Persona 5

Persona 5 is the sixth installment in the Persona series. It is proceeded by Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and is succeeded by Persona 5 Strikers. Ren Amimaya is the main protagonist and Masayoshi Shido is the main antagonist. The Seven Deadly Sins are the villainous faction in this game.

Persona 5 is the fifth numbered game in the Persona series, the sixth in total. It is the third game not to be directly connected to its predecessor, where starting with Persona 3 set a precedent for later Persona games.

Persona 5 first released on the PlayStation 3 in 2016.

Starting in 2016, a manga adaptation by Murasaki Hisato was released. In 2019 VIZ Media began publishing it in the United States.

Starting in 2018, an anime adaptation titled Persona 5 The Animation was released by CloverWorks. It ran for 26 episodes.

In 2019 an enhanced version of Persona 5 titled Persona 5 Royal was released on the PlayStation 4. It featured new gameplay enhancements as well as two new social links, and a third semester added to the school year.

Official Description
Persona 5 is a fantasy based on reality which follows a group of troubled high school students: the protagonist and a collection of compatriots he meets along the way. These disturbed and troubled teenagers gradually realize that they are living in a toxic and dangerous world resembling a prison full of slavery, oppression and injustice, ruled by corrupted and twisted adults. They can't live with the system and can't live without it, and simply existing means they are at risk of being doomed and condemned to a life of slavery.

Summary
At the start of the game, the protagonist is seen infiltrating a casino, with his teammates guiding him via voice. The police spot the protagonist, and they begin to close in and nearly capture him. Eventually, he reaches the other side of the casino and one of the guards reveals themselves to be a Shadow, which bursts into a Moloch to attack him. He defeats it and proceeds to nearly escape the casino. However, once outside, he is outnumbered, cornered and arrested by the police.

Detained, the protagonist is brought to the interrogation room in the police station where the officers drug him, beat him and manipulate him to signing his name on a falsified confession of the alleged crimes he's committed thus far. Afterward, Prosecutor Sae Niijima asks him about the events of the year. For most of the game, he is testifying the events for her in the interrogation room, and his testimony might overturn the seemingly hopeless situation, or cause his demise.

The story focuses on the 16-year-old protagonist after he is transferred to Shujin Academy in Tokyo, Japan, after he is put on probation after confronting a man harassing a woman, and subsequently being detained by the police because of the alleged injuries he's inflicted on that man. During his probation, he stays with his parents' friend Sojiro Sakura who owns a coffee shop called Café Leblanc, where he lets the protagonist live in an upstairs storage room. He heads to bed, and in his dreams he is summoned to the Velvet Room, where he is also on probation, set by Igor, the master of the Velvet Room. The two wardens that guard the place, Caroline and Justine, are also introduced. He proceeds to wake up to the next morning in reality shortly thereafter.

On his first day headed to Shujin, the protagonist meets his classmate Ann Takamaki, who gets a ride to the school, and problem student Ryuji Sakamoto, who helps him find his way to the school. However, after Ryuji complains about the physical education teacher Suguru Kamoshida, who was the man who gave Ann a ride, he and the protagonist accidentally activate a mysterious app on the protagonist's phone, sending them to a castle full of hideous monsters. Just as they are about to be executed by a Mr. Kamoshida lookalike, the protagonist awakens to his Persona Arsène. Arsene and the protagonist save himself and Ryuji from death at the hands of the Shadow minions. While trying to escape, they also encounter a talking, cat-like creature who calls himself Morgana, who they make a deal with, helping one another in the process. He teaches them about the nature of the Metaverse, ranging from Palaces, Personas (his own being Zorro) and Shadows; Soon thereafter, he joins the protagonist in the real world disguised as an ordinary housecat.

