What Could Have Been / Persona 5

Ideas for Persona 5 that were planned but scrapped for some reason.

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Development

• P5 was actually in development much earlier, with some work being done almost as soon as P4 came out in 2008-9... and then the Tohoku earthquake and nuclear accident happened. While the P5 team originally planned for the game's theme to be backpacking and world travel, they felt in the wake of the disaster that they needed to refocus on the issues facing Japanese society, which led to the massive Sequel Gap and the other delays on P5 itself (some JP info here and here). That said, parts of the original concept made into the game in the form of several of the Palaces (Futaba's in particular) and the school trip abroad and the concept as a whole was later reworked into Persona 5 Strikers.
• Whatever exactly the relevance of the five chairs◊ in the initial teaser image is unclear - in the final game, chairs have nothing to do with anything - suggesting some sort of abandoned concept for the original direction the game would take.
• The official art book revealed that certain characters underwent several design changes from their early concepts
  • Joker underwent several changes, one initial design pretty much was previous protagonist Yu Narukami with slightly longer hair, one design was close to his final look but with slicked back hair, one had rounder glasses and short, neat hair, and another had him extremely feminine to the point of androgyny. An early test video of the game had the protagonist wearing his uniform in a more unkempt style.
  • Yusuke had long brown hair he kept partially braided over his shoulder. There were also initially thoughts to have him attend a past school in the Persona franchise, it being Gekkoukan High.
  • Ann's facial features were nailed down fairly early (being a Retool of a discarded concept for Rise Kujikawa), but her costume underwent huge revisions - the initial concepts riffed much more heavily off of Catwoman, with a gunmetal-grey catsuit with racing stripes, a headband with obvious cat ears and large, red glasses which were an obvious reference to the red goggles Catwoman wears in many of her modern appearances, like the Batman Arkham games. The same art also shows her using a scoped crossbow as her only weapon.
  • Makoto underwent a number of revisions - her thief outfit incorporated goggles a bit more like what Futaba would end up with as well as a large cloak-and-muffler that would cover her face below the nose; it was also she who was the katana user at this point. Most of her later sketches show her drifting more toward her final design, though still with somewhat softer features than the version that went to print, and she actually wore a standard Shujin outfit with the coat.
  • Futaba originally had black hair and more "emo"-looking attire. According to Soejima, her initial attire was considered to be too stereotypical for her character. He also notes that her hair is dyed.
  • Two of Akechi's initial designs were a more mature-looking young man and one that bore even more of a resemblance to Yu Narukami, respectively. Both of these concepts show he was supposed to be a Shujin Academy student. He was also considered to be siblings with Makoto at some point, and he was also supposed to be a regular Confidant.
  • Munehisa Iwai lacked his hat and had long shaggy black hair that would often hide his eyes. Concept art also had him smoking a cigarette, instead of the lollipop he has in the final version.
  • Sadayo Kawakami's initial design was almost identical to Sayako Uehara, the Nurse and Devil Social Link from P4.
  • Ichiko Ohya had a hairband holding her hair back and a large bandage on her forehead (which were probably meant to relate to her escapades with Kayo).
  • Sae had a few concepts, one that looked very much like Katherine with black hair, and an other had her smoking and wearing an eyepatch.
  • Shadow Sae's Stripperific black dress had an initial design that, while extremely similar to the final design, had noticeable differences. The initial design◊ had the dress hiked so high and neckline dipped so low that you could see her wearing what appeared to be a purple thong. The second design didn't have that problem, because it was transparent barring a few strategically place straps and it was blatantly obvious the dress was the ONLY thing she had on. There's no way that would make it past the censors so the dress was reworked into the version used in-game.
  • Kamoshida was a lot more sleazy looking, with Perma-Stubble and thinning hair, as well as lacking the build he had in the final game.
  • One of Madarame's concepts was a Bishōnen, closer to the age of the main cast rather than the old man he was in the final game.
  • The thief outfits were a lot more low-key; simply being their school uniforms with a mask, gloves and a scarf.
  • At another point, Ryuji had a clown mask, Ann's mask was a pair of heart-shaped sunglasses, and Joker's mask was also originally blue.
• A PlayStation 3 beta build dating to December 2015 reveals early music, models, and cutscenes. The following is the findings that stand out:
  • Game code reveals early names of the characters (final names in parentheses). Note that some are referenced in other game code, like for All-Out Attacks.
    • Reiji Daigo (Ryuji Sakamoto)
    • Ranko Kawashima (Haru Okumura)
    • Yugo Sakuya (Yusuke Kitagawa)
  • The battle UI files use character names from past Persona games (and Catherine) as placeholders. Notably, these were dated to 2013. The only ones successfully mapped so far are Hero (Joker) and Catherine (Ann), while Chie, Akihiko, Yukari, Vincent, and Akage remain to be seen.
  • The early version of "Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There".
  • The cutscene after escaping the seventh Palace is prolonged, showing Ryuji getting slapped by the girls one by one first before the Fade to Black beat up as in the final version. Also, Yusuke is shown joining the girls in beating up Ryuji, in contrast to said final version, where he merely stands back and watches the girls beat him up with Joker, and Morgana.
  • There were portrait files referencing the cast from Persona 4, implying they were originally going to have an appearance somewhere in the game. But what stands out even more is the existence of what seems to be a grown-up Nanako model with a Lacrosse Stick reused from Persona 3 Portable.
  • There were going to be real-life brands appearing in the game instead of Bland-Name Product or being graphically vague. For example, there would be McDonald's, Starbucks, an iOS screen that also features Chrome and Reddit app icons, logos based on MasterCard on the ATMs, and instead of Triple Seven, the convenience store that Joker can part-time at was outright Lawson (complete with the store's blue uniform).
  • This build contains models and a text file that elaborated a scrapped doubt mechanic (not to be confused with Confidant Doubt/Break), called Seeds of Doubt, which would significantly impact gameplay and time management. To put it simply, spending time by doing anything suspicious like any Phantom Thief work, spending time with certain Confidants, or going to certain places at night would raise people's doubts towards Joker. To lower this, the player would have to make Joker spend time at home, participate in school activities, etc. — anything that presents a good image for society. Letting the Seeds of Doubt bloom would prevent Joker from going out freely for three days and police officers would start questioning him. Failure to dodge their questions would result in a Game Over.

