Digging Inside is a new feature where we take the newest trailers and try to find any clues of hidden info for upcoming games. The first installment of Digging Inside will be for the recently announced Persona 5 Tokyo Game Show trailer that was released on Monday.

Persona games since Persona 3, begins with a new transfer student arriving at to their new school. The first cutscene seems it will follow the same way Persona 3 and Persona 4 started.

Then they showed off of what appears to be headline news. After looking around to see what the headlines was about, I found out it was about bullying problems, a death in some kind of room, dangerous driving incidents, falsified evidence, tax raises, and people going on rampages. It’s a rough translation, but it seems to fit with the world of Persona, especially Persona 3.

After that, we get our first look of the new protagonist of Persona 5. If it’s anything like Persona 3 and Persona 4, then we would get to choose our names.

The three key Persona Team developers are revealed. They are Katsura Hashino Game Director. He directed Persona 3, Catherine, Persona 4, Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, and Persona 4: Golden.

Shigenori Soejima is the art director, his work includes, all the Persona games, Devil Summoner, Catherine, and Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne.

At last there is Shoji Meguro, the music producer and composer. He’s done music for both the Persona series and the Shin Megami Tensei series.

It’s also worth noting that the chains that appear in their names are breaking apart signifying freedom. The ball and chain seems to be a running theme to Persona 5 as they also had them in the very first Persona 5 teaser. Also, the way the ball is animated could clue us in on what the game will look like. Catherine used the Gamebryo engine, which was also used for Fallout 3 and Rocksmith 2014, but Atlus have said that they are using a new in-house engine for Persona 5.

As with every Persona game, Persona 5 will carry on the tradition of having the game set in a school. Along with a new protagonist, it will also feature a brand new high school. It’s hard to tell what it is, but judging from the high school’s logo, the new school is called Shujin Shield High School. All I’m getting from that is the shield and the two “S” joined together. I could, and most likely, be way off, it’s just speculation though. The protagonist also has a pin that says 2 on it. It is likely the high school grade he is in. This is similar to what Persona 4 had on their school uniforms.

The other schools that were featured in the Persona series are:

St. Hermelin High School – Persona

Seven Sisters High – Persona 2

Gekkoukan High – Persona 3

Yasogami High – Persona 4

Unlike the setting of Persona 3 and Persona 4, Persona 5 looks to be part of a massive city similar of Tokyo, and just like Persona 3 and Persona 4, it will be a fake city based off a real one.

But unlike Persona 3 and Persona 4, the mystery starts up quickly as everyone stops as they stand as if they are frozen. This is when we get the first new logo for Persona 5.

And the protagonist seems to be the only one moving looking at disbelief that nothing is as it seems. As he looks around, he starts seeing an unknown identity covered in blue flame coming towards him.

The last shot of the trailer shows a zoomed up shot of the protagonist eyes as his glasses reveals a closer look of the creature in question. It could be his starting persona or another persona-user using their personas. Considering that this is set in the real world, there is a good chance that Evokers, which was prominent in Persona 3, is back. Evokers are a gun shaped like device that will summon your persona via shooting yourself in the head. If they are making Persona 5 different from the past Persona games, then they are likely to find something else to summon your personas instead of Evokers from Persona 3 and Tarot Cards from Persona 4.

 

This is grasping at straws, and don’t know if it means anything, but because of the use of red for Persona 5, I think it’s at least worth mentioning. There seems to be a group of characters in the background, and they could be unannounced characters for Persona 5. It’s grasping, so it could be nothing.

Persona 5 is coming to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in Japan in 2015. It’s unknown if North America will come out in 2015 or in 2016. I just hope for a worldwide release.

 

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Jesse Webster is a Senior Writer at MONG and knows what The Island is. You can find him on twitter.