Character

 The Phantom Thieves of Hearts

The protagonists of Persona 5, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts are a group of high schoolers (and a cat) in Tokyo out to rid the world of evil by "stealing the hearts" of corrupt members of society. Their Personas are styled after various picaresque heroes, both fictional and real.

Members of Phantom Thieves of Hearts

Ren Amamiya/ Joker

Ren Amamiya

Japanese VA: Jun Fukuyama

English VA: Xander Mobus

Joker

The game's main character, a second-year high school student who is transferred to Shujin Academy in Tokyo after being put on probation after being falsely charged with assault after stopping a would-be molester that happened to have connections. While he seems meek and passive, this behavior hides the heart of a trickster that eventually leads to him becoming "Joker", a notorious Gentleman Thief. He is aligned with the Fool Arcana and is subsequently the resident holder of the Wild Card. As such, he can switch between hundreds of Personas at will, and said Personas can grow stronger through fusion and bonding with others.

His Persona is Arsène, the hero of Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin novels. One of fiction's most famous thieves, Lupin is the archetypal Phantom Thief, a gentleman who steals from criminals worse than himself, both for profit and for the fun of it. As a Persona, Arsène looks like an almost demonic version of the original hero, combining his standard classy attire with massive black wings, long-fingered hands, and a constant Cheshire Cat Grin, all topped off with red and black attire.

Ryuji Sakamoto/ Skull

Ryuji Sakamoto

Japanese VA: Mamoru Miyano

English VA: Max Mittleman

Skull

A boy from Joker's school whose combination of attitude and appearance gives off the air of a delinquent. He's considered a "problem child" at school, due to his rude, gruff-mannered speech and behavior, although it's said he wasn't always this way. In fact, he used to be a talented member of his school's Track Club before he quit.

Ryuji is the Mighty Glacier of the group, toting great Strength and the highest Endurance in the party; however, his Agility and Luck are abysmal. While he can learn all of the Zio spells, brutal physical attacks are his strongest assets. Ryuji's Persona is the Chariot Arcana's Captain Kidd — as in William Kidd, a real-life Scottish sailor who lived in the 17th and early 18th centuries. After years of sailing, Kidd was arrested in Boston and executed by the British Parliament for five counts of piracy and one act of murder — despite no evidence that Kidd ever did anything illegal, and instead was simply a privateer. Captain Kidd appears as a skeletal pirate, complete with hat, eyepatch, and a miniature boat he triumphantly rides in on.

Morgana/ Mona

Morgana/ Mona

Japanese VA: Ikue Ohtani

English VA: Cassandra Lee Morris

A mysterious shapeshifting creature with Persona abilities. Morgana has the form and the habits of a cat but claims not to truly be one, trying to find out the secrets to his true form and lost memories. Morgana takes interest in Joker after seeing his power and begins to masquerade as his pet house cat, living with and accompanying him everywhere. He also functions as the Thieves' vehicle of choice.

Morgana is the Combat Medic of the group, learning nearly every healing move in the game in tandem with powerful Garu spells and a few physical skills focused on high crit rates. He's very squishy, with the lowest HP and Endurance in the party, but makes up for it with good Agility and the highest Luck. Morgana's Persona is Zorro of the Magician Arcana, a pulp hero created in the early 20th century by American Johnston McCulley for his stories of the same name. A Lovable Rogue at heart, Zorro is a swashbuckling defender of the weak who fights against an oppressive regime in Spanish California. As a Persona, Zorro is a top-heavy man with a rapier, cape, and spurs, notably lacking any sort of fox motif the classic hero is well-known for.

Ann Takamaki/ Panther

Ann Takamaki

Japanese VA: Nana Mizuki

English VA: Erika Harlacher

A quarter-white girl who has lived abroad for much of her life. Due to her "exotic features", strange rumors about her have been circulating. Withdrawn in her daily life, Ann is much livelier and expressive in her Phantom Thief persona.

