History VideoGame / Persona3

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[[folder:Tropes A & B]]
* EleventhHourSuperpower: The protagonist will obtain the [[spoiler:Universe Arcana and use the "Great Seal" to end the TrueFinalBoss.]]
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The game originally came out in 2006, and takes place just 3 years later in 2009. Any futuristic tech has to do with Shadows, mainly the humanoid robot Anti-Shadow weapons.
* AbortedArc:
** Early in the game, the possibility of being able to summon a Persona without an Evoker is briefly brought up, as if the game was trying to set up some kind of future plot point. However, this is never mentioned again, even though Takaya summons his without one.
** Shortly before the introduction of Strega, the player learns of a "revenge request" website and the group are later shown abusing their powers as Persona users to attack their targets during the Dark Hour. By the time Strega and SEES come into conflict with one another, this idea has been dropped in favor of Strega being a death seeking doomsday cult, and the website is never mentioned again.
** If you go for [[spoiler:the "kill Ryoji" ending, the purpose and significance of Tartarus is left unexplained. If you spare him and unlock the true ending, he'll explain the truth about Tartarus in the very next scene.]]
* AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil: Downplayed - it's not the Student Council that's absurdly powerful, it's Mitsuru, the Student Council President and heiress to the organisation that owns the school in the first place.
* AccentAdaptation: Easy to miss, since it's only in one or two easily-missable, non-voice acted dialogues, but during the Kyoto school trip, the [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseDialects Kansai accent]] is depicted as [[UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents American Southern]] in the English version. Funnily enough, the same accent would be adapted as a North Jersey/Bronx accent years later in ''Persona 4 Arena''.
* AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle:
** From the opening theme "Burn My Dread", "My [=GHOstly shaDOW=]..."
** Many of Fuuka's support quotes.
* AccidentalPervert:
** Occurs during the July Full Moon operation at Shirakawa Boulevard, after the party is separated. On the Male Protagonist route, [[spoiler:a mind controlled Yukari exits the shower with a ModestyTowel and slaps him when she regains control of her faculties]].
** Can happen a second time during the hot springs incident in Kyoto - [[spoiler:Junpei, Ryoji, Akihiko and (potentially) the Male Protagonist are still in the hot springs when they change over from men to women, and subsequently when Yukari, Fuuka, Aigis, Mitsuru and (potentially) the Female Protagonist arrive. If the girls catch the guys, Mitsuru will execute them on the spot - though how much the trope applies to Ryoji and Junpei is debatable, as the two had been openly discussing this very situation happening beforehand]].
* AchievementSystem: The remastered port of ''Portable'' is the only version of ''Persona 3'' with this. Much of it is copied from ''VideoGame/Persona4 Golden'' outside of the story-related ones, one related to rescue favors, and one for completing both main character routes, [[spoiler:as well as making defeating the Velvet Room attendants mandatory for 100% completion]].
* ActorAllusion: In the English translation of ''Portable''.
** One of Ken's Social Links mentions a manga about an alien who takes different forms to save the day; Creator/YuriLowenthal voices both the Male Protagonist and the title character in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'', which premiered between the release of ''FES'' and ''Portable''.
** Some of the responses on the Female Protagonist's dates are allusions to lines given to [[VideoGame/Persona4 Rise]], another ''Persona'' character voiced by Creator/LauraBailey.
--->'''Rio''': What do girls do on group dates?\\
'''[=FeMC=]''': KING'S GAME!
* AdaptationDeviation: Every UpdatedRerelease features a revamped set of Elizabeth's Requests. No two versions have the exact same table of quest content or rewards.
* AdaptationDistillation: In order to compensate for the PSP having weaker hardware than the [=PS2=], some changes were made to the game's presentation style. Cutscenes are no longer rendered in full 3D, but instead use VisualNovel-style static backgrounds and portraits, with non-verbal animations instead being described in narration, and exploring the city has similarly been changed from fully-3D environments to 2D point-and-click maps. Other than that, the core game is mostly the same.
* AdvertisedExtra: Thanatos features pretty heavily into promotional art and the opening - he's even in the picture at the top of the page. That said, he only has 2 mandatory appearances in the game, when the Protagonist summons their persona for the first time and when [[spoiler:Ryoji tries to convince the Protagonist to kill him, after first refusing to do so]]. Additionally, Thanatos can't be fused until relatively close to the end of the game, after the Death social link completes, and you can easily skip summoning him - particularly since he requires a sacrifice of 5-6 other personas depending on the version you are playing. On top of that, Thanatos only requires the player reach level 64 to fuse him, so he's outclassed by several other late game Personas - with Orpheus Telos (in ''FES'' and ''Portable'') and Messiah being much straighter examples for [[LastDiscMagic the Protagonist's ultimate Persona]].
* AIRoulette:
** This is the ''only'' reason [[OptionalBoss The Reaper]] can be killed without resorting to Armageddon. The key to surviving this fight is that it likes to waste turns using element Break spells and then refuse to exploit the new weakness. The hardest part of the fight is actually the end - once the Reaper is almost dead, the roulette shuts off and its AI goes to "NukeEm" mode.
** If your allies are left on "Act Freely", this can be applied to your Party Members. Granted, they will listen to what Fuuka has to say once she finishes her EnemyScan, but that won't stop Mitsuru from using [[UselessUsefulSpell Marin Karin]] at the worst possible time. You'd best make use of tactics like "Full Assault", "Same Target", "Knock Down", or "Heal/Support" to railroad your party's decisions and avert this trope as much as you can.
** The game actually gives quite a bit of ArtificialBrilliance to the AI. God help you if you're ambushed by an enemy and are equipped with a persona weak to their attack: they ''will'' hit you with it, and once you're knocked down, they'll hit you again, and then the all-too-familiar game over screen loads. Your enemies (and your allies, prior to a scan) will almost always start with some version of "inflict damage on all enemies" in the hope of knocking everyone down, and, if that fails, the next member will zero in on the one who's weakest. Since this goes for enemies as well as your party members, there ''will'' be at least one battle in which you never make it to your first turn and simply watch the enemy use your tactics against you. There's also [[invoked]] ThatOneBoss on 135 -- Natural Dancer, who will learn that since you're willing to eat the damage of a reflected physical attack in order to break their barrier, it's best to charm you into inaction and pound you with consecutive pierce attacks if you've made yourself immune to wind. (They also tend to stop casting the UselessUsefulSpell if you don't die from it.) On the other hand, some fights simply come down to AI Roulette: if the Hierophant boss chooses and inflicts "Prophecy of Ruin" at the start, you may as well reset. Generally, the AI shows signs of brilliance and waits for you to reveal a vulnerability, but if it chooses to attack, it will notice if one attack is more effective than another. If three out of four are vulnerable, it will take out the three before turning to physical attacks on the player character... ''damnit.''
* AllInARow: Your party members will follow you everywhere in dungeons -- or can be ordered to split up and search the area. They can even enter battles on their own, which you're then able to join to provide support. Generally, they line up nicely behind you, but if you hit a dead-end and suddenly reverse, you'll wind up hitting them with your weapon multiple times until you're leading the pack again.
* AllTherapistsAreMuggles: The cast frequently go into a twisted, bloody version of their school where they are in danger of being killed by ''their repressed feelings'' and fight monsters by shooting themselves in the head with guns that fire ''psychological trauma''. But since no therapist would believe them about the Dark Hour, they're on their own.
* AllThereInTheManual:
** A literal example that makes a crucial plot point make much more sense: according to the manual, the protagonist grew up in Port Island, which is never mentioned anywhere in game, and his arrival on the train in the opening is him returning. [[spoiler:This explains why he's on the Moonlight Bridge ten years before the events of the game.]]
