WMG / Persona 5

Pre-Release Speculation

• Persona 5 Pre-release

Post-Release Speculation

Plot WMGs

Principal Kobayakawa was originally going to have a Palace, and Makoto would have joined the party in his dungeon.

Most of the party joins before or during a heist they have a personal stake in, but Makoto stands out as having little to no connection with Kaneshiro until she actually gets involved with the party. She has a very deep connection with Sae, her sister, but that comes long after her recruitment into the Phantom Thieves. She does, however, have a very good reason to hate the Principal before joining the team. The writers may have been considering making Kobayakawa one of the main villains before scrapping the idea for any number of reasons.

There will be a DLC campaign that will serve as a Crisis Crossover.

Your party will draw from every game in the series. The plot will involve some monstrous being trying to fuse the multiverse in order to destroy it, allowing the Tatsuya from Innocent Sin and the Shinjiro from P3P's female route to appear, and the Persona 3 female protagonist will show up as a Schrödinger's Player Character.

• Jossed. The only DLC for the game is for Merciless Difficulty, alternate costumes and Personas, and the Japanese dub track (for the Western releases, at least).

If Hifumi was actually included as a Phantom Thief, she would have joined at Kaneshiro's Palace instead of Makoto.

Going off of the above WMG about the Principal having a palace and Makoto joining there, it is possible that if Hifumi was kept as a Phantom Thief, she would have joined during Kaneshiro's Palace. One possible connection for Hifumi to have to Kaneshiro is that the reason her mother fixed her Shogi games is that her family got into trouble with Kaneshiro and needed her to make money off of shogi matches (possibly illegal ones) is to make enough money to pay him off. Seeing as how Hifumi's Confidant can begin during Kaneshiro's arc in the completed game, that might further support this.

Some former members of The Conspiracy helped the Protagonist get released from juvenile hall.

Despite having assisted Shido and attempted to cover up his change of heart to the public,, it's implied that once Yaldabaoth's fuses both worlds the together, some of them realize that it wasn't just Shido who was using them, and/or that their own plans with the Metaverse would have been pointless since they and the rest of humanity were still falling right into his hands. After Yaldabaoth is destroyed, the world is returned to normal, and the Phantom Thieves' leader turns himself in to testify, they step in as well to atone on their own terms for whatever reasons they may have such as facing judgement, repaying the Protagonist for saving them all, or just doing the right thing and move on from it all. It would really help this part of the story make even more sense than it already does.

The protagonist became a Reality Warper after defeating Yaldabaoth

.The game begins with the protagonist agreeing to a contract with Yaldabaoth to the effect that This Is a Work of Fiction. By killing the other party to the contract, he nullified that contract.

Previous Games connection WMGs

Futaba's mother was part of the Kirijo group in 1999.

Because it's a (if not the) leading organization in conducting research on Shadow-related subjects like Cognitive Existences, after all.

Tanaka is none other than Nyarlathotep.

Think about it. He only starts appearing in Persona 3, right after he is defeated in Persona 2, he has the Devil Arcana which is fitting for an elder god and the crawling chaos, he is always present on each protagonist's journey starting with Persona 3, he sells strange items that should only be useful for dungeon crawling yet sells out very often, he could easily utilize rumors to make himself exist (i.e "People on TV are corrupt and taking advantage of us" or "There's some shady stuff on the internet"), and most recently he has made an appearance in Persona 5-Wearing shades that are similar to another character appearing in the Persona games...

As to why he's helping the protagonists, either he's simply bored and has taken an interest in observing the protagonists and their fate while remaining in a passive role similar to Philemon or he is helping to further a possible future plan. Either way, this also isn't the first time that he's helped the Persona protagonists...

At some point in development Goro was literally Naoto.

Goro appears to be the oldest cast member (Naoto would be older than everyone, being out of high school by the time of P5, but still likely young enough to go undercover 21 Jump Street style), is a young detective working closely with a family involved in law enforcement, and uses sci-fi weapons similar to Naoto's own Persona and Shadow, as well as serving a similar combat role. Naoto's gender identity issues were not clearly resolved by the end of P4; a third fundamental transformation of Persona wouldn't be out of the question for an F-t-M trans person considering the way Ultimate Personas work already. I posit: Naoto (in one form or another) was planned to make an appearance as the eighth character, but as the story developed Atlus were unwilling to have her take a blatantly villainous role, be explicitly trans, or die during the plot so her role was ultimately split between Goro and Makoto, hence the revolvers.

• Even in concept art, Akechi was always planned, with Naoto nowhere in sight. Naoto's not trans either.

Persona 5 takes place in the Persona 3 Portable FeMC continuity, and she is in fact in the game

Hoo boy, this is gonna be a long one, and it probably goes into Epileptic Trees territory, but bear with me here.

Now, strap in, because a lot happened to FeMC between the end of P3, and the beginning of P5.

After she died at the end of P3, she somehow managed to come back to life (possibly through Elizabeth/Theodore's devotion to her being so strong – as well as Aigis and Yukari's, if "the Answer" is anything to go by – that they ended up making a cognitive recreation of her, a la Morgana at the end of P5).

She notices that she seems to be in a state of undeath (if you're working with the above theory, then this is different from Morgana in that she literally ceased to live for a bit), and she hasn't aged in a while, in addition to suddenly not being able to use her Persona.

Being at least theoretically immortal (thus possibly having to say goodbye to her friends a second time) in combination with having some anxieties about the time that had passed since her death, and the fact that her friends have logically all moved on with their lives and experienced a lot without her (her anxiety reminding her that her old friends may have even started families at this point), she can't bring herself to face them again, so she starts a new life as the only character in Persona 5 who has her red eyes, pale skin, and brown hair (fashioned after Aigis's haircut, complete with a singular braid in the same place as Aigis's headband).

So she moves from Iwatodai to Tokyo, and in an act of desperation at having lost her friends and her family and just wanting to belong somewhere, she decides to hypnotize a prosecutor named Sae Niijima in order to move into her life (easy to do, as Sae's parents are dead, and with this being a pain she's experienced, she's likely not to act in too strange a way and trip any alarms. From there it was just a matter of looking up family mementoes and listening to contextual clues from talking to her friends and Sae about her "father"). She ended up falsifying records (likely using her completely-maxed-out genius academics) for someone named "Makoto Niijima" (in a meta sense, this is a development gag because she now has the same name as the male protagonist).

This is also why Sae has gray hair, while Makoto's is brown – Sae actually inherited her hair color from their father. (Someone once asked why Makoto isn't in any family photos, and Sae responded that Makoto was camera shy. Makoto lives in fear of the day Sae realizes that was a lie)

She decides to join the student council once again, and even to emulate someone who was a bit of a role model to her during her days at Gekkoukan, Mitsuru Kirijo. Her idolizing of Mitsuru is likely why it is that Johanna is a motorcycle in particular. Or, to quote Mitsuru herself in her level 9 social link, "you may be more suited to ride a motorcycle than me..."

Now, Makoto was admittedly surprised about the group's Personas when she first saw them in Kaneshiro's bank, but that can be chalked up to them using summoning methods she's completely unfamiliar with. After all, when the time came for her to summon her Persona, she embraced it just as easily as Joker. "Yes... Come to me!" She proclaims to Johanna upon awakening. Everybody else initially writhed and screamed, and even fell to the ground, yet Makoto stayed up and never went down. Not because she's just some rando who has weird Velvet Crowe. levels of determination, but rather because she's already summoned a Persona before, and braved 263 floors of Tartarus. But when we speak of her personality, we have to talk about how it's changed.

She's devoted her life to studying, not only because of a desire to emulate Mitsuru, or even because of Sae, but also because that way she can't get attached to people only to lose her relationship with them again. After all, knowledge never dies. But then Joker and his friends show up, and she just gets reminded of the old days, and she couldn't stay away, even if she did give it her level best.

Her shock at Johanna is more directed at the fact that she's finally able to use a Persona again.

And let's talk about Johanna for a second, shall we? According to the Megami Tensei Wiki, "Johanna is based on Pope Joan, a legendary Medieval woman who reigned as pope for a short period, going against the Catholic Church's ingrained tradition of male popes." This lines up very well with FeMC being the second female protagonist in a series of usually male protagonists. But yes, she was only the second. As a matter of fact, what with Johanna being the first female pope, she'd have more in common with Maya Amano from Persona 2. So, what pushes this over the edge? Well, if we read a little farther (as in literally what it says next), we get "Though the story was widely believed for centuries, modern historians have found no evidence of her existence and believe the legend to be a work of fiction meant to discredit the church." As is noted on the YMMV page for Persona 3, there was a good amount of time one could have debated FeMC to be canon, materials stating otherwise that were made before her creation notwithstanding. However, it goes on to state that "the Vatican removed the female pope from its official lists and crafted a ritual to ensure that future popes were male." She's been proven to be noncanon at this point, and is only sparingly brought up by Atlus at this point.

Also it helps that she uses a revolver, and the user interface for the battle system in Persona 3 is a(n admittedly seven bullet as opposed to Makoto's six bullet) revolver cylinder.

This is why her confidant route has more to do with helping someone else than it does with her own resolve, as this is just what she got used to during the events of Persona 3.

At the end, when the Phantom Thieves are all in the Velvet Room, Makoto never asks where this location is, like some of the others do. Sure, this could point to my theory, but in fairness, Ann and Haru both manage to not ask about this place either.

Even more contradictory is the fact that Makoto doesn't recognize who Igor is (there are no loopholes here about his identity, since this is the real Igor by this point). It is conceivable that she's forgotten things that don't pertain to her old friends, as was seen when the other Nyx Annihilation Team suffered similar memory loss, as after that point, we never had any time to confirm whether or not her memories of Igor or the Velvet Room remained, since you were not able to return. And if she indeed forgot this, this is something Igor likely would have realized, meaning he wouldn't waste his time trying to jog her memory at the climax of P5, as there were urgent matters to attend to.

Also, Makoto wears her SEES outfit the exact same way as the FeMC does. Well, so does Haru, and as a matter of fact, hers is more accurate to the FeMC, but that's detrimental to my point, so we're going to disregard it.

Character WMGs

Joker is Gaster

Regarding Goro Akechi's abilities

The persona Akechi uses when he acts as a mole for the party is Robin Hood, of the Justice arcana. This is possibly representative of the Social Link/Confidant he shares with The Phantom: Given that Akechi is actually a wild card, it is likely that his true arcana is the Fool (or possibly even the Jester similar to Adachi). However, he cannot summon many personas because he lacks the bonds necessary to do so. Loki is likely his true persona, one that has traditionally been in the Fool arcana as well. Thus, when Akechi formed a bond with The Phantom and unlocked the Justice arcana, he was able to summon Robin Hood as a result of that bond.

The protagonist is actually Takashi Kido, son of Reiji Kido.

• In Persona 2 Eternal Punishment, we find out Reiji got his girlfriend pregnant. Depending on how far along she is, she may have given birth in early 2000. Judging from the calendars in Persona 5, the game takes place in 2016, and second-year students are typically 16.
• Both of Reiji's Personas use Curse attacks, as do Arsène and Satanael.
• Reiji sold knives to support his family, and the protagonist's weapons are knives.
• Reiji and the protagonist have messy hair.
• Reiji liked to practice magic tricks and the protagonist shows some incredible dexterity in some of his idle animations.
• Reiji was brooding and asocial in his youth, but managed to ingratiate himself with a close circle of friends. The Protagonist can be seen as introverted, but manages to get in good with a fairly large number of people.
• Reiji also got into an extended feud with a powerful man using his assets for evil.
• Though he wanted to be a good parent, Reiji wasn't exactly the most prepared to be one. Perhaps he didn't keep in contact with the protagonist because he thought Sojiro would do a better job...

Ann is a fan of American comic book characters.

As we know Ann's outfit as Panther is a Shout-Out to Catwoman. There is also the fact that Ann is quarter-American herself having spent time in America so she has definitely been exposed to American comic book characters. She also states that she is into video games and people who play video games usually read comic books as well. The fact that her Phantom Thief outfit is similar to Catwoman may even allude to the fact that Ann's favorite comic book character is Catwoman as the character is pretty similar to Fujiko Mine who is implied to be the "anime villain" that Ann admired in her childhood.

Shido is Futaba's biological father, which by extension make her and Goro Akechi half-siblings.

Since there's absolutely nothing known about Futaba's biological father and Shido is shown to have been highly fixated on Wakaba's cognitive psience research, it could also explain where Futaba got her brown eye color from (Wakaba had dark grey eyes). Relating to that is the possibility that Akechi's mother might have been involved with the aforementioned psience, or was at least more than some random lover Shido got knocked up, as when he's confronted about Akechi being his son before his boss fight, the way he refers to "that woman" seems to go beyond just merely recognizing him by his looks alone.

• This theory comes with a fair amount of Fridge Horror: Sojiro recounts that Wakaba wasn't interested in romance, and considering that Shido is shown to not give a damn about consent during the sexual assault that the protagonist stopped near the beginning of the game, this may indicate that Futaba is a Child by Rape.
• If it's true then it gets worse, Shido basically sent his son to assassinate his daughter (and Goro's sister's) mother and later made a fake suicide note that blames his daughter for her mother's death. As if he wasn't a enough of a monster already.
• Even further supporting this possibility is the fact that both Akechi and Futaba are revealed in the game's official fan book and art book respectively to have type AB Negative blood, which is only present in a mere 0.05% of the Japanese population, which bolsters the theory even further.

The Anime Ann watched as a kid was Danganronpa.

She even styles her hair in a similar style like Junko.

Ryuji almost never says fuck because his mom doesn't want to him to say that word.

Honestly, how does a boy with a mouth like Ryuji's refrain from laying down F-bombs all over the place? The answer might just lie with his mom, considering we already know he holds her dear to his heart.

• Strikers implies that Morgana and perhaps the rest of the Thieves discourage using language stronger than "shit" as well, since after Ryuji delivers a Precision F-Strike to EMMA for calling Sophia worthless, Morgana comments that thieves should be classier than that, but excuses that particular instance due to the circumstances.

