Persona 3

Persona 3's North American boxart of the original release on PlayStation 2.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, simply known as Persona 3, is a role-playing and social simulation game developed by Atlus. The game was published by Atlus in Japan, Atlus U.S.A. in North America, Koei in Europe (PS2), and Ghostlight in Europe (PSP).

The game features Greek mythology and few other cultures' mythology as important plot points and as names of Personas that can be obtained.

Plot

The game begins with the protagonist arriving in the city. He is being transferred to Gekkoukan High School and is moving into one of their dorms. After an encounter with coffins scattered around town and learning of his ability to summon Personas, he is asked to join the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (SEES) so he may help in the battle against the shadows. He learns that a supernatural phenomenon called the Dark Hour happens every night at midnight. Everybody during this time transmogrifies into coffins while a select few that have the ability to summon Personas can actually roam during the Dark Hour. During this time, the high school transforms into a gigantic tower called Tartarus (also called the Tower of Demise). The SEES Team explore the tower in order to find a way to stop the shadows and the Dark Hour. The team also learns that powerful shadows appear once every month during the full moon. These special shadows can actually be found outside the tower.

As the plot goes on the team learns that Shuji Ikutsuki, the chairman and the adviser of the SEES team, has mislead the team. He reveals that by destroying all greater shadows it has freed parts of Nyx and will bring about the end of the world when fully restored. Nyx is the creator of the shadows and will be drawn to the Earth by The Appriser (or "Death"). The Appriser is a shadow of the Death arcana that is later revealed to be the new transfer student Ryoji Mochizuki in disguise.

The Shadow experiments performed ten years earlier created the Death Shadow, albeit in an incomplete state. Aigis, unable to defeat the Shadow, sealed it inside the Protagonist, who was a child at the time. By defeating the twelve greater Shadows, the Death Shadow was recreated. Its purpose is to "usher Nyx into this world", bringing about the extinction of the human race. Ryoji insists that Nyx cannot be defeated. However, he offers SEES an alternative: if they were to kill him, their memories of the Dark Hour and Tartarus would vanish, allowing them to continue life unaware of their impending death.[41] Aigis, who now realizes why she wanted to protect the Protagonist, begins to believe that she is useless. She urges SEES to kill Ryoji, as they cannot defeat Nyx. Through encouragement from her friends, however, she gains the resolve to join with SEES as they attempt to fight Nyx.

On December 31, New Year's Eve, the player must decide whether to kill Ryoji. If he is killed, the game skips to Graduation Day, with SEES's memories of the Dark Hour, Tartarus and Nyx are erased, allowing them to live the rest of their lives in ignorance and Nyx exterminates humanity. If he is spared, then the game continues, and on January 31, SEES ascends to the roof of Tartarus to face Ryoji, who has transformed into the Nyx Avatar. At the end of the battle, he shrugs off the damage and Nyx continues to descend to Earth. As this is happening, the Protagonist is summoned to the Velvet Room, where Igor reminds him that the power of his Social Links would determine his potential. The Protagonist hears the voices of his friends encouraging him. The strength of his Social Links grants him the power of the "Universe", allowing him to seal away Nyx from humanity. The world returns to normal, though the memories of the past year are lost to the members of SEES. However, Aigis and the Protagonist retain their memories. On Graduation Day, the two go to the roof of the school, where the members of SEES had promised to meet should they stop Nyx and live to see their graduation. It is here that Aigis thanks the Protagonist for giving her a purpose in life: protecting him. Meanwhile, the other SEES members regain their memories, and run out of the graduation ceremony to join the other two. Shortly afterwards, he closes his eyes. The protagonist's fate is revealed in The Answer, included with the FES version of Persona 3.

The events of The Answer begin on March 31, shortly after the end of the original game. During the opening sequence, it is revealed that the Protagonist has died; the other characters speculate that his death is related to his defeating Nyx. The school year has ended, and the dorm is to be closed down soon. Aigis reveales to the group that she will not be attending school next year. During their last dinner party, the SEES members discover that they are trapped in their dorm, and that the day March 31 is repeating itself. Later, a large door-like hole opens in the floor of the dorm, and SEES is attacked by Metis, an anti-shadow weapon similar to Aigis. In the midst of fighting Metis to protect her friends, Aigis's Persona, Athena, transforms into Orpheus, the original Persona of the Protagonist. She also gains the Protagonist's Wild Card ability. Aigis is able to subdue Metis, whose actions were an attempt to end the time skip and save Aigis, who she calls her "sister".

