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00:07Welcome to Mojo Plays and today we're taking a look at 20 things you may not have known about
00:13Persona. Before we begin we publish new videos all week long so be sure to subscribe to Mojo
00:28Plays and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos. Persona 5 was originally about
00:34backpacking around the world. Instead of tackling corruption inside Japan the original concept of
00:49Persona 5 had characters traveling all across the globe. It would have been a bold decision that shook
00:54up the rigid structure of the previous installments however following the Tohoku earthquake in 2011
01:00game director Katsura Hashino decided to refocus Persona 5's story on Japan. The game went through
01:07a massive overhaul and ended up as a biting critique of the country's justice system. Thankfully Hashino
01:13didn't completely abandon the road trip idea and implemented the globe-trotting system into another
01:18atlas RPG. The one that we would know as metaphor refantasio. Persona 3 calls you out for cheating.
01:34Cheaters beware! If you try and hack your copy of Persona 3 the game will literally call you out for
01:40it.
01:43I trusted you. I can't believe you cheated.
01:46Depending on which navigator you have at the time, either Mitsuru or Fuka have voiced dialogue
01:52criticizing you for taking the easy way out. This isn't limited to certain editions either. The line
01:59is fully translated and dubbed in the English releases. However, if you can stomach disappointing
02:04your team members, the game doesn't actually punish you for cheating. It's all just a battle of wills.
02:09But upsetting your party members is harder to get past than you may think.
02:13Cheating, huh? I'm disappointed in you!
02:16Rise and Yukari cameos in Persona 5. For the most part, every Persona title tells a completely
02:23original story independent from those that came before. But that doesn't mean developer
02:27atlas doesn't throw in some easter eggs for longtime fans. Persona 5 specifically pays homage
02:37to two characters from older titles. The first is Rise, who apparently retook showbiz by storm
02:43after Persona 4. Her posters can be seen all over the subway station. Later in the game,
02:50if you interact with Joker's TV on a specific day, you get some fun text about Yukari from Persona 3,
02:55who is apparently still acting. It's nice to know the characters we love are still out there somewhere.
03:12Enjoying the video? Be sure to scan the QR code to join us for our 24-7 Mojo Plays livestream.
03:18Perfect. What a take. Thank you very much!
03:22Catherine was Persona 5 before Persona 5. Persona 5 owes much of its success to another game,
03:30and no, we aren't talking about Persona 4. While the gap between installments was bigger than anything
03:35the series had seen so far, developers at Atlas weren't sitting on their hands the whole time.
03:41In the interim, they made Catherine, a strange puzzle game that let the team get used to their new hardware.
03:55In fact, they literally called it the Persona 5 engine during development. As a result of what
04:01they learned from Catherine, the team was able to make Persona 5 the acclaimed juggernaut it turned
04:06out to be. As thanks, the Phantom Thieves appear in a DLC portion of Catherine Full Body.
04:20The Tanaka speedrun strat. The final act of Persona 3 is tough. It's a long, arduous sequence of mini-bosses
04:28and dungeon floors leading to a multi-stage fight with the Nyx avatar.
04:33Everyone who's not fighting Nyx should try to keep them at bay. This is our last chance. We can't afford
04:40to lose.
04:41However, there's an easy way to skip the whole thing. Speedrunners discovered that if you somehow
04:46ignored Tanaka's social link until the very last in-game day, talking to him will completely bypass
04:52the last dungeon. The calendar moves on, and you get the true ending, just without having to
04:58actually go through Tartarus and beat the Nyx avatar. It's hard to imagine any players intentionally
05:06pulling this off, but for speedrunners, it is a lifesaver. Akechi almost had a palace. Everybody's
05:13favorite detective prince, or mostly everybody's, goes through quite the journey in Persona 5. But if
05:20in-game data mining is to be believed, Akechi's story was supposed to be a lot longer.
05:34Leftover code implies that he was slated to have his own palace, which are the
05:38handcrafted dungeons of Persona 5. Allegedly, it would have taken place between the sixth and
05:43seventh arcs of the finished game. Considering you fight Akechi in the seventh palace, anyway,
05:49it's not hard to imagine that the confrontation was going to have its own dedicated backdrop. It would
05:54have been cool to see, but considering how long Persona 5 already is, maybe this was for the best.
06:00Dammit, he's lost it! Here comes!
06:02Die!