Akira reminds Sae of her father.

During the game we see Sae's is bitterness and at her father's quixotic ideals and his sudden death in a random hit and run. As she questions Akira, her voice cycles through anger, contempt and spite, and as the interrogation reaches its conclusion, she says "What a disappointing end to the hero of justice." Akira isn't the first hero she's seen meet an ignominious end.

Goro Akechi disappeared from society's cognition after he died in the Metaverse

A lot of people have commented how weird it is that Goro is barely mentioned by anybody after his death, even by his biggest fangirl NPC. We see that killing a person's Shadow in the Metaverse causes a mental shutdown but we've never seen what happens when an actual person dies in there. The last two people who bring them up in the game are Sae Nijima, in passing due to his connection to Shido, and Lavenza, who exists in a different dimension and is not affected. And a little before the climax of the game, the Phantom Thieves disappear when they're wiped from society's cognition. So what if the reverse of that situation ends with the same result? Goro became a faint memory to everybody!

Futaba has autism, which she inherited from her mother.

Supporting this theory is Erica Lindbeck saying in an interview that she portrayed Futaba as though she had high-functioning autism. Her behavior also gives credence to this: narrow range of interests, becoming fixated on particular hobbies, difficulties in interacting with people, and a desire to categorize life by a rigid set of rules (like a video game). Considering Sojiro's saying that Futaba is eccentric in a very similar way to her mother Wakaba, it can be safely guessed that Wakaba was also on the spectrum.

Iwai is a burakumin.

The burakumin are a group of people who have historically been looked down upon and mistreated by the majority of Japan, mostly due to their association with "unclean" professions like executioners and butchers. Statistics about the Yakuza note that there is an exceptionally high number of burakumin in their ranks. At one point, roughly 70 percent of the biggest Yakuza group was made up of burakumin. Iwai being one of these people may have been a factor in his ostracization and eventual turn to the Yakuza to make something of himself.

• However, if Iwai really was one of the burakumin, one would think that he would bring it up to the protagonist or Kaoru when explaining how he ended up in his current situation. Perhaps his story about being associated with his drunk mother could work as a sort of innuendo by way of half-truth, but one would imagine he'd be blunter about his heritage.

Morgana can use slingshots as weapons because the enemies think he has Super-Strength.

Look at the size of those imitation swords he lugs around. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if the Shadows thought he was strong enough to draw a slingshot with enough force to match gunfire.

Ryuji dyed his hair partly so Ann wouldn't feel alone.

The Protagonist will grew up to become Simon Blackquill

I mean, look at them! they're identical!

The Protagonist is from Aoharu City, and his previous high school was Taiyo High

He's in the same class as Batsu, Hinata and Kyosuke and missed out on the events of Project Justice because that was the year he was sent to Tokyo.

Ok, fine, I just want a Persona and Rival Schools crossover, and the Persona 5 ending seems like an easy way to set that up.

The protagonist's glasses are just for show.

Notice how the protagonist doesn't wear them as a Phantom Thief? It's a well kown trick that lending glasses to a person on trial for violent crimes lowers their conviction rates as someone wearing glasses looks harmless. Joker hoped to capitalizing on this bias so that people wouldn't guess he was (falsely) convicted of assault. While it didn't work at Shujin (thanks to Kamoshida forcing Mishima to leak Joker's criminal record online), one could argue it worked on some of his Confidants.

Yaldabaoth is unrelated with Nyarlathotep.

This is really difficult to believe for some people, but Nyarlathotep NEVER directly interferes with the Velvet Room ran by Philemon. The only thing he did it disrupt it is to turn the door into a death trap, but that isn't any different from placing a pile of debris in front of a door. Yaldabaoth is strong enough to compromise the ENTIRE realm, which means that he is stronger thanor any of his lesser incarnations such as Erebus and Izanami. He might just be a third party invading between Nyarlathotep (Chaos) and Philemon (Neutral).

The Protagnonist used to not exist, until the timeline was altered

It is canon that it is possible to edit the timeline in the Persona universe. So, what if Yaldabaoth created Joker as an enemy he'd defeat to prove his point?

Futaba being comfortable with Joker is because she's the First Girl After All.

Joker's parents know Sojiro and trusted him to watch Joker on his probation because Joker and his parents went to Tokyo on a family vacation when Joker was really little, no more than 5 years old. They stopped by Leblanc for lunch one day. Wakaba had to work that day and left 4 year old Futaba at Leblanc. Joker and Futaba actually met at that point, but neither remember because it was so long ago. Even photographic memory isn't perfect, not even Futaba's, but it meant that Joker was still familiar enough to Futaba's brain that she had an easier time connecting with him.

Rider was Makoto's original codename before she was cookie-cuttered over Hifumi, who was supposed to be Queen.

That's why Yusuke insists it was a perfectly fine idea for a codename; it's a tongue-in-cheek way of nodding to the original plans for Makoto's character.

Futaba's treasure was her mother.

Treasures appear as the root cause of their rulers' distorted desires, and in Futaba's case, it was the death of her mother that distorted her desire. And a treasure does not take physical form until the palace ruler receives a calling card; Futaba's cognition of her mother did not take physical form until Futaba received her calling card. (And for something or someone that large to be conspicuously absent until then, that probably isn't a coincidence.)

Igor was never The Fool; Yaldabaoth was.

Even in Joker's Rank-10 Fool Confidant event, he is speaking to Yaldabaoth, not Igor. It was Igor who Out-Gambitted Yaldabaoth, making Yaldabaoth more of a Fool than Igor was.

The Pompous Customer is a friend of Joker's parents

One of the first things that Sojiro states is that a customer of his knows the main character's parents, and that this person asked him to take in the protagonist during his probation. Sojiro does not have a lot of customers; the one who shows up the most often, and so with whom Joker most frequently interacts, is the Pompous Customer, who frequently tries to impress the protagonist with his intelligence. It makes sense that one of the most frequent customers at Café Leblanc would also be able to convince Sojiro to agree to this inconvenience.

• Alternatively, it's hinted that Sojiro was returning a favor, so it might be that main character's parents are acquainted with Takemi Tae, whom Sojiro has occasionally sought out for medical assistance for Futaba.

Velvet Room WMGs

Yaldabaoth was only able to capture Igor through foul play.

Fitting with the game's gnostic influences, Yaldabaoth is (ironically) a supreme deceiver and has thus been able to somehow cheat his way into defeating Igor and Lavenza badly enough to take over the Velvet Room. Given that Justine and Catoline (who are, implicitly, less powerful together than Lavenza is as an individual, who is in turn far weaker than Igor) are leagues and leagues more powerful combatants than Yaldabaoth's final form, there's no way he could've possibly taken them down honestly.

Lavenza is the World Confidant.

Sure, it may seem obvious from the get-go because she is the one who gave him access to the Arcana after defeating Yaldabaoth, but I felt that if Persona 5 was a bit longer she could have been a full-fledged Confidant with bond events and bonuses after being fused.

• Possibly Jossed with the release of Royal. In the third term, she is listed in the Confidant menu as the Strength Confidant in lieu of Caroline and Justine. She keeps this place even after she gives you the World Arcana.

General WMGs

Should he prove popular enough, Goro will return for a redemption arc.

[Atlas deliberately left his fate ambiguous to gauge whether or not the fans were intrigued enough with him to clamour for his return in a direct sequel. Should they be satisfied, Goro will show up, wounded but alive, in the Persona 5 Arena equivalent as a very lost individual trying very hard to find a new purpose now that his father has both been punished and been made a better person. The Thieves are going to deeply resent him being there, of course, but they help him learn to trust other people and he eventually becomes an actual detective instead of his father's lieutenant-and a pretty damn competent one at that.

• Confirmed. He gets considerably more content for Royal, including a team up with the main cast, and an even stronger implication he survived for real (it's complicated).

Guesses for the inevitable spin offs!

You know it to be true.

• Persona 5 Arena's story will, like Persona 4 Arena/Ultimax before it focus on the events of the last numbered Persona game though the lens of the current game's MC and party. So whereas Arena/Ultimax was dealing with all the evil done by the Kirijo group and their reaction to it, Persona 5 Arena will be all about dealing with the truths that didn't quite hold up over the now five year gap.
  • Or failing that, Persona 5 Arena's story will simply start as a Shadow Operative investigation into the goings on in a VERY public town with Yu and the rest of the Investigation Team's search for the truth of how did they miss this stuff happening in Tokyo. This could lead to a stronger story then the frankly shoehorned reason for one-on-one fights they had in 4 Arena/Ultimax, as all the while the Phantom Thieves are actively splitting up to make it harder for the much more experienced Rise or Fuuka to find them.

• Nanako will be playable with a Persona in at least one of them.
  • This could go with the one above as well, some of the fallout of Nanako being in the TV so long means that when her Shadow finally does manifest it poses an active danger unless they get it under control, and certain characters or ways of getting them none withstanding the best way to deal with an out of control shadow is to make it into a Persona.
    • Would make things interesting with Ken more then anyone else really.

• Persona 5 will not get Dancing All Night, saying it right now.
  • How could they possibly fit it into the story anyway? At least Persona 4 had an idol to make it kinda make sense
  • Jossed. Persona 5: Dancing Star Night is coming out in Spring 2018.

• Sho will make an appearance, still talking smack about bonds and such
  • For added fun he will be referred in game files as p6hero

• Persona 5: 1001 Nights!
  • Sega's done it before

Persona 5+ whatever it's called will be released for the Nintendo Switch

• Sony doesn't really have a handheld anymore.
• Confirmed! Persona 5 Royal was released on Switch and other consoles and PC on October 2022. Not on Vita, though.

There will be a Persona 5 Arena.

• And it will focus on he Phantom Thieves going on vacation to Inaba where an amnesiac Goro is. The competition is run by a fake Morgana who is actually Goro's shadow in disguise.

If a Persona 5 equivalent of Persona 4 Golden ever happens the creators would create a option that would allow the player to save Goro and have him rejoin the party after his boss fight.

• It seemed like something they will do kind of do like they did with Shinjiro in Persona 3 PSP when you are a girl and pursue him as a love interest and Chidori with Persona FES under certain conditions. Then again maybe the character's circumstances and actions might not make it very realistic.
  • Jossed. You can't save him in Shido's palace, though there's a fairly strong implication he survives if you unlock the Updated Re-release's new ending by playing through the winter term.

Alternately, past Persona characters will be involved in the updated story.

]]

• Because let's face it - with the level of publicity and impact of the Conspiracy's plot and the Phanthom Thieves' activities, why on earth was Mitsuru and Naoto uninvolved in the story? It's also a missed opportunity to further develop Naoto and her sense of justice as a detective - and maybe an additional worldbuilding to show how formidable the Conspiracy is.
  • Jossed. None of the previous class show up in earnest in Royal (though still get mentioned on tv like in the vanilla release)

The inevitable Updated Re-release will add the Adjustment Arcana.

Adjustment replaces Justice in the Thoth Tarot, which is a very relevant Arcana for the themes it represents, like fairness and truth. It's also the Arcana the Traitor represents, and chances are they'll do more with him, considering a lot of people took quite an interest in the question of his ultimate fate.

• Jossed. New arcana are Faith and Consultant. Justice remains the same.

All of the bad endings from the game's enlongated flashback are wrong.

They are just what Joker believes that would have happened if he had failed, but if they had failed to meet the deadline, it would've led to the Phantom Thieves deciding to forgo their morals and that Violence is the Only Option to go in guns blazing, killing their target's Shadow in a desperate attempt to make things right, with the only exception being Futaba, who would have simply disappeared, going in her Palace on her own anyway and awakening her Persona, but being unable to fight against Cognitive Wakaba on her own and dying inside her own Palace.

Whatever the inevitable spin-offs are, all of them will take place during the road trip back to Joker's home.

Basically, each spin-off is just a detour, and at the end of each one, the Phantom Thieves will get back into the van and continue on their trip, with each adventure happening after the next. Bonus points if the last one ends with Phantom Thieves coming back to Tokyo and suddenly realizing that they forgot to drop Joker off at his parents' place.

• Jossed. Strikers takes place 6 months after.

The universe of Persona 5 has been reset at least once à la Persona 2

There's a villain behind Yaldaboath, just like how Erebus was behind Nyx in Persona 3. And this villain reset the universe kind of like in Persona 2. This could explain Ann feeling as if she has known the others for a long time and not being able to explain why she feels like that. And he'll be the Big Bad of the Updated Re-release (similar to Erebus in FES).

Shinya's Get Smoked hat will be Defictionalized

I want it.

• Confirmed. It's sold out at the time of writing.

The Updated Re-release will include a female protagonist similar to the PSP port of Persona 3, with the ability to romance male party members and confidants, in addition to a way to save Akechi in Shido's palace.

• Jossed. It's more like Persona 4 Golden with some new social links, dungeons and events than P3P

The Updated Re-release will let you wield Loki.

Honestly, this one isn't that wild. Loki's been a mainstay of the Persona roster since the first game and there's a precedent for an antagonist's Persona being used by the hero.

• Confirmed. Akechi using Loki joins the party in the winter term.

The Updated Re-release will feature another antagonist who's also a Persona user.

He'll be a Well-Intentioned Extremist who kills Conspirators because he feels that is what needs to be done. Basically, he'll be the Dark Grey to the Phantom Thieves's Light Grey and Goro Akechi's Black.

• His Persona will be Jesse James and his Ultimate Persona (one he uses in the final battle) will be Set of Egyptian Mythology fame.
• Confirmed, though the details are wrong. Maruki Takutou is a cognitive researcher who, while also hamstrung by the conspiracy, only wished to help mankind by undoing their traumas. He uses the Persona Azathoth which evolves into Adam Kadmon in the final battle.

The entire game has Chess Motifs.

