Handsome high schoolers in well-tailored uniforms fighting personal demons and feeling cynical about society as a whole? It must be the long-awaited full reveal trailer for Persona 5! The Japanese video flashes between animated cutscenes and in-game moments, showing how the series' distinct visual style has grown since Persona 4 - and since Persona 4 was designed for PS2, the difference is pretty impressive.

Persona 5 trades the sleepy town of Inaba for a bustling metropolis. Hazardous areas aren't just flat labyrinths any more, as the trailer shows the main character leaping from chandelier to chandelier and blinking from cover to cover as he avoids the gaze of a lurking demon. It seems to star an all-new cast of kids (except for a cameo from the long-nosed, bug-eyed fortuneteller Igor) who are terested in pulling off heists than rescuing kidnapped citizens - but we'll have to hold off on judging them until we can actually understand what they're saying. Click on for a primer on recent developments in the Persona series.

Many were waiting for Atlus USA to announce Persona 5, and while that did happen, we still know so very little about the game. The initial trailer slowly flashes five chairs on the screen with five retro-style ball and chains attached. English text appears saying, "You are slave, want emancipation?” The Japanese trailer ended by saying it’ll be out in Japan winter 2014 on the PS3, and now we know it’ll hit the US some time in 2015. That’s basically it at this point.

First off, though next-gen fans may be bothered that it will still be on PS3, it isn’t shocking given that Persona 4 was on PS2 years after the PS3 had replaced that console. If that information bothers them, fans should relax knowing the Persona brain trust - series director Katsura Hashino, series designer Shigenori Soejima, and series composer Shoji Meguro - is also running things for P5. Now that Persona 5 is official, it seems pretty clear that it’ll feature an entirely new cast and story. However, if you’re worried the Persona 4 crew is being left out, there are plenty of other ways to keep up with them.

The most intriguing of the new Persona 4 spin-offs announced is likely Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, the first ever Persona game on a Nintendo system. In the , a strange tower appears at Yasogami High (Persona 4’s setting), and the teams from Persona 3 and 4 team up to explore this strange building, along with a couple new faces. Players can mix and match teams of up to five characters to get different interactions and story elements, all featuring the super cute redesigns of the popular Persona squads.

Released in fall of 2014 in the US, the most interesting thing about Persona Q might just be the talent involved. The aforementioned Hashino, Soejima, and Meguro are all involved in similar roles from the main series, but the game is being directed by Daisuke Kaneda of the Etrian Odyssey series. Will this be a similar dungeon-crawler? And will any of the Etrian cast make an appearance? We’ll know when it comes to the 3DS portable this year.

Shoji Meguro’s music is one of the Persona series’ greatest strengths, so expanding his catcy tunes into a game of their own makes a lot of sense in this . And given that P4 cast member Rise is a pop star/idol in Japan, she’s the obvious focus of a game developed by the team behind multiple Hatsune Miku music games. But Risette isn’t the only member of P4’s Investigation Team dancing the night away on a Sony portable.

This Vita exclusive spin-offs makes a certain amount of sense given that genre’s popularity with Japanese owners, and we’re intrigued by new characters from Kanamin Kitchen, the team of idols Rise is out to save. The 30-plus songs of dancing action are headed to the US sometime in 2015, and we’re crossing our fingers that Teddie will be an actual dancer in the game, or we’ll be beary mad!

Persona 4 Arena impressed RPG fans and fighting game enthusiasts alike by combining the sharp combat and animation that developer Arc System Works is known for with the continuing story of the characters from Persona 3 and 4. Now, as is the case with most fighting games, it’s getting updated with new characters and storylines (watch this for a little fo on that).

Given the original’s popularity in the US, it isn’t surprising that North America is getting a 360 version while it stays PS3-exclusive in Japan. As for the Ultimax’s fresh challengers, there’s Persona 3’s Junpei and Yukari, and new character Sho Minazuki, a powerful (if goofy) teen who seems to be positioned as Yu’s new rival.

That's all we know about Persona 5 so far, but maybe if you leave some comments about what you want to see in the new game you'll discover some new social links...

And if you're looking for more Shin Megami Tensei, check out .

Well, I’m Henry Gilbert and I’m here to say I dislike bad rap in a major way! If you wanna have rhymes that sound real cool, don’t put in these games and look like a fool... What you just read is an example of the dangers of thinking you’re cool enough to spit dope lyrics with the best of them. You end up looking like an out of touch nerd. It’s an experience games know all too well, as they’ve played host to some of the worst music in hip hop history.

When you’re working on a game, penning some original rhymes covering the excellence of your title and/or mascot makes sense in the moment. Unfortunately, 99% of these custom rap songs are doomed to be dated the instant the title is released (if not sooner). Read on to experience the worst crimes against hip hop that games have ever committed...

Worst lyric:

This one feels slightly unfair, mainly because the producers of this fighting game’s soundtrack are (very likely) non-native English speakers. Still, the above brag is such a weird one, because basketball legend Michael Jordan isn’t really known for slinging rhymes. NBA greats like Shaq and Allen Iverson have been known to spit a verse, but less so for MJ. Most of the rest of the lyrics are near-unintelligible - “Make some lyrics like the bass with the treble” (?). I mean that they’re both hard to make out, and don’t make sense even when the words are clear. Also, while the hook and bridge are nice, it feels like they repeat about five times in one minute. I know the song is called Stimulation, but slow your roll, CvS2.

