Memento Mori: Remember that you are mortal, and thus will die. Persona 3 is a heavy game.

The reason for the shooting themselves is the difference between the themes of the games. Persona 3 is themed around Death so Personas are summoned by mimicking suicide. P4 and P5 have different themes so the mechanics for summoning Personas is different in them.

The watermelon thing with Junpei is a Japanese game. It is basically like a pinata with the participant being blindfolded then attempting to split open the watermelon with a bat.

Ok So about that persona 3 guns thingy... while normally it is strongly connected to the idea of unliving yourself, the symbolism and the message of persona 3 is on quite contrary side. Pointing an evoker at yourself and pulling the trigger is instead a reminder of one's mortality and a will to put your life on the line to fight for a thing that matters the most to you. The core messege of P3 is - you are mortal. You will die. So make sure to make the most of the time that was given to you. Make friendships, bonds and cherish every moment.

each persona game explores something different Persona 1 is beginnings and uncertainty Persona 2 is about rumours and consequences Persona 3 is about death and loss (symbolized by the evoker that they shoot into their heads to summon) Persona 4 is about truth and denial Persona 5 is about rebellion and reform and the reason Koro-chan (the dog) is wearing the odd suit is to help him control his persona abilities

This is the darkest persona you can play, but at the same time it is trully amazing.

I would pay money to see you guys play one of the Persona games. They’re very close to my heart, especially 3.

Persona is great once you get invested in the story. Trailers don't really give it away.

21:45 the reason the cat ran away is due to a running joke in Fuuka's social link, the poor girl is notoriously known for her bad cooking skills

I believe their marketing approach is meant to give you a sense of the "vibes" - the visuals, the musics, the characters, and the sometimes-jarring split between slice-of-life adventures and dire dungeon combat. In a Persona game, you spend 100+ hours getting to know your team and several other companions (this improves your main character's abilities, in fact, in a few ways) - so the real "spoiler" is less the supernatural horror plot and 'that tender moment you made hot pot one time'. As far as premise, each Persona from 3 onward has a newcomer arrive to a town with a sort of social and emotional 'blank slate', and from there you work on a) the supernatural danger arising alongside the very real/grounded consequences thereof, and b) on building a life with meaningful relationships that feed into and rely on dedicating time to improving yourself (studying, finding courage and charm, learning empathy, etc.). These feed into you having more powerful Personas, which are magical manifestations of the different "Masks" we wear in different contexts. In 3, they use the Evoker "guns" to draw out Personas because it's /very/ difficult compared to other games, only done without one a few times at all. The device triggers the impending fear of death in the mind, which is the key to drawing out the power. In 4, the process is MUCH easier once you get the Persona - conjure a magic card, then 'break it open' in a cool move. The downside is that each character has to /earn/ their Persona by facing some things about themselves that they'd rather not (going into more would be major spoilers)... In 5, the Awakenings you saw were the characters looking at society's willful abuse of themselves and others and deciding "Enough". No more conforming, no more 'fitting in', which is a MAJOR Japanese cultural value. To awaken a Persona, they must embrace their inner rebel, and gain a Persona and costume to fit their envisioned rebels (a trickster magician, a pirate, a femme fatale, an avant-garde Robin Hood, a Mad Max punk, etc.)

Persona is a amazing game that I highly recommend you play. They avoid showing the juicy stuff in a lot of the trailers because they don't wanna spoil but this game particularly has a lot of darker themes. Only thing about Persona games is that they are really long (80 to 100 hours), so you're gonna love it but prepare to spend a lot of time on it if you plan on streaming it

Trailers don't really give much away story wise, because Persona is always a story game first and foremost so they avoid spoiling as much as possible. The games can range anywhere from 80 to over 110 hours so you can see how much story is in these games. I hope you two end up playing one of the games

Last of us is a zombie apocalypse genre, it's a really easy genre for the average person to immediately understand (since everybody knows what zombies are like) and relate to characters thrown in those kind of settings. Meanwhile Persona games are more of a mystery/coming to age kind of genre with an other worldly setting. Not easy to understand looking from the outside until you actually try the game and get introduced to the world.