If one thinks about it, Igor/Yaldabaoth refers to the entire scenario as a "game", with the Conspiracy pitted against the newly formed Phantom Thieves. Each side has 8 figures, which best represents how Chess games have at least 16 pieces on each side: 8 Pawns, 2 Rooks, 2 Bishops, 2 Knights, A Queen and a King. Heck, in game, a somewhat-similar game to chess is used to help the Phantom Thieves: Shogi.

Given this idea, what if the entirety of the game has Chess Motifs? This will go into detail on what each character is or represents.

• First off, the Conspiracy. Given that they're all villains who are responsible for causing the game to occur or rule through it, it makes sense that they represent White Chess pieces. The White Pieces are allowed to move first, and it's often because the villains acted that caused the heroes to react. It furthermore shows how they're seen as respected members of society, yet are actually bad people. The player of the White pieces is, of course, Yaldabaoth, who fits with his white machine angel appearance.
  • The White Rooks are Okumura and Wakaba. Rooks are known for their direct movement on horizontal and vertical planes, which befits how both of the bosses attempt to challenge you directly when shit hits the fan for them. There's also a special move that one can do with an unmoved rook and King piece known as "Castling", which moves the Rook and King to swap places on the board, mainly used to protect the king from an attack or sacrificing a piece for the King. Given the King is obviously Shido, it makes sense for Okumura and Wakaba, two people he killed for his own benefit, to serve as rooks.
  • The White Bishops are Kamoshida and Madarame. Bishops are known for moving erratically across the board, only ever going on certain tiles (black or white) and moving diagonally. This befits these two, as they aren't officially part of the Conspiracy, but are still antagonizing the Phantom Thieves.
  • The White Knights are, ironically, Kaneshiro and Sae. The way they fight in their boss battles is akin to how the Knight looks and works. Kaneshiro rides his Piggytron, while Sae looks like a demonic Black Knight. They're also known for their ability to move past other pieces. This befits how your objective when Makoto was tailing you jumped from "keeping Makoto from calling the police on you" to "Days until Kaneshiro releases the pictures", while Sae has many chances where you can fail and get the bad ending.
  • The White Queen is befittingly Akechi. The Queen is known for it's ability to move however it likes across the board and being one of the strongest pieces, befitting the guy responsible for the mental shutdowns. Even his first outfit we see him in is white!
  • The White King is Shido. While the title befits him, his ego and wishes for Japan's future, it also showcases how, despite having a lofty title, he's still a piece bound to the board and thus can be taken out. And if the king is out, the Game is over.

• Next, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. Given they're the heroes of the game, but using the dubious methods of changing people's hearts in order to make changes in society, and that almost all of their costumes are colored black, they're the Black Pieces. As said for the Conspiracy, this befits the theives as black pieces go second, showing how they react to issues in the world instead of act, and despite wearing black colors, they are actually the good guys. Furthermore, the Black Player is ''you'', the player! When you started the game, you agreed to the terms set by Yaldabaoth, and thus are the figure who opposes them. You even control the Phantom Thieves, which befits how a player controls their chess pieces.
  • The Black Rooks are Ryuji and Haru. Given the Rooks tend to attack directly, this befits how both Ryuji and Haru have the most Physical Skills when it comes to striking and gun attacks. Furthermore, they're also "sacrificed" for Joker in a way, but unlike the White Rooks, they choose to do this. Haru chooses to change her father's heart and is willing to be seen as the daughter of a criminal, and Ryuji makes a sacrifice so the team can leave Shido's palace...fortunately though, he survives. Furthermore, in some cultures, the Rook is known as "The Chariot". It's not only Ryuji's Confidant, but also befits how Haru was able to "Carry" the Phantom Thieves into her father's Palace, due to the Biometric scanner allowing her in.
  • The Black Bishops are Ann and Yusuke. As the bishops are known for erratically moving across the board, it somewhat befits how Ann treats her modeling career and Yusuke's eccentric artist status. Furthermore, they do have skills that help the movement of others or that depower others.
  • The Black Knights are Futaba and Makoto. Given how the Knight is depicted as riding a horse, it befits how the personas of the girls manifest as a flying UFO and a motorcycle. Furthermore, Knights are well known for being able to skip to spaces other pieces cannot move to. This befits how Futaba is able to hack into things and learn details she shouldn't know, and how Makoto is able to get information on the team from her sister without arousing suspicion.
  • The Black Queen is Morgana. As the Queen is denoted as one of the strongest pieces, Morgana was made in the sense of Igor trying to aid anyone who can help him and/or stop Yaldabaoth. Morgana notably has healing spells and wind spells, which are lest costly to SP. As the Queen can move in multiple spaces, it also befits how Morgana can move as a van throughout Mementos, moving wherever he likes.
  • The Black King is Joker. As with all King pieces, the game is over when the King is taken out. Guess what happens if Joker loses in a fight?

There will be a spin off with a character of the Charity Arcana

So far P5 Royal has Yoshizawa of the Hope Arcana and Persona 5 Strikers has Sophia of the Hope. These two Arcana come from the Visconti-Sforza deck of Tarot. This deck is incomplete, but the only other arcana from the deck that still exists is the Charity Arcana. If the pattern holds the next P5 spin-off will include this Arcana. Bonus points if they have traits in common with Sumire and Sophia.

The Protagnonist used to not exist, or at least not as he originally was

Yaldaboath is able to manipulate reality. Thusly, as a counter to Goro Akechi, making him with the desire to change the world, in counter to Akechi's desire to destroy it. After all, he'd need a second person for his thought experiment, and why not create it himself? This is why Joker seems to have less personality even compared to the other blank state protagnonists, he was made to be a simple puppet. Yaldaboath could have even also made Goro Akechi. In the case of Joker however, he ended up rebelling against his creator with the help of Lavenza and the real Igor.

Persona 5 Royal Pre-Release Speculation

The following folders contain unmarked spoilers for base Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal, You Have Been Warned.

Pre-reveal WMGs

The R stands for Rumble

• Since many people want a fighting game it makes the most sense.
  • Jossed. The R stands for Royal.

Possible games for Persona 5 R

• Persona 5 Ruby: An Updated Re-release of the original Persona 5 with a couple new things.
• Persona 5 Rumble: A Fighting game not unlike Persona 4: Arena.
• Persona 5 Racing: A Racing game in the style of Mario Kart.
• Persona 5 + Rabbids: A Turn-Based Tactics crossover with Ubisoft's hyperactive lagomorphs.
  • Name-wise, all of these are jossed. The name is confirmed as Persona 5 The Royal. Game type is currently unconfirmed, although it looks likely to be an Updated Re-release.
  • Game type confirmed as Updated Re-release.

Character WMGs

There will an option to play as a female protagonist

Self-explanatory. There's concept art of a potential female protagonist in the art book, a beta model of what appears to be a female protagonist was recently found in the game and a datamine of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate reveals that a hair mesh for one of Joker's alternate costumes is labelled "Jane". She'll likely have a ponytail.

• Her romance options will be limited to the male Confidants, with the exceptions of Igor, Sojiro, Morgana and possibly Toranosuke, for obvious reasons.
  • A girl with a ponytail appears in the Persona 5: The Royal teaser, but no word yet if she's a female protagonist option or not.
• Seeing as the Royal girl is not in the same year as Joker, it's possible her story could be a different plotline in the same way Maya's storyline was different from Tatsuya's. Combined with the Aeon theory above, having her around to play through whatever Joker couldn't would flesh the world out more.

  • Royal girl is Kasumi Yoshizawa, a new member of the Phantom Thieves. Her being playable is technically confirmed, but not as the main character.

  • Jossed, you can still only play as the male Joker.

Guesses for Kasumi's Phantom Thief codename

• "Empress"
  • Too close to a major arcana (and one for a party member, no less) to be likely
• "Ace"
• "Dancer"
• "Red"
• "Royal"
• "Devil"? Her mask looks like it has horns and she uses the same gun type as Satanael.
• "Sophia"
  • Funnily enough, a character named Sophia joins the Thieves in the sequel (and, like Kasumi, she's a red-haired Bless user). Though, to be precise, Sophia is her "real" name and her codename is... Sophie.
• "Jester"
• "Swan"
  • Highly likely!
• "Princess"
• "Magpie"
• "Raven"
  • Too close to Crow to be likely?
• "Rose"
• "Papillon"
• "Wraith"
  • All Jossed. Her codename is Violet.

Kasumi will not have a codename...

...Because her codename IS Kasumi. This is a guess born entirely from new Chara-Forme button merchandise available. In this merchandise, all of the Thieves are listed with their given codenames, minus Kasumi, who is simply listed as Kasumi (not even just as her first name- the merchandise lists her as 吉澤かすみ (Yoshizawa Kasumi, her civilian form) and カスミ (her name again, in the standard codename Katakana). They could be censoring her codename as par with spoilers, or perhaps it could mean that Kasumi doesn't have a codename. If she is any sort of non-human, then Kasumi could actually be her 'codename', since her real name would be something else. Perhaps events within the game would lead the thieves to not give her a codename as well, since her identity would have already been outed or too crucial to the dungeon that there isn't a point in pretending.

• Jossed, it's Violet.

If Kasumi gets a Persona, it will be of the Bless-element.

To further parallel Joker and his Curse-element Arsene. It also means she'll be able to replace Akechi and his niche once he leaves the party.

• Confirmed by the 2nd Morgana Connect, which reveals she uses Bless and Physical skills.
• She doesn't replace Akechi in the party; however Akechi loses the Bless skills from Robin Hood and his Bless and Curse weakness/resistances are switched around when he gets Loki. This means Kasumi replaces Akechi as the Bless-element character when she joins.

Kasumi will get Marakunda.

It's the only buff/debuff the Phantom Thieves other than Joker don't have in the vanilla game.

• Jossed. She gets Brave Step.

Kasumi will lean towards physical skills.

She has 408 HP and 159 SP in the trailer, which translates to a 2.566 HP/SP ratio. This is comparable to the ratios Ryuji and Yusuke have, making it likely she's going to be a brawler.

• Confirmed by the 2nd Morgana Connect, which reveals she uses Bless and Physical skills.

The new girl will be the lead in a story set in the academic year after Joker goes home.

She's starting at Shujin alongside Futaba. Bonus points if Ryuji and Ann also return as characters. As for the quote from Goro in the teaser, it could be a flashback or maybe there's a brief prologue set during the events of Persona 5 proper.

• Jossed. There's a new story between December and March but it takes place before Joker goes home.

If Kasumi is the star of a new story, we'll play as her while the second years are in Hawaii and in January.

Basically whenever the second and third years are pre-occupied.

• Jossed. She's a member of the Phantom Thieves and her Character Reveal Trailer shows that she went on the Hawaii trip alongside Joker.

You will play as Kasumi during the new third semester while Joker is in Juvenile Hall

Similar to when you play as Aigis during The Answer in P3 FES after Makoto dies. Especially if she does turn out be a wild card like the above WMG says. Additionally (and this part is a bit more high in the clouds) she will have her own Confidants separate from Joker's however since you would only play as her for a third of the game her's would only require 5 ranks instead of the traditional 10 ranks. Joker would represent the Fool and whatever rank you where with Kasumi before the switch will be what his is set to for the rest of the game.

• The problem with this guess is that one screenshot◊ is clearly set on January 1st when Joker is in the slammer in the vanilla game, yet he's clearly free as a canary here.
  • It could just be that Sae gives him more time until he has to turn himself in so he can spend New Years with his friends, New Years is only a few days after Christmas so this does make sense. It could also just be the game's way of justifying having a New Years event like in Golden.
    • Or the screenshot was faked in order to avoid spoiling the fact that Joker turns himself in to people who haven't played the original Persona 5 while still showing off the new year.
    • How can the date in the screenshot be faked when one of the new events announced for P5R is a Hatsumōde^NoteFirst shrine visit of the New Year observed in Japan. event?
    • Not saying that the Date was faked, just saying what if in the final release the event will happen like in the screenshot except Joker won't be present.
    • Unlikely.
  • Jossed as per Ryuji's Character Introduction trailer for Royal. Joker has an event with Ryuji on 22 January.

Kasumi is a Wild Card

Let's get this one out of the way. Her thief outfit looks like a gender bent Joker, and her interactions with the Thieves from what's been seen so far in promotional materials is the same as Akechi (likes Joker, doesn't like the Thieves, and joins them for their own agenda). There's even a subtle hint in the designs of their initial Personas; Arsene, Loki and Cendrillon have similar body shapes, most noticeable with their legs.

• Jossed, she only ever gets the 1 Persona with 2 evolutions like the other party members.

Kasumi is a failed Phantom Thief

Maybe Kasumi awakened to her persona, attempted to change someone's heart, and messed up; causing a mental shutdown or worse. This resulted in a Refusal of the Call where she turned her back on the metaverse and refused to try to change anyone again. That may be why she's opposed to the Phantom Thieves; out of fear that they'll end up doing the same thing.

• Jossed. She awakens her Persona after the Phantom Thieves are established, and she isn't connected to accidently causing a mental shutdown or anything of the sort.

Kasumi is actually the female protagonist from Persona 3 Portable

They have the same eye color and fairly similar hair colors. Perhaps Persona 5 R is set within the same universe as FEMC's route, and Elizabeth found a way to bring her back, but couldn't restore her body to exactly the way it was before, hence the darker, longer hair.

• Jossed. Kasumi is 15-16 (P3 cast are in their 20s), her parents are very much alive, and she has a completely different backstory.

Kasumi is evil.

Not only that, she's working for Yaldabaoth. May have ties to the Grail (possible explanation for human Morgana and Wakaba being seen in the trailer being related to desires). Kasumi may have been responsible for starting the game early along with corrupting Akechi. Her garb is based on the oldest of female trickster archetypes...The Temptress.

• Jossed. She's not working for Yaldabaoth and is very loyal to your cause, at best she's very briefly allied with the new villain of the winter term so she can keep living out her delusion, and when you confront her about it she rejoins your side.

