Persona 3: The Importance of Narrative

"Memento Mori. Remember you will die. Remember your death."

It's no exaggeration to say that Persona 3 revitalized the RPG genre upon its release in 2006. The approach it took with its narrative still feels revolutionary today. On the surface it feels like a relatively simple story revolving around a group of high schoolers and a supernatural mystery: every night when the clock strikes midnight 'The Dark Hour' occurs where time stands still and monsters come out. It seems like a relatively standard story but the more the player delves beneath the surface, the more complex and, for want of a better description, deep the narrative becomes.

Thematically, Persona 3 is water-tight. The duality of its narrative appearing both simple and complex simultaneously mirrors that of its characters, as many appear a certain way on the surface, yet often feel differently within. A brave face may be hiding tremendous fear; an outgoing toughness masking insecurities; a show of friendship may be covering extreme jealousy. These themes are intrinsically tied to the gameplay, as characters must use their 'Personas' to defeat 'Shadows'. Each 'Persona' is linked to one of the Major Arcana. The most effective way to power these 'Personas' is to level up 'social links' which is, effectively, going out and making friends, spending time with them, and getting to know them.

A Persona is a manifestation of a person's personality, referred to as a "mask" for an individual to use to face hardship. 'Shadows' are malevolent manifestations of one's inner thoughts, while a 'Persona' is a manifestation of the same feelings but tamed and trained. The terms 'Persona' and 'Shadow' are knowingly taken from Jungian psychology. A fight using Personas weighs the user's mind and spirit, as they tend to be summoned though psychological trauma. In Persona 3's case, through an act akin to suicide. It is through these 'Personas' the player is allowed to look deeper into the cast of characters and, as the story progresses, realize the attention to detail and level of complexity the game has. The entire game has Jungian psychology at its core, which revolves around the importance of the individual psyche and the personal quest for wholeness.

Minor spoilers, but the game is nearly 10 years old at this point.

Persona 3 is also game that addresses the concept of death. It doesn't just focus on the horror of someone dying, or how to deal with grief; it forces the player to consider their own mortality. It is interesting to see parallels with more modern titles such as Dark Souls (and the rest of the 'Souls' series) in the way that death is a central theme, with both putting information in for the player to find without pointing to it; neither make their narrative depth obvious.

The cast of Persona 3 and their respective arcanas

The 'Persona' of a character, and its respective Arcana, speaks volumes about their personality and foreshadows the events of the game itself. The characters of Shinjiro Aragaki and Akihiko Sanada, for example, grew up together in an orphanage. Their respective 'Personas' are Castor and Polydeuces, twin brothers in Roman and Greek mythology, born to different parents. According to mythology Castor is killed and Polydeuces goes to extreme lengths to save him. You can probably guess what happens as the events of Persona 3 unfold. In the Argonauts mythology, Polydeuces is victorious in a life and death boxing match; Akihiko is captain of the boxing team and fights with his fists. Akihiko is also affiliated with the 'Emporor' arcana reflected in his character and relationship with Mitsuru Kirijo, the holder of the 'Empress' arcana. Every character has this level of depth, and almost every line dialogue has a narrative point. Water. Tight.