Worst lyric:

This corny rap is the intro song to DK’s N64 debut, and Rare probably designed it to be lame. And they did too good a job too! This kid-friendly song laboriously introduces us to each playable character with clunky lyrics - “Inflate himself just like a balloon, This crazy Kong just digs this tune!” Good job sneaking in that boast about your song, guys. The DK Rap then concludes with the above words, sweatily cobbling together “pineapple smells,” as if that’s a phrase any human has ever said. The song sets the tone early for this cornball game, and I give Rare bonus credit for sneaking “hell” into the original version of the game (subsequently it was rewritten as “heck”) showing little disregard for the sensibilities of Nintendo’s audience.

Worst lyric:

Platinum Games is one of my favorite developers, and the custom, lyric-heavy soundtracks are usually one of their strongest attributes. This song is up there with its weaker offerings, though, and it isn’t helped by being the theme for the annoying, problematic Black Baron character. The song is very fitting for the grating, over-the-top character, even specifically referencing things like Baron’s violent girlfriend and the tilted brim of his hat. But it’s a little too slick, just like the character. Credit where it’s due: I really like “You just sealed your fate. On the holidays that'll be one less plate,” because it conjures up a sad family during a Thanksgiving meal. It’s a visual far too many rappers overlook.

Worst lyric:

Wiz Khalifa is a legit rapper and he does a fine job with this wrasslin’ game’s promotional hip hop, so he’s not the issue here. My main gripe is with John Cena, the omnipresent WWE superstar who’s also on the cover of the game. He got his start as a parody of lame rappers, then somehow became a non-joke rapper with a groan-worthy entrance song. All Day is his return to the studio after years of not-rapping, and in it, we hear more of what we weren’t missing. Cena’s rhymes are more like spoken phrases said with the requisite amount of intensity his brand requires, “I’m about to go on trial, murdering instrumentals,” is another example of his flat verse. John is as average as ever, but at least it only lasts for a fraction of the song, limiting the exposure to his awfulness.

Worst lyric:

It’s weird to feel pity for a hall of fame NBA player like Scottie Pippen, but I kinda do. Pippen won six championships with the Chicago Bulls, but he was always overshadowed by teammates like Michael Jordan and Dennis Rodman. Perhaps Scottie thought he’d finally breakout of their orbit by starring in his own game, but the resulting Slam City is an FMV Sega CD release, guaranteeing obscurity. The monotonous ‘Get Respect’ opening song fits the unmemorable vibe, with bland platitudes about how one goes about earning respect. As the above lyric states, if you’re beaten, then you didn’t bring your best shot. Sadly, the next obvious statement wasn’t, “if you think you see the sky, but it isn’t blue, that’s wrong too.”

Worst lyric:

As someone who lived in America in 2001, I can tell you that post-September 11 was a really weird time for all of us. People reacted in strange ways to this new stage of the War on Terror, and that includes crappy shooters with terrible rap over the credits. Fugitive Hunter is the type of cheaply made game that is only memorable for being exceptionally bad (and for including a level where you actually kill Osama bin Laden) and the end credits theme is just as blunt in its response. The words come fast and furious, describing all the ways the wordsmiths will sneak into terrorist hideouts and hunt down the bad guys, with the phrase “Fugitive Hunter” droning on top of it all. Someone should check with the members of Seal Team Six to see how accurately these lyrics compare to actually hunting Bin Laden down.

Worst lyric:

Even the most stoic Sonic apologist will admit that most of the series’ music features lyrics are in the ‘so bad it’s good’ category - and I mean that as a half-compliment. That’s the case with the ludicrous rap and jazz fusion that is Knuckle’s theme in Sonic Adventure. The songwriters seem to approach the song with a list of Knuckles attributes, talking over and over and over again about how he’s a loner, tough, and out to cleanse evil. The hip hop breaks are the weakest part of all, doubling up on explanations like “I'll give you the colder shoulder, My spikes go through boulders.” Even a jazzy saxaphone solo can’t mask how incredibly uncool Knuckles looks when this tune is over. Or, indeed, while it’s playing. Fun fact: The rapping is done by the original voice of Parappa the Rapper, who has much better material!

Worst lyric:

One of Dead Island’s main characters is a rapper, so hearing at least one tune by Sam B. is unavoidable. And like many rappers, his rhymes reflect the world around him, in this case a tropical paradise full of animated corpses. Sam B. has some very grisly lines about the undead that surround him - “Shrunken heads, broken legs, body parts on the concrete” is another winner. Still, call me overly sensitive, but what I hate most is the constant use of word ‘bitch’ in this song. In fact, the chorus uses the word a half-dozen times, acting like you can rhyme a word with itself constantly and not look like a hack. Beyond feeling openly misogynist, constantly repeating “Who do you Voodoo, bitch?” bothers me as a professional writer/human being.

Those are the worst crimes against hip hop that I could chronicle today, but I'm always looking for more awesomely bad rap. If you'd like to share some that I missed, let me know in the comments!

And if you're looking for more tuneful features, read/listen to