Source: https://x.com/ricenmeat24/status/2111476074953785664

^^ my teams

asking because im nearing the end of both P4 & P3 and wondering if there are any fun/broken compositions I was unaware of?

Their adoptive daughter also somehow found a way into the real world, not sure how that happened.

Source

Source.

Still working on their clothes. I also have SMT if... since Persona is its spin off, and I included the spin offs Trinity Soul and Tsumi to Batsu because I really enjoyed them

i made these a few months ago but im thinking about going back and adding some proper shading / highlights to them. i kinda like the simple look but idk yet (also my twitch is https://www.twitch.tv/captaindizzytv if youd like to use them lol)

Source.

Source: https://x.com/erachiiii/status/1554177762021310464

So, what are we thinking? I'd personally prefered Yukiko instead of another Yu, but they're really well made! Clearly based in the Revival Models

One of the reasons why there are so many lore debates going on in the fandom is due to the sheer amount of lore difference between P1/P2 and P3/P4/P5. Since we know these games do take place in the same universe, how does this work?

... And yes, they take place in the same universe, as confirmed by Hashino. P1, P2, P3, P4G, and P5R all take place in the same universe.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Persona 1 and 2 were developed by the Last Bible team + Kazuma Kaneko + Tadashi Satomi. All of which, as far as I know, did not work on any Persona games after P2:EP. Hashino and his team were in the control of narrative and game design.

A key point to this explanation is that Persona 1/2 took place in the same universe as Devil Summoner. This is confirmed in the Stephen reports, which Kazuma Kaneko worked on, as far as I know.

When P1 first released, Devil Summoner was actually canonically an in-universe manga/anime (or a TV show, something like that) series. Kaneko also talked about this on Twitter some time ago. It was after P2 released they became canon to one another. The shirt Mark is wearing in P1 is apparently Devil Summoner merch, even.

So, why bring up Devil Summoner ? Because Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers contradicts Persona 3.

According to Soul Hackers no Subete, it was an alien known as "the Great One" that created humanity. Its goal being to harvest humans' souls later. This is a contradiction to the human origin lore in P3/P4/P5, which states it was Nyx's arrival on Earth that triggered the human evolution.

... Those living on Earth managed to seal Nyx away in their collective unconscious. The driving force behind her containment was “repression,” which stemmed from a fear of death and a desire to keep on living. One can’t deny the irony that it was Nyx, an entity meant to embody death, who spurred Earth’s life to evolve such complex mental faculties. In Greek mythology, Nyx is depicted as a goddess. Perhaps man was aware to some extent, all those ages past, that she was in fact the mother of life...

-Persona 3 Club Book - World Q&A

**Question:* What is "the Great One"?*

Answer: That’s a difficult question… In the story, "the Great One" is also the one who created humanity, so you could picture them as something like a single, all-powerful god. They’re not connected to YHVH from the Shin Megami Tensei series, though. Still, thinking of them as a similar kind of being might make it easier to understand… maybe? They’re not powerful enough to rule over the entire universe, though. They do come to Earth once every 15,000 years, so you can imagine their orbit as being on that kind of scale… (laughs)

-Soul Hackers no Subete

On top of that, in the Persona 4: Arena duology, we learn that the Japanese government is not taking the Shadow Operatives seriously, and were very skeptical about Shadows and the supernatural. This is not the case in Devil Summoner, where the government is very much aware of the supernatural and even weaponize it in some cases.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Anyway, putting Devil Summoner aside for a moment, let's go back to Persona.

In the original triloy, Personas are created from Demons.

If you don't know what "Demons" are in the context of Shin Megami Tensei... Demons were once gods, just like YHVH (the Biblical God). Gods consist of two aspects, "Knowledge" and "Eternal Life". YHVH, through methods that differ between games, stripped all other gods of their "Knowledge" aspect and reduced them to Demons.

These Demons were, over time, shaped by the power of "Observation"--humanity's ability to alter reality via belief and language.

... It is likely that Igor uses this Evil Phone to request entities from the Demon homeworld ("Aku-Makai") to be deployed as Personas...

-Persona World Guide

[?]: "What about the free will of Demons? Like in Devil Summoner on the Saturn console. They would sometimes boycott during battles, no?"

Kazuma Kaneko: "No, this is not a thing this time around. We just extract the powers of a Demon to create a Persona."

-Interview with Kaneko

... Characters in 'Megami Ibunroku Persona' are individuals who awakened to the power of a strong will, allowing them to control these other-selves. They take the consciousness and power of a Demon in their body and wield it as their own...

-Persona 1 marketing material

Personas themselves are not Demons, however.

"A key point is that a Persona is not an actual mythological being appearing, but is instead something created purely from within one's own mind."

-Persona 1 Club Book

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Persona 3, 4, and 5 use a different cosmology for Personas.

In the previous entries, it was Philemon who bestowed the Persona potential. How does it work this time around?

