Persona 5 has a number of references to other Atlus-made games.
- The main character's thief name is Joker and just like all previous characters with that moniker, he is being directly manipulated by a supernatural higher power.
- The Phantom Thieves as a whole are an inversion of The Masquerade, a masked group of Persona users who steal people's hearts led by a man named Joker, but this time they're doing it for a noble purpose.
- The ultimate Persona of Futaba is Prometheus. It's even reinforced by Sojiro having the same voice actor in Japanese as Baofu.
- A talking cat that leads the heroes through a metaphysical area that represents the collective subconscious – Lieutenant General Zula already did that.
- Ryuji's thief outfit is a Whole Costume Reference to the recurring Demon Hell Biker.
- The enemies are mainline SMT Demons, a la Persona and Persona 2.
- The protagonist can play a video game called Star Forneus 1988. Forneus is a recurring Demon in the SMT series, appearing ever since Shin Megami Tensei I. The "star" is another Goetia Demon, Decarabia, who was a friend of Forneus in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne.
- The Battle Arena in the sixth Palace consists of three back-to-back fights. While this may sound coincidental up front, it becomes a Mythology Gag when the third opponent is revealed to be Thor.
- A small reference to the previous installment can be found in Yongen-Jaya's backstreets with a small area cordoned off by traffic cones and police tape, behind which sits a yellow bicycle, an overturned trash can, and a motorized scooter.
- In one scene, Yusuke and the protagonist pose like the demon Orobas in the first Shin Megami Tensei I.
- Many of the classic demons receive new poses with their new HD models, but several of them, such as Nekomata and Succubus, take the poses of their classic Kazuma Kaneko art for their knocked down animation.
- The midbosses in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon are made up of Uriel, Raphael, Gabriel and Michael, the four archangels from Shin Megami Tensei II.
- In another boss-based callback, this isn't the first time that a boss named "Samael" has been fought within the Diet Building.
- When Satanael descends from the heavens, he pops the iconic arms wide open Ass Kicking Pose used by demon Lucifer in Shin Megami Tensei II and the games that followed it.
- The DLC costume packs include Karukozaka High School uniforms from Shin Megami Tensei if... (the Spiritual Predecessor of the Persona franchise), the school uniforms of Raidou and Kaya from Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army, the casual clothes of the cast from Catherine, and the samurai uniforms of the heroes from Shin Megami Tensei IV.
- When one of the DLC Persona learns a new skill in battle, Joker will sometimes say a line referencing the person whose Persona he's using. Learning a new skill with Kaguya, for instance, may cause Joker to say "I sense pathos...".
- When the party members' Personas awaken, they give a little speech about their user's situation and philosophy like the Personas in Persona 2.
- Futaba's nickname for Yusuke, "Inari", might be one to Persona 3 Portable, where you can visit Naganaki Shrine to meet Inari and duplicate a Skill Card (which is what Yusuke does in this game).
- Way back in Shin Megami Tensei II's Chaos Route, Lucifer defied YHVH's orders to destroy the world with Kuzuryu and tells him as such in the final battle. The ultimate antagonist of Persona 5 is Yaldabaoth, the Gnostic interpretation of the Abrahamic God (as well as other monotheistic deities), and in the good ending, Satanael descends from the heavens doing Lucifer's pose, harnessing the power of Chaos (The Seven Sins) to kill him.
- One of the news broadcasts you can watch on TV in early December mentions "a handsome detective in red glasses", "a legendary gumshoe that took down a bear" (presumably Akihiko, if he followed through with his intention of becoming a legit officer), and "a girl in the academy who knows kung fu."
- The ambient music for the Triple Seven grocery store in Shibuya's Central Street is an electronica arrangement of the ridiculously catchy Satomi Tadashi Pharmacy song.
- Also, the Yongen-Jaya movie theater has a Christmas movie that plays in December. The background music in the movie is the Innocent Sin track "Tranquility".
- The Crane Game jingle at Akihabara's Arcade is a cheery arrangment of the Junes Department Store song. The Crane Game itself can also reward you with a Jack Frost Doll, the most elusive prize at Paulownia Mall's own arcade.
- At one point, you can purchase both a broken laptop in Akihabara as well as the tools to fix it. If your Proficiency is high enough, you can repair it and enter the "Dark Net"... which is basically the new online storefront for Tanaka's Amazing Commodities, theme song included.
- During your visit to Asakusa with Haru, you acquire a kumade (good luck charm), which is one letter away from "kuma da", and, therefore, is topped with a tiny figure of Pungeon Master Teddie.
- One of the major guardians leading up to the first Palace boss is the "Torn King of Desire", Mara's botched incarnation into a Slime body.
- One of the headlines seen on TV
◊ at the SIU Director's office is an incident on the Anehadzuru monorail line. This is the line that's used throughout Port Island in Persona 3. - The Flavor Text of the "Ultimate Amazake" drink is "[It] Makes you think you're drunk. Restores 20 HP to one ally," which is a likely reference to the infamous "King's Game" scene from Persona 4 and Persona 4: The Animation.
- Ryuji isn't the first Persona user who was a former track star with a Career-Ending Injury, and who is also a member of a shady group led by someone with the moniker Joker. Anna Yoshizaka precedes him.
- At game's end, you finally get the Velvet Key from Lavenza. Incidentally, you were actually supposed to get the key at the start of the journey, but circumstances prohibited you from getting it that early. Regardless, you still keep it as a keepsake.
- The lyrics of "Beneath the Mask" mention "Poe's masquerade", a reference to "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe. This same story is the origin of the Velvet Room, which has appeared in every game in the Persona series.
- In the Death Confidant Rank 4, Takemi will call a hospital and speak with a nurse named Uehara. Uehara was also the name of a nurse in Persona 4, who served as the Devil Social Link (during which you met the game's Death Social Link, ironically).
- April 15th is a Wham Episode in both Persona 4 and Persona 5. In the former Saki Konishi's body is found hanging from a telephone pole, in the latter Shiho Suzui attempts to kill herself and barely survives.
- The default firearms for Joker and Ann are the Norinco Type 54 (a Chinese clone of the Tokarev TT-33) and a Vz. 61 Skorpion respectively. The Tokarev and Skorpion also happened to be the default firearms of handgun and machine gun users in the original Persona as well.
- The highest level treasure demon in the game is the crystal skull. While based off of the Crystal Skulls in real life, they're also reminiscent of Innocent Sin's plot devices.
- In Royal, one of the Faith Confidant's events will take you to a glasses store where you will try on the gag glasses from Persona 4.
- One of the wrong answers in the first set of exams in Royal is Digital Devil Story, the progenitor of the entire franchise.
- Ryuji's ultimate gun is the Megami Tensei mainstay, the Megido Fire. Similarly, Akechi's ultimate weapon in Royal is the Hinokagutsuchi, Nakajima's weapon of choice in Digital Devil Story and an oft-recurring, high level sword in numerous Megami Tensei games.
- The song "No More What Ifs", which plays in the Kichijoji jazz club in Royal, contains the lyrics "Someone once said 'burn my dread', babe".
- The track Kichijoji 199X is a modern remix of the classic Kichijoji track from Shin Megami Tensei I.
- After Ryuji summons his Persona for the first time, Morgana mentions that Ryuji had "the potential". In Persona 3, those who were able to summon a Persona were said to have "the potential".
