The following is not meant to be a review of the Persona Collab at all, more the ramblings of a fanboy who enjoys both the games and Puzzle and Dragons. Instead, what you will find are my thoughts and critiques of the design choices GungHo made with the Cards and Dungeon for the Persona collab. I should note that the thoughts and predictions found herein are my own, and only my own. They do not represent what GungHo ultimately decided for the collab or has planned for the future. This post is merely meant to incite conversation. I will cover pieces of the games in the post that are 100% spoiler material, however I will cover everything with a spoiler tag.

That said, the Persona games, let alone the Megami Tensei series, are fantastic works, and I highly recommend playing them if you get the chance.

Introduction

My experience with Persona is almost as green as my experience is with PAD. I’m an avid fan of JRPG’s, having played games such as Chrono Trigger or Earthbound since I was five years old and eventually moving onto Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Lufia, and other JRPG’s; so I’ve known about the games, as well as the Megami Tensei series as a whole for some time now. It was the sheer volume of games in the Megami Tensei universe that intimidated me, and I really never figured out a good place to begin.

Then Persona 5 came along.

Just released in North America, this was my chance to finally get into the series. I did a bit of research, and discovered that P5 was indeed a great starting point in the series; in fact after playing Persona 5 and then other Megami Tensei games, I have to agree, Persona 5 is possibly the best starting point for any newcomer to the franchise! After getting the game, I quickly fell in love, a love I didn’t see coming. The world building, the engaging plot, the character interactions, the battle system; everything about the games was something that a JRPG loving weeb such as myself could hope for! Before I knew it, a week had gone by and I had dropped 120 hours of my life into Persona 5. That was it, I had to play the other games, and play the other games I did! One year later, not only have I fully enjoyed everything P3-5 had to offer, but I’ve also gotten into the other Megami Tensei games as well (I just bought Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux, and having a blast!)

For those of you who don’t know what it is, Persona is a series of spin-off games from the Megami Tensei universe. In Persona, you play the role of a high school student who, in one way or another and for different reasons, finds themselves in a struggle against a race of demons known as “Shadows”; what a Shadow exactly is, however, is different from game to game. You and your friends battle these Shadows using Persona, the manifestation of your inner self, and battle the darkness to secure humanity’s survival. You, as the main character, have the power of the “Wild Card”, which means you are not limited to using just your Persona like everyone else is, and you can instead convince other Shadows to join your team as your new Persona. Using the new Persona you acquire, as well as the bonds you forge with your friends and classmates through “Social Links” (Interactions between you and your friends when you’re not fighting Shadows), you can create even more powerful Persona. Yes, you use the power of friendship to create super demons to fight evil and save the world.

Thoughts about the Collab

The Persona collab in PAD is a mixed bag, featuring characters from the last three games with Mementos from Persona 5 acting as the Collab Dungeon. In the dungeon, you can obtain Persona to create Skill Card assist evos, and trade for Morgana from P5 in the Monster Exchange. The characters they decided to include in the collab confused me… for a bit. After thinking about it, and mulling everything over, I came to the realization that the characters included were, arguably, the most important people in their respective games. Yes, yes… I know people really wanted Chie or Koromaru in the collab… but who GungHo included makes perfect sense (more on this later).

Also, kudos to GungHo, for avoiding any possibility of any spoilers, though Goro Akechi being in the collab in his Phantom Thief outfit is kind of a spoiler, but not really since he’s literally on the game cover, so I say that gets a pass.

Missed Opportunities

These, I can kind of understand why they didn’t implement them; too many additional monsters in a new collab, how licensing rights work (aka I have no idea), ect, ect… But, I’ll point out a few things anyway.

Demon Fusion

PAD and Persona both have fusion and evolution mechanics… and yet GungHo didn’t once consider implementing this into PAD? Yes, fusion, by each games definition of the term, is different. Fusion in Persona, is more like Evolving in PAD; that’s not to say they couldn’t have rolled with it. Hell, they even had Morgana available in the Monster Exchange for trading in one of each “Skill Card”, you think they could have added in something similar?

