History Characters / Persona2PartyMembersAndProtagonists

* ColourCodedTimeStop: When he performs Nova Kaiser[[note]]Nova Cyther prior to the PSP release[[/note]] with Apollo.

* TimeStandsStill: When he performs Nova Kaiser[[note]]Nova Cyther prior to the PSP release[[/note]] with Apollo.

* NightmareFetishist: She's a thrill-seeker. When she and the others are [[TimeStandsStill frozen in time]], her immediate reaction is that of wonderment at a new experience.

* CombatPragmatist: Lamphshaded in his scenario in ''Eternal Punishment'', where he assaults two security guards while they were talking, while commenting in his head that he's no {{Sentai}} hero to give them the time to finish. He pulls several other stunts like this, like using a guard as a meat shield or destroying the villains' submarine to stop them from escaping.

* ILoveNuclearPower: His Ultimate Persona Apollo verges heavily into this. He learns Freila and - depending on the game - either Freidyne or Heat Kaiser. In ''Eternal Punishment'', his [[SignatureMove Nova Kaiser]] also turns into a Nuclear attack.

* BadassGay: He's bisexual, and WordOfGod stated that, had given free reign, Tatsuya would be definitively with Jun.

* ButNotTooForeign: Party members Lisa (ethnically Caucasian but was born and raised in Japan) and Eriko (revealed to be quarter persumably Caucasian American via WordOfGod). Also [[ImpliedTrope implied]] with Maya who has a Western first name, purple eyes and a connection to the Maya civillization in middle America as well as the Suou brothers (both have tanned skin in the remakes as well as auburn hair).

* ClarkKenting: According to WordofGod, Eikichi's dad would throw a fit if he saw Eikichi's getup. So, Eikichi sneaks out of his house every morning, goes to a public restroom, dyes his hair blue, puts on his makeup and jewelry, and then goes to school. On the way home, he reverses the process(!), and Kankichi Michina is apparently oblivious to his son's transformations.

* GeniusBruiser: According to WordofGod, Baofu became a [[spoiler:prosecutor]] because someone he knew mentioned that the examination tests were really hard. He took the exam, and passed with flying colors -- on ''his first try''.

* ButNotTooForeign: In a similar way to [[VideoGame/{{Persona5}} Ann Takamaki]] after her, Eriko is revealed to actually be quarter American (persumably Caucasian American) via WordOfGod.

* FreakOut: Endures a string of these in a row while inside the TV studio. Then again, [[spoiler:having to deal with a Stalker armed with a Chainsaw you swore you did away with would cause that.]]

** ''Innocent Sin'' gives us a [[NinetiesAntiHero loner bad boy biker]], a [[TokenMinority white girl]] who [[ButNotTooForeign knows more Cantonese than English]], a FormerlyFat Music/XJapan reject, a vaguely-unhinged, effeminate [[CulturedBadass sophisticate]] who fights with [[ImprobableWeaponUser flowers]], and a perky IntrepidReporter with her {{Ladette}} [[CloudCuckooLandersMinder minder]]/photographer in tow.

* CloudCuckooLander: He's a serious, no-nonsense cop dedicated to his craft, but outside of his job, the man ''definitely'' has his moments.
-->'''Katsuya:''' "Can you apply the penal code to demons?"

* GoodCopBadCop: Katsuya and Baofu's Contact option.
* FairCop: Comes with being so straight-laced.
* FanservicePack: He looks like a hardassed, somewhat unattractive version of himself in ''Innocent Sin'', though since he's seen from Tatsuya's POV, this is Tatsuya's perception of him. ''Eternal Punishment'' pretties him up slightly by virtue of seeing him via Maya's POV.

* TheBigGuy: He has the highest Attack power in the group, and stands at 185cm, or 6'1", making him not only the tallest member of the party but the tallest playable character in the Persona series to date.

* DreadfulMusician: Nobody in his band can play instruments. Eikichi believes they will achieve fame through his vocals alone.

* OnlySaneMan: Compared to the [[FreudianExcuse rest]] [[StepfordSmiler of]] [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds the]] [[DysfunctionJunction cast]], his issues are pretty normal.
** His "problems" can be summarized as: ''Oh no! I used to be fat!'' '''[[TookALevelInBadass NOW I'M A BADASS!]]''' [[spoiler:Also, I'm scared of my dad not approving of my Visual Kei band.]]

-->'''Maya:''' Hm...there's something fishy going on.
-->'''Eikichi:''' It's not a lie, babes! [[WhatAnIdiot I'm not looking for the principal of Sevens, nor was I stepped on by the Joker!]]
-->'''Maya:''' [[CaptainObvious You know something about the Joker, don't you?!]]

