Atlus's 2006 role-playing video game Persona 3 focuses on the exploits of the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (SEES), a group of high-schoolers defending their home city from monsters known as Shadows. Persona 3 is set in a fictional Japanese city in the year 2009. Due to past events, there is a hidden period between one day and the next, known as the "Dark Hour", during which most people become unconscious (a state the game calls "Transmogrification", symbolized by normal people turning into floating coffins), and Shadows feed on the minds of those still aware of their surroundings. In addition, a large tower called Tartarus, filled with Shadows, rises out of the ground during the Dark Hour. SEES is composed of students attending Gekkoukan High School. The player names and controls the game's protagonist, who leads SEES in its exploration of Tartarus. Persona 3 mixes elements of role-playing and simulation games: during the day, the player attends school, and is able to spend time with other characters, forming relationships known as Social Links. These Social Links, when formed, have gameplay benefits, increasing the player's proficiency in battle.
To combat Shadows, each member of SEES is capable of summoning a Persona, a being which is a manifestation of one's psyche. Persona-users summon their Personas by firing a gun-like object called an Evoker at their head. Shigenori Soejima designed the world and cast of Persona 3. The members of SEES include Yukari Takeba, a popular girl; Junpei Iori, a class clown and the Protagonist's best friend; Akihiko Sanada, the captain of Gekkoukan's boxing team; Mitsuru Kirijo, Gekkoukan's student council president; Fuuka Yamagishi, a shy girl who takes on a support role in battle; Aigis, a female android designed to fight Shadows; Ken Amada, an elementary school student whose mother was killed by a Persona-user; Koromaru, a dog capable of summoning a Persona; and Shinjiro Aragaki, a returning member of SEES who had previously left the team. The group encounters other Persona-users who are working against their efforts to eradicate Shadows, Tartarus, and the Dark Hour.
Atlus released an enhanced version of Persona 3 entitled Persona 3: FES. The new game makes revisions to the original gameplay of Persona 3 (referred to as "The Journey"), and adds a new epilogue to the original story, entitled "The Answer". The Answer introduces a new character, Metis, an anti-Shadow weapon like Aigis. In 2009, Atlus released a PlayStation Portable remake of Persona 3 entitled Persona 3 Portable, which adds more characters, including appearances by characters from the successor to Persona 3, Persona 4, released in 2008. Several Persona 3 characters also went on to make appearances in 2012's Persona 4 Arena and 2014's Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, both set two years after the events of "The Answer".
SEES members
The , or SEES for short, is officially a school group of Gekkoukan High School. In reality, they hunt down Shadows and investigate the Dark Hour with the support of the Kirijo Group. All of the members of SEES are Persona-users, who live together in a specialized dorm. In the final events of the game, the group is re-designated as the .
Protagonist
Voiced by: English: Yuri Lowenthal (male), Aleks Le (male, Reload), Laura Bailey (female)Japanese: Akira Ishida (male), Marina Inoue (female) The protagonist is the nameable main player-controlled character of Persona 3. He is named in the film adaptation, Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight, and most of his appearances. Having moved into the dorm in the introduction of the game, he learns his ability to summon The Fool arcana Persona and the Death arcana Persona before he's later appointed the team's leader in combat. He is unique among his cohorts in that he has the ability to carry multiple Personas and switch between them during battle. Over the course of the game, he also gains of The Judgement Arcana and of The Fool Arcana in Persona 3 FES. With the power of the Wild Card he has access to over 150 different Personas. He is also the only character with access to the Velvet Room, in which the player is able to fuse together multiple Personas together to create a new, more powerful one. Over the course of the game, the player is challenged to manage his day-to-day schedule as he attends school, takes part in extracurricular activities, and spends time with classmates and other characters. Igor, the proprietor of the Velvet Room, encourages him to form Social Links with people, as they will determine his potential in combat. Within the simulation elements of Persona 3, the player is able to form Social Links with characters in-game, each represented by one of the Major Arcana and granting various bonuses during Persona fusion, increasing the player's proficiency in battle. Soejima took longer to design him than any other character, as the game's other characters would be made to complement his design. Soejima wrote in Art of Persona 3, "Initially, he looked more honest, like an ordinary, handsome young man. But, I worked to achieve greater ambiguity in his expression." In Persona 3 Portable, released on the PlayStation Portable in 2009, an option was added to control a female protagonist. Unlike the male protagonist, the female protagonist through her dialogue opinions, is shown to be a very upbeat and energetic person, sometimes pulling jokes on her friends, so they could be considered opposites. Later games explain that the two protagonists exist within different timelines.
In the manga adaptation of Persona 3, he is portrayed as a quiet teenager who often tired or drowsy, who likes to eat and cook food. In the animated movie adaptation, he is portrayed as an ambivalent individual with an initially neutral viewpoint on the film's themes of life and death, making his growth via newfound experiences the focus of the movie. He also gains his new Personas from battles of against Arcana Shadows during full moon, instead of Social Links.