The Phantom Thieves

General

• In an interview with the Person 5 Stalker Club, Game Director Katsura Hashino revealed a couple of concepts that they initially planned but later dropped:
  • A character design that was originally planned to be one of the Phantom Thieves and a playable party member, a radical strategist that served as a Foil to Makoto's more straightforward strategies, eventually became Hifumi Togo. Due to the lengthy game development, and how long the game already was that point, this character was removed and the design was repurposed for a Confidant instead. A number of people further suspect she was going to be "Queen" - Hifumi's even still called "Queen" in several places in her Confidant, and the role would make a ton of sense for her. When the Hifumi character was demoted, the role was instead mashed together with Makoto, leaving her as the sole strategist.
  • The Protagonist originally was not going to live above Sojiro's Coffee Shop, but instead live in the same apartment building as Makoto and Sae Niijima (which, among other things, might explain why the Niijimas have a relatively developed apartment "set", compared to many other homes barely being seen). It also explains why the apartment in which you begin the Temperance Confidant is completely unique and fully modeled, despite only appearing in a single scene; this was likely the protagonist's original apartment, re-purposed for that one scene.
  • The Protagonist was originally envisioned to have the German Demon Mephistopheles as his Persona, but this ended up getting switched to Arsène to better fit the themes of the game.
• The biggest change from early previews is the complete lack of the protagonist's "The Phantom" moniker. Despite the very first advertisements referring to him as such, at no point in the game is he called this, instead being referred to exclusively as "Joker".^note It's also unlikely that his codename was originally "Phantom" only to be changed to "Joker" later, as "Joker" can be seen in a menu in the first trailer
• The first trailer showcased the main area of Cafe LeBlanc as the initial base of operations, in the game proper, LeBlanc is the third Phantom Thief hideout after the school roof and accessway in Shibuya, and even then, it's Joker's room/the attic and not the downstairs area. Although, in a possible Development Gag, it does later serve as the fourth and final meeting place. In that scene, Morgana was also shown in his Metaverse form, implying that he was able to transform from anthropomorphic to a normal-looking cat at-will.
• There is a scene in one of the trailers where the protagonist, Ann, Ryuji and Morgana were planning a heist on a desk, with a big paper drawn map scribbled over with marker. This no longer exists in the final game.
• There's a scene in the first PV showing Joker, Ryuji, Ann, and Morgana chatting at a graffiti-laden overpass. Both the scene and area are nowhere to be found in the final game, though the overpass' similarities in design to the Shibuya access-way that serves as the Thieves' second hideout in the final game suggest it may have been redesigned.
• The first few trailers and some Dummied Out pieces of information showed that the Phantom Thieves could go to Palaces/Mementos at night. This was changed in the final product to being only doable during the day.
• There is unused dialogue whenever any character switches into a DLC costume.
• Royal's data has two unused Showtime attacks. One would have been between Morgana and Ryuji, and another would have involved Akechi; the latter is theorized to have been an Akechi/Kasumi attack on the basis that both characters are the only ones in the final game to have only one Showtime attack.
• There are some unused voice clips of the thieves complimenting the others in battle, just like in Persona 3 and 4. Some of these aforementioned quotes seem to be complimenting Futaba/Oracle as if she was directly in battle. Futaba also has unused voice lines for summoning Necronomicon and Prometheus, although these unused voice lines might have been intended for when she interferes with the battle as opposed to being concrete proof she was meant to be playable.

