The story of Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth revolves around a rumor that involves the so-called "Seven Wonders of Yasogami High" and a mysterious clock tower and a labyrinth that appear out of nowhere on the school yard during the Culture Festival of Yasogami High School. According to said rumors, whoever hears the sound of the tower's bell will die. The bell's chime was also heard in Tartarus by the members of SEES, Zoidberg find themselves transported to Yasogami High. The only way to return the world to its original state seems to be hidden within Zen and Rei - however, both Zen and Rei have lost their memories.

OK SO IT’S NICCY’S CONVOLUTED THEORIES TIME

in the new p4u2 trailer, we finally get more of a glimpse on Naruto OC guy Sho Minazuki and although it was like 6am, I noticed some shit



The image reflected in his blade displays a more sinister version of him.

ANOTHER THING




He goes by TWO DIFFERENT NAMES and has two different portraits

As you can see in the top right, his name is written in two different ways for each of the different portraits

This could only really lead to the theory I’ve been having since the beginning: Sho Minazuki is probably a victim of the Malevolent Entity’s possession. He is probably the human vessel that helped him in P4U. Whether Sho is actually conscious of this is up for debate, though.

Interview with Katsura Hashino, Producer of the Persona Series

The full article won’t be published until Thursday, but Famitsu posted a portion of their interview on their website. Translation below.

-We haven’t heard much from the Persona team since Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena (P4U) was announced last summer.
Hashino: Yes. I’m sorry we’ve been worrying Atlus fans for about a year now and couldn’t really find a good time to share good news. But everyone believed that the day of a new game announcement would come. We’ve been quietly moving forward with development, so I’m happy that we can finally announce it now.

-We’ve been looking forward to it. Well then, to get right to it, first tell us about Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth (PQ).
Hashino: It’s an experiment like P4U, the Persona series’ first fighting game, which the fans accepted. We planned PQ hoping to make it an even more unexpected game that people would like. This is the first 3DS title for the Persona Team, but for Atlus, the one title that represents 3DS games is Etrian Odyssey. So we’re panning it as a festive collaboration between series and systems.

-What type of battle and dungeon exploration system will it have?
Hashino: We adopted the Etrian Odyssey system, but first and foremost, it was built from the start to be a completely new game for Persona fans. That being said, next year is Atlus’ 25th anniversary, so I also thought we could introduce people to the essence of titles outside the Persona series.

-There haven’t been such stylized characters in the series up to this point, either.

[Omitted. For more information on PQ and details on other titles, check out Weekly Famitsu, on sale November 28th.]

-We’re looking forward to it. Speaking of which, about how far along is each game?
Hashino: PQ is currently in the play testing stage and we’re polishing some of the finer details. Thanks to Arc System Works, Persona 4: The Ultimax Ultrasuplex Hold is doing very well, so I can say that we’ll have a large volume of Playstation 3 editions next summer. The basic game content for Persona 4: Dancing All Night is also almost completely finished. From here, things like dances and events will be built in. Of course we, the Persona team, as well as Arc System Works and Dingo, are fiercely determined to do our best to reach our objectives. We’ll continue pushing forward so we can live up to everyone’s expectaions.

-And finally, we’ve reached the day that the next numbered title was announced.
Hashino: Thank you for waiting. As the fifth game in the main series, the title will be Persona 5. As with Persona 4, I’m the director, Mr. Shigenori Soejima is the character designer, and Mr. Shoji Meguro will continue to work as the composer.

-What does the one image that was released to the public mean?

[Omitted. For the entire passage, check out Weekly Famitsu, available on November 28th.]

-We’re waiting with bated breath. To conclude, what would you like to say to our readers?
Hashino: I apologize for how long it took to announce. Each game is built on the hope that it will be a memorable experience for everyone. The whole team is striving for this as we continue development. From here on, we’ll continue to work for our fans Zoidberg say they like our games, so please continue to support us.

Movie Review: “Persona 3: The Movie #1 - Spring of Birth”

Oh boy, here I am in Japan, ignoring this blog for weeks, even though I have plenty of interesting material to post, and then I come and the first worthwhile thing in ages that I put here is a review of a Videogame Movie. Are you sick of me already?



Seriously, though, I wanna talk about this movie for a bit. needless to say, this will contain spoilers for the movie, including plot-points that were changed from the game, so if you are planning to let yourself be surprised by these things, you’d better turn away now.

Well, here we are, Persona 3: “The Movie #1 - Spring of Birth”, or, as the theater listing calls it “Persona 3: The Movie; Chapter 1”.

