'Persona 5' release date delay news: Upcoming installment delayed; game to be more challenging, says director

Atlus' "Persona" video game series has become a highly popular role-playing game over the years. With the fifth installment of the game "Persona 5" currently in the works, many fans have been clamoring to acquire the much-anticipated JRPG as soon as possible, given that the game has been under development for at most five years.

There were initial rumors that "Persona 5" will be released as early as May. However, there have been no official announcement or confirmation regarding an early release date of the game for this year, except Altus CEO Naoto Hirakoa's statement that the game will be ready by summer 2016.  Given that there is only slightly more than a month before the rumored May release, people are starting to think that the game's launching has been pushed back.

To shed light amidst the rumors of "Persona 5" release date, the game's designer and director Katsura Hashino gave some information as reported by Siliconera. 

The Japanese game designer hinted that "Persona 5" will be more challenging to play compared to the previous installments of the game. 

"For this game, we're going with a challenge that fuses together a juvenile school setting that is as large as life, together with a picaresque romance. In the previous game, we wrote a story that involved having a justice group chase down a bad guy that could easily be feared by just about anyone," Katsura said.

"This time, it's about a group of high school students that are being 'chased' by unexpected occurrences due to the justice they believe in. We're writing to convey a thrilling everyday life in the shoes of these characters, that are as large as life, in this juvenile school setting," he added.

Regarding the release date of "Persona 5," it looks like the launching is indeed delayed. In a separate interview with Gematsu, Katsura apologized to the fans for having them wait a little longer. He stated that he and his team will have to take all the time that they need to make sure that "Persona 5" is worth the long wait.

"I know it's been a long wait, but I hope you'll give us just a little more time. Hopefully once it's out, it'll all be worth it in the end. We've been very fortunate to have created a series of games where people feel so attached to each of the protagonists, so we hope that with Persona 5, we'll be able to make a game where the events of it really hit home and make for really impactful experiences."