Pre-release version of Persona 5 reportedly leaks from private auction, seemingly showing different music and character models

A pre-release build of Persona 5 has suddenly made its way online, revealing cut features and changed songs.

The 'debug build,' as it's being called, is claimed to be a version of Persona 5 that predates the Japanese release of September 2016 by six months. There's nothing to cement this claim as fact, aside from the word of the individual who put it online in the first place.

One Twitter user is claiming that the build comes from a private auction of 20 discs, some of which apparently happened to contain a pre-release version of Persona 5. There's no indication whether this is all the information the user was able to get off the 20 discs, or why they were auctioned off in the first place.

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The pre-release version of Persona 5 reportedly has completely different versions of tracks like Last Surprise and Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There. That first track especially is pretty synonymous with Persona 5, since it opens the entire game alongside the animated movie, so it's intriguing to know there was a different version of this song originally in Persona 5.

There's also different character models in this version of Persona 5. One example we've seen circulating around is a version of Ryuji with different writing on his t-shirt than what appeared in the final version of the RPG - the t-shirt that reads 'No Mo Rules' in the game instead reads 'Fuck'in Rules' in this pre-release build.

It's unclear just how big the pre-release build of Persona 5 that the auction winner has managed to get their hands on. It could well be the entire game, which means there might yet be many other hidden features for users to unearth, but we'll have to wait and see for a few days more to find out.

Head over to our Persona 3 Reload preview to check out what we made of the Atlus remake when we played it for ourselves.

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.