“Be your true mind”
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona is the first installment in the Persona series. Naoya Todo is the main protagonist and Takahisa Kandori is the main antagonist. SEBEC is the villainous faction in this game.
As the first Persona game, it introduces the concepts of Personas and the characters of Philemon and Nyarlathotep. It was a spin-off originally of Shin Megami Tensei: If... as it took inspiration from its Demon contacting and school setting.
Originally titled Megami Ibunroku Persona in Japan and Revelations: Persona in the West, Persona first released on the PlayStation in 1996.
Starting in 1997 a manga adaptation of Megami Ibunroku Persona was released written by Shinshū Ueda. There was no official English publication of this manga.
An enhanced port for the PSP was released in 2009 for the PlayStation Portable titled Shin Megami Tensei: Persona. It featured new music tracks in the style of Personas 3 and 4 to appeal to newer players.
It is succeeded by Persona 2: Innocent Sin.
Official Description[]
Set in 1996, Megami Ibunroku Persona centers around the protagonist and his classmates at St. Hermelin High School in Mikage-cho (Lunarvale in Revelations: Persona). Hidehiko Uesugi talks all of his friends into playing a game called "Persona", which is played much like the ritual game "Bloody Mary". While playing, the students lose consciousness and meet Philemon, who gives them the ability to summon reflections of their personalities, which are known as Personas.
Summary[]
The protagonist and several of his friends go to visit Maki Sonomura, who is ill and bed-ridden. During their visit, they discover that the town is changing and demons are roaming the streets. The party is told by Maki's mother, an engineer working for SEBEC, that the culprit behind the incident is Takahisa Kandori, president of the company.
After taking Maki's mother to the school (the only place in town safe from demons), the protagonist's actions decide the course of the story. If the protagonist opts for going after Kandori, it'll start the SEBEC Chapter which is the main storyline of the game. Alternatively, the protagonist may opt for investigating a series of incidents that occurred in the school eight years ago and start the Snow Queen Quest, an alternate storyline unrelated to the SEBEC incident.
SEBEC Route[]
In the SEBEC route, should the protagonist decide to confront SEBEC, he is first joined by an apparently-recovered Maki, then asked by Nanjo to help save Masao, who is captured by demons. The protagonist, Maki and Nanjo rescue Masao, but on the way Maki displays an odd lack of certain memories including being hospitalized.
After rescuing Masao and infiltrating SEBEC, the group confront Kandori. After cornering him inside the DEVA System, a girl in black called Aki appears and knocks the party unconscious. When they awake, they find themselves in a duplicate, idealized version of their world.
The group eventually find and corner Kandori, whose ultimate goal was to become a deity and find meaning in life. After an initial fight, Kandori is possessed by his Persona Nyarlathotep, then finally defeated. Before dying, Kandori reveals that the Maki who has been traveling with the party is the "Ideal Maki", a version of herself from the true Maki's heart. Aki and a girl in white called Mai are also pieces of Maki, and the idealized Mikage-cho was created by Maki, and brought into reality when she unexpectedly linked with the DEVA System.
The group must help Maki avoid Kandori's path towards isolation and his current actions. The group manage to convince Ideal Maki to overlook her original self's unconscious actions and join them in fixing the problem. After rescuing the true Maki's self from the Sea of Souls, where all human life begins, the group must then confront Pandora, an aspect of Maki that wants to use the DEVA System to destroy everything. When Pandora is defeated, all the pieces of Maki merge back into one, reversing the effects on the town and restoring her to full health. Philemon meets with the group and congratulates them on their success.
Snow Queen Quest[]
The Snow Queen Quest, which takes place in the real town of Mikage-cho, is unlocked by investigating an urban legend within the school surrounding a theatrical mask used in performances of "The Snow Queen": nearly everyone who wears the mask to play the title role has died. After finding the mask, the protagonist encounters Saeko Takami, who puts on the mask and is possessed by a spirit within it. Freezing the entire town, the possessed Saeko generates three towers, with the spirits of those previously killed by the mask as their guardians, while setting up her Ice Castle within the high school.
Along with Yukino, Ayase, Eriko, and Hidehiko, the protagonist heads out to save Saeko. Philemon contacts them and tells them that the only way to save Saeko is the Demon Mirror, which can remove the source of the mask's curse. The spirit possessing Saeko turns out to be former classmate Tomomi Fujimori, who was horribly disfigured by the mask when she wore it in place of Saeko. Using the mirror, the group are able to free Saeko and bring Tomomi peace. It is then revealed that Tomomi herself was controlled by the Night Queen Asura, a powerful entity who wants to cloak the world in darkness. Upon defeating the Night Queen, the town is freed from her power.
