Persona (video game)



""Once, I dreamt I was a butterfly. I forgot myself and knew only my happiness as a butterfly. Soon, I awoke, and I was myself again. Did I dream that I was a butterfly? Or do I now dream that I am a man? Yet there is a distinction between myself and the butterfly. This is a transformation of the physical.""

- Zhuangzi, Persona opening, PSP version.

Persona is the first title in the Persona JRPG series, a spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei video game series by Atlus. It's known as Megami Ibunroku Persona in Japan, Revelations: Persona in its first North American release, and Shin Megami Tensei Persona in its later North American PSP re-release. Why all the titles? Because the first release had...issues...with its localization.

The game begins with you and your classmates in an empty classroom, taking up a dare to play a game called "Persona" that appears to be a ritual of some sort. Just when it seems nothing has happened, everyone sees an apparition of a little girl in a white dress, crying and asking for help, which is then followed by everyone that hadn't played the Persona game before being struck by bolts of lightning. While unconscious, the group has a dream of a golden butterfly. Since the teacher and nurse aren't sure if you have any serious injuries they don't know of, they have you go to the hospital for a check-up. You get there and decide to visit another classmate, Maki Sonomura (US: Mary), who's been in the ICU for a year "for minor delusions". But not long after visiting Maki, she is rushed into the emergency room and the hospital suddenly transforms into a demon-infested maze - but you and the participants of the ritual now possess the power of "Persona" to fight back. What follows is a struggle for survival in a city infested with demons, cut off from the rest of the world.

Of course you are not alone. You're assisted with Class Clown and Delinquent (and black Jive Turkey in the old US version) Masao Inaba, nicknamed "Mark" (kept as his only name in the US), stuck up rich kid Kei Nanjo (US: Nate Trinity), and a girl who claims to be Maki. In addition, there are a lot of optional characters: Class Clown Hidehiko "Brown" Uesugi (US: Brad), elegant, Ojou Eriko "Elly" Kirishima (US: Ellen), airheaded cheery girl and "licensed kogal" Yuka Ayase (US: Alana), Ineffectual Loner Reiji Kido (US: Chris) or ex-delinquent Yukino Mayuzumi, (US: Yuki and thanks to the Macekre, unplayable for more than an hour without hacking in the old US version).

At the time, the Shin Megami Tensei series was known for its incredibly deep, yet Nintendo Hard gameplay. Persona was an attempt by Atlus to create a Shin Megami Tensei game that would appeal to the masses: a character-driven RPG that turned down the difficulty a few notches in order to be more accessible. And by and large it worked, creating a very successful series whose most recent incarnations have eclipsed the main series in popularity. Many of the main characters from Persona would later go on to make cameo appearances in the Persona 2 duology. (Three even being playable characters in Persona 2)

The battle system is grid-based, which means that a character's position on the battle grid determines what they can attack. This makes melee fighting far more difficult than it has any right to be, and you often lose turns because your character isn't in range to attack anyone. While wandering in dungeons you'll have a first-person viewpoint (a Mega Ten mainstay at the time), but in certain rooms it switches to a third-person isometric view that lets you talk to your fellow party members. The conversation system that would be used in Persona 2 (and dropped in Persona 3) was first used here, and the bad localization makes it even more bizarre than it would normally be: in what other game could you convince demons to help you by dancing the hula? Likewise, in what other game can you be killed by an evil, hula-dancing toilet?

The really awful localization tends to be the most well-remembered element of this game outside of Japan. One of the earliest titles released by Atlus USA, it has gone down in gaming history as a textbook case of how not to localize a title. Yet despite all of this, it still has a die-hard cult following to this day and copies of the PS 1 English version are still incredibly rare and sell for more than twice the original retail price.

The sudden popularity of the franchise after the successful revival with Persona 3 led to a PSP Updated Rerelease with brand new cel-shaded cutscenes (replaced the now-dated 90s era CG), a new interface, and numerous improvements to the game's balance, including a better mini-map and many more save points. This release came to America with much fanfare, especially from Atlus themselves who were quick to point out the newer, more faithful script, restoration of original character designs, and inclusion of all content left out of the PS 1 release.

