An entirely unintentional and unplanned sequel to Kanna’s megathread yesterday!

Persona is a spin-off series that finds its origins in the game Shin Megami Tensei If…, which itself is a spin-off from the Shin Megami Tensei series, which itself is a spin-off series from the Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei series...

:yea:

It has eclipsed its predecessors in popularity undeniably, given that one of the characters is in the ultimate crossover game, Smash Bros. To put it succinctly, MegaTen (as a franchise) was Pokémon before Pokémon existed, and Persona has turned the ‘multiple swappable and cultivatable mons’ concept into a unique flavor of gameplay, widening the gap between it and a more-traditional mons RPG.

I’m gonna mostly cover the modern games mostly. I haven’t played nor fully watched the first two, I haven’t found the time yet even though I really want to, I’m sorry gamers :ooooooooooooooh:

Quick disclaimer, the Persona series is not without its problematic elements, which I would be remiss not to mention. The modern games have a tendency to include a quota-mandated homophobic scene and a quota-mandated anime pervert hot springs cliche. These usually only happen once per game, and given that Persona 2 had a gay romance option IIRC and Persona 3 is where this bullshit started, the director that was onboarded with P3 leaving may allow this series to evolve past this bullshit. I hope. I will CW instances where I think it’s inexcusable not to flag or have not been disclaimed as such.

Within the labyrinthine Amala Network that makes up Persona’s family tree, Persona differentiates itself from its larger franchise with its simplified version of the Press-Turn Battle system (One More), much more linear/upfront story structure, the removal of ideological branching paths to focus on a single linear narrative path, having party members be your human friends wielding demons (rather than just the demons themselves), and general focus on everyday/supernatural dichotomy. It’s extremely Jungian lore-wise, hence the name, and it’s generally a more accessible vector into the franchise due to all these changes. Persona’s success, at least in the modern games, is largely attributed to its fundamental dichotomy of high school life simulation and dungeon-crawler fantastical RPG.

The first and second Persona games went relatively unnoticed. I’m a guilty party here; I’ve barely interacted with them. Persona 1 is about an occult game played by a group of high schoolers called “Persona”, which works similar to how Bloody Mary is supposed to work. I’ve heard it has random encounters up the ass and if you can navigate the map without walking into a wall you get a free driver’s license. The PSP remake has banger tunes. Persona 2 is two games, Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, which involve rumors coming to life. I’ve heard it’s pretty good, and you get to kill Hitler. I encourage you to check these games out all the same, and I’m really sorry I can’t give them their fair shake.

The breakout game within this spin-off^3 series, however, was Persona 3.

Persona 3, released 16 years ago to the date, is a turn-based RPG/social simulator set on Tatsumi Port Island during 2009, in which a cloud of existential apathy has both metaphorically and metaphysically taken over the city of Iwatodai, manifesting itself as Apathy Syndrome, a mysterious condition that puts its victims in a vegetative state. Meanwhile, a mysterious 25th hour in the day has beings known as ’Shadows’ crawling the streets of Port Island.

Persona 3 deals with themes of nihilism, loss, revenge, depression, and sacrifice. It has 3 versions, the release version, FES (which includes epilogue ‘The Answer’), and Portable (a downgraded version that removes much of the overworld exploration to work on PSP, formatted more so like a visual novel in that aspect, but also allows you to control party members like the rest of the modern franchise). Persona 3 is praised for its character depth, well-tied plot, catchy music, and lasting impact on the series as a whole, defining the direction in which modern Persona would follow.

Persona 4, released on July 10, 2008, improves upon it’s predecessor’s gameplay loop and sets itself in the rural town of Inaba during 2011, where a small town grapples with a series of unsolved and odd murders and disappearances whilst a group of high school students confront themselves and the truth in a grand attempt to solve the mystery and stop the incidents from taking place, whilst simultaneously learning the secrets of the town, the mysterious TV world they find themselves reaching into, and the Midnight Channel that always seems to predict the incidents that follow it.

Persona 4 deals with themes of self-reflection, mystery, truth, repression, and identity. It has two versions, the release version, and Golden (an updated rerelease for Vita that added a decent chunk of extra playtime and content, which is now on Steam). Persona 4 is praised for its more down-to-earth nature, more seamless integration of the otherworld and overworld compared to the previous entry, and general improvements upon the gameplay formula.

:reeducation: Persona 5, released on September 15th, 2016, is the most popular and visually-polished entry in the series, setting itself in Tokyo, 20XX, where the leader of the notorious vigilante group ’The Phantom Thieves’, Joker, has been captured by the police and is being held in a cell waiting for police ‘interrogation’, as well as a far less physically damaging prosecutorial interrogation.

Meanwhile, a chance encounter with a drunk and power-tripping man (who is definitely not rumored to be the allegorical in-house stand-in of the recently un-mortal-coiled ex-prime minister, come on, trust the opening disclaimer) assaulting a woman in an alleyway has a teenage boy slapped with a falsified criminal record for intervening, due to the man’s connections, and sent to Tokyo to fulfill a year’s probation.

How do these two snippets connect? Well, Persona 5 currently has two versions, the release version (PS3, PS4), and Royal (adds QoL content, and story expansion in the form of the Third Semester. PS4, PS5). It has an epilogue/future-story in the form of the Musou spin-off Persona 5 Strikers, which is much more expansive and original than I’d thought it would be, to be honest. Persona 5 is praised for its seamless and well-designed UI, refined gameplay, and jazzy soundtrack.

Personal ranking? Persona 5 (based), Persona 3 (great story), Persona 4 (I can't get past the reactionary elements even though I like it otherwise).

Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Royal are being ported to Windows, current generation Xbox/Playstation, and Nintendo Switch. Persona 5 Royal will be releasing on all of the above platforms on October 21, 2022, with the rest TBA.

Announcements & Information

Megathreads and spaces to hang out:
❤️ Come listen to music with your fellow Hexbears in Cy.tube
💖 Come talk in the New weekly queer thread
🧡 Monthly Neurodiverse Megathread
💛 Read about a current topic in the news
⭐️ June Movie Thread ⭐️

Reminders:
💚 You can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments and discussions over upbears
💜 Sorting by new makes your comrades happy
🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can go here

‏‏‎ ‎
Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):