Synonyms

Role-playing game

Definitions

Role-playing game = a game genre where the player assumes the role of a character in their world.

History of Persona 3

Persona 3 is an interesting role-playing game, to put it simply. The game follows the story of a group of Japanese teens who each have a mysterious power; that being the power to summon a being known as a persona. A persona is a manifestation of a user’s personality, which they can use to take down monsters known as Shadows, manifestations of a person’s inner thoughts and emotions, usually being negative in nature. They can only use these powers during a secret period of time known as the Dark Hour, which takes place at midnight every night. While playing, the player has to juggle the characters’ school lives and their mission to get rid of the Dark Hour at night. Looking at the game through the lens of surprise, the player will come across several moments of surprise.

In Jesse Schell’s book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, the Lens of Surprise states that “Surprise is so basic that we can easily forget about it. Use this lens to remind yourself to fill your game with interesting surprises.” The Lens of Surprise asks the following questions(Schell, 2019):

  1. 1.

    What will surprise players when they play my game?

  2. 2.

    Does the story in my game have surprises? Do the game rules? Does the artwork? The technology?

  3. 3.

    Do your rules give players ways to surprise each other?

  4. 4.

    Do your rules give players ways to surprise themselves?

Persona 3 has several twists in the story that many players will not see coming, including the death of a major playable character, the betrayal of the group’s leader, and a major reveal that the group’s efforts were actually having a negative effect. The fact that the story is so deep and complicated will be a big surprise to anyone new to the series, which was common, as this was the first game in the series to mainstream attention.

For a more in-depth look at the death plot twist, during a botched operation to take out a powerful shadow, one of the characters, Shinjiro, gets trapped by a Shadow. Before anybody can do anything, the shadow kills him, shocking the team and the player, most likely. It comes out of nowhere with nothing hinting toward it. Another example; near the end of the game, it is revealed that in the process of killing all the powerful Shadows, the team unleashed a deity known as Nyx, who will come down at the end of January and bring an end to the world. The characters are informed that they can either have their memories erased of all the events so they can live in ignorant bliss until the fated day comes or they may keep their memories and search for a way to stop Nyx. These events are barely hinted at in the game, and they come as a complete shock for a new player. However, other than the story, there are no real surprises in any other areas of the game, with artwork, rules, and everything else being similar to role-playing games at the time.

With Persona 3 being a single-player game, the only way to experience the shock is by playing it. The battle mechanics can also be surprising to new players. Shadows will have weaknesses and resistances to various types of attacks, so the player might surprise themselves by trying a random attack and finding out it either has no effect or does extra damage against a shadow. The player can also surprise themselves by finding out various skills that fuse together into one, creating significantly more powerful skills.

Overall, while the rules of Persona 3 are, for the most part, unsurprising, along with the technology and artwork, the story has more surprises than most of its contemporaries, with jarring surprises happening frequently, keeping players on their toes.