We assumed today would be a big day and we were right! Not only did we get a live stream, we got a Morgana Report, a trailer for Akechi and…this!

I’ll analyse everything one by one to not burn anyone out. Feel free to check out the masterpost of all my P5R related write ups until now (Reddit version here). The analysis I wrote for Kasumi’s in particular will be quite useful as quite a bit of the scenes here connect to ones from there.

And of course, check out the English translation of this trailer made by Harry Type-C on Youtube! I also translated some text and screencapped interesting shots from the trailer and uploaded them here.

The trailer starts with Kasumi waxing poetic about how people are always wondering who they really are as we see a feminine hand holding a phone on which the MetaNav just activated – likely Kasumi herself. We then hear Jose, the new character revealed in Morgana Report 3, mention a new door just opened and asks if Joker is responsible. This line likely just replaces Morgana and the app announcing new areas of Mementos have opened from the original game.

What’s interesting is how the visuals completely glitch out to reveal Kasumi in the midst of a Sony censored transformation sequence into her Thief form, complete with a small smile right before finishing. This makes it seem like she’s not a human at all, but she ends up in the same room as she did after getting Cendrillon in her own trailer. I pointed out that her face didn’t bleed back then and it may be because she got this Sailor Moon-esque sequence instead. All she needs to do is draw her sword and she’d match that other trailer perfectly, so I have to assume that’s where this fits in.

(As an aside, the waist portion of her outfit blossoms outward from the flower on her belt. The rose always stood out from her red and black aesthetic, so is this significant in anyway or was this just an artistic choice? The Palace we see later also has a floral theme, so could this tie into her codename too? Early speculation was that she’d be called “Rose,” after all!)

We see Joker still bleeds when summoning Arsene later on in the trailer, so the question of why Kasumi doesn’t is still up in the air (unless the bleeding is retconned into only happening for Wild Cards and everyone else gets the Kasumi treatment), but let’s leave that for now.

The music flares up and we realise we’re finally going to hear the full version of the music from the teaser trailer (my, how time flies) and this trailer begins in earnest.

We see an extended version of the “Kasumi dances” segment of the reveal trailer which confirms that she does indeed draw a crowd with her performance. Not only is Ren one of the people she attracts, even Morgana throws caution to the wind and climbs onto his shoulder for a better view! Just like another animal mascot played by Ikue Ohtani. Hmm…

What’s interesting is that Morgana talks about how the Thieves could use extra help as if asking Ren to recruit her. We know she gets her Persona while alone with the two of them, so maybe this dance is soon after that moment? If this is true, Ren and Morgana leave her be once they return from the Metaverse and only now decide to ask her to join the Thieves’ group. A later scene suggests she refuses, but we’ll get to that in a bit.

The next shot is of the Inokashira clean-up event on May 30th (which is when Ren and Kasumi properly meet for the first time), but what’s interesting is the narration: Ann says there are rumours about Kasumi on the “underground website” – presumably the same one that leaked Ren’s criminal past. We know she gets into trouble with a man before Ren meets her, so there must be at least some truth to the rumour. What’s happening to her life?

This is where things get bizarre. We see Kasumi singing into a microphone in the Metaverse (the transition into which now consists of red stars instead of red and black rings). If you recall the shot in the reveal trailer where Ren and Morgana notice Kasumi and walk toward her in the sunset, this scene looks like it continues on from that (even the wall to Ren’s right looks familiar!)

Edit: the corrugated wall beside Kasumi in the reveal trailer also matches the one we see in this spot in the Akechi trailer. Considering this Palace emerges at sunset and that reveal trailer scene was also at sunset, it’s likely that both are the same scene. The feminine hand accessing the MetaNav at the start of this trailer is also likely from this moment and is when Kasumi “activates” the Palace.

