Persona 4
Persona 4 is a role-playing video game developed and published by Atlus for Sony's PlayStation 2, and chronologically the fifth installment in the "Persona" series, itself a part of the larger "Megami Tensei" franchise. The game was released in Japan in July 2008, North America in December 2008, and Europe in March 2009. "Persona 4" takes place in a fictional Japanese countryside and is indirectly related to earlier "Persona" games. The player-named protagonist is a high-school student who moved into the countryside from the city for a year. During his year-long stay, he becomes involved in investigating mysterious murders while harnessing the power of summoning Persona. The game features a weather forecast system with events happening on foggy days to replace the moon phase system implemented in the previous games.
Persona 5
The original story concept was written by Hashino, while the scenario was co-written by Shinji Yamamoto and Yuichiro Tanaka. The initial concept was for a storyline that diverged from the established paths of "Persona 3" and "Persona 4", with "self-discovery" and "journey" being its keywords. Originally using the frame story of a backpacking trip around the world, Hashino decided to refocus on Japan in the wake of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Following that, and seeing the way people were bonding in the face of the crisis, Hashino decided to have the story take place solely in Japan, with the journeying being through the ever-shifting Palace. According to Hashino, the central theme of the game is freedom and how the characters attain it. He wanted to make the game more "thematically approachable" for newcomers to the series, and to be an emotional experience that presents players with a mix of emotions that leaves its audience with a strong sense of catharsis and the inspiration to take on their own modern-day problems.