Over the next few days, while trying to adjust to life as a student, he and Ryuji revisit the Palace for clues to unveil Kamoshida for who he is. There, due to Ryuji's will to rebel against unjustness, since his name is already tainted because of his past within the school, he awakens to Captain Kidd. The two are later taught by Morgana that the Palaces are the representation of the distorted desires of the people around them, and discover the only way to get rid of a Palace is to steal its owner's hidden Treasure, changing their heart in the process. In addition, it's revealed that the Kamoshida found in the Castle is his Shadow self; the manifestation of his true personality if allowed to do whatever he pleases. Although the risk of causing a mental shutdown within the user and erasing their desire to live causes them to hesitate at first, this reaches a level of urgency when their attempts to reveal that Kamoshida has been physically and sexually abusing students in his role as volleyball coach backfire, as they and Yuuki Mishima (a member of the volleyball team who is being abused) end up confronting Kamoshida in his office, with him announcing they will all be expelled at the next board meeting for attempting to defy him.

They are soon joined by Ann, who is accidentally drawn into the Metaverse with them, and discovers the truth about Kamoshida's true personality after witnessing her friend Shiho Suzui attempt suicide due to Kamoshida's advances, gaining the Persona Carmen as well. She awakens to her Persona to enact revenge on Kamoshida, to ensure her friend Shiho isn't taken advantage of ever again. The group soon names themselves the "Phantom Thieves of Hearts" during their quest to steal the treasure from Kamoshida's Palace, leaving a calling card to prove their existence to the ruler, a necessity to causing his treasure to manifest a physical form, and ultimately preventing the protagonist, Ryuji and Mishima's expulsion from school when Kamoshida admits guilt in his abuse of the students.

The protagonist, Ryuji, and Ann also promise to help Morgana with his own quest: to investigate the depths of Mementos, the collective unconscious of society, in order to recover his lost memories and discover his origins. Meanwhile, Mishima promises the protagonist that he will make up for his mistakes in helping Kamoshida by opening a Phantom Thieves fansite, as he has surmised that the protagonist is responsible for the change of heart, allowing the public to air possible grievances linked to people's Shadow selves becoming distorted.

While investigating Mementos, the team discovers a Shadow self, who when defeated reveals his distortions were born from mistreatment by his former art mentor, Ichiryusai Madarame. They are soon entangled in this situation when Ann is approached by Madarame's current pupil, Yusuke Kitagawa, who wishes Ann to model for him. They discover that Madarame has been plagiarizing his students' work for his own personal gain, and try to get this information out of Yusuke to no avail, but they do discover Madarame's Palace, a massive art museum displaying all of his students as his previous "works of art." In their ploy to reach the treasure, Ann agrees to model for Yusuke while Morgana attempts to pick a lock on a door in the real world, ultimately revealing the truth about Madarame to Yusuke. Ann and Morgana panic when Madarame threatens to call the cops, and in desperation, traveling to the Palace and taking Yusuke along with them, where he confronts Shadow Madarame, revealing his own part in the death of Yusuke's mother, thus allowing Yusuke to no longer make excuses for the truth. He awakens to his own Persona Goemon, to ensure that no one else mistakes "beauty" and "vice." After stealing the treasure and defeating Madarame's Shadow, the real Madarame publicly apologizes for his plagiarism, and Yusuke joins the Phantom Thieves, seeking to develop his own art style in the wake of being abused for so many years. A few days later, teen celebrity Goro Akechi appears on TV, denouncing the Phantom Thieves as criminals who tamper with people's hearts.

During that time, the Shujin Academy student council president, Makoto Niijima, has been pressured by Principal Kobayakawa to seek out the identities of the Phantom Thieves to assist the police, unaware that the principal has ulterior motives. She successfully deduces that the protagonist, Ryuji, Ann and Yusuke are the Phantom Thieves in question, and blackmails them into uncovering a criminal ring that is shaking down students. The protagonist talks to various people, eventually meeting with journalist Ichiko Ohya, discovering the crime ring is lead by Junya Kaneshiro, but their inability to meet with Kaneshiro in person leads to Makoto confronting Kaneshiro herself, putting all of them in trouble when he blackmails them for millions of yen, proclaiming he will release pictures framing them of doing illegal acts. However, this brash action on Makoto's part allows them to discover the nature of Kaneshiro's Palace being a bank covering Shibuya. Shortly thereafter, Makoto's disgust at the nature of Kaneshiro's actions, and her own perceived ineptitude at solving the problem awakens her Persona Johanna, vowing to be the subservient honor student no longer. With Makoto's help as a strategist for the Phantom Thieves, they successfully steal Kaneshiro's treasure, freeing them from his blackmail and leading to his arrest.

