Persona is a sub-series of the Shin Megami Tensei series, although it has dropped the Shin Megami Tensei header in recent years. There are a total of six main titles in the series with a few canon and non-canon side titles.

The main theme of the Persona series is self-reflection and understanding, as well as the faces one puts on around other people. As a result, the games are strongly character driven with the player able to connect with characters both inside and outside their parties.

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With the amount of games in the series, there is a timeline that can be crafted from the game's events. Not all games have a clear calendar of events, but the majority of games at least have years to go off of.

Revelations: Persona

Persona 1

Revelations: Persona is the first game in the Persona series with it taking place in 1996 and it being the first Persona game to be released. Although Revelations: Persona uses Americanized names for places and characters for the original North American release, the original Japanese names will be referenced due to them being more widely known.

This title follows the protagonist, known as The Boy With Earring, and his classmates after they play a ritual game known as "Persona". The ritual ends up succeeding and the group meets Philemon, who gives them the ability to summon their Personas. However, they soon discover that demons are starting the roam the streets of their town, Mikage-cho, and that they can only stop them with the power of their Personas.

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There are two separate routes that players can take. The first route has the player's party infiltrate the Saeki Electronics & Bilogical & Energy Corporation, also known as SEBEC. There they discover the DVA system, a technology capable of warping reality itself. It is additionally discovered that it is the source of the demons taking over Mikage-cho. After dealing with it, the party finally defeats Pandora, who planned on using the DVA system's core to destroy everything.

The second route is known as the Snow Queen Quest. In this route, the party discovers an urban legend about a mask used in their school's performances of the play, "The Snow Queen." According to the legend, every person who wears the mask while playing the Snow Queen dies. After a teacher named Saeko Takami puts on the mask, she is possessed by the spirit living inside it. The spirit turns out to be a girl who was disfigured by the mask when she wore it, however the spirit is then revealed to be controlled by an entity known as the Night Queen Asura. The party defeats her to free the town from her reign.

Persona 2: Innocent Sin

Persona 2 Joker

Persona 2: Innocent Sin takes place three years after the events of Revelations: Persona in the year 1999. This game follows protagonist, Tatsuya Suou, who is a senior at Seven Sisters High School in Sumaru City. At the start of the game, it is revealed that Tatsuya already had the ability to use his Persona when he gets into a fight with a gang leader from Kasugayama High School. This gang leader, named Eikichi Mishina, also has a Persona and uses it in the fight. One of Tatsuya's classmates, Lisa Silverman, awakens to her own Persona after getting involved in the fight.

The events kick off when Tatsuya, Lisa, and Eikichi play a game about summoning an entity known as the Joker. According to the urban legend about him, he can grant wishes given to him via a phone call, but he will turn anyone who doesn't have a wish into a shadow. However, the Joker claims to recognize the three from his past when he is summoned and is angered when they don't also recognize him.

The group decide to go and investigate Joker to stop him from attacking people as well as find out how he knew them. As they go on their investigation, the party is joined by Maya Amano and Yukino Mayazumi. The truth is revealed while the party investigates a cult connected to the Joker known as the Masked Circle. It turns out that the original Masked Circle was a group of kids made up by Tatsuya, Maya, Lisa, Eikichi, and Jun Kurosu. Using this lead, the party discovers the identity of the Joker to be that of Jun.

Things get more difficult when rumors of Adolf Hitler's return becomes true and he invades Sumaru City after being summoned by Nyarlathotep. During the battle with Nyarlathotep, Maya is killed and the Earth's rotation is stopped, allowing Nyarlathotep to destroy everything on the planet except for Sumaru City. In order to save Maya and the world, Philemon makes a deal with Tatsuya and creates a new timeline where Nyarlathotep is stopped in exchange for everyone's memories.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment takes place directly after the events of Persona 2: Innocent Sin in the new timeline created by Tatsuya and Philemon. However, the protagonist in this game is Maya instead of Tatsuya. In this new timeline, known as the Other Side, everyone's memories of the old timeline have been wiped except for Tatsuya. Because of this, he still has his Persona and knowledge of Nyarlathotep's influence. This causes him to challenge Nyarlathotep alone, but he is defeated and branded as a reminder that if anyone else remembers the original timeline, Nyarlathotep can bring it back.

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The game follows Maya as she's investigating the Joker, who is trying to force people to remember the original timeline. However, it is revealed that there are now multiple Jokers with Tatsuya acting as one of them. It is also revealed that Tatsuya's father and his secret organization, The New World Order are secretly controlling the government and are behind the Jokers.

