Persona 5 out soon but Hongkongers must wait until next year for Chinese version

After the phenomenal success that was Persona 4 – since its 2008 release the wildly popular JRPG (Japanese role-playing game) has had a remake (Persona 4 Golden) and several spin-offs, including last year’s Persona 4: Dancing All Night – the long-awaited Persona 5 is finally hitting the shelves in Japan this month. Local fans of this franchise, however, will have to wait a little longer.

The traditional Chinese version, rumoured to come out simultaneously with the Japanese release on September 15, will not be available until 2017, according to Sega Games. The exact date of release is to be announced.

While the US and Europe will be getting the English edition on February 14, 2017, on both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, the Chinese version is ported exclusively to PlayStation 4. A disappointment, perhaps, for PlayStation Vita owners as Persona 4 Golden is an exclusive for the handheld console.

Comments left on PlayStation Taiwan’s Facebook page and the site personacentral.com suggest the “delay” is caused by the laborious translation. “Localisation is not as simple as people think,” says one post. “It takes time to come up with a good translation.”

Like the previous two instalments in the franchise, published by Atlus, Persona 5 is again set in a high school in modern day Japan, exploring identity issues faced by adolescents.

“Throughout the series, ‘persona’ refers to a hidden personality or the ‘other self’ that lurks within oneself,” according to Atlus.