Persona series

Naoto's japanease voice is very recognizable, and it certainly wouldn't sound like this no matter how old she is. Mitsuru's maybe, but only if the timeskip is big enough for her to be in her 30s or so.

Mitsuru was born in 1991. If the game is indeed set in 2017, then she'll be no older than 26.

Eh, still wouldn't be surprised even with that.

Mitsuru was always mature for her age, and people's voices change differently.

All the same, I think at most we're looking at a new character who, at most, is affiliated with the Shadow Operatives. I doubt links to previous games will be any stronger than that.

Probably. But I admit, I'd be kinda dissapointed.

I think we all expect someone to show up on the simple fact the Shadow Operatives & Investigation Group are effectively the Persona police force. It be really weird to not hear anything about them when you are actually playing Persona-using criminals committing high-profile heists in Goddamn Tokyo of all places. I expect maybe a cameo or something at least showing us that their gonna do something bout the Phantom's escapades.

Though if they do send someone, they better be powerful & numerous since the Phantom has a lot of teammates & has the Wild Card making him as strong as Yu or Minato, hell even stronger since he's next-gen.

edited 7th May '16 2:42:40 PM by slimcoder

Out of all the past characters, Naoto seems like the most likely one to show up for a cameo. She doesn't live in Inaba, she takes independent cases, and of course she's a detective.

I think she should have backup though. Depending on if she actually confronts the Phantom alone or not it be dangerous to this alone.

I dont expect anyone to be important enough to have a cameo line in a trailer. I think they will save the Lupin III Vs Detective Conan situation for a more goofy sequel game.

I'll go ahead and point out that an entire arena full of people vanished during the events of Dancing All Night and the Shadow Operatives were nowhere to be seen despite the extended disappearances of several major celebrities under dubious circumstances leading up to it. It was resolved relatively quickly, but there wasn't even a token effort on their part- They presumably had their hands tied elsewhere.

I just really hope they let 3 and 4 rest for a good long while.

I get that they achieved far too much popularity to quietly let them die like 1 and 2, but 5 and ostensibly 6 need to be able to stand on their own.

I'd really love to see a big reunion bash after 6 is a thing, though.

I think the IT or Ex-SEES would only be interested if they had reason to suspect Personas or Shadows were involved. Otherwise, it would be rather contrived for anyone aside from Naoto to get involved, and even for her it would be a rather suspicious coincidence.

Need to find out how the new shadow world works before deciding whether there's a chance or not.

The beginning of the latest trailer definitely implies that the interrogator already knows about Shadows (or rather, "the other world") and is asking him about how he got involved. Well, that's what it implies to me anyway.

She also seems fairly sympathetic. "Tell us the truth so we can help you." At the very least playing the Good Cop.

Edit: Incidentally, this is probably why people are suspecting that she's Mitsuru or Naoto despite their voices sounding nothing alike. She's just speaking from a position we naturally understand those two to be in.

edited 7th May '16 5:52:42 PM by Clarste

That was my interpretation as well.

So I guess the question is, who else could she be (if she really is someone we know, which I can't help but feel she is).

Does the voice sound like anyone else from the series? Perhaps someone else who joined the Shadow Operatives and has a persona?

Of course, she could just be some random person associated with Mitsuru and the Kirijo group as well. Or she cold be no-one important at all. No real way of knowing.

Or there's the possibility they might purposely be using a different VA to try and throw us off.

I'd rather it not be a tie to anyone from P3 and P4 to be honest. Kinda prefer the series to have standalone games with minor cameos of older characters at best, like the TV segments in P3 and Chihiro in P4.

edited 7th May '16 7:34:21 PM by Nap1100

I'd normally be okay with minimal connections but if the Shadow Operatives don't show up it creates a weird feeling were it feels like they should be there if the stakes are high enough. Its like how in Captain America: Winter Soldier they had a potential world ending threat and no other Avenger showed up for some reason besides Cap. Makes the cast of P3 seem bad at their job for not showing up.

edited 7th May '16 7:56:18 PM by evilface

@Pulse's spoilered comment on the last page: Knowing that Rise would be around, and possibly knowing that the rest of the gang was there as well, could be a reason for the Operatives to move it down on their priority list.

@video: That "baton pass" mechanic that looks like it lets you have a party member tag in looks interesting. I can't help wondering what command "Order" might be that's separate from Sword, Gun, Persona, Item, and Guard.

We don't know if the stakes are that high, though. And even if they were, as in Persona 4's case, they were no where to be seen.

They've had their time and than some.

Well, on the outside, Persona 4's events were somewhat low key. Some strange murders and weird weather, but I could see them not noticing.

This, on the other hand, looks to be rather high profile.

I can see how Naoto getting involved on her own if she just thought the case was interesting, but if she thought it was actually dangerous, I would think she would want to call in the cavalry - unless she was prevented from doing so, for whatever reason.

Even still, it strikes me as bad form to constantly involve characters from older games unless they're very brief, very out of the way cameos. The game should focus on building up this new cast so we can come to love them as much as fans love the characters from the older titles, and I feel it would draw too much attention away from them if any of the older teams were too heavily involved.

I can agree with that. I'd argue that you could still have Naoto, for example, play a semi-prominent role, as long as her appearances were relatively scarce, and the main cast still got to do all of the important stuff.

@ rikalous- Or they were off taking care of a cult in south Africa or something. My point is that the Shadow Operatives have a lot of resources but not infinite amounts- They clearly don't get involved in every Shadow-related incident.

Also, Rise and co. were one of the groups missing from the lead up to said disappearing arena- The list of performers planned to show up at the LMB concert that didn't vanish in the days leading up to it was Kanami and late addition Nanako- Who was only involved because everyone else was just plain gone. It was kept under wraps but it's still crazy suspect.

edited 7th May '16 8:56:44 PM by Pulse

The problem is that if you do that, you run the risk of even the semi-prominent roles implied to be doing all the big work even if the rest of the cast were the ones with the screentime. Look at what happened with Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney and (though YMMV on this one) Dangan Ronpa 2.