Ann is a magical Glass Cannon who specializes in Agi spells, status ailments, and to a much lesser extent, healing. The first two are respectively complimented by her Magic (the highest in the party) and her Luck (third highest after Futaba), but she has rather low Endurance and health. Ann's Persona is Carmen of the Lovers Arcana, the protagonist of French writer Prosper Mérimée's 19th century novella of the same name, and Georges Bizet's more well known opera adaptation

Panther

. Carmen was a fiery Romani woman and smuggler who used her exotic features to seduce men for fun and profit, before inevitably becoming bored and dumping them - which eventually leads to one of her jilted lovers, a mentally unstable man, killing her. As a Persona, Carmen wears a Pimped-Out Dress with fancy rose designs, her face hidden by a panther mask and a cigar always in mouth. Most noticeably, she drags along two lovesick butlers with a vine leash.

Yusuke Kitagawa/ Fox

Yusuke Kitagawa

Japanese VA: Tomokazu Sugita

English VA: Matthew Marcer

Fox

The live-in disciple of the world-famous painter Ichryuusai Madarame, and an art scholarship student at Kosei Public High School. Eccentric and obsessed with his craft, Yusuke comes into contact with the group after chasing down Ann in a fit of artistic inspiration. After Madarame's true colors are revealed, he gains a Persona and joins the crew.

Yusuke specializes primarily in physical attacks, much like Ryuji; although he's not as tanky, his stats are far more balanced. He can also use the Bufu line of skills. His Persona is the Emperor Arcana's Goemon - Ishikawa Goemon, a real world Ninja who would steal from the rich to give to the poor in 16th century Japan. After a failed assassination on a civil war-era warlord, Goemon and his son were executed. Persona Goemon is dressed in exaggerated classical Japanese attire, complete with massive sandals and garish robes.

Makoto Nijima/ Queen

Makoto Nijima

Japanese VA: Rina Sato

English VA: Cherami Leigh

The Student Council President of Shujin Academy, a third-year known for her rigid morals and sense of responsibility. Makoto is a straight-laced honor student who can't be compromised with... though once she awakens to her Persona, you find out she has quite a bit of repressed anger at the injustices around her. In combat, she utilizes knuckledusters and revolvers, and her Persona doubles as an ethereal motorcycle. She's also Sae Niijima's younger sister.

Makoto is a Jack-of-All-Stats; she is balanced offensively with a slight edge in Magic, and boasts the second highest Agility, with only her Luck being slightly below average. Her movepool is one of the most diverse among the party, learning Frei skills, physical attacks, healing skills, and an assortment of buffs and support skills. Her Persona is Johanna, a Latin variation of the given name of the apocryphal religious figure, Pope Joan, and it is aligned with the High Priestess Arcana. According to legend, Joan was a talented and learned woman who disguised herself as a man to hold a position in the Catholic Church in The Middle Ages. Due to her abilities, she rose through the ranks and was even elected Pope, only to be branded a criminal when her true sex was discovered. In Protestant cultures Pope Joan was considered to be the person the La Papesse tarot card depicted. Interestingly, Makoto's Persona is the only one not associated with thievery in the traditional sense (beyond "stealing" a role meant for a man), matching her own straight-laced personality. As a Persona, Johanna manifests as a large motorcycle with her face inside a dome on the front of the bike.

Queen

Futaba Sakura/ Oracle(EN)/ Navi(JP)

Futaba Sakura

Japanese VA: Aoi Yuki

English VA: Erica Lindbeck

Oracle

A 15-year-old Playful Hacker who eventually replaces Morgana as the Phantom Thieves' Mission Control. Although her technological prowess is second to none, a mysterious incident years prior to the events of the game left Futaba a socially-crippled Hikikomori unable to leave her own house.

Even though she's no front-line combatant, unlike Morgana, she can scan enemies for weaknesses and resistances, and learns an assortment of status-enhancing and healing skills which she employs at random—though increasingly often as her Confidant is leveled. Her initial Persona is Necronomicon of the Hermit Arcana, the Tome of Eldritch Lore from H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Despite its name, Necronomicon takes the appearance of a retro-futuristic UFO, the alien spaceships of urban legend rumored to abduct people and livestock.