Joker

• Joker has tons of miscellaneous voice lines that are unused in the final game, including what sounds like more level up and save quotes, quotes for dying in battle, him naming off the days of the week, complaining about the weather, questioning who's calling on his phone, considering what his plans are for the day, and loudly complaining in distress that something is sold out.
• At some point, this Phoenix Wright-esque model for Joker◊ was used in the game. What it was originally for is unknown.
• An untextured model of the protagonist sitting in an electric chair◊ is unused in the game. Like the above, it is unknown where it would have been used.
• There is an alternate version of Lucifer as an unused Persona, and unlike many other unused Personas he had a lot of defined skills and a lot in common with the entries for the party's ultimate Personas, and more importantly, also has his arcana defined as the Fool. This suggests that he was originally planned as Joker's Ultimate Persona before like with Metatron above, probably being changed to Satanel to match with Yaldabaoth. This would also explain why Satanael looks so much like Lucifer traditionally tend to do.

Ann

• 2015 beta build:
  • Ann's confidant story originally has her take the route of becoming an actress instead of a model.
  • Ann's final Confidant ability would have allowed the player to disguise themselves as a Shadow and sneak by them undetected.

Morgana/Mona

• Morgana was originally going to turn into a sports car instead of a van. This idea was abandoned because a sports car wouldn't have been able to fit the entire team in it.
• Scrapped voice lines had Morgana explain what Persona's were along with Joker's Wild Card ability and would have served as Foreshadowing towards the revelation that Morgana was actually created by Igor to help the party.

Makoto

• In the 2015 beta build, Makoto was originally not a romantic love interest and her confidant ends with Makoto stating that she has her studies and future to think of before she could consider romance. This was changed in the final version of the game where Makoto is one of Joker's romance candidates.

Futaba/Oracle

• In one of the early trailers, Futaba's "Final Guard" ability was called "Last Guardian". It's possible it was renamed due to the PS4 game of the same name.

