2. Persona 5
Platform: PS3 Aside from a cryptic trailer recently released by developer Atlus, very little is known about Persona 5, the next title in the popular JRPG series, other than it is releasing in winter of 2014. Yet the game's announcement has sent a ripple of excitement through the gaming community, as this was an announcement that many had been waiting for for years. Why is this? Ever since the appearance of Persona 3 on the PS2, the Persona series has been evolving into one of the best series of video games to come out of Japan, regardless of genre. The brilliant fusion of social simulation, dungeon crawling turn-combat, engaging narrative, extremely likable characters and great music has made the Persona series the most approachable and accessible of the sometimes dense, yet consistently high quality, Shin Megami Tensei universe of video games. Persona 3 found great critical and commercial success on the Playstation 2 and on a later port to the PSP. And despite having been originally released almost 5 years ago on the Playstation 2, Persona 4 found a second wind on Sony's Vita handheld in 2012, where it was given an enhanced port and has gone on to become one of the most acclaimed and popular games on that platform. Some gamers have questioned why Atlus would release a PS3-only game in late 2014 with newer, more powerful hardware available, but this is very much in line with Atlus' past trends. Persona 2 released near the very end of the original Playstation's life cycle (1999 for Innocent Sin and 2000 for Eternal Punishment), and both Persona 3 (2006) and Persona 4 (2008) came out well past the Playstation 2's prime. Given the series' huge popularity in Japan, releasing on the console with the largest install base in that country makes perfect sense for that small publisher/developer. As the Persona series continues to gain momentum and popularity with gamers across the globe, expect to see lots of PS3's getting dusted off next winter, as Persona 5 should be a great entry point for those who haven't yet gotten hooked by one of Japan's brightest stars.