With this persona a big theme throughout, on the surface level, is death. But even more so is the theme of living. Because is inevitable, how you live your one life on earth is immensely important.

Interestingly enough, trailers spoils A LOT but at the same time they don't seem to say anything... If you want a simple synopsis, Persona 3 tells us a story about how a group of students get involved in a paranormal case of dealing with the Dark Hour, a hidden hour between one day and the next, where Shadows roams around killing anything alive, the coffins you see are people that CAN'T experience the Dark Hour. Only those who can summon their Persona can deal with them, and they need to stop the Dark Hour as it represent a growing threat for the city, and potentially, the world. Although this is just the premise... Persona 3 (as well the rest of the franchise) is WAY more than just the main story itself. Each character has their own life, problems, stories. The city has its story. You as a protagonist have one as well. While you progress into the game, you fall in love with each one of the characters you meet (or may you hate them as well 😂), with the streets you walk, the music you hear all the time, the moments the game presents to you. Persona 3 has a really deep message that, in my opinion, is something really necessary for everyone in some moment of their lives, it delivers it masterfully, and, I can assure you, it helped and saved so many lives since it first released... Me being one of those lives. I could never recommend this game enough to anyone, this is one of those things you need to experience in your life, and I swear I'm not overhyping it, it truly is one of the best things it ever happened to me.

This game is my all time favorite and holds a extremely special place in my heart. Played it during a rough time in my life and it helped me immensely. So glad it got a remake and I'm ready and so excited! My collectors edition is ready and ordered and it's gonna take over my life again! 😊

There are plenty of lore videos out there, but long story short, Persona games are heavy on two things: Jungian psychology (hence Personas and Shadows) and social commentary, pertaining mostly to Japanese society. And yes it does seem bizzare on the outside especially if you're not into the anime aestethic, but its story and characters are quite gripping and beneath the dark exterior there's plenty of light hearted moments (as you've already noticed). It's definitely a game I would at least recommend watching a playthrough of, if not playing it downright.

The motto of the game is "Memento Mori" or "Remember Death" so the whole shooting themselves in the head thing is basically that. Shocking themselves to where they think they're going to die in order to bring out their Persona. Also each of the games are their own stories but it's the same universe which can get weird. So like in persona 4 you visit the school from persona 3 and in persona 5 there's a tv news thing that mentions Yukari. But apart from little nods their stories end at the end of the game.

Koromaru, the puppy, uses a specialized collar to summon his persona My first entry to the series was Persona 4. 3 holds a bigger piece of my heart.

Lore video is basically spoiler territory. I would suggest picking up Persona 5 Royal and then if you are into it, go for Persona 3 reloaded, which is significantly darker. Figuring out the story and planning your day is half the fun.

Your reactions to the evoker (gun) thing is so funny. There is symbolism and reasons that has it make sense in context sure but there was definitely a lot of controversy when this game first came out in the like mid-2000s. Also, I'm glad that I'm not the only one who sees the delinquent guy and thinks of the dude from The Breakfast Club.

34:08 Yes ken is correct here, they only showed glimpses of the story in these trailers because Reload is a remake of an 18 year old game so old fans are already hyped to jump in, as for new fans they're also excited because we got a lot of new players jumping in thanks to the success of Persona 5. I will say these trailers don't really do the game justice, if you ever decide to play it someday just know that it has a fantastic story with amazing music and art direction, this is true for most Persona games too and not just Persona 3.