"Brown: "You can make a tofu taco, a tofu burger, but you can't make a tofu cow!" What?"
 * Adaptation Dye Job: To go with the Race Lift
 * Adaptation Expansion: The Manga adds some additional plot to the story, mainly regarding Naoya's backstory.
 * Adaptation Distillation: It also compresses some plot elements such as removing the Shrine section and helping the nurse before Elly arrives (instead, she met Ms. Sonomura on the road and awakens her Persona off screen), and Mark and Nanjou were the ones captured and to be taken to SEBEC rather than Police Station, leaving Brown to inform the rest, and they included the early parts of Snow Queen Quest (Toro and the penis demon) before they try going to SEBEC, awakening Ayase's Persona. And lastly? It seems that everyone minus Yukino ARE tagging along rather than 'just pick one aside of Naoya, Maki, Mark and Nanjou'.
 * AKA-47: Averted.
 * All Myths Are True: At least those myths involving rituals that grant you demonic powers.
 * Alternate Universe: early in the game the Deva System ends up sending the party into a parallel world which is similar to how the real world was when Maki was first hospitalized, and indeed is practically a utopia for her. Disturbingly subverted much later, when it's revealed that
 * Always Check Behind the Chair: The hidden passage in Kandori's office.
 * Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Your party is limited to five members. Once you have five, you can't recruit anyone else. While this makes sense gameplay-wise, and is explained plot-wise by having one of your party members pissing off a potential recruit so they leave, it's Egregious because later events imply everyone worked to save the city together.
 * Although, considering how both the SEBEC and Snow Queen chapters are canon, and how different characters become mandatory and optional in each, it's possible to have been with one person each if you choose Elly and Brown in the Snow Queen chapter and Reiji in the SEBEC one.
 * Arc Words: I am thou... Thou art I.
 * Author Avatar: Tadashi.
 * Awesome but Impractical: Stat buffs/debuffs from spells will stack, with no theoretical limit. This means you can spam spells like MAGUp until the damage hits the 4000 mark... except that it takes many turns to reach that kind of damage, in which time most enemies can be killed repeatedly. In fact, it's only useful for the last boss, which spams debuffs, forcing you to counter with buffs.
 * Another example is  if you recruit him. He has the potential to have the highest physical damage output (even stronger than Mark)and has the option of using several unique personae such as Lucifer at level 99 and Beelzebub at level 77. What makes him awesome but impractical is that he can't equip personae belonging to arcanum of the other 8 members, which are generally the majority of the personae of the game. In addition is the fact both Lucifer and Beelzebub are two very high level personae well beyond the levels needed to complete the game (the gamer can generally finish around level 70 if not earlier) not to mention finding the monster Alice needed to drop Beelzebub's item (as well as her dropping the item)is about as rare as obtaining a pink tail. The only real bonus about obtaining Lucifer is that once he is maxed out.
 * Awesome Yet Practical: Unlike Persona 3 and Persona 4, Personae can be ranked up to rank 8 and then returned for an item. Many personas return into valuable items for use in later fusions such as the dark ash needed to make Satan and melee weapons that can't be bought in stores and are infinitely better than enemy drops, such as the Mandau Spoon for Masao and the Fuuma Ankoku Sho for Reiji. The catch is to know which personae return for which items.
 * Axes At School: As soon as you look at Mark's equipment, you see that he indeed brought an axe to school.
 * Big Fancy Castle: Mana's Castle, helmed by the Aki and Kandori which means...
 * Also, Deva Yuga
 * Bilingual Bonus: The Drugstore song for international audiences, as it's left untranslated. The song lyrics how to use the healing items it sells. Maybe that's why it's stuck in everyone's head?
 * Bishounen Line:
 * Blind Idiot Translation: The original US version.
 * Burger Fool: Peace Diner, though they don't serve food until Persona 2.
 * But Thou Must!: At one point, you're given the option to cut a red wire or a blue wire, but either way the Deva System malfunctions and sends you back to your school anyway.