Edit: upon closer investigation: that isn’t a mic but the MetaNav. Kasumi is likely speaking the key words to enter the Palace which means she does indeed know more about it than the others. If we assume they’re in the Metaverse already she may instead be revealing it to the Thieves and, if they’re already in the Metaverse, this may be how they’re able to simply walk in and out of it without actually knowing what it is as revealed soon after. This also means its her hand in the scene of the MetaNav at the start of the trailer and also that the sunset scene where Kasumi is holding her phone in the reveal trailer is also from here.

Anyway, the Palace appears to be a large tower with a crystal staircase spiralling around it. The roof is a glass dome containing golden coils (that almost look like hair) with large camera lense looking things pointing outward – almost like cannons.

Morgana’s dialogue suggests he doesn’t even know if they’re in the Metaverse and the continuing chatter has Yusuke, Haru and Makoto wonder if they’re in heaven, which means this may be the point where everyone realises they’re in a dreamscape/ illusion. Perhaps Ren and Morgana are simply trying to ask if Kasumi is safe in the scene from the original trailer (or if she’s experiencing any illusions of her own) before she steps back and this tower erupts?

As for whether this Palace is heaven – it seems the nature of the Palace will be unknown for a long time as even the building is unnamed; the area where Joker runs up the stairs is simply called “??? – Entrance Hall” instead.

Assuming that the earlier suggestion that they were already in the Metaverse and this tower is just a part of it is false, this raises the question of how they even got here in the first place (knowing what the distortion is is one of the requirements for the MetaNav), but later shots of this trailer suggest that this Palace is tied to Mementos somehow so they may have gotten in that way.

Anyway, the next room of the Palace shown is called the “Progress Monitor – Twilight Corridor”. We’ve seen a room with a wall covered in screens before (and even later in this very trailer), so is this room connected to that in someway? Is this entire Palace a facility meant to monitor people? As for this specific room, there appears to be colour based mechanic: the routes of the map are colour-coded and the paths themselves “solidify” or disappear after using a panel to mix colours together.

The next thing we see is one of the Shadows of this Palace – a human figure (complete with defined ears, no less) wearing a mask and weeping paint, the latter of which fits the colour motif and the ink splats on the walls and floor in the previous scene. We continue with footage of Makoto and Ann in combat, the former showing off her new Persona, Agnes! Agnes is likely based on another name associated with Pope Joan, Ioannes. In any case, people wanted Makoto on a bike again and that’s what Agnes has given us!

We’re shown Mementos footage now. Not only is Atlus openly showing off the new design of the place, we can see that this is a completely new Path too! What’s interesting is that in Japanese, each Path of Mementos represents a vice and is called “[Virtue]-robbing Path”; for example “Cognitation-robbing Path” representing Materialism.

This new Path however is called “Path of Recognition”. The ending of the original game stressed the important of cognition and how powerful belief is, while this new region states that such a thing is a vice! Given the new semester seems to revolve around someone trapping the Thieves in a false reality, I can see how this might fit their mindset…

Anyway, this new Path has at least 14 Areas and for some reason we’re shown Joker heading up instead of down, though this could just be intentional backtracking. We sadly don’t get an answer for this because the map screen shows the first two areas of Mementos instead and we immediately cut to Jose’s introduction instead.

I’ll talk about Jose in the Morgana Report 4 analysis, but he’s a human(?) living in Mementos who collects the stars we’ve seen around. We can trade them (revealed to be stamps) to upgrade the money, EXP and item gains from Shadows, among other things.

Next we’re treated to a sizzle reel of additions to past Palaces: we now use the wire to get to the door leading to the boss of the Pyramid, the mouse sections of the Cruise Ship now include cheese that heals you if you eat it (but are located in cages – this may just be a visual indicator but maybe there’s a risk/ reward element in trying to get the cheese?) and you now have to swing above the treasure of Madarame’s Palace. Note that this is before sending the calling card since the treasure hasn’t materialised, but may also mean the scaffolding is gone now (meaning the nature of the heist has also changed – which makes sense since the wires probably make the “lower Morgana down with rope” idea obsolete).

We also see that Madarame has a new move in his boss fight – creating duplicates! He does this in human form and the description reads “Shadow Madarame created a masterpiece!” which speaks to his immense ego.