** Want to know [[spoiler:where Nyx comes from]], the Shadows, how Mitsuru's motorcycle and the Evokers work? All of that's found in the ''Persona 3'' fanbooks.
* AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield: The fifth Block of Tartarus where the floors are made up multi-colored tiles despite the near-dark atmosphere.
* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore:
** In an inversion, the American box art features whited-out silhouettes of the Protagonist, Junpei and Yukari over a blue and grey backdrop; The Japanese box art depicts the Protagonist summoning Thanatos, whilst the European box art for ''Persona 3'' features portraits of the Protagonist, Junpei, Mitsuru and Akihiko flanked by a pair of tarot cards with Tartarus ominously in the background, over a black backdrop.
** Zig-zagged with the release of ''Persona 3 FES'' - The Japan exclusive Append Edition features the Protagonist surrounded by a number of his school friends and Koromaru, whilst the American box art recycles the moodier design used on the original release but replacing the three silhouettes with one of Aigis. Comparatively, the Japanese box art for the full release of ''FES'' features S.E.E.S lined up on one side of the box, facing off with their respective Personas on the opposite side.
* AmnesiacDissonance: [[spoiler:Ryoji Mochizuki, AKA Pharos]] remembers that he's the one who's supposed to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt - something he ''really'' doesn't want to do.
* AncientGrome: The majority of the party boasts Greek figures as their Personas, such as Hermes (Junpei) and Cerberus (Koromaru), with Fuuka's Persona Lucia, a Christian saint, being the exception. Two examples of this trope are used for Fuuka's [[spoiler:Ultimate]] Persona, Juno, who is based off of the ''Roman'' equivalent of Hera, and Akihiko's [[spoiler:Ultimate]] Persona Caesar (he doesn't reference ''any'' Caesar in particular, but the motif seems to pick up from UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar.) The other [[spoiler:Ultimate]] Personas take from completely different mythologies altogether, with Mitsuru's being based off of a real life ruler of a region in what was formally known as Asia Minor (a region that makes up most of modern day Turkey).
* AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle: [[ShowWithinAShow Phoenix Ranger Featherman R]] delivers such messages on Apathy Syndrome.
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Gotten from some Quests and rare chests. Certain outfits can be bought from the police station at ridiculous prices. Some of the outfits actually have practical bonuses, though many are simply goofy and only useful for aesthetic purposes.
* AnimationBump: The All-Out-Attack animation in ''Portable'' is updated in the aesthetics and cut-ins similar to ''Persona 4''[='=]s.
* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
** In general:
*** Shadows' presence (bar the Reaper) depends on draw distance, so if the player is just focused on finding items/teleporters/stairs (or randomly gets the split party floor modifier in ''Portable''; this draw distance rule does not apply if the player set their teammates to prioritize defeating Shadows), the player can just park their character somewhere without any Shadow nearby and wait until the job is done.
*** The Reaper will not enter any room with stairs, so parking the party in there for a brief break is the safest point to do so outside battles (contrary to popular belief, the Reaper countdown keeps going even when the menu is opened, it just prevents its movement upon spawning).
*** Certain non-automatic S. Links do not require having a Persona with matching Arcana in stock, mostly due to the limited schedule (Sun in both routes which can only be done on Sundays, Moon and Fortune in the female route[[note]]The former is only available for a month while the latter is unique that it is tied to the story flow but still requires some manual interaction on certain ranks.[[/note]], Aeon (also both routes) which opens on the very last month before the epilogue[[note]]Though it can still have one holdover visit due to the final rank requiring points, but as the month comes to an end the S. Link's availability schedule becomes more frequent.[[/note]]). The Devil S. Link (in both routes) will also always rank up every visit regardless of the player having a Devil Persona or not.
*** If you realize that a Full Moon Operation is looming but you've neglected to train up your party, visiting Tartarus the night before keeps you from getting Tired, allowing you to grind and fuse to your heart's content in perparation for the boss. If you or your party ''were'' Tired and weren't getting better any time soon, everyone's Condition will be reset to Good for the boss fight so that you won't have to fret about fighting on a handicap.
** The original version of ''Persona 3'' had a few questionable and highly annoying features that were removed in ''FES'' and ''[=P3P=]'', largely because they just weren't logical to begin with and served only to hamper the player.
*** The Requests are changed between versions, some for the better. ''FES'' notably removed the Shadow Shard and Shadow Crystal requests from the original, probably due to how exceedingly rare the items are even with the knowledge of which floors to search (unlike with the weapons, there is no other way to get them and they cannot be brought over to a NewGamePlus), which can lower replayability for those that like to complete all the requests. ''Portable'', meanwhile, allows the player to attempt the {{superboss}} without the need of NewGamePlus, so a player can theoretically complete all requests in a single run.
*** In the [=PS2=] versions, the weapon shop would only be open in the afternoon, not the evenings, so when you went to the mall in the evenings (the only location you could go to in the evenings, in fact!) it would sit there, closed, taunting you. ''Portable'' allows the weapon shop to stay open at all times of the day.
*** Viewing the Sunday television shopping program would eat up precious time you could be spending on a Social Link. Changed in ''FES'' and ''Portable'', where watching the show doesn't take up any time.
*** The "tired" mechanic was revised in ''[=P3P=]'' so that you only get tired the next day rather than in the middle of the dungeon. And if you needed to be in better condition right afterwards, you can use "Yawn-B-Gone" to cure the Tired state immediately. In ''Reload,'' much like in ''Persona 4'' and ''Persona 5,'' the Tired mechanic is removed completely.
*** In ''Portable'' and ''Reload,'' you can now assign individual commands to all of your party members, like in ''Persona 4'', whereas before, you could only assign tactics to each party member, leaving you at the whims of an occasionally unreliable A.I.
*** In the [=PS2=] versions, you can only change the protagonist's equipment and can only use the protagonist's skills through the menu - if you want to change other character's equipment or have them use healing skills, you have to speak to them out of battle (and sometimes other characters will even change their equipment on their own, though they always warn the player if they do). This has a side effect of character's equipment not being changeable outside of Tartarus/Full Moon nights. In ''Portable'' and ''Reload,'' other character's equipment is now changeable from the menu, and the player can also use other character's healing skills from the menu.
*** In the [=PS2=] versions, the cursor for the Fusion Select screen will ''always'' return to the top after you select a Persona. This is later fixed in ''Portable'' as the cursor remains to the current selection, saving the player a lot of time in fusing the recent Personas in the bottom of the list. Even moreso when the Personas are purchased from the Compendium as the previously-bought ones are at the bottom.
*** Just like in Persona 4, ''Portable'' allows you to immediately teleport through the highest unlocked floor in Tartarus if you walk through the door in the stairs of the entrance.
*** ''Portable'' adds a save point at the player's desk, so if they remember to save, they can reload the game to that afternoon if they make a mistake with their afternoon Social Links.
*** Unique to this version only is the bonus relationship point multiplier once the main character has max Charm. And yes, this stacks with multiplier from having a matching Persona Arcana in stock. In an entry that is stingy with time management, this is a life saver for a 100% max ranked S. Link run.
*** Teammates' portraits on the lower right part of the screen will darken if they are considered out of range, so the player can tell if they will join a battle or not and if they can be healed outside battles via the Skill menu.
*** Unlocking the BrutalBonusLevel for the first time no longer requires reaching the (most possible to explore) top of Tartarus. The player simply has to clear the Bloody Button request (which is an additional requirement in ''FES'').
*** ''Portable'' no longer has neglect and jealousy penalties for Social Links (despite "jealousy" warnings still displayed on the male route). Related to this, one overlooked aspect in the male route is the fact that few of his Social Links have been reworked to remove the pitfall answers (Yukari's particularly has a different set of responses in her infamous Rank 5), though Chihiro remains the only Social Link that can be potentially ruined from a wrong answer.