 * There's also several other points where you have to make choices, and aside from a few events which decide, Thou Must.
 * Also, if you didn't fulfill the requirements to get, and not having Brown or Elly when you enter the Factory, when Ayase wants to join you, Thou Must.
 * Butt Monkey: In gameplay terms, Mark. For some reason, most of his Personas have really crappy weakness setups, poor speed and minimal multi-target abilities. Since experience is calculated by how much damage you do, and that's amplified by hitting multiple opponents, he'll lag behind the rest of the party very quickly. He also tends to take an assload more damage than the other characters. Still an okay party member, since his ability to dance crazy is surprisingly useful in negotiations, but he gets into a lot of trouble.
 * Not necessarily. While true that his arcanum doesn't allow him to equip the speedy Justice Personae, he serves to sweep up the mess with the Chariot arcanum's powerful spells and high Offensive Magical Power. Like with the Priestess class personae, how much use you can make out of his initial arcana depends upon how skilled you are in fusion. In addition, one could remedy the fact by simply giving him another speedy arcana like Magician or by simply letting everybody else defend with him attacking to counteract this.
 * Calling Your Attacks: In the Playstation original, Queen Asura in the Snow Queen quest does this in somewhat contracted form. Rakukaja becomes Rakaja, Mahabufudyne become Mahabudyne, and so on.
 * Chekhov's Gunman :
 * Cherry Blossoms: All over the place in
 * Continuity Nod: The Snow Queen Quest is rather similar to the plot of Shin Megami Tensei: if.... Similarly, it looks like Persona 3 took a few cues from this game. (Giant tower, Hypnos, Thanatos, Nemesis and as plot-important beings)
 * There's also the fact that both Shin Megami Tensei: if... and Persona have two secret characters: one of whom in each requires jumping through some extra hoops and going for a portion of the game without a full party  (the two even have similar names in kana and romaji, though not kanji: Reiko and Reiji), and another who's tied to an alternate storyline. (Yukino -- who does briefly join the party in the normal game -- and Akira)
 * Cool Guns: You get to use all kinds of them, from pistols to rifles.
 * Covers Always Lie: The blurb on the back of the PSP remake states: "In the near future, mankind has conquered dimensional travel, but the opened door swings both ways. Demons have invaded..." This is quite different to the actual plot.
 * This description does actually hold water if you think about it. Kandori has managed to travel to another dimension, and demons are coming through. They didn't have to lie and say it took place Twenty Minutes Into the Future, as the game was made in 1996 and remade in 2009, but if they said what was really going on with the first sentence, it would be a huge spoiler. So no, the plot is not about a devoted team of scientists or even a demon invasion, but if you took the first part of the plot at face value, you'd start to believe the blurb.
 * Creepy Child: Two of them. One of them is actually ostensibly on your side, the other....erm...
 * Mai is a little debatable on the "creepy" part. Very distrusting, yes. But out-and-out creepy? People find her to be quite cute in-game.
 * Cultural Translation: Nearly all references to Japan are gone in the PS 1 localization, though the music in the Satomi Tadashi stores and what is obviously a Japanese Shinto shrine somehow made it through localization.
 * This also makes the economy of the game somewhat easier, thanks to changing yen/macca to dollars without adjusting for proper balance. As a result, many items are very cheap, and best of all, the healing spring that Trish (called Kelly in the US PS 1 version) would've charged out the nose for is very cheap.
 * Cutting Off the Branches: In the original game, you could pick either the SEBEC route or the Snow Queen Quest, and for the SEBEC route, you had a choice of Brown, Elly, Ayase, or Reiji, while in the SQQ, you had a choice of two between Nanjo, Brown, and Elly. In Persona 2, the SQQ took place before SEBEC's first boss, and involved Elly and Brown, while SEBEC involved Reiji.
 * Die or Fly: The main characters all awaken their Personas when they're attacked by demons in pre-scripted battles.