Akechi/Crow/Black Mask

• Akechi was considered to be a regular Confidant before being turned into an automatic one for the final release of the original game. There's a full list of bonuses that his proposed Confidant would give aside from his battle commands, many of them having to do with enhancing negotiation (like Ann), or making talking to characters during daily life easier, such as highlighting dialogue options that aren't recommended.
  • There are remnants of this in the finished game. At Rank 2 of Akechi's confidant, it is mentioned that he would teach Joker how to make deductions. This is not followed up on in the original game, but was in Royal.
• The Hero with a Bow, a book in Shujin's library for Akechi's initial Persona, Robin Hood, with its benefit being increasing Kindness. All of your other party members have a book on their initial Persona in the library available for reading after they join, with this one likely becoming available after Akechi joins. Many fans have noted that its lack of presence is one of the many red flags that note Akechi as the traitor. This was again fixed in Royal.
• Akechi has a completely unused set of navigator quotes meant for when he's Crow rather than the Black Mask.
• It's heavily implied that the fight against Akechi in Shido's palace was originally planned to happen right after the other Phantom Thieves sent the calling card to Shido instead of happening after defeating "The Cleaner". The Non-Standard Game Over you get for failing to complete Shido's palace by the deadline where he and the police arrive to arrest you even after he is seemingly killed if you already defeated Akechi is likely a leftover from when the fight was originally going to happen after the calling card.
• In the original game, there are unused files in the game's code suggesting that Black Mask was going to return as a permanent party member:
  • Akechi has voice clips in both Japanese and English for summoning Loki normally and code exists for him to be able to use it as a playable Persona instead of Robin Hood.
  • He also has a fully functional mouse form with voice clips despite not being playable during the only points in the game where the mouse status condition can be afflicted.
  • He also has an animation intended to be used when the Protect confidant bonus activates, which is one of two teammate confidant bonuses he never gets in-game (the other being Second Awakening). In addition to all of these, there's dialogue for Morgana further hinting this: the first is an alternate set of dialogue after the first battle with Akechi, and the second is a set of clips where Morgana refers to him by his given name instead of Akechi. Due to the societal importance of naming in Japan and given that everyone refers to Goro Akechi by his last name, this bolsters the suggestion further.
• Unused Shadow negotiation dialogue implies that Akechi was even meant to have a palace at some point. The dialogue has the shadows referring to him as Master Akechi and Lord Akechi, with another piece of dialogue implying his palace would have taken the form of a castle. This dialogue is placed between the negotiation dialogue for the Casino palace and Cruise Ship palace. An unused environment effect likely intended for this palace still exists, and if loaded over another location's environment effect in-game it will produce a thick fog over the area◊. Any other remnants of this palace appear to have been deleted.
• There is an unused cutscene for Royal that clarified Akechi's Uncertain Doom after his encounter with the thieves at the end of Shido's palace where Akechi is revealed to be recuperating from the injuries sustained back in Shido's palace from December to February in a rehabilitation center outside of Tokyo and helped Joker behind the scenes to prove his innocence should Akechi's confidant rank be maxed out.
• There's an unused and already mostly completed data of Akechi having a Mementos Request in the Third Semester for Royal involving a Diet man and his illegitimate son, drawing parallels to Akechi's own past, also showcasing that Akechi's skill as detective is genuine in game, and the request itself ending in a Bittersweet Ending manner due to the twist that while the Diet officer is indeed guilty, the "victim" (the illegitimate son) had ulterior motives to send the request to the Phantom Thieves and wanted revenge against his father. Due to time constraints and the game already being long as it is, this Mementos request was removed in the final game.

Yoshizawa/Violet:

• Several pieces of concept art for Violet depict her with brown hair instead of red.
• Violet's original codename would have been "Clown".
• Royal has a lot of unused content that heavily implies Kasumi was intended to have a larger role than she did in the final game:
  • During the period of the game where the Thieves' hideout is in Joker's bedroom in Royal, Kasumi has an unused animation of her sitting on Joker's bed that can only be seen if the game is hacked to let her be in the party at that point. This implies she was meant to join the Thieves during either Futaba's, Okumura's or Sae's Palaces, as those are the only points in the game where Joker's bedroom acts as the Thieves' hideout.
  • Kasumi would have originally met Joker on 4/12 and introduced herself as "Yoshizawa".
  • There are unused study sessions between her and Joker in the files.
  • Kasumi has an unused animation of her cheering the Thieves on before the battle with Yaldabaoth, which presumably would have played had her social link gotten to Rank 5 beforehand.
  • Coding in the game shows that at one point, Kasumi was to use Joker's knife and revolver rather than the rapier and rifle she uses in the final game. Whether these were simply placeholders or Kasumi was intended to have the same load out as Joker to further their similarities is unknown.