06:05Main-cast Personas and what they mean. A Persona isn't just a character's inner desires,
06:11they're actual reflections of their stories, especially if you do some digging.
06:22For example, in Persona 5, the main cast's Personas are named after tricksters, witches,
06:28and pirates to match the game's themes of rebellion. The investigation team from Persona 4 get their
06:34Persona names from Japanese folklore, tying it into that game's small town setting.
06:39Kyo Take Mikuzuchi!
06:43Then there's the Persona 3 cast, who get Personas based on Greek mythology, probably to match the
06:48tragedy they go through. We could go on, but let's just say there's a lot of nuance in every Persona
06:54given to a party member. Phantom Thief Hifumi! During evenings in Persona 5, you can hang out with
07:01Wizkid Shogi player Hifumi to gain some helpful in-battle strategies. She's easily one of the
07:13most popular confidants in the game, so when people heard she was originally going to be a
07:17main party member, you can imagine the outcry. However, this rumor is only half true. Early in
07:23the development of Persona 5, Hifumi was designed to be the Phantom Thief's lead strategist. Makoto
07:29took that role in the final product, with her receiving most of Hifumi's personality traits as
07:33well. They reused what they could for another confidant, creating the Hifumi that we know today.
07:45Playable Velvet Attendance
07:54All of the modern Persona titles follow a silent protagonist who is aided in their journey by a
07:59mysterious benefactor from another world. These attendants from the Velvet Room are usually reserved
08:05for super bosses in New Game Plus. However, if you pick up the fighting game or mobile gacha,
08:10you can actually play as Elizabeth, Margaret, and the Twin Wardens. Elizabeth was the first to break
08:16free with her playable debut in Persona 4 Arena. Margaret joined the sequel as DLC,
08:22and years later the twins became playable on the mobile title Persona 5 The Phantom X.
08:33Joker was almost in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. More in-game code and more theories abound. This one's
08:40particularly interesting though. Despite releasing years before Persona 5, data suggests Joker was
08:46going to be playable in the fighting game Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. He never made it into the final
08:55roster of course. But the fact he was even considered brings up a lot of questions. Was this Joker or
09:01an
09:02earlier prototype? Would he have his Persona already? How would they introduce him considering his game
09:07was still years off? Given all the narrative hoops they would have had to jump through,
09:12it's understandable why he ended up as nothing more than a line of code.
09:19It's a spin-off of another JRPG series. These days most gamers have heard of the Persona
09:25franchise. Shin Megami Tensei is a bit more niche though, which is strange considering it was the flagship once upon
09:32a time.
09:38Shin Megami Tensei focuses on fusing, summoning, and fighting with demons. Persona took that concept
09:44and used it with a younger cast. However, the twist on the formula proved immensely popular with audiences,
09:50to the point Persona has effectively eclipsed its parent series. Starting with Persona 4 Golden,
09:56they didn't even include Shin Megami Tensei on the cover anymore, or in the title. It's safe to say the
10:01spin-off has become the flagship at this point. Persona 2 is two games.
10:21What would you say if we told you Persona 5 isn't the fifth entry in the franchise, Persona 4 isn't
10:28the
10:28fourth, and Persona 3 isn't the third either. That's because Persona 2 is actually a pair of
10:35games making up a duology. And before you ask, yes, they're both called Persona 2. While they each
10:41technically tell their own story, Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment are definitely meant to be played
10:46sequentially. So if you ask any fan, they'll probably just count these two as the collective
10:51second entry of the franchise. Just be sure you clarify before downloading one or the other.
11:03Persona 3 didn't let you control your party. You heard that right. Despite being a legendary
11:09staple in an acclaimed JRPG series, AI controlled your party members in the original releases
11:15of Persona 3. This was 2006 too, so there was no hardware excuse.
11:26Now, to be fair, the game has an in-depth tactics menu that helps you customize your team's rotation,
11:32and the bosses are clearly balanced around your limitations too. However, it's still a head-scratching
11:37choice that makes it hard to recommend the original to anybody outside of Die Hard fans. Thankfully,
11:42both the PSP version and the remake remedied this. Mitsuru is finally usable. No more dumb mistakes.
11:55Noah knew Naoto's original English voice actor for years. The Persona franchise has some incredible,
12:02dare we say, iconic English dubs. Persona 4 in particular has an incredible Western voice cast.
12:08But for some strange reason, the English actors weren't actually credited in the final game.