Persona 3 is an entry in a greater series. However, it aims to differ from those before it. And, indeed, I think it has suceeses in achieveing that. The same can be said of its fundamental structure and lore. Which, in this game, holds that the Persona potential is something that awakens on its own and can not be granted by another being...

-Persona 3 Club Book - World Q&A

I especially want to highlight this one. Because... Well, it essentially says "yeah, we retconned things".

"Shadows are the lower parts of the psyche everyone has... Suppressed human thoughts given physical form. When people are unable to face their darker selves, they break loose, free from all control. But sometimes, humans with special awareness can tame their Shadows... Those are Persona-users."

-Metis

What are Shadows?

S: Remember how I explained earlier that Nyx is being suppressed in the depths of our collective unconscious? What that means is that Nyx exists deep within the psyche of every living thing—on a level below the unconscious. So imagine if a certain living thing—Iori, for instance—were to say, “I got a zero on the test. What’s the point in living anymore!?” and stopped resisting Nyx in his unconscious? What do you suppose would happen?

A: I guess Nyx would come slithering out of his heart.

S: That’s right. More precisely, a piece of Nyx would break free of his unconscious. That piece of Nyx—of her spiritual form—is in fact what we call a Shadow.

A: For something that’s part of Nyx, it sure is runty.

S: That’s because it’s just a tiny, infinitesimal piece of her. Aside from a few special abilities and an immunity to conventional physical attacks owing to their spiritual nature, Shadows don’t possess much power at all. However, to the life forms who harbor them, Shadows are very important indeed.

A: How so?

S: Well, because it’s their fate to carry a Shadow—a fragment of Nyx—deep within their psyche, all living things on Earth necessarily have a limited lifespan.

A: But aren’t living things thought to have a lifespan ordinarily?

S: That is the prevailing knowledge held by those on Earth today. But think of the primordial life forms that existed on this planet long ago. Organisms like amoebas, for example, could grow repeatedly and indefinitely by means of cellular division, and did not die unless eaten by another creature. As I explained earlier, Nyx served to promote an evolutionary explosion, but the cost that came with it was a limited lifespan. It’s also important to note that the Shadows incorporated into living things’ psyches are themselves an important component of our mental makeup. Losing this fragment is equivalent to losing one’s psyche altogether—especially for organisms like humans with a sophisticated psychic constitution. The reason why Shadow people—humans who’ve succumbed to Apathy Syndrome—become like empty shells is because they’ve lost the Shadow—the fragment of Nyx—that was contained within their psyche.

-Persona 3 Club Book - World Q&A

The Club Book also explains why the Shadows and Personas look like Demons.

E: But Personas take the forms of deities and demons. Why might that be the case?

I: Well, I suppose you could say it’s done in order to properly channel their powers. By giving a name and a shape to a force that, in its natural state, persists vaguely in the chaos of the unconscious, one can transform it into a power that acts in accord with the will of its Potentate—the Persona user it belongs to. In our case, it is more effective to have it take the form of a deity or demon that already exists as legend or folklore. Such a foundation lends stability to its power. At the same time, the Potentate’s inner self also plays a role, with each Persona taking on a form befitting the one who wields it. Hence why Personas are said to be another version of one’s self.

-Persona 3 Club Book - World Q&A

<><><><><><><><><><><><><>

The events and characters of P1/P2 are still canon to P3/P4/P5. However, their lore and framework is not.

As another example, in P1/P2, the Persona-users can canonically sense each other.

... Yeah, I don't think I need to explain how that would have changed P3/P4/P5. Especially P4.

The calendar change in P4Re seemingly implies they went back to the "in-universe manga/anime series" explanation, though that is just one possibility. In the P4Re promotions, we can see that they changed the P3 themed calendar in the Dojime residence to a Devil Summoner themed one for the sake of consistency. Because, you know, P3 takes place in the same universe as P4. It would be weird if Yu Narukami had a calendar themed around them.

... And, you know, it would also be weird if Yu had a Devil Summoner themed calendar if Devil Summoner were canon to Persona 4.

And before you bring up "but Persona 2 was also a video game reference in Persona 3 !". Yeah... That is actually a Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei 2 reference. It was turned into a Persona 2 reference in the English translation. A similar thing happens with Chie and the Kuzunohas in Persona 4. Chie does not actually ever reference the Kuzunohas in the Japanese version.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><>

I know it can be confusing that P1/P2 are still considered canon to P3/P4/P5. But think of it like there are two different canons

The "Newsona" canon

1. Megami Ibunroku Persona = 1996

2. Persona 2: Innocent Sin = 1999

3. Persona 2: Eternal Punishment = 1999

4. Persona 3 - FES / Portable / Reload = 2009-2010

5. The Answer (P3FES) / Episode Aigis (P3Re) = 2010

6. Persona 4 - Golden = 2011-2012

7. Persona 4: Arena = 2012

8. Persona 4: Arena Ultimax = 2012

9. Persona 4: Dancing All Night = 2012

10. Persona 5 - Royal = 2016-2017

11. Persona 5: Strikers = 2017

And also Persona 5: Tactica, Persona Q1, and Persona Q2.