Palaces

Kamoshida

• An early trailer showcased a section in Kamoshida's palace where the thieves were turned into mice and had to navigate around without alerting enemies. This puzzle was cut from there and moved to Shido's palace.
• An early trailer had a scene of Joker riding the subway and the train violently shakes after another speeds past it, implying that the train crash was supposed to happen on his first day of school.
• Shujin Academy was originally much larger and located right next to the real life Tokyo Tower landmark, rather than the in-universe replacement Sky Tree Tower. In the game's credits, Tokyo Tower is still given a special thanks.
• The interior of Kamoshida's Castle looked more like a twisted, medieval version of the school rather than a medieval castle.
• Various pieces of Dummied Out content suggest that the game was going to have more stealth moments in order to handle the Targets. Kamoshida originally was supposed to send the volleyball team after you to detain you, requiring Joker to stealthily escape the school or else be forced to waste an afternoon.
• A ton of unused rooms for Kamoshida's Palace still remain in the game, with most of them being for the dungeon area, which only gets visited briefly in game. Adding to this is that the final game's models for Kamoshida's Palace still have unseen geometry likely linking them to these unused locations. One of these rooms ended up being used in Persona 5 Royal for one of the Will Seed rooms.
• An event present in the trailers for ''Royal'' but unused in the final release involves flipping a switch on a giant statue of Shadow Kamoshida in his palace to proceed.
• Kamoshida's boss fight originally had him riding a chariot pulled by giant cognitive versions of the volleyball team.
• In Royal, the developers wanted to make Ann unable to attack the Cognitive Shiho in Kamoshida's boss fight, but it was too difficult to program.

Madarame:

• The scrapped disguise/sneaking mechanic was also meant to be used to get close to Madarame, presumably during the point in the arc when the Thieves were gathering evidence against him.

Niijima

• Leviathan was originally fought in the Casino's battle arena.
• There's dialogue for an unused cutscene involving the thieves having to play Poker against Shadow Sae in the Casino Palace in order to proceed past the High Roller's floor.

Shido

• Shido's boss fight ended with him (or at least his shadow) suffering a Disney Villain Death. This was probably discarded when the narrative rules of the Metaverse were more firmly put in place.
• The Palace was almost hilariously over the top◊, in addition to it being much, much bigger than the final version. It had a giant ferris wheel, a roller coaster that went into the sky, a space shuttle launch pad, complete with rocket, and behind all of that was an entire city located at the back. It also took place at night, with Zeppelins patrolling the sky.
• Black Mask has two unused voice clips intended for when he uses skills he doesn't have in the game, with one of them being intended for an Ice skill and the other being intended for the skill Bloodbath. He still retains the passive Ice Boost skill in his move set for the final game despite lacking an Ice skill.

The Public's Palace/End-game

• Some datamined textures for Yaldabaoth was internally referred to as "metathron". While the exact reason for this is not known, it would suggest that the design was originally supposed to be Metatron before being changed to fit with the Gnostic themes (note that Yaldabaoth has a "robotic angel" design just like Metatron has always had in the Shin Megami Tensei series). This could also explain why Metatron does not appear with the angels in the final area before your battle with Yaldabaoth. In the finished game, Metatron is instead the ultimate persona of the Justice arcana and cannot be fought as an enemy anywhere in the base game, although he does appear at one point in Royal's challenge battles.
• In the original game's unused files, their is a scrapped Non-Standard Game Over for failing to complete Mementos Depths before December 25th where, like the other game over cutscenes you get for failing to complete a palace by it's deadline, the police arrive at Cafe Leblanc and arrest you. Unlike all of the other ones however, the police instead arrive to congratulate you for doing nothing and tell you that you've been chosen by a God and you're an inmate with Sojiro wishing he was also an inmate as well along with both the cops and Sojiro stating that the world will be in ruin soon, showing that even Sojiro was now under the influence of the Holy Grail despite being a Confidant. It was later scrapped entirely when it was decided to make it mandatory to complete the palace on December 24th.