If Kasumi turns out to be inhuman and an antagonist, she'll be a Well-Intentioned Extremist

Part of the trailer narration consists of someone being told that they can't give everyone what they want; combined with the appearance of human!Morgana and the reappearance of Wakaba Isshiki, her goals may involve attempting to give all of humanity their fondest desires (Morgana wanting to be human, Futaba and Sojiro wanting Wakaba back, etc). The consequences of this are unknown, but they're most likely not good (perhaps it involves trapping humanity in their own personal cognitive worlds), requiring opposition from the Phantom Thieves.

• Partially jossed. She's human, she is not an antagonist and she's merely one of the subjects of Takuto, the real instigator of such events, but there is a very brief window she wants the winter term ideal reality to keep going and fights your party to keep it that way only because she is manipulated by Takuto to warn the party of the consequences of accepting reality.

Kasumi has some connection to Akechi

Given that character-wise they are both similar; both have feelings for Joker and are designed to contrast with him (Kasumi's thief outfit being a genderswap of Joker's outfit, and Akechi's outfit being bright compared to Joker's which is black), join the Thieves despite disapproving of their methods as well as both of them only teaming up with the Phantom Thieves for their own personal agenda and having another side to their personalities. Both also seem to have a princess and prince theme, with Kasumi having Cendrillon as her Persona and Akechi's alias of "The Second Coming of the Detective Prince" and his regal white thief outfit, and both share the same skill types (Bless and Physical) and have similar animations in battle. There's also the fact that both are heavily featured in promotional material, with Akechi and Kasumi being featured on both discs for the Royal Flush edition's soundtrack, as well as the icon for the digital soundtrack,

• Jossed. She awakens while you and Akechi are there and Akechi knows her father since he's the host of the talk show that he is often invited to, but she ultimately has no backstory with him.

Kasumi is the Royal Timeline's version of Joker - and an ally of her Akechi

Her universe was a total Crapsack World, causing her to become isolated, angry, and embittered, as her Ryuji and Ann didn't actually seek to help her, but remain in Bystander Syndrome (hence Ryuji's voice getting angry at himself for not helping out - that's her Ryuji having a My God, What Have I Done? moment), and in a bit of a Mirror Universe situation, Akechi genuinely reached out to her, causing the two to develop a strong bond; her "Awakening" is a flashback or a deliberate farce to insert herself into the PT, as she came to believe in Akechi's ideals and views them as not willing to do something that works instead of what feels good. The Akechi in the trailer is her Akechi, after both of them have a Heel Realization moment and commit to actually helping the Thieves instead of sulking in their own misery and lashing out at the world.

• Jossed. She's from the original reality.

Kasumi's Persona will be Sherlock Holmes.

Who better to rival a supernatural thief than a supernatural detective? The game may even take the legal-rename to "Herlock" and make the Persona a genderflipped version, a la Orpheus in Persona 3 Portable.

• Herlock Sholmes?
  • Jossed. Kasumi's Persona is Cendrillon.

Kasumi's Persona is...

• Irene. Irene Adler commits blackmail in self-defense, and wins against Sherlock Holmes.
  • Jossed. It's Cendrillon.

Kasumi's Ultimate Persona is Eris

That is if Kasumi's Persona follows the fictional/historical thief + mythological trickster pattern of the main Phantom Thieves, or if she even gets an Ultimate Persona in the first place. Considering that promotional material is playing up the "is she an enemy or an ally" factor, what would be a better fit than a trickster goddess associated with discord? Also considering Kasumi has traits of both Joker and Akechi, it would tie in nicely to the latter having Loki. It would also tie in with the speculation about Kasumi having ties to P3P's female protagonist, since Eris is one of Nyx's children...

• Jossed. Her ultimate is Vanadis.

Cendrillon is Kasumi's only Persona

Similar to how Metis, a character added to an Updated Re-release of a Persona game and playable during the new story events of that game, only has Psyche.

• Jossed. She gets an ultimate and third-tier like the rest of the thieves (Vanadis and Ella).

Kasumi will be voiced by Laura Bailey in the western release

As a Mythology Gag to Persona 3 Portable.

• Jossed. She's voiced by Laura Post.

Kasumi disagrees with the Phantom Thieves because she wants to protect them and humanity from Yaldabaoth's manipulations.

She dislikes the Phantom Thieves and hoped that people will solve their own problems on their own. Could she be foreseeing the Thieves being Yaldabaoth's pawns, with the We Can Rule Together offer by Yaldabaoth as Joker's final fate and is trying to stop him from taking the offer even if it means disposing of him if needed? Because that offer will most certainly leave the world dependant on the Thieves (Or more accurately Joker) for help, but the Thieves are already distorted to the point that they commit terror and crime instead of rebellion.

• Remember that the winner of Yaldabaoth's game will basically only face two fates on his accord; Either join him forever, or get deleted from the face of the earth. He never expected Joker would rebel against him instead, and neither will Kasumi. She might had been officially befriend the thieves once she realizes that Joker got the third way out.
• Jossed, she disagrees because this wasn't her mindset to begin with. In fact, her beliefs are the exact opposite of this. The Phantom Thieves fought to give victims of trauma freedom and choice to grow, but Kasumi wishes she could just take the pain away even if it means basically living under a psychosis and never moving on.

Kasumi is created by the true final boss and her motives revolve around that.

Notice that in Shin Megami Tensei NINE there is a similar endgame plot where a girl selling flowers in a botanist shop turns out to be Sophia and commisions you into slaying the Demiurge. "Kasumi" is an alternative name for "flowers" or "blossoms" and the new Palace (As well as José) has a really heavy flower motif. So, Kasumi's motives for joining the Phantom Thieves is to slay Yaldabaoth for Sophia? Also note that her Thief outfit resembles a Genderswapped Joker outfit, and Joker is commisioned by Yaldabaoth. This means that she is a fragment or creation of the true final boss assuming it indeed is Sophia.

• And what is she exactly rebelling against? Her mother for being a Well-Intentioned Extremist that manages to not stray very far from Yaldabaoth despite being the polar opposite. Cendrillion's Big Bad is her stepmother, which is nevertheless a mother.
• Jossed. Kasumi / Sumire is an actual person, with only her belief she is "Kasumi" rather than her actual identity of Sumire being created by the final boss to allow her to run away from her trauma over her real sister Kasumi having died. New villain is Maruki Takuto using his persona Azathoth.

Akechi's Confidant will be optional and he'll be saved from his Bolivian Army Ending

• Another self explanatory prediction. Since this is the most obvious one, given that Akechi is the most popular out of the Thieves, his confidant doesn't unlock anything outside of several party combatant bonuses despite his alleged importance in the story and the amount of Dummied Out content implying he was meant to be a permanent party member. His Confidant will be made optional, and will likely be given a short time frame to be maxed out but will rank up every time you meet up with him, like a certain two social links in Persona 3. Completing it will save Akechi from his Bolivian Army Ending and see him rejoining the Phantom Thieves, as well as unlocking the two combatant bonuses he doesn't unlock in-game (Endure and Protect). Completing Akechi's confidant will also grant the player the ability to fuse either Robin Hood or Loki for themselves, who can further be executed to create one of Akechi's ultimate weapons.
• For bonus points, Akechi will receive a Cooldown Hug from Joker.
  • Confirmed! The August 2nd livestream shows Akechi in the party during the new story events, and it's also been confirmed that his Confidant will be optional in Royal.
  • Half-jossed actually, like in the vanilla game, Akechi's final fate is left as an Ambiguous Situation, the Akechi of the Winter Term is claimed to be from Joker's ideal reality where his friendship with the former saved his life, although whoever claimed that in-game provides some ''really' flawed arguments to begin with.

Akechi will not unlock Loki if he survives his Bolivian Army Ending and becomes playable

• To tie-in with the above WMG. Loki is technically an initial Persona, despite following the theming of the rest of the party's Ultimate Personas, and it wouldn't make sense for Robin Hood to awaken into Loki when PQ2 confirms they are seperate Personas. So instead of awakening to Loki, Akechi will awaken to a new Persona to act as his Ultimate and to represent his Redemption Quest.
  It's possible that he'll fuse Robin Hood and Loki into a new Persona for his Ultimate one, similar to how P3 protagonist's Ultimate is created by fusing Thanatos and Orpheus. This would work better than just having Robin Hood or Loki mutate into an Ultimate Persona and then handwaving why Akechi can't summon his other Persona.
  • If he fuses them, then his Ultimate Persona would be Raven from Native American folklore since his stories fits with Akechi's character: Being both the hero and villain on his original stories.
• Theory is potentially credible? It's not 100% confirmed if Akechi will become playable after Niijima's Palace, but Ryuji's trailer shows Captain Kidd and Seiten Taisei fusing into William. Given that Akechi is getting a character trailer like the rest of the Thieves, it's very likely this will end up being confirmed if he's revealed to be playable beyond Niijima's Palace.
• Jossed. Akechi keeps Loki and uses it while inside the permanent party.

Akechi will ascend Loki at some point

When Akechi summons Loki during his character trailer, he uses the same summoning effect (blue aura with chains) that the rest of the thieves' initial Personas do. Since Loki is Akechi's first Persona (and PQ2 confirms Loki is a seperate Persona to Robin Hood), it's likely that it isn't at full power yet. Its ascension will most likely tie into the end of the game.

• Confirmed, he can get the third tier Persona Hereward during winter term.

Akechi will turn himself in after the final boss.

Given that it's confirmed that Joker/the player will have additional months of gameplay, specifically during the months where Joker is in jail in the original game. It is possible that not only does Akechi survive his fate from the original game, but perhaps also chooses to turn himself in in Joker's place, seeing as the initial reason Joker turned himself in was cause Sae informed him that Akechi was missing to testify. It would be a good way to give him a Redemption Quest without making him come off as a Karma Houdini.

• Seemingly Jossed. Akechi initially believes he had done this, but the Arc Villain claims that he is only back thanks to his warping of reality. His crediblity is dubious however, since his points are entirely contradictory to his general behavior and Akechi warns the protagonist that the Arc Villain might set him up when he locates his treasure. (Ending version is similarly walking through a train station rather than being in police custody)

The dialogue in the PV#01/E3 2019 trailer is actually either from Cognitive Akechi or Akechi's shadow

Provided it or an alternate take are in the game at all, given that its a little known fact that you shouldn't take trailers at face value. The dialogue at the beginning of the trailer sounds like its aimed at the Thieves/Akechi himself, as opposed to being intended for the interrogation room.

• Jossed.

Akechi and Kasumi will both be considered "guest party members" and thus, will not be in your party at the same time.

The first piece of evidence is that Akechi using Robin Hood at the same time Kasumi uses Cendrillon does not make any sense, since it would give the player no motivation to use all the party members equally (Kasumi shares Bless skills with Robin Hood, and Physical skills with Captain Kidd/Goemon). It's possible that they may both return in the third semester with Akechi using Loki instead, but this somehow doesn't seem likely since in this case, there would be no reason no to consider them permanent party members (since they build on the team, just like the other members, rather than leave). However, as per the clip of the intro we got, they're nowhere to be seen with the core thieves, implying they have a 'guest' status. Not to mention how crowded the party screen already looks with nine members◊. The party screen COULD be revamped to include Kasumi, but given all the evidence, it just doesn't seem likely that they'll be party members at the same time.

• Jossed. PV03 shows Akechi and Kasumi in battle together. Kasumi is also never in the party at the same time Akechi has access to Robin Hood. The "guest" status theory for Akechi is deconfirmed since he appears in the opening with the other thieves.
• Definitely Jossed. Both Akecki and Kasumi become full-fledged party members during the third term.

Akechi and Kasumi will both be avaliable as romance options

Since both of them canonically have feelings for Joker and pre-release materials gives both of them some Ship Tease with Joker, they'd make the most sense to be new romance options. Kasumi is a foregone conclusion. Having Akechi as a romance option would deflect the criticism that base P5 got for not having a Gay Option.

• Partially Jossed. Kasumi is a romance option, but you can only get some Ho Yay events with Akechi. No "spending a long time together alone" like the other romance options.

Joker, Akechi and Kasumi will have a Show Time attack together

With the way the promotional material is hyping up Kasumi's importance, both her and Akechi canonically having feelings for Joker, not to mention her being in the center of the key art alongside the two, there wouldn't be any reason for Atlus to not have a moment in the game where the three join forces and attack as one. Bonus points if the combination attack in question can only be done during the Final Boss battle to contrast the base game's ending where Joker is the only one who dispatches Yaldabaoth and possibly as a call back to Persona Q2 where P3 hero, P3P heroine, P4 hero and Joker have a unison attack that they use to dispatch the final boss of that game.

• Very likely. Morgana Report confirms that Joker has Show Time attacks but he'll unlock them near the end of the game.
• Confirmed. Joker + Akechi and Joker + Kasumi showtime attacks are available when they both join in the winter term.

Akechi will only be able to perform Show Time attacks with Joker and Kasumi

Ditto the above theory. Promotional material shows Akechi interacting with Kasumi a fair bit, and one of the promotional screenshots of the game is Akechi, Kasumi and Joker sitting outside a cafe, and it's likely Akechi will build a genuine friendship with the two of them, especially if the theory about Kasumi having some involvement in saving Akechi from his Bolivian Army Ending and/or being a wild card is confirmed, and will unlock combination attacks involving any combination of the two.

• Likewise, it's also possible that Kasumi can only perform combination attacks with Joker and/or Akechi.
  • Partially Jossed, Kasumi never gets a showtime with Akechi.
  • Very likely that Joker + Akechi and Joker + Kasumi Show Time attacks will happen, as Morgana Report confirms that Joker's Show Time attacks will happen near the end of the game.
    • Confirmed.

Sophia will be represented in some form

Obvious theory since base Persona 5 uses Gnostic themes, yet Sophia isn't represented. She will likely either be Kasumi's Ultimate Persona, or be Kasumi's true identity a la Marie from 4 Golden.

• Jossed. Sophia doesn't appear. She appears on the sequel, however.

