Yeah, so, as it turns out, a combination of my limited schedule and my desire for variety in what I write leads me to not move through these long-form projects quite so quickly. But you know what? Time is on my side. As long as we keep moving forward, we’ll get to the end eventually. One of the perks of being functionally immortal. So let’s get to the next step of our Persona 3 retrospective. Today, talking about the plot.
PLOT
Persona 1 had a pretty barebones plot. Persona 2 gave it a lot more focus, but still had it second to the gameplay. In Persona 3, the plot eclipses the rest of the game. At the time, this was really rare, the gameplay is structured around what’s going on in the plot, rather than vice versa. The pace of the plot progression controls the way the gameplay develops. And you can tell that the story is where more importance is placed.
So it had better be a darn good one.
Also, be mindful, I am dropping some spoiler bombs here. Some absolute spoiler nukes. If you haven’t played the game yet, and you still want to don’t read the rest.
So, normally, I wait until the end of this to talk about themes. Give you a sense of what the plot is, in itself, before we jump into talking about the hidden meanings in there. And we’re going to do that. But let’s lead off, as well, because there’s one theme that’s absolutely pervasive to this game, and I feel you absolutely need to know that going in to get a second-hand handle on this plot.
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Lost to the Aether 