If you want to get into the Persona franchise, it's better to start with Persona 5 Royal, you'd love it! The characters all have super deep backstories and unique personalities and it's great fun to play cause of the strategic turn based combat. A very well thought-out story and amazing twists and turns along the way. An S tier story game up there *with The Last Of Us* and other top tier story games, no question! One of the standout features of Persona 5 Royal (and the Persona franchise in general) is its ability to address complex and relevant social issues. The game fearlessly tackles topics such as societal expectations and pressure, corruption, the impact of technology on personal relationships/the world around us, and even heavier themes such as mental health issues, sexual assault and suicide. This narrative depth elevates Persona 5 Royal beyond a mere gaming experience, turning it into a thought-provoking exploration of contemporary societal challenges and social commentary. It's the kind of game that has a lot of world-building and that will truly suck you into the world, but at its own decided pace. It's a game that definitely takes its time to establish all the characters and universe - but it's so worth sitting out the full ride. I still cry every time I see the credits roll and I've seen the full game at least 5 times, I hope that says something! Worth playing on the channel!!! Either live, or pre-recorded!

The thing about shooting themselves is because of the themes. Each persona game have a specific theme that is used through the whole game. In Persona 5, you saw them ripping a mask to summon their persona, that is because the theme is about revealing your true self to the world, removing the "mask" you put and show your true self (a theme that all persona games have). On Persona 3, it all about accepting mortality and death itself as part of the cycle of life, so to summon their personas they need to metaphorical kill themselves, essentially accepting their death without fear. This is defnetly the darkest of the new persona games (1 and the 2 duology is vastly different and more dark as well). In Persona 4 they turn a card, revealing the "truth" behind their personas, which is a major theme in Persona 4: the true is more important the consequences it brings. All games are connected by being in the same world, but they are not direct sequels, and you find some easter eggs and nods to other games between them, but you can start with which one you prefer (with the exception of Persona 2 duology, which needs to be played consecutivelly).

27:24 Persona games have themes and P3's is death so the action looks like self end (YT didnt let me use the real term). The "gun" is called The Evoker. In Persona 3 the characters neede to undergo severe mental trauma. To summon their persona. What's more traumatizing than putting a gun, real or fake, to your head and pulling the trigger?

Because the persona games are so story heavy i don't think you can really get a lore vid without majorly spoiling the story

Persona 3 is a game about death. Knowing death, seeing death, acknowledging death and accepting death. It's the heaviest Persona game and weeds out those with no taste from the Persona community lol. It's not in your face like P5 and requires a mature mindset to understand. That's why some deem P3 the "Dad" in the new gen Persona games. It's the best written Persona game, I recommend you guys try it out when it releases. Story alone is a 10 if you take the time to digest everything that is thrown at you

Persona is a really fascinating and fun series. And Persona 3 is a good way to get into the series

They're not actually guns they're shooting themselves with, though there is an in-lore reason they look like them. Also it's hard to get a lore video for persona games without being full of spoilers. The best way is to really experience one for yourself. 3, 4,. and 5 are all very welcoming to newcomers.

Atlus is going to be posting some gameplay of the intro of the game, either today or tomorrow I believe!

I LOVE YOU GUYS FOR REACTING TO THIS! PLEASE ENJOY

The first famous Persona game.

The theme of this Persona is death. Tbh they use guns called Evokers to bring Personas by doing a nocebo trauma invocation.

the problem with advertising any good JRPG, is that they are inherently on insanely slow burns, there's not any specific moment you can point to and go "this is why should care" without spoiling the story, you can really only point at the vibes or premise, which can only go so far

I believe tomorrow there will be a trailer shown that reveals the first 50 minutes of the game if you’re interested in checking it out so that maybe the opening of the game will hook you in

"why are they shooting themselves" The core themes are fatalism and why people give up on life.

In my opinion, Persona 3 & by extension Reload, has the second best story in all of gaming, only losing to Xenoblade Chronicles 1

Hitting a watermelon is part of japanese daily tradition, its's what I heard from even in anime.

I never really thought about it but the cast is a little like the breakfast club lol. If you're interested, the game is a one half social sim, where you wander around an open world and build up relationships with your friends that gives you new abilities when your in the second half of the game, where at any given night you and your friends try to get to the top of Tartarus to uncover the mystery of the story. It's an incredible journey that is super focused on the characters and their dynamic. The first time I finished the game, I had a serious sense like I had moved out of my home town and left my friends behind when I put the controller down for the last time. I've never felt that with any cast of characters before.

