It’s always strange when games filled with truly troubling imagery go unnoticed by the most vocal anti-game pundits. Persona 3, Atlus’ exceptional RPG in the long running Shin Megami Tensei series, has been released not once but twice in the past twelve months without eliciting even a peep out of Joe Lieberman or Focus on the Family. For those unfamiliar with the game, the reason Persona 3 might ruffle some feathers is its protagonists, a team of troubled high school students who control guardian spirits to battle demons. And oh yeah, they release these spirits by shooting themselves in the head.
This confrontational imagery isn’t a single incident in P3 either, as every single action you take in the game’s many battles finds your team pantomiming suicide. The second edition of P3, Persona 3 FES, was released during the last week of April and on my second time through its sprawling narrative, I’ve been wondering: Is it art? Absolutely. Persona 3 FES is the perfect post-modern genre piece, twisting the conventions of the traditional Japanese role-playing game on their head to comment on an entire culture’s youth population, the very demographic that made the genre an institution in the first place. Persona 3 is about the confusion of youth and its jarring portrayal of literal identity crises is anything but exploitive.
At least, that’s what we think. What do you say, dear reader? What is Persona 3 FES to you?