Persona 5 is a Japanese Role-Playing game created by Atlus and P-Studio, as part of the highly-regarded Persona series. The game released to universal praise in April 2017 (after an initial September 2016 release in Japan) and has since been followed by several spinoffs and updated releases.
Our story follows the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, a group of rebellious teenagers who wield the power of Persona. Each of the Phantom Thieves has been failed or wronged by society in some way, leading them to band together to reform the system once and for all with the power of their personas.
Personas are the embodiement of an individual's personality, taken physical form as a badass yokai that can be summoned by their wielder in battle. In Persona 5, the Phantom Thieves' personas take the form of their unique masks when dormant. Personas can only be summoned in the Metaverse - the collective unconscious of the human race.
As the name implies, the Phantom Thieves do a lot of breaking and entering! Just not in reality - the group targets terrible, horrible people and robs the manifestations of their twisted hearts, called Palaces. By forcefully taking a person's treasure (the source of their awful desires) from their palace, the Phantom Thieves can change the person's heart, making them confess and take accountability for their crimes.
Persona 5's character design is a noticeably new direction from it's older siblings - where the 3rd and 4th installments of the series depicted regular high schoolers fighting the forces of evil in school uniform, the Phantom Thieves all get unique, stylish outfits for traversing the Metaverse. On a symbolic level, the thieves' costumes all act as a manifestation of what rebellion and freedom mean to their wearer.
