“I am thou. Thou art I. You frauds who are in over your heads... Allow me to show you. How you pale in comparison to us as thieves!”
Arsène is the initial Persona of Ren Amimaya, and a Demon in the Shin Megami Tensei series. He is the mascot Persona of Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal.
Arsène is obtained during his first confrontation with Shadow Kamoshida in Kamoshida's Palace, where Arsène personally teaches the protagonist how to fight during his first battle. Upon being fused for the first time, he bids the protagonist farewell, but states that he will appear again at an important period in his journey.
It evolves into Satanael at the end of the main story in Persona 5, and later evolves into Raoul through DLC.
Physical Appearance[]
Arsène has, from top to bottom: a very tall top hat, a long-horned mask for its face (as Arsène appears to not have a head), a cropped red eighteenth century-esque suit worn open with the collar popped, stitched heart designs on the shoulders, a white ruffle tie, a black, tailed corset running down its torso; large, black, feathery wings starting at around the small of its back; claws; red coverings on its legs resembling pants and boots with blade-like heels.
Character designer Shigenori Soejima explained that Arsène was designed with an "old school vibe" in mind. Arsène's wings are meant to evoke the image of a thief's cape in the viewer's mind and represent the idea that a thief can go wherever they want.
Design Variants[]
At the end of Persona 5, Arsène awakens into Satanael and is unchained.
In Persona 5 Tactica, Arsène is depicted as graffiti on a wall.
Also in Persona 5 Tactica, Arsène appears as the rest of the Personas in this game, a slightly more chibi variant with brighter blue wings.
Other Video Game Appearances[]
| Other Video Game Appearances | |
|---|---|
 Arsène in Persona 3 Reload  Arsène in Persona O.A.  Arsène in P5T  Arsène model in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate  Arsène car in Sonic Racing: Crossworlds |
Powers and Abilities[]
Arsène's main attribute is Light, and his ultimate ability is Maiegaon, which inflicts heavy Curse damage to all foes.
Literary Origins[]
Arsène Lupin, sometimes known as Raoul, is a fictional gentleman thief created by Maurice Leblanc. He was known for targeting criminals or those who were much worse than himself, making him an anti-hero of sorts within his own stories. He might have been partly inspired by the French anarchist Marius Jacob.
Appearances[]
- Persona 3 Reload
- Persona 5
- Persona 5 Royal
- Persona 5 Strikers
- Persona 5 Tactica
- Persona 5: The Phantom X
Trivia[]
- In the game's prologue, Arsène's form is darkened much like Izanagi is obscured in the fog when summoned during the prologue of Persona 4.
- Arsène's two moves in the prologue, Eigaon and Brave Blade, are impossible for him to learn normally and must be inherited via fusion or taught using skill cards. He would also be far too low in level to face the Moloch in the prologue without multiple repeat strengthening sessions.
- Arsène is the only Persona to speak to the protagonist should he be used in fusion, though this only occurs the first time.
- If Arsène is fused near the end of the game, the cutscene would play as if Lavenza were still split into both of the twins, and the protagonist would be holding invisible bars.
- In-legend, Arsène is an anti-hero that conspires against people more evil than him; this trait is represented by his sinister and demonic appearance in the game and also by the protagonist as he uses his status as a thief to steal the hearts of the corrupt.
- One of the original ideas for Persona 5 was to give the protagonist an entirely different Persona instead of Arsène. The original idea was to have a Persona based on the German demon Mephistopheles. However, the programmers were against this idea because the idea of a demon-based Persona didn't fit into the thief theme of the game.
- The spelling of the Persona is different between Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal: in Royal, Arsène now has an accent applied to the first "e" as the new font can support foreign letters.
- Arsène's awakening dialogue about sacrilegious acts is referenced by Michael in the Qliphoth World followed by claiming the party is beyond salvation, implying the group has no place in the world (and therefore society) tying into the theme of having no place to belong.
Cover Gallery[]