Third Semester Palace

• In Royal, Black Mask has a mostly-complete set of lines as the Phantom Thieves' navigator. In-game, you can only hear these lines briefly on 1/2 and 1/9, and you don't have the necessary conditions to trigger some of them, such as being afflicted with the Hunger or Rattled status conditions, which are unique to Okumura's and Shido's palaces.
• There is an alternate version of the Valentine's Day event, where as part of Maruki's perfect world, Joker is allowed to openly receive chocolate from every love interest in the game as well as Sae.
• There is an alternate, fully-voiced version of Akechi's third Persona awakening where he and Joker would have met at the jazz club. The cutscene we got instead is much more heavily-integrated into the plot of Royal.
• The multiplatform port has assets for scenes related to the third semester's final boss sequence left behind for some reason. In the game, all of these scenes are pre-rendered movies instead of in-engine, which these assets were meant to be used for, but even then the setup is incomplete.

Post-Game

• There is an unused Valentine's Day cutscene where Ryuji stops by before Joker's homeroom class, and Morgana finds a mysterious chocolate gift inside of Joker's desk.
• There's an alternate version of the White Day event, where as a part of Maruki's perfect world, Sojiro and Morgana work on an "over-the-top" plan to have Joker return the favor to every love interest in the game. Also, Morgana gets his sushi.
• There is an unused cutscene where Sojiro and Sae hold a party for all of the adult confidants at Crossroads to celebrate Joker's acts of justice. The adult confidants end up discussing their problems and how Joker helped their lives out. Sojiro remarks how if someone offered him the chance to change all of their problems, he wouldn't take that offer.
• Royal has unused confidant items for Akechi, Kasumi and Maruki; said characters are the only human confidants not to have them. These items would have presumably been given to Joker during the ending if the characters' confidants were maxed out beforehand.

Confidants

• Unused text strings found in the game's code suggests that social link reversal and breakage were supposed to return, only worse. Here, not only would breaking social links would bar you from fusing Personas of their respective arcana, but you permanently lose the abilities you've gained from their progressing their links. Luckily it didn't make it into the final game. In the final game, links can no longer be reversed or broken.
• Unused dialogue for Sae Niijima has her commenting on things such as the weather and having short quips such as saying Hello and Goodbye, much like the other confidants. Considering that she cannot be interacted with outside of the story until after her Palace, this heavily implies that she was going to be a regular Confidant rather than one scripted by the story like Morgana and Akechi. The biggest find is that there is unused dialogue that is very romantic in nature, indicating she was planned to be another love interest for Joker. However, they were likely scrapped along with ranks 7, 8, and 9 of her Confidant, explaining why it automatically leaps from rank 6 to rank 10.
• A dummied-out cutscene for the beginning of Mishima's Confidant shows that, when the first rank is attained, Igor was supposed to appear near Joker and briefly tell him the importance of bonds. Similar dialogue for Igor exists, without cutscenes, for all other Confidants except Caroline and Justine, Akechi, Sae and Igor himself. In the final game, this is replaced with the "I am thou, thou art I" speech voiced by Lavenza.
  • Also during Mishima's Confidant when the party confronts Shadow Mishima, each party member was originally planned to have a line to say when you confront him. In the final game however, only Ryuji's line is actually used. While Sumire can also appear with the party if they do this during the Third Semester in "Royal", they have no lines for the scene coded in.
• There are voice clips for most of the party members and Confidants saying some variation of "Let me explain!" followed by "And that's it!" In the final game, only Sojiro uses these clips (and only "Let me explain!") when accompanied with the coffee descriptions.
• The school cafeteria was originally another place to hang out with Confidants (though likely limited to school-related characters). In-game, the cafeteria only appears in Rank 4 of Futaba's Confidant and in Kasumi's Confidant in Royal, with only the level of detail put into it serving as a hint to its original purpose, and Joker walks in front of its entrance during Kawakami's Confidant.
• Unused data from the original game reveals that the World Arcana was originally planned to be its own Confidant instead of just being given to the protagonist at the end of the game. However, it's unknown if it was going to be another character before it was cut out. In the final game, the only Persona that is still listed with the World Arcana is the DLC exclusive Izanagi-no-Okami.
• Like the above example, unused data in the original game also reveals that the Aeon Arcana from the Updated Re Release versions of Persona 3 and Persona 4 was planned to return once again as another Confidant before it was scrapped and was replaced in "Royal" by the Faith and Counciler Arcanas.

