Revisiting a Classic: Persona, a JRPG That Will Always Be Relevant
ATLUS RELEASE PERSONA 1 & 2 REMAKES RIGHT NOW
By Yoyo
Persona is a philosophical game that takes place in a world close to our own. It is a departure from the typical swords and sorcery, and it delivers a tale of dreams, the purpose of life, and who we are as individuals. In Persona you have modern weapons like an Uzi and an AK-47. And instead of always fighting monsters, you are given the opportunity to talk your way through a confrontation. By talking things out, you can earn components of spells the more components you have, the more powerful your spells become.
The year 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of the Persona franchise. A spin-off from Atlus's other popular series, Shin Megami Tensei, first released in Japan on Sept. 20, 1996 and Dec. 14, 1996 in North America. Originally called Revelations: Persona marked the first installment of the series. What was first seen as another Shin Megami Tensei game, would later become one of the most popular JRPGs in all of gaming.
Now when most people think about Persona, automatically their brains would go to Persona 5 but I want to take a step back and look at the franchise as a whole. Deep dive into why it's been able to maintain their status as some of the best JRPGs of all time.
If I were to describe Persona games, I would say they're what parents think Pokemon actually is. All Persona games deal with dark and serious themes while disguising them with your typical Japanese high school "slice-of-life" genre. The games have a common theme that draw inspiration from Jungian psychology, which is a type of psychology that studies the conscious and unconscious aspect of our psyche through dreams, symbols, and archetypes like shadows/persona and the idea of finding ones-self. Series creator, Kazuma Kaneko, and series co-creator, Shigenori Soejima, have been able to perfectly implement these dark and complex themes into narrative perfection with all their games.
Persona 1 & 2 are thematically darker games than the others in the series, I want to say it's because they're closer to the mainline SMT games, but the overall atmosphere of both games are very heavy. Before they became a pseudo dating sim and memes to most players, these games were ahead of their time. I feel like they found their footing again with Persona 5 Royal, specifically with the addition of the 3rd term, but I don't think we'll ever truly go back to Persona 1 & 2, which isn't totally a bad thing.
Now I may be a bit biased but I consider these games to be damn near perfection. However you feel about the combat and the overall pacing in the game is one thing, because they can get pretty long, but when we're talking about the writing of characters and the story…it's perfect. Persona will always be relevant in the JRPG space and if you haven't played a single Persona game, you're really missing out on some of the best games within well…the last 30 years. Their art style, music, combat, social link and identity that the games have been able to build up over the years has allowed countless of playthroughs, emotions and deep attachment towards these characters and games.
Persona 5 alone has been an inspiration for other major titles like Yakuza: Like A Dragon, Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Danganronpa. The gameplay of the Persona series is pretty straight forward. You fight various different enemies like demons and shadows with your team and your own personal persona. All battles take place during the 'dungeon' crawling sections randomly (in Persona 1 & 2) or by running into enemies (Persona 3, 4 & 5). I love the idea of having a simple combat system so that the game can really rely on the storytelling to do most of the heavy lifting.
The art that the Persona series has invoked in gaming is no laughing matter. Soejima stated that he used real-world inspiration to create his characters. He saw how people would present themselves in their fashion choices and their appearance and said that it would say a lot about their personality.
Each character has their own unique style and it plays perfectly into their personality. Ryuji's dyed blonde hair directly ties into his stance against authority and rebelling against those who treat him unfairly, Akechi dresses stuffy and pompous because he is trying to impress the adults around him and be one of them and each game has a specific color scheme that directly ties into the emotion they want to reflect i.e Persona 3 being blue to set more of a somber tone. Every games art decision has so much thought behind it, that every single thing is intentional. It's beautiful.
When talking about Persona it would be a crime to not mention their music. Video games heavily rely on their OSTs to really put the player into the right emotional setting. Other franchises like Kingdom Hearts, The Legend of Zelda and Undertale are able to bring you back to that moment in time with just a single note, and Persona is no different.
Each game is perfectly crafted into a genre of music that is then translated into their story thus creating a blend of perfectly composed musical narratives. Take "Aria of the Soul" for example, that specific song has been in every single game. Each version is slightly different but no matter what you end up feeling the same type of emotions like you've just heard it for the first time. Shoji Meguro is a master of his craft and the passion is shown through his extensive knowledge of world building and characterization through music. Much like Hoyoverse, I truly believe that Atlus is a music company forced to make video games.
Persona is a game that is near and dear to my heart. Here's to celebrating 30 years and hopefully many more! I hope Atlus continues to support the creative minds behind Shin Megami Tensei and Persona.
Please remake Persona 1 and 2 with the original dungeon music from the Japanese versions. Happy 30th anniversary Persona!