* BlackAndGreyMorality: Baofu, like Katsuya, has honorable intentions on bringing perps to Justice. How that's achieved is quite different. Katsuya would prefer to do things by the book and let the legal system work. Baofu, however knows that the law is made and ran by humans, who can easily be bribed or manipulated, and thus thinks the right way of dealing with criminals is to beat or kill them.

* TheSnarkKnight: He'll do the job, and won't stop snarking about it.

Tatsuya eventually learns that he and the rest of his team (barring Yukino) were childhood playmates in a clique called “The Masked Circle” who made a pact to forget one another when they assumed they had allowed Maya to die in a freak accident at their favorite play area, leading him to suspect that Jun Kurosu, the last remaining member of the original Masked Circle, is the Joker. The party faces Jun—now confirmed to be the Joker—at Caracol and defeats him, whereupon Nyarlathotep, Philemon’s counterpart, reveals himself as the GreaterScopeVillain responsible for orchestrating events in Sumaru that meet the conditions of In Lak’ech, a doomsday conspiracy made retroactively true by the rumor system.

At the conclusion of the game, Tatsuya confronts Nyarlathotep in his domain, and in the ensuing struggle, Maya is killed, fulfilling the final prophecy of In Lak’ech and causing the Earth’s rotation to stop, obliterating everything on its surface. Faced with a [[{{Dystopia}} dystopian]] future, the remaining four accept an offer from Philemon to [[LaserGuidedAmnesia erase their memories of each other]] and rewind time, reversing the apocalypse in the process.

However, a run-in with his former companions at a train station in the new timeline stirs his memories, and shortly thereafter, rumors begin to come true once again. Now [[spoiler:possessed by his alternate self from the original universe]] and with his memories restored, Tatsuya begins investigating the rumors on his own, hoping to avert the crisis before his friends regain their own memories. Despite his best efforts, he repeatedly runs into Maya Amano, now the game's protagonist, who demands answers from him at every turn.

After finding himself cornered by Maya and her companions, he reveals the truth behind his regained memories. While the other members of the Masked Circle agreed to sacrifice their memories of each other in exchange for Philemon resetting time, Tatsuya himself refused, which left the Other Side partially intact and created a temporal paradox now threatening to revert the new timeline to its original, apocalyptic state. The group eventually comes face-to-face with Nyarlathotep a second time, and defeats him, after which the Other Tatsuya, in keeping with his bargain with Philemon, finally gives up his memories and separates from his new timeline counterpart, leaving him free to live his life with no recollection of the Other Side.

* NotSoStoic: See the FreakOut entry.

After many trials, it is revealed that Maya [[spoiler:once knew the four teens as children. The group played together with Maya as their babysitter, but after a freak accident caused them to think they had killed her, they vowed to never speak to each other again, repressing their memories of the incident]]. At the conclusion of the game, [[spoiler:Maya is fatally impaled by the [[TheLanceOfLonginus Spear of Longinus]], fulfilling Nyarlathotep's dark prophecy and destroying the Earth.]] Faced with a [[{{Dystopia}} dystopian]] future, the group accepts an offer from Philemon to [[LaserGuidedAmnesia erase their memories]] and rewind time, preventing the apocalypse in the process.

Though she has forgotten the events of the previous game at the start of ''Eternal Punishment'', a chance meeting with Tatsuya Suou on the way to work stirs up feelings of deja vu in Maya. The feelings of familiarity intensify after she witnesses the serial killer calling himself JOKER unleash demons inside Seven Sisters High. Tatsuya appears shortly there after and saves her life, then hands her a Sevens School Emblem and asks her to spread the rumor that it keeps the Joker away. He then warns her to forget they'd ever met and halt her investigation, and disappears into the city.

Despite the danger, Maya chooses to press on, burning the emblem and going against his warning. Along with Ulala Serizawa, Katsuya Suou, and Baofu, she delves deeper into a convoluted series of events that she eventually realizes are those that parallel what she has experienced before in an alternate reality, and all just to sate her nagging curiosity over the "Déjà Vu Boy".

Lisa stumbles into the strange occurrences in Sumaru City when she clues Tatsuya in about threats being levied at him by Kasugayama boss Eikichi Mishina, with whom she later develops a very [[VitriolicBestBuds colorful]] relationship. After she and Tatsuya confront Eikichi, the three accidentally summon [[JackassGenie the Joker]], who blames them for an unspecified “sin”. After investigating the Joker phenomenon alongside Maya Amano and Yukino Mayuzumi, Lisa unwittingly becomes a pawn in the Masked Circle’s plan to catalyze the apocalypse foretold in In Lak’ech. Record producer Ginji Sasaki (aka. Prince Taurus of the Masked Four) recruits Lisa and the other two members of her GirlPosse, Sheba and Mee-ho, to be in the idol group MUSES. At a local concert for group, Lisa, as lead vocalist, recites the Oracle of Maia, accidentally fulfilling one of the conditions specified by the prophecy. Later, once Xibalba is activated underneath Caracol, Lisa and the party encounter her Shadow at the Taurus Temple, where it divulges Lisa’s casual drug use and participation in CompensatedDating in her bid to rebel against her parents, especially her father. Lisa also takes the opportunity to confess to Tatsuya after battling her Shadow, giving the player the choice of either reciprocating or admitting feelings for another party member.

