"Time never waits.
It delivers all equally to the same end.
You, who wish to safeguard the future,
however limited it may be...
You will be given one year;
go forth without falter,
with your heart as your guide..."
I recently played through Persona 3 Portable yet again. This marks the sixth time I have fared on its "journey", so let us just be perfectly clear on this: I love Persona 3. I adore it. I think Persona 3 ranks as one of the greatest, most original, funniest, most dramatic, most badass and most engaging video game ever made and everyone should play it.
But it is not until this playthrough that I realized just how brilliant its story really is. Up until now I have been somewhat blind as to what role mythology, in particular Greek mythology, and the symbolism of the tarot cards have been playing in the game's story. I will not go into these much because someone else already has. Twice. I certainly recommend you reading these, as they are what inspired me to write this post.
Note that the main character, Minato (upper left), has two tarot cards - 0, The Fool, and XIII, Death.
If you are not familiar at all with this, here is a little intro. In Persona 3, you acquire different "personas". These are, in essence, sort of like embodied personalities that Minato can assume. This is illustrated clearly through the social link system; for example by having a persona of the Devil arcana equipped, you will naturally get along with the devilish man who personifies the Devil arcana.
This social link system, along with the calender system (through which you play and experience an actual school year in Japan, with actual holidays and actual school events), are the key factors to set Persona 3 completely apart from its not-nearly-as-brilliant predecessors.
The personas themselves function a little like pokémon do, but instead of having personas fight for you, you fight by sort of channeling them. And by using them, you get to use their abilities to heal, attack, charge up, regenerate health and so on. You also gain their stats and all their strengths and weaknesses.
While all of your party members have one and only one persona of one and only one set arcana, you, Minato, are very, very special. Your arcana is of the fool arcana, your dealt number in fate is zero - basically, you are undefined, a "wild card". This allows you to summon any persona from any arcana ... granting you "unlimited potential". You need to be able to deal with any given situation, so you absolutely must utilize this ability and carefully choose what personas and skills to bring.
An interesting fact is that acting according to the personalities of others will net you much higher points than either constantly being a white knight or constantly being an asshole. So in contrast to many other games, you should not invest in playing one specific role and act according to that at all times, instead Minato needs to utilize his "blank slate" ability to tap into all of his friends' different mindsets.
As for the design of personas, they will typically be vague interpretations of various figures from different mythologies - for example, you can summon Thor, Vishnu, Satan - or Alice from Alice in Wonderland. Yes, seriously!
The game goes extremely far in borrowing names and concepts from Greek mythology in particular, and those set personas of your allies are pretty interesting with that in mind. For example, Shinjiro and Akihiko's relationship, as well as their roles in the story, mimic the roles that their personas, Castor and Polydeuces, played in Greek mythology. Simply by having some basic knowledge on mythology, you can predict much of the story elements, but it still keeps the impact through the well-written script.
We are fast approaching spoiler territory, so if you do not want to get spoiled, turn back now.
I am also going to sort of assume that you know what happens in P3.
When Minato (the protagonist) first moves to Iwatodai, his new dorm is soon attacked by a giant "shadow". Shadows are the common enemies of the game, but there are twelve particularly big and special shadows that will come every full moon. All of these twelve shadows represent one arcana each; the boss fights with them are also derived from that in some way. For example, the Hanged Man shadow is quite literally a hanging shadow, while the Fortune shadow introduces an element of chance and luck in its boss fight.
In Minato's new dorm, it is revealed, SEES resides; a group dedicated to the destruction of shadows. It is made up of various different people who all have the ability to summon personas (the "potential"), and this allows them to stay conscious and fight during the hidden 25th hour of the day - The Dark Hour, when Tartarus, a giant tower appears. This is the initial premise of the story.
I like to think that The Dark Hour originated from the idea of the number 13 having special properties, which also plays a role in the story. Mathematically you can look at it this way to see what I mean:
(12x1)+1=13
(12x2)+1=25
Just like the 13th shadow, Death, was "never meant to be", neither was a 25th hour. Both were unnaturally brought about through the scientific experiments of a brilliant madman long before the game begins.
Every month in Persona 3, as the full moon date approaches, you will find that "The Lost" in the city are increasing. These "Lost" are basically normal people in the city who have fallen victims to the "apathy syndrome" (meaning they have been attacked by shadows during the Dark Hour); all they do is moan and stand around, looking pale. This is certainly derived from one idea in Persona 2. Without bothering to go into why this happens in that game, the "shadow selves" are people who have had their dreams and wishes broken or unfulfilled. They have then become forgotten by the society, which eventually brings about their complete fading from existence.
