On Sunday morning we reported on a quartet of new game announcements from Atlus Japan: Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, P4U: Persona 4 The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold, Persona 4: Dancing All Night and Persona 5. Today we have a bit more information on these games, courtesy series director Katsura Hashino.

"Just like the experiment of making a fighting game based off the Personaseries in Persona 4 Arena, which was also well received by fans, the plan of making Persona Q came from wanting a game that could bring further joy from an even more 'unexpected element'," Hashino stated in a Famitsu article translated by Siliconera. "This will be the first title the Persona team will be making for Nintendo 3DS, and we also have Etrian Odyssey that represents Atlus for the 3DS, and we'll be using its system as part of a 'festive' collaboration mindset in the development for Persona Q."

While Persona Q is a fusion of Persona and Etrian Odyssey, Hashino assures fans of the former that Persona elements will be the foremost focus of the game. "While we are implementing Etrian Odyssey's system into it, just as the name implies, Persona Q will be a completely new title, but first and foremost, it'll be for the fans of the Personaseries."

Though Hashino doesn't go into this level of detail on the other games, he does discuss how far along each is in its development. Like Persona Q, Persona: Dancing All Night is almost completed, with only a few new dances and animations to be added to the rhythm-focused spin-off game. Likewise, P4U: Persona 4 The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold is nearly ready to release (though this shouldn't be surprising given that its arcade incarnation was announced in August). Persona 5 lags behind the other titles announced, but Hashino is committed to releasing the game in Japan toward the end of 2014.

Notably absent from Hashino's comments is any word on when or if these games might appear outside of Japan.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/11/25/at...ffs-persona-5/