Like the others, Lisa agrees to give up her memories of her friends so that the universe can be reset to its pre-apocalyptic state, creating the ''Eternal Punishment'' timeline. In this timeline, Lisa’s relationship with her father is a more positive one, and she’s no longer infatuated with the Tatsuya of “This Side.” Aside from making a reappearance as the lead singer of MUSES, Lisa is also kidnapped alongside Eikichi and Jun, both attempts by Nyarlathotep to force her memories of the “Other Side” back into place. The latter attempt can potentially succeed, and if Lisa regains her memories, she begs the Tatsuya from the “Other Side” to take her back to his world with him.

The endgame for Lisa depends on whether or not her memories were reawakened. If not, she meets Eikichi and Jun at the Alaya Shrine for the first time; if she retains her memories, she’s seen crying on the shrine steps, and resolves to maintain her distance from Eikichi and Jun to curtail any possibility of them regaining their own memories.

A third-year high school student who was recently transferred to Kasugayama High School after he awoke to his Persona [[BullyingADragon and injured some of his school bullies]]. His affinity is with the Fortune Arcana and his starting Persona is [[BlowYouAway Hermes]]. Jun is the son of a locally-famous actress and a high school history teacher whose messy separation and divorce, coupled with his mother’s emotional abuse, led him to run away from home at the age of seventeen and, under Nyarlathotep’s directive, become the Joker, a DarkMessiah figure who seeks to instigate the apocalyptic events described in [[TomeOfEldritchLore In Lak’ech]] (penned by his own father, recording the prophetic ramblings of one of his mentally disturbed students) and specifically targets Tatsuya Suou, Lisa Silverman, and Eikichi Mishina for a nameless "sin".

It’s later revealed that the four, along with Maya Amano, were ChildhoodFriends who often played together at the Alaya Shrine, and that Nyarlathotep distorted Jun’s memories of an arson attack that took place at the shrine in the summer of 1989, leading him to believe that the others had allowed Maya to die in the fire. He’s defeated at Caracol during the former half of ''Innocent Sin'' and joins the party in Yukino’s stead once he realizes that Maya is alive and that Nyarlathotep has deceived him, becoming TheAtoner and working to undo the damage he did as the Joker.

In ''Eternal Punishment'', Jun is no longer the linchpin of Nyarlathotep's machinations, and his childhood is ''much'' better as a result. In the new timeline, his parents are alive and HappilyMarried, and he retains his father’s surname, Kashihara. He plays a role early in the game when he’s lured to the Sky Museum by King Leo, hoping to jog his memories of the Other Side, and he’s later captured and knocked unconscious by Nyarlathotep along with Lisa and Eikichi during the final battle of the game. The three finally meet in the present timeline at the Alaya Shrine during the end of the game.

* CrutchCharacter: When she first joins in ''Innocent Sin'', she sits at level 5, enabling the rest of the team to potentially use level 10 personas without leveling up. On top of that, she has a ton of health. While this evens out over the course of the game, this trope comes back into play if the player makes the right choice at Mt.Caracol, thus making her the first party member to obtain their Ultimate Persona.
* DangerouslyCloseShave: Her WeaponOfChoice is a set of razors. (It makes more sense if you've played the first game).

* NiceGirl

Ulala became controlled by [[spoiler:the Joker Persona by secretly performing the Joker Curse to Maya. She envies Maya for being a successful working woman and always catching men's eyes, a significant contrast to her seemingly dead-end life. Luckily, Ulala is later purged of JOKER by Igor in the Velvet Room, and she rejoins the party with a renewed purpose]].

Following a shootout in the Abandoned Factory in Kounan during which Baofu is able to defeat Yung Pao, it is revealed through Katsuya's background research that [[spoiler:Baofu's true identity was that of Kaoru Saga (kanji: 嵯峨 薫), a Japanese public prosecutor. Along with his assistant Miki Asai, they were both victims of a Taiwanese Mafia hit, tagged for their running investigation on the Tien Tao Len. Kaoru survived, awakening to Odysseus in the process, but Miki did not. Kaoru set out to exact revenge at the people responsible for her death, exchanging his lawful means for illegal ones]].

In ''Eternal Punishment'', Kei can develop a hidden Contact option with Baofu called "Song Of A Baseball Fan" where the pair quarrel over which baseball team is the greatest. This parallels the [[Main/BrokenBase typical debates]] in real-life Japanese baseball fandom.