Over summer vacation, the Phantom Thieves are taunted by the hacker collective Medjed when they are suddenly approached by another mysterious hacker named "Alibaba" who wants them to steal a heart: their own. Alibaba's actions lead them to discover that Alibaba is none other than Futaba Sakura, Sojiro's adoptive daughter who has become a shut-in after the trauma of witnessing her own mother's death and being blamed for it by men in black suits who read her a fake suicide note, it exclaiming it was her daughter's fault she killed herself. In her Palace, which represents a "tomb" she feels trapped in, they discover that Futaba wants her treasure stolen in order to free herself of her suicidal thoughts and her guilt towards her mother's death. When Futaba discovers she too can enter her own Palace, she is confronted by her own Shadow while the Phantom Thieves face off against her cognitive view of her mother Wakaba Isshiki, who has become a monstrous beast in her mind. When Futaba finally accepts that she is not at fault for her mother's death and that she was murdered, and did not commit suicide, her Shadow transforms into the Persona Necronomicon, allowing her to help the Phantom Thieves turn the tide in battle against the monster, and successfully changing her heart and freeing her of her guilt. The Phantom Thieves also discover that Wakaba was researching cognitive psience, which has some connection to the world of the Metaverse, which includes Mementos, Palaces, and Personas.

As summer vacation winds down and Futaba spends her first day outside, the Phantom Thieves bask in the glory of their newfound fame, spanning from going to the beach and going on a school trip abroad to Hawaii. They make additional use of their status by implementing a poll on the PhanSite, asking users to vote on the group's next target. However, due to the influence of their fame, they started to simply enjoy the attention, thinking about the next biggest target instead of saving people in need. This includes a depressed Morgana, who, after being unable to find any viable information about who he is for months, began to worry about his identity, role and worth in the group to a harming degree.

However, upon their return from their trip from Hawaii, the group is brought back to their senses when they discover Principal Kobayakawa mysteriously died en route to the police, which forced several third-year students to act as chaperones so other teachers can stay behind and respond to police inquiries. During their meeting on the winner of the new poll, Kunikazu Okumura, they suddenly begin to question if they should target him solely based on the general public's say. However, their aforementioned thirst for popularity sparked a misunderstanding and an argument between Morgana and the rest of the group, with Morgana's identity crisis ultimately leading to him leaving the group in order to prove himself, asserting he'll catch the supposed culprit behind the mental shutdowns all by himself.

Worried about him, the Phantom Thieves investigate Okumura's Palace, which resembles a space station. On they way, they discover that Okumura views his employees as replaceable robots. Although this spurs them to infiltrate his palace, they discover Morgana has taken a new Phantom Thief under his wing, who is able to get through the Palace's biometric scanners, and the next day they discover she is none other than Okumura's own daughter, Haru Okumura, who claims to also want to change her father's heart to end his mistreatment of his employees. However, upon trying to get them to join their side and work together, Haru refuses as they don't know what they want, and will instead tackle the issue on her own with Morgana.

However, Haru's claims on why she wants to steal her father's heart are only a superficial reason, as she's only spurred by his selfish attempts to use her for his own means by arranging a marriage with Sugimura, the son of an influential politician. Because she didn't admit these motives to herself, her Persona is very weak and unstable, thus meaning she isn't a optimal fighter against Shadows. Eventually, Morgana's ill-feelings towards the others are mended through their shared desire to help Haru after her confrontation from her abusive fiancé. Additionally, Haru encourages Morgana to overcome his fears of who he is, allowing himself to rejoin the Phantom Thieves. Haru joins the team as well, later awakening her Persona Milady's full power when confronting the cognitive version of Sugimura in her father's palace.

