50 Fun Facts About Persona Games

Which company primarily develops the Persona series?

Atlus has developed every mainline Persona game since the 1996 original, Revelations: Persona; Sega acquired the studio in 2013.

Persona is a spin-off of which larger Atlus franchise?

It grew out of the well-received high-school setting of Shin Megami Tensei If... on the Super Famicom.

Revelations: Persona, the 1996 original, was released for which console?

Revelations: Persona launched on Sony's PlayStation in 1996 and reached North America the same year; a PSP remake with a new localization followed in 2009.

What is the gun-like device Persona 3's cast fire at their own heads to summon Personas?

An Evoker is the pistol-shaped device SEES members fire at their own heads; the gesture of facing death lets them summon their Personas.

What is the hidden time anomaly that SEES investigates in Persona 3?

The Dark Hour is a hidden hour at midnight when most people turn into coffins and Shadows roam; SEES, the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, fights through it.

What is the name of the tower that serves as Persona 3's main dungeon?

Tartarus is the towering dungeon that rises where Gekkoukan High stands each night; SEES climbs its shifting floors, grouped into blocks, toward the top.

Persona 4 takes place in which fictional rural town?

Inaba is the sleepy countryside town where the hero spends a year with his uncle Dojima; its Junes department store and foggy nights anchor the murder mystery.

In which city is Persona 5 set?

Persona 5 is set in Tokyo; real districts such as Shibuya and Shinjuku appear by name, and the hero lives above Cafe Leblanc in fictional Yongen-Jaya, modelled on Sangen-Jaya.

What do Persona 5's vigilante students call their group?

The Phantom Thieves of Hearts infiltrate Palaces in the Metaverse and steal a corrupt adult's 'treasure', forcing a change of heart; a calling card announces each heist.

What is the codename of Persona 5's protagonist?

Joker is the codename given to Persona 5's player character; he can be renamed, wears a white mask and black coat in the Metaverse, and is voiced by Xander Mobus in English.

Which friendly creature in a hollow bear costume guides Persona 4's party?

Teddie is the bear-suited resident of the TV world who guides the Investigation Team through the fog; his Japanese name is Kuma, simply 'bear'.

Which cat-like creature joins Joker, Ryuji and Ann as a founding Phantom Thief?

The ending reveals Morgana was created to lead the Phantom Thieves into the depths of Mementos.

Which game introduced the Social Link system to the series?

Persona 3 introduced Social Links in 2006: friendships ranked one to ten that strengthen Personas fused in the matching Arcana; in Japanese they are called 'Community'.

What is the enhanced Social Link system in Persona 5 called?

Persona 5 renames Social Links as Confidants; each ranked relationship unlocks practical abilities, such as Takemi's discount medicine or Kawakami's extra free time.

Which colour defines Persona 5's interface and art direction?

Red is Persona 5's signature colour, splashed across its menus, battle screens and logo; the previous two games had used blue and yellow respectively.

Which composer is most associated with the Persona series?

Shoji Meguro composed the scores of the third, fourth and fifth Persona games, mixing J-pop, rock and jazz; he went freelance in 2021 after 26 years at the studio.

Which recurring track is the theme of the Velvet Room?

'Aria of the Soul' is the operatic soprano-and-piano piece that plays in the Velvet Room; it has returned, lightly rearranged, in every mainline Persona game since the 1996 original.

Who is the long-nosed old man who runs the Velvet Room?

In Persona 5 the Igor players meet for most of the game is actually Yaldabaoth, who has imprisoned the real one.

The Velvet Room was based on a location from which TV series?

The Velvet Room was modelled on the Black Lodge of Twin Peaks, the 1990 TV series' otherworldly waiting room; it reshapes itself to match each guest's psyche.

Igor and his Velvet Room assistants are named after characters from which novel?

The Velvet Room staff are named from Frankenstein: Elizabeth Lavenza, Margaret Saville, Justine Moritz and Caroline Beaufort are all characters in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel.

Who designed the characters of the third, fourth and fifth mainline Persona games?

Shigenori Soejima designed the casts of the third, fourth and fifth mainline Persona games, plus the chibi cast of Persona Q; he joined the studio in 1995.

Who designed the characters of the original Persona and the Persona 2 duology?

Kaneko handed the series to his protégé so he would not imprint his own style on it, and to give him experience.

Which director led Persona 3, 4 and 5 at Atlus?

Katsura Hashino directed the third, fourth and fifth mainline Persona games, after making his directorial debut with the 2003 RPG Nocturne.

Which new Atlus department did Hashino found after Persona 5 shipped in 2016?

Studio Zero was founded in December 2016 as a new internal team for fantasy role-playing games; it remade Catherine as Full Body before shipping its first original game, Metaphor: ReFantazio.

Which fighting-game studio co-developed Persona 4 Arena?

Arc System Works, the studio behind Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, co-developed Persona 4 Arena, a 2012 2D fighting game that continues the story of Persona 4 and SEES.

Persona Q blends the series with which first-person dungeon-crawler franchise?

It was the first Persona game built for a Nintendo platform, and its team mixed Etrian Odyssey IV and Persona staff.