The thing is, the trailers of persona never tell you much story, atlus does push on the fan base when they release but, everything youre asking about lore and story is all in the game, you learn more of each character as you play and this combat is not like kingdom hearts.

Yes, I hoped you two would watch this project!!

I've been waiting for this!

Have you seen the reverse 1999 trailers? I recommend cheking it out, it has movie like trailer but unfortunatelly the actual game is still new so the game is not that popular yet but it has amazing story so you should check it out

Junpei is Ken but anime. Change my mind!

Persona is always about story, character arcs and relationships. P3R is catering to the fans, we know these characters, we have spent hundreds of hours with them. Persona is a weird franchise, P5 was the game that brought Persona into the mainstream. What i say is just play the game. Looking at a lore vid wont give you the same effect as experiencing it. Persona does a great job at story and making you care about its characters by playing the game

Heres the timeline for the whole series in game time Persona 1: 1996 Persona 2: 1999 Persona 3: 2009 Persona 4: 2011 Persona 5: 2018 Persona 5 royal: 2018 Persona 5 strikers: 2020 So the persona 3 reloaded is just a graphic enhanched version of the original still taking place in 2009 since most of the persona games are all connected in one universe

27:00 finally reaction to the EVOKER(The gun looking thing) when shooting in to the head. Its still one of the graziest power usage animation. (its not a real gun,(using an Evoker resembles the act of committing suicide. The Evoker is a symbol of death, accepting death and knowledge of mortality) Core remainder in the game. Just like the opening cinematic, it tells that you WILL die in multiple different languanges. Truly a masterpiece of symbolisms. Edit: if you havent figured out the Theme of the game is "Death" and that everything ends and dies. But its not Sad story or horror. To me its about the beauty of the incoming death for us all.

Persona 3 actually had 3 versions of itself released before this remake. OG Persona 3. Persona 3 FES(which was kind of like a remaster with new features and an entirely new part of the game). And Persona 3 Portable(which was another remaster that came with a female Protagonist alternative with new social links, romance partners and abilities). In Persona 3 and FES, you couldn't control your teammates. In Portable, you could, but the game had mostly still images in place of where the cutscenes would be. I am so hyped for Reload. As a huge fan of the many versions of Persona 3.

I think the best way to understand Persona is to treat the games like coming of age stories similar to young Marvel comic book characters

Nah, I think Aigis is like 6th or 7th generation in her line

The Persona games have deep stories and characters but from a marketing perspective it's kinda a nightmare to market. What makes the games so beloved is the arcs of the characters and how the world ending events around them change them. That's hard to show in a trailer without spoiling the appeal of the game. Getting to know these characters on such a deep level. So instead they play up the amazing visual design since that's an easier sale. It makes these games a harder sale to people that haven't heard fans gush nonstop about them lol. So I understand why the series hasn't grabbed you guys from just seeing what you have. I will say P3 has one of my favorite stories but it's super dark and about accepting death and that we are all mortal. I adore it but the intense visuals and themes make it a hard game to recommend to random people. The whole game is melancholy and everyone in the game has gone through a lot of pain. It's life affirming but very emotional.

WHAT I CAME AT THE RIGHT TIME, THANK YOU SO MUCH

At least since Persona 3, each mainline game has a theme. Persona 3 is all about death and finding meaning in a limited life. Persona 4 is about truth in all of its regards, including personal truth. Persona 5 is all about rebellion and social reform. They’re all also life sims hidden in RPGs that play around Jungian psychology and psychoanalysis.

The arguement can be made that to truly experience persona you need to play it yourself

I think if you were more familiar with anime and JRPGs, you'd be 90% of the way toward understanding these trailers already. But without that, you don't have much to tether to. These are also very long games that focus on plot twists and mysteries, so you just have to kind of roll with it.