Sherlock Holmes will be in the game as the ultimate Persona of either the Consultant or Aeon Arcana

Ultimate Persona in that he'll be unlocked after one of those Confidant links is maxed out. As a bonus, you'll be able to execute him to create one of Akechi's ultimate weapons.

• Jossed in terms of being the Consultant Arcana's ultimate Persona and the Aeon arcana isn't in the game.

Makoto's third-tier Persona will go back to being a Cool Bike

If William is any indication, the party's third-tier Personas seem to be heavily based on their initial while taking visual cues from their ultimate forms.

• Jossed. Agnes is a racing car.
  • Not really: by closer inspection (especially if you see her concept art), Agnes is actually an armoured bike. So it's Confirmed.

Third-tier Persona guesses

Gotta take a crack at this now that Ryuji is confirmed to get William.

• Morgana
  • Morgana's third-tier is confirmed as Diego, named after Zorro's true name.
• Ann
  • Ann's third-tier is confirmed as Celestine, named after the first actress to play Carmen.
• Yusuke
  • Yusuke's third-tier is confirmed as Gorokichi, named after Goemon's younger name.
• Makoto
  • Pope Joan
    • Jossed. Her third-tier Persona is Agnes, named after Pope Joan's true name.
• Futaba
  • Cthulhu
  • Lovecraft
    • Jossed. Her third-tier is named Al Azif, after the original name of the Necronomicon.
• Haru
  • Haru's third-tier is Lucy, named after an English courtier who Milady de Winter was based on.
• Akechi
  • Sherlock Holmes
  • Javert
  • Loxley (After Robin Hood's original noble title, Robin of Loxley).
  • Godberd (After Roger Godberd, the man believed to have inspired the Robin Hood myth).
  • Raven, as someone has already theorized in another WMG.
  • The Red Death or some variation of it. The soundtrack already has lyrics such as "I'm a shape shifter/At Poe's masquerade" and the story itself deals with rich and powerful people getting their karma served to them, so it's not that far off. Also, if anyone on the team were to get that as an Ultimate Persona, it would have to be Akechi.
    • Jossed. His third-tier is Hereward, a 11th century English nobleman who is thought to have been one of the inspirations for Robin Hood.
• Kasumi
  • Rhodopis (From the Ancient Greek tale regarded as a predecessor to the modern Cinderella story).
    • Jossed. Her third-tier is Ella.

Takuto is Mastema

He can be serving Yaldabaoth's Law while manipulating everyone for his own agenda and disregarding Yaldabaoth's version of absolute stagnation. He might even try to become a superior being himself by burrowing Mementos' power, effectively making him Yaldabaoth's very own Akechi. (As in the form of a Dragon with an Agenda)

• Oh and why is he sympathizing with the Thieves? He might had been wanted to use them to overthrow Yaldabaoth and Mementos, then install himself as a supreme being much like what Mastema actually does; Mastema is faithful to Law, but only of his own version.
• Jossed. He's a human. Nothing else.

Hifumi and/or Shiho will not be Promoted to Playable

• Unless Persona 5 R turns out to be a direct sequel and not an Updated Re-release.
  • Confirmed. The only new playable character is Kasumi.

Sae's Confidant will still be automatic

• Sae's Confidant will still progress with the story. She will not be a romance option.
  • It's likely the player will be given an option to romance her, but she'll always turn you down due to work obligations.
    • Confirmed as still being an automatic confidant. Her being a romance option or such option being teased is jossed.

Ryuji will receive more Ship Tease moments with Ann

Since pairing Ryuji/Ann is popular, it's likely Atlus will take note and add more subtext between the two similar to what happened with Kanji/Naoto in Golden.

• Jossed.

A side quest will be about shipping Ryuji and Ann

Building on the above theory, the Protagonist will have the option of acting as his buddy Ryuji's wingman. Succeeding will lead to them getting a Maybe Ever After at least, and becoming an Official Couple at most. Either will result in power-ups for Skull and Panther's personas, possibly a Fusion Dance.

• Jossed.

Haru's fiance and the host from Makoto's Confidant will appear in Mementos after their respective Confidants.

These two are considered Karma Houdinis in the base game, so them appearing in Mementos will remedy this. They'll be purely optional, so they won't lock you out of Haru/ Makoto's Rank 10s. Mika (Ann's modeling rival) could also appear, but she isn't as malicious as the others and parts on somewhat amicable terms with Ann at the end of her Confidant.

• And the terrible gay stereotype duo can also be a Mementos boss fight.
  • All jossed.

Takuto is actually a god or angel involved in the mental shutdown cases.

• We had been seeing multiple mental shutdown victims such as Wakaba and Okumura being confirmed alive at winter. This indicates that there might be an option to undo the mental shutdowns.
  • Maybe their souls/shadows are transferred to special cells when they get a mental shutdown and are not actually dead? And the warden of this special cell being Takuto. Maybe if you max his confidant you will find out that he kept all the mental shutdown victim's souls/shadows on hold and you have to beat him to free all of them?
  • Another thing worthy of note is Takuto's notable hatred of principal Kobayakawa. Kobayakawa is a Hate Sink and this is a well-known fact. But why emphasize it? Could he be secretly telling Akechi to execute him in angel form?
    • All jossed. He is human.

Hikari will be mentioned, or at least make a cameo

The girl literally lives in the same reality as the P5 cast, as seen in Persona Q2's epilogue. Would we see her again as a cameo?

• Jossed. Hikari doesn't appear at all.

Nyarlathotep will actually appear in the game/be the new final boss

Pretty obvious. Biyarky appears as Kasumi's awakening boss fight, and Biyarky is explicitly referred to as a minion of Nyarlathotep in Eternal Punishment.

• Jossed. Even Azathoth is standalone.

If there is to be a new rival group to the Phantom Thieves, they will interfere with progress in Palaces 3 and 5 in place of cognitive barriers (and ally with the PTs in the final Palace).

This troper doubts they'd appear in Palace 1 because A) the Thieves haven't been established yet and B) Palace 2 is where the idea of using the real world to access parts of the Palace is introduced. Palaces 3 and 5 have no cognitive barriers and also belong to high profile individuals who could easily fall onto the radar of other Metaverse-users who may obstruct the PTs because they disagree with their methods. (They wouldn't obstruct progress in the penultimate Palace because Goro does it instead and the Thieves are considered dealt with by the public at that point). In other words, instead of having to leave the Palace to do something in reality, there will be a mini-boss in those dungeons to take their place. Ultimately, however, the two groups will put aside their differences and work together for the final Palace, given how high the stakes are.

• Jossed. No rival team.

Rival Team speculation

Given that the teaser is implying The Royal will feature a new team of playable characters to rival the Phantom Thieves, lead by new girl. This team will represent Neutral, to contrast the Phantom Thieves (Chaos) and The Conspiracy (Law). There will be an opportunity to name the team, and naming them either "The Diamonds" or "The Phantoms" will prompt a unique response. Bonus points if one of the reasons why the Phantom Thieves are hostile to them (other than conflicting ideals on who's method will benefit society) is because one of the Royal team has a black mask as part of their Metaverse outfit^Spoilerlikely this would take place before Akechi joins.

In terms of the Royal team's Arcana (in no real order):

• New girl: Fool ^{More info}If codenames are used for the Royal team, she'll be named Joker, by coincidence.
• Magician/Hierophant ^{More info}Will be a father figure to the protagonist and won't be a romance option as a result, similar to Junpei.
• Lovers/Hermit ^{More info}Possibly Kana, given that she'd likely be around new girl's age, and she's only mentioned by name during Futaba's Confidant and never appears at all in the base game.
• Star ^{More info}Defying one of the above WMG and saying this would likely be Hifumi, since it looks like P5R is going to be an alternate version of P5's story and not an Updated Re-release and Atlus has a tendency of saving scrapped ideas for future games e.g. P3P's female protag option and Rin. If codenames are used for the royal team, hers will be Venus. Bonus points if her Ultimate Persona is Ishtar.
• Hermit/Moon ^{More info}Possibly Mishima? Serves as the team's navigator.
• Fortune ^{More info}Male, to balance out the team's gender ratio.
• Justice ^{More info}Akechi. unlike with the Phantom Thieves, his alliance here will be permanent. Part of this will be due to the Royal team, while still suspicious, not treating him with contempt like the Thieves do.
• Aeon ^{More info}Female. Token non-human teammate, likely of the Ambiguously Human variety to contrast Morgana being a Funny Animal.
• Joker will likely join as a representative of the Phantom Thieves during the final dungeon, similar to the above WMG. The rest of the Phantom Thieves won't be playable but will still appear in cutscenes.
• Judgement will likely be represented by the Royal team in its entirety, instead of being represented by Sae Niijima.
  • Jossed. The Royal is a pseudo-remake and still features the Phantom Thieves feat. new girl Kasumi Yoshizawa.

Kasumi is a Wild Card working for a god neutral in the conflict between Yaldabaoth and Igor.

• The original Shin Megami Tensei franchise leans more towards the idea that Both Order and Chaos are Dangerous. This is widely different from how Persona 5 handled it, as it was the Chaotic Good Phantom Thieves rising up against the Lawful Evil leaders of their society, including the god Yaldabaoth. Kasumi may be the developers' way of getting Persona back to the original SMT franchise's roots. She'll be working for a third god that doesn't agree with either Yaldabaoth or Igor in their conflict, and serves as the Neutral to Yaldabaoth's Order and Igor's Chaos.
  • Mostly jossed. Kasumi is not a Wild Card and she never served a god, but there is really a god (Adam Kadmon) that is neutral between Yaldabaoth's conflicts and is merely a collateral on Yaldabaoth's plan.

José is serving a fifth fraction

His head resembles an egg shell. Mem Aleph from Strange Journey creates the Cosmic Eggs with the ability to rebuild the earth. Could he be actually serving that fifth fraction and is some sort of "egg of creation" conceived by the true final boss?

• He's trying to understand humans using the flowers. Could he be trying to collect the flowers for the fifth fraction enemy so it can fulfill humanity's wishes? And could he be changing Memento's cognition to make it so it is what humanity desires?

Takuto is a normal guy; it's Kasumi you need to watch

Atlus knows that a new adult character with a Confidant Arcana different from the rest will invoke comparisons to Adachi. Takuto, however, is nothing like him being a Red Herring as much as another good adult for the team to rely on. The one with the hidden side that changes everything is Kasumi; her The Faith Arcana only has five ranks, which suggests she has a secret real Arcana that will be revealed as you progress. She's possibly like Marie having an unknown tie to a godly being that is going to be responsible for the dreams come true final dungeon. Her Persona, Cendrillon, certainly doesn't match the rebel nature of the rest of the team so something is up with her.

• Jossed. Though Kasumi is not 'normal', she is still human and is one of the good guys while Takuto is the villain of the Final Arc. The rest of Kasumi's Arcana will be unlocked when she accepts her true self as Sumire.

Arcana WMGs

The Jester/Hunger Arcana will not return

Exactly What It Says on the Tin.

• Confirmed. No characters representing Jester/Hunger appear in the game.

If Royal is a new story set during P5, new girl will be the Jester Arcana.

Igor will comment that it's not what he expected, but it will otherwise be identical to the Fool Arcana and let her use multiple Personas.

• Jossed. Kasumi's Arcana is The Faith.

Kasumi is the game's Aeon Confidant

She resembles the P3P female protagonist a little too much (Reality Warper confirmed?) to be a female protagonist option and the badge on her uniform confirms she's a first-year student, whereas the protagonist of 5 is a second-year. It wouldn't make sense for her to be the female protagonist option if she's younger than the male option^{For reference...}Minato and Minako are the same age, thus would both be in the same year. Her Confidant storyline will involve her being sent to P5's timeline by some means and ending up with amnesia in regards to who she actually is, as well as feeling like she knows Joker from somewhere as a Mythology Gag to PQ2. She'll make her first appearance in the game by butting into Akechi and Joker's debate. It'll turn out that she was deliberately brought into the P5 timeline by an outside force to interfere in Igor and Yaldabaoth's game, and said outside force will either have some connection to Yaldabaoth or be a figure from Mesopotamian Mythology.
Alternately, tying into one of the theories in the Character WMG folder, Kasumi isn't human.

• Jossed. Kasumi is The Faith.

Takuto's Consultant Arcana isn't his true Arcana

Given that the Arcana of the other characters are either from Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck or the Thoth tarot deck, and Consultant isn't part of either. He'll likely play a large role in the new events of Royal, especially if the theory about Kasumi being a wild card and/or there being a third party interfering in Yaldabaoth's and Igor's game is true. Maybe he was responsible for Kasumi being given the wild card?

• Jossed. It is.

The Devil Confidant will be reworked

Ohya is the least popular out of the Confidants, and her ability to reduce the security meter is regarded as one of the worst in the game. It would make sense if either she was replaced by someone else, or her ability was changed to something more beneficial, or a combination of both.

• The second one is the most likely.
• Jossed. The Devil confidant is still Ohya.

Shiho Aeon Confidant

• Self explanatory, Shiho will be the Persona 5 Expansions Social Link.
  • Unlikely. She doesn't fit in with the other two Aeon Social Links character-wise, and she's a fairly important part of Ann's Confidant, so it wouldn't make sense to have her as a Confidant unless Ann's Confidant is rewritten entirely.
    • Jossed. Shiho isn't a confidant.

The Aeon Confidant will either be...

• Morgana or Akechi.
  • Jossed. Morgana and Akechi keep their arcanas from vanilla.

If the new story is set after the main game and Iwai returns as a Confidant, he will not be the Hanged Man.

Because Joker helped him through his hang-ups.

• Jossed. The Royal takes place during Persona 5.

There will be alternate Confidants

Like with Persona 4, the player will be given an option for who his Confidant for a certain Arcana will be.

• Promotional materials mention new Confidants. Provided that isn't referring to just Takuto and Kasumi, it's likely that certain Arcanas will have alternate/new characters representing them.
  • Jossed, no new characters were added to existing arcanas.

