There is a lack of a Persona megatopic, so Im going to make one :).
Series Information
The Persona series is a spin-off series in the Megami Tensei family of games which began with the release of Megami Ibunroku Persona in 1996. There are currently six main titles in the Persona series. All the games take place in the same universe and share certain common elements.
Unlike in Megami Tensei and Shin Megami Tensei, the Persona series does not involve recruiting demons to fight for you. The player characters still carry a firearm and melee weapon like in Shin Megami Tensei, but magic comes from Personas as opposed from demons. Like demons, these Personas can be fused in order to create more powerful Personas. In addition, the lunar phases are important, which is a common theme in MegaTen games. Furthermore, while the Persona series uses the real-world currency, yen, or dollars, Shin Megami Tensei series' currency are always identified with Macca.
Persona features an angled third-person perspective, but dungeons are still navigated using Megami Tensei's first person view. Since the release of Persona 2: Innocent Sin, the first-person dungeon exploration has been removed. "
Megami Ibunroku Persona(Called Revelations: Persona in North America)
Megami Ibunroku Persona centers around the protagonist and his classmates at St. Hermelin High School in Mikage-cho. Hidehiko Uesugi talks all of his friends into playing a game called "Persona", which is played much like the ritual game "Bloody Mary". While playing, the students lose consciousness and meet Philemon, who gives them the ability to summon reflections of their personalities, which are known as Personas.
A short time later, the protagonist and several of his friends go to visit Maki Sonomura, who is ill and bed-ridden. During their visit, they discover that the town is changing and demons are roaming the streets.
Persona 2: Innocent Sin+Eternal Punishment
Persona 2: Innocent Sin (ペルソナ２ 罪, Perusona 2: Tsumi) is the second game in the Persona series on the PlayStation. Innocent Sin is followed by Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, which together, create one overarching story. Innocent Sin focuses on protagonist Tatsuya Suou. The theme song of the game is Kimi no Tonari (君のとなり), by hitomi.
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (ペルソナ２ 罰, Perusona 2: Batsu) is the third game in the Persona series on the PlayStation, following Persona 2: Innocent Sin as the second chapter of an overarching story. Eternal Punishment focuses on protagonist Maya Amano. The theme song of the game is "Change Your Way", by Elisha La'Verne.
Persona 3
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, known in Japan as Persona 3 (ペルソナ3, Perusona 3) is the third game in the Persona series. The game was developed by Atlus for the PlayStation 2. An epilogue and enhanced version of the game was released as Persona 3: FES.
Persona 3 combines elements of standard console role-playing games and dating sims. The game takes place over the course of a Japanese school year. Each day goes by broken up into several periods such as "Morning", "Afternoon" and "Evening", with the Main Character going to school and then participating in selected activities during free time. The player may opt to use the free time activities to buy equipment and items at stores, talk to other non-playable characters, or spend the remainder of the free time either to build a Social Link or to improve the Main Character's attributes, such as by gaining courage by singing karaoke. Thus, the player must manage which activities or Social Links to improve in order to build up the Main Character for the exploration of the Tartarus. Certain in-game events will occur on prescribed days; Major Shadows will appear on full moons, there will be midterm and final exams within school, and school holidays give the player more time to work on other activities.
At night, the player may opt to enter Tartarus, or otherwise allow the characters to rest and recover. Tartarus is a 250-floor tower which the player must eventually climb by the end of the game. Tartarus is broken into several "blocks", and various blocks are inaccessible until the Major Shadows are defeated on each full moon, thus limiting the progress through the tower. Most floors of Tartarus are randomly generated in a roguelike manner, with a random distribution of treasure and wandering Shadows, but each includes a stairway to the next floor and many also include a one-way only teleport point that allows them to escape to the first floor. Other levels contain mini-bosses that must be defeated in order to progress; these levels also feature a fixed teleport point that allows the player to travel to any other similar teleport point that has been previously accessed, thus allowing the player to skip blocks when returning to Tartarus. The player may opt to keep the party together or have each member explore the level, recovering any treasure found and fighting monsters individually. As the party explores, their health will worsen, and a member that ends up "tired" or "sick" will perform poorly in battle and may drop out before battle is complete; the only way to recover from these states is spend one or more nights without exploring Tartarus.