I bet you’re thinking right now, “But what would/could they have done?” Well, once more, I don’t know the full specifics on how obtaining rights to even have a collab goes, however with one little, tiny, miniscule change… they could have done something great. Instead of Cerberus, have Pyro Jack (or Jack-o’-Lantern, as he’s known in P5). Those of you who’ve played Persona already know where I’m going with this, but for everyone else, let me introduce you to Black Frost.

In Persona 5, Black Frost is the direct fusion of Jack Frost, Pyro Jack, and King Frost; in P4 you also needed Ghoul and Pixie (who we did get), and in P3 you needed Queen Mab. The fact remains, however, GungHo totally could have given us this awesome looking Demon we could have exchanged or evolved for, but completely missed the mark. I realize saying “GH didn’t include Black Frost or Demon Fusion” is opening a can of worms where people can say “Why Black Frost and not Odin, or Alice?!” Well, Odin and Alice weren’t direct fusions of Jack or King Frost, and Black Frost is probably one of the more well-known Persona you can only get from Fusion.

Persona Evolutions

I’m not talking about Pixie, Jack Frost, or Cerberus… I’m talking about the Persona users…

One of the biggest perks of Socializing with your party members, and increasing their Social Link/Confidant rank throughout the game was that at Max Rank, their Persona would evolve like it was a Pokémon. For instance, Yosuke Hanamura’s Persona, Jiraiya, would become Susano-o after you reach Rank 10 in his Social Link. Doing this, significantly increases the Persona’s strength, and enhances their ability in battle. It was like this, for everyone with a Persona with the exception of…

Persona 3 and 5 spoilers inside

Makoto Yuki’s Ultimate Persona evolution was believed to be Thanatos, which turned out to be Ryoji as he had been dwelling within him Yuki since he was ten years old, and turned out to be the Avatar of Death, which was fun.

Another instance of a Persona user not getting an evolved Persona was Shinjiro Aragaki. He was only playable in Persona 3 for one month of the game, before he eventually got shot by Takaya while protecting Ken Amada, and eventually died of his injury.

Goro Akechi, The last member of the Phantom Thieves in Persona 5 was also a High School Detective who originally investigated the Phantom Thieves in an attempt to bring them to justice. he later joins the party, only to betray them later on, making it so we never see Robin Hood’s Ultimate Evolution.

There’s one point in the spoiler tag that would help explain why GungHo didn’t go through with this idea… and it’s a pretty damn good reason. However that person could have been easily replaced, so I’m counting it as a missed opportunity. The good thing with PAD, however, is Collabs do return… and buffs can happen! Who’s to say that they won’t implement this in a Persona Revival?

About What We Got

Before I get into the complaining part, I’mma back GungHo up here on the character choices they made when choosing who we got in the collab. I’ve talked about this on the PDX Discord with some other players, and I often find myself defending the choices that were made. Each character chosen, other than the 6 stars for obvious reasons, played a major role in their respective games stories, and as much as people want to see Chie or Koromaru in the collab, the fact of the matter is they honestly weren’t important at all. If you cut either of those two characters out of the story at all, it wouldn’t change (Sure, Chie was the best friend of another important character, but it would have been easy to put that label on Yosuke). So, here is why I believe GungHo chose who they chose…

Spoilers, obviously.

Persona 3 Spoilers

Mitsuru Kirijo

Mitsuru was the daughter and heir to the Kirijo Group in P3. In the game, we learn that the Kirijo Group is responsible for the appearance of the Shadows, and for Tartarus (The mega dungeon where most of the fighting happens). We slowly learn this truth over the course of the game, and we see her come into her own, as she accepts the responsibility for her family’s actions and wishes to clean the mess they caused. We also see her take a leadership role in the group, as she is the senpai and knows more about what was going on than everyone else. Even though Yuki was technically the leader by title and in battle, Mitsuru did most of the charismatic work outside of Tartarus.