Haru Okumura/ Noir

Haru Okumura

Japanese VA: Haruka Tomatsu

English VA: Xanthe Huynh

A third-year student at Shujin Academy and daughter of the president of a large food manufacturer. She is refined and good at communicating with others, but naive to the ways of the world.

Haru's stats are balanced similar to Makoto, albeit with an edge in Strength instead. She learns Psi skills, defensive skills like Tetrakarn and Makarakarn, and is the only one (aside from Joker) that can learn Gun skills. Her Persona is the Empress Arcana's Milady, as in Milady de Winter, a spy and thief in Alexandre Dumas' famous 1844 novel The Three Musketeers. As a Persona, Milady takes an appearance of a living ball gown with a fan and a handheld domino mask for a face. Her dress also hides a multitude of firearms beneath it.

Noir

Goro Akechi/ Crow

Goro Akechi

Japanese VA: Soichiro Hoshi

English VA: Robbie Daymond

The ninth member of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. Akechi is a teenage detective and the "Second Coming of the Detective Prince" who initially tracks the Phantom Thieves as a Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist in connection with the mental shutdown incidents he's been investigating. However, after stumbling upon one of the Thieves' Palace infiltrations, Akechi strikes a deal to help them find the true culprit, citing his hatred for injustice and belief that the Thieves are in fact being used as a scapegoat by a larger criminal conspiracy.

As a party member, Akechi is very well rounded stat-wise, and has the most diverse set of attack skills other than Joker, being able to learn Bless, Curse, and Almighty spells in addition to physical skills. His Persona is Robin Hood, the legendary 14th Century thief of Sherwood Forest who steals from the rich to give to the poor. In some retellings, Robin Hood is also associated with overthrowing Prince John, a villainous pretender to the English throne, The Crusades, and the search for the Holy Grail. As a Persona, Robin Hood has a superhero-like appearance with white armor, a blue cape, a huge winged bow, and a Chest Insignia.

Crow

Kasumi Yoshizawa/ Violet

Kasumi Yoshizawa

Japanese VA: Sora Amamiya                                             English VA: Laura Post

A new character introduced in Royal. Kasumi is a first year and a New Transfer Student who joins Shujin Academy in the Spring the same year as Joker. Although she has a good relationship with Joker and his friends, her opinion towards the Phantom Thieves is quite negative, saying that their actions may lead people to heavily rely on the Phantom Thieves instead of making their own efforts to solve their problems. Despite this, she later joins them when a new Palace emerges. 

During the third-term events of the game, Kasumi joins as the tenth and final member of the Phantom Thieves. Fitting her athletic background, she is a Fragile Speedster, boasting the highest Agility, who specializes in Bless and Physical skills, with a lean towards Critical Hit skills. Her persona is Cendrillon, the lead character in French writer Charles Perrault's 17th century retelling of the Cinderella fairy tale that became the basis of the most popular contemporary versions of the story. As a Persona, Cendrillon takes the form of a woman wearing a blue dress and boots made of glass, with a white cape, and a blue hair bow, with everything trimmed in gold.

Violet

Settings and theme

Settings

Persona 5 takes place within the Persona universe, revolving around a group of high school students who harness Personas, physical manifestations of their inner psyche. Persona 5 is set in modern-day Tokyo, in April of the year "20XX" (2016), with navigable real-world locations within the city including Akihabara, Shinjuku and Shibuya. Alongside larger environments, there are specific locations that can be entered, such as shops, restaurants and movie theaters. A major setting throughout the game is Shujin Academy, a high school that the protagonist attends. The second major location is the "Metaverse", a supernatural realm consisting of the physical manifestation of humanity's subconscious desires. In the Metaverse, people with corrupted enough desires form their own unique "Palace", which is modeled after their distorted perception of a place in the real world, along with a Shadow version of themselves (their true self) possessing a "Treasure" symbolic of their desires. Returning from earlier entries is the Velvet Room, a place that exists for the growth of Persona users that shifts appearance depending on the current guest: in Persona 5, it takes the form of a prison.