When you are eventually given the choice between the bad ending and the good ending, it is extremely obvious what is the "correct" choice is. Basically choosing the bad ending is like choosing to be oblivious - like the Lost. It is supposed to be so obviously wrong.
And after the full moon, when SEES' operations to destroy shadows will typically take place, the Lost will be decreasing. Usually. You learn more about the influence of the moon and its relation to the shadows as the game progresses, but one fun detail I just want to point out really quick is that the personification of the Moon tarot card, Nozomi Suemitsu, becomes involved with a cult that worships Nyx, and spoiler: Nyx is actually the moon.
Anyways. It is during this very first incident in the dorms that Minato summons a persona for the first time. The persona he acquires then is Orpheos, a figure from Greek Mythology. There is alot of things going on in this scene that require some analysis. The most obvious thing you will notice is that you summon your persona by shooting yourself in the head with an "Evoker".
In Japan, gun control is strict and firearms are fairly rare, so the developers must have gone out of their way to use this particular imagery, implying death and self-harm like this. Junpei notes that you "must be a little nutty" to be shooting yourselves in the head, but I would rather call it "foolish". More on that later.
A different thing going on is that Orpheus actually "mutates". It is important to point out that at this point in the game, Minato is at level 1 and completely inexperienced in combat. He could not possibly be weaker and this is a BIG shadow, much more powerful than the first ones you fight "for real".
So Minato loses control of his persona and it turns into Thanatos. To demonstrate how big of a leap in power this means, you can get this persona properly first at level 70. That is a pretty huge damn leap. Suffice it to say that Thanatos is a beast at that point and it rips the shadow to shreds.
Persona 3's original Japanese cover art.
Thanatos is a very important persona for alot of reasons ... it is the form that Ryoji takes at the year's end.
And it is worth talking about the strange relationship between Minato and Ryoji. When Minato first meets Ryoji, he takes the form of a boy named Pharos, who is the very first character Minato meets in the game.
It should be obvious that Pharos' design resembles Minato's. Also note his prison garbs; a clear hint to his entrapment.
He later leaves this form and becomes Ryoji - a more normal-looking young man, still resembling Minato.
And this is one of those really important things that make the female protagonist's story make a lot less sense, since she looks nothing like Pharos or Ryoji. Furthermore, Ryoji actually has his own social link in the female protagonist's game. You can even choose a lover's route and romance him, and his social link is "Fortune". And this is bullshit. I mean, what the hell? Why is... why would... bwhaaa?????
In fact, quite a few social links are removed so that you can have romance options with males. Shinjiro replaces the Moon social link, even though his persona is of the Hierophant and Akihiko replaces the Star social link, even though his persona is of the Emperor. The social link sequences themselves are as good as ever but they do not make sense at all in the story as a whole, and the worst part is that it empties the game's world. In effect, it just ends up giving you far less people to interact with.
Moving back to Minato's personas. His initial persona is Orpheos, his second persona is Thanatos, and his third and final one, the ultimate one, is obtained by fusing them. Yes, fusing Orpheus with Thanatos will net you Minato's ultimate Persona: Messiah of the Judgement arcana, the highest-levelled persona in the game. Messiah is also the source for the ultimate equipment in the game, and he is even the persona that Minato is seen with in the ending credits, so Messiah is the persona that Minato is sort of meant to be using at the end of the game. Of course, you can still use whomever you want.
There is actually a fourth coffin on Messiah that did not make it in this picture. Just trust me, it is there. So why do both Thanatos and Messiah have coffins? Better yet, why does Thanatos have eight while Messiah has four?
The Judgement arcana social link actually acts almost identically to the Fool arcana social link: both of them are personified in the SEES group. The Fool arcana social link was dedicated to eliminating the shadows, which ironically served only to call Nyx forth - they have, fools that they are, been metaphorically and literally shooting themselves in the head the entire time. The Judgement social link, representing SEES' rebirth, is similarly dedicated to the annihilation of Nyx; the Fools reborn.
Messiah is also pretty special in how you acquire him. Every single other persona in the game is acquired either by fusing two or three random personas, or by fusing four, five or six very specific personas. But Messiah is different, he is acquired by fusing two and only two specific personas: Orpheus of the Fool arcana, and Thanatos of the Death arcana.