Aigis

Aigis was created by the Kirijo Group in an effort to combat the Shadows. Before the games events took place, however, one of the biggest and baddest shadows, the Appraiser of Nyx (aka God that wants to end all life on earth), who would eventually become the Avatar of Nyx. During this battle, Aigis seals the Appraiser inside a nearby child who was bearing witness to the conflict. It would later be revealed that the child was Makoto Yuki. Aigis’s role in the story after joining was to protect Yuki for that reason, though she wouldn’t remember that reason until it was already too late, and the Appraiser became the Avatar of Nyx.

Persona 4 Spoilers

Yosuke Hanamura

I’m doing Yosuke first here because his was the easiest, and isn’t really a spoiler depending on who you ask. Honestly, Yosuke being considered important is a bit of a stretch. Yosuke is the son of the Manager of Junes (Japanese Walmart), and would be instrumental in assisting the Investigation Team with entering the TV world to save people, by covering for them and allowing them to use the large TV’s on display in Junes, since the story takes place in the small town of Inaba, no one really has the funds for a big TV, so the department is mostly barren. He also helps Kuma/Teddie get a part-time job at Junes as a mascot, so the giant walking teddy bear was less concerning to passersby.

Kuma/Teddie

I’ll just call him Teddie, cause I’m in NA. The group first meets Teddie in the TV world after looking around and investigating the sudden disappearance of a classmate. Teddie has no idea who or what he is, and initially blames Yu, Yosuke, and Chie for the weird occurrences that was going on. Yu convinces Teddie that it wasn’t them, and makes a promise to him to find out who the real culprit is, leading to the formation of the Investigation Team. In addition, Teddie also helps the team out, by creating special sunglasses that allow them to see through the mist that plagues the TV world (and eventually the real world). Teddie, through his sea of bear related puns, proves to be a great asset to the Investigation Team, and I feel they wouldn’t have succeeded without his assistance.

Persona 5 Spoilers

Makoto Nijima

Makoto is the Student Council President of Shujin Academy (where most of the casts goes to school), and is eventually tasked with investigating the possibility that the Phantom Thieves are student at the school. She quickly surmises that the Phantoms are Ren and the others, and thanks to some people being loud out in public, she is proven correct. Instead of turning them in, however, she opts to ask for their assistance in dealing with a gangster that is terrorizing students. The group agrees, and thanks to Makoto’s assistance, are able to keep their anonymity from the school Principal, who we find out later is working under the antagonists of the game. She’s also instrumental in thwarting Sae Nijima’s (her sister) investigation of the Phantom Thieves for a time, before they opt to steal her heart.

Goro Akechi

Okay, first of all, screw this kid.

One of the plot hooks in Persona 5 was the fact that random people around Tokyo were suddenly succumbing to random bouts of mental shutdowns, eventually falling over dead. We soon learn that Goro Akechi is behind these murders and is working for one of the main antagonists of the game, a politician that wants to become the next emperor of Japan.

No I’m not being sarcastic, look at this dude; cosplaying a more edgy Char Aznable from Gundam…

Eventually, we learn that Akechi is this guys illegitimate son, and accepted responsibility for attacking and killing the people he did in a vain attempt to earn his daddies love. Some fans use this as a reason to excuse his behavior… but no. Akechi is a piece of trash that didn’t deserve Robin Hood as a Persona. (RH is a personal favorite fairytale of mine, so it hurt even more.)

Right, with that out of the way, let’s get to the part I love most, and oh boy… buckle up my friends. A lot of what I’m about to say sounds like nit-picking, but seriously, if you’re going to go through the legal trouble of implementing a collab in your game… at least take the five minutes of research to make sure everything is accurate.

The Bad

We’ll start with Skill Cards and the other farmable cards.

Cerberus / Skill Card, Agidyne

Couple of things here. First of all, the skill is Agidyne (Megami Tensei-ese for Big Fire Spell), and it adds a combo and gives jammer skyfall? Why? Why couldn’t it be a single target nuke or at least make red orbs (akin to Jack Frost/Bufu)? This literally made no sense.

Next his awakenings confuse me. Cerberus never had any poisoning ability or defense in P3-5, and the blind resist I can kinda see, as in P3 he was immune to dark attacks.

Finally… his Skill Card in Persona 5 wasn’t even Agidyne… it was Megaton Raid.