The "Oldsona" canon

1. Shin Megami Tensei: If... = 1996

2. Shin Megami Tensei 1 = 1996~202X

3. Shin Megami Tensei: 20XX = 20XX

4. Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha versus the Soulless Army = 1931

5. Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha versus King Abaddon

6. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner = 1996

7. Megami Ibunroku Persona = 1996

8. Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers = 1999

9. Persona 2: Innocent Sin = 1999

10. Persona 2: Eternal Punishment = 1999

And before anyone asks why SMT1, "If...", SMT: Devil Summoner, and Soul Hackers are placed in 1996 and 1999...

SMT: Devil Summoner supposedly takes place during the time window when the nukes would fall in SMT1. Because we hear about the failed nuclear strike on the TV.

We know that "SMT: If..." happens during when the early half of SMT1 would be occuring, as Kazuma Kaneko stated "If..." occurs before the nukes fall.

"基本的には同じ方向では進んではいます。実際この後にICBMがあるかもしれない。だけど、本当に一本の時間軸しかないのかっていのは誰にもわからないわけですよ。"

“Basically, things are moving in the same direction. There might actually be an ICBM coming later. But nobody knows whether there’s really only one timeline.”

"SMT: If..." canonically takes place weeks before P1.

軽子坂高校が消失し、戻ってきてから数週間後。軽子坂からさほど離れていない御影町でもまた、不思議な事件が起こった。数日の間、町全体が謎のエネルギー障壁にすっぽりと包まれてしまった。外界から隔絶された街の中で、奇妙な事件が続発したという。

A few weeks after Karukozaka High School disappeared and returned, another strange incident occurred in Mikage Town, not far from the school. For several days, a mysterious energy barrier completely surrounded the town. Cut off from the outside world, the town saw one bizarre incident after another.

This places "SMT: If...", SMT1, and SMT: Devil Summoner all in 1996, same year as P1.

We know Soul Hackers explicitly takes place 3 years after SMT: Devil Summoner thanks to Madame Ginko stating that.

And yes, I am aware Atlus said Soul Hackers takes place in 200X. But that does not align with the implied date of 1999.

Source: https://bsky.app/profile/haysey-draws.art/post/3mxrhng7bmkl7

Chronological Persona Timelines

Erased Timeline

Persona 1
Persona 1: Dimension Tower
Persona 2 Innocent Sin
Persona 2: Lost Memories (During P2IS)

Definitive Timeline

Persona 1
Persona 1: Dimension Tower
Aegis: The First Mission
Persona 2 Eternal Punishment
Persona 2 Batsu: Infinity Mask (During P2EP)
Persona 3 (Any Version, Male)
Persona 3 éM (During P3)
Persona 3: Episode Aigis
Persona 4 Golden
Persona 4 Arena
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
Persona 4 Golden Epilogue
Persona 4 Dancing All Night
Persona 5 (Any Version)
Persona 5 Tactica (Occur During P5)
Persona 5 Strikers

Alternate Timeline

Persona 1
Persona 1: Dimension Tower
Persona 2 Eternal Punishment
Persona 3 (Portable, Female)
Persona 3 éM (Occurs During P3)
Persona 4 Vanilla
Persona Trinity Soul
Persona 5 Phantom X

The Velvet Dreams
(Happen in dreams or outside time)

Persona 3 Dancing In Starlight
Persona 5 Dancing in Moonlight
Persona Q
Persona Q2

That is all

I already did the base game superboss on hard and had to grind the reaper and gems for hours and honestly it was not really worth it, I kinda just want to beat this superboss too for the sake of it but it seems even harder plus I'd have to set up the entire party for this now instead of just the MC.

If I have to grind stuff for like 10 hours just to beat this boss it's probably gonna break me, and The Answer was a repetitive slog tbh, I just want to get it over with really. I'm dreading the RNG required for Monad Door equipment drops and skill cards I might need, or having to refuse Orpheus Telos with different skills than what I used for the other superboss.

So basically without spoiling too much what are the essentials that I need to grind for unless I happen to have them already?

I'm probably dropping down the difficulty to normal or even easy for this unless it's not that grindy. Or just leave it be, beat the final boss of the Answer watch the ending and uninstall.

Also no offense to people who beat it on harder difficulites and actually did the grind, I'm just kinda burnt out really.

I have all social links maxed except for Aigis who has 1 rank up left but I’m on the 31st. I have one save for this run on December 1st and that’s it. I was wondering if there was someway for me to get an extra rank up with another social link somehow even though I feel like I did a social link everyday there was one available and any social links that needed multiple hangouts I fixed by going to the shrine on sundays or walking with Koromaru. I’m thinking there must someway to fit in an extra rank up though.

Ngl 10/10 i really like these ones

Source