'Persona 5' release date, news: get ready to infiltrate Palaces to cleanse evil from people's hearts

Looks like gamers who are planning to get the sixth main entry in the "Persona" series will have some interesting new gameplay features to tinker with.

Atlus has recently released a "Persona 5" trailer showing the Phantom Thieves infiltrating a Palace. Since the Metaverse the game takes place in is described by Atlus as the "collective unconscious" of all mankind, the Palaces also serve as the physical manifestation of people's "most distorted desires." And in order to change the hearts of these people, their core desire, which is in a form of a Treasure found in the Palace, will have to be cleansed of evil.

Players still get to challenge enemies they come across in the Palace, but navigating through the place also requires some degree of stealth. Sometimes brute force is not the answer and players will have to sneak in or ambush Shadows in order to reach the target's deepest desire. If players get caught numerous times they will be evicted from the Metaverse. Players who are banished this way will have to wait until the next day to return to the gameplay.

Of course, Atlus did not overhaul the entire gameplay mechanics. A lot of the features that made the previous games great were retained in "Persona 5." After all, why fix something that hasn't been broken, right? The battle system was left relatively unchanged, and players still gain bonuses and new powers when they build relationships with the other characters in the game.

Relationship building can be a lot of work, but the rewards are too great to ignore. Besides, this is one of the most interesting aspects of the series.

"Persona 5" was released in Japan on September 15 last year, but it hasn't been released yet in the rest of the world. The game will hit the shelf worldwide on April 4, so gamers can get a copy in a few months' time. The game is available on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4.