*** And if you think ''Portable''[='=]s [=AFFs=] make the game too easy...don't worry. [[HarderThanHard Maniac]] difficulty is there to challenge you once again.
** The remastered port of ''Portable'':
*** It outright copy-pasted the customizable difficulty settings from ''VideoGame/Persona4 Golden'' (except money modifier), meaning the player, if they wanted to, can retry on the last floor they got defeated on or outright continue after a game over. Because of this, however, Plumes of Dusk are no longer applicable -- even the difficulty selection omits the number of times the player can get right back up upon defeat on the lower difficulties.
*** The game also comes with a SuspendSave function, so the player can take a break mid-dungeon at any time without using the clock.
*** Another minor but convenient addition is the message log function akin to the later games, so players no longer need to worry about forgetting a given context prior to a dialogue option from skipping the dialogue quickly.
* AntiGrinding:
** As a way to limit your [[LevelGrinding grinding]], your characters will eventually grow tired within Tartarus as you keep winning battles, thus their aim will worsen and they will get hit more often. This is a good point to call it a night, but for the persistent, characters will eventually go from "Tired" to "Sick", at which point not only will they have a higher chance of eating a CriticalHit, any healing cast on them is less effective. As soon as you return to the entrance, any tired characters leave automatically. However, the day right before a Full Moon Boss, as a way to stop the game from potentially becoming {{Unwinnable}}, this feature is removed, allowing you to train all you want. [[spoiler:Well, excepting November]]. It was slightly changed in ''Persona 3 Portable'': Characters will mention being tired between battles, and [[MissionControl Fuuka or Mitsuru]] will comment about how you must be getting tired, but the actual 'Tired' status won't kick in until the next day.
** The stronger your party members become, the less EXP they will receive, and lower-leveled enemies will simply run in terror if you attempt to get near them if your party is over-leveled.
* AnyoneCanDie: Being that the game's theme is death, a ''lot'' of characters bite it over the course of the game. [[spoiler:Shinjiro Aragaki, Shuji Ikutsuki, Takeharu Kirijo, Chidori Yoshino, Jin Shirato, Ryoji Mochizuki, and the protagonist all die by the end, Akinari Kamiki dies if you finish his Social Link, and it's also heavily implied Takaya Sakaki dies off-screen]]. If the correct things are done in ''FES'' and ''Portable'', [[spoiler:Chidori will come back to life (although the canonicity of this is ambiguous) and it's possible to save Shinji in [=P3P=] when playing as the female character.]]
* ApatheticCitizens: Ironically, the citizens in the game act this way toward Apathy Syndrome victims. People with Apathy Syndrome can't talk or move, so if they're stuck outside, they can easily become dehydrated or get heat stroke. However, other than occasionally commenting on them being creepy the general population doesn't seem to even notice AS victims are there, much less make any sort of attempt to get the AS sufferers off the streets and into some sort of care facility or really do anything about them. As a result almost every single area in the game is filled with Apathy Syndrome victims by the full moon, which only gets worse as the game goes on.
* ApocalypseCult: Toward the end, [[spoiler:a doomsday cult heralding the appearance of Nyx to bring death to the world]] appears. Though it only exists behind the scenes, it is led by none other than [[spoiler:Takaya and Jin of the Strega.]]
* ApocalypticLog:
** The Documents found at the Tartarus barriers, in which an initially unknown writer describes the circumstances that created Tartarus. (It turns out to be the [[spoiler:antique shop owner]])
** The video log left by Yukari's father is a more explicit version, although [[spoiler:it was doctored and edited to manipulate [=SEES=]' motivations for slaying Shadows. Fuuka recovers the real thing later on]].
* ArbitraryGunPower:
** Aigis uses her gattling fingers, hand cannon, or a rifle in battle, at which the said weapon types will deal almost equivalent amounts of damage as the melee weapons, gloves, or swords at the same level.
** For plot-related purposes, [[spoiler:Takaya's revolver is enough to send Shinjiro and Junpei at death's door. Yet during his actual boss fight, the revolver will only take a little amount of your HP]].
* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: You can only have up to 4 members in your party including the protagonist. However, the game justifies this by having the party be an exploration team. That way, if the entire team bites it, SEES won't be wiped out (...Well, [[spoiler:the world will end if the protagonist is killed, so they won't really get a chance to ''use'' the backup. But it's a nice thought]]). During the FinalBattle, when all of SEES is present at the Boss Arena, the limit is enforced when [[MissionControl Fuuka]] detects a large number of Shadows climbing up towards them. Mitsuru commands the rest of the party to HoldTheLine against these Shadows and defend the main group while your group fights the final enemy.
* ArbitrarySkepticism: Despite wielding their inner psyches to fight their own repressed feelings in a magical dungeon, none of the party genuinely believes in the idea of ghosts pervading the school. In the end, though, the group is completely right.
* ArcWords:
** "Memento Mori", a Latin phrase basically meaning that everyone will eventually die, and that you should make the most of your time on Earth before this happens. [[spoiler:This is reflected with the numerous deaths in the game, either in the backstory of characters or during the game's plot. The protagonist dies at the end, but both he and Aigis seem to have accepted it and he passes on with a calm smile]].
** And the arc words for the entire Persona series: "I am thou... thou art I."
** Starting with this entry, the phrase "Take responsibility for your actions" begins taking prevalence with the main characters as part of the contract with the Velvet Room.
* ArmorIsUseless: Armor is best used for its additional effects (like stat bonuses) than its defense because your Persona's endurance stats and elemental resistances play a much larger role.
* ArrangeMode: Playing as the female protagonist in ''Portable'' results in a markedly different experience from playing as the male protagonist, who is the only option in the other versions. Key differences include:
** Re-assigning Social Links to different characters, most notably having one for each of your teammates, unlike with the male protagonist who doesn't have any Social Links with male teammates.
** Allowing the player to romance multiple characters at once but without the jealousy mechanic, much like in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}''. For those who prefer to have a single partner, you even get the choice to maintain a platonic relationship.
** A different set of weapons; while the male protagonist uses one-handed swords, the female protagonist uses naginatas.
** Allowing [[spoiler:Shinjiro's life to be spared]] on October 4 by having their Social Link maxed out, with this character being one of the aforementioned female-exclusive Social Links. However, [[spoiler:since Shinjiro being alive and conscious would drastically change the plot of the game onwards, he's instead placed in a coma, waking up only on the last day of the game]].
** Recoloring the user interface to use pinks rather than blues.
** Different town exploration and random battle themes.
** Differences in cutscenes and dialogue, although the overall plot remains the same.
* AscendedExtra: Although being an AdvertisedExtra in the game proper, Thanatos has a somewhat bigger role in the manga and tetralogy films. In the manga, he shows up and brutally slaughters the Hanged Man Shadow, while in the films, [[spoiler:he appears and personally battles the Nyx Avatar]].
* TheArtifact:
** In the original release, the main character could equip any kind of weapon, and your teammates would give you tips on the advantages and disadvantages of each. In ''Portable'', the main character can only equip [[HeroesPreferSwords swords]] or [[NaginatasAreFeminine naginata]], but the advice on differing weapon types remains.
** Other changes to the weapon system also induces this on the Nihil equipment where ones based on the main characters' weapons are given the Void label instead in ''Portable'', yet the Nihil Sword remains (with the same description text at that) instead of being renamed Nihil Rapier despite it clearly corresponding to said weapon type in this version.
** S. Link flavor text often gauges how well the main character behaves toward the correponding person and warns of jealousy risks if the male MC has romanced at least one girl. Both of these are still mentioned in ''Portable'', where neglect countdown and jealousy penalty no longer apply.
