As Akihiko Sanada from Persona 3 would say, “I’ve been waiting for this!”

Fans of arguably the most popular spin-off series in the Shin Megami Tensi franchise, the Persona series, are without a doubt going to have the best year ever in 2014. This year will see the release of four Persona titles. To put that into perspective, the last four non-remake titles in the series have been released over the span of twelve years, starting with Persona 2: Eternal Punishment in 2000 and ending with Persona 4: Arena in 2012. Not only that, but there is something for almost everyone this year. Whether you like the mainline series, fighters, rhythm games or chibi dungeon crawlers, there’s a Persona game coming out for you this year. And I’m going to preview them all at once, in chronological order of their current release dates or release windows in Japan.

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth

The first Persona game expected to come out in 2014, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, leads a long list of deviations in the series. Not only is it the first Persona game for an Nintendo system (an exclusive game for 3DS), it is also the first Persona game to cross the entire playable casts of both Persona 3 and Persona 4 and the first Persona game to adopt a chibi art style.

However, this does not mean that the game just exists for fan service. The story revolves around the P3 and the P4 cast getting trapped in the rumored “Seven Wonders of Yasogami High,” a labyrinth that appears completely out of nowhere on Yasogami High School grounds during the Yasogami Culture Festival along with a giant clock tower that rings for people that are going to die. Because of the controllable character’s isolation, Persona Q will be more of a dungeon crawler like the earlier Persona games than a social simulator.

Two brand new characters are also introduced in the game: Rei and Zen. Rei is a strange but cheerful girl from the parallel world that is always eating, while Zen is the stoic guardian of Ren. Not much is known about them other than they hold the key for everyone to escape the labyrinth and that they conveniently have amnesia.

Judging by the gameplay footage released so far, Persona Q seems to be more or less a fun, more casual Persona game, which is pretty fitting for the Nintendo 3DS. With not everything has been revealed, though, so it will be interesting to see how they use the Wild Card ability (the ability for a persona user to obtain more than one persona and to change personas mid-battle), if they do at all. We’ll just have to see when the game releases in Japan on June 5.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night

Probably the weirdest game developer Atlus announced for the Persona series is Persona 4: Dancing All Night. It’s neither a JRPG nor a social sim, genres the series typically conforms to; it’s a rhythm game. I know that fans do love the music from Persona 4, but this is still way out of left field.

The game’s plot involves Rise Kujikawa, back in the idol world, hearing of a rumored video on a web site that transports you to “the other side” if you watch it at midnight. Suddenly, members of the idol group “Kanamin Kitchen,” including Rise’s peer Kanami Mashita, disappear, and only Rise, the Persona 4 protagonist and other members of the Investigation Team can stop it. Somehow, this leads to defeating shadows in “dance battles.”

Honestly, I have no idea what to expect from Atlus and their collaboration partner, Dingo. The only thing for certain is that the soundtrack is going to be awesome. As for the rest of the game, it can be judged when Dancing All Night comes out for the PlayStation Vita in Japan in Fall 2014.

Persona 4: The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold

The next fighting game in the Persona series, Persona 4: The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold (abbreviated TUUSH) has technically already come out; the sequel to the mildly successful Persona 4: Arena was released in Japanese arcades last year. However, the game will see its console port to the PlayStation 3 at some point during the year.

The gameplay is seen as a general improvement of its predecessor, with many elements being tweaked or balanced out. The most noticeable differences between Arena and TUUSH is the addition of new combos and a system that grants Persona Breaks (combos used with a persona) based on how often such character would use them.

Probably the most anticipated part of the game is the reveal of two new members from SEES (the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad from Persona 3) to the roster: Junpei Iori and Yukari Takeba. The two are now college-aged, with Junpei a little league baseball coach and Yukari a model and actress in Phoenix Ranger Featherman R, a meta TV program referenced in many Persona games. There’s also a brand new character, Sho Minazuki, but not much is known about him other than he’s a loner and kind of a brat.

Even though Arena doesn’t see that much attention nowadays, there’s a good chance that TUUSH will be a hit among both Persona fans and fighting game fans. It doesn’t have an official release date other than “later this year.”

Persona 5

Definitely the most anticipated Persona game to come out this year is Persona 5. Even though barely anything is known about it, there has been an extreme amount of hype concerning the game.

So far, the only information on Persona 5 comes from an interview with series director Katsura Hashino for Persona Magazine. In the interview, Hashino says that Persona 5 is aimed at people who feel like they’re stuck in their lives, saying, “I feel that in today’s world, there’s no shortage of people that are bored and discontent with their lives. They’re at a dead end, chained down to a world of which they resent being a part. Persona 5, in that sense, is a game about freedom, the kind that those sorts of people haven’t had living in the real world.” It’s eerie stuff, even compared to a game in the series as dark as the death-centered Persona 3. He also said that players of Persona 3 and Persona 4 are going to feel “right at home”.

Sadly, not much will be known about Persona 5 until the Tokyo Game Show in September at the very earliest. It has a winter 2014 release date in Japan for the PlayStation 3, making any more news a long ways away. No matter what, though, Persona fans will surely be excited all year for it.

I personally can’t remember a year where any franchise, more or less a Shin Megami Tensi series, was this active with new releases. Whether you’ve been a fan from the beginning in 1996 with Revelations: Persona or a newcomer like me, 2014 is a year of dreams for any Persona fan.

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