This year, Atlus hosted two panels during Anime Expo focusing on the next two installments of the Persona series. Both panels were held on the same day, starting with the Persona 5 Tactica panel in the morning and then Persona 3 Reload at night with both panels reaching capacity full of fans excited to see the voice cast and learn new details about the game.
Persona 5 Tactica –
I love the cast and art style of Persona 5, so being able to immerse myself into that universe once again can be the greatest feeling. Persona 5 was amazing and Persona 5 Royal just leveled up the game in my opinion by 100 fold. I enjoyed Dancing in Starlight especially because Persona 5 had so many amazing tracks and Persona 5 Strikers switched things over to an action-based gameplay style and now it goes in a completely different genre as P5T is a Tactical-Role Playing Game.
Things kicked off with a new trailer, this trailer introduced Joker, Morgana, and brand new character Erina (Elle in Japan) showing off their skills and abilities. Right after the trailer, the panel host brought our guests, the voice behind a few members of the Phantom Thieves; Xanthe Huynh (Haru), Cherami Leigh (Makoto), Matthew Mercer (Yusuke), and Leeanna Albanese (Erina).
From there, a few questions were asked such as how each of them got into voice acting and how they brought each of their characters to life, things they like about their character and, what was one thing they wish they could do in IRL their character could do.
When asked what their favorite line in the game was, and if they had any challenging moments when recording each voice actor responded:
Xanthe brought up having to reach a certain pitch for Haru and not going too low that it becomes squeaky but her favorite line comes from traversing Momentos where she says, “Why is it that I get a shiver of excitement whenever the Shadows plead for their lives?”
Cherami talked about loving to work with the cast and how it’s a family, she mentions that Makoto has a lot of cool lines so there are so many but one of them is, “Don’t get all cocky because I normally behave myself! I am DONE playing nice!” that and, “Fist of Justice!”
Yusuke is such an interesting character and when you meet him in Persona 5 he has only one ambition to pain Ann nude, Matthew Mercer mentions it was an interesting challenge to ride that line to make the lines not pervy because Yusuke is really doing it for his love of art. In terms of his favorite lines, it’s hard to choose because he loved the entirety of Yusuke’s awakening from crumbling after realizing how Madarame used not only him but others, and then coming into his confidence with the help of Goemon lifting him up.
Leeana talked about being a huge Persona 5 fan so being able to say the character’s names or Phantom Thieves was something she was really excited to do, as for her challenge it was doing a gigantic scream which took some time and a lot of screams to finally get it done.
When asked about what being part of the franchise means to them, Xanthe mentioned how much support she has received from the community and how fortunate she is to be part of it all while Cherami has said she has loved being able to voice the character for so long now and also mentions how much love and support she has gotten from fans as she never expected how much fans have come to love this game.
Matt mentions it’s a huge honor for him especially since he has been a fan himself playing the first Shin Megami Tensei as well as the first entry into the Persona series. He took over as Kanji Tatsumi (originally voiced by Troy Baker) in Persona 4 the Animation, Persona Q, Dancing All Night, and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and was excited to be brought back for Persona 5 and is extremely humble for it, thanking the fans for supporting and for being part of all of it. Leeana says it is an honor to be a part of the franchise, it has some of the best stories, the best aesthetics, and especially the music! For her being a part of it all is a dream come true, especially being able to work with the rest of the cast.
While there wasn’t a lot of new information revealed, it is always fun to see the people behind the voices really show how much they really love bringing those characters to life, and Matthew Mercer just going into Yusuke mode all through the panel.
The game launches on November 17, 2023 on the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam.
We’ve also included a link to the panel, hopefully, Anime Expo or Atlus will post the panel on their social media pages soon so we can link that video.