Together, the Phantom Thieves manage to steal Okumura's treasure and give him a change of heart, but after they leave, a mysterious figure kills Okumura's Shadow. While the Phantom Thieves celebrate Haru's success at Tokyo Destinyland, they watch in horror as Mr. Okumura suddenly collapses on live television after suffering a mental shutdown, since the Shadow self in the Palace was killed. The general public gradually believes the Phantom Thieves to be responsible for his murder, rendering them infamous and detested. During the ensuing investigation, Haru overhears that Principal Kobayakawa also received a calling card, leading her to question if the Phantom Thieves were behind his death as well, which they all know is not the truth, as he was never targeted, nor sent a calling card by the Phantom Thieves. The turn of events has also boosted Akechi's popularity, leading Makoto to request he visit them for the cultural festival. He hesitates, but eventually accepts her offer.

During a speech on stage at the festival, Akechi reveals he has surmised the identities of the Phantom Thieves, but before he announces this he receives a call, and asks the gang to speak to him in private. He reveals to them all that he has identified them as the Phantom Thieves, and even has evidence of them entering the Metaverse. He says he has also deduced that they cannot be responsible for the murders and mental shutdowns, because he too has entered the Metaverse and encountered the true culprit, only surviving because he obtained his Persona Robin Hood to defend himself. He convinces them to infiltrate the palace of public prosecutor Sae Niijima, Makoto's sister, because he has discovered that she has had her sense of justice twisted to the point that she needs a change of heart, and will falsely convict someone of being the Phantom Thieves without their intervention.

Inside Niijima's Palace, which has turned the district courthouse into a rigged casino, they discover the source of her twisted desire to obtain a guilty verdict no matter the cost, and successfully defeat her Shadow self. They convince her to change her ways, when suddenly the Palace is infiltrated by dozens of police officers from the real world. The protagonist agrees to go off on his own to distract the cops, allowing his friends to go free, when he is captured and told one of his teammates has sold him out.

In police custody, the protagonist is drugged, beaten and forced to sign a false confession. Shortly afterward, Sae comes into the room to interrogate him, which has been seen in a series of flash-forwards since the protagonist began his probation in Tokyo. This brings the game back to where it started and concludes it. Depending on how the protagonist responds to Sae's questioning, he either reveals the names of his friends and accomplices, leading to a "bad ending" where he is assassinated by the traitor, or the drugs begin to wear off and he remembers the truth, convincing Sae to take his cellphone and show it to Akechi on the way out of the interrogation cell. She questions the move heavily, but ultimately agrees to aid the protagonist since her time is up to interrogate him any further.

After Sae leaves, and passes Akechi in the hallway, Akechi speaks to the protagonist himself, taking the guard's gun and murdering the guard and the protagonist. The next day, the news announces that the leader of the Phantom Thieves has apparently committed suicide in custody; however, on the Phantom Thieves' side, everything has actually gone according to plan.

They all meet at Leblanc days later, where it is revealed that the protagonist is alive and well. The Phantom Thieves never stole Sae's treasure, allowing them to use her Palace to deceive Akechi. As everything outside of a Palace looks as it does in reality, the Phantom Thieves intentionally allowed the protagonist to be captured; as Sae interrogated him in the police station, a cognitive duplicate was created within the Metaverse. When Sae showed Akechi the protagonist's phone, Futaba remotely activated the MetaNav and transported them into her Palace; Akechi then proceeded to kill the cognitive duplicate of the protagonist, assuming that he had killed the real one, while Sae rescued the protagonist and brought him to Leblanc.

The Phantom Thieves explain that they knew Akechi was conspiring against them from the start, after Morgana recalled Akechi had heard him speak months earlier at the TV station, when people who haven't entered the Metaverse can only hear him meow in the real world. With Sojiro and Sae's help, the Phantom Thieves realize that they have been manipulated by Masayoshi Shido from the start, as he has been conspiring to use the Phantom Thieves to bolster his popularity among people to become prime minister, and he has been using Wakaba Isshiki's research on cognitive psience to manipulate the Metaverse to his own ends as well.