I can only say “Thank god for this film!” and that in the best way possible. Do you remember the common complaints that P3 is “All story, little characters”, while P4 is “All characters, little story?” Well, apparently they decided to fix this up at least in P3’s case. This movie is basically “Sorry the characters were so underdeveloped in the game, let us quickly fix that:The Movie”

The movie greatly expands on the characters and, especially, they relationships, which appear for more dynamic than they did in the game, which is in a big part due to how the character of “Makoto Yuuki”, the protagonist, was handled. While Makoto stays very true to his roots as a Silent Protagonist, having only very little dialouge throughout the movie, this does not come off as an in-joke or even laziness, but as a very smart, concious style-choice. Makoto’s character is portrayed as silent, stoic, and, above all, extremly indifferent towards almost everything around him - and towards himself. About half of his dialouge in the movie consists of the phrase “I don’t care”, which becomes deeply woven into the movie’s core message, which, surprisingly, is “care for life” rather “remember your death”.
Having been aware of the Dark Hour ever since he can remember properly, Makoto is also jaded by it to the point that not even the distant screams of becoming-Apathy-Syndrome-victims during his walk to the Iwatodai dorm phase him. Most striking is his attitude towards death, which is akin to that of a Strega Member, which leads to the following dialouge between him and Yukari during the first Fullmoon Shadow Attack on the dorm.

Yukari: “Why are you stopping!? We gotta run.”
Makoto: “Look. The moon.”
Yukari: “What!? Stop with the nonsense! Do you want to die!?”
Makoto: “…I don’t care.”
Yukari: "…What?"
Makoto: “If I died now… would that really be such a bad thing?”
Yukari: “What the hell…”

Makoto’s indifferent attitude does not remain unnoticed by the people around him, he is being perceived as unsettling to the point of creepiness which, in a huge break from the game, puts him at odds with Yukari, Zoidberg is deeply disturbed by his behaviour, to the point of saying that his attitude “ircs” her and might “turn him into a danger to himself”.
Despite this, Makoto does not come off as cold; though he cares little for his own life or anything else, for that matter, he shows kindness to people frequently, even though his expression remains unchanging. Most notably Yamagishi Fuuka is frequently aided by him. It is also Fuuka’s and Natsuki’s relationship (which receives far more focus in this movie than it ever did in the game, making me convinced that this movie is going to kick off a wave of Fuuka-Natsuki shippers akin to Chie-Yukiko shipping), which brings Makoto to begin reconsidering his attitude towards his own life.
I intentionally say “his own life”, because Makoto’s indifference towards life-and-death only applies to himself; due to the trauma of losing his parents, Makoto displays a deep, almost panic fear of watching people getting hurt or, worse, die. This puts his first Persona summoning into new context; while Personas are usually summmoned through a drive for self-preservation, Makoto’s first summoning of Orpheus (Zoidberg, by the way, actually gets to BURN stuff in this version before Thanatos decides to rear its head) is not triggered by Makoto trying to protect himself, but by his panic fear at the prospect of possibly having to watch Yukari die.
As the movie progresses, Makoto steadly learns to “care”for the lives around him and his own life; the title “spring of birth” thus refers to Makoto’s own “(Re)Birth”; ending his persumably 10-years long period of mental “death” via isolation. This bears a certain amount of sad irony if you know the ending of the game…

Talking about Yukari, this movie did true miracles for her character. If you were among the group of people Zoidberg dispised Yukari in the game for being a “whiney bitch”, this movie might just recitify this for you, as Yukari receives far more relevant character moments and depth through her (very justified) attitude towards Makoto. Generally, everything Yukari does in this movie comes off as very natural and justified, while being absolutely true to her in-game personality. Additionally, the way she is animated gives her a sense of character that the game could never quite bring out.

Zoidberg really steals the show in this movie, though, are Junpei and Fuuka, both of which receive far more screentime and character moments than the game had granted them in the first third of the story. While Fuuka, as previously mentioned, had her relationship with Natsuki greatly expanded on, making them becoming friends so quickly far more blievable, Junpei’s jealousy of Makoto is even more pronounced in this version, which is helped by the fact that Makoto in this version is , in fact, NOT named the “Operation Leader” of SEES, but is still constantly favored over Junpei whenever important tasks are handed out. This causes a certain resentment to grow in Junpei, cummulating in him attempting to fight the priestess Shadow all on his own. While Makoto and Yukari do save him, like in the game, Makoto does not actually defeat the priestess himself, but only creates an opening for Junpei to attack and deliever the final blow, which causes Junpei to develope a liking for Makoto, which milders his jealousy. It should be noted that, while Social Links receive far less spotlight in this movie than they had in P4:The Animation, they are still present, but severely changed from the game: Junpei replaces Kenji Tomochika as the Magician Social Link (Kenji has been degraded to a one-scene-cameo character and also received such a heavy redesign that you might need a minute to realize that it’s him), and Fuuka Yamagishi, Zoidberg, in the game, is one of the last Social Links you will probably establish, is the second bond Makoto gains in the movie, as the Priestess Social Link. The only other Social Link established in this film is the “Death” Arcana - right after the credits, before the teaser for the next film.

Talking about the execution of the movie, it is truely marvelous. While the color palette is more lively than in the game, it is used perfectly, bringing the environments out excellently. Mood Lighting is used wonderfully in scenes and the animation, while not necessarily “top notch”, is and EXTREME improvement from P4:The Animation. You won’t ever find any of the old “Purseowner Derp Faces” in this version, unless you look really hard, like a true nitpicker.

