Atlus Shrugged
A history of my time with Atlus' games, specifically with the 'Persona' series.
Pictured: Atlus company mascot “Jack Frost” from the Shin Megami Tensei series of role-playing games.
So, I want to talk about JRPGs: Japanese Role-Playing Games.
But not just any JRPG franchise or game will do. No, I wanna talk about Atlus and SEGA. I wanna talk about my history with their games, specifically with the Persona series.
Their games have been a boon to a very hectic life and schedule this past year for me, and I am very appreciative of them, having played a couple of Atlus games these past few months in both Metaphor: ReFantazio and Persona 3 Reload.
This last year has had its fair share of ups and downs. At my place of work, we are heavily understaffed, so it falls to me more heavily day to day to be efficient and to pick up the corporate slack in my professional life. At home, it’s been a lot of routine paycheck-to-paycheck living while we hope for someday to catch up. One of these days, we will be ahead, right?
To top it all off, my beloved mother revealed to my family that she has a devastating case of cervical cancer she is battling with also this past summer. I can’t remember feeling so hopeless as the time I heard that news.
It’s been a year, to say the least. Feels like ten.
But time marches on, and the age of a new year draws nearer… 2025.
A new year with more ominous portents, no doubt.
Just since January, I went to Disneyworld (which was expensive but very fun), contracted Influenza A, missed two weeks of work (due to the Disney vacation and then subsequent sick week due to the real flu), and just as we turn the corner into late February and March, I throw my back out at work and have to miss a day or so there too. Woof.
Can anyone throw me a phoenix down or a revival bead??
I am struggling to get this year started. Not to mention, I started up a new YouTube channel and podcast venture with one of my childhood friends, and while I love it, it’s tough to make something consistently. I know very few people are watching or enjoying our content on the platforms we post on.
On the whole I feel drained already by the circuitness and drudgery that is my schedule. Even my off times are tough, and while I enjoy my extracurricular ventures, it does take a lot to pour yourself out into something that isn’t getting ‘imbibed, ’ so to speak.
So, what has been consistent for me recently? Well, video games. Not just video games as a medium itself– but specifically JRPGs and Atlus’ stylings of role playing efforts more precisely have been the soothing balm to my chaotic and messy mental ‘scabs. ’
It’s just… nice to have control of something, even ‘virtually’, when your whole life seems like it’s on the verge of careening into a nearby ditch– with one fatal mistake spelling your end.
I have found the schedule management and precision of the Atlus JRPGs so utterly fulfilling the past half year. I can’t tell you how grounded it makes me feel.
In both Metaphor: ReFantazio and Persona 3 Reload, I get to choose which people I want to hang out with and at what times. I get to choose how I want to interact with my ‘virtual’ life instead of the cruel inverse, where everything happens to me, and I just roll with the punches in the real world. It’s nice to pretend, right? Even if we put down our toys in our later years, we all crave a specific outlet in which we can cut loose: be it with vice, play, or sport.
These things are different for different people.
For me, I choose the tamest of the three previously mentioned: play, and I invest myself in video games.
Recently, the Atlus style of JRPG has been the lifeblood of my gaming existence, coddling me with warm relationships, each involving a remarkably rendered and voiced cast of characters. I feel rejuvenated during my free time as well, due in part to the satisfying ways each game has kept my interest throughout their long runtimes.
I have adored my time in the worlds they have created.
Between the two, I have played the most this past half year: “Metaphor: ReFantazio” captured my imagination in ways I did not think were possible. I have written my musings, recorded my thoughts, and frankly, passionately ‘gushed’ for easily double-digit hours and thousands of words on how much I adored my time with the game and its intricacies. It is a special game for a dark time in our world.
But the other game I recently finished had a lot to say, too, and I would be remiss if I didn’t speak at length about it as well. Persona 3 Reload is that game.
My history with the Persona series dates back to its appearance with “Persona 4 Golden” on the PlayStation Vita. The Vita was a… misunderstood little machine housing a moderately-sized library hiding great video games if you knew just where to look.