Underneath the dorm is the Abyss of Time, the cause of the time skip. The Abyss contains seven doors, the insides of which contain multi-floor dungeons, similar in design to Tartarus; it is in these areas that the game's combat takes place. At the top of each dungeon, the characters witness an event from the past of a member of SEES. After seeing several of these flashbacks, the characters discern that the event shown in each door relates to how that person had awakened to their Persona. At the top of the seventh and final door, SEES fights a Shadow-like version of the Protagonist. After defeating it, each of them obtain a key. By combining the keys, they would be able to end the time skip and leave the dorm. However, Metis presents SEES with an alternative: instead of unlocking the front door of the dorm, they may also use the keys to travel back in time, to before the fight against Nyx and the death of the Protagonist. Now unable to agree on how to use the keys, the characters determine that they must fight each other to decide. Aigis, Fuuka and Metis claim all eight keys, which fuse into the Final Key. Yukari then tries to take the key, but Metis tells her it is futile - "only my sister can use it now." After debating on what to do now, they discover a third, new door in the Abyss of Time, which the group uses (without the Final Key) to travel to the moment the Protagonist sealed Nyx from the world.

Metis explains that the purpose of the seal created by the Protagonist was not to seal Nyx from humanity, but to prevent humanity from calling out to Nyx. However, the malice of the human race manifested in a monster called Erebus, which was able to break through the seal, causing the time skip. SEES realizes that the wishes that created Erebus also came from them, and so they fight it, and are able to defeat it. Mitsuru points out that Erebus will return someday, as humans will never stop wishing for death. After breaking the time skip and exiting through the front door of the dorm with the Final Key, Metis, Aigis, and the rest of SEES are summoned to the Velvet Room, much to Igor's (pleasant) surprise. It is here they learn of Metis's true origins: that she is a manifestation of a part of Aigis's personality. Distraught over the death of the Protagonist, she no longer wanted to live like a human, and wished to return to being a machine. However, after being set free from the Abyss of Time, Aigis changes her mind, deciding to continue to attend school, something she had chosen not to do earlier.

Characters

Name	Japanese cast	English cast	Description
Protagonist	Akira Ishida (male) Marina Inoue (female)	Yuri Lowenthal (male) Laura Bailey (female)	He/she is the protagonist of the game. He/she has the ability to summon multiple Personas.
Yukari Takeba	Megumi Toyoguchi	Michelle Ruff	A very popular student in school and a member of SEES.
Junpei Iori	Kōsuke Toriumi	Vic Mignogna	A goofy, kind, caring, and sometimes perverted student and a member of SEES. He is also shown to be jealous of the protagonist's power.
Mitsuru Kirijō	Rie Tanaka	Tara Platt	An highly intelligent student who's apart of the student council and apart of the SEES team.
Akihiko Sanada	Hikaru Midorikawa	Liam O'Brien	A cool and well-respected upperclassman who is very determined and serious. He is a member of SEES.
Shinjirō Aragaki	Kazuya Nakai	Grant George	A reliable and serious character that has a gentler self masked by a cold exterior. He is a former member of SEES, but does return during the protagonist's time in SEES.
Fūka Yamagishi	Mamiko Noto	Paula Tiso	A shy and nervous character. She provides support during SEES missions, replacing Mitsuru.
Aigis	Maaya Sakamoto	Karen Strassman	An anti-shadow weapon that is drawn to the protagonist. As the game goes on, she develops more human qualities. She is a member of SEES.
Ken Amada	Megumi Ogata	Mona Marshall	An intelligent and mature young child that later joins the SEES team and even lives in their dorm.
Koromaru	N/A	N/A	A dog that guards the shrine that his old master protected. Due to his Persona ability, he joins the SEES team.
Metis	Chiwa Saitō	Stephannie Sheh	An anti-shadow weapon that claims to be the sister of Aigis.
Shūji Ikutsuki	Hideyuki Hori	Dan Woren	The school's cheif director and is the chairman and adviser of the SEES team. He often tells bad puns.
Takaya Sakaki	Nobutoshi Canna	Derek Stephen Prince	The leader of a group called Strega.
Jin Shirato	Masaya Onosaka	Grant George	A member of Strega who's loyal to Takaya.
Chidori Yoshino	Miyuki Sawashiro	Mona Marshall	A gothic-like girl who is the support member of Strega.
Ryōji Mochizuki	Akira Ishida	Yuri Lowenthal	A mysterious new transfer student that Aigis doesn't trust.

Characters from mythology

Name	Voice actor	Description
Nyx	N/A	The creator of all shadows. Nyx seeks to end the world during the event known as The Fall. She assumes Ryoji's form as the Nyx Avatar.
Erebus	N/A	A manifestation of humanity's grief and negative emotion. His purpose is to contact Nyx so that The Fall may occur.

Personas from mythology

SECTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION

This is a list of Personas that are based off of mythology.

Name	Arcana
Orpheus	Fool
Loki	Fool
Susano-o	Fool
Nekomata	Magician
Sati	Magician
Rangda	Magician
Surt	Magician
Apsaras	Priestess
Unicorn	Priestess
Sarasvati	Priestess
Ganga	Priestess
Parvati	Priestess
Scathach	Priestess

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