12:13These childish gestures are no mere affectation. They're the truth! It was up to the performers
12:20themselves to come forward and claim their work. All of them did, except for Naoto's. The voice behind
12:27the detective stayed anonymous for years, leading to all sorts of fan theories and discussion posts. Some time
12:34later, after she had already stepped away from the role, Anna Graves finally let the cat out of the
12:38bag, resolving a mystery that was years in the making. Persona 2 has a Hitler boss. Yeah, this one's a
12:54pretty weird one. If you played the original version of Persona 2 Innocent Sin, one of the major antagonists
13:00is almost literally Adolf Hitler. Truly.
13:09Okay, well technically he's a reincarnation brought about by rumors of the masses, but Hitler is Hitler.
13:16As you can imagine, this didn't sit well for every version of the game. In the PSP remaster, he received
13:22some… unsubtle changes, including sunglasses and a name change to Führer. If you ask us, this just draws
13:30more attention to his inclusion, but considering they already committed to using Hitler in the story,
13:35there probably wasn't much they could do.
13:44Persona 3 introduced the calendar system. Persona 3 was a landmark moment for the franchise. Up against
13:50the wall of bankruptcy, developers at Atlus knew they had to score big, and so they introduced a new
13:56gameplay system that would end up defining the series. An in-game calendar.
14:04Instead of the straightforward, story-driven dungeons of the previous Persona titles,
14:08Persona 3 forced players to balance combat with day-to-day activities like making friends or working
14:14part-time jobs. The way both halves of the experience tied into one another made for an addictive game,
14:20one that would put Atlus back on the map.
14:22One more! Just one more!
14:28Speaking of, Persona 3 saved Atlus. Remember how we said Atlus was on the verge of bankruptcy?
14:36Well, it's Persona 3 that rescued them, and then some.
14:50The successful implementation of the calendar system led to strong word of mouth and fan support.
14:56After that, Atlus doubled down on the idea for Persona 4, turning their success story into a full-on
15:01comeback. Nowadays, it's hard to imagine what the GRPG space would look like without Atlus' stylish touch.
15:08So even if you couldn't control your party, every single Persona fan has to thank Persona 3 for
15:14keeping the series and its studio afloat.
15:17Who's the man?
15:19What's wrong? Are you feeling tired?
15:21The Missing Snow Queen Quest. When the original Persona landed in North America in 1996,
15:28Western players got a noticeably different game than their Japanese counterparts. One of the biggest
15:33casualties? The Snow Queen Quest, an entire alternate storyline that simply never made
15:39the trip overseas. The culprit wasn't content-concerned, but something far more mundane.
15:50Time. With a looming deadline, localizers couldn't translate the whole thing,
15:54so it was quietly locked out of the Western release. Players wouldn't experience it until the PSP
15:59version arrived in 2009, over a decade later. Better late than never, we guess.
16:05However, the Snow Queen has shattered it.
16:09Persona 4 Arena and Arena Ultimax were the only Persona games on Xbox for years.
16:15In 2012, Xbox fans finally got their hands on this classic JRPG franchise,
16:21just not the turn-based games.
16:31No, they could only play Persona 4 Arena, which, for the record, is a canon sequel to the events of
16:38the original Persona 4. The kicker here is that Persona 4 was a PlayStation exclusive. While fighting
16:45games certainly have a different audience from turn-based RPGs, it's extremely strange that they
16:49bothered to port a spin-off before the main series. Doubly so, since they made the same gaffe with the
16:55sequel, Arena Ultimax. It wouldn't be until the 2020s that Persona finally broke free of its PlayStation cage.
17:03I bring you Makitomo!
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17:38Almost all Persona games are canon. It's something of a meme in the community by now,
17:44but there's a lot of Persona spinoffs. You've got the crossovers, the fighting games, a gotcha,
17:50a tactics RPG, a musou, and even a dancing series. What's even more surprising is that all of them are
17:56technically canon. While some, like the Arena games and Strikers, are direct continuations of their
18:06respective games, the Q crossovers exist in a weird spot. They do happen in the main timeline, but due
18:13to some plot shenanigans, none of the characters actually remember what happens. The same is said
18:19for some of the dancing titles. This begs the question, if a game happens, but none of the characters
18:24remember it, doesn't matter if it's canon or not. Did any of these facts surprise you? And what's
18:41your favorite Persona game? Let us know down in the comments below, and don't forget to subscribe to
18:46MojoPlays.
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