We’re back to the new Palace! The sign behind Yusuke reads “If you’re performing, enter through the reception” which again hints that this place is related to Kasumi somehow. I speculated before about the pressure Kasumi may feel in her day to day life and that she only feels free when performing, so perhaps she really does see the stage as heaven? If so, why does this Palace appear at a construction site? Is a new stage being built there, or as something she treasured demolished or paved over to make room for something new? In any case, the next shot shows Kasumi fighting in the aforementioned room with the TV screens before we see a cutscene of her and Joker in the Casino.

If you’ve seen Kasumi’s trailer, you should recognise this as the scene from the start of it – this even ends with Kasumi throwing her rapier into the enemy she kicks it out of in that one! What’s interesting is how serious the two are during this exchange despite the comraderie we’ve seen between them thus far – Joker even scowls at her after she throws the sword and it’s even made ambiguous who she’s throwing it at until the last second!

This is why I think that Kasumi refused Ren’s offer to join the Phantom Thieves – while she may respect Ren, she doesn’t agree with what Joker does (as shown by the teaser trailer) so refused to help despite having Cendrillon until deciding she needed to pay off her debts and coming after him here. Maybe Joker’s concerned that Kasumi will try to stop him from being a Thief? If so, did Kasumi give her word that she wouldn’t before and he’s thinking she went back on it…or has she already tried to make him stop before?

Anyway, we know how this ends: Kasumi kills the Shadows instead and the two work together for a little while (though we don’t know what happens to the heist itself).

The next part of the trailer is the cutscene of when the Thieves visit the fireworks display (that gets cancelled by rain), though now we see Kasumi running through the crowd. Whenever an umbrella flies up like the blue one in the next shot it’s because the holder was murdered, but it’s likely just that she knocked them over instead.

Anyway, the dialogue is interesting with Ryuji and Haru mourning someone. They say the person left without saying a word so it can’t be Morgana post-Yaldabaoth, which means it may be Akechi or (as suggested by the end of this trailer) Ren. The Goro trailer shows that he’s aware of the fake reality they’re in – maybe the real Goro is dead and this illusion didn’t tell anyone that he’d disappear as well if they saved the day? Or maybe he just turned himself into the police without warning them? As for why it may be Ren…well, I’ll get to that later.

The next scene is of Kasumi in the new Palace. What’s interesting is that she’s with everyone else right now, but has a breakdown as she narrates that she keeps running away and relying on Ren for help but hates herself deep down while tugging at her mask. Is she trying to give up on being a Thief? That she’s trying to take her mask off itself is interesting…though we don’t get an answer right away as we get another cutscene instead.

Edit: Also interesting is that while she’s with the Thieves at first, when the camera angle changes she’s surrounded by Shadows instead. Maybe they’re feeding off her anxiety somehow? But where are the Thieves? Could it be that she’s perceiving them as Shadows? For example, the black and white Shadow with frizzy hair in the bottom left of the “NEW” pic could be Joker! Maybe the individual enemies encountered in the Palace will also resemble the Thieves?

We start with the “everyone waits for news about Ren” cutscene while we hear either Sae telling the Thieves to fix the world (which could either be before the Mementos or new Palace), then an interesting line from Akechi where he says Ren is deliberating on betraying him or not. When does this line take place? Does this mean Akechi figures out the trick the Thieves try to pull on him ahead of time and decides to come clean to them? The Goro trailer revealed that he has a proper Confidant now, so perhaps this scene is triggered by maxing that out before the Casino Palace instead?

We next see the awakening of Yaldabaoth and the new Palace crumbling at the same time, but I think this is just editing trickery and not a sign that Yaldabaoth has been moved to the new Palace since the lighting is different. However, Ryuji’s line is new and likely set before infiltrating the new Palace. It sounds like he’s telling the Thieves to not be afraid of losing their dreams by taking out the one who created them. That he uses the ambiguous “they” to refer to their enemies suggests the Thieves don’t actually know who’s to blame. And what’s this about giving up on their aesthetic “again”? Is this referring to their “Darkest Hour” in the Velvet Room or something else – perhaps they were reluctant to fix the world after getting what they all wanted?

