By Andrew Goldfarb

It’s been a long journey to the release of Persona 5. Following the 20th anniversary of the series last year, the latest entry arrives on April 4 after nearly three and a half years since the original announcement.

As we finally approach the release date, let’s take a look back at the announcements, delays, teases, and trailers that got us to this point.

Rumors, Leaks, and Teases

Rumors about the Persona series making its way from PS2 to PS3 started to swirl way back in 2009, just one year after the original release of Persona 4. Even before the announcement of Persona 4 Golden for PlayStation Vita in 2011, Persona series director Katsura Hashino confirmed in early 2010 that Atlus was “preparing to start work on the next Persona,” but went radio silent shortly after.

More than a year later, early evidence began to emerge that the title in development was indeed Persona 5, and that in addition to Hashino, series character designer Shigenori Soejima and composer Shoji Meguro were also set to return. That week, Hashino confirmed that “preliminary preparation for the next numbered title is basically finished, and from here on out development will be going at full speed.”

In summer 2013, Atlus registered a Japanese website for Persona 5 and speculation began to heat up that an announcement was imminent.

Official Reveal

After much fanfare, Persona 5 was officially announced in November 2013. The news came alongside a few other Atlus spinoff announcements including Persona Q, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, and Persona 4 Dancing All Night, but Persona 5 was clearly the main event.

Atlus only showed off a cryptic teaser featuring five chairs, telling fans, “You are a slave. Want emancipation?” At the time, Persona 5 was only announced for PlayStation 3 and was due out in Winter 2014 in Japan.

Confirmed for the West

Three months after Persona 5’s official reveal in Japan, Atlus USA brought the news Western fans were waiting for: Persona 5 was officially heading West!

A teaser trailer very similar to the original reveal was shown, but with one important change at the end. For Western fans, Persona 5 was due out in 2015, a bit later than the Winter 2014 date promised for Japan at the time.

First Delay and PS4 Announcement

At the Tokyo Game Show in September 2014, Atlus embraced the next generation and confirmed that Persona 5 was headed to PlayStation 4 in addition to PlayStation 3. That announcement came with good news and bad news.

The good news was a first look at the game’s protagonist in the form of some anime cutscenes that would eventually make their way into the final game. The bad news was that Persona 5 was now slated for 2015 in all territories. So long, Winter 2014.

Gameplay Revealed

In early 2015, Atlus dropped the big one: a new Persona 5 gameplay trailer that showed off not only the game’s visual style, but the first taste of its soundtrack and opening cinematic.

Hashino, Soejima, and Meguro were once again confirmed to be involved, and aside from gameplay, the trailer showed off a better look at the protagonist as well as our first glimpse of other party members.

It was an exciting time for fans who had been dying to see what Atlus was up to, but Persona 5’s release date remained a question mark.

Delay to 2016

Despite months of constant reassurance from Atlus that Persona 5 was still coming in 2015, tragedy struck at the 2015 Tokyo Game Show and fans’ worst fears were confirmed: Persona 5 was delayed to Summer 2016 in Japan. At the time, Atlus said it was delaying the game “in order to make sure the next iteration of the Persona series lives up to the expectations of fans.”

At TGS in the following days, Atlus shared the first details about Persona 5’s main characters and announced that a Persona 5 anime special was in production. A specific release date was still in the wind.

Japan Finally Gets a Release Date

Nearly nine months after the delay to “summer 2016,” Persona 5 was pushed even further, but finally got a release date in Japan: September 15, 2016.

The news came alongside the announcement of a 20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition set including an art book, a soundtrack with songs from previous Persona games, and series-inspired DLC, including outfits from Persona 3 and 4.

A release date was still not set for the Western version.

Western Release Date and Japanese Launch

Finally, shortly before E3 2016, Atlus announced a release date for Persona 5 in the West: February 14, 2017. While the move to 2017 (five months after the planned Japanese release date) was disappointing, Atlus made up for it by revealing the Take Your Heart Collector’s Edition for Western fans, including a plush Morgana toy, a hardcover art book, a Shujin Academy replica school bag, a soundtrack CD, and a collectible box.

Atlus showed off our first chance to see Persona 5 in action, but that was all we’d see for the next few months.

As expected, Persona 5 launched in Japan in September 2016 with some fanfare including Persona 5 pop-up cafes that hung around Japan for the next few months.

Final Delay and English Announcements

With Persona 5’s Japanese launch out of the way, Atlus USA kicked things into high gear, revealing Persona 5’s English voice cast and fully unveiling the Western Persona 5 cover art. Things seemed to be on track for the game’s Valentine’s Day launch, but then Atlus threw one last wrench in the works: Persona 5 was delayed to April 4, 2017 in the West.

At the time, Atlus said it was “redoubling our QA and localization efforts, even returning to the studio to record previously unvoiced lines” to make sure that Persona 5 was “our gold standard in localization” following the success of the Japanese launch. To soften the blow, Atlus announced that the Western release of Persona 5 would have dual audio options, with the Japanese voiceover track available as free DLC at launch.

With the release date firmly in place, Atlus showed off more English gameplay at the 2016 PlayStation Experience and released a custom Persona valentine generator in February to fill the void left by the game’s now vacant original Valentine’s Day release date.

That brings us to the end of our journey, with Persona 5 finally set to launch in the West one week from today, on April 4th. You’ll be able to check out our full written and video review of Persona 5 tomorrow, March 29.

In the meantime, be sure to check out our unboxing of the Take Your Heart collector’s edition, a let’s play with Yu Namba from Atlus, and our search for Persona 4 easter eggs early on in Persona 5.

Andrew is IGN’s executive editor of news and has the Persona 5 Platinum Trophy in both English and Japanese. You can find him rambling about EarthBound and cute animals on Twitter.