PERSONA GAMES

SEBEC SCANDAL | ORIGINAL P TRILOGY|

BURN MY DREAD | PERSONA 3 + P3 FES | PERSONA 3 PORTABLE |

REACH OUT FOR TRUTH | PERSONA 4 |

DEVIL SUMMONER SOUL HACKERS|

WHAT IS SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI |

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~Unmask your persona~

 

~The philosophical differences between

Shin Megami Tensei & the side story Persona.~
Initially the Megami Tensei games by Namco weren't very philosophical. The megaten games gained a slightly darker tone when Atlus bought the rights to Megami Tensei and released SMT and SMT II.

While these two can indeed be considered philosophical. It acted more like window dressing and didn't really have much to do with the plot. The first two SMT's just had you doing things (Kill him, kill that guy, OH LOL a demon killed your mommy, OH WTF LULZ your puppy turned into a demon and jumped inside a computer screen.) like a normal video game plot would.

SMT III Nocturne is the SMT where complex philosophical conflicts finally became the main plot point.

(The original SMT's were much more simplified between Law, Nuetral, & Chaos.)

Nocturne had a plot that was shaped around a conflict of warring factions all vying for hegemony of their philosophical ideals (What rule of thought will naturally shape Mankind's disposition toward one another?) for the new born world.

In a way you could say that Nocturne's plot is quite similar to Ion Storm's Deus Ex. In the sense that DX itself was also about vying factions vying for hegemony of their political ideals. (How to govern a country.)

SMT III was basically a statement about how us humans could never truly build a utopian world, because any divine plan that we would ever devise for a newborn planet would be flawed due to our philosophies being shaped by the greed and insecurities of human nature.

Persona was dark and philosophical ever since its inception.

I'm not saying that the Persona games are deeper mind you. (Persona just takes a shallower more direct approach.)

What I am saying is that there was much more (subtext) going on in the plot of the original Persona than there was in the original SMT.
Where the two series differ is that Persona usually asked more personal less controversial questions and SMT directly questions your beliefs about cosmic reality. (religion and metaphysics.)
The personal philosophies are easier to relate to which is why Persona seems to resonate with more people
SMT III may delve into much deeper philosophy, but it is also the type of questioning that many people don't want answers to. (Such as where do we go when we die? Is it just a black screen, do we go to heaven or do we get that shitty after life that's portrayed in the SMT games? Being reincarnated based off of how much vice God has for your actions.)

The main reason why SMT comes off as much more mature is because SMT reads more like a theatrical play or a parable passed down for generations retold with demons in place of angels.
Persona reads like some over the top occult based Japanese tv drama with tons of overacting & comic relief.
It's really more of a case of atmosphere and tone rather than actual maturity.

(Considering that the plot for the original SMT borders on bad fan fiction at points yet it's still considered "mature" due to the game's foreboding atmosphere.).

SMT creates an adult atmosphere that is much more subtle and less in your face.

Persona is more whimsical & over the top (P4 exudes these qualities to the fullest extent.)

yet I feel that the Persona games have more to say in the end.

 

Persona games (Except the original.) actually take you through the life of the cast showing you the many facades that they have implemented to hide from the truth of their reality.
Persona games portray the cast as human.
The characters from the main SMT games are treated more like ciphers. (Metaphors, playing pieces.)

As such SMT characters tend to be devoid of a well rounded personality, because their general purpose as a character is to make a particular statement on the subject that they represent.

Ex. Chiaki Tachibana from Nocturne represents the tyrannical strong of will who are physically weak.
Which again reinforces SMT's more adult subtle approach to narrative structure when objectively compared to Persona's more direct approach. (All psychological conflicts in Persona are resolved through fighting. Not unlike an anime or an Action movie.)

 

~Quick note about the Occult nature of Persona.~
One thing I love about the Persona games is how they delve into the occult in the truest sense of the word.
Occult means "secret".
Which is why Persona games usually revolve around urban legends, conspiracy theories, secret societies, lost continents, religious cults, etc..
Persona lampoons how hearsay has some tangibility of reality if unfounded hearsay manages to penetrate the mainstream of the human populace's collective will.
This is Persona's way of saying how we almost always wish for our own destruction when left to our own devices, because we gossip more about the occult and other negative rules of thought to the point that our deepest fears ironically become a self fulfilling prophecy.
Nyarlythotep even said so himself during Persona 2 Innocent Sin & Eternal Punishment.

 

~The occult connection between the Sebec scandal & Post P2EP Persona.~

Persona 4 follows this same rule of thought, and although it's not as occult as the original Persona games.

The dark occult nature is still there.
At least more so than P3's anime inspired "apathy syndrome".
P4's conflict was willed through pure irony of self fulfillment just like P2 and the original.
The occult themes are still present in P4 just with an animu overcoat.
As opposed to the gothic aesthetic it used to have. Honestly, your tolerance of games such as Devil Survivor and P4 have more to do with the acceptance of the anime style more than anything.
I choose to completely ignore the animu style and instead concentrate on the deeper themes that P4 is proposing, or the fun I'm having with Devil Survivor.

I'm no longer a kid anymore. So it's not as if I'll ever understand how kids can be into this animu bullshit when my generation was more into the abstract gothic look.
Survivor has complex old school Megaten game play. The likes of which that we haven't seen since Soul hackers.
P4 has good writing. Yes it may read somewhat repetitively as if it were written for 14 years olds, but it's still deep and opens up a line of thinking that most other games don't
Which is all that matters to me.

 

~Conclusion~
The original "Persona Be Your True Mind" is what lead I to my road of self discovery and if the current Persona games can do the same for the new generation of youth then more power to them.
I should also add that I was only 13 when I played the original Persona. So I now see that the series is choosing to stay with its young teen demographic rather than growing up with the original fan base

 

SEBEC SCANDAL | ORIGINAL P TRILOGY

BURN MY DREAD | PERSONA 3 + P3 FES | PERSONA 3 PORTABLE

P3P placeholder

REACH OUT FOR TRUTH | PERSONA 4 |