* ArtifactTitle: The Xbox and [=PlayStation=] 4 releases keep the ''Portable'' subtitle, despite not being on the [=PlayStation=] Portable, or a portable system in general. Zig-Zagged in the Nintendo Switch's case, due to its nature of being a hybrid console, and the PC, due to the ability to play on portable devices like laptops or handheld [=PCs=] like the Steam Deck. The port gives a nod to this by having the save/load screen a recreation of the Platform/PlayStationPortable one.
* ArtificialBrilliance: The friendly [=AI=] will learn which special attacks do and do not work on enemies and change their tactics accordingly. They can also be programmed to follow certain tactics, such as focusing on an enemy's weakness to make All-Out attacks much easier to set up.
* ArtificialStupidity:
** That said, there's still a few issues with your allies' AI. ''Persona 4'' and ''Persona 3 Portable'' added the ability to take take direct control over allies, eliminating this problem.
*** Whoever is in charge of healing will usually wait until someone has lost at least 20 to 30 percent of their hit points before healing them rather than keeping everyone at perfect health all the time. This may or may not be ArtificialBrilliance, however, as blowing 20-40 SP to restore 70 HP out of 400+ is inefficient.
*** If a character is set to "Act Freely" they will always choose to heal critically damaged units rather than attack... even if the enemy has 1 HP left, your entire party may decide to ignore it in order to do some minor healing.
*** Another common issue is one where an offensive ally whose turn comes before the healer uses his turn healing or providing a support item to an ally... immediately before the healer's turn, wasting an attack turn. Full Assault will stop your offensive leaders from healing, but the trade-off is that they have a tendency to knock down one of two identical enemies and rather than knock down the other, they'll hit the "down" one again, restoring its ability to attack. The Knock Down tactic will stop them from handing the enemy an advantage, keeping them knocked down.
*** There's Mitsuru's obsession with {{Useless Useful Spell}}s, though this tends to show up most when the enemy either blocks or shows no particular weakness to ice. Even if it has no critical weakness, she'll still try Marin Karin over an ice attack, while everyone else is using a high-level elemental spell to inflict damage.
*** If you designate ''anyone'' as Heal/Support while the party is in good health, results are mixed: characters with status buffs and debuffs will tend to cast them (Koromaru and Akihiko take the hint quite well), while characters without those skills will waste a significant number of spirit points casting an elemental break spell. This goes up to eleven when they cast the break spell on an enemy that's already had its HP shredded and will be killed immediately after their turn. Mitsuru and Yukari are particularly problematic in this regard.
*** Despite having "seen" the effects of certain spells on enemies, your allies will never exploit weaknesses or avoid strengths unless an enemy is scanned. And even after an enemy is scanned, they may perform an attack that damages one enemy even if it heals others.
*** In the battle with [[spoiler:Nyx Avatar]], she will cast a reflect spell that will instantly kill any party member that uses non-elemental attacks. [[LampshadeHanging Fuuka herself recommends ordering the party to halt]].
*** Perhaps as a downside to the addition of Direct Commands (or from reusing the Tactics list from ''VideoGame/Persona4''), the AI in ''Portable'' is ''worse''. It is not enough that Knock Down, Same Target, etc. are removed in this version (at least Stand By's removal is justified due to the Defense command replacing Wait), but the issues already mentioned above become more prominent, though players are too busy using Direct Commands to notice.
*** When walking around Tartarus, your party members often have poor pathfinding and will sometimes get stuck on walls and corners. Since your party members won't show up in battle if you're too far away from them, this can screw you over in fights if you don't realize it in time and go back and lead them out. For more fun, set their priority to "Defeat Shadows" and watch as they gang up on a single Shadow only to have one or two of them be stuck running behind the combatant that initiated it (somehow no one is smart enough to make a few turns), or have them stuck running into a wall just because a Shadow is nearby but is beyond said wall, which is funny when it actually takes a good distance away to get to that Shadow but is aggravating when it is at a corridor just next to the room they are stuck in ''with a clear open path directly to it''.
** Non-party member-wise, certain foes suffer from this either due to programming oversight:
*** Takaya's second encounter is supposed to have two phases, with the latter phase having him stop holding back and start using [[OneHitKill Mahamaon and Mamudoon]]. Due to a programming error, he is stuck in the first phase the whole fight.
*** Jin's second encounter has a massive skill list [[DevelopersForesight to take account of]] every possible affinity weakness in the player's party. However, his AI goes through them as if in a fixed order, meaning he prioritizes Slash weakness first and Dark weakness last. As long as a party member with an affinity weakness high up in the list remains standing, Jin will always keep exploiting that same weakness.
*** For a regular encounter example, all Divine Mothers have a chance to cast Ghastly Wail should at least one party member with the [[StatusEffects Fear status]] is present. However, no encounter involving this enemy can cause the Fear status on the party, so unless the player intentionally induces it via items, this deadly strategy is never used.
*** In ''The Answer'', [[spoiler:???]] is supposed to be able to cast the stat-debuffing skills [[spoiler:when copying Caesar]] but the condition was mistakenly defined to require the corresponding debuff on the party ''be'' active instead of ''not'' active, making this scenario impossible.
* ArtShift:
** A series-wide example. This is not only the first ''Persona'' game where Shigenori Soejima designed the characters and setting, but it's also his first doing this job for any of the ''Shin Megami Tensei'' spinoff games, as SMT's main artist, Kazuma Kaneko, provided the art for the [[VideoGame/{{Persona 1}} first]] [[VideoGame/{{Persona 2}} three]] games. Soejima ''did'' work on earlier projects, but mainly as a debugger, and he illustrated the in-game character portraits for the ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}'' duology. The end result is a switch from the harsher, slightly surrealist aesthetic that permeates ''Persona's'' parent series and other spinoffs into something that's softer and more [[{{Animesque}} anime-like]] with a reliance on either flat or blurry colors to portray a certain mood.
** The additional character portraits included in ''Portable'' are drawn in the noticeably smoother style of the portraits in ''VideoGame/Persona4'', rather than the more sketch-based portraits included in the original ''Persona 3''.
* AscendedExtra:
** A variation in the ''Portable'' re-release, in that the female protagonist has Social Links with every member of SEES along with the plot-important Ryoji Mochizuki, whereas the male protagonist only has links with SEES' female members (and Aigis isn't even one of them in the original release of the game). As a result, CharacterDevelopment for the guys is mostly seen or influenced by other characters, [[spoiler:with Shinjiro in particular bordering on a SatelliteCharacter because he's only in your party for one in-game month before getting KilledOffForReal.]]
** The additional "date" requests also lets the player see more of Elizabeth in the FES re-release.
* AsleepInClass: The player is given the option to fall asleep in class. Doing so will improve condition, thereby letting the protagonist fight better in Tartarus, but in exchange the player misses out on the potential Academics boost. After maxing out Academics, the player can sleep ''all the time'', giving a near-constant "Great" status.
* AsLongAsThereIsEvil: [[spoiler:Erebus]] is the embodiment of the despair and hatred in the collective unconscious of humanity, meaning it can never be truly killed until humanity itself is enlightened (something one of the heroes eventually sets out to accomplish).
* AstralCheckerboardDecor: Tartarus has a lot of this going on in the early blocks, which are patterned after the school environment.
* AsYouKnow: Ikutsuki gives his early explanations about Shadows and the Dark Hour while conversing with everyone who is in SEES at that point, even saying the trope name word for word. Obviously, this is purely for the audience's benefit.
* AutobotsRockOut: As Creator/ShojiMeguro composed the game, it should be no surprise.
** The Tartarus Guardians have the rocking "Master of Tartarus" accompany each of their battles. In the PSP rerelease, the female protagonist receives the much more heavy "Danger Zone" (an instrumental remix of "Soul Phrase") for these battles.
