Does anyone else think the characters in this game look like derivative of past Persona characters?
Very much so. There's a lot overlap between the protagonist and Joker (at least their metaverse personas), as well as the mascot and Morgana. The girl seems liks a bit of a mix of Chie and Ryuji in terms of color scheme and the sports/athleticism theme. And at one point in the trailer they showed a dark haird boy who was a dead ringer for Yusuke. The most unique looking one was a white haired girl that they only showed very briefly.
Also what is presumably the first Palace once again seems to be ruled over by a twisted athlete, this time a baseball themed one in contrast to Kamoshida and volleyball.