 * Disc One Nuke: The Phaleg Persona, which learns Tarunda, Mediarama and Crimson Sublation (in a game where stat buffs from spells stack), and it blocks most spells. Its level? 18.
 * Gozu-tennoh is another example, giving you Megido and Megidola at level 18. Equip him on the main character and you're pretty much unstoppable, although you'll have to switch him out occasionally so others can get experience.
 * Returning Janus, a level 22 personae earns Masao the Mandau Spoon, which jumps his weapon attack power from about 65 or 92 to 181. He can't find another excellent weapon until the player returns a max rank Varuna for his ultimate weapon.
 * Downer Ending: The Snow Queen Quest, if.
 * The Dragon: Takeda to Kandori. Anticlimatic, since he's merely a Warmup Boss.
 * Dramatic Unmask:
 * Dream Land: Hypnos Tower has the ability to put people in one.
 * Dummied Out: The room that contains the Snow Queen's Mask (needed to trigger the Snow Queen Quest path) ejects you in the US version of the game; it's still possible to trigger the Quest by placing the Mask in the inventory with a cheat device. The Snow Queen Quest itself was never actually translated until recently; the reason for this has been the subject of quite a few Epileptic Trees among fans.
 * Clearly it was the dick-demon, of which none appear in the main quest, and not a rushed release date.
 * Early Installment Weirdness: For one, SP usage only varied between Personas and not skills, meaning Agi and Megidolaon could use the exact same amount of SP. And speaking of which, the Megido line of spells aren't Non-Elemental in this game: they're classified under the "Nuclear" line of spells. (Which explains its symbol in Persona 3).
 * Ear Worm: In-universe, the Drugstrore song is this for Kei.
 * Eldritch Abomination:
 * Then there's Kandori. Poor bastard... What makes the main villain a poor bastard? Well, his Persona is
 * Eldritch Location: Philemon's realm and Avidya World.
 * Evil Mask: The Snow Queen mask,
 * Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Snow Queen creates three towers within the school for a game. They are based off of Classical Mythology gods, Hypnos, Nemesis and Thanatos and each have a guardian that exmplifies them.
 * Exposition Cut: Happens periodically. Then again, "There are really two different worlds, persons X, Y and Z, are from that world 1, person A is from world 2, Big Bad is from world 1, etc." would be quite a mouthful to read every time the players chat up an NPC.
 * Generation Xerox: There are multiple Satomi Tadashis around town, and all of the look the same. One of them is even implied to be a ghost, and looks just like the rest of them. Even the youngest of them, in the same high school that you're in, has a striking similarity to his relatives.
 * Fight Woosh
 * Five-Man Band: Your party size is, of course, five.
 * SEBEC Route Canon:
 * The Hero: Naoya
 * The Lancer: Reiji
 * The Smart Guy: Nanjo
 * The Big Guy: Mark
 * The Chick: Maki
 * Snow Queen Quest Canon:
 * The Hero: Naoya
 * The Lancer: Yukino
 * The Smart Guy: Elly
 * The Big Guy: Brown
 * The Chick: Ayase
 * Glass Cannon: It can be anybody depending upon your persona setup. The character equipped with Gozu-Tennoh, for example, while possessing the power needed to sweep en masse, he is frighteningly fragile, and if any demon gets first shot at him, his host is toast. Same can be said for a persona of a holy element facing a Mudo spell and vice versa.
 * Good Bad Translation: "Mark danced crazy!" is the only thing kept from the horrid translation in the remake. Truly the Spoony Bard phenomenon of the 21st century.
 * And the silly password Elly recites to get back inside the school ("Roses are red, zombies are blue, but my face is white, so you know I'm true"), which has been improved greatly by changing the third line to "...but I don't want brains...", since Mark wasn't white in Revelations.
 * Good Bad Translation: "Mark danced crazy!" is the only thing kept from the horrid translation in the remake. Truly the Spoony Bard phenomenon of the 21st century.
 * And the silly password Elly recites to get back inside the school ("Roses are red, zombies are blue, but my face is white, so you know I'm true"), which has been improved greatly by changing the third line to "...but I don't want brains...", since Mark wasn't white in Revelations.