** Right as the protagonist awakens to his Persona, the fast-paced guitar track "Unavoidable Battle" briefly plays before Thanatos wrecks the Magician Shadow. [[spoiler:It reappears as the theme for battles against Strega]].
** The [[spoiler:Velvet Room theme]] gets an epic rock remix for the final boss, "[[spoiler:The Battle for Everyone's Souls aka Battle Hymn of The Soul]]".
* AwesomeButImpractical:
** Be wary of elemental magic spells described as inflicting "severe" damage. Although they do more damage than -dyne spells, it's only by about 30%, and despite being single-target spells they tend to cost more SP than the all-targeting Ma-dyne spells, making them woefully inefficient for normal purposes.
** Behold the Thanatos persona, your reward for tolerating the creepy child that keeps appearing in your room at midnight. The Persona that embodies the theme of the whole game, the one that's on the cover art. And then come down from that high as you realize the consequences of fusing the ultimate Death Persona from the other six Death personas in the game. Mudo spells up the wazoo, they'll fill the slots constantly on every setup, and will completely shunt out any more useful spells you could fill them with. Even in spite of this, he comes with a set of very generous skills, but has stats too low to make good use of them the way higher personas will later.
** The remastered port of ''Portable'' enables the infinite revival setting. The player may turn it on and try to fight something super strong like the Reaper early. While the Reaper fight can be done on a fresh save as early as the first block (and, in fact, the corresponding achievement can be obtained early this way), considering the stats, have fun doing this for ''hours per attempt''. The level-ups are not worth either, only reaching at most the 20s with a party of three and on Beginner difficulty (or at least with EXP set to More).
* AwfulTruth:
** Considering that a lot of characters connected to S.E.E.S. dies before and during the plot, the reaction of your party members on the deaths of [[spoiler:Shinjiro, Chidori, Mitsuru's father, and the protagonist]] depict near-realistic symptoms of shock and trauma from losing a loved one such as not being able to start conversations or finding the right words to say (in [[spoiler:Junpei]]'s case) or locking oneself in isolation for weeks (in [[spoiler:Mitsuru]]'s case).
** [[spoiler:Erebus can never be truly killed as long as there is at least one person who holds a desire for death.]]
* BadMoonRising:
** Shadow activity outside Tartarus is connected to the waxing and waning of the Moon; specifically, the most plot-relevant enemy Shadows appear on nights with full moons. Also, certain Persona attacks are more effective on New and Full Moons. And after the battle with [[spoiler:Nyx Avatar]], the Moon itself [[spoiler:opens up to reveal that, in the Dark Hour at least, [[ThatsNoMoon the Moon IS Nyx]]]].
** The names of several locations and characters also include [[{{Motifs}} references to the moon or moonlight]]. This never means anything good.
* BagOfSpilling: You know all those [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity+1 Swords]], rare armors, and useful artifacts you picked up during The Journey? All gone in The Answer. Along with character levels being reset to 25 at lowest. Lampshaded by Ken and Akihiko, who liken it to studying for a test and forgetting everything immediately afterward.
* BaitAndSwitchGunshot: [[spoiler:After betraying the S.E.E.S and getting shot by Takeharu, Ikutski tries to force Aigis into executing the S.E.E.S members he's crucified, even as they desperately plead with her to resist. Aigis does visibly hesitate but eventually opens fire...to free them from their restraints.]]
* BalanceBuff: Certain characters were changed between versions:
** In ''FES'' (and retaining in ''Portable''), Junpei was changed to learn Agi and Re Patra slightly later, Rakukaja several levels earlier (which remove the original 11 level gap between Re Patra and Rakukaja, replacing it with a smaller gap between Rakukaja and Assault Dive), learning Counter a few levels before Counterattack, and replacing largely redundant Deathbound with Brave Blade, at the cost of pushing Marakukaja back a few levels. Curiously, ''[[PlayableEpilogue The Answer]]'' still has Junpei learn Deathbound, rather than Brave Blade, and also has him learn Marakukaja even earlier than in the original game, and full 10 levels earlier than in ''The Journey''
** ''The Answer'' has Koromaru start with Counter (which he never had in ''The Journey'') and Mudoon (in ''The Journey'' he only learns it on level 56 - which means he gets it a full 25 levels earlier!), learning Mamudoon at level 49 (compared to ''The Journey'''s 71), and replacing [[UselessUsefulSpell not particularly useful]] Evil Touch/Evil Smile with (Ma-)Sukukaja, at the cost of skipping over Counterstrike for some reason, and losing Fire Break completely. ''Portable'' backports the Evil Touch/Evil Smile to (Ma-)Sukukaja change, and also replaces Fire Break with Mudo Boost.
** Also in ''The Answer'', Ken is the only character who joins at lower level than he did in ''The Journey'', but has the same starting skills, which means he [[CrutchCharacter starts with medium level skills when everyone else needs a few levels to get there]]. He also learns just about every skill aside from Mediarama and Spear Master at lower level. In ''Portable'', Ken now starts with Diarama, learns Mediarama at the level he originally learned Diarama, learns Spear Master at the level he originally learned Hama Boost, and finally learns Primal Force at the level he originally learned Spear Master. And yes, it means Hama Boost is gone, which means his Hama spells became even less reliable than they were in prior versions.
* BarrierChangeBoss:
** The Empress and Emperor bosses constantly change their weaknesses and immunities over the course of the battle.
** [[spoiler:Nyx Avatar, who has 13 phases and changes their weaknesses and immunities as each phase transitions to the next.]]
* BattleCouple: The protagonist romancing any of their S.E.E.S. teammates results in this as they will still have to fight Shadows in Tartarus together.
* BattleThemeMusic: The famous "Mass Destruction", a fast-paced, jazzy hip-hop song, accompanies every standard battle. ''The Answer'' uses another version of it in the same style with different lyrics, making it come off as a second verse of the song. The female protagonist in the PSP rerelease instead has "Wiping All Out".
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: In the run-up to December 31st, SEES are presented with the choice to [[spoiler:let Ryoji live and spend the following month despairing over the coming of the Fall, or kill Ryoji and erase their memories of the Dark Hour. The only member of the team in favor of killing Ryoji is Aigis, who doesn't want to watch her friends suffer. If the player goes along with Aigis' wishes, then she has to watch her friends go about their lives, oblivious to the coming apocalypse whilst she remembers everything and can't do anything to save them]].
* BeachEpisode: The Yakushima Island vacation, where the heroes meet Aigis. Noteworthy for "Operation Babe Hunt," in which the three guys embark on a [[UnsettlingGenderReveal nearly disastrous mission]] to pick up girls on the beach.
* BeginWithAFinisher: The strongest OptionalBoss periodically casts a [[YinYangBomb Megidolaon]] that will do [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill 9999 damage to the party in a game where the HP cap is 999.]] However, if you start the battle breaking one of [[GuideDangIt the unwritten rules,]] the very first action they'll take is this very OneHitKill attack. Even if you use a method to avoid dying to it, [[DevelopersForesight the boss will simply keep spamming it until you die.]]
* {{BFS}}: Sword and Giant-type shadows have broadswords that are about 3 feet across and over 7 feet long. [[spoiler:Nyx Avatar]] also carries a remarkably long blade.
* BigBad: [[spoiler:Nyx, though she doesn't really want to destroy the world.]]
* BigBallOfViolence: The All-Out Attack. Properly lampshaded in the animation for such. '''POW!'''
* BigEater: Some Social Links will often comment on the protagonist's ability to eat several meals on one sitting while [[NeverGetsFat remaining thin]].
* BigSleep: [[spoiler: How the protagonist, be they male or female, pass away at the very end of the game.]] In the Playstation 2 versions, [[spoiler: the male protagonist falls into his big sleep on Aigis' lap with the rest of S.E.E.S. showing up TooLateToTheTragedy.]] In ''Portable'', however, the player can [[spoiler: choose a particular love interest who shows up just in time to allow the protagonist to [[DiedInYourArmsTonight die in their arms.]]]]
