'Persona 5' News: Fusion Mechanics, Skill Inheritance Detailed In Velvet Room Trailer

On Tuesday, Atlus released a new English-language trailer for Persona 5, several weeks ahead of the game’s release in the Americas and Europe, which details how strengthening and merging personas will work in the game.

In the trailer, Igor introduces himself and his assistants, Justine and Caroline (unexpectedly pronounced “Caro-leen,” but okay), to the bewildered protagonist. Throughout, the mechanisms of cultivating more powerful personae is framed in the context of the protagonist’s rehabilitation from his secret life of crime. If you haven’t already, you can watch the trailer in the player above.

In a press release alongside the release of the new gameplay footage, Atlus breaks down the basics of Persona 5’s fusion system:

“There are three ways to fuse personas, basic fusion lets any two be fused together, while advanced fusion is preset and require [sic] three or more. Oh, there is one little thing I should mention. Your personas will need to be executed via guillotine to undergo the aforementioned fusions, so always remember their noble sacrifice when Velvet Room wardens, Caroline and Justine, lets the blade drop (be wary of accidents though). The third method of fusion is network fusion, which allows a player with online function to fuse their persona with a random online player's persona!

“Besides making heads roll, the Velvet Room offers other fun ways to execute, I mean, manage personas. For example, you can strengthen a persona by sacrificing (hanging) another one to it, put personas in lockdown so they can learn to take less damage from their weakness, and "transform" them via electric chair into a useful item/piece of equipment. You can also register and summon them from the compendium as well! Although the Velvet Room may look like a prison, it's an important place to invest time and persona lives in. Oh, you can also access the area during the day/night or during Palace runs through a prison door looking portal.”

Fans of the series will see the ability to manually select the skills a persona inherits through fusion as a welcome change. What’s more, the hanging and lockdown functions seem like solid options for getting more use out of random or duplicate personas acquired in battle through the negotiation mechanic.

Persona 5 finally makes its debut in the Americas and Europe April 4, and is available now for preorder in SteelBook and deluxe ‘Take Your Heart’ editions.

What do you think of the changes in the fusion system coming to Persona 5? Does it seem like a dramatic improvement, or are there aspects you’re still uncertain about? Drop us a line in the comments, and be sure to check out our spoiler-free guide to everything we know about the Phantom Thieves and more of our Persona 5 news, updates and more !