"Le Foi"/"The Faith" will evolve to add 5 ranks to Kasumi's confidant.

Kasumi is unique in that her confidant only has 5 ranks, in spite of her significance in promotional materials. Furthermore, her Arcana card is seen to be torn, or perhaps, tearing. It is possible that depending on the player's choices and interactions with Kasumi, her Arcana may change for the final 5 ranks.

As an example, if the player convinces Kasumi to find common cause with the Phantom Thieves, The Faith may be repaired, or even evolve (perhaps even into The Aeon). Alternately, if you enforce her belief that the Phantom Thieves are doing more harm than good, the card will be torn completely and replaced as she becomes a rival (perhaps becoming the Jester or the Hunger).

• Continuing from this, the final form of her Arcana will likely influence her ultimate Persona, or perhaps even her Metaverse outfit (as she is seen losing it at one point in the trailers), in a reflection of Akechi's own use of multiple Metaverse identities.
• The final Arcana of Kasumi's confidant may even influence the ending, with one leading to a Golden (or perhaps, Royal?) Ending and the other to a new Bad Ending.
• Confirmed. After retaking her original identity as Sumire in the winter term, Le Foi gains the full 10 ranks, switches to Sumire Yoshizawa with her original hair down and glasses look, and allows you to unlock her second and third tier Persona. However her Metaverse outfit does not change and it has no effect on the ending.

Story WMGs

One of the requirements for the best ending will involve completing both Akechi and Kasumi's confidants

Provided their confidants aren't mutually exclusive.

• Confirmed. You also need to complete Takuto's as well.

P5's main story will be expanded to involve past Persona characters.

Because let's face it - with the level of publicity and impact of the Conspiracy's plot and the Phanthom Thieves' activities, why on earth was Mitsuru and Naoto uninvolved in the story? It's also a missed opportunity to further develop Naoto and her sense of justice as a detective - and maybe an additional worldbuilding to show how formidable the Conspiracy is. It also would be nice to showcase others as cameo roles to highlight how the Conspiracy is negatively affecting them, and further drive home the bleakness of the situation.

• Okumura could have taken over Junes, and Yosuke's family being forced back home to Tokyo.
• Yu would be struggling to deal with the loss of his parents, who both died from overwork. If a P4(G) save bonus is detected, then additional dialogue can be provided from whoever Yu dated on P4G's Valentine's Day.
• The rest of the shadow operatives could be arguing among themselves, struggling to come to terms with their orders from the police against their own morals.
• Naoto and Mitsuru could be conducting their own investigation, and find out that the police agencies were being less than sincere. They eventually side with the Phanthom Thieves, and sabotage the Conspiracy's efforts. After the final battle, they get sent to prison with the protagonist. Alternately, Naoto could work with Sae to both prove the protagonist's and/or Mitsuru's innocence and also to convict Shido.
  • Jossed. Makoto and Yu appear as DLC bosses, but they're cognitions created in the Velvet Room and have no effect on the game's story.

The railway accident on Feb 13th will be a part of the new storyline.

Even Sojiro comments that it feels just like the accident the day after Joker arrived in Tokyo. While the base game treats this as a mere coincidence, the new story will explain that this is in fact a sign of more Metaverse shenanigans. Bonus points if it was Akechi's doing yet again.

• Jossed. Takuto and Kasumi both suffered from completely unrelated incidents before the train accident. It's still just foreshadowing for Akechi's serial murders.

The new plotline will involve the cognitive world overwriting reality

This will be the reason for odd things happening such as Morgana gaining a human form; that's how he perceives himself. Perhaps an unintended side effect of taking the treasure of Mementos was that the metaverse merged with the real world and now people's desires are becoming reality. The plot may involve the Phantom Thieves realizing this, and having to do something to fix it.

• Confirmed, dream reality uses the metaverse to exist, and disappears completely once you take the treasure from the new palace. However it's caused by a new Persona user manipulating things rather than due to the Thieves actions in the other Palaces.

If the new girl is the star of a new story, we'll go back to having Social Links.

Because she won't have as pessimistic a worldview as Joker. Doubly so if her story is set after Persona 5, since the real Igor will be back to promote The Power of Friendship.

• Jossed. The story takes place during Persona 5 and Confidants are still here.

If The Royal has a new story, several Confidants will be different

Several of the Arcana will be represented by different characters for The Royal, since it wouldn't make sense for Futaba to interact openly with new girl, especially if The Royal takes place during the same timeline as P5 when the Phantom Thieves are operating, even more so if the rival team theory is confirmed. Arcanas that would likely be changed are Magician, Emperor, Hierophant, Lovers, Hermit, Fortune, and Judgement.

• Jossed. Main sections of confidants are the same. At best some party members get additional events in winter term.

Persona 2's Jokers will have an influence on the plot

• Innocent Sin features a Joker who grants wishes, and the negative consequences of wishes: getting something with no effort, or something impossible, makes you lose your grip on reality. Royal appears to have a wish-granter with negative consequences. Maybe Morgana says that the world was once destroyed after too many wishes were granted, and someone (maybe Ryuji) is skeptical about how that could happen, since they can't remember the timeline reset.
• Eternal Punishment features a Joker who has a recorded history in the timeline. Someone, maybe the Eternal Punishment cast, could visit Tokyo to figure out this new copycat Joker.
• Jossed. Though the winter term uses similar mechanics to Persona 2's plot, no one from those games have any inovlvement.

Shin Megami Tensei proper will have plot relevance

It's probably not a coincidence that there's something happening in Kichijoji of all places, the hero's hometown in Shin Megami Tensei I. Demons and summoners still exist in the Persona universe, so maybe demons start appearing in the real world?

• Jossed. It doesn't. There's just another Palace there.
  • Not even that, the new Palace is in Oodaiba. Kichijoji only serves as a bonus area full of optional content.

The non-Royal timeline/universe will be destroyed by a new enemy.

And that enemy will be an embodiment of too much chaos, opposite to the lawful Yaldabaoth.

• Partially confirmed. New villain uses Azathoth, a god of ultimate chaos and Adam Kadmon, a being that Yaldabaoth attempts to vanquish in Gnosticism, and the winter term is another attempt to overwrite the original reality. He doesn't destroy the non-Royal reality however, he only covers it with his own.

The third trimester will involve a Lotus-Eater Machine.

Based on the fact that Morgana will have a human form and that a screenshot shows the back of the deceased Wakaba's head while she's having dinner with Sojiro, Morgana and Futaba.

• Probably it's not a Lotus-Eater Machine but a really stealthy Reality Bleed which is a Foil of the Day of Reckoning during the 24th of December?
• Confirmed. It is both a Reality Bleed like Dec 24, but like Dec 24 also ends up never happening like a Lotus-Eater Machine once you finish it, with only you and a few others remembering any of it.

Kasumi will join during Niijima's Palace in place of Akechi

The promotional footage shows her with Joker in an area that looks like Niijima's Palace, and there's a screenshot of her standing outside of Mementos with the rest of the Thieves and Akechi is nowhere to be seen, but she awakens her Persona in an area that doesn't resemble any of the currently known Palaces. Perhaps she contemplates whether or not to join the Thieves for a bit after awakening her Persona? In that case, Akechi will likely join the Thieves permanently during the new story events if the screenshot of Haru and Black Mask Akechi in the Mona bus is any indication.

• Jossed. Akechi is still in the party as normal. Kasumi does appear in Niijima's Palace, but only for a single scripted battle during the after-boss escape. She only offers to join the Thieves during Shido's palace, is refused due to the danger Shido poses, and is only a party member during the winter term, alongside Akechi again.

Kasumi joins during Shido's Palace

Promotional footage shows her in what appears to be Niijima's Palace, and she's shown during the Hatsumōde event and in Mementos with the rest of the Thieves sans Akechi. It's possible that the Biyarky was levelled up to a higher level to make which point in the story where she joins more ambiguous.

• Jossed. She offers to, but Morgana tells her not to due to the danger Shido poses.

The Palace that Kasumi awakens to her Persona in is formed over Kichijoji

The interior of the Palace seen in her Character Introduction Trailer looks a little like a shopping mall.

• It actually appears to be based on a hospital.
  • Jossed. It is a mix of a theraphy center, a research lab and the Garden of Eden on top of Oodaiba.

Characters from Persona 3 and Persona 4 will show up, and have fairly major roles.

Instead of a cameo, they have some impact on the story. (Such as the Kirijo group, Chie being a police officer, Naoto investigating the Phantom Thieves, etc.) This will lead into Persona 5 Arena.

• Partially jossed. As explained above, Makoto and Yu appear as DLC bosses, but they're merely cognitions created in the Velvet Room to challenge Joker and have no involvement in the game's story.

"Dreams coming true" will be a major theme in the game.

In the teaser trailer for the game, a girl (presumably Kasumi) states that they have "Crushed their dreams". Now, as of Ryuji's trailer, we've seen the seemingly impossible dreams of several characters come true. Morgana is now a human, Futaba's mother is alive, and Ryuji is being scouted by colleges while also being on friendly terms with his former track mates.

• Adding to this is Kasumi's Confidant, Cendrillon, better known as Cinderella, whose story is largely about achieving impossible dreams.
  • Partially jossed. While the theme exists, Kasumi only crushed her sister's dream...And this Kasumi is a fake called Sumire and her sister is the real Kasumi who sacrificed herself to prevent this one from committing suicide.

The plot of the new story content will consist of Joker, Kasumi and Akechi breaking the rest of the Phantom Thieves out of a Lotus-Eater Machine created by Takuto

A lot of the promotional content has depicted the Phantom Thieves achieving their wildest dreams (Ryuji getting scouted to become a college runner, Shiho making a full recovery, etc). Some of these (Futaba's mom coming back to life and Morgana becoming human, for example) are clearly a bit too good to be true. This is because Takuto uses his position as the school's counselor to secretly develop psychological profiles on his students to create a false reality in which their greatest desires are fulfilled, which will somehow assist him in furthering whatever his agenda is. Joker and Kasumi are (at first at least) the only people capable of seeing through the deception, and form an Enemy Mine with Akechi, who is revealed to be alive and also unaffected, in order to convince the other thieves to reject Takuto's reality and free the world from his control.

Takuto may or may not be framed as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who genuinely believes that the youth of the world will be better off in his new reality than in the real one, but will nonetheless get called out on being a Manipulative Bastard who just wanted to play god by the thieves.

• Mostly confirmed. Joker and Akechi break the others out of their "dreams" first, then the entire party frees Kasumi / Sumire from hers (namely telling Takuto to transform her into Kasumi when she was her sister Sumire the whole time). Takuto is ultimately a Well-Intentioned Extremist with a Persona of his own and a "thief" form like the Phantom Thieves who just wants to make everyone happy. However, he is ultimately considered wrong for just getting rid of everyone's problems and ignoring their own growth and choices, including complete innocents, and he's actually an unintended consequence on Yaldabaoth's part.

There will be two Mementos

The new Palace shown in the game uses the Mona-bus and has a white and grey coloration to it as opposed to Memento's black and red. Could this be a second Mementos?

• Additionally, could it be used to imprison mental shutdown victims instead of live Shadows?
  • (Seemingly) Jossed. The area looks like a Foil to the OG Mementos.
• And could it be responsible for causing the "dream" Reality Bleed in January?
  • Confirmed, there's a white Mementos, it's not hugely story related though and more just for Jose stuff.

The "Dream" is not a Lotus-Eater Machine but actually a sneak Reality Bleed

All of the things about the new Mementos/Palace appear to Foil with Yaldabaoth's Mementos in chilling ways.

• Yaldabaoth's Mementos is colored black and red. This one is colored grey, white and blue.
• The OG Mementos Depths appears as an oppressive, confined underground prison. This one resembles a giant, futuristic skyscraper-like structure reaching up with a really clean, materialistic motif.
• The Reality Bleed that Yaldabaoth induces is merely turning Tokyo into something resembling hell with most people ignoring the changes. This one appears to take the form of a perfect utopia until everything suddenly goes wrong.
• Confirmed. Takuto uses a similar method to Yaldabaoth to create his ideal reality. That being said, just like what Yaldabaoth did, the ultimate effects are basically identical to a Lotus-Eater Machine in that it's as if it never happened once it's destroyed.

An alternate explanation to the "dream" theory

The "dream" is actually pointing out to the interrogation after Sae's Palace and not the third semester. Joker mistakenly sells out all of his confidants and teammates during the interrogation and Sae steps out only for Akechi to assassinate the real Joker. When imprisoned inside the Velvet Room, Kasumi (?) tells "Igor" to release Joker out for a second chance by activating the "Igor reset button." "Igor" agrees to Kasumi since he believes that it would make the "rehabilitation game" more interesting and sends her and Takuto to keep an eye on the protagonist, who then awakes inside the train at the start of the game to "resume" his rehabilitation with all of his memories wiped and everything else seemingly reset, making it resemble a "dream." Kasumi and Takuto are the only people who know a thing about the rehabilitation game being reset while "Igor" keeps records about but does not explicitly confirm it.

• This ironically can meld into the widely confirmed "Dream Theory," since there will be BOTH a second rehabilitation chance and a Reality Bleed afterwards.
• Jossed. Dream world is created by new character Maruki Takuto during third semester by hijacking the metaverse to create an ideal world where everyone can be happy (regardless of their own agency).

The final boss of the game is YHVH, straight from the Shin Megami Tensei series

Assuming if the past Big Bads are Nyarlathotep fragments, how does Yaldabaoth manage to kidnap Igor and compromise the Velvet Room of all things, assuming that they are basically the Great Will of that reality and Nyarlathotep had never managed to do such a thing? If he's just a fragment, it's impossible for Yaldabaoth to even attempt it. Unless he's unaffiliated with Nyarlathotep at all and instead is a weapon used by YHVH to reassure dominance on that reality? Shin Megami Tensei I was preemptively stopped in the Persona world, after all...could he be exacting revenge?