"Mark: What a gloomy Gus! But hey, for all we know... Maybe he's the kinda guy who secretly practices magic tricks at home."
 * Gotta Catch Them All: The missing shards of a Magic Mirror.
 * The Greatest Story Never Told:
 * Green-Eyed Monster:
 * Guide Dang It: unlocking is notoriusly difficult and requires one to take many steps that are literally counter-intuitive to any person who has ever played a game of this type before.
 * Getting on the Snow Queen Quest also requires a guide or obsessive exploration, since you need to pursue an odd chain of events for no real reason at a time you really have better things to do plot-wise. Once you've found the first step, it follows a fairly logical chain from there, though.
 * For that matter, the entire game is pretty much one big Guide Dang It. You are either spending hours poking around trying to find items or experimenting with demons to try and get items and spell cards, or are spending a couple minutes with a strategy guide or online FAQ. Having a guide is practically REQUIRED for this game!
 * Haunted House: The Haunted Mansion.
 * Hello, Insert Name Here
 * Hello, Nurse!: The school Nurse. Yowza.
 * Averted with the Zombie Nurses.
 * Ice Palace: In the Snow Queen quest, St. Hermelin High School effectively becomes one.
 * Iconic Item: The protagonist's pierced ear, Maki's pendant, Mark's Nice Hat, and Nanjo's #1 scarf, just to name a few.
 * Idle Animation: Every character sprite is set to nonstop idle animation, even during cutscenes. This could be fanwanked as them just being fidgety teenagers, though.
 * Inn Between the Worlds: The Velvet Room and Trish's Fountain.
 * Ironic Hell: Nemesis Tower inflicts these on people.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Mark, Yukino and Nanjo.
 * Karma Meter: Sort of. In the SEBEC route, which Ultimate Personas you can fuse depends on making "good" moral choices at several points.
 * Speak to the little girl at Peace Diner. If she says that you've made the wrong choice somewhere, you probably have.
 * Lampshade Hanging: Mark does this a few times, at least. The most prominent is when you run into Reiji in the second floor classroom. Considering it's Reiji's best contact (and the best contact in the whole game), it's hilarious.