Pixie / Skill Card, Dia

For some reason that escapes me, this irritates me more than Agidyne. First of all, Dia is a healing spell… it should heal. What Dia in PAD does, is bind recovery, and it deals damage. Once again, why? Dia never dealt damage, why even implement that at all? On top of which, Dia never recovered a status ailment…

K Frost Cloak

This is what we got instead of Black Frost… and it makes me angry. Fun Fact: When Persona first hit the JP server, I helped Reni and the other members of the PDX Mod team decipher what a lot of the skills present in the collab actually meant, since the translation of アギダイン is literally “Agidyne”, you can imagine how some people who’ve never played Persona would be confused… Then this thing came up and even I was confused. After some research, I found out that the K Frost Cloak appears in only one game in the entire Megami Tensei series of games; “Shin Megami Tensei: If…”, and it wasn’t even an important item. Now, SMT: If did create the ground work for what would eventually become Persona, the two series are still independent of each other, SMT: If playing more like a normal SMT game, but still in the High School setting the Persona games are in. This item isn’t even present in the Persona games, yet GungHo included it in the Persona Collab. Whats worse is in Persona 3, you could actually forge weapons from Persona, and some Persona even created equipment for you to use after leveling them so much… GungHo could have chosen any of those items, yet went for the most obscure thing possible.

Aigis/Mitsuru Kirijo

These two ladies are together for one reason; the Devil Killers. Mitsuru having Devil Killers makes sense… in a way that every Persona user should have Devil Killers. However, if you’re going to give someone from the collab Devil Killers, it really should be Aigis because…

Persona 3 Spoilers

Aigis is an android created by the Kirijo group in Persona 3 in order to combat the Shadows. Her entire existence is meant to KILL DEMONS. She really should have the Devil Killers over Mitsuru

That aside, Aigis… other than the fact that she has the whole Yellow aesthetic going on, really shouldn’t have light as a main attribute. Her Persona, Palladion, was weak to electricity. Light is the attribute for both Holy and Lightning in PAD.

Goro Akechi

Yeah can’t explain why without…

Persona 5 Spoilers

Giving someone who betrays the party support awakenings is just poor taste in my opinion… That and he’s the only character in the collab that willingly turns on his companions.

Makoto Yuki & Orpheus

Okay. Here we have an example of blatant ignorance. Yuki is a Water/Light Card, however Orpheus is a Fire type Persona. GungHo did well in selecting the attributes for literally everyone else except Yuki. The fact he requires Blue to activate his leaderskill at all still confuses me. Honestly, he should have been Fire/Light or Light/Fire, similar to Edward…

Yeah I can see where GungHo was going with their attribute design, and it’s acceptable… but if that were the case, why not make Elizabeth and Caroline & Justine Blue/Dark at that point instead of pure dark? It still bothers me regardless.

The Good

That’s not to say GungHo didn’t implement good ideas into the collab! I’ll give credit where credit is due.

The Arcana/Skill Up Fodder

Using everyone’s specific Arcana to skill them up was a genius move, and one I appreciated and thought was really cool. When the collab was announced I wondered how or if GH would incorporate the Arcana Cards into the collab, and they did!

Card attributes (Except Makoto Yuki and Aigis)

GungHo hit the nail on the head with everyone elses attributes!

Jack Frost/Skill Card, Bufu

This is what I had hoped for. Originally I wanted Persona to have equip assist, and the fact GungHo did that in the form of Skill Cards was a brilliant move. Bufu in PAD creates Water orbs from hazards, give Water row awakenings, and locks all other orbs (get it? the other orbs are frozen?! :D). This, class, is a good example of basing things off of the source material. Bufu is even the Skill Card you get from Jack Frost in Persona 5!

It makes me wonder if different people designed these cards and effects.

Mitsuru Kirijo

Okay, honesty time; This one will be a bit of a stretch as my reasoning relies solely on RNG. In Persona 3, you were not able to control your party at all (this was fixed in Persona 3 Portable). So, unless it was known to your party that an enemy was weak to Ice (Bufu) spells, Mitsuru would constantly cast “Marin Karin”, a charm spell that makes enemies fall in love with her. There were ways around this, such as setting her attack pattern to full assault, however she would still occasionally cast Marin Karin even then…

So the fact she has heart oe’s, a heart skyfall active, and a heart cross leader skill made me chuckle; be it deliberate or not. I will say, though, her skill name is Tentarafoo, which is an addling effect (prevents enemies from casting spells and increases critical hit susceptibility).

