Why Persona is a bad reference point for the SMT franchise
with SMT IV just hitting, many people seem to have made the mistake of expecting it to be similar to SMT’s Persona sub-series, when in reality SMT is a different beast
this has been going on since Persona 3 came out in the West; SMT III: Nocturne was critically acclaimed upon release but Persona 3 elevated the franchise to new levels of popularity and became the de facto SMT game to most members of its American audience
meanwhile in Japan Persona 3 topped sales charts and established the Persona sub-series as a financial beast, which led to multiple anime series (Persona: Trinity Soul, Persona 4: The Animation) and spin-offs (two Persona 3 remakes, a Persona 4 remake, a Persona 4 fighting game)
but reducing SMT to this sub-series does injustice to one of the lengthiest and most expansive franchises in gaming history, of which Persona only occupies a relatively small space
to say Persona 3 and 4 are representative of SMT’s core philosophy is akin to saying that Kingdom Hearts is representative of Final Fantasy
I’ve written about this in the past, primarily in "From Heaven to Hell: An Analysis of SMT" and "From Heaven to Hell: Shin Megami Tensei 1", but, to summarize, SMT is made up of two basic, core ideas:
the relationship between modern man and his mythologies
individuation in a world ruled by binary oppositions (primarily in a law vs. chaos dichotomy, often represented in a post-structural manner)
in mainline SMT, these ideas are treated far differently than they are in Persona 3/4
mainline SMT seeks to criticize the cores of these ideas and discover how they relate to what it is to be human
Persona 3 and 4 only apply these points of view to a few concepts (physical and spiritual death in Persona 3, societal norms in Persona 4)
mainline SMT tasks the player with individuating themselves against the dangers of binary opposition
Persona 3 and 4 represent the player as guiding sages to help others in their own journeys of individuation, a power fantasy
of course, mainline SMT is also what we would call a “pure JRPG"; no mechanics exist outside of what is used in combat, world exploration, and demon negotiation/management
Persona 3 and 4 introduce the Social Link system as a means of creating sub-narratives to use for representing the core theme of the narrative and for giving the player character the power fantasy of sagacity
the Social Link system itself represents the core difference between mainline SMT and Persona: mainline SMT addresses the player each step of the way, challenges their worldview, presents them with characters to represent the binary oppositions they have to overcome to discover who they truly are
Persona 3 and 4 are primarily about addressing other characters and their issues, representing the player as someone who has already figured out everything there is to know about life and its conflicts, hoping they may see a part of themselves within the Social Link subjects so they may take something away from it
this isn’t to say that one of these is superior to the other in all facets; Persona acts wonderfully as a supplement to the post-structural philosophy of mainline SMT, teaching how to apply its ideas to modern life (Persona 4 in particular does an excellent job of espousing post-structural interpretations of gender/sexuality and Baudrillard’s theories on modern media)
the Persona franchise wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without the core SMT ideas to back it up, but SMT and Persona function within vastly different spaces and with vastly different goals in mind, despite being based off of similar ideals
they are both fantastic series, but playing a mainline SMT game and expecting the philosophy of Persona is a grand fallacy
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