They stole their own release date!
Bad news, Persona fans. Everyone looking forward to Atlus’s dungeon-crawler will have to wait a tad longer (a little over a month and a half, to be specific).
Announced during Atlus USA’s “Let Us Start the Game” livestream and confirmed on the U.S. PlayStation Blog by Atlus USA community manager John Hardin, the delay to April 4th, 2017 comes as a bitter pill for plenty of fans expecting a Valentine’s Day release for the highly anticipated title. Hardin explained Atlus’s reasoning in the PS Blog post, saying the delay was in order to “put the utmost care into ensuring it winds up the best” upon release in the West. It wasn’t all bad news, however. Hardin announced that the game will sport dual audio tracks (English and Japanese) and that the special “Take Your Heart” premium edition would be given an update, adding more to the included SteelBook case, soundtrack, and artbook.
I’m not gonna pretend I’m not disappointed (if only because I got super excited for the game from hearing good things from friends over in Japan, and spoilers will be much harder to dodge now that there’s a wider gap) but this delay is definitely for the better. The Japanese cast has a multitude of talented voice actors and actresses at its disposal, and the delay also gives Atlus more time to iron out any kinks in the game’s translation. Still, that Valentine’s Day release would have been excellent theming.
Persona 5 (barring any further delays) hits stores on April 4, 2017.
Source: PlayStation