The ‘cream’ of this proverbial ‘crop’ was, of course, Persona 4 Golden, but many other games graced the platform of note as well.
I never really played any other big standouts but P4G, but who can blame me? That game was worth the price of the console itself on its own! A great, handheld, JRPG with HD graphics? You know I am already there.
I remember it so clearly. I had just bought my refurbished Vita off of eBay and I was looking for the perfect time to break in the lightly-used device. Summertime rolled around, and with it came the plans to go on an extended vacation with my large family. Not just a vacation, a road trip. Even more time in the car. Perfect for some gaming, I thought.
It was glorious.
All through the drive to Florida, I played Persona 4 Golden, taking in the rich details and moments that the story had on offer. Every character was buoyant and entertaining, yet each with enough pathos to intrigue and interest thoroughly as a player.
The story is small-scale, and I love that about it. Something about the rural setting of the small-town mystery captures my attention. More and more as I have gotten older, I have appreciated smaller-scale storytelling rather than endless gaming epics a mile long and an inch deep.
From Chie, Yosuke, Kanji, Naoto, Teddie, and Rise to Yukiko, Persona 4 Golden’s cast is SO special. I think, as a whole, they are the best cast in the Persona series to date. It feels like a special group of friends trying to solve a local mystery, like the film Stand By Me, or something like that.
I adore Persona 4 Golden, and that trip is one of the reasons why. Playing for hours on end while I sweat my ass off in an old Saturn without AC while traveling to Florida will always be such a nostalgic memory. I’m so happy I got to play through most of P4G that way.
When Persona 5 came out in early 2017, I was too busy with my brand new Nintendo Switch, playing epic experiences like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. I barely even thought about P5 since I was so smitten with the novelty of the Switch and its early library of first-party games. It was a heady time for me playing video games and that year, specifically, was mostly dedicated to playing anything and everything that hit the eShop on my Switch. I was obsessed with my Switch that year.
I did want to play Persona 5 at some point, but given how much time I was using my Switch, I had put my PlayStation 4 on the backburner.
Later in the year I had gotten burned out by playing too much Destiny 2 (which also released that year) with my gaming group, and I felt like I needed a well-earned break after many nights of raiding. It came out in the early fall window, and I played it almost every night for months. Once I had had enough, even after I bought P5, I turned my attention back to my Switch. It had become toxic with that group, and I was looking for a change of pace, ultimately. So with the PS4, too went me playing P5 in that timeframe.
Since then, I had dabbled with starting and restarting Persona 5, even amongst its various forms, releases, and spinoff games. I still have yet to beat it, to be completely honest with you. Something about the length is daunting. I think I will play it finally this year in the Royal version (but I say that every year).
It’s been a while since I have played and beaten a Persona game completely, since P4G.
I went back to Persona 3 Portable this past year and bounced right off of it. While I liked the original cast, once I heard they were making a brand new remake of 3, all with new gameplay and an all-new cast, I decided to wait.
It’s a good thing I did, because I loved my time with Persona 3 Reload.
It’s been years since I finished a Persona game, and now I remember why. Those games are long, and there is a lot to them.
I spent over 89 hours playing P3R, even going as far as to get the platinum trophy in it. I loved almost all of it.
Aside from a slow start, Persona 3 Reload builds for hours. It feels like the ultimate pressure cooker RPG. When you reach the end, it all pays off in an explosion of satisfying emotional resonance.
From the social links you strike with the various denizens of the isolated city of Tatsumi Port Island, to the various NPC shopkeepers, to the Velvet Room residents Igor and Elizabeth– the world and characters of Persona 3 are excellently crafted. The art style and character design hearkens to the vibe and nature of both Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5, more specifically, with each character being distinct and unique from another.
I love the individuality that Atlus brings to each person in P3R. Everyone feels like they have lived there and are a part of the city they inhabit.
The music, in particular, lends to the seasonal changes that the cast is a part of.
The music, like Metaphor, may just be my favorite thing about the game. The mark of an excellent soundtrack for me is if I listen to it while not playing the game. Persona 3 Reload adds to that very slim group of video game music I listen to while out and about, and I love the remaking of the soundtrack they have done here. Lotus Juice, the man that you are.
