'Persona 5' announced for PlayStation 3

A well-loved role-playing adventure series announces not one but four new games, namely "Persona 5" for the PlayStation 3 and three spin-offs that embrace a range of genres.

A well-loved role-playing adventure series announces not one but four new games, namely 'Persona 5' for the PlayStation 3 and three spin-offs that embrace a range of genres.

It's not often that a video game blends role-playing adventure, high school social simulation, glossy production values and high-concept psychological themes, but when it does, it's likely a 'Persona' game.

The series was established in 1996 on the original PlayStation, but it was PlayStation 2 game 'Persona 3' that gained worldwide recognition starting in 2006, meriting two re-releases as 'Persona 3 FES' for PS2 and then 'Persona 3 Portable' on the PSP.

The series has even crossed over into the fighting game genre, usually inhabited by 'Street Fighter,' 'Mortal Kombat,' and 'Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm,' with 'BlazBlue' creator Arc System Works developing

'Persona 4 Arena' as a accompaniment to the PS2/PlayStation Vita entry 'Persona 4.'

True to form, the 'Persona 5' teaser trailer is suitably cryptic, with five stacks of school chairs attached to five ball-and-chain weights. 'You are a slave. Want emancipation?' it asks, before a winter 2014 release is specified.

Before that, 'Persona 4 Arena' will be receiving a sequel by means of the extravagantly named 'Persona 4: the Ultimate Ultra Suplex Hold' (PlayStation 3, summer 2014), the portable Vita benefits from a music-based rhythm game 'Persona 4: Dancing All Night' (Vita, fall 2014), and the series' characters get even bigger eyes and even smaller noses in June 2014's stylized Nintendo 3DS entry 'Persona Q: Shadow of the Labrynth.'