Characters[]
Main Characters[]
Supporting Characters[]
Ultimate Antagonists[]
Goddess of Earth
Personas[]
| Seimen-Kongou | Amen Ra | Vishnu | Maso
Maki Sonomura |
Verdandi
Maki Sonomura |
| Aizen Myouou
Kei Nanjo |
Yamaoka
Kei Nanjo |
Ogun
Masao Inaba |
Susano-O
Masao Inaba |
Nike
Eriko Kirishima |
| Michael
Eriko Kirishima |
Nemhain
Hidehiko Uesugi |
Tyr
Hidehiko Uesugi |
Houri
Yuka Ayase |
Frey
Yuka Ayase |
| Vesta
Yukino Mayuzumi |
Durga
Yukino Mayuzumi |
Bres
Reiji Kido |
Mot
Reiji Kido |
Nyarlathotep |
| Nyx
Tomomi Fujimori |
Unnamed Personas[]
| Takeda's Persona
Takeda |
Bosses[]
SEBEC Route[]
| Image | Enemy | Description | Dungeon |
|---|---|---|---|
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Takeda | Takeda acts as Takahisa Kandori's head of security at the SEBEC building and the first boss battle of the game. He is regarded as incompetent by his employer due to repeated breaches of security by St. Hermelin students. He is also capable of summoning a Persona, although its name is unknown. | SEBEC Building |
  |
Tesso | Takeda acts as Takahisa Kandori's head of security at the SEBEC building and the first boss battle of the game. He is regarded as incompetent by his employer due to repeated breaches of security by St. Hermelin students. He is also capable of summoning a Persona, although its name is unknown. | St. Hermelin High School |
  |
Yog Sothoth Jr. | Yog Sothoth Jr. is a boss fought in the Subway, telling the party they can't pass until they defeat him despite holding the Expel Mirror. | Subway |
  |
Harem Queen | When the party reaches the innermost chamber of the Karma Palace, Chisato reveals her motives and sends the party away. In their second visit, Chisato turns Masao, Kei and the fifth party member (Reiji or Brown) in stone and asks the protagonist whether or not he prefers her paintings over Maki's. Afterwards, she will fight the party. After the fight, Yosuke is transported to the room thanks to the power of the Magic Mirror and they reconcile. The mirror is broken and the moles on Chisato's face disappear. | Karma Palace |
  |
Mr. Bear[1] | When the protagonist encounters Mai in the Lost Forest, she will ask the party several questions, which determines whether the player will get the good or bad ending; if the answers set the player on the bad ending, Mr. Bear attacks the party. | Lost Forest |
  |
Saurva | Saurva is summoned by Takahisa Kandori in the Mana Castle to fight the party. At the end of the battle he expresses shock at how strong they are before he dies. He is known as Salavino in Revelations: Persona. | Mana Castle |
  |
Hariti | Hariti is found by the party in the topmost room of the Haunted Mansion. Despite her appearance, Hariti has the same voice as Setsuko Sonomura and keeps calling out to Maki Sonomura. The party then suspects that Hariti might in fact be Setsuko and is given the choice of whether or not fight her. Should the party fight Hariti, she'll revert back to Setsuko after being defeated and this will reduce the number of ultimate Personas available at the end of the game. If Hariti isn't fought, she'll revert immediately to Setsuko and the number of ultimate Personas available at the end of the game will increase. | Haunted Mansion |
  |
Takahisa Kandori | Using the reality-altering system, Kandori enters Maki Sonomura's mind, allowing him to make contact with her malevolent Id, Aki, through which he is able to gain control over half of Mikage-cho. While ultimately successful in becoming a demigod, Kandori becomes nihilistic in his outlook, losing his interest in the power he had accrued, and is on the verge of giving himself up to the group of St. Hermelin students who had fought their way to him when Kei Nanjo pelted him with insults and taunts, prompting him to prepare his Persona Nyarlathotep and enter his final battle. In the confrontation with him, he asks only one thing of the party: kill him so he can experience death. | Avidya World |
  |
God Kandori | In the end, Nyarlathotep possesses his body, forcing him to transform into a stronger form, called "God Kandori", before finally allowing him to die at the party's hands. | Avidya World |
  |
Pandora | Pandora is Maki Sonomura's ultimate expression of nihilism. As Pandora represents the negative and repressed qualities of her host and can be accepted and reformed, she can be considered as a prototype of a Shadow Self. | Avidya World |
Snow Queen Quest[]
Title Screens[]
| Revelations: Persona | Shin Megami Tensei: Persona |
|---|---|
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Music[]
OST[]
Original Songs[]
Media[]
International Media[]
Megami Ibunroku Persona[]
Japanese 
USA Shin Megami Tensei: Persona[]
Japanese 
USA Spin-Offs[]
| Megami Ibunroku Persona Light Novels | |
|---|---|
| Persona Shadow Maze is a novel based on Megami Ibunroku Persona written by Naoko Korekata. Maki Sonomura did not accept the existence of the darkness that lurks within her mind, thus an alternate self was born to rule over that darkness.