All of the other Palaces they had infiltrated had some sort of direct connection to Shido's plans: Principal Kobayakawa knowingly let Kamoshida abuse students and tried to use Makoto to silence the controversy surrounding the school, Madarame's plagiarized art helped fund Shido as did Kaneshiro's blackmail schemes, the Medjed impersonator was one of Shido's cronies who intended to admit defeat on the day of the cleanse in order to bolster the Phantom Thieves' popularity (Futaba's hacking into them was an unexpected event, but was ignored as it worked in their favor,) and Okumura was a party to the conspiracy, using it to further himself until he became a liability, leading to the hacking of the Phantom Aficionado Website to push Okumura to the top of their rankings so that the Conspiracy could frame them for his murder.

A confrontation with Shido later leads the protagonist to remember that Shido was the one who led to his false arrest earlier in the year, all as part of his attempts to keep his record spotless and win the election to Prime Minister of Japan with no opposition. After figuring out his cognition of the National Diet, the Phantom Thieves infiltrate his Palace to find a cruise ship sailing through a sinking Japan, where they confront Cognitive beings who Shido has managed to turn into powerful Shadows to protect him.

Once they defeat all five men, they are confronted by Akechi who has realized that the protagonist never died. He fights the Phantom Thieves, revealing his innate power to drive people's hearts mad, and admitting that he is the one behind all of the mental shutdown incidents before. This is all part of his plan to get Shido into power and then hold power over him when he reveals to the new Prime Minister that he is his bastard son, all in revenge for driving his mother to suicide. When he is finally defeated by the Phantom Thieves, he drives his own heart mad and summons his true Persona, Loki, to battle them once more.

After they successfully defeat him again, Shido's cognitive version of Akechi appears to kill the real Akechi for failing him, as Shido has already surmised that he is his son, and hence cannot have any loose ends that might threaten his power. Akechi, however, has realized the error in his ways and makes amends with the Phantom Thieves, locking him up in a room with the cognitive version of himself while saving the others. The Phantom Thieves then make it to the site of the treasure, and return to the real world to film a video broadcast to all of Japan that their leader is still alive and they will make Shido pay for his misdeeds.

They successfully defeat Shadow Shido, but this makes the real Shido realize that something is amiss, so he attempts to kill the Phantom Thieves by taking a poison that will temporarily kill him upon ingestion, destroying his Palace and everyone inside. The Phantom Thieves barely make it out alive, and Shido's aides discover that they successfully changed his heart, and later he admits all his wrongdoings live on television after his party's victory in the Diet, making his aides panic. However, the public seems to think that Shido was simply ill, and believe the Phantom Thieves neither had anything to do with it, nor existed in the first place.

This leads the Phantom Thieves to investigate Mementos on Christmas Eve in order to enact a change of heart on everyone by stealing the public unconscious's treasure. Delving into the depths of Mementos, they discover that the people of Tokyo have suddenly decided to allow themselves to be imprisoned by the impositions of society at large, that it is easier to allow themselves to give into a greater force controlling them, than make their own decisions on their lives. They soon encounter the public's treasure, a giant Holy Grail. However, they soon find out it is the true ruler of the prison, which speaks to them and demands that they submit to its power. They are unsuccessful in defeating the Holy Grail, as it is protected by the masses' support. They are ejected from Mementos, only to find that the real world and the Metaverse are beginning to fuse together, with the masses being ultimately ignorant to the state of affairs. As the Thieves have left the public's cognition, they become erased, as they do not have any place in the fused world now.

The protagonist awakens in the Velvet Room once more, where Igor berates him for failing, and orders Caroline and Justine to execute him. With the inmate left nearly dead, the two girls realize that something is amiss. They understand once more their duty is not to kill, but to rehabilitate, commanding the protagonist to fuse them together just as they had fused Personas for him over the past year. This transforms the two of them into their original form: Lavenza. She then reveals that "Igor" is an impostor who has rigged all of the past year's events against the protagonist, in a game to decide the fate of humanity with both the protagonist and Goro Akechi as the "players." The terms of the game were supposed to be that if Akechi won, the world would be destroyed and rebuilt, and if the protagonist won, the world would stay as is. However, the false "Igor" rigged the game, now refusing to allow the protagonist to win. The false "Igor" then presents the protagonist with a choice: either allow him to control humanity and become his assistant, restoring the world to normal but not allowing the people to think for themselves, or refuse to assist him altogether. The false "Igor" says the Phantom Thieves will gain fame and praise in exchange as well, should he accept this deal.

