The Persona (and Shin Megami Tensei) Thread
Posted: Tue Dec 17, 2019 7:34 am
One of my favorite JPRG series is the Persona series, a spin-off series from Shin Megami Tensei. For those who are unfamiliar with both: most SMT games are JRPG's in which you summon demons in a world (about to be) destroyed, aligning yourself with the forces of Chaos, Law, or somewhere inbetween. This is heavily generalized of course as the series is very diverse in all of its spin-offs, most evident in the Persona series where you instead attend a Japanese highschool, while defeating Shadows in your off-time with Personas (and listening the absolute bangers the OST consists of 
). The Persona games make heavy use of Jungian philosophy and tarot motifs.
While Persona 1 and 2 were pretty popular on their own, the series really broke through with Persona 3 which heavily shook up the game flow. Where the earlier games played more like SMT with different themes, in 3 you now play through almost the entire calendar of 2009 - 2010. Your days are divided into your school days and the Dark Hour where all of the combat takes place. You have free control over whether you want to hang out with your school pals, study or investigate Tartarus, the tower your school turns into during the Dark Hour (an extra hour hidden at midnight, not sensed by most people). Originally released on the PS2, it later saw an updated re-release in the form of Persona 3: FES (feature enhanced edition, again released for the PS2) and Persona 3: Portable (notable for it's addition of a female main character, released on the PSP)
Released not long after P3, Persona 4 mostly has the same flow as it's predecessor but is distinctly different in tone. In Persona 4 you move to the sleepy town of Inaba where you soon find yourself trying to solve a serial murder case by jumping into a foggy TV world. Yet again you are given free reign on whether to pursue relationships with others or combat Shadows in the TV world to save potential victims from being killed before the deadline rolls around. It saw a re-release on the Vita known as Persona 4 Golden and an (in)famously large number of other spin-offs.
The most recent "main" installment of the series, Persona 5, has you lead a team of Phantom Thieves in pursuit of changing the distorted hearts of corrupt humans by infiltrating "Palaces" in the Metaverse (a place molded by the cognition of mankind, where those with strongly warped desires subconciously create large fortresses themed around their cognition called Palaces) and steal the Treasures which lie at the heart of these Palaces. Also found in the Metaverse is Mementos, a seemingly neverending journey down the distorted Tokyo subway effectively serving as the collective palace for everyone. This setup creates a sort of blend between the deadline-focused flow of Persona 4 and the exploration of Tartarus in Persona 3. Orignally intended to release on the PS3, it was delayed multiple times, eventually finding itself on the PS4 alongside the PS3. P5 too is currently getting more and more spin-offs, one of which yet another re-release called Persona 5 Royal, slated for a release coming march in the West.
What are y'alls thoughts on Persona (and SMT)? Which are your favourite and least favourite? Have you played other SMT games? Which game's themes resonate the most with you? Do Persona 1 and 2 even exist? Does SMT 5 even exist?
). The Persona games make heavy use of Jungian philosophy and tarot motifs.While Persona 1 and 2 were pretty popular on their own, the series really broke through with Persona 3 which heavily shook up the game flow. Where the earlier games played more like SMT with different themes, in 3 you now play through almost the entire calendar of 2009 - 2010. Your days are divided into your school days and the Dark Hour where all of the combat takes place. You have free control over whether you want to hang out with your school pals, study or investigate Tartarus, the tower your school turns into during the Dark Hour (an extra hour hidden at midnight, not sensed by most people). Originally released on the PS2, it later saw an updated re-release in the form of Persona 3: FES (feature enhanced edition, again released for the PS2) and Persona 3: Portable (notable for it's addition of a female main character, released on the PSP)
Released not long after P3, Persona 4 mostly has the same flow as it's predecessor but is distinctly different in tone. In Persona 4 you move to the sleepy town of Inaba where you soon find yourself trying to solve a serial murder case by jumping into a foggy TV world. Yet again you are given free reign on whether to pursue relationships with others or combat Shadows in the TV world to save potential victims from being killed before the deadline rolls around. It saw a re-release on the Vita known as Persona 4 Golden and an (in)famously large number of other spin-offs.
The most recent "main" installment of the series, Persona 5, has you lead a team of Phantom Thieves in pursuit of changing the distorted hearts of corrupt humans by infiltrating "Palaces" in the Metaverse (a place molded by the cognition of mankind, where those with strongly warped desires subconciously create large fortresses themed around their cognition called Palaces) and steal the Treasures which lie at the heart of these Palaces. Also found in the Metaverse is Mementos, a seemingly neverending journey down the distorted Tokyo subway effectively serving as the collective palace for everyone. This setup creates a sort of blend between the deadline-focused flow of Persona 4 and the exploration of Tartarus in Persona 3. Orignally intended to release on the PS3, it was delayed multiple times, eventually finding itself on the PS4 alongside the PS3. P5 too is currently getting more and more spin-offs, one of which yet another re-release called Persona 5 Royal, slated for a release coming march in the West.
What are y'alls thoughts on Persona (and SMT)? Which are your favourite and least favourite? Have you played other SMT games? Which game's themes resonate the most with you? Do Persona 1 and 2 even exist? Does SMT 5 even exist?