The player character is a silent protagonist, a commonplace feature in other Persona games, codenamed Joker. He becomes the leader of a vigilante group known as the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, who change the hearts of criminals and other malevolent people through the Metaverse. He forms it together with school delinquent Ryuji Sakamoto, fashion model Ann Takamaki and Morgana, a mysterious cat-like creature. More people join the group throughout the game, including art prodigy Yusuke Kitagawa, student council president Makoto Niijima, hikikomori computer hacker Futaba Sakura, and cultured corporate heiress Haru Okumura. Also interacting with Joker are Goro Akechi, a high school detective; Sae Niijima, public prosecutor and Makoto's older sister; and the residents of the Velvet Room, Igor and his two assistants Caroline and Justine. Joker also has interactions with other confidants, including his caretaker and Futaba's adoptive father Sojiro Sakura, classmate Yuuki Mishima, his teacher and part-time maid Sadayo Kawakami, arcade gamer Shinya Oda, journalist Ichiko Ohya, fortune teller Chihaya Mifune, shogi player Hifumi Togo, doctor Tae Takemi, politician Toranosuke Yoshida, and model gun store owner Munehisa Iwai. 

Theme

Persona 5 was developed by P-Studio, an internal development studio within Atlus dedicated to handling the Persona series. Notable staff members, such as Katsura Hashino, Shigenori Soejima and Shoji Meguro returned.

Originally using the concept of a backpacking trip around the world as a framing device for the story, Hashino decided to refocus on Japan in the wake of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. More specifically, it has been noted that the Japanese government's actions in response to the earthquake and tsunami's fallout, along with Japanese citizens' reactions to how the government acted during that time, may have served as partial influences on the game's themes. Following that crisis and seeing how people were bonding in the face of it, Hashino decided to have the story take place solely in Japan, with the journeying being done through the ever-shifting Palaces. Ultimately, the story's central concepts were inspired by equivalent social changes he saw in modern society, particularly in Japan. Hashino also described the central theme of the game as being about freedom and how the characters attain it. He wanted to make the game more "thematically approachable" for newcomers to the series, and to be an emotional experience that left its audience with a strong sense of catharsis and the inspiration to take on problems in their lives.

The characters' initial Personas (Arsène, Captain Kidd, Carmen, Zorro, Goemon, Johanna, Necronomicon, Milady, Robin Hood) were themed after outlaws and picaresque heroes to reflect the function and dominant suppressed passions forming the Palace, and also represent aspects of their owners' personalities.

The use of adults as antagonists was a more overt expression of narrative elements previously explored in Persona 4. The relation to police activities was also carried over from Persona 4, but this time with the role of protagonists and antagonists reversed. Several writers have highlighted the parallels between the game's various antagonists and real incidents/figures in different sectors of Japanese society (e.g. political, corporate, academic), and how the game's story and characters serve as social commentary on life in Japan. The game's villains and protagonists were also constructed to be parallels of each other, both groups being misfits trying to shape a world they saw as unsatisfactory or corrupted. This was intended to create moral ambiguity about the Phantom Thieves' actions, causing the player to question their concept of justice and their mission as a whole. In addition, the way a vocal minority online could draw attention to and shift public opinion on events and scandals in the news was cited as an inspiration for the ambiguous nature of the Phantom Thieves' actions.

Persona 5 Gameplay

 Persona 5 is a role-playing video game where the player takes on the role of a male high school student, codenamed Joker, who lives out a single year while attending school in modern-day Tokyo. The game is governed by a day-night cycle and weather systems that determine general behavior similar to a social simulation game. The year is punctuated by both scripted and random events as Joker attends school. He can perform part-time jobs and pursue leisure activities or create battle items. These various activities raise character attributes, which grant passive buffing effects during battle. When in the real world, the main protagonist can develop character relationships known as Confidants; an evolution of the Social Link system from Persona 3 and Persona 4. With this system, the main protagonist can converse with and improve his relationship with other characters he meets, with some leading to possible romances. Improving Confidant ranks with party members unlocks various abilities for use in combat, such as the "Baton Pass" ability, which allows the player to directly select another character after a critical hit while granting a temporary attack boost. Improving ranks with non-party Confidants grant other bonuses, such as giving access to new items and equipment and boosting experience point and yen gain.

