The developer of the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona JRPG series is now set to start work on... Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 5, says the man behind Persona 3 and Persona 4.

It's been a long time since we last heard anything about the followup to PS2 swan song Persona 4 - the last we heard, longtime Atlus composer Shoji Meguro had been credited with doing the soundtrack to Persona 5, but nothing concrete materialized from those rumors.

Now, however, we may have something definite, reports Kotaku. Katsura Hashino, who previously worked as producer and director on both Persona 3 and Persona 4, told Japanese game mag Dengeki PlayStation that work was beginning on the next Persona - but that things might be changing up a bit.

"We are preparing to start work on the next Persona," said Hashino. "I want to add things that are being expected of the series," he elaborated, but added that he also wanted "to change things that can be changed within those boundaries."

Smart money says the next game will likely be about Japanese teenagers who have the ability to summon powerful alter egos based on their innermost selves, and who each fall into a different category of the tarot arcana. The power of said alter egos will depend as much on how much time the teenagers spend hanging out after school together as it does on how much time they spend level grinding in dungeons recreated out of the human psyche.

But that's just a guess. He did say that he wanted to change it up, though. So maybe they'll be... Japanese college students this time around? What would you like to see in a new Persona?

In other news, Kotaku's Brian Ashcraft has excellent taste in pairing preferences.

now there are 3 games that i cannot play. first Final Fantasy XIII, God of War and Persona 5. i just hope persona 5 will be in ps2 or psp console...

from http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99388-Atlus-Starting-Work-on-Persona-5