We’re then treated to a scene of the Morgana-mobile escaping an explosion, with both Kasumi and Black Mask!Akechi inside. You may have spotted his icon in the corner of the screen before and yep, he’s back! The Goro trailer even shows that he uses Loki! The camera pans out to reveal that the Thieves had to run because the Palace transformed. What was once a tall tower with a spiral staircase is now a metallic, multi-legged mess with stairs clustered in a ring around its top, while the golden coils now spill out like black hair and the spotlight/ camera lenses (both of which would have made sense for a performance hall) now jut outward like cannons. And do the black coils remind anyone of something? They’re the same as the black banners that appear in Mementos now (possibly only after Kasumi joins the Thieves to boot)!

Edit: The explosion is only in a specific part of the tower: is something breaking out of it instead? If so, could it be the new final boss or even the Morganamobile itself? Also interesting is that Makoto is driving on a giant “banner” from Mementos. We’ve already seen that these have become supersized, but now we know that they also have enough substance to act as pathways and aren’t harmful to the touch. Perhaps they’ll even form pathways during gameplay?

We get another sizzle reel, this time of “real world” stuff including a Takemi hangout and Ryuji showing up to one of Ren’s part time jobs: maybe there’s now a chance that this could happen at all of Ren’s jobs, so you still have a reason to work after getting everything you need for Mementos Missions?

The next we see is Takuto being a meme and Kawakami posing in her swimsuit (something the anime teased, which begs the question of who influenced who). We hear Ryuji talking about how much he trusts Ren – this is new, as far as I can tell, so likely tied to a speech about how he and the other Thieves will always trust in each other and reality – followed by Akechi saying “Even so, that is the path that I’ve chosen”. If we’re correct that he cottons on to the Thieves’ trap and talks to Ren about it, this could be him saying he has no choice but to double down on his own destructive decision to double cross Shido. Is it still possible to save him after this, or is this particular line from the version of events where he doesn’t swap sides (e.g. when you don’t finish his Confidant in time)?

The last minute of this trailer is very interesting! We hear Cendrillon saying she’ll support Kasumi’s decision until the very end as we see a bunch of Shadows intercepting the Thieves – including Goro but excluding Kasumi herself! While it’s hard to see, the painting on the banner behind the Shadows as they jump also matches the banners in the arena where Kasumi got her Persona, suggesting that Palace and this are in fact the same and that perhaps the Thieves didn’t have time to take the Palace’s treasure back then (or simply couldn’t, e.g. because they didn’t know who it belonged to or because Ren and Morgana didn’t know how to get back there until now).

Back to Cendrillon, we see her now and her white and blue colour-scheme have now turned black and red, just like Kasumi herself! Cendrillon’s bio hinted that the clock on her chest was counting down to something – could this be it? And is this the result of Kasumi tugging at her mask before? Maybe she tries to run away from her problems again and summons black!Cendrillon without meaning to, but Cendrillon convinces her to double down on whatever decision she was too scared to make instead?

Two Shadows appear behind Kasumi and, while she turns around in a surprised way (given how her arms move up with the force of her twist), when the camera zooms in on her face she looks determined. Why did the Shadows appear there and what is she looking at? Did she just turn on the other Thieves? But given the implication that she wanted to keep everyone (or at the very least Ren) safe from the first trailer and her own, perhaps she’s trying to keep them safe instead by ensuring the Palace continues granting their wishes? Or maybe this is when she’s revealed to be its Ruler (or at least associated with its Ruler)? Maybe this black Cendrillon is a cognition or a “pseudo-Persona” she can use while this Palace is active, since Morgana explained that a person can’t have a Palace and a Persona at the same time? (This may also explain why it appears even if Kasumi’s Cendrillon has already evolved at this point…assuming it can in the first place.)