They "shoot" themselves to summon their persona's by facing their own mortality. Don't let the cutesy stuff fool you. This game can get pretty dark, and it has very deep, heavy themes about death, loss, coping with trauma, and moving forward. It really is a masterpiece of writing.

the guns aren’t actual guns, just persona-summoning tools that look like guns. YOU DONT SHOOT THE DOG!!The dog uses a persona collar instead of a persona gun

Persona 3 is a social simulator mixed with a turned based rpg working together with eachother. The story of Persona 3 I might not say is the darkest, but the saddest since its main theme is death

Watermelon smashing is an extremely common summer vacation activity don't ask why it just is. Each Persona has different ways of unleashing their persona. In persona 3 it's done with a gun called and Evoker they point it at their head and pull the trigger and it summons the persona. In Persona 4 it's be overcoming their dark side, and then smashing the card that the persona is bound to. In Persona 5 it's by taking off their mask and accepting their rebellious side. Trust me when I say that if you play the Persona games you're gonna have a MUCH different outlook on life because it goes into certain aspects of not just philosophy but psychology and social commentary. Play Persona 5 Royal and you'll see why this series has such a massive following. As for Lore honestly it's best to play the games to learn it, because there's so much to cover in the game cause it's just an absolute metric ton of lore, it's almost Warhammer level amount of lore.

also Junpei's original VA was Vic Mignogna

I don't think they even looked at the wiki before they started the reaction video

One thing I like about Persona trailers is that it gives you enough basic information to get invested without giving away major story beats. I'm not typically a fan of rap/hip-hop, but Lotus Juice does an incredible job (and is definitely a perfect fit for the theme of death that this game is going for). Also, the whole watermelon thing? It's a summer tradition in Japan, although typically done at the beach. As for Aigis, you don't really find out until Persona 4 Arena, but she is actually NOT the "prototype," but rather the culmination of a myriad of experiments into giving robots a "heart."

I think the nice thing about Persona is that you can immediately get invested when you start playing the game. Like within the first 15-30 minutes they give you a hook and a mystery that pulls you along through the entire game. Honestly the trailers I feel will never give you much to work off of because the story itself is drip-fed to you over the entirety of the game. So I don't think you're missing anything by the trailers really lacking anything for you to grab onto but if you do decide to pick up the game and give it a go, I can safely say you'll have your intrigue very early on.

The evoker is a gun because its supposed to mean acceptance of mortality, hence the self-kashooding, Koromaru, the dog, wouldn't really be put out like that in a death scenario, which is why his evoker is like a shock collar, not a pewpew

The final character trailer for Tekken 8 is out and it is…Devil Jin! It is one of my favorite trailers and I highly recommend watching when you have a chance.

I really do hope you guys decide to try this game. I understand your concerns because they definitely didn't market for new people, but the whole point and draw to persona are the characters and their stories. Persona is a game about connections.

DEATH BATTLE actually has an episode featuring Mitsuru (Red haired girl) which you could check out if you'd like to get a better look at this game's story. Back when I first got into Persona, I had no idea what I was getting into. Taking that leap was one of my best decisions ever. To answer one of the questions, it is in fact a normal school. The world of persona is normally set in a relatively realistic world. The characters all have the ability to notice and acess a supernatural twist in it that nobody else can. But yeah revealing next to nothing from trailers seems to be the norm for this series as far as I know. I guess it helps with staying free from important spoilers which truly feel incredible to expirience properly. It kind of sucks in a way, but you'll have to take my word for it.

I think P3 is the only person that truly feels dark, it talks about death and depresion, and the only way for the people in the cast to be able to summon their persona's is to use a special device that simulates a gun, but that only does the simulation of it, to stimulate the person to get in touch with their persona's, there's something about only when you accept death you can use that power, or something like that. The thing is, different fromPersona 4 and 5, where in both games their respective other world allows people to easily summon their persona's, the Dark Hour is actually a system that envisions slaving people and killing them, so it's actually extremelly hard to summon your persona in those games, even if you do, without the evoker you can't. Every single person that has an awakening in the story, had it on a pre-death situation, where they say death with their own eyes and thoguht they were about to die, that's when their persona's awakened. So they figured out that the easier way to summon the persona is to simulate that feeling, the one thatt you're about to die, and once you do it, you can summon your persona's. Disturbing, yes, but it's how this game was made, that's why this game is +18 to be played. XD