Morgana

Morgana was the best healer and support you got in Persona 5, so his awakenings and typing are perfect to reflect that.

Joker/Ren Amamiya & Arsene

Listen here. Ren is the leader of the Phantom Thieves in Persona 5. Their full name, is “The Phantom Thieves of Hearts” due to the fact that they go into their enemies cognitive worlds to steal their “hearts”. So, not only did GungHo give Ren an Extra Attack awakening, but his Leader Skill requires 2 Heart combos to activate. GH definitely played on the “Stealing Hearts” motif with this one I feel.

The Mixed Bag

Yeah this is new, but I was writing something and my feelings are conflicted on it, so I’m putting this here…

The Chariot Arcana

Lemme point something out. GungHo is technically not wrong with assigning this Arcana to Aigis, Athena is Persona of the Chariot Arcana, and it was also her Arcana in Persona 4 Arena, which is where PAD seemed to get some inspiration from, (See, Elizabeth & Thanatos). However, it should be noted that her original Arcana was Aeon. I personally, dislike this, however like I said it wasn’t an incorrect move… so I can’t really complain about it either.

Except… I kinda just did.

GungHo did other things well, but to me these stood out the most. Overall, as much as the lack of features we got from the collab, GungHo did an all right job with it. They could have done better… but it could have been so much worse.

The Future of Persona x Puzzle and Dragons

Yeah, unlike the YYH Collab, I firmly believe we’ll see Persona return to PAD. They didn’t botch the hell out of it like they did Voltron, and Persona is still a fresh and thriving franchise as opposed to YYH. If my belief that we get collabs based around major events for IP’s, then we’ll either see Persona return when Persona Q2 is released!

So that begs the question… what will they do when or if it does return? In my Yu Yu Hakusho post, I went over characters that GungHo should have included over certain ones we got, and I did it earlier in the post because I felt it was a “missed opportunity”. Persona, however had excellent choices, as each character included was important to the central plot of their games in one way or another (explained above). So, I’ll take this moment and have a bit of fun! Here are the characters I feel have the best chance of appearing as new cards in a Persona Collab Revival!

Before I do though… I will note that my choices are affected by two things: Their relevance in the plot, and their Arcana. I say this because it’s obvious that GungHo chose plot relevent characters, and they used each persons Arcana card as their skill up fodder. So, since we have the following Arcana, other characters that share that Arcana are out as far as I’m concerned: The Empress, The Chariot, The Magician, The Star, The Priestess, and Justice.

Possible Additions

5 Stars

Persona 3: Yukari Takeba – The Lovers Arcana

Yakari was the first party member you met in the game, after walking around outside during the dark hour surrounded by coffins, (Yuki having no reaction to this is legitimately bad ass). I personally didn’t like Yukari as a character, as she had a distasteful attitude toward everyone other than Yuki, Fuuka, and Koromaru; and she was especially cruel to Aigis during the events of “The Answer”.

Why Yukari is important - Persona 3 Spoilers

We eventually learn that Yukari’s father died ten years ago in an accident. After the events leading to the reveal of what the Kirijo Group was doing and who Aigis really is, we find out her father was responsible for delaying the arrival of Nyx, and created the tweleve Shadows that were once the Appraiser of Nyx. After finding this out, she gains the resolve to protect the world her father died for.

Persona 4: Naoto Shirogane – The Fortune Arcana

I personally believe she was more important to the plot of P4 than Yosuke. Naoto was the last person to join the Investigation Team, however you meet her during Kanji Tatsumi’s arc while investigating the events of the game during that time. Known as the “Detective Prince”, she proves to be more beneficial to the Investigation Team later on after joining. However before that…

Why Naoto is important - Persona 4 Spoilers

She overhears the Investigation Team suspecting Mitsuo Kubo as the culprit of the Inaba Murders, accusing the gang of treating it like a game, (even though literally everyone at the table was either a victim of kidnapping by the suspect, or somehow was directly effected by the murders… : /) After Rise Kujikawa calls her out for being a hypocrite, and after Kubo’s arrest, Naoto remains unconvinced and decides to anti-up, using herself as bait to lure out the suspect once more. Were it not for her, the real Murderer of Inaba would have gotten away and the world would have ended.