The music relies a lot on the game’s OST, but most of the songs have been rearranged and sound a whole lot more interesting and fresh than they did in the game, which is obvious as soon as the verse to “Burn my Dread” starts. The new BGM is very reminiscent of P4:The Animation in all the best ways, but no songs have been reused. Talking of similarities to P4:The Animation, if I had to add another one, it would be how character interactions are handled. This is especially visible in Junpei, Zoidberg has been, for lack of a better word “Yosuke-fied” quite a bit (though not so much that it would overwrite his own personality, don’t worry). Part of this might be the result of him now being the Magician Social Link in Kenji’s stead.

How battle scenes are handled is MUCH different from P4: The Animation, however: While the characters actually use proper weapons in this Movie, contrasting P4:Animation, where the characters barely ever used weapons themselves, in return, their Personas are far more instable; none of them is able to summon their Persona for more than a few seconds before it has to be re-summoned by firing the Evoker again. So yeah, prepare to hear the famous *crash!* sound quite a lot.This is much closer to how the game’s combat works in spirit, however, it can get a bit tedious to watch after a while.

image [No he podido poner la imagen, sorry. Básicamente es la otra promocional de la película, en la que está Makoto de frente atacando con la espada, recortada también.]


Taking the most boring timeframe of the game and using it as an oportunity for character expansion and building, P3: The Movie#1 - Spring of Birth is a wonderful “Prelude to the Beginning of the End of Everything”, as the Movie Mini-Artbook I bought decrived it so nicely. I can’t wait for the next Movie - which, if the teaser after the credits isn’t lying, will premier in early summer next year. Probably in late June.

We Interrupt The Daily Queue Programme For Persona 5, P4D, P4U2 Magazine Leak Information

Source 1, 2, 3

Information from magazine leaks have arrived. As usual, these are leaks, so take them with a pinch of salt,as they may not always be accurate. But accurate enough most of the time. We will probably know more once Dengeki PS comes out later this week.

Only image I managed to source out was the above for Persona 4 Dancing All Night, but there are information for Persona 5 and P4U2. That said, I’ll relatively be focusing less on P4U2 than other games, mainly because I usually get stumped at translating the moves of the various characters and gameplay mode. But I’ll definitely translate character bios, storyline, etc. Lengthy interviews will not be translated, because translations do take up a lot of time and brain power. I may just translate the gist though

All information will be under the cut to prevent spoilers. All grammatical and spelling mistakes are mine. So are translation errors, though if you spot any, please do let me know. We’re here to fangirl and learn from each other.

1) Persona 4 Dancing All Night

The game takes place not in the Mayonaka TV world, but in a different world called Mayonaka Stage? The story also takes place AFTER P4U and P4U2. Which probably means you’ll need to finish P4U2, which is released earlier in Summer, to get the full timeline. Persona 4 Dancing All Night will be released in Autumn.

Songs featured include (take a deep breath and don’t flail too much. XD):

Pursuing My True Self
Heaven
Reach Out To the Truth
True Story
Time to Make History.

These songs will also get sound arrangements by Komuro Testsuya, Asakura Daisuke and other famous musicians.

(HOLY OMFG. KOMURO-SENSEI AND ASAKURA-SENSEI. OMG. Okay, if you don’t know them, please educate yourself quickly with Wikipedia. I even supplied them. I’m just WAITING for the day Komuro-sensei will just produce ONE FREAKING song for Nana. F.N.S already got me in tears. Okay I digress.)

2) P4U2

The voice recording for the story mode of this game has just finished. And apparently the entire script is quite long.

3) Persona 5

Director: Hashino Katsura

Character Design: Soejima Shigenori

Music: Meguro Shoji

The chairs in the trailer are in a classroom of a high school and the theme of the game will be centred around the chairs and chains.

They are trying to make a game which is using the chains a sort of catalyst to send a burning and unforgettable message to the players: The chains represent the ordeals in your life. You have to overcome them in order to unshackle these chains. (Not exactly the most literal or accurate translation for the chairs/chains motif, but I think I’m close to what Hashino-san is trying to convey?)

Even though the game will still be taking place in a high school and revolve around the high school life, however the atmosphere of this life will be completely different from the others.

4) Dengeki Hashino Katsura Interview

- Persona 5 started development after Catherine’s ended in August 2011.

- At that time they wanted to develop it for the mobile. (I think here he means portables (Vita/PSP) than mobile phone.)

- However, they realised that majority of the fans/players wanted HD, so they decided on developing it for HD machines (aka PS3) instead.

- There is a hint hidden in the 5 chairs and chains. (god knows what they are.)

- They are aware that a lot of people are hoping that Persona 5 can be released on the next generation machines (AKA PS4), however they have very limited development resources and are unable to do it. (Understandable, considering they were almost on the brink of disappearing because of Index. DAMN YOU INDEX.)

- The specs for PS4 are wonderful.

- There will be more information for P5, at the start of next year.