Each persona game is different than the other. Each persona game has its own theme as well. Similarly each persona game has its own way of summoning personas: P3 - Shooting your head P4 - Destroying the Tarot P5 - Ripping the mask Persona 3 is the darkest in the trilogy with death being the theme. While the trailers look like "modern art project" that's true, the plots are really amazing. Since the games have a linear plot, they avoid spoiling stories too much in the trailers so you can have a full on experience when you play the game. The game is also about relationship building which is extremely important. Making friends with people around you, making the right choices. They want you to be involved with the world not the story first. You guys have been watching the Ezio storyline, you could definitely watch its storyline as well. OR even better, play the game! Its still worth it!

All the Persona games has a theme to it, for 3 it's the fear and acceptance of Death. Thus why they use the gun-like Evokers to summon their Persona. Koromaru's Evoker is actually a specialized collar that he wears, also AIGIS can actually understand him.

there are a few reasons for this remake, they could infact be banking on existing players, but another reason this remake exists is that there are three versions of p3, theres persona 3, persona 3 FES, and persona 3 portable. FES works similar to royal for p5 where it just expands on existing systems. but portable is more of a demake were they make it more visual novely instead of 3d enviroments to accomidate the sony psp. people have been wanting a more definitive experience for persona 3 for awhile since the portable and fes versions both have differing, but good, content. as of current the only version available on modern platforms is p3 portable since they never ported FES, essentially having two complete person experiences(p5 royal and p4 golden) with one mostly complete persona experience (p3 portable). this remake plans to essentially fix that

I had just recommended this in the next wildcard Wednesday poll and I guess I didn't need to, I'm so happy 😊

Playing Persona 3 Reload..... tickles the right spot of nostalgia for me. I grew up playing P3 the most.

You guys need to finish the Tekken 8 character trailers there are 3 more left and the latest one was just released yesterday before the game drops tomorrow

yup you guys have to play this dont go to the lore route hope you guys just straight up play this series that will pull you in. they just dont want to spoil the best parts

I haven't played 3 but I have played 4 and 5. These trailers really are showing you what its like to play the game and focused a lot on what the gameplay is and avoiding the storyline despite the small glimpses into it. Persona is a lot of time management building relationships, going to school, making friends, dating, studying, and then dungeon crawling. The trailers show those aspects well. I know Persona 3 has the darker story line between 3-5 (which is saying something since 4 you are literally trying to stop murders and people will die if you do not finish your dungeons). I think they are trying hard not to get too much into the main story. Persona games are long and a large majority of it is those small "random" or what seems like pointless conversations you saw. It makes you get close to the people around you and invest more into the story.

One of the biggest sells for me, as my first Persona game was Persona 5, they did a good job at not spoiling in game content, especially story. Many of my friends will do their best to avoid certain videos so it is not spoiled for them. Unfortunately, I played Persona 4 Ultimate and Ultimax, and it spoiled a lot for Persona 3 Reload, as well as the BBE for Persona 4. I appreciate that the trailers were considerate enough not to spoil much of the story, while still giving you a surface level understanding. Any more about it aside from visuals will crack it open and ruin the shock factor for the late game experience. You have Persona's (which is your other self), and you enter into the Dark Hour (a time between midnight and midnight, for exactly 1 hour) to fight Shadows and keep people from being attacked by them. You explore a surreal tower known as Tartarus with the hope of ending the Dark Hour and saving the world from an unknowing enemy, while impeded by Strega, a Fanatic group that believes the Dark Hour is a gift that gives their otherwise meaningless lives purpose. For the trailers to give anymore detail would be disrespectful to the community that wants to experience story driven games fresh.

Persona 3 is one of those games that will last with you for a lifetime. To this day P3 and Final Fantasy 14 are the only games that have made me cry.