Should he accept, the bad ending will start playing, but not before Lavenza express her shock and disappointment to him for accepting the false god's deal. Should he refuse, "Igor" leaves to become one with the Holy Grail once more, and Lavenza reveals the true Igor has been trapped here all this time and that the protagonist's friends are alive elsewhere in the "jail" of the Velvet Room. After freeing his imprisoned friends via convincing them to not give up, they regain their rebellious spirit and all convene in the Velvet Room. Lavenza and the real Igor explain the situation to the Phantom Thieves, urging the protagonist to not let the world end in ruin. Morgana has finally remembered that the real Igor created him using the hopes of humanity's freedom, to find the true Trickster and aid him on his journey to stop the evil entity behind the Holy Grail. They all agree to help, and they are led out of the Velvet Room by Morgana. When they exit the Velvet Room and end up back in Shibuya, Morgana glows a bright light, bringing the Phantom Thieves back to people's minds, albeit vaguely.

The Phantom Thieves go on their true final mission to fight the mastermind, the Holy Grail and the false Igor. Doing so, they travel to the depths of Mementos, defeating the Shadows of the 4 archangels; Uriel, Raphael, Gabriel and Michael on the way, and make it to the Holy Grail once more and battle it. However, it soon transforms into its true form, the God of Control, Yaldabaoth, who punishes the Phantom Thieves with the various Seven Deadly Sins. After a valiant effort, they nearly defeat him, but are then knocked down by his Rays of Control. However, Morgana helps the general public remember the Phantom Thieves, and subsequently, the protagonist's allies and Confidants rally them into rebelling with them. Hearing the cheers of the entirety of Tokyo on their side and freed from Yaldabaoth's control, the Phantom Thieves stand their ground once again and the protagonist awakens his ultimate Persona Satanael. Satanael conjures a bullet made from the Seven Deadly Sins and shoots it towards the now powerless God of Control to deal the final blow. Reverted to its former state as a lifeless grail, Morgana takes it back home. This causes the collapse of the Metaverse entirely, and Morgana, subsequently tied to the other world, bids his friends a fond farewell, with the rest of the Phantom Thieves saddened by this fate.

With everyone saved, and the real world back to normal, the gang decides to hold a party to celebrate their success on Christmas Day. However, the protagonist is approached by Sae, who tells him that in order to prosecute Shido, he must turn himself in to the police to provide testimony so that none of his friends face arrest, due to the fact that Akechi, the perpetrator behind the mental shutdowns, has been reported missing. The other Phantom Thieves learn about this terrible news the next day, and, although unable to use the Metaverse anymore, under Ann's suggestion, they spend the next month trying to free him via ordinary means, as do all of his other Confidants. By spring, Shido has successfully been tried and the actions of the protagonist's friends led to the woman he saved the previous year recanting her testimony against him, overturning his original conviction and clearing his record.

Now a free man, the protagonist returns back to Café Leblanc reunited with everyone. Morgana returns as well, now simply a talking housecat, having survived the collapse of the Metaverse as the rest of the Phantom Thieves kept him in their cognition. He decides to spend the rest of his life with the protagonist to "keep him in line" and to see if there is truly a way for him to become a human. After saying his goodbyes during his last day in Tokyo, the protagonist heads back to his hometown with his friends at his side.