Misc/Other

• A number of eye cut-ins did not make it into the final game. While the majority of them are for the Shadow Selves of the villains, there's also a nefarious one of either Akechi or his Cognitive double with a maniacal smile on his face.
• The Velvet Room was originally more fancy looking, with a large stained glass window, an aquarium and multiple floors. A revised design more resembled the version used in the final version but with a large guard dog by Igor's side and a singular, adult warden as opposed to Caroline and Justine.
• The game difficulty would have been set by how the player chose to respond to one of Sae's interrogation questions, instead of through a traditional out-of-universe menu.
• Some notable miscellaneous unused images you can extract from the disc are some unused Security Meter Icons (one of Kamoshida's real self,^note Which is impossible to see in-game, because the meter cannot be seen at all before meeting Shadow Kamoshida one of a more visible Shadow Futaba, and one of Wakaba herself), a slew of unused Mementos dialogue, and unused facial expressions of Akechi in his Black Mask costume. There's also data from older trailers of regular portraits of the Protagonist, like this one◊, in lieu of the cut-in used whenever you pick his dialogue in the final version.
• Data for various Personas that appeared in past games but didn't make it into this one appear in the game's files. None have models or associated voice clips, but some have compendium entries. The identifiable unused Personas are Alraune, Ares, Alilat, Hachiman, Helel, Kartikeya, Masakado, Atavaka, Hitokoto-Nushi, Sati, and Yatsufusa. Both Alilat and Atavaka were later added to the roster in Royal, but there was also plans in Royal to include Metis's persona Physce from FES and a Picaro version of it, Orpheus Telos and a Picaro version of it, and finally a "Neo Arséne Picaro" who is actually just Raoul from the final game's DLC before Physce and Orpheus Telos were both scrapped from the DLC.
• Personas only obtainable through fusion cannot be encountered as enemies, yet they all have unique titles for being encountered when not unlocked in the compendium, as well as animations for being hit, dodging, downed, and recovering. While most, like Odin and Metatron, share animations with other Personas, others have completely unique movements, as seen with Alice's dodge◊ and approach◊, Yoshitsune's knockdown◊, and pretty much everything Cybele related◊.
• A character that resembles a female version of the protagonist can be found hidden in a model for some buildings. While the model seems to have been used for size reference, she makes an appearance in concept art alongside the male protagonist but is nowhere to be found in-game.
• An unused graphic for a Lockpicking Minigame implies that Lockpicking was originally going to be more complex than it was in the final game.
• There would have been a way to scan QR codes scattered around Tokyo in "Royal" to unlock Personas in Persona O.A.. While the tutorial for this mechanic still exists in the game's data, it was removed when "Persona O.A." shut down it's servers two months before the Japanese release of "Royal".
• There is an alternate first encounter cutscene with Jose where you find him drinking flowers at Rafflesia, and he's surprised that someone (Joker) can see him.
• Hidden in the files for Royal are three trios of scenes that depict the backstories for Kamoshida, Madarame, and Okumura which were meant to be played when you get their Will Seeds. This indicates that there were plans to do this for all the Palace rulers, backed up by the Depths of Mementos, the only Palace not ruled by a single person, being the only Palace to lack Will Seeds. The basic concept was ultimately used in Strikers.
• In the files for the original game are unused scenes with full voice acting showing Ann spying on the protagonist, Morgana and Ryuji after they exit the airsoft gun shop and Akechi actually taking the pictures of the Phantom Thieves leaving Okumura's palace while saying checkmate and the thieves discussing Akechi's trap with the thieves faking fear after learning that the police entered Sae Nijima's palace and two officers from the strike force discussing the whole situation before one of them reminds the other one that they aren't supposed to talk about it.
• Unused Text in the base game reveals that there were originally two more part-time jobs that the protagonist could take with one of them being working at a Karaoke Bar and the other is a Cram School Tutor.
• There was originally going to be more options to customize your attic room in Leblanc outside of Confidant gifts with multiple options to change the sofa and it's cushion, your bedsheets with one option even being that of the main characters from Persona Q and even Cat beds for Morgana.
• There was going to be an option to buy a CD player for your room in the Shibuya underground mall as well as multiple CD's which likely would have acted as the game's sound test for the original base game. While the option was cut in the original, the option to listen to the game's music was revisited and added in "Royal" for the Thieves Den.
