Interest
Persona Series Director, Character Designer Thank Western Fans
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
The Persona 5 PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 game has shipped more than 1.5 million copies worldwide since its release in Japan on September 15. Series director Katsura Hashino and character designer Shigenori Soejima shared their enthusiasm for the game's success on the North American PlayStation blog on Thursday. Soejima created the image to the right while Hashino shared his feelings in a guest post.
The director wrote that while he knew the game was highly anticipated in the West, he wasn't sure how players would react to the Japanese political commentary within the game.
Persona 5 is also a superhero story in which you fight villains that are born from within society, so I thought that it might be received differently than the previous entries. Of course, it could've missed the mark completely and been criticized for it, so my anticipation and anxiety were split half and half. Since the game just launched in the West, I'd like to look back on it at a later time, once I receive feedback from the Western audience—how their gameplay experiences were, what kind of things they felt, etc. I hope that the tale of Persona 5 will leave a lasting impression on everyone who plays it. No matter what kind of project I take on going forward, I love creating RPGs that are both moving and relatable regardless of cultural differences—in fact, I'm most interested in strengthening those aspects right now.
Atlus USA's Western release was delayed from its previous February 14 release date. However, the company is now offering the Japanese voice track as a free DLC, contrary to the original plan to release the game without a dual-language option.
The game features animation sequences from the Production I.G studio.