As events progress, the old party starts to come together again and eventually confront Tatsuya about the original timeline. However, the party is finally able to stop Nyarlathotep and Tatsuya returns to his own proper timeline.

Persona 3

Persona 3 Party Members

Persona 3 is the fourth game in the Persona timeline, taking place from 2009 to 2010. It follows the protagonist known as either Minato Arisato or Makoto Yuki after he joins the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, also known as SEES. There is an option for a female protagonist in Persona 3 Portable for the PSP, but she is considered to be from an alternate timeline and isn't part of the main Persona timeline. This game takes place in the Eternal Punishment timeline as well as all other Persona games that come after it.

The game starts with Minato moving to the city of Tatsumi Port Island during a phenomena known as the Dark Hour. The Dark Hour is an hour in between 12:00 midnight and 12:01 that only people with a certain potential can experience. Everyone else in kept unconscious in a protective coffin to protect them from the hostile shadows that roam the world during this time.

One night at his dorm, Minato witnesses his classmate Yukari Takeba attempt to fight a shadow attacking on the roof of the dorm. However, Minato is able to summon his Persona to defeat it and save her. He is then brought into SEES so they can have his help in fighting the shadows.

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After many battles and investigating, SEES discovers that an event known as The Fall is coming, which will cause the end of the world. Based on the information they have, they come to the conclusion that they need to defeat the powerful Arcana shadows that appear during full moons. However, they end up discovering that they were tricked into helping bring about The Fall through their actions instead.

One of Minato's classmates, Ryoji, is eventually revealed to be the Harbinger of Nyx, who is the one who will bring about the Fall. He offers to wipe the group's memories of the Dark Hour and their investigations so that they can peacefully die in blissful ignorance during the Fall. However, SEES will need to kill him in his human form in order to do so.

While one of the endings has the group take Ryoji's offer, the canon route has the group refuse and go forward with fighting Nyx in an attempt to save the world. In order to defeat Nyx, Minato sacrifices his life to become a seal to prevent Nyx from ever bringing about the fall. Unfortunately, the group loses their memories of the Dark Hour and only remembers their relationships with each other and their battles just as Minato finally passes away on the school's roof.

Persona 3: The Answer

Persona 3 Aigis

Persona 3: The Answer takes place a few weeks after Persona 3 on March 31st, 2010 with the members of SEES mourning the death of their friend and leader, Minato. Aigis, the shadow fighting android is so emotionally destroyed by his death that she makes the decision to stop living like a human and just act as a machine instead. She additionally serves as the main playable character.

However, the party finds that they are trapped inside their dorm and that March 31st keeps repeating. After a large hole opens in the dorm floor, the group is attacked by another android named Metis. During the fight with her, Aigis gains Minato's original Persona, Orpheus and his ability to have multiple Personas. Metis ends up joining the group as they descend into the hold, known as the Abyss of Time.

In the Abyss of Time, the members of SEES gain access to the means of stopping the timeloop, but Metis gives SEES the option of trying to use the Abyss of Time to go back and stop Minato from making himself the seal. This causes in-fighting within the group with some wanting to go back and others not wanting to mess with time.

Aigis eventually has to fight her friends to stop them from turning back time and potentially freeing Nyx once more. The group eventually discovers that Minato didn't exactly seal Nyx away, but instead sealing away humanity's desire for the world's end from reaching Nyx. After seeing what Minato has decided to do, the group respects his actions and stop the timeloop. However, the experience causes Aigis to change her mind and continue to live as close to a human life as she can.

Persona 4

Persona 4 Party Members

Persona 4 follows a the protagonist known as either Yu Narukami or Seta Souji after he moves in with his cousin and uncle in the small town of Inaba on April 11, 2011. Shortly after moving in however, a string of murders appear where the victims are strung from wires after foggy nights.

Yu, along with his classmates Yosuke Hanamura and Chie Satonaka, discover that a mysterious show known as the Midnight Channel seems to show the victims right before they die. They additionally discover that Yu has the ability to enter another world by entering TVs, as well as take others with him. After Chie's friend, Yukiko Amagi, is kidnapped and appears on the Midnight Channel. The group gains their Personas by facing their shadow selves in the TV World as well as rescue Yukiko.

The group forms the Investigation Team in order to solve the murders due to the police not going to be any help involving the TV World. The team gains new members as they rescue people from the TV World who all get Personas after facing themselves. Things however come to a halt when a copycat killer is pushed into the TV by the real killer. With the police convinced that the copycat killer is the murderer of the initial victims, the case is considered closed by the police while the Investigation Team continues to search for the truth.

