The History of Persona (1987 - 2021)

Welcome to my video on the history of the #Persona video game series! This video will cover the series' origins in the Shin Megami Tensei games, all the way to present day. This video is something pretty different for me, so let me know what you think!
00:00 Intro
00:34 Megami Tensei
02:22 Persona 1
05:15 Persona 2: Innocent Sin
08:12 Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
10:23 Persona 3
15:06 Persona 4
17:16 Persona 4 Arena
18:11 Persona Q
19:03 Persona 4: Dancing All Night
20:18 Persona 5
22:58 Persona 5 Strikers
24:55 Outro

Songs in order are:
A Corner of Memories (Persona 4)
Hallucination (Megami Tensei 1)
The Girl in Black (Persona 1)
Kama Palace (Persona 1)
Seven Sisters High School A (Persona 2 Innocent Sin)
Joker Theme (Persona 2 Innocent Sin)
Opening (Persona 2 Eternal Punishment)
Map I (Persona 2 Eternal Punishment)
Brand New Days - The Beginning - (Persona 3)
3-31 (Persona 3)
Blind Alley (Persona 3)
New Days (Persona 4)
Best Friends (Persona 4 Arena)
We're Here Now (Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth)
Same Time, Same Feeling (Persona 4 Dancing All Night)
Period (Persona 4 Dancing All Night)
Beneath the Mask (Persona 5)
Strikers (Persona 5 Strikers)
Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There (Persona 5)

My name is Jon, and welcome to the Noise Berry Games channel! Noise Berry Games is a gaming channel where I play games with my friends. I cover many different types of games, from indie survival games like Don't Starve, to more popular AAA games such as Hearthstone and Far Cry. The channel began by creating mod spotlights for the game Don't Starve, but eventually changed its focus to focus more on cooperative let's plays, highlight videos, and series of first impressions and reviews.

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[itsaUSBline]

I wanna meet the genius in the localization department who came up with the idea of giving Hitler sunglasses. That's absolutely hilarious.

[Zap_Arts]

Now Persona 3 has 4 different versions of itself.

[joaniebalonie]

Persona is such an amazing game series. I love p5 Royal and p4 golden soooo much. It’s so addicting and filled with so much content. It’s the ideal jrpg for me

[jamesfarquhar]

A friend of mine enjoys these games and once he told me it was all based in Japan I decided to look it up, I appreciate all their effort to share their culture with us, it’s very unique and survives to this day despite many historical attempts to eradicate it.

[shawnheatherly]

Got to say this at the start: ignoring my bias for Persona and Atlus in general, I think this is one of the best videos you've ever done. It's informative, it's well-edited, it shows your appreciation for the series and has little sprinkling of humor with losing its stride. I applaud your work.
Persona 1's infamous localization is forever part of its history now, and both Persona 2 titles' changes as well as issues being localized are a big part in my they receive less attention these days, both from Persona fans but even Atlus; there's a reason they are absent in all the spin-off titles. I can't blame Atlus for shining the lights on the significantly more popular half of the franchise, but I am hopeful that something among the seven projects being teased for the 25th anniversary will be tied to the original three Persona games.
Like many Persona fans, Persona 3 was my entry point into the series. I just happened to see the cover of Persona 3 Portable one day in a store and, despite knowing nothing of the series, knew I had to buy it. As it sparked my love for not only Persona but Atlus as a whole, I clearly made a wise decision. The addition of Social Links may be controversial to the original fans, but they're one of my favorite aspects to the series, adding so much depth to both the main cast but also the city the games are set in. Speaking of the anniversary projects, I am pretty confident we're gonna get a Persona 3 remake as one of them; ideally it'll be a fusion of P3F and P3P.
Then came Persona 4, or Persona 4 Golden in my personal experience, a rather bold sequel. Despite being centered around a serious of murders, I'd say its tone is much lighter than Persona 3's. Instead of feeling let down, I loved that it was bold enough to have a different feel to it while still being the same great gameplay. To long time fans, I do however recognize that Persona 4 also heralded in many spin-offs that are somewhat controversial. None of them particularly interested me so I've never played any, but I don't really mind Atlus experimenting with fighting, rhythm, Warriors or the Q titles.
Of course, there's then the juggernaut that is Persona 5. My favorite in the series, the title that oozes style and polish in every aspect to the point that it had people cosplaying as the UI. There's no praise I can offer it that hasn't been shouted by thousands already. It's incredible, and it is still my favorite game I've ever played. To say I have high hopes for Persona 6 is an understatement.

[TheLMBLucas]

It was shocking to see how solid Persona 1 looked liked for its time!

[FatefulMedia]

The history of anything is often more surprising than the present it seems.

[ZeroWolf]

i was thinking of playing 3 and 4 because i only played p5 and p5s and i saw this amazing video. now im gonna play 1-4

[WindmillsSpin]

This is an incredibly well made video. You explain the games and timeline very well, and give the perfect amount of info to grasp everything. This is exactly what I was looking for as I've jumped back into P5R and have been paying attention to the 25th anniversary announcements!

[thundageon]

Fun Fact: Shin Megami Tensei was also part of the inspiration that led to Undertale.

[MelissaAtwell]

Thank you for creating this comprehensive history! I honestly had no idea about the PC origin of the series! I played Persona 1 through 4 on PlayStation, and looking forward to playing Persona 5 Royal soon. Thanks again!

[misha-naki]

I am almost finished playing through Persona 5 Royal and am so happy to see how much more Persona I have left to enjoy! Planning to beat every game (yes, even the similar ones!) wish me luck! 😸 Thank you for this video!

[StevenM]

im SOOO late to the persona game series, id hear alot about persona 3 and how much my friend group loved it. I wasnt sure id like it, doing all the stuff you do. School work love life friend life etc. But wooow.. im about 55 hours in on persona 5 Royal. And im SOOO obsessed with it, gonna be playing more of them for sure.

[PiscesPrincess]

I’m pretty late to the Persona series as I only started last year with Persona 5 Strikers and then 5 Royal which has become my favorite game of all time. I also got 4 Golden on Steam as a Christmas gift and it’s a great game too though not as good as 5 Royal to me. Great video!

[playtoonsrv]

I'm also getting into the persona series with persona 1 on ps1 classic edition, and persona 4 golden on steam. I'm just amazed that ATLUS decided to have moral topics in the modern persona games instead of just them being jrpg.

[chainedunfree]

Persona 2 EP bittersweet ending is really spot on with playing with our emotions. The late 90's animation, the music, the butterfly, Protag's innocent smile towards Motorcycle dude. The vibe of that game is everything man.

[paulmiller]

Mark dances crazy!
Have you heard of the cursed toilet? You can't leave until every last drop is out!

Persona had some of the best writing in it, I don't care if the "localization" was "bad", it was brilliant!

[TheRedstoneArchive]

I watched this because I noticed there were many persona games and versions, personally, my journey starts out back on the Playstation One! Pretty wild to see how the game has grown and progressed over time!

[MiyakoSakura]

Persona has always been special to me. I picked up P4G on a total whim when I was looking for more games on Vita. Really resonated with me and I’ve been a huge fan ever since

[cupsoup]

Glad you brought up smt if as it is super important to persona’s concept