Persona Creator Sums Up the Series in One Word and Explains What an Ideal RPG Should Be

The developers of Persona 3, 4 and 5 spoke at a festival about what defines the identity of the series.

During a panel on September 22 at The Tenth Mosaic festival, Katsura Hashino, character designer Shigenori Soejima and composer Shoji Meguro discussed what makes the series distinctive.

Hashino explained that Persona reflects adolescence, with all its contradictory emotions, changes, mistakes and failures. Instead of reducing everything to a single concept, the games combine many elements that create a kind of chaos.

Soejima added that the setting and story of each entry change with the times, which helps the series stay relevant to a modern audience. Meguro said he does not deliberately try to create music in a “Persona style.” Instead, he discusses the themes of each specific game with Hashino and adapts the soundtrack to them.

Speaking about the ideal RPG, Hashino said a game should leave a mark on a person’s life instead of being a fleeting diversion that a movie or TV series could easily replace. In his view, the experience should stay with the player after the ending and help them move forward. The director acknowledged that the team has not yet reached this ideal and intends to keep searching for it.