Yesterday morning, Atlus unveiled a new trailer for the latest game in the supernatural JRPG series Persona, revealing the games' main character. Within a matter of minutes after the reveal, fans celebrated a character they know barely anything about with some wonderful, wonderful art.
Header Image Credit: すばる@インテ多謝！次スパーク on Pixiv
Not much is known about the protagonist - the game as well, considering up until yesterday the only image from it was a set of chairs and an ominous tag line - but a little thing like that hasn't stopped people from freaking out about him:
(It bears noting that outside of spin-off titles and rereleases, there hasn't been a new mainline Persona game since Persona 4 in 2008. Combine that with a dedicated, if niche fanbase, and... yeah.)
But what it also hasn't stopped is amazing fan art!
Image Credit: Potatocrisp on Tumblr
A lot of it imagined the reactions of former Persona protagonists - especially those of Persona 3 and Persona 4, the most popular games of the series in the west - meeting the new member of their 'club'.
There's also an awful lot of shackles:
Image Credit: みぃ on Pixiv
Image Credit: Smaskvxn on Tumblr
Mainly because, like the school chairs, that's really the only other part of Persona 5's imagery that we know of yet - as well as a theme about its characters feeling imprisoned by the society around them. So yes, lots of chains around this new guy seems to be fandom's current go-to.
There was also some funny stuff too - including the protagonist's (and the citizens of Tokyo around him) fixation with his phone:
Image Credit: Rocket Surgeon on Tumblr
And finally, a pretty meta reaction from our new hero based on Atlus' current love of all things Persona spinoff:
Image Credit: Bedsafely on Tumblr
Oh yes, new protagonist. I see a lot of dancing in your future.
Persona 5 releases in Japan next year, on the Playstation 3 and Playstation 4.
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