Edit: Considering Kasumi is surrounded by Shadows during her meltdown, maybe it’s not that she summoned them herself but decided that she needs to go on alone for whatever reason (e.g. to ensure the Palace stays strong) and that the Shadows will delay everyone long enough to let her get away? Also, why weren’t the Shadows in the prior scene crying paint like the ones seen earlier? Could the Shadows’ change the further you traverse through the Palace to reflect Kasumi/ the Ruler’s emotions as you continue to invade and/ or hurt their feelings?

We see the banners from Mementos again, this time falling off of something as it rises up and also confirming that this Palace is connected to (and feeding off of, if these banners were indeed coiled up inside the tower) it. Anyway, this seems to cause the areas outside of the tower to fall apart. We see the Thieves looking on in horror as a light erupts from the depths of Mementos (now back to its black, vein-filled aesthetic). The Thieves specifically appear to be shown between two scenes: the closeup of Yusuke’s face shows road markings behind him (and one of the things we saw collapsing was a bridge) while the group shot is inside the building given the tiling – which probably means it comes before the Yusuke shot.

More importantly, we see Kasumi back with the group and just as horrified at what is going on, meaning whatever happened at the entrance to the Palace has been resolved by this point (as was already suggested by her being with the others as they fled in the Morgana-mobile). We then hear her and Morgana yelling at Joker to come back as he runs across the collapsing debris surrounding…something.

We hear it roar so we know it’s alive and likely whatever we just saw rising…but what is it? It’s covered in light so we can’t get a clear shot. I saw some circles and a diamond so my guess is that it’s the tower itself that’s come to life or a giant Cendrillon (or a fusion of the two) – after all, Yaldabaoth used to be a giant cup before he transformed. In any case, he’s determined to save everyone and grapples to a point as the trailer ends, which is likely where he looks down with a gentle smile and falls from at the end of the reveal trailer. This is also why I suggested Ren might be the one to die earlier on. Maybe Kasumi’s moment of weakness gives this new final boss enough time to assume its true form which persists despite being defeated and this time Ren has to risk his own life to stop it (because Satanael can’t help this time or simply isn’t strong enough)?

But before you worry, the post-credits scene is just as likely to be Lavenza’s goodbye message when Joker goes home as it is a gentle “have you prepared to die?” A few people have wondered if Ren himself is being fused with something in this scene: we know the Metaverse will exist after Christmas so it makes perfect sense that Lavenza will conduct Fusions in the last semester, and remember that we always see the twins covering the Personas being fused in first person, so this particular shot could just be another example of that shown just as a way to get a shot of Lavenza in the trailer to accompany her dialogue.

That said, it’s also possible that Lavenza does step in at the last second to create a Persona strong enough to defeat this new enemy; perhaps by fusing Arsene and Satanael together in the Wild Card equivalent of how everyone else gets their third-tier Personas?

The audio for this scene continues into the legal section of the trailer that reveals the Royal Straight Flush Edition, complete with two soundtrack CDs depicting Kasumi and what may be Black Mask!Goro AOA finishing card with the quote “I decide the truth” – which fits his insane side and contrasts very well with his “detective P persona” actually (though this could be an early version of his card since Kasumi’s is different to what is shown on the disc – though the disc itself may be the one that gets updated by the time of release :P) What’s also interesting is that Kasumi now gets top-billing on the side of the case right after Ren himself. This may be to hide when she joins the group (Goro for example is added to the end after Haru) or to emphasise her importance to the plot, though I have to wonder if anyone was upset by that decision. The Edition also comes with a T-shirt and artbook that happens to have Cendrillon on the cover, which makes sense since she’s the new main Persona added to the roster. You can also see the clock I mentioned on her chest here!

Thank you so much for reading!! As always, please let me know what you think and what I should add/ fix. I’ll try to get the analyses for everything else revealed today out over the course of the weekend, since there’s a lot! Can you believe this is only the second “full” trailer we’ve gotten for P5R since its reveal? If you came here from Reddit, please leave your thoughts in the comments of the associated thread there. And if you liked this and have any change to spare, please feel free to donate anything you want here!

Again, thank you very much for your time and support, everyone!