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: As mentioned below; his personal growth reflects in his Arcanum choices. The Emperor is now one of his best compatibility choices when in the first game; he couldn't even use them.

* NotSoDifferent: A scene in ''Eternal Punishment'', wherein Katsuya and Baofu are forced to run through a really hot tunnel. They are both worried about their shades melting.

* NotSoDifferent: [[spoiler:The stalker claims this; viewing how she loves the protagonist while never admitting or doing anything about it (therefore admiring him in his shadow) is not much different than what he was doing to her. With the sole differences being how open he is about his ''love'' for her and the damn chainsaw he's swinging about; he's not far off.]]

* AmbiguouslyJewish: Her last name is decidedly Jewish, but given how she was raised she mostly likely doesn't identify as Jewish even if she is.

* GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak: She's an elegant young lady who loves fashion and wants to be model but she's also a huge NightmareFetishist and has short hair in ''Eternal Punishment''.

* Theme Song Reveal: His theme sounds a lot like a calmer version of Joker's theme. As we find out later [[spoiler:this is not a coincidence as they are actually the same person.]]

* WoundedGazelleGambit: His default mode in battle is to act weak to surprise his enemies of how capable of fighting he is. Jun is so used to being underestimated.

* BiTheWay: If his choices of being his love interests being two girls and a guy and his ultimate Persona Apollo being bisexual in lore in any indication. An optional sidequest outright confirmes it.

* BettyAndVeronica: In ''Innocent Sin'', he's the Archie to Lisa's Betty and Jun's Veronica (the former is the preppy and popular Queen Bee of Seven Sisters High while the latter is an elegant and sophisticated loner as well as TheAtoner) though in ''Eternal Punishment'', he’s optionally the gender-inverted Veronica to Maya’s Archie, with [[SiblingTriangle his older brother Katsuya]] as the Betty.

* FailureKnight: To all of his friends. [[spoiler:While this certainly applies to him in the first game, this is even truer of him in the second. Unlike his friends, he's unable to uphold his promise to give up his memories of them to save the world, committing the first game's titular innocent sin and forcing him to bear the burden of the second game's titular eternal punishment--alone with his memories of the Other Side, and responsible for a loophole Nyarlathotep intends to exploit to bring about the apocalypse a second time, he's forced to fight the Crawling Chaos on his own. And even though he does end up reconnecting with Maya and most of his other friends, defeating Nyarlathotep alongside the Eternal Punishment gang once and for all, he still returns to his empty own universe without them at the end of the game.]]

* LoveHurts: Tatsuya spent much of his life avoiding bonding with anyone, and when he finally did, [[spoiler:his friends were ripped away from him]]. This is inverted in ''Eternal Punishment'': [[spoiler:Maya has the option of insisting on following the "Other Side" Tatsuya back to his world. Tatsuya simply returns her kiss, then knocks her unconscious (implying that the kiss was more of "goodbye gift" then returning her love), telling her friends to look after her. Afterward, Maya is forced to look on at the Suou family from afar.]]

* {{Tomboy}}: Which she tries to play it down in Fujii's presence to show more of the girly side to her being a TomboyWithGirlyStreak.

* {{Tomboy}}: She tries to play it down in Fujii's presence. Aww.

* NightmareFetishist: Considering how his [[spoiler:Alter Ego Joker takes after a MonsterClown]], his interest in mythology and horror as well as his association with the supernatural all of which he also had as a child it's save to asuume him being one.

* NightmareFetishist: [[ImpliedTrope Implied]] considering his [[spoiler:Alter Ego Joker takes after a MonsterClown]], his interest in mythology and horror as well as his association with the supernatural all of which he also had as a child.

* AgentPeacock: Hoo boy, he's the only outright gay party member, rather short at 5'7 (169 cm), a very beautiful BadassBookworm and he fights with [[ImprobableWeaponUser "flowers"]] of all things but he's just as deadly as his friends if not more so.

* AttractiveBentGender: His official profile states that [[{{Crossdresser}} crossdressing]] is one of his talents, to the point where he looks better in a dress than most girls. His group negotiation contact with Lisa even involves her tackling him and putting makeup on him...and then moping over how much prettier than her he is.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Jun is a soft-spoken, compassionate young man with a brilliant mind, but was shipped off to Kasugayama, a reform school. Why? His newly-awakened Persona ''mauled some of his bullies''. Mock him for his love of daisies and you might find yourself pushing them up.

* HouseHusband: Somewhat unsurprisingly, he's got the chops to be one; according to the guidebook he can cook and clean quite well (and enjoys it), no doubt as a consequence of picking up after his mother for years.

* WoundedGazelleGambit: His default mode in battle. Jun is so used to being underestimated.