Megami Ibunroku Persona: Kandori no Yabo is a novel written by Jun Nanbara focusing on Takahisa Kandori. Takahisa Kandori has been appointed head of the Saeki Group's research institute, SEBEC Mikage. The development of the D.V.A. (DEVA) system, a space transfer device that goes beyond the laws of science, is coming to a close.  Persona Shadow Maze  Megami Ibunroku Persona: Kandori no Yabo |
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| Megami Ibunroku Persona Comic Anthologies | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| There are more than a dozen comic anthologies based on the first Persona.
Megami Ibunroku Persona Anthology was an anthology series of four volumes published by Broccoli in 1996. Comic Anthology "Gate of Paradise" was a comic anthology released in April 1997. Comic Anthology FACES was a comic anthology released in November 1997. Megami Ibunroku Persona Short Comic Heaven and a sequel titled Agastya Edition were comic anthologies released in May and June 1998. Megami Ibunroku Persona: Messiah Project was a manga series based on Persona released in September 1998. Comic Anthology "Otherworldly City" was a comic anthology released in November 1998. Megami Ibunroku Persona: Person from the Sea of Souls was a comic anthology released in March 2000. Megami Ibunroku Persona: In the Promised Land is a comic anthology released in February 2002. Persona The Best Comic Anthology Masterpiece Selection is a comic anthology released in May 2009, the first to be based on the PSP port, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona. Persona Comic Anthology is a comic anthology published by Bros Comics EX released in June 2009 based on Shin Megami Tensei: Persona. Persona Comic Anthology is another comic anthology, this time published by DNA Media Comics, released in July 2009 based on Shin Megami Tensei: Persona. Persona: Memories of a Butterfly was a comic anthology released in July 2009 based on Shin Megami Tensei: Persona. Persona: Snow Queen Edition was a comic anthology released in August 2009 based on Shin Megami Tensei: Persona, specifically the Snow Queen Quest.
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| Megami Ibunroku Persona CD Dramas | |
|---|---|
| A couple CD Dramas that released related to Megami Ibunroku Persona.
CD Drama DUO Megami Ibunroku ~PERSONA~ released in December 19th, 1997 and released in two volumes. Drama CD Persona released on September 18th, 2009 based on the PSP port titled Shin Megami Tensei: Persona.  CD Drama DUO Megami Ibunroku ~PERSONA~ Vol.1  Drama CD Persona |
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| Megami Ibunroku Persona Digital Collection (1998) | |
|---|---|
| The MIP Digital Collection is a CD-ROM produced by Atlus for the PC. It is a minigame collection spin-off set after the events of Megami Ibunroku Persona. After the events of Megami Ibunroku Persona, Chisato and her now boyfriend Yosuke attend the St. Hermelin High School festival. The festival was initially canceled due to the events of Megami Ibunroku Persona. Many of the students have made events for others to participate in, with the goal to collect as many tickets as possible. Yuko is the host of the festival.
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| Megami Ibunroku Persona Otherworldly Tower Chapter (2006) | |
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RPG developed by Atlus and Bbmf for mobile phones, specifically the high-end feature phones of the time. Its title when first announced was Megami Ibunroku Persona Gaiden: Ikū no Tō.
In 2023 the game was ported to Steam by G-MODE+ for the first time since its original release. |
Creation & Development[]
The development of Persona began in 1994, after the release of Shin Megami Tensei If.... The high school setting of If... was received positively upon release, so series developer Atlus decided to create a dedicated subseries focusing on the inner struggles of young adults. This concept eventually evolved into Persona, and its underlying focus on the "human soul" would become a mainstay of the Persona series.
