura Hashino wanted "a bigger focus on Japan" and people became aware of everybody else during that time, to cherish each other and overcome the incident. He also thought that people's mindsets had changed when the natural disaster happened, applying the contemporary setting of the Persona games and another plausible reason why he wanted to change the idea.

Hashino started to look at the "adventurous spirit of the human mind" as an alternative idea where he compared it to a "inner revolution", eventually becoming the centralistic theme of the game. The developmental team also reworked that idea into a journey into the "spirit world" instead, where they would take shape and shift into different directions.

The "Phantom Thieves" motif came from Hashino's idea of wanting to enact the carefreeness of Lupin The Third manga series into the main protagonist. He also wanted to go with the idea because it's a genre that's rather old-fashioned and stereotypical but is still relevant to this today. Hashino also brought up that he doesn't see this portrayed in games.

Soejima went with a "passionate" red aesthetic with minimal contrasting monochromic colors in comparison with the "calm" blue and yellow color schemes from Persona 3 and Persona 4, respectively. Unlike the previous games, a sub-color was not included so that it can stand out more. This was because he wanted the game to feel like it "started anew" while also evoking a sense of things to come.

Project Proposal

...But what does it mean? This game has text or audio that needs to be translated. If you are fluent with this language, please read our translation guidelines and then submit a translation! Notes: Translate the (at least) decipherable text.

WARNING: Language tag not added.

Translation
TEXT GOES HERE

Early Character Designs

Protagonist

To do: Concept art from here. and there

The game originally featured a male and female protagonist, where their initial Persona would have been Mephistopheles, a demonic creature featured in German folklore. This was the very first draft designed for the protagonist was designed, where Soejima went for a "punk look" rather than "formal" because they wouldn't really fit as rebellious phantom thieves if they went with the latter. The school uniform was designed for the protagonist first before it was changed for other characters in the game.

Soejima thought of different ways to make the character "become the thief" without the player getting a sense of disagreement from it, where he originally tried to draw the design in a sense of a character from a shonen manga. The protagonist also originally wore their school uniform in an apparent stylistic fashion rather than the thief attire in the Metaverse.

A slightly later design of the protagonist, with the concept of the school featured. The design basis of the uniform would later be used for the protagonist's Phantom Thief attire.	TEST

However, Soejima thought that "he went overboard" with the design because he felt like it wouldn't go well with a "realistic group of youths", so he simplified the design a bit before eventually leading to the final. The protagonist was also eventually altered to not make him like too "manga-like" so the player can relate with the character easier. At that point, Soejima thought of the protagonist having different looks based on if he wore glasses or not; he would look like a regular person with glasses while he would look completely different without them.

A slightly later design with a finalized hairstyle.

Soejima decided to design the Phantom Thief outfits with a "classic look" in mind, rather than using their school uniform so it could be easier to convey the idea rather than with modernized looks.

The very first conceptual design of the Phantom Thief attire, taking cues from the early school uniform rather than of a separate outfit. The design basis with the top hat would be retooled for the protagonist's Persona Arsene.	This would be the point where the protagonist looked more casual with or without glasses, showing a conceptual sketch of him in everyday life and as a phantom thief.	A design looking closer to the final, aside from sneakers being replaced with formal shoes.

Scrapped Female Protagonist?

Concept Art	Unused model for comparison.

There was also apparently planned to be a female protagonist, where she would have played a major role in the storyline. Interestingly, an unused model of her can be found in the final game used as a height reference.

The female protagonist was reworked into who would be Hifumi Togo. She was originally planned to be a member of the Phantom Thieves as a "strategist" when Makoto Niijima was decided as the "brains" of the team and had her design based off that character. When deciding on Confidants, the developmental team thought that Hifumi would work better as that and the fact that the story would have been too long. Thus, they redesigned her to evoke a more Japanese look.

Ryuji Sakamoto

According to early text found in the final game, he was originally named Reiji Deidou.

Early Concept Art

Sports Car

A concept art of the protagonist and the scrapped female protagonist driving in a sports car in a subway-like area, which appears to be a very early draft of Mementos. According to the Persona 5 artbook, Morgana was originally planned to transform into a sports car instead of a van which was reworked due to it not being able to fit the entire gang.

Early Locations

This concept art shows that the school was originally going to be near Minato rather than in Aoyama-Itchome, judging from the presence of the Tokyo Tower. A silhouette resembling that of Morgana's earlier character model can be seen near the bottom.

Early Test Footage

Early footage was shown off in episode 5 of the Persona Stalker Club on October 31, 2016, in a rather unfinished state and likely from the preliminary development period.

• The protagonist's uniform looked slightly different, where it had a shirt and a tie rather than a turtleneck, and burgundy-striped pants looking closer to one of his early designs. He also carried around a bag that resembled more of a suitcase before it was replaced with a regular school bag. interestingly, that model can be found in the final game, albeit unused.
• The girls' uniform for Shujin Academy was different.
• The building that the protagonist was in is actually part of the apartment seen in later footage. The apartment would later make its way to the final game as a cutscene-exclusive location.
• The view outside of the apartment was likely reused for the SIU Director's office.

More footage from a slightly later build were shown in April 2017 in a 4Gamer article.

• The protagonist's design, model and animations now matches that of the final. The animations for the school bag were likely unfinished at that point as well as the textures, sporting a rather unusual blue color.
• The protagonist originally stayed in an apartment where Hashino stated it as being in a "trendy drama", whom has home to a prosecutor rather than a cafe manager. The prosecutor would originally have been chasing the protagonist's other life as a phantom thief while they get angry at the Calling Cards sent to antagonists throughout the game. The idea was discarded and reworked into a separate character named Sae Niijima, because Hashino thought the idea was too much "like a cheesy drama".
  • Traces of the scrapped apartment location can be seen in unused text, where it was divided into three different areas.
• Several leftovers from Catherine are present, obviously for placeholder purposes such as the text box and faceless model of Katherine as a stand-in for the prosecutor.
• The "Check!" graphic from Persona 4 Golden is seen except without the button prompt.
• The NPCs in the subway tram originally had face patterns and a monochromatic color scheme as an experiment. This was later changed because the director thought that the colors were too dull.

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.

Persona Series 20th Anniversary

The singer for the game, Lyn Inaizumi is confirmed to be the vocals for the songs in the game. https://personacentral.com/persona-5-opening-theme-revealed/

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.