10 Years Ago, One Thought-Provoking RPG Transformed the Genre Forever
It's been ten years that Joker has been looking good
Since Persona 5 released in Japan in September 2016, we have seen its upgraded and expanded version in Persona 5 Golden, a direct sequel in Persona 5 Strikers, and even spin-offs like Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight and Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth. More recently, Persona 5's Tae Takemi became Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaey's obsession. In addition to serving as a fruitful source of media products, one of Persona 5's most important contributions was the more mature view of the world it brought to the series.
Persona 5 didn't revolutionize the formula Atlus had been working on since Persona 3, but it elevated the series' identity to its peak. The fifth main entry in the Shin Megami Tensei spin-off included the now-familiar calendar and social systems, followed by the traditional turn-based combat and social links featured in the previous two games. In Persona 5, these have been enhanced with more complex dungeons and better quality-of-life features. All of that, wrapped in a sleek, modern visual identity and melancholic jazz songs, made this game a singular one. However, Persona 5 showed not only Atlus’s technological evolution, but its artistic and intellectual growth.
Since the Persona series' inception, Atlus has been interested in discussing human society and identity. Persona 3 centers on the existential dread of facing mortality and chasing meaning in life. To tackle these heavy themes — that even the brighter version of the game one finds in Persona 3 Reload couldn't tone down —- Atlus made characters deal, in one way or another, with death. Years later, in Persona 4, as characters investigate the murderers taking place in Inaba, they also must come to terms with their shadows, the embodiments of their most private thoughts and feelings that they desperately want to hide.
While in both games we see Atlus exploring parts of human identity, its approach has always focused more on the individuals, from a rather metaphysical lens. It is in Persona 5 that Atlus debuted a more refined perspective on the world, not free of its own problems. Instead of thinking that the essence of a person is inside them, Persona 5 understands humans as individuals whose identities are, to some extent, formed by their relationships with other people as well as with institutions. School, family, and work: each of these components affects one's identity — and that's why the Phantom Thieves fight to reform them.
Get Polygon’s Wishlister newsletter
A weekly cheat sheet to what you’ll eventually love to play. No buying, no commitment — just saving for later.
Free. Unsubscribe anytime.
Most main antagonists during the campaign are in one way or another connected to an institution of modern society. Kamoshida is an abusive teacher, Madarame represents both family and culture, Okumura is the business world, and Shido is a corrupt politician. They aren't only bad people doing bad things. They are individuals occupying prestigious positions that can impact people's lives, like Kamoshida casting Ryuji to social ostracism. In Persona 5, instead of battling whatever issue characters have inside them, the goal is to change society, which will also determine who we are.
The broadened and mature understanding about society in Persona 5 does not negate the person's power to affect meaningful change. Joker and his friends assume the role of those who will challenge and contest the status quo once they find their own voices. Although this might sound naively optimistic, this perspective is based on the idea that resistance within society will always happen through the work of regular people.
These ideas have been further explored by Katsura Hashino, who released 2024’s Metaphor: ReFantazio as his first project as the head of Studio Zero. Although in their newest JRPG, people as a collective are more important than the individual, and the politics of a nation is the main concern, we can still see traces of Persona 5's rebellious belief in the individual’s ability to change the world. It’s a power that comes only when one is true to itself, like the characters in Metaphor, who pull their hearts out of their chests and tell the world who they really are.