 * Last-Disc Magic: The 'ultimate' Personas, which aren't unlocked until the last dungeon. They demand a very high level to summon, so you may find it easier to just muscle through with your current Persona.
 * Leitmotif: Maki, and the rest of the characters Brown, Elly, Ayase and Reiji have their own. Unfortunately, except for Maki's, Nanjo's, Reiji's and Masao's, the leitmotifs are removed in the PSP remake.
 * The Legions of Hell: Started pouring out into the real world after the first activation of the Deva System. They're mainly composed of Urban Legends, Obake, Youkai, and the odd angel.
 * Lethal Chef: The nurse is stated to be this. The characters actually feel sorry for her ex-boyfriend once they see her dream of him.
 * Lightning Can Do Anything: Including stun people, and render the entire main cast unconscious so that they have a dream of a butterfly and gain their New Powers as the Plot Demands.
 * Lost Woods: The Lost Forest.
 * Lotus Eater Machine:
 * Mana: How did the demons capture Masao? Simple - he ran out of SP.
 * Mister Exposition: Kei is this in the SEBEC route, explaining every plot twist that he already figured out. He can also be one of these in the Snow Queen quest but is optional and if not him, it will be Eriko.
 * Magic Mirror: The Harem Queen uses one to grant her every wish, at the cost of losing her beauty.
 * Also, the Demon Mirror can break the curse of the Snow Queen mask. Which is broken. You need to get eight shards in order to avoid the bad ending.
 * The Mall: Location of all the shops, expect for those that are generously there in the dungeons.
 * Black Market: A location and a dungeon. While there's nothing to make it different than the others, it's the fact that you are trapped there if you enter that makes it dangerous.
 * Meaningful Name: Pandora, obviously.
 * Minigame Zone: The Casino.
 * More Dakka: The main character and Brown both utilize machine guns and uzi automatics respectively.
 * Multiple Endings
 * The Musketeer: All of the playable characters are this with a system that rotates between melee weapons and ranged weapons for fighting.
 * Noob Cave: The Hospital.
 * Non-Elemental: Averted in the remake. Everything, even axes and uzi automatics have strengths and weaknesses against demons. Apparently, Angels can take shotgun fire, but certainly hate getting peppered in the face by an uzi automatic. Upheld only on one noticeable attack: Butterfly Storm.
 * Now Where Was I Going Again?: Averted. Since Peace Diner serves no other purpose, it's hinted early on that it acts as a place where you can get hints from your party members, and in that sense is like the hint stand from Earthbound.
 * One Stat to Rule Them All: Dexterity, aince Physical is essentially useless.
 * One-Winged Angel: Kandori and . Kandori is a variation, as his transformation is the result of.
 * Personality Powers: The titular Personas are literally elements of one's personality given physical form.
 * Recursive Import
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Masao and Kei.
 * Revolving Door Casting: Igor is the only true consistent in the whole Persona series; while Philemon appears from time to time; he doesn't play a crucial role outside of Persona.
 * Third Option Adaptation: Its implied that both the main and Snow Queen plotlines are canon...somehow.
 * Also, the manga apparently follows the SEBEC chapter, yet also has the fight with Toro from the Snow Queen chapter.
 * Race Lift: The original US version, again.
 * Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: the playable characters barely know each other at the beginning of the story. Several hate each others' guts. Guess who it's up to to save the world.
 * Rescued From Purgatory: In a way. The guardian from the Thanatos Tower traps your Persona's in Tartarus and the group has to go in there to get them out. And yes, it's guarded by Cerberus.
 * The Reveal:
 * Sacrificial Lamb: Yamaoka
 * School Play: Why the heck does the school play
 * School Uniforms Are the New Black: Justified since the Zombie Apocalypse occurs, leaving no time for a reasonable wardrobe change.
 * Schrodinger's Butterfly: The exact quote is a major part of the game!
 * Schrodinger's Player Character: Variation: There are five possible party members - Brown, Ayase, Yukino, Elly, and (if you jump through the right hoops) Reiji. You get to recruit one of them. (Possibly two if you take the Snow Queen path, if you replace Ayase with Nanjo, the latter of which is prerequisite for the SEBEC story.) The rest? Well, who knows what happens to them?
 * Sent to safety, completed the Snow Queen Quest in-canon.
 * Sdrawkcab Name: Now read it backwards. They really did care for each other!
 * Self-Deprecation: Actually easy to miss even by seasoned vets to the game. At one point in the game, Aki calls Maki a flat-chested woman. Once you learn, the joke seems much Harsher in Hindsight as she is apparently.
 * Shout-Out: SEBEC route references Pandora's Box and the Snow Queen Quest references...TheSnowQueen.
 * Sinister Subway: You even get to fight Yog-Sothoth in it!
 * Skippable Boss: . In fact,
 * It may be all the more wiser to avoid that fight anyway. can actually put the hurt on a given party, especially if the player was foolish enough to leave Maki as the sole healer since she steps out of that battle.
 * Slap Slap Kiss: Tamaki and Tadashi have this relationship.
 * Spoiler Opening: The PSP version.
 * Stupidity Is the Only Option - In order to enter a certain dungeon where Kandori is hiding, the party is forced to cash in the Plot Coupon/borderline MacGuffin they only just obtained by using it as a key, which opens the door to the dungeon proper. Subverted in that Nanjo actually figures out the trap, but doesn't mention anything until after the Coupon is lost; according to him, Stupidity Is the Only Option if they're to confront Kandori.
 * Starting the Snow Queen Quest requires unsealing a mask that everyone says is cursed. Obviously the logical thing to do.
 * So, it would be the logical thing to debunk a myth? Just because everybody says something or other is cursed doesn't mean it totally applies in real life, where curses and the norm are completely superstitious. Then again, considering the power of the Deva System, it may not be the case.
 * Summon Magic: The summoning of one's Persona, complete with lots of shouting and Instant Runes.
 * Suspicious Videogame Generosity: The puzzle on the last floor before fighting Kandori basically amounts to free healing.
 * Talking the Monster to Death: Not actually to death, but you have numerous options to escape without having to fight.
 * Taken for Granite: The Harem Queen casts a spell that causes every party member expect for yourself and Maki to turn into this. You are given the option to turn them back but it's not prefered AND the queen will actually be weaker for the boss fight if you refuse.
 * Trapped in Another World:
 * Useless Useful Spell: Averted, since, as per Megaten tradition, buffs and debuffs can be quite useful in this game.
 * Not really. In Persona 1, these spells waste turns when it really is faster to just kill them. Buffs and Debuffs aren't useful in Persona 1, unlike other games.
 * The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Avidya World.
 * Video Game Remake - For the PSP.
 * Visual Pun: Takashi "Hannya" Hanya. What's interesting is that hannya themselves (female demons) appear as a generic enemies.
 * Wasted Song: About half of the soundtrack is made up of songs that are rarely played more than once or twice, especially the Leitmotifs.
 * Where It All Began:.
 * World Tree: The Agastya Tree.
 * You Can't Thwart Stage One:.
 * You Bastard: If you listen to Kei. His preferred options are to.
 * You Bastard: If you listen to Kei. His preferred options are to.

Mark danced crazy!