Persona

Persona, previously marketed as Shin Megami Tensei: Persona outside Japan, is a Japanese role-playing game franchise developed by Atlus and owned by Sega. It spun off from Atlus' Megami Tensei series, borrowing the high school setting from Shin Megami Tensei If... (1994). The first game, Revelations: Persona, hit the PlayStation in 1996 and became the first Megami Tensei RPG released outside Japan. The series follows groups of students who summon Personas, manifestations of their inner psyche, to battle supernatural threats. Starting with Persona 3 in 2006, the games added social simulation elements called Social Links, where building relationships directly affects Persona evolution. The overarching themes explore Jungian psychology, tarot archetypes, and the search for authentic identity.

Atlus' internal studio P-Studio has handled development since Persona 3. Character designer Kazuma Kaneko shaped the look of the first two entries, while Shigenori Soejima took over from Persona 3 onward. The games have sold over 30 million copies worldwide as of 2024, outselling the mainline Megami Tensei franchise. Persona 4 and Persona 5 are frequently cited among the greatest RPGs ever made, with Persona 5 Royal holding a 95 on Metacritic. The series has expanded into anime, manga, stage plays, and even a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate appearance for Joker. [edit]

Persona games blend turn-based dungeon crawling with a calendar-driven life sim. Players attend school, work part-time jobs, and build relationships during the day, then explore dungeons at night. Combat uses the One More system: hitting an enemy's weakness grants an extra turn. Downed enemies can be negotiated or all-out attacked. Persona Fusion lets players combine captured Personas into new ones with different skills, a system lifted from Shin Megami Tensei's demon fusion. Social Links, renamed Confidants in Persona 5, unlock fusion bonuses and new Persona abilities as they rank up. The series ditched random encounters after Persona 3, with enemies visible on the field. Silent protagonists remain a tradition, even when writers proposed voiced dialogue for portable versions. [edit]

The series' recurring mythology involves the collective unconscious, which manifests two opposing entities: Philemon, a blue butterfly representing humanity's positive traits, and Nyarlathotep, representing its destructive side. In Persona 2: Innocent Sin, they wage a proxy war over whether humanity can overcome its flaws. Each main game stands alone with a new cast. Persona 3 follows students at Gekkoukan High who join SEES to fight Shadows during the hidden Dark Hour. Persona 4 sends a group to the rural town of Inaba to solve a murder mystery linked to a TV world. Persona 5 assembles the Phantom Thieves of Hearts in Tokyo, who steal the corrupt desires of adults from their cognitive palaces. The duology of Persona 2 games explores rumors becoming reality, while the first Persona game has teenagers accidentally summoning demons through a parlor game. [edit]