Short of beating the Velvet Room secret boss in P3R, I did everything the main game had to offer. I fused every Persona, maxed out every social link, completed (mostly all) of Elizabeth’s requests and even got the platinum trophy on PS5 for doing damn near everything in P3R. To do this, I had to play through it TWICE even. That’s how hard I went this year on Persona 3 Reload, and it was awesome.
I played the everloving shit out of this game. It’s probably going to be my Old Game of the Year this year (the old Giant Bomb GOTY Award category for a game that you enjoyed the most out of its initial release year).
It is such a special game. I adored my time playing it, and the hours melted away as I did almost everything I could do in it.
Aside from some bumpy beginnings with it, I thoroughly loved my time with it. I mean, I played it twice, so there is a good chance that even if I didn’t tell you that you would just assume I at least ‘liked’ it.
The story is phenomenal, too.
When it all wraps up, and all your social links come to your aid while you grapple with the literal personification of ‘Death’ itself, Persona 3 Reload hits one of the rarest high notes I have ever seen in a JRPG, let alone a video game. The payoff you receive is INCREDIBLE here, with all the friends you’ve made along the way giving you a pep talk to conquer all in its final stages. Seeing all the bonds you’ve made along your long and winding journey is so fulfilling. It’s truly one of the finest crescendos in a modern RPG.
The final battle with Nyx, the highlight of the social links coming to your aid and finally the final sacrifice of your own soul are the culmination of hours of earned payoff, and I am still excited when I think back to it, how it all played out. It’s truly magnificent what Atlus accomplished back then. To see it in its final, brilliant version is a sight to behold.
It’s one of my favorite final sequences in video games.
Once that happens and the world returns to its right state, the end comes. But it comes later than you might think.
(Spoilers ahead for anyone concerned with the very end of Persona 3 Reload.)
The slow death of the protagonist is heartbreaking, and the final scene with you and Aigis on the rooftop of Gekkoukan High School, where you have spent so much of your gameplay time, is completely devastating.
The composition of the moment where you pass, while lying on Aigis’ lap amidst the falling petal blossoms of early March, is gorgeous and will remain in my memory whenever I think about my time with this game.
It’s a beautiful ending to an amazing game.
Between the two JRPGs of Atlus I have finished in the last year, I prefer Metaphor: Re Fantazio to Persona 3 Reload– but it is very close, to be honest. Both are remarkable outings I shall fondly remember.
So now, I am adrift in a sea of uncertainty upon finishing Persona 3 Reload, without a game to moor me, whilst life’s waves crash upon me.
I need that certain stability again.
To involve myself in another life while trying to figure out my own.
I will play and beat Persona 5 Royal this year, but it’s not quite time yet. I am looking forward to it, but 100 hours plus is not easily spent unless you have the time to do so.
Soon, but not yet.
Something I am excited for too, is that news of my beloved Persona 4 Golden will be receiving a similar remaking to Persona 3, I cannot wait to jump in again for a second helping in the near future. The one sticking point with that project for me, though, is the thought that they will recast some of the best voices in gaming with the P4 cast. A cast that includes Yuri Lowenthal, Laura Bailey, and Troy Baker would be a hefty sum today indeed.
The price to get them in a booth to record these days certainly are not how they were in 2008, that I am certain of. Price of the ‘brick’ going up, and all of that.
But I just know that when Chie Satonaka gets a new voice, I am going to be upset. She is the true, ‘Best Girl.
Atlus just makes it look easy, right? Two bangers of theirs I have played almost back-to-back, and I haven’t even touched the main series of Shin Megami Tensei? My goodness. They truly are a special publisher.
I have wanted to play SMT 3, SMT 4 and its sequel Apocalypse, and SMT 5: Vengeance, but time is not infinite.
This isn’t to mention other Atlus games like Unicorn Overlord from last year, which I have been meaning to get to.
They really do make it all look easy.
Atlus Shrugged, indeed.