A bit late given the game is out now, but a major reason why a lot of story specific related stuff isn't emphasized too much in the trailers is because the game deals with some inherently really dark themes pertaining to death, loss, etc. It's hard to really expand upon it without spoiling some major instances in the game. It's a very adult centric game, and is absolutely worth playing. The trailers really just like to emphasize a lot of the flashy moments so as to grab the attention of the average person and fans of Persona 5.

I'm a bit sad the trailers left you a bit cold, but to be fair, it was something I was expecting from the beginning. The trailers work great as big comparison reveals for already existing P3 fans, highlighting key moments and showing some new content, but they do terribly explaining what P3 is actually about. They barely even mention that Persona users are rare and that the coffins are actual people kind of in their own bubble frozen in time and that's the reason most people aren't aware of the 25th hour of the day (or "the dark hour" where shadows roam). Also, Personas are the representation of our true self, hidden away from society through multiple layers of social norms we follow to fit in. Persona 5 is a bit more literal in making these social norms, the "masks" that we wear to be accepted, actual masks you can rip off, whereas Persona 3 goes a bit more subtle by suggesting that these masks only ever truly get taken off moments before death, when we'd forfeit our desire to fit in in exchange for the instinct to defend ourselves at any cost, which is why you need an Evoker (which is not a "real" gun, more like a stress inducing machine) to pretend you're facing your own death and let your inner you come out and fight for you and your friends' safety. P3 is heavier on the death symbolism because the whole game explores the worth of a life and our struggles facing loss and our own fleeting existence in this world.

You should play this game it’s sad but definitely not dark, the guns aren’t real more like a soul releaser so to speak, an it’s one of those games where you have to play through to see how each story is told and how each characters story unfolds. So it’s actually a pretty fun game if you don’t take the gun as a literal thing

Well, if you're looking for an in for the series, the good thing about the series is that the games are fairly self-contained, so unless you're jumping into a spin-off that's tied directly into one of the games, like The Answer for Persona 3, Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, or the Persona Q series, most of the mainline numbered games are fine to jump into. They do share a common world, but only in the sense that time passes between each game. If I had to give a non-spoiler run down of P3, transfer student moves into a new school district and gets wrapped up in the mystery of the Dark Hour, a hidden hour between the end of one day and the beginning of the next. The world warps, most tech doesn't work, coffins are everywhere, and SEES is trying to make sense of it all. The games are a slow burn, and you're probably aware of this from this and previous Persona reactions, but there's a lotta darker stuff, some explicit and some implied, in this series. Death being an overarching theme in P3 in various forms certain doesn't make it the most cheery game at times, but I'd say it's worth it, and from what I've seen of the remake, the quality of life changes make it more accessible.

The device they use is shaped like a gun, but it's not actually a gun. The device is called an Evoker, and is a sort of catalyst to simplify summoning, since they cant summon the personas by themselves. Koromaru (the dog) has a harness version of the device and Aegis (robot girl) has it integrated in her diadem. Also, it seems that you are moe used to the modern movie like handholdy games. Persona 3 has a story, but it's more focused on actually being a game, as games should be.

The theme of why they shoot themselves is because in this game their powers unleash when specific action occur just before the dark hour, in this case their powers show when they are in the verge of dead. That's why they need to shoot themselves with special guns.

I like the story of this game cause of many things, story, characters, music, and gameplay, but the best thing i like most of it is the symbolism throughout the whole game, as death is at the end but how you wanna choose how to live life, as the pistol/envoker forces the idea of death and terror to keep living, thats why the persona comes out and aid’s in battle

Since P3 (this game, the original version), the method of unleashing your persona depends on what you're facing to invoke it. In P5, they were ripping off the mask that shielded them against an unjust society. P3...they're facing something a bit worse. P3's advertising is fairly vague because it's considered the best (story-wise) of the latter trilogy. So they basically just don't want to say anything more than needed. You learn most of what you need to to understand the premise within the first hour or so of the game, but still nobody really wants to spoil that. In terms of a general, non-spoiler explanation of Persona (this mainly goes on P3-5): An RPG that follows the life of a student for one year, as they use a power unleashed from their psyche. But the reason the persona appear changes in every game, and is also central to the plot.