Minato's natural affinity for all these three arcana are also expressed in the Social Links; only the Fool, Death and Judgement social links are leveled up automatically as the game progresses. They demand zero effort from Minato to achieve max rank.
But Thanatos has further connections. Specifically, Thanatos is actually the son of Nyx. And he also has a twin brother, Hypnos, who is an actual persona in the game, used by Takaya.
Did I mention that Takaya is a bad guy? And here is his persona:
Hypnos and Thanatos have another well-known brother in mythology, Moros, who is used in the game by Takaya's right-hand ally, Jin.
Takaya is a dying man, and rationalizes that since he cannot live life, there is no point in anyone else doing so either. The Fall is his salvation; all he wishes is to see the end of all things before he perishes. This is why he contributes to Nyx's comin.
Now, it might be because I am of European and christian descent, but it has always been my opinion that Minato's role and fate in the story is very much like that of Jesus in the Holy Bible. Persona 3 certainly throws some very obvious christian imagery at you, for example in this scene ...
... while Takaya clearly mimics Jesus Christ. But there is something very off about Takaya and his persona; they look really pale and sick. Minato and Takaya are a bit like twins, just like Thanatos and Hypnos. Takaya is a false saviour and represents nihilism, death and destruction, whereas Minato is a true saviour and represents faith, life and creation. Takaya sacrifices others for himself; Minato sacrifices himself for others.
I mentioned earlier in the post that I think the evokers are an allusion to death. Lots of other imagery in Persona 3 suggests death as well; such as when the people without "the potential" litterally turn into coffins during the dark hour.
And it doesn't stop there. Death is impending and Persona 3 lets you know it. Just like time, which is expressed through the calender system and through imagery of clocks, Death is constantly present in Persona 3. In the story, in the imagery, but also in the combat and in the exploring.
For the exploration, the developers added a special enemy to Tartarus, "The Reaper". He is possibly the most powerful enemy in the game, and he can appear at any floor in Tartarus at any time, chasing you and forcing you to run away. Eliminating The Reaper is completely out of the question; you run or you die. And in combat, if the main character ever falls in battle, it means an instant game over. Any other character can be revived easily, but if you die, it is all over. In effect, defeating the shadows is never the most important objective, nor is leveling up: avoiding Death is.
And, of course... Minato dies at the end of the game.
While avoiding death is essential for 99% of the game, Persona 3 does end with Minato's dying. Exactly what meaning lies is in Minato's death, is probably more than anything else in the game meant to be cryptic and left up to interpretation, but I will give it a shot.
First, read these two articles: this one and this one. They are pretty enlightening.
Second, consider the fact that there are twelve big shadows in the game that appear once every full moon, and that the game also takes place over the course of one year, or twelve months. It would be very easy and convenient to assign one shadow to every month; beginning in January and ending in December; perhaps even including an end-game "hidden month" or something like that. It would write itself.
The game avoids this structure, instead beginning in April and ending on January 31st ... and to achieve this, certain months have two big shadows attack at once, instead of just one. The developers wanted to prevent us from perceiving the twelve big shadows as representing months instead of arcana.
Nyx Avatar, the final boss, goes through fourteen various stages of arcana from 0 to 13; meaning the boss renews itself and becomes a whole new boss every single time you defeat a "stage". The two articles I linked to, delve into the meaning of those stages.
But, I think the essential thing to note is that Nyx Avatar begins at "the Fool" and she ends at "Death".
Now, Nyx Avatar appears from the reunion of the twelve big shadows that Minato spent most of the game defeating, so it does make sense that she goes through these arcana as they are part of her. But ... there is no big shadow of the Fool arcana. This, I think, implies yet another connection between Minato and Ryoji - in their symbiotic existence together, Minato inherited Death, but Ryoji also inherited the Fool.
And while Nyx Avatar demonstrates some insight to the various stages of life in the battle, her understanding is still incomplete and flawed with the tarot cards in mind. Her final battle quote ...
"Beyond the beaten path lies the absolute end. It matters not who you are... Death awaits you."
... explicitly tells us that Nyx believes that Death is the absolute end.
Yeah, Minato's death does mark the ending of Persona 3, but the tarot cards reveal that Death is not the end of the journey for "the Fool". Death is only a transition that everyone must go through with and Minato knows this. So with his unmatched spiritual wisdom and strength, and his unbreakable bonds with others, Minato is able to attain the Universe card, to perform the miracle to save and protect everyone.
Yeah, Nyx never even stood a chance.