* BilingualBonus:
** Most of the vocal themes on the soundtrack are in English, making them an example for the original Japanese version.
** The Shirt of Chivalry becomes one in the English version. The characters on the back of each character are fairly descriptive [[spoiler:or ironic in Shinjiro's case]]. The main character's "honourable man," BloodKnight Akihiko's is "fight," Ken's is [[spoiler:grudge]], Junpei's is color, but more likely "dirty minded", and Shinjiro's is "life."
** "Kimi no Kioku", the ending theme song, which elaborates on the game's ending sequence and foreshadows [[spoiler:Aigis and the rest of the team's emotional development during [[ExpansionPack "The Answer"]])]]. Since the song is in Japanese and there are no subtitles, English-speaking players have to find out what the song's about on their own.
** ''Strega'' means "witch" in Italian which in turn is derived from Ancient Greece where the "Striges" were mythological birds that lived in the marshes of Hades, by the edge of Tartarus.
* BittersweetEnding: While the MC and the rest of SEES do eventually manage to save the world from [[spoiler:well, itself]], none of their efforts will go recognized since no one else remembers what happened. This is especially heart-breaking since [[spoiler:the MC sacrificed his (or her) soul so that they could seal away Nyx until humanity comes to terms with its fear of death, which probably won't happen for awhile, if at all.]]
* BizarroEpisode: Parodied in-universe. Some of the [[ShowWithinAShow Phoenix Ranger Featherman R]] episodes are clearly this, for example "[[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Episode 26: Caveman Love! Romance knows no boundaries -- not even between different eras!]]" [[note]] It's a reference to [[https://shout-tv.com/super-sentai-jetman/chojin-sentai-jetman-s1-e26-i-m-a-primitive/5c4fb6e66689bc116400367d ep. 26]] of ''Series/ChoujinSentaiJetman'', where the yellow ranger ends up in prehistoric times and falls in love with a native woman. [[/note]]
* BlameTheParamour: The character Saori Hasegawa is one of the Social Links exclusive to the female protagonist route in ''Portable''. One plot point in the Social Link has Saori being asked out by a male student and her accepting it, only it turns out he already has a girlfriend, and so in the next rank, his girlfriend shows up, but takes her anger on Saori, claiming that she was the one who asked him out, even though it's very clear to the protagonist that it was the other way around.
* BlandNameProduct:
** The numerous soft drinks in this game all have names that play on the names of their RealLife equivalents and also reference popular TV shows, video games, and even gaming conventions. For example, "Cylon Tea," described ingame as [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 coming in 12 different flavors]], and the [[Series/TwentyFour BauerBar]] keeps you going for [[Series/TwentyFour 24]] hours. Other examples are [[VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga Ciello]] Mist (Sierra Mist[[note]] Which has been discontinued as of 2023.[[/note]]), [=SoBay=] ([=SoBe=]), and Mad Bull (Red Bull).
** If you go on a date with Kenji, he talks about getting D'z's new single, a reference to real-life Japanese band Music/{{Bz}}.
** While playing ''Innocent Sin Online'', Maya mentions another MMORPG named "[[VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft CoW]]".
** The music store in the mall is Power Records, a play on Tower Records.
** In the request where you retrieve a handheld game console from Junpei, he mentions the handheld console's name being the "[[Platform/PlayStationPortable COMPstation Portable]]". Must be a twist of fate.
*** Also, in the description of the item itself, it says that there's a disc for [[VideoGame/OdinSphere Odin Cube]] inside of it.
* BlindIdiotTranslation:
** The ''Portable'' version's English localization, while as good as the console versions for the most part, has translation hiccups on some lines, not helped by its VisualNovel format adding more text and the female main character's route on top of that. Very few certain lines do not sync with the voiceover, there are typos and missing punctuation marks, and, in a couple minor events, ''outright untranslated lines''. The most notable ones seem to be "You told Junpei of you rfeelings." from Junpei's rooftop event and "Wanna go at it agian?" from Rio's hangout event, as these were fixed via patch (though modders beat them to it first), but other errors remain.
** From the male protagonist's route in ''Portable'', Yuko's Rank 8 S. Link event renders the line ">Yuko is a bit troubled." in broken Japanese (due to the ''kanji'' characters being removed). Another instance of untranslated text comes from talking to Fuuka in the dorm on 7/25 or 7/26. In this case, the translators forgot to translate Fuuka's response to the player's "No" option on the latter date.
** In ''Portable'', the "Attack" description on the battle menu for Strike-type and Pierce-type weapons [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment repeats the "equipped" part]].
** Remnants of the male route still show up in the female route, like as in the intro to the OptionalBoss fight with the Velvet Room attendant and Yukari using a voice clip meant to refer to the male MC when "I was scared, too." is picked during the first hospital scene.[[note]]Both of these in particular were fixed in the remaster edition, though at the expense of voice acting in the former as there is no way to redub the fixed lines. [[/note]]But special mention goes to one particular flavor text on the battle result screen. The bright color scheme and low resolution make it hard to read at a glance, but the text "He is an uncanny fellow!" under the Bonus EXP text is the same even for the female MC. One might think it is because there is only one graphic file and the developers did not bother to make another, but nope, both main characters' menu graphics are separate, including the Bonus EXP flavor text. This was fixed in the remastered port by changing the text to "Great! Nice going!"
** The Oracle command and the Summer Dream fusion spell were reworked in ''Portable'', but the English translators just copied the battle text from the Platform/PlayStation2 version. This is often mistaken for a bug, when it is actually the battle messages not matching the new effects.
** On the map of Tatsumi Port Island, street names and other places are in French. Moonlight Bridge is rendered as "Pont '''Léger''' de Lune", despite '''"léger"''' meaning '''"light"''' as in '''"not heavy"'''. Weirdly, on the same map there's also "Marina d'île de '''clair''' de lune" which translates correctly, if only a bit clunky, as "Moon'''light''' Island Marina".
** The description for the Herculean Strike skill mistakenly refers to it as a Slash-type attack, never mind the name and icon used.
** The French version of ''Portable'' has been reported to have translation issues. For example, one scene involving Junpei and Chidori has one important text box ''rendered in German''.
** The remastered edition of ''Portable'' does not seem to bother with the English translation for the "good ending" texts (outside the default one) that are added to this version[[note]]In the original, only the voice is played as the screen fades to white. In the remaster, for possibly accessibility reasons, a text box is overlaid to show what they were saying.[[/note]]. For the NewGamePlus endings, the speaker's name label is untranslated, at full display, during what would be an emotional ending. Akihiko's ending suffers this the worst, as not only is his name label untranslated, but also his ending text does not match his dub voice clip, apparently using a direct translation of his original Japanese line as if unaware that his dub line already exists.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Aigis, Yukari and Mitsuru in that order.
* BloodyHorror: During the Dark Hour any water/liquid in the environment turns blood red. Blood will often be puddling on the floor and dripping off the walls during animated cut scenes.
* BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine: You perform one of these with Kenji in honour of the cancelled (due to a typhoon) school Culture Festival.
* {{Bookends}}:
** The Protagonist is listening to a remix of the game's main theme in the opening, muffled from his headphones. [[spoiler:For the final boss, the song reappears in high-quality glory]].
** The school year begins and ends with Mitsuru giving a speech to the student body. She remarks on this similarity during the second speech:
--->When I first addressed you from this podium, I spoke to you all about seizing opportunity while you had the chance.
** The first few days of the game have Yukari and Mitsuru telling you to go to bed, stating you must be tired. Cut to the end of the game [[spoiler:after you beat Nyx where the game beats you over the head with text boxes and characters saying you look exhausted and that you need to go to bed]].