• Unused Data reveals that party members would have had the ability to follow the protagonist in the real world outside of Palaces. In the final game, only Ryuji can follow the protagonist outside of his Phantom Thieves attire when he enters Kamoshida's palace with him for the first time. Since the other characters models for the animations are low resolution and unfinished, it's implied to have been cut out early on with only the above example kept in as a leftover.
• There was originally going to be a disguise mechanic in the game where the player in palaces could disguise as one of the guard shadows and wouldn't have to fight. The time you could be disguised would have been limited with a meter showing the time left and you couldn't stay in disguise when you had to do certain actions like opening certain doors. Interestingly, the mechanic is actually completed in the games files, implying that it was cut out later in development. In "Royal", getting all the will seeds rewards the player with an accessory that when worn will allow them to not be seen by enemies at all, a possible reference to the original mechanic.
• There was a scrapped mechanic where each character would receive a "Get EXP" sceen with Joker laughing in the background while a "Wanted" poster of him would show along with a "level" for it. It's implied to have been for an earlier version of Mementos Quests.
• Dummied Out content indicates that the scene where the girls beat up Ryuji after Shido's Palace originally had more dialogue, and everyone (rather than just Ann) is shown attacking him. Even Yusuke gets in on it, whereas he just stood back in the original scene. Makoto, Yusuke, and Futaba even make not-very-implicit death threats towards Ryuji, with only Morgana pulling an Everyone Has Standards by standing up for him. The extra lines are voiced, and there are even unused models for the scene (one of which implies that even Joker got in on it). The increased hostility towards Ryuji doesn't really help with the Values Dissonance that the scene already had.
• Between both the original game and "Royal", there were 29 Mementos Requests that were cut out entirely with only some data of their existence remaining. While a few of them that involved part-time jobs were just alternate versions of one's that actually got in the game such as the Florist's mother being the original target for the flower shop, each of the Phantom Thieves including the ones from "Royal" had requests themselves with the one for Ann having someone targeting Shiho, implying that Shiho was originally going to have a larger role beyond the first arc of the game. Interestingly, these missions would have allowed you to talk the targets out of fighting you. In the final game, only Futaba has a Mementos request that is mandatory to advance her Confidant while Morgana's request was added in Royal regarding the Crazy Cat Lady.
• In the original base game's data, there are multiple location and shop name cards that are unused, including one for Miyashita Park, which were later added back in Royal.
• During the Hawaii school trip, there was a scrapped story scene that took place in front of the king Kamehameha statue with the data for the location still in the game files.
• Characters were originally going to comment about the costume they were wearing at the time, something that was previously in Persona 4. However, the feature was cut in the final game with the dialogue still in the game's code.
• In Royal, there is an unused but fully voiced set of lines with Iwai that had him discuss the Will Seeds and that he knew someone in Kikujoji that would be into them instead, implying that José was originally going to be located there instead of Mementos like he is in the final game.
• Cut voice lines during the Junya Kaneshiro arc had Makoto and Kanashiro and his shadow reveal that some of the students he blackmailed were even being forced into prostitution just to pay back their debts with his Shadow, implying the same thing would happen to Makoto as well. While the Non-Standard Game Over for not completing Kaneshiro's palace in time heavily implies that this is what happens to Makoto after she was drugged and beaten, the lines were cut due to this potentially affecting the age rating for the game.
• A scrapped scene from the Shido Arc showed the perspective of the current prime minister regarding the situation with Shido's growing popularity along with discussing how the Phantom Thieves were the cause of all of the changes that had happened in the last year.
• A scrapped animated cutscene for the beginning of the Third Semester that was actually shown in the trailers for Royal had Joker see that everyone was frozen in place as he heard the voice of Sumire on one of the screens in his location say that she was the one responsible for ruining that dream.
• When the protagonist confronted his teammates when they were still under Maruki's manipulations in Royal, all of them originally had fully voiced lines where they were more confrontational towards the protagonist about being happy as they were at that point. Since these scenes aren't fully voiced in the final game, they were likely rewritten at the last minute before the game was released.

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