Persona (series)

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Persona (series) [Edit] [Talk]

Persona, previously marketed as Shin Megami Tensei: Persona outside of Japan from 2006 to 2012, is a video game franchise developed and primarily published by Atlus, and owned by Sega. Focusing around a series of role-playing video games, Persona is a spin-off from Atlus' Megami Tensei franchise. The first entry in the series, Revelations: Persona, was released in 1996 for the PlayStation. The series has seen several more games since, with the most recent main entry being 2019's Persona 5 Royal.

Development[]

Persona was first conceived as a response to the positive reception of the Super Famicom game Shin Megami Tensei if..., which was set in an alternate continuity from the numbered entries in the main series, centering instead on a group of high school students as opposed to adults and their demon companions. Atlus as a result, would begin to develop a standalone subseries within the Megami Tensei franchise focused entirely around the inner psychological struggles of teenagers and young adults, partially derived from the experiences of the series' co-creators, Kouji Okada and Kazuma Kaneko. They surmised that every individual goes through the tribulations of being young students at that age, and that it represented both a time of learning and personal freedom, as well as being relatable to the human condition. They felt as if this approach to the series would help players accept its themes and varied ideas, with Kaneko in particular basing his personal ideas during development around recreating his own personal experiences at that point in time.

The primary concept behind the first entry in the series, Revelations: Persona (1996) was creating a Megami Tensei title that was equally approachable to both veteran and casual players, a decision reinforced by the plethora of casual-oriented games that had previously appeared on the game's target platform, the original PlayStation. The game's Japanese title, Megami Ibunroku Persona (translation: Strange Tale of a Goddess: Persona), was indicative of said game being a spin-off from the main Shin Megami Tensei titles; it would later be dropped in favor of distinguishing Persona further as a standalone work.