Alongside the normal school life is dungeon crawling gameplay of two different types within a realm called the Metaverse: story-specific dungeons called Palaces and a multi-layered, randomly-generated Dungeon called Mementos. Both are populated by Shadows, physical manifestations of suppressed psyches that are modeled after mythological and religious figures. Within Mementos dungeons, the party can fulfill requests from non-playable characters (NPCs) received from a "Confidant" links. While navigating, the party uses stealth to avoid enemy Shadows, and some areas hold puzzles that can be solved using an insight ability known as "Third Eye", which highlights interactable objects and enemy strength compared to the party. When exploring story-centered Palaces, a "Security Level" is present, where the party being spotted or fleeing combat results in security being raised. If security reaches 100%, the party is forced to leave the Palace. The security level can be lowered by launching surprise attacks on and eliminating enemies, and also lowers automatically overnight. Throughout Palaces are locations known as "Safe Rooms". In them, the player can save their game, heal their party, and fast travel to other safe rooms within the Palace.

As with previous entries in the series, the game uses a turn-based combat system: battles can be initiated when the party runs into an enemy, or they can launch a surprise attack known as a "Ambush" and gain an advantage in battle. In battle, the party has access to both melee and ranged weapons, in addition to being able to summon Personas, manifestations of the main characters' inner psyche used mainly for special attacks. If a character strikes an enemy's weakness, they knock the enemy down and are awarded an additional turn known as a "1 More". If all enemies are knocked down, a "Hold Up" is triggered. During one, the party can launch a devastating "All-Out Attack", demand money or items, or enter a negotiation. Negotiation allows Joker to win the selected Shadow over to their side to become a new Persona: they can only be persuaded to join if Joker is their level or higher. Similar to previous entries, party members can be knocked out, and if the main character is knocked out, the game ends. At times, if a party member is knocked out, they can be captured by enemy Shadows, and is unable to return to the party if the resultant negotiation fails.

New Personas can be gained from battle through successful negotiation, and different Persona types are represented through different arcana linked to Confidant links. Personas can be combined, or "fused", or otherwise further manipulated within the Velvet Room, a realm Joker visits as part of his journey through the story. In the Velvet Room, Personas can be fused with "Guillotine" fusion processes, with the resultant Persona inheriting skills and stats from its parents. The more skills a Persona has, the more are passed on to the fused Persona. How powerful Personas are through fusion depends on how advanced its associated Confidant link is. Also, Personas can be sacrificed in various ways, also styled after styles of capital punishment: "Hanging" grants a sacrificed Persona's experience points to another chosen Persona, and "Electric Chair" sacrifice one to create a high-end item. A Persona can also be sent into "Solitary Confinement", where they undergo intensive training and gain additional skills quicker than normal. The number of days a Persona must remain to gain strength lessens based on its arcana strength.

Minor multiplayer elements are incorporated into the game through the "Thieves Guild" feature. Similar to the "Vox Populi" system from Persona 4 Golden, players have the option of seeing what activities other players did during any given day. Players can send messages to each other, in addition to affecting the Alertness meter in the player's favor, and aiding in battle when a party member is taken hostage by an enemy.

Persona 5: Introduction

 What is persona 5?

Persona 5 is a role-playing video game developed by Atlus. It is the sixth installment in the Persona series, which is part of the larger Megami Tensei franchise. It was released for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in Japan in September 2016 and worldwide in April 2017, and was published by Atlus in Japan and North America and by Deep Silver in Europe and Australia. An enhanced version featuring new content, Persona 5 Royal, was released for the PlayStation 4 in Japan in October 2019 and worldwide in March 2020.

Persona 5 Official art cover

Persona 5 Royal Official art cover