My favorite description of Persona - it's like Buffy the Vampire Slayer + anime

13:57 In Japan, smashing watermelons is a fun-summer thing to do with friends and family. Correct me if I’m wrong(I only learned this through JRPGs and anime😂).

P3P is my introduction to MGT franchise, the music alone got me hooked, the female protag had a different soundtracks & social links too ✨ the story is just oomf 😔💜

yeah with persona it's mainly about the experience of the story that would matter. Persona 3 is the most thematic persona game when it comes to death and depression. But, those themes don't really matter if you don't experience what the characters are like in their everyday lives. The Last of Us is like a cinematic movie, while Persona games are more so like watching a long-term tv show. You have to see what happens throughout the series to grapple why people love the stories from these games.

Hope y’all check out persona 4 golden

They dont actually shoot themselves in the head. The "gun" they use is called an Evoker, and its primary function is to instill a sense of anxiety and trauma to the person using it to better summon their persona. The theme of Persona 3 is accepting your own mortality and carrying on regardless so it fits the theme quite well

Im interested in your reactions but I feel like for once I am in an opposite camp from you. The visuals of P3, especially this reload, are very interesting and evocative to me but a game like last of us seemed so boring in comparison. lol

p3's persona summon method is one of accepting death, which is why the gun's called evokers exist.

Persona is definitely one of those games you HAVE to play to love. The marketing is the aesthetic. Reload is definitely catered towards ppl who have played it, the remake was one of the biggest projects, after all. But I definitely get it.

I’d say that most of the marketing thrust behind these trailers isn’t just directed at people who’ve already played OG P3, but also primarily at all the newcomers that P4 and P5 have brought in over the years. And sure, you’d think that most of those people would’ve already bought the version of P3 that was recently ported to modern consoles, but the thing to understand about P3 is that it has a certain kind of Reputation within the greater fanbase. Namely, that its gameplay can be… frustrating, we’ll say, due to a combination of factors, including but not limited to: how the game’s only dungeon is just a massive tower full of randomly-generated foes that makes progression eventually boil down to feeling like a tedious grind, the combat system often showing its age, and the fact that compared to the other modern Persona games, it is *much* easier to just suddenly get gameover’d by an enemy that happened to score a few cheap shots and KO’d the protagonist. Which makes you lose all the progress you just made, and shoves the tedious grindy-feeling of the dungeon in your face even more than it already does. So most recent persona fans just kinda figured that they were better off waiting for a remake that updated the game with all the modern quality-of-life features that P5 enjoys along with a graphical facelift, and lo and behold, a remake was announced. Atlus probably figured that out too, which would explain the marketing strategy behind these trailers.

Persona 3 is the closest to the original SMT theme of death and rebirth when it comes to the more modern Persona games. Persona 3's main theme is "Memento Mori" - Remember your death. Remember you're mortal and death is inevitable. Persona 4 had a more lighter theme with "Find the truth" and Persona 5 was all about "Rebel against injustice"

i cant wait to see Door-kun doing his finger pointing to da light final pose up in da sky ....

Spoiler free TLDR on persona games: -Usually involves kids who unlock the power of their inner true selves (their PERSONAS) to save the world from SOMETHING. -gameplay is balancing between irl school hangouts with buddies or side stuff like hobbies, eating food, etc AND exploring rpg dungeons, fighting monsters, and COLLECTING those monsters to use their powers. -every game involves SOME kind of overarching message and/or life lesson (live life to the fullest, accept yourself even your bad qualities, fight for what’s right even if you’re on your own, etc)

Just read a synopsis of each game and go in blind . Comparing a zombie post apocalypse game like the last of us isn’t really fair because it’s so overused by now at this point lol. Persona games aren’t gonna give you all the details of the story by trailers alone. If you play just one of them each will make sense and you’ll get a better understanding