Persona 5: Futaba Sakura – The Hermit Arcana

The navigator of the Phantom Thieves, her entire arc is shrouded in spoilers…

Why Futaba is important - Persona 5 Spoilers

During the summer of Persona 5, and while the Phantom Thieves were gaining popularity amoung the populous, an infamous hacker group known as Medjed declared war on the Thieves. Running out of options, Futaba reaches out to the Phantom Thieves under the alias of “Alibaba”, offering to deal with Medjed in exchange for them helping her have a change of heart; as she’s tormented by her past.

Which, brings me to my next point. Futaba is technically an orphan, her father not being in the picture and her mother killed by Goro Akechi two years prior to the start of the game under the order of Masayoshi Shido in an attempt to keep her research on the metaverse (the world were shadows live), for themselves.

6 Stars

There’s a few choices here… the list will be in order of what I feel most likely, to least likely.

Persona 4: Margaret – Persona 4 Velvet Room Attendant

No real spoilers needed here. She was important in Persona 4 Golden for the extra dungeon that was added, and the other attendants were added as cards… why not her too?

Persona 4 Golden: Marie

Her entire existence at the beginning of the game is an enigma, as even Margaret and Igor don’t know who she really is. You do eventually find out…

Why Marie is important - Persona 4 Golden Spoilers

Marie is actually Kusumi-no-Okami, one of four parts of the goddess Izanami-no-Mikoto; the true antagonist of Persona 4. When Yu arrives in Inaba, his uncle Dojima stops at a random gas station, where he meets an attendant who’s too eager to shake his hand. It’s revealed later on that, the gas station attendant was the goddess Izanami-no-Okami, and had decided to test humanity and find out their true desire by bestowing random humans the power of Persona without them having to confront and accept their inner selves in order to obtain the power, sending out Ameno-Sagiri and Kunino-Sagiri as her spies. The game concludes with the defeat of Izanami-no-Okami, and Marie vanishing for a time, only to return as a once more whole Izanami-no-Mikoto.

Persona 5: Goro Akechi

“But wait, Ken… we already got Akechi!” Yeah so? Other collabs have had the same character appear more than once as different rarities. If you really want to know my reasoning, read the spoiler.

Why Akechi should get a second card - Persona 5 Spoilers

First of all, I want to apologise. I hate Akechi, I really do. However the Persona collab fell short on implementing villains, with good reason mind you. After Akechi betrays the party and attempts to kill Ren, he vanishes and we don’t see him again until Shido’s Palace, where he reveals his tragic past and tries to cop out of being the trash heap he really is; then proceeds to attack the Phantom Thieves.

He’s revealed to have the power of the Wild Card, same as Ren, and summons Loki to fight. I really wouldn’t mind this being a 6*, as much as I hate the man.

Persona 3: Takaya Sakaki

One of the human antagonist of Persona 3, I felt he’d have the best chance of getting a 6* if GungHo gave us another P3 6* (aside from Elizabeth). I won’t make a spoiler for him, as he’s not only a villain (which the collab was missing out on), he’s also pretty integral to the plot from start to end and I could go on about him longer than I did Marie. Takaya is also the only Persona user other than Aigis who summons their Persona without the use of an Evoker, which in my opinion was pretty cool, even though he’s creepy as hell…

After all this, I really feel Margaret has the best chance of getting the 6* treatment should the collab return, which I certainly hope it does!

Never More

That’s it, I feel I’ve said my peace. Overall, it was a good collab, with some mistakes made on design, but overall solid work. If you agreed or disagreed with anything I said, or have general comments or critiques, feel free to reply here, on reddit, or on the PDX Discord!

Featured Image Credit: RON on Pixiv