When it comes to memorable JRPGs, the Persona series is definitely a topic that can't be avoided. This series is a spin-off of the "True Goddess Rebirth" series, and the first generation of "Persona" was born on Sony's PS1 platform. Persona means mask in Latin, and the entire series is inspired by the ideas of the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. For example, in his core concept, the personality mask persona is defined as the image that people appear to others in the eyes of others, usually the image expected by society and the public, while also exploring other concepts such as individualization, the collective subconscious, and archetypes.
The story plot of this series is not completely continued, but the world view and universe of each work are the same. " Persona " is also the most commercially successful series in the True Goddess Turn series. Unlike the goddess turn, the player does not need to recruit demons to fight for themselves, demons appear under the name and image of "shadows", and the shadows that fight for the player are called Persona. Although players can equip their own weapons, the magic comes from Persona. As in the original game, Persona can be fused to become a more powerful Persona, and the monthly moon phase also greatly affects the game.
If you're not a big fan of the series, there might be a lot of questions. For example, what is the plot of the first and second generations? Why did no one play the series at the beginning, but suddenly became popular from the 3rd generation? Why did the five generations become gods? Why is it now called the pinnacle of JRPG? Therefore, this time we will have a good talk about the special JRPG series of "Persona" and answer each of the above questions one by one.
The original Persona was also the first game to be explored outside the maze using a third-person perspective, but the combat and maze are still close to the first-person view of the real goddess's turn. Subsequently, after the launch of the second generation, it was also changed to Persona's unique perspective and interface, and I will briefly summarize the plot of the first and second generation with you.
"I dream of a butterfly, but I can't tell if I'm dreaming, and when I wake up, I'm still me, not a butterfly, am I dreaming of being that butterfly, or is that butterfly dreaming that it's me?" This is a passage from the original title of the game, which not only establishes the symbolism of the butterfly to the work, but also highlights the importance of Karl Jung's thought. Set in 1996, the protagonist attends St. Hermelin High School in Mikage Town, and begins when the protagonist is invited by Uesugi Hidehiko to play a ritual game called Persona, which is a mini-game similar to Bloody Mary.
During the game, the player will lose consciousness and meet Philemon. This is a man with a butterfly mask that gives players the summoning of a reflection called Persona, which is his own personality. And then the world strangely sprang up with various demons to spread wild on the streets, and they could only be repelled by the Persona of the protagonist group. The protagonist group finally needs to let the important supporting character Mayki Sonomura face his subconscious to solve the origin of the incident together, and at the end fuse all the split Mayi fragments to solve the strange situation in the town, and then Philemon also appears to applaud the protagonist group for successfully solving the event. Philemon appeared in this generation as a representative of light and kindness, and in subsequent works, he also guarded the protagonists of each generation from the side.
The second generation is divided into crime and punishment, both of which are stories that occur a few years after the first part. In 1999, the protagonist Zhou Fang Tatsuya was involved in a dispute between two high schools under the influence of his classmates, and after the fight, they played an evil mini-game to summon Joker. Joker is a demon who will answer anyone's call, and those who cannot express their wishes to Joker will be drained of their "ideal power" and turned into an empty shell without any intention at all.
After being summoned, Joker claims to know the protagonist group, but the protagonists do not recognize him, and in a fit of anger, Joker vows his revenge and leaves everyone. Later, the protagonists meet the original protagonist Mahi and others to fight against the invasion of Hitler who did not die in World War II and his evil organization Kamen, and finally use Longinus' Gun of Fate to defeat Hitler. Later, it was discovered that all this was the dark situation of destroying the world laid by the demon of the Cthulhu mythos, Naiarathotep. He then controls the supporting character Masaya Okamura to use the Gun of Destiny to penetrate Maiye, completing his prophecy, and the world stops spinning and is completely destroyed.
Philemon then appears and tells Zhou that things are still turning around and can prevent it from happening. In the end, he is willing to let Philemon create a new timeline at the cost of everyone's memory, go back in time and stop it from happening. And this plot is presented in the follow-up work of the second generation "Persona 2: Punishment", which in a sense also sets a setting for each subsequent generation to talk about the season. In addition to the first and second generations being close to the goddess turn series in terms of painting style, the second generation also made Europe and the United States unwilling to translate it because of the appearance of Hitler, and launched it in the European and American markets at that time. Therefore, the first two generations of the series were not too hot. And the sudden changes in the three generations and other subsequent works made the entire series on the road to success. Let's talk about the changes that began in three generations and the various elements that brought the series to the top!
First of all, in terms of painting style, the main designer of the series in the third generation, the trio of Kazuma Kaneko, Naruki Fukujima and Masano Doi, who were reincarnated by the true goddess, handed over the baton to Naruki Fukujima, who had a more modern painting style, and the demon/Persona of the protagonist group were also given special designs that matched the appearance of each protagonist. For example, in the P3 Greek God series, the male protagonist's Orpheus has a similar hairstyle, P4's Chieda Richu likes martial arts films because he likes martial arts films, and Persona's body is also wearing Bruce Lee's symbolic yellow and black line tights.
In terms of core theme and color, the 3rd generation is about facing and accepting death, so the Latin string of Memento Mori that often appears in the game's opening credits means to remember that you will die and see life as a celebration. The corresponding theme color is blue, which represents melancholy. The fourth generation is the pursuit of all truth, in the TV world to the public scrutiny, accept the most true self, the corresponding theme color is yellow, is the most optimistic and positive representative color in the series for the time being. The five generations are free from the limitations and shackles of real society, and the representative colors are red and black, symbolizing passion, anger and passion.
These themes are also reflected in the way these generations of protagonists summon Persona, such as Persona3, which uses a special pistol called Evoker to shoot himself in the skull, and only after crossing his fear of death can he summon his own Persona. In the 4th generation, the protagonists need to wear a special kind of glasses to see through the thick fog shrouded in facts in the TV world, see directly at the most explicit truth of events, destroy their Persona cards, and summon Persona. In the 5th generation, the protagonists are torn off the mask on their faces, take off the hypocritical disguise and symbolize the protective colors that break through the real society and force themselves to wear, so that the most real self under the mask regains freedom.
In terms of UI, Masaki Sudo's bold interface design in 5 generations has achieved the greatest balance between simplification and optimization, surprising many people, and at the same time, the UI design pattern of this series surpasses most works on the market and reaches the level of capping.
Another factor that made the series popular should be attributed to the music that players are familiar with today. The theme songs and soundtracks of various generations composed by Shoji Kurome and sung by hip-hop rap artist Lotus Juice are memorable. For example, the battle theme song "MassDestruction" of the three generations of FES, the theme song "Pursuing My True Self" of the fourth generation of the core theme, the theme song "Heartbeat Heartbreak" of rain in the country town, and the recent card draw divine song "Specialist", the fifth generation of thieves "Last Surprise", and the same rainy theme song "Beneath The Mask" , all perfectly interpret and interpret the theme of each generation and create the atmosphere of individual pictures, setting off the emotions of the protagonist and the player.
However, Kurome Shoji seems to have no desire to continue composing music, because he is developing his own indie game "Guns Undarkness", which really makes people a little worried about what will happen without him in the soundtrack of the sixth generation. At the same time, it is also very curious, what will be the symbolic color of the next generation? Previously, I saw the arrangement of colors of each generation at the 2022 Persona celebration, red followed by white, can it be said that 6 generations will be white? This will only be known when Atlus launches a sequel.