The title Megami Ibunroku was designed to show the title's status as a spin-off directly related to the Megami Tensei series, although it was removed for later Persona titles. The Persona system was directly inspired by the Guardian system used in If..., originally designed by future Persona director Katsura Hashino. Shigenori Soejima, a future designer for the series, was involved in designing minor characters and coloring promotional and cover artwork. The main concept behind Persona was a Megami Tensei game that could be enjoyed by people new to the series.
Iconography[]
Megami Ibunroku Persona's main color alternates between gray and purple. Purple is the primary color used in the game, featured on the cover art of the Japanese PS1 version and used in all promotional material in the PSP remake, as well as to distinguish itself from the other five Persona games during the 20th and 25th anniversaries.
Common icons and elements used to identify MIP are a butterfly, significant of Philemon, and the St. Hermelin School uniform emblem. The Persona Vishnu, the ultimate Persona of this game, also appears as the mascot of Persona 1. Vishnu appears on the cover of Revelations: Persona and all versions of the PlayStation Portable remake, as well as the loading screen in Revelations and game disc for the original Megami Ibunroku Persona.
Logos[]
| Persona logos | |
|---|---|
 Megami Ibunroku Persona logo  Revelations Persona logo  Shin Megami Tensei: Persona logo |
Trivia[]
- The hero's alternate self is seen playing "Groove On Fight" in the Well of Mind and Souls, also known as the Alaya Cavern. This reference was carried down to the PSP remake as well.
- Revelations: Persona was released on the PlayStation Classic Mini Console on December 3, 2018 which is bundled with 20 other PlayStation One games and it now has the save state feature ability.
- In the PlayStation Classic version of Revelations: Persona, it is now possible to cheat at the video poker game by using the save state feature and get up to 1,000,000 coins at the casino, which is helpful if the player wants to buy expensive weapons and sell them at the store for more money.
Vishnu on the loading screen of Revelations Persona
- Revelations: Persona was one of the rarest PlayStation games due to the limited copy run and became available again on the PlayStation Classic in 2018.
- A debug build for the game was dumped by Reddit user PriceyT-Shirt on January 2nd, 2021. The build date is August 2nd, 1996, which is one day before the final Japanese build. The EXE is dated a day before the final NTSC-J retail release.
- The Japanese version of Mega Ibunroku Persona lacked a loading screen alltogether, so to make up for this, and to make it so American fans didn't thing the game had crashed, the international version of Revelations: Persona added a unique title screen of Vishnu's face in gold.
Continuity[]
- The game features the main character from SMT: If... Tamaki Uchida. Tamaki seems to have transferred to St. Hermelin after the surreal events back in her old school, as she will dodge any questions related to it. While she is unable to fight back due to no longer having a COMP, Tamaki still retains a vast knowledge of demon behavior. She is a member of the school's fencing club and frequently quarrels with fellow club member Tadashi Satomi. If the protagonist visits Tamaki after Mikage-cho has been invaded by demons and before the point where the game's story splits into the SEBEC Route and the Snow Queen Quest, Tamaki will give the protagonist the rapier that she used during the Karukozaka incident in if... and wish him good luck.
- This game introduces several characters like Nanjo, Elly, Reiji, and Maki who later appear in Persona 2: Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment. These characters would later become party members and essential characters in those games. The rest of the cast members, save for Mark and Yuka, also appear in those games, but not as prominently.
- This game also introduces Kandori, who gets brought back from the dead in Eternal Punishment.
- Along with him, his Persona, Nyarlathotep, also becomes a major player in the two future installments.
- This game also introduces Kandori, who gets brought back from the dead in Eternal Punishment.
- As the first game in the series it introduces major players and concepts that will be expanded upon and reworked in later games such as the Velvet Room and Igor, Philemon, and Ultimate Personas.
- At the end of the Snow Queen Quest, Queen Asura promises that as long as there are people who want to bring darkness to the world, she will someday return. This hints at her return in Persona 3 as the ultimate villain.
- Other characters and Personas from the Snow Queen Quest also make reappearances in Persona 3 including Hypnos, Thanatos, and Nemesis.
- Tartarus Tower also appears in both games, but they are mostly unrelated.
- Other characters and Personas from the Snow Queen Quest also make reappearances in Persona 3 including Hypnos, Thanatos, and Nemesis.
- The PSP port, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona, adds introduction dialogue from Igor, telling the player that those who enter the Velvet Room are bound by a contract, which is the same dialogue that's continually used across the series starting in Persona 3, which was not used in the original game.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Bad Ending only
