Persona 5

[Stitch]

cFor those unfamiliar with the series, you should really check it out, since the Persona series enjoys a well desrved cult following. Here are a few of the major recurring components of the game:

 

Persona(s) - a sort of representation of the soul or personality of the entity from which it came, in some of the titles there have only been one persona allowed (though it may evolve) for anyone other than the protagonist who may change their persona. Each persona is part of one of the major arcana (tarot), they also have specific properties and capabilities.

Velvet Room - this is a special place which performs a number of different services focusing mainly on the persona.

Social Link(s) - this occurs between the protagonist and numerous other characters in the game, it is a measure of the strength of the connection between them and correllates to the major arcana (tarot), as each character is associated with one of these arcana.

Contact(s) - a means by which to negotiate with enemies to form bonds and thereby skip battles, befriending them and gaining bonuses (such as access to additional Persona). This has not been in the more recent games.

 

 

Persona 5

So, the new title is in development; what do YOU want to see in the latest installment? My personal wishlist would be:

-Main character appearance generation! Yeah, you know you want it... almost every RPG should have this... though obviously this would be constrained by the setting (for example if they are student age... or if they can become student-teachers etc)

-More character development between the protagonist and 'social linkers' including in between social-linkers; this should include enhanced romance options though not making romance essential to max the social link

-A Persona system where the equipped persona actually affected the user (such as the protagonist having more aggressive speech options when an aggressive persona is equipped) rather than just the stats and skills.

-Provide the personas with actual personality; perhaps even interaction options through the velvet room, potentially quests or... through maintaining a high social link in that arcana, using that persona for a couple levels and having a chat to unlock an evolution or special characteristic/ability or something

-A Contact system returned!

[Elend]

I can't wait for Persona 5. I can only hope that Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena will be awesome until more on P5 comes out.

 

Can't decide if I want to buy Persona 4: The Golden though, or even a Vita.

[Stitch]

Hmmmn Ive heard that they were note even going to consider a PSP version of P4 until they heard about the Vita, because otherwise they couldn't do what they wanted on the standard PSP... still for me getting a Vita for just the one game would be a hard sell... not knowing if the rest of the line up for the console would be any good.

 

Mind you I first played P4, then had to go back and play the others (Seriously, to release them on the PS2 so late into it's development cycle was kind of the reason they were not major hits)... so I have a pretty major soft spot for 4... dunno. But yeah, getting 5 will certainly keep me up at night!