Cast

 * Ren Amimaya - Xander Mobus
 * Morgana - Cassandra Lee Morris
 * Ryuji Sakamoto - Max Mittelman
 * Ann Takamaki - Erika Harlacher
 * Yusuke Kitagawa - Matthew Mercer
 * Makoto Niijima - Cherami Leigh
 * Futaba Sakura - Erica Lindbeck
 * Haru Okumura - Xanthe Huynh
 * Kasumi Yoshizawa - Laura Post
 * Goro Akechi - Robbie Daymond

Spin-Offs
TBA

Trivia

 * Unlike previous Persona titles, which were set in fictional locations, Persona 5 takes place in Tokyo, primarily in the Shibuya ward. A lot of the locales in Persona 5 are heavily based on real-life Tokyo.
 * Because of this, Atlus had to ask Persona fans to stop bothering and inconveniencing the locals and trespassing.
 * The art assets in the game, such as UI and portraits, had to be redrawn and redone when the game was also being developed for PlayStation 4, as it meant a jump from 720p to 1080p. The PlayStation 3 version has a max resolution of 720p.
 * The box art of Persona 5 has a similar style to Persona 4 's, in that the main cast is featured surrounding the protagonist, who stands at the front of the group, with the game's setting and the protagonist's Persona in the background.
 * It's giving Marvel movie poster.
 * Persona 5 includes Nuclear and Psy elemental skills, along with the Kouha and Eiha lines of Light and Dark skills, which have not been seen in the franchise since the Persona 2 duology, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner and the original Megami Ibunroku Persona, respectively.
 * The Arcana written on the tarot cards are based on the Tarot of Marseilles deck, using French names of the cards. The Death tarot card is unnamed accordingly because Death (La Mort) is also known as "The Card with No Name."
 * The credits of Persona 5, while showing the party, does not display the party's Personas, unlike Persona 3 and 4. However, it does show the protagonist awakening to his Persona, whereas the rest of the casts' awakenings are not shown.
 * Persona 5 is the first Persona game to use circular chronology in its storytelling.
 * Persona 5 is the first-ever entry in the entire Megami Tensei series to support dual audio.
 * Persona 5 is the first mainline Persona game to drop the Shin Megami Tensei supertitle after Persona 4 Golden.
 * Persona 5 is the first Persona game whose physical release options are supported on more than two PlayStation consoles, those being the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 (via backwards compatibility support for PS4 titles).
 * While the Persona 2 duology is supported on a grand total of five PlayStation systems, PSVita's backwards compatibility for Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment is only available via online download. Additonally, Eternal Punishment is only available on the PS3 and PSP systems via online download.


 * During the third semester's new alternate ending, Ryuji eats his eho-maki at the north-northwest direction, which matches the same Eho (the direction that one should eat the eho-maki at Setsubun, a 5 year cycle) as 2017.
 * The third awakening scenes were fully dubbed in both the Japanese and international releases, although the voice acting was removed for the final release. The voiced dialogue is significantly different from the actual in-game dialogue in terms of wording. Only Akechi's third awakening remains fully dubbed.
 * This also applies to the counseling sessions throughout the game with the Phantom Thieves and Maruki, and the ideal reality scenes from January 3 to January 8, again with completely different wording on both versions.
 * In the Persona 5 Royal Official Completion Guide, an interview with the staff states that the developers intended for neither of the new endings added in Royal to be considered the "True" ending. Internally, the two endings were referred to as the "stay ending" and "return ending," referring to whether the player chooses to remain in Maruki's reality or to go back to the original reality. The conclusion to the story was meant to be "there is no single path to justice."
 * This is supported by the PlayStation trophy for completing the game, called "The Path Chosen." This achievement unlocks regardless of which ending the player chooses, and is simply described as "Witness the ending," further alluding to the idea that neither ending was meant to be the "true" one.

Continuity

 * A blue butterfly appears to Ren in the beginning of the game. This is Philemon showing himself to Ren, like he did the protagonists from the previous two games.
 * Unlike previous entries in the Persona series, the game takes place in "20XX," leaving the exact year ambiguous. However, in-game references suggest the exact year is 2016; for example, a TV report regarding Rise Kujikawa stating that she "gained a lot of sex appeal since she hit 20," who was 15 during the events of Persona 4, which takes place during 2011. Additionally, examination of the exact dates (via comparing days of the week and leap years) shows that they line up exactly with the 2016 calendar.
 * This is the third time that a Persona game takes place in the same year it was officially released (particularly in Japan). Megami Ibunroku Persona takes place in 1996 and Persona 2: Innocent Sin in 1999.