• Another note is that Yaldabaoth (Demiurge) is a law demon in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey and IV. Could this be an exceptionally powerful specimen of that demon created with the intent of a takeover?
• Jossed. New Final boss is Maruki Takuto and his persona Azathoth / Adam Kadmon.

The final boss is something closely related to Mem Aleph, like some sort of earth mother (As a tribute to Strange Journey like Yaldabaoth/Demiurge is)

The new dungeon resembles a fusion between Sector Bootes (Shopping Mall) and Sector Eridanus (Cybernetic Landscape). Can this be some sort of Earth Mother that is trying to mock humanity for materialism by trapping them in a false utopia and stagnating everything to wipe out humanity or other godly entities?

• The fact that the Demiurge, the Superboss from Strange Journey is the Final Boss here does not help either.
• It should also be noted that Mem Aleph or Chaos doesn't exactly fulfill the default Chaos role of the "lesser evil" in Strange Journey. It is Ax-Crazy and just as bad as the standard Law Forces (Which Demiurge is a part of.)
• Furthermore, the idea of an Earth Goddess being the Foil of Yaldabaoth actually fits. Yaldabaoth resembles a refined, angelic being and represents the heavens, yet the landscape he creates resembles hell. Yet, if the true final boss would be an earth goddess, she would resemble a primal, chaotic being and represent the earth, yet the landscape created would resemble heaven. (Or at least, "heaven" as in humanity's desires.)
• The forms that the Shadows take in that palace are also Foil. Yaldabaoth's shadows in his final stretch take the form of refined, saintly robotic angels. That palace has shadows resembling Eldritch Abominations, although if you pay attention to them, they look like cavemen/nazca carvings.
• Furthermore, Kasumi's arcana is actually from the first Tarot deck created. If she is related to it, it could very likely be a primordial being.
  • Jossed. Final boss is Takuto and Azathoth/Adam Kadmon.

The identity of the true final boss above is...

The Gnostic Sophia, who is the mother of Yaldabaoth and considers his existence a mistake. Just why is this thing even evil? It's actually an Obliviously Evil kind. If this were true, she might had been realized that her son's existence as a mistake since he forces them to comform to a society where everything goes wrong and stagnates but nobody does a thing against it. Therefore, she sends out Kasumi - A fragment of her to hunt down Yaldabaoth and remove him, which matches her description of "Disliking the Thieves's goals and is acting for her own motives." Once Yaldabaoth is done for she grants all the wishes that everyone desires; Wakaba and Okumura are alive, Ryuji becomes a star in the track team, Morgana becoming human....and ignorant that this too will bring forth stagnation and make her not so different from her son. Kasumi, Joker and Akechi might had been realized this too and pulls everyone out of the sneak Reality Bleed; In which the strange, utopian structure appears in the real world and José ready to be used as the cosmic egg to create "The Utopia of Freedom."

• Additionally, the reason why Joker, Akechi and Kasumi knows about it is probably the former two used to serve Yaldabaoth, which means that they were on the opposite side of the line and can see through Sophia's deception. Kasumi in the other hand, is Sophia herself, as she knows what her mother is doing. Furthermore, Joker and Akechi which has turned against their former advisor might had been inspired Kasumi to turn against her mother for causing stagnation in a different way than her son. Kasumi wouldn't be very fond of humanity's problems all being solved by her mother, either, as she believes that they should solve all problems on their own. The trio probably realized that stagnation is not good in either way, be it suffocating thoughts with apathy and comformation to oppression or an endlessly content population completely devoid of oppression and strife.
• Furthermore, the Orginial Generation girl of Persona 5 Strikers is called "Sophie." Could she actually be this final boss (or some form of it) attempting a Heel–Face Turn as The Atoner?
  • Jossed. New final boss is Maruki Takuto and his persona Azathoth / Adam Kadmon. Sophia appears on the sequel, however.

The new final boss isn't Nyarlathotep but something that has created BOTH Philemon and Nyarlathotep and thus has the powers of both

There's even a possibility that the new final boss is actually the ambassador of the Great Will in the Persona section of the Amala network, being created both Philemon and Nyarlathotep. This explains why it can bestow Personas (Or has created Yaldabaoth with the power to bestow one) or use Biyarky as a servant. If the Sophia theory is true, this also explains why Yaldabaoth can take over the Velvet Room for his own use since that places him ABOVE Philemon and Nyarlathotep. (As Nyarlathotep cannot directly interfere with the velvet room)

• Largely Jossed. Final Boss is Maruki Takuto's persona Azathoth, who evolves into Adam Kadmon. While Azathoth is above Nyarlathotep in the Cthulhu Mythos, and Adam Kadmon could be seen as a pure expression of the collective unconcious itself, they are ultimately manifestations of Takuto rather than something that was wandering around before he awoke to his Persona abilities.

The new Palace is based on the Garden of Eden

Along with resembling a white skyscraper-type environment, the new dungeon seems to have a bit of a plant motif as well, with plants and flowers growing everywhere. Perhaps it represents the Garden of Eden; a paradise where everyone's desires are automatically granted. The Treasure is, naturally, the Forbidden Fruit that grants mankind knowledge of good and evil, and free will, at the cost of being cast out from paradise. The Phantom Thieves would thus be re-enacting the original sin of stealing the forbidden fruit.

• Confirmed. The topmost levels are named Eden.

Akechi's Confidant will determine his fate.

Since his Confidant is now manually-progressed, it's possible that if it isn't maxed out before he's outed as the Traitor, he'll later die like in the original during the investigation period in Shido's Palace. Otherwise, he'll be able to permanently join the team, possibly by Joker deciding to stop the Shadows and Shido's cognitive version of Akechi.

• Jossed. Akechi will still seemingly die in Shido's palace, then Takuto claims that he's a fake, and then for some reason seemingly show up in the good ending with his face obscured regardless.

The Akechi who joins you in the postgame scenario is a cognition.

Akechi still dies in the main game scenario, in which the plot is still largely the same. However, with the merging of the metaverse with the real world, dreams start to become reality. The same effect which creates a human Morgana could also cause a scenario where Akechi survives. Perhaps there's some link between Akechi and Kasumi, and the version of him who joins you is her cognition of him where she still believes that he's a good person. This cognition becomes aware of his status, and thus becomes The Atoner in order to restore the real world (despite the fact that he'll disappear if that happens) in order to help Kasumi.

• Partially Jossed. While Takuto claims that he is such, his claims are completely Out of Character, Akechi warns the protagonist that Takuto might set him up when he reaches Eden and a seemingly unconspicious conversation between the protagonist and Akechi can lead to Takuto controlling the world, indicating that he might be lying through his teeth to catch the protagonist off guard.

The Akechi who joins you in the postgame scenario is the real deal

The events in the boiler room are ambiguous for a reason. The biggest point being that Futaba couldn't detect him from the other side of the gate during his Bolivian Army Ending in the original, but she also couldn't detect him following the Thieves in Okumura's Palace or prior to him ambushing them in Shido's Palace. There is also the potential for any possible development he gets during the postgame scenario to lose its impact if it turns out he was a cognition all along. Strikers is "conveniently" based on the ending of the base game and not Royal, which would also serve as a way for Atlus and Koei Tecmo to not end up spoiling hypothetical major reveals in the latter, such as Akechi surviving.

• There's no way to really confirm either way. Takuto claims that the Akechi in winter term has been placed there through reality warping effects by him so the Phantom Thieves didn't have to fail reforming him, although his statements are half-assed at best and looks more like a set up to catch the protagonist off guard. He explicitly disappears after the dungeon ends. However, the new good end also has what's implied to be Akechi walking through the background, so he may have survived and simply had part of his cognition overwritten like the others or outright lied to the party about his survival. Pick whichever version you'd prefer.

Other WMGs

The Hero With A Bow will no longer be Dummied Out

It will be available in its rightful place in the Shujin Library after Akechi joins, like the other Persona books.

• Confirmed.

Cendrillon's book will raise the player's Charm

Provided that she has one at all. There's only one library book that raises Charm, and other than Courage and Kindness this seems like a stat that would work well with the tale of Cendrillon.

• Confirmed.

There will be something involving Inklings

Since Futaba already looks like one, the Phantom Thieves will be confused when they mistake an orange inkling girl for Futaba. Plus it would be quite the crossover fuel for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

• Futaba's represented by an Inkling in Ultimate.
  • Jossed.

Some of the outfits from Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight will be added

Likely as optional DLC. Characters that lacked certain outfits in that game (Akechi and Kasumi) will receive them here.

• The Velvet Room outfits and Featherman outfits are confirmed as returning in the form of bonus DLC for the Straight Flush edition.
• The default outfits from Dancing In Starlight have been confirmed in the final Morgana Report stream.
  • Weekly Famitsu #1612 confirms Akechi has a Dancing in Starlight outfit.
  • Kasumi also has a Dancing in Starlight outfit.

Kasumi DLC outfit predictions

She'll get Rin's outfit for her Catherine DLC costume and Maya's outfit for her Persona 2 DLC costume. Her Persona 3 costume will obviously be P3P female protag's outfit. She may possibly get Marie's outfit for her Persona 4 DLC costume as well.

• Alternately, she could get Marie's outfit for her Velvet Room outfit instead.
  • Kasumi getting Rin's outfit for her Catherine DLC costume is confirmed.
  • Kasumi getting Marie and Maya's outfits is jossed, but her getting P3P's female protag's outfit is confirmed.

Most of Black Mask Akechi's DLC outfits will be the same ones from when he intially joins

With a few exceptions such as the Persona Q DLC outfit. He'll also be able to change between his Black Mask outfit and his Crow outfit without the need for DLC.

• Semi-confirmed. Black Mask's DLC outfits are the same as Crow's, and this includes his Persona Q2 DLC outfit. He has no way of switching between his Black Mask and white Crow outfit.
  • The part about switching his Crow and Black Mask outfits is Confirmed in a New Game +, in the Palaces in which he's playable (Sae's and Maruki's).

Akechi will have a Palace

Likely serving as a bonus Palace during the new story elements, similar to how the Hollow Forest in Persona 4 Golden is unlocked. It was Dummied Out of the base game so why not add it back in?

• Jossed. The only new palace belongs to Takuto.

If Akechi is made fully playable after Niijima's Palace, one of his ultimate weapons will be Laevateinn

For its effect, it'll either give him a large stat boost or have a high chance of inflicting Rage. Likewise, his other ultimate weapon will be the Proof of Justice ray gun seen in the Animated Adaptation's OVA of the same name.

• Jossed, Akechi gets the skill Laevateinn when he rejoins the party instead.

The game will feature straight-up demons

Tokyo is the hub for demon activity in the SMT series. If strange things are happening in the real world in addition to the Metaverse, the demon summoner protagonists might have a role.

• Jossed.

Some of the confidant gifts will be rearranged

Given it doesn't make sense for Yusuke to have 3 possible gifts when the other guys only give one, and the Hero Figure's description doesn't fit with Futaba's character, even though the gift itself does fit with her being an otaku. It's likely that Kasumi (and possibly Akechi) will have an event that gives one of these gifts instead and another one of Yusuke's gifts will be given by Futaba in place of the Hero Figure (likely the Star Stickers, since it's a much better fit).

There will be some sort of bonus for having the original game.

Either you get a discount on Royal if you have the original game, or you can import clear data from the original game. Or both.

• Confirmed. While you can't import your old save, the May 9th Famitsu article confirmed there would be some sort of bonus for returning players.
• As an added bit, there's no discount on Royal if you have clear data from the base game. At least in terms of preordering.

There will be a Danganronpa DLC costume pack

That is if they can reach an agreement with Spike Chunsoft, since the Persona and Danganronpa franchises have Friendly Fandoms.

• Joker: Either Makoto or Hajime.
• Ryuji: Fuyuhiko.
• Morgana: Monokuma.
• Ann: Junko.
• Yusuke: Shuichi.
• Makoto: Aoi.
• Futaba: Kyoko.
• Haru: Chiaki.
• Akechi: Nagito.
• Kasumi: Kaede.
  • Jossed.

There will be a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure DLC pack

Since that's another franchise that Persona is friendly with. Alternatively, the Arcana Stands from Part 3 could be DLC Personas.

• Joker: Jonathan.
• Ryuji: Giorno.
• Morgana: Iggy.
• Ann: Jolyne.
• Yusuke: Jotaro (Eh? Eh?).
• Makoto: Hot Pants.
• Futaba: Yasuho.
• Haru: Trish.
• Akechi: DIO.
• Kasumi: Lisa Lisa.
  • Jossed.

The Yakuza DLC costumes from Dancing in Starlight will be brought over.

Self-explanatory, with the following additions for the characters that didn't appear or didn't get alts in that game.

• Morgana: Ono Michio
• Akechi: Akira Nishikiyama
• Kasumi: Kaoru Sayama

There will be a Dead or Alive DLC pack

As a thank you to Koei Tecmo for letting Omega Force help develop Persona 5 Strikers.

• Joker: Hayate or Hayabusa
• Ryuji: Jann Lee
• Morgana: Zack
• Ann: Tina
• Yusuke: Bayman
• Makoto: Ayane
• Futaba: Hitomi
• Haru: Helena
• Akechi: Rig
• Kasumi: Kasumi
  • Jossed.

There will be a Lupin the Third DLC pack

It makes too much sense if TMS can agree to let them use them.

• Joker: Lupin.
• Ryuji: Jigen.
• Ann: Fujiko.
• Yusuke: Goemon.
• Akechi: Zenigata.
  • Jossed.

There will be a Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey DLC pack

Some party members would wear Demonica suits with different variations:

• Joker: Hero
• Ryuji: Jimenez(Human or demon form)
• Ann: Zelenin (Human or angel form)
• Morgana: Demonee-ho
• Yusuke: Commander Gore (Alive or Ubergestalt)
• Makoto: Louisa Ferre
• Futaba: Arthur
• Haru: Demeter
• Akechi: Black Demonica/Captian Jack
• Kasumi: Alex
  • Confirmed as of Weekly Famitsu #1612. Joker's outfit is confirmed as Hero, and later on Morgana as Demonee-ho. Jossed for the rest as they have the normal Demonica.