** Near the beginning of the game, a text box says "The gentle spring sunlight is warm." Near the end of the game, a text box says "The gentle spring sunlight warms your body."
** In ''The Answer'', the final door SEES opens is also the first one they entered in the beginning - the one that leads to Paulownia Mall.
** The title screen theme of ''FES'' is a rather melancholy piano instrumental. The credits theme for epilogue chapter ''The Answer'' is a cheerful, vocal remix of it.
** ''The Journey'' begins with the Protagonist arriving at the Iwatodai Dorm for the first time. ''The Answer'' ends with S.E.E.S. leaving the dorm for the last time.
* BossInMookClothing: The Shadows blocking your way on the "checkpoint" areas of Tartarus (which are also referred by the MissionControl as "powerful Shadows". They are basically more powerful than the "purple slimes" of the current block (as mentioned below in the EliteMooks entry). But they do take the appearance of the regular mooks you can encounter in the tower, albeit larger, with a higher health pool, stronger abilities, and more resistances.
* BossRemix: The final boss' theme [[spoiler:is a hard rock remix of the Velvet Room theme]], and the PostFinalBoss has [[spoiler:the rap remix of "Burn My Dread" first heard in the intro cutscene]].
* BottomlessBladder: Averted. Going to the bathroom isn't necessary, strictly speaking, but doing so has a chance of giving you a better Condition in the vanilla or ''FES'' versions. Doing this in ''Portable'' instead drops flavor text to help clue in on what to do for the day.
* BraggingRightsReward: Played with and played straight regarding Orpheus Telos and the Omnipotent Orb accessory respectively. The Omnipotent Orb nullifies all damage save for Almighty and is only acquired by either getting very lucky with Messiah's item drop or by defeating [[spoiler:Elizabeth]] in the Monad Depths. Orpheus Telos is gained by maxing out all Social Links in one playthrough and is resistant to everything, which makes him extremely valuable against the {{superboss}}.
%%zce* BreakThemByTalking: Takaya does this to S.E.E.S. on several occasions, especially on Ken.
* BrickJoke:
** Early on in the ''FES'' rerelease, the protagonist is asked to inspect a broken component in the operations room. There's nothing the player can actually fix, and it's instead a setup for the player to access the video recordings that were added in ''FES''. Near the end, after the final recording is accessed, Aigis mentions that she found and fixed the problem.
** One of Elizabeth's early requests is to fuse a Jack Frost with Dia. After you complete it, she expresses a desire to see a level 99 Jack Frost (its base level is 8, so it'll take loads of grinding). [[spoiler:When she faces you during her superboss fight, one of her possible Personas is a souped-up Jack Frost.]]
* BrokenBridge: You can't progress past certain floors throughout Tartarus until the necessary plot-related events occur. Lampshaded by MissionControl, who note that they can see the path to the next floor but can't help you past the barrier.
* BrutalBonusLevel: The Monad Depths is the basement of Tartarus, unlocked after you complete a dangerous quest where you hunt The Reaper. It houses some incredible loot and is host to Shadows level 88 and higher, meaning every random encounter is deadly but yields massive experience points. You can also find some of the best weapons and armor in the game, and the bottom floor is where you meet and fight the {{Superboss}}.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Some members of the faculty are like this, with the others just being... weird.
* ButterflyOfDeathAndRebirth: Appears every now and then, most notably with the butterfly in the opening.
* ButThouMust: Many of the choices (and the story itself, for that matter) run on this principle.
** The player has no choice but to join SEES, even if the "No" option is selected.
** Inverted in a minor conversation with an unnamed NPC who wants you to [[StalkerWithACrush pass on a Christmas present]] to one of your teammates. Your options in that case are "No", "I refuse", or "Absolutely not".
** Inverted during the full moon in July. You have to refuse to give in to the Lovers telling you to act on your desires in order to advance the story.
** If you don't enter Tartarus within the first 10 days of being recruited, Mitsuru will personally make you go with the group automatically.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes C & D]]
* CallBack: During the group's stay at the Kirijo estate at Yakushima, a conversation between Mitsuru and her father reveals that the [[VideoGame/{{Persona1}} Nanjo]] and Kirijo Groups were once one and the same.
* CallForward: In the [=FeMC=] route in ''Portable'', the Athletics Club event at the start of summer is reworked into a training fellowship that takes place at Yasogami High, and is suitably filled with nods to the events of ''VideoGame/Persona4'', which had released the year before ''Portable'' and is set two years after the events of ''Persona 3''.
* CallingYourAttacks: An interesting version: the protagonists (particularly the Main Character) will sometimes call the names of their Personas (i.e. Orpheus, Io, etc.) before summoning them but the actual attack names (like Bufu or Bash) are never once called. Discussed in-game, as you're told that it takes a very high level of concentration to summon a persona, so it's likely names are called to maintain focus. Everyone (but Koromaru, for obvious reasons) has multiple lines to choose from before summoning.
* CanonIdentifier: The series gives each player character a CanonName in expanded material and adaptations, but also distinguishes them by a title from the fourth game onwards ("The Protagonist" for ''Persona 3'', "Main Character" for ''Persona 4'' and "Joker" for ''Persona 5'').
* CantDropTheHero: There's the "contract" thing with Igor... Also solidified by the plot as [[spoiler:Death living inside the protagonist is the reason why the twelve Shadow Arcanas are appearing in the city again]].
* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: If the boys remain hidden during the Kyoto hot springs incident, [[spoiler:Junpei and Ryoji - the two actual perpetrators of the guys still being there when the girls arrive - will pass out from the temperature]].
* CaptainObvious: Whomever is acting as MissionControl during battle can veer into this, with their assistance in battle largely coming down to telling the player information they would know by looking at the screen.
* CastFromHitPoints: The Persona physical attacks work like this.
* CastFromLifeSpan: [[spoiler:The cost for the Great Seal is the Protagonist's life; this is illustrated within the game by having the ability cost all of the Protagonist's HP. Sure enough, the Protagonist only lives long enough to fulfill their promise to meet the rest of SEES on the Gekkoukan roof on Graduation Day]].
* CastingGag:
** A Creator/MichelleRuff character (Yukari) into archery. [[Manga/DestinyOfTheShrineMaiden Where have we seen this before]]?
** Creator/KarenStrassman voicing a RobotGirl. [[Manga/{{Chobits}} Seen it]].
** This isn't the first time Creator/NobutoshiCanna voices a character [[spoiler:who wounds someone named [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Shinji]]]]. Unlike the former example [[spoiler:said moment is NOT a good thing]].
** In ''Portable'', this isn't the first time Creator/LauraBailey voiced a GenkiGirl [[VideoGame/Persona4 persona user]].
* CaughtInTheBadPartOfTown: The Protagonist, Yukari, and Junpei at one point investigate the back alleys of the Port Island Station area, against the protests of Junpei who knows that's where all the delinquents hang out. They get into a tight spot with said delinquents but then are saved by JerkWithAHeartOfGold Shinjiro.
* CentralTheme:
** [[ArcWords Memento Mori]], a Latin phrase meaning "[[WeAllDieSomeday remember you'll die some day]]," is a recurring theme that appears again and again throughout the story. Almost all of the main cast and no few supporting characters have had some kind of personal experience with death, often in the form of dead parents or family members. The theme may also overlap with Sacrifice, as the three characters who died purposely gave up their lives protecting someone. [[spoiler:Shinjiro takes a bullet for Ken partway through the game to redeem himself for accidentally killing Ken's mother. Chidori uses her persona's power to "emit life" and gives Junpei her life to revive him from a gunshot wound to the chest. She dies in the process. And finally the Protagonist makes a HeroicSacrifice at the end to prevent the world from ending.]]
