User:Gakon5/Persona (series)

Persona (ペルソナ) is a series of Japanese console role-playing video games developed by Atlus. The series is a spin-off of the larger Megami Tensei series of games. Revelations: Persona was the first game in the series, released in 1996 on the PlayStation video game console. The game stars a group of high school students who learn to fight demons by summoning "Personas", creatures described as a facet of one's Personality. Revelations: Persona, as well as its sequels, Persona 2: Innocent Sin and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, allows players to negotiate with enemy demons rather than fighting them. Using the games' "Contact" system, in-game characters may talk with enemies, in order to gain money or special items.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, originally released in 2006, represented a radical departure from previous games in the series. In addition to fighting enemies using Personas, Persona 3 added elements of simulation games. Taking place over the course of a Japanese school year, the player directs the day-to-day life of the game's protagonist, deciding what activities he engages in, which has an impact on the combat side of the game. By forming relationships with other people known as Social Links, the player can improve the strength of his character's Personas in battle. Persona 3 is also known for the Evoker, a gun-like device characters fire at their head to summon their Persona. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, first released in 2008, iterated on the combat and social mechanics of its predecessor.

There have been three remakes and re-releases of Persona games. Persona 3 FES is a re-release of Persona 3, including an enhanced "director's cut" edition of the original game, as well as a new epilogue entitled "The Answer". A remake of Persona 3 to the PlayStation Portable is also set to be released in Japan on Novemeber 1, 2009. Titled Persona 3 Portable, the game refines the mechanics of the original game, borrowing some elements from its successor, Persona 4. Among other changes, the player will be given the option to play as a female character, as opposed to the game's original male protagonist. In 2009, Atlus released an enhanced remake of the original Persona game on the PlayStation Portable.

Negotiation
In the spirit of past Megami Tensei games, which allow players to recruit demons to fight for them, Revelations: Persona and Persona 2 allow players to negotiate with enemies to gain money, items, or information. This is known as the "Contact" system. Contacts are performed during battles, and allow the player to skip combat entirely. To contact an enemy demon, the player selects a character to talk with the enemy. Each playable character has four unique methods of communication, such as praising the enemy or singing to them. Every enemy, based on its specific personality, will give a different response to specific forms of contact. A demon will elicit one of four emotions: joy, fear, anger, or sadness. Generating enough interest in a demon will prompt it to give the player a spell card, used to create a Persona in the Velvet Room.

In Persona 2, each playable character has a specific method of communicating with enemy demons. For example, the game's protagonist Maya, who works for a teen magazine, will attempt to interview an enemy, while the character Uala will offer to read its fortune. In addition to using one character, the player may combine up to three characters to initiate a conversation as well. As with Revelations: Persona, demons have a set of personality traits which determine how they will respond to different methods of communication. The player can elicit four different responses out of a demon: anger, fear, joy, or interest. Triggering the same emotional three times will cause the demon to do something. An angry demon will assault the player, a scared demon will flee the battle, a joyful demon will give the player money or items, and an interested demon will give the player a number of Tarot cards, which can be used to create new Personas.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 is the fourth game in the Persona series, and the first to be released on the PlayStation 2. The game introduced social simulation elements, in which the player follows and directs the day-to-day school life of the game's protagonist. In the fictional universe of Persona 3, a period of time exists between one day and the next known as the Dark Hour. Most people are transformed into coffins and are unaware of the Dark Hour, and beasts called Shadows feed on the minds of those still conscious. The player follows the exploits of the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (SEES), a group of high school students investigating Dark Hour and fight Shadows by summoning Personas. In Persona 3, characters summon their Personas by firing a gun-like object called an Evoker at their head.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 is the fifth main game in the series, released in 2008 on the PlayStation 2. Persona 4 is set in the fictional rural Japanese town of Inaba, in which the player's character is living for a year with his uncle Dojima, and his cousin, Nanako. Shortly after arriving in town and starting school, two murder victims are found hanging from television antennas. The Protagonist and his friends soon discover that the murders are linked to an alternate reality known as the Midnight Channel, accessed by entering a television screen. Persona 4 iterated on the combat and social elements of its predecessor, allowing the player to directly control other characters, and adding more possible Social Links.

Remakes
There have been two remakes of games in the Persona series released, with a third to be put out in November of 2009. Persona 3: FES is an add-on disc for Persona 3, including a "director's cut" of the original game (known as "The Journey") and a new epligoue entitled "The Answer". In Japan, Persona 3: FES shipped alongside Persona 3, in two versions: a "Regular Edition"—containing both The Journey and The Answer—and an "Append Edition", which only includes The Answer. The Append Edition was later published in North America and Europe. The subtitle "Fes" is derived from the word "festival". In The Answer, the player controls the female android Aigis from The Journey, as opposed to the game's original protagonist. A remake of Persona 3 for the PlayStation Portable entitled Persona 3 Portable will be released in Japan on November 1, 2008. The game will add a new selectable female protagonist, and expand on the gameplay of Persona 3, drawing on elements from the battle system of Persona 4. In 2009, Atlus re-released the first Persona game, Revelations: Persona, on the PlayStation Portable as Shin Megami Tensei: Persona. The game received a graphical overhaul, its user interface was redesigned, and a new soundtrack was produced by series composer Shoji Meguro, who also served as the game's director.