Persona 5 Strikers crosses the series with which Koei Tecmo franchise?

Persona 5 Strikers is a Dynasty Warriors-style action crossover co-developed by Omega Force, the Koei Tecmo studio behind that series; its story begins half a year after Persona 5.

What major option did Persona 3 Portable add to the game?

Choosing her swaps Elizabeth for a male attendant, Theodore, and changes some Social Link stories.

Persona 4 Golden was originally released for which handheld?

Persona 4 Golden launched on the PlayStation Vita in 2012, adding the new character Marie, extra Social Links and a winter chapter; it later came to PC in 2020.

Which new Phantom Thief does Persona 5 Royal add?

Kasumi Yoshizawa, a gymnast transfer student, joins the party as Violet in Persona 5 Royal's added third semester; Hifumi Togo had been planned as a thief but was cut from the original game.

In which year did Joker arrive in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as DLC?

He brought a Persona-themed stage, eleven music tracks and a set of Mii costumes with him.

What is Joker's initial Persona in Persona 5?

Arsène, named after Maurice Leblanc's gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, is the winged, top-hatted Persona the hero first awakens in Kamoshida's Palace.

Which Major Arcana represents Ryuji Sakamoto in Persona 5?

Ryuji Sakamoto, codename Skull, embodies the Chariot Arcana; raising his bond unlocks Insta-kill, which lets the party dispatch much weaker Shadows on contact without a fight.

In which year was Persona 3 Reload released?

Reload, a full remake of the 2006 original, launched on 2 February 2024 across Sony, Microsoft and PC platforms simultaneously worldwide; an expansion retelling The Answer followed in September 2024.

Which prize did Persona 5 win at The Game Awards 2017?

It was also up for Game of the Year, Best Art Direction and Best Score/Music, but only the Best Role Playing Game trophy came home.

Persona 4's party Personas are based on what?

Persona 4's party Personas are Japanese deities and folklore figures such as Izanagi, Jiraiya and Take-Mikazuchi, suiting the countryside setting; the previous game had used Greco-Roman figures and the next used thieves and rebels.

How do the Phantom Thieves summon their Personas in Persona 5?

In Persona 5, party members summon Personas by tearing off their masks, which appear on their faces when they first awaken and rebel inside a Palace; the mask is the 'persona' in the Jungian sense.

The protagonist's Wild Card ability is represented by which Major Arcana?

The Fool, numbered zero, is the Arcana of the Wild Card: it lets the protagonist hold and swap many Personas while other party members are bound to one.

Which song is Persona 5's standard battle theme?

'Last Surprise' is Persona 5's regular battle theme, an acid-jazz number with English vocals that plays in most encounters; 'Rivers in the Desert' is reserved for major boss fights.

Which jazz and soul singer performed Persona 5's English vocal tracks?

Lyn, the Japanese jazz and soul singer Lyn Inaizumi, sang Persona 5's English-language vocal tracks, including the opening song 'Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There' and 'Rivers in the Desert'.

Which studio produced Persona 5: The Animation in 2018?

CloverWorks, spun out of A-1 Pictures' Koenji studio in April 2018, produced the 26-episode Persona 5: The Animation; Production I.G had animated the game's own cutscenes.

What nickname does the media give Goro Akechi in Persona 5?

Goro Akechi is dubbed the second Detective Prince by the media, after Persona 4's Naoto Shirogane; the teen celebrity sleuth publicly hunts the thieves while secretly plotting.

Joker's school, Shujin, was named as a homonym for which Japanese word?

Shujin is a homonym for shūjin, 'prisoner', a pun on the hero's probation; the Velvet Room is a prison in Persona 5 and fusions are staged as executions.

Which event led Hashino to scrap Persona 5's world-backpacking frame for a Japan-only story?

The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami struck during planning; seeing how people rallied at home, the director dropped the globe-trotting premise and set the whole game in Japan.

Mitsuru Kirijo's second language was changed to what in Persona 3's English version?

Mitsuru speaks French in the English release, with lines like 'très bien'; in the Japanese original her flourishes were in English, which would have vanished once the dialogue was translated.

Why was Persona 3's North American release pushed back three weeks in 2007?

Atlus said the deluxe package would have been "irreparably compromised" by shipping without it.

Persona 2: Innocent Sin takes place in which fictional setting?

Sumaru City is the fictional Japanese metropolis where rumours come true in both Persona 2 games, Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment; its districts include Aoba and Yumezaki.

According to director Hashino, the "FES" in Persona 3 FES comes from which word?

The director said FES is short for 'festival', a nod to an expansion packed with extras: a Hard difficulty, new Personas and a playable epilogue, The Answer.

Which character does the player control in Persona 3 FES's epilogue, The Answer?

Aigis, the anti-Shadow android, is the playable lead of The Answer; set after the main story, it removes the daily-life system and gives her the Wild Card ability.

What is the canonical name of Persona 5's protagonist?

Ren Amamiya is the name used for the protagonist in Persona 5: The Animation and the Dancing in Starlight spin-off, though players may rename him; the manga instead calls him Akira Kurusu.