Combat is a turn-based affair. Each character can perform a standard melee attack with their weapon, summon their Persona to unleash an attack or spell, or use recovery and battle items. The player only directly controls the actions of the Main Character. The other members of the party can be guided through specific tactics assigned to each of them, such as maintaining the health of the party, or going all out with Persona attacks. Each foe has strengths and weaknesses; by striking a foe with an attack it is weak against, it will cause the foe to be knocked down, and the attacker will gain one more immediate attack; this can lead to a chain of attacks against each foe if the attacks are selected appropriately. If all remaining foes are knocked down, the player can opt for an "All-Out" attack, with the remaining members entering a cartoon-like fight cloud, inflicting higher damage on each foe.
Persona 4
The Moon Phase System, which has been in a vast majority of Megami Tensei games, has been replaced with a Weather Forecast system. The game features a more retro style compared to Persona 3.
Persona 4's gameplay and style stays similar to Persona 3's. Persona 4 has kept the social links and dungeon crawling gameplay and it appears to be run on the same engine as its predecessor. Features such as Community (Social Link in English localization,) One More and All-out Attack from Persona 3 return. The glasses, given by Teddie, play an important role in the game, and allow the party to see through the heavy mist inside Mayonaka TV and decrease stamina loss. The pistol-like Evokers of Persona 3 are replaced by tarot cards, which the main characters shatter in order to summon their respective Personas. The battles also have some similarities, such as the one more system, all out attack, and the AI controlled support characters. However, characters can be set to take commands from the player, deviating from Persona 3's system.
However, several major changes have been made. The player now has 5 stats in contrast to P3's 3 and lacks the health status, enabling players to explore dungeons continuously. Only now, the constraint is SP. HP and SP will not be restored when the player goes back to the dungeon entrance, but the player can choose to restore SP by talking to the fox (who will join the group after some time into the game), although it will cost a significant amount of money.
Battle-wise, P4's is more forgiving. This is partly due to a new tactic in battle enabling you to directly control the actions of the other party members. This time you can continually exploit an enemy's weakness, as they will stay down instead of getting up after the second consecutive exploitation of their weakness. Multi-target spells give a bonus turn as long as you hit at least one enemy's weakness (However, the same works for your party). Battles now occur after school instead of at midnight like in P3. This gives the player less time in which to do social activities. Post battle card shuffles have been revamped with the addition of arcana chance (which can bring you good or bad status depending on the Arcana and the way the card lands).
Social Links now have a greater effect on battle. For example, for level 1, the player's allies occasionally protect the protagonist from a deathblow (If the HP of the protagonist becomes zero, the game will be over.) For level 3, if the protagonist or his allies successfully knock the shadow down, the allies will occasionally offer to have a follow-up attack which has a 100% chance to knock down and can paralyze another shadow or shadows (or in the case of Chie, instantly defeat). For level 5, if the Social Link character knocks down a foe, they will help an ally who is Down or Dizzy. For level 7, if the Social Link character knocks down a foe, they can cure one ally of Rage, Fear, or Confusion. All allies whom had their corresponding Social Link at level 9 will be able to survive an attack that should have killed them with 1 HP once per battle. For the maximum level, the persona of the corresponding ally will be evolved into another persona. The biggest change is the status of the persona. Some Personas may lose their weakness and become immune to certain kind of magic attacks, or allow them to resist a completely different element.
Persona 5(Not Released)
On August 2011, Persona 5 was officially confirmed to be under development.
According to the Famitsu magazine, the basic preparations for the game development are finished, with the usual staff, Katsura Hashino as director, Shigenori Soejima as character designer and Shoji Meguro as music composer.
According to Famitsu, Persona 5 will be made with a new engine and the themes that will cover the game have been solidified. The team also wants to add new aspects to the game.
There is no date or platforms for Persona 5.
About Posting SpoilersIf you post spoilers, please type, "Spoiler: (transparent text here)." To read the transparent text, highlight it with your mouse. Transparent color is this. [color= transparent][/color]