There will be a Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth + Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth DLC pack

Party members will wear costumes based on characters from the Q series:

• Joker: Zen
• Morgana: Doe
• Ryuji: Kind Doctor
• Ann: Rei
• Yusuke: Merciful Clergyman
• Makoto: Queen of Hearts
• Futaba: Hikari
• Haru: Ribbon
• Akechi: Overseer
• Kasumi: Nagi/Enlil
  • Confirmed! But not in the way you think. The costumes change the party into their chibi models from those games.

Morgana's bowdlerized "Time for some bloodshed!" line from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be added in as an Easter Egg.

• The above line was replaced with "Time for some brutality", so the replacement line could be added in alongside the original one as a neat reference.

Boss behavior change speculation

• Shadow Madarame's Clones just allow him to do 2 extra damage in addition to the 10 damage Madara-Megido. They are just elemental attacks, and the clones use the one mores to attack random targets. If he downs all players he will do an all-out attack with 10 Damage.
  • Jossed.
• Shadow Okumura's cognitive Haru merely does things that he originally does if there are any remaining robots. (Debuffs, Hunger etc.)
  • Jossed. She just stands there and sycophants her father, until joining the fray for a last-ditch (but futile) attempt after the Execurobo is defeated. Okumura is still the one doing the stat moves.

You will encounter Ouroboros, Tiamat and Maya as bosses in the final stretch in the true final Palace

Assuming that Yaldabaoth's Reality Bleed area is a Call-Back to SMT 1, could the true final boss' dungeon be a Call-Back to Strange Journey with you fighting all of the three earth mothers?

• Jossed. You're not fighting a boss rush anywhere in the new palace. Your penultimate challenge is just a lone Siegfried guarding the final chamber.

Persona 5 Royal Post-Release Speculation

The following folders contain unmarked spoilers for Persona 5 Royal, You Have Been Warned.

Character WMGs

Akechi's Ambiguous Situation will play an important role in (a) future spin-off game(s)

Akechi was in a coma after Shido's palace and maxing his Confidant make sure that he eventually will wake up and recover though not quickly enough to turn himself in to save the protagonist from jail.

Adding on the theory: Takuto Maruki THOUGHT he made a cognition of Goro Akechi. In reality, he unknowingly dragged the SOUL of Akechi into the dream world, in fact, everyone's souls were placed into the dream. Where his body is now, isn't going to be confirmed until a later game...

• Adding on the coma theory, him seemly showing up at the train station was a combination of him turning himself in for his crimes and giving the protagonist temporary relief from his pursuers in the ending by distracting them by turning himself in.

Sumire's official birthday is actually her reborn date, not her real birthday

Her birthday is at the 25th of March, which concides right exactly into the date where she's been made by Maruki to think that she's Kasumi. Assuming the Yoshizawa sisters are actually twins (which is highly possible because they shared nearly identical facial features), this actually contradicts Sojiro and the news' statements about Kasumi being 15 years old, considering that she died almost right before that day. That's most likely the day where Sumire is "reborn" as "Kasumi".

When Maruki said Akechi is a fake, he is lying

There is also a very high odd that Maruki is lying through his teeth trying to have the protagonist accept his reality, since Akechi already warned the protagonist of a trap set by Takuto when he reaches Eden. Otherwise a private chat with Akechi isn't supposed to lead to Takuto controlling the world.

• Furthermore, if he is a cognition, he is stuck with Loki and isn't suppposed to awaken Hereward.
• Adding to it is that Joker never wanted Akechi to get himself involved in the Thieves' framing (Remember he was reluctant but Sae ordered him to do it) and thus Akechi wouldn't even remember he had the encounter with his cognitive copy in the Cruiser if he were fake. Takuto never creates a copy of a person, he rewrites history as if any incidents leading to their deaths and/or corruption never happened.
• There is also absolutely no way Takuto would had been knew about the protagonist and Akechi's relationship and conflict since he never told him about it, nor had Adam Kadmon degenerated completely for him to know any desire at any distance since the encounter with Akechi in the Cruiser Palace was way before the Day of Reckoning.
• Takuto might had been manipulated the police instead of Akechi because the police didn't want anymore crimes, so they released all the criminals because they too are no longer, criminals bar Akechi. (Since he cannot manipulate Akechi at all.) So once the dream world vanished, both Akechi and the protagonist are returning to testify for the Shido case, and Akechi would be locked behind bars as usual.
• Furthermore, Akechi can even be manipulated in a way similar to Madarame per Yusuke's desires or Shiho per Ann's desires. Takuto's reality warping doesn't only limit to reviving dead people out of nothing, he can even mend the relationships of others. Just because Akechi is alive doesn't mean that Takuto cannot manipulate him by dragging him into the protagonist's aid.
• If Akechi's confidant is maxed out, the true ending adds a scene seemingly confirming his survival, making this theory even more likely.

After the real Kasumi died, she reincarnated on the other side of the Amala Network as the Persona 3 Portable Female Protagonist

The facial features and hair color of the real Kasumi is extremely similar to the P3P Female Protagonist, in addition to having a red ribbon as a part of their clothing and the same hairdo. Adding onto the theory, they even share a Genki Girl personality with each other!

Maruki's Adam Kadmon phase is easier than his Azathoth phase because Adam Kadmon was losing on purpose.

When it refused with Takuto's Treasure, Adam Kadmon regained its sanity and realized that what he wanted wasn't good for the world at all; it still had to obey his wishes to protect the illusionary world, but nothing said it couldn't half-ass the fight on purpose to knock some sense into Takuto.

• Doesn't seem likely considering the Persona reached out to him to fuse Takuto into itself, and would have won had it not been for the Phantom Thieves' Power of Friendship.

Akechi is the new God of Control.

He may be a cognition, but he's still sentient and thus slipped into the role when Maruki was defeated (just as Maruki hijacked Yaldabaoth's control). However, Akechi doesn't care about altering reality - he's just sticking around to have a rematch with Joker.

• Cognition Smognition! The real Goro Akechi is in the Third Semester because Maruki's power allowed him to be with Joker, real personality and all. However, a rematch with God of Control powers on one side, is very interesting...and with potential for collateral damage, also very interesting.
  • Alternatively, Joker/the phantom thieves as a whole is/are the new God of Control; Maruki gained Yaldabaoth's powers because the phantom thieves unconsciously wished for him to solve theor problems. But the one person who proved himself reliable to them ni matter what, whi listened to their troubles and assuaged their fears, was Joker. As their leader, and the one party member whose death causes the others to spiral into utter despair, he is the most likely candidate to receive their praise, and control of the collective unconscious/reality.

Maruki has both a Palace and Persona because his distorted desires came from his Persona.

Morgana believes it's impossible for a Persona user to become distorted, because accepting that part of yourself means you can never lose your way. However, he doesn’t account for Personas having their own agendas. Maruki’s Persona caused his desires to become distorted, both through showing Maruki what his powers could do and through direct manipulation. Hence why he has a Persona and Palace simultaneously. This is supported by the fact that Maruki’s Treasure, the physical embodiment of his desires, is a part of Adam Kadmon.

Maruki has both a Palace and Persona because he developed a Palace before he gained a Persona.

This theory still aligns with what Morgana said about a Persona user's inability to become distorted, because Maruki was NOT a Persona user when his Palace was created. The primitive form of his Persona (which was more like a Shadow than anything) that reached out to him is not yet his proper Persona, because the contract has not been sealed with the Arc Words. Besides, having distorted desires and accepting your inner desires aren't mutually exclusive.

• Futaba was in this very situation until she took her Palace's Treasure with her. Her Palace remained afloat when she awakened to her Persona.

The Call of Chaos didn't originally belong to Loki.

Just how DANGEROUS is the Call of Chaos, aside from the usual heart-chain breaking berserkness, and partial memory loss side-effect? Goro Akechi forgot what actually happened against the Shido-made cognitive copy of him, presumbly the fight wasn't just two gunshots long. And he casts the Call of Chaos on himself AGAIN during his Showtime Union with Joker, EVERY TIME IT TRIGGERS, meaning that his memories are going to become fragmented. And it could be that the worst part of this spell isn't revealed...Like an unseen deity using the boy as cattle.

Similar to Yamaoka/Alfred, Cendrillon is actually Kasumi's spirit reincarnated as a Persona for Sumire

This is made especially obvious by Sumire's true Persona awakening sequence replacing Cendrillon with Kasumi as she and Sumire reach out to each other to complete the awakening.

Kasumi/Sumire was originally meant to be a FeMC akin to Persona 3

She's already a Distaff Counterpart to Joker in terms of outfit and motifs (which goes mostly unexplained in-story and eventually becomes The Artifact considering her arc is about accepting herself rather than copying others) and her inclusion into the base game feels rushed and rather slapdash in places (considering she's almost completely irrelevant to the main story and doesn't join the thieves until the third semester, right at the end of the game) - what if she was originally meant to be a gender select option akin to Persona 3's FeMC, but the idea got scrapped for one reason or another and the work put into her design was hastily reworked into a new character at the last second?

• Dummied Out character files in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate indicate that he was originally supposed to have a Palette Swap named "Jane," suggesting an alternate female character option similar to the Pokemon Trainer, Robin, Corrin and Byleth. Even if "Jane" could have been meant to be Kasumi to promote the then-upcomg Royal, she has too many differences in her fighting style for her to have made it in as anything more similar than an Echo Fighter, which none of the DLC characters have. More likely, Joker's character started work at a point when a FeMC was still being considered, only to be ditched later on, forcing the removal of said character files.

After the costume in DIS, a future title will have more Sonic The Hedgehog costumes.

Joker-Sonic

Skull/Ryuji-Knuckles

Fox/Yusuke-Tails

Noir/Haru-Amy

Oracle/Futaba-Cream

Queen/Makoto-Rouge

Crow/Akechi-Shadow

Mona/Morgana-Silver

Panther/Ann-Blaze

Sophie/Sophia-Emerel

Violet/Sumire-Elise

Wolf/Zenkichi-Tom

Kaneshiro's character was inspired by Gangnam Style.

Aside from his Shadow being a portly Asian man in a suit, Gangnam Style was written to mock poseurs who proclaimed themselves to be high class individuals, which fits in neatly with Kaneshiro being the worst type of Nouveau Riche asshole.

Jose is the Persona series interpretation of Pinocchio

He's a little boy who wants to become a real human boy and his nose looks like it's made of wood. The "harsh, but very kind" person could be Geppetto, whose name is a rough translation of Joseph, like the name Jose, or the Cricket. And the Wishing Star he gives the Phantom Thieves could be the same star from the Disney movie Geppetto wished upon.

Jose is the son of Elizabeth and the P3 Protagonist

That's right: the end of Elizabeth's questline where they banged is canon, and Jose is the result. That's a large part of the reason Elizabeth is so focused on finding a way to save him from the Great Seal; so he can meet his son.

Plot WMGs

Maruki's Palace isn't his, it's originally something else

There are hints that Maruki's Palace is merely seized by him, and that isn't actually "his";

• When the Palace first appeared, it is deserted and nothing bar a few posters can be found. Once the Dream World starts kicking in, cognitive patients and Shadows with therapist clothing can be found all over the area.
• Just why is a human being controlled by a Persona or a corrupt god acting as a Persona being able to own a Palace physically? And why can a nobody like Kasumi actually sense it without entering it?

Could it actually be an origin of cognitive psience or even the origin or all cognitive beings such as Shadows, Philemon, Nyarlathotep, Igor....which is why there are Biyarky and Hastur inside there alongside other Demons never seen in a Persona game such as Macabre or Fafnir?
Also, in the P5S trailer, the ruins that housed Sophia bear a striking resemblance in coloration as the Maruki's Palace ruins. Could she be the real Palace owner instead considering that Sophia is defintely related to Adam Kadmon and Eden in the original Gnostic myth?

• The ruins part is Jossed. That is actually a warehouse which is a part of the first Jail. Parts of a Jail resembling Maruki's Palace can be seen at Strikers' PV #02 and #03, however.
  • Jossed as well, that is EMMA's Jail. It has a similar Garden of Eden aesthetic but has no connection with Maruki.

Maruki's Palace started as a regular Palace, then later became something else.

When "Kasumi", Joker and Morgana first enter the Palace in October, Maruki hadn't yet fully awakened his Persona. So it's entirely possible that the Laboratory began as a "normal" Palace, born from Maruki's warped desires and his deep grief over the loss of Rumi. Evidence would be the MetaNav answering the canonical required information (owner, place, distortion) and the Shadow inside taunting "Kasumi" with her real identity as Sumire, something only Maruki would have known.

When Azathoth later fully awakens, his exceptional power and Maruki's desire to help the Phantom Thieves join the Laboratory to Mementos, transforming it into the lynchpin of the second iteration of the Metaverse. The same flavour of Reality Bleed that earlier created the World of Qliphoth is what made the Laboratory visible in reality during the Third Term.

Azathoth / Adam Kadmon is more than a simple Persona.

Building onto the previous two WMGs: Azathoth manifests an incredible power far before his proper awakening (on December 24th), and Maruki is able to use it in the real world even if unvoluntarily, as with Rumi. This extends as well to the ruler of the Laboratory Palace not being Maruki's Shadow but his real-world self, with his Persona by his side. Now, Azathoth's power may be explained as Maruki having a deep understanding of the cognitive world, possibly even surpassing that of Wakaba Isshiki. However, it might also be possible that Adam Kadmon is another "god" born from the collective unconscious, like Philemon, Yaldabaoth or Erebus, in this case symbolising humanity's potential to fulfill desires; in fact, he appears to have an agenda of his own and, in its Azathoth aspect, actively acts as The Corrupter to Maruki. He might have started as a regular (albeit powerful) Persona then later "ascended" when he took control of Mementos, or he might have chosen Maruki for his potential. This would not even be the first time that a god has posed as a human's Persona.

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