In the stage adaptation, Persona 3: The Weird Masquerade, the male protagonist is named and he is portrayed by Shouta Aoi, while the female version is named and she is portrayed by Kana Asumi.
Yukari Takeba Voiced by: English: Michelle Ruff, Heather Gonzalez (Reload)Japanese: Megumi Toyoguchi is one of the protagonist's classmates. Yukari's zeal for investigation brings SEES a lot of trouble, but also gains the group valuable allies and information. Her Personas are and of The Lovers Arcana. She wields a bow and arrows in battle as well as Wind elemental magic.
It is revealed that Yukari has been on her own for quite some time. Her father died a mysterious death a decade ago, in 1999, and her mother neglects her in favor of a string of shallow (and possibly abusive) boyfriends. She slowly begins to open up to the protagonist because he is an orphan (having lost both of his parents in the same incident) and can understand her isolation. Midway through the game, Yukari discovers that her father was involved in the incident that unleashed the Shadows upon the world. Yukari is forced to face her anger and overcome it, and decides to fight for her friends and her father's memory.
In the Social Link, which represents a choice for the protagonist's journey, the Protagonist helps Yukari mend her relationship with her mother. If the protagonist makes the correct choices, Yukari will fall in love with him. If the player chooses not to date any girls, Yukari will appear for all the dating events.
In Persona 3: FES's The Answer, Yukari is the group member who is most reluctant to go back into battle against the Shadows and seems that she only wants to move on with her life. However, she fell in love with the protagonist, and as such, is bitter and jealous towards Aigis, who was not only able to spend the last moment with the protagonist before his death, but also inherited his powers. As such, Yukari constantly shows random mood swings towards her. After witnessing the protagonist's sacrifice and the burden he must carry, she finally overcomes her jealousy, apologizing to Aigis and offering to become her roommate.
Yukari appears as a playable character in the fighting game Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. After the end of Persona 3, Yukari decided to put herself through college working as a model, and her proficiency with a bow landed her the television role as , otherwise known as , on Phoenix Sentai Featherman Victory, which is part of the Phoenix Sentai franchise, a show in the series that parodies the Super Sentai series. While filming on location, a real helicopter appears with Mitsuru coming out of it, asking Yukari for her help in a new emergency. Within the events of the game, her Persona is Isis.
Shigenori Soejima comments that he designed Yukari with the contemporary look, which caused her to be popular on and off with the development team during the making of the game. She is portrayed by Maho Tomita in Persona 3: The Weird Masquerade.
Junpei Iori Voiced by: English: Vic Mignogna, Zeno Robinson (Reload)Japanese: Kohsuke Toriumi is the protagonist's best friend, though the two often find themselves at odds. Junpei is a poor student who plays the class clown in order to mask his insecurities. Junpei becomes a member of SEES near the beginning of the game. Akihiko finds him crying in a convenience store during the Dark Hour, and does not realize that he has the potential to call a Persona until Akihiko tells him about it. His first Persona is and later obtains , both of The Magician Arcana. His chosen weapon is a two-handed sword, which he wields like a baseball bat. He also learns some Fire-based skills. His decision to join SEES is a swift one, and Yukari is dismayed when he immediately moves into their dorm.
Initially, Junpei fights because "playing hero" makes him feel like less of a loser. He uses his place in SEES to prop up his low self-esteem, neglects his classwork, and snaps at the protagonist out of jealousy over his unique Persona abilities. Junpei only becomes more serious after he meets Strega member Chidori. They fall for each other, and though she continues to fight SEES, her feelings for Junpei eventually come into conflict with her loyalty to Takaya and her fear of death. When Takaya fatally attacks Junpei, Chidori uses her Persona powers to save his life at the cost of her own. Junpei becomes a more-focused and determined young man after Chidori's death.
In Persona 3 Portable, Junpei becomes the Social Link for the , representing action, initiative, and immaturity, when the player controls the female protagonist. Junpei's relationship with the female protagonist remains strictly platonic, because of his feelings towards Chidori.
Junpei appears as a playable character in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. After graduating, Mitsuru hired him to be one of her "Shadow Operatives" in fighting Shadow appearances. However, on the side, he coaches a little league baseball team. While traveling to a game, he falls asleep on the train and misses his stop, ending up in Inaba. There, he reunites with the other Shadow Operatives and becomes involved in the sudden onset of the red fog. During the game, he uses the Persona Trismegistus.
Shigenori Soejima has stated that Junpei is "the most important character when it comes to getting the player to buy into the story," because he is the major character who looks and acts the most like a normal teenager. He is portrayed by Genki Okawa in Persona 3: The Weird Masquerade.
Mitsuru Kirijo
Voiced by: English: Tara Platt, Allegra Clark (Reload)Japanese: Rie Tanaka is the only child of the head of the Kirijo Group, Takeharu Kirijo. Beautiful and elegant, she is the school's top ranking valedictorian and student council president. In battle, she wields one-handed swords such as rapiers and sabers and Ice-based magic. Her Personas are and of The Empress Arcana.