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Things get worse when the kidnapper kidnaps Yu's cousin, Nanako. Due to being young, the air inside the TV World weakens her to the point she briefly dies. Angered, the party almost throws the kidnapper, Namatame, into the TV World to kill him, but stop when they realize that his kidnappings were to stop people from being murdered by the real murderer.

After some deduction, the group realizes that the true killer was the partner of Yu's uncle, Adachi. They confront him in the TV and fight him off before he is possessed by Ameno-sagiri, an entity that creates fog to fulfill mankind's desire to live in ignorance of what's around them. The group defeats this entity and brings Adachi so that he can be arrested.

Right before Yu goes home to the city, he and the party realize that someone else is connected to the events and discovers Izanami, who plans on covering Inaba in fog and turning all humans inside into shadows. The group defeats her and saves Inaba. In Persona 4: Golden, it is discovered that Marie is part of Izanami and absorbed her after her defeat, making Marie whole once more.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night takes place in April of 2012 after the events of Persona 4. In it, the Investigation Team is stuck in a new world known as the Midnight Stage, where they need to free shadows from the control of a mysterious voice through the power of singing and dancing.

Persona 4 Arena and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

Persona 4 Arena

Persona 4 Arena and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax take place in May of 2012 after Yu decides to return to Inaba for Golden Week. However, it seems that the Midnight Channel has started airing once more, causing the Investigation Team to form up once more and enter the TV World. There, everyone is separated from each other and are forced to compete with each other in a fighting tournament.

Meanwhile, Mitsuru Kirijo of SEES is now leading a group known as the Shadow Operatives. While traveling, an anti-shadow android known as Labrys is stolen from the plane by hijackers despite Aigis being able to take them down. They track her location to Inaba and the Shadow Operatives enter the TV World to find her.

Everyone eventually meets and discover that the tournament is actually taking place in Labrys's dungeon created by the TV World. Because of this, the groups have to fight off her shadow, causing Labrys to gain a Persona. She ends up joining the Shadow Operatives and the two groups leave each other with respect for one another.

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax takes place one day after Persona 4 Arena takes place. In it, Inaba is covered by a red fog and put in a state similar to that of the Dark Hour. More old members of SEES join the cast to help investigate the phenomena after Mitsuru and others are held captive by a boy named Sho Minazuki. The Investigation Team also has to deal with Adachi, who's been freed by Sho.

It is discovered that Sho started a new tournament in order to summon an entity known as Hinokagutsuchi and destroy the world. However, he is stopped and the world is saved.

Persona 5

persona 5 royal sales

Persona 5 mostly takes place in 2016 and follows protagonist Ren Amamiya/Akira Kurusu after he's put on parole after assaulting a politician while defending a woman. After transferring to Shujin Academy in Tokyo, he discovers many more adults with wicked hearts that abuse their power.

After ending up in Kamoshida's Palace in the Metaverse, Ren awakens to his Persona. Alongside his classmates Ryuji Sakamoto, Ann Takamaki, and a mysterious cat-like creature named Morgana, the group forms the Phantom Thieves and use the Metaverse to steal the hearts of the corrupted and force them to admit to their crimes so justice can be served.

Things however go south when one of their targets dies after his confession, causing the public to blame the Phantom Thieves for his death. Things additionally get worse when the team is betrayed by Goro Akechi, who planned on killing Ren. However, the team saw his betrayal coming and used a fake version of Ren from the Metaverse to take the bullet instead.

Ren then has to lie low due to the police thinking him dead as well as knowing his identity as the leader of the Phantom Thieves. The group goes on what they believe to be their last heist inside the palace of Shido where they fight off Akechi. However, Akechi has his own change of heart after their fight and seemingly sacrifices his life to protect the Phantom Thieves from a copy of himself. After stealing Shido's heart however, the Phantom Thieves realize that they need to steal the heart of the public.

While attempting to steal the public's heart, they are removed from Mementos and see that Shibuya and Mementos are starting to become one. It is then discovered that the Igor inside the Velvet Room was a fake and the true force pulling all the strings, Yaldabaoth. However, the party is able to defeat it and saves everyone.

In Persona 5: Royal, this does not signify the end as the world goes through a strange change when the New Year comes around. Ren begins to notice that people who were dead are walking around alive and the wishes of everyone seem to be granted. The only ones to notice this change are Ren and Akechi, who teams up with Ren and another Persona user named Kasumi to find the source of this change.

It is discovered that Kasumi's real name is Sumire and the real Kasumi died in an accident that Sumire blamed herself for. Her reality was changed by the one responsible for the world's change in reality, Takuto Maruki. After being forced to accept the truth, everyone defeats Maruki and returns the world to normal.

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