** Death as pertaining to the thirteenth Arcana, Death. Meaning, spiritual death more than physical. The story has to do with the various ways, big and small, it may become difficult for a person to want to keep on living. This factors in to not just the main story, but every single social link, even if some of the "reasons to desire death" may seem pretty trivial. The game's message is that those reasons are still important, and a person needs to confront and overcome them (And [[ThePowerOfFriendship friendship]] helps a great deal with this).
** Depression. Some symptoms of the Apathy Syndrome include the inability to move, feed, or take care of one's self, similar to the instances of a clinically depressed person who forgets the value of personal hygiene. During the later parts of the game, a cult worshiping Nyx and eager for the coming of The Fall signifies a depressed person's desire for death, and/or the lack of will to live. With regards to the desire for death, depression would ultimately lead to a person's suicide if he/she is left unchecked. In this game, the act of summoning a Persona is similar to a suicidal action - you, shooting yourself in the head.
* ChainmailBikini: Surprisingly present, considering the modern setting of the game. Early in the game, players can find a set of female-only armor called the High Cut Armor (renamed to Battle Panties in the PSP re-release). It consists of shoulder-length gloves, thigh-high boots and... not much else, yet it has a higher defense stat than most armor at the time you get it. The female protagonist, Mitsuru, and Yukari can equip it, though the latter two are very reluctant to do so. Male party members are [[LuminescentBlush visibly shaken]] when the female protagonist tries to talk to them while wearing it. If the male party member happens to be her lover, they will get angry at her for wearing that outfit in public (namely around the other party members).
* CharacterSelectForcing: Plot events will prevent certain characters from participating in specific boss fights. [[spoiler:Yukari cannot participate in the June Full Moon boss fight, but is ''compulsory'' for the July Operation; Junpei is unavailable for the September Full Moon Operation; Ken and Shinjiro are not present for October.]]
* ChekhovsClassroom: Mr. Edogawa, a teacher obsessed with magic explains [[spoiler:the significance of the Major Arcana of the tarot about halfway through the game. This becomes at least marginally important when the Final Boss states that Death, the 13th Arcana, represents the end. However, as the teacher explained way back when, Death is merely a change, not the end, and there are another 8 Major Arcana after Death, which allows the protagonist to use the true final arcana, The World, to defeat Nyx.]]
* ChekhovsGunman:
** [[spoiler:Ikutsuki]], a conspicuously inoffensive character who is introduced early on, does next to nothing of note for much of the game (he's one of the few characters who fails to exhibit any obvious signs of a DarkAndTroubledPast), and surprises absolutely no one when [[spoiler:he turns out to be TheManBehindTheMan]].
** In ''[[ExpansionPack FES]]'' you can see most Social Link characters as well as Akihiko being pestered by fangirls during your character's first walks from the school to the dorm. You can also meet all your school Social Links on the first day of school, and even talk to them.
** There's also a non-character example: the music the protagonist is listening to on his headphones during that scene is "Burn My Dread -Last Battle-". This track later plays as a proper BGM (rather than being all muffled and distorted) during [[spoiler:the final battle with Nyx]].
* ChekhovsSkill: Early in the game, two of your schoolmates mention the type of sport they participate in; Archery for Yukari and Boxing for Akihiko. Their hobby becomes their fighting style when they later join you in battles.
* ChildhoodMarriagePromise: Maiko will initiate this with the male protagonist if you maxed her Social Link.
* ChristmasEpisode: You're given the option to spend Christmas Eve with whichever girl/guy you've established a romantic social link. If you've established multiple romantic ties, you'll get multiple invitations.
* CityOfAdventure: Tatsumi Port Island, the main setting for the game and where all of the action takes place.
* ClassTrip: The junior and senior classes take a trip to Kyoto. The HotSpringsEpisode happens during this trip.
* ClimacticElevatorRide: Velvet Room has manifested as an elevator continuously going up. The last time the protagonist visits, right before the final battle, it arrives at its destination. It's more effective than it sounds.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience:
** Shadows encountered in the floors of Tartarus come in three colors: Black for the normal enemies of the current block, Purple for the EliteMooks which are noticeably stronger than the normal enemies for the current block, and Yellow for enemies that drop a lot of Yen, or rare materials.
** A large number of enemies in the early parts of the game will make it painfully obvious what they're weak to by dressing themselves in the opposite motif, i.e. a white-colored enemy is weak to darkness, and a red-colored enemy will be weak to ice. Somewhat averted in the later dungeons, particularly in the topmost block where all enemies will be white / chrome-plated.
* ColorMotif: The game itself has a recurring dark blue motif, fitting for the often-depressing, dreary nature of the story.
* ColourCodedTimestop: Most of the "action" in the game takes place during the Dark Hour, a "hidden" hour between midnight and 12:01 accessible only to a select few (including Persona users). During this time, ordinary people are Transmogrified into coffins and unable to detect what goes on. Additionally, technology shuts down completely, unless it's explicitly stated to be enhanced with magic (in Mitsuru's words, ''special''), which includes Aigis, Mitsuru's motorbike and the console banks at the dorm's Command Room. During the Dark Hour, there is a green filter over the world.
* CombinationAttack:
** Fusion Spells (Mixed Raid in Japanese), exclusive to the Protagonist, involve wielding two Personas to attack in tandem to unleash a specific effect. They can cost either HP or SP, but the SP ones cost percentages of your total SP rather than the usual flat amount. Every Fusion Spell involves a specific pair of Personas, both of which need to be in the current arsenal and one of them needs to be equipped to activate it. However, in ''Portable'', this is changed: Fusion Spells are now expendable items, which can only be bought by trading gems in Shinshoudo Antiques. Each Fusion Spell item expends itself after one use, but no longer requires specific Personas to be in the protagonist's current stock.
** The [[BigBallOfViolence All-Out Attack]], and Co-Op attacks in [=P3P=].
* CombinedEnergyAttack: [[spoiler:The final battle against Nyx starts with Nyx nearly knocking out the protagonist, only for them to hang on by a thread. The encouragement from the rest of SEES allows the protagonist to eventually shrug off Nyx's attacks and gather the strength to cast Great Seal.]]
* ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike: During Yukari's Rank 5 event, she gets accosted by some punks who stole her wallet, only to be saved by the protagonist who either fights the punks off or threatens to call for help. She initially thanks the protagonist but her insecurities quickly get the better of her and she starts lashing out at the protagonist. She eventually realizes that she was at fault and apologizes during the Rank 6 event.
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard:
** Enemies will never run out of Spirit Points, no matter how many magical skills they use. This was actually changed for the FES version and in ''Persona 4'', where enemies also have a finite amount of SP.
** When performing an EnemyScan, the computer cheats ''in your favour''. Although the scan results will refuse to show elemental affinities of Tartarus bosses, your party members (while AI controlled) will be secretly informed of what is effective and act accordingly.
** In ''The Answer'', [[spoiler:during the two-on-two coliseum battles late into the game, your party members will use skills they ordinarily have no access to. Most egregious with [[SquishyWizard Yukari]] [[TheMedic Takeba]], who uses ''Primal Force'' of all things, one of the strongest physical attacks in the game.]]
* ConflictBall: In ''The Answer'', the party falls apart and turns to infighting as to whether or not they should [[spoiler:change the past.]] They figure things out and make up, eventually.
* ContinuityCameo: Many are added to the PSP rerelease as call forwards to ''Persona 4''. Most notable is a younger Yukiko Amagi, one of the party members in ''4''.
* ContinuityNod: Quite a few to the previous games. Their presence would normally lead one to assume they're all in the same continuity, but [[ContinuitySnarl a number of differences]] has lead to no little confusion among the fanbase as to whether ''3'' and its successors are in the same continuity as the first three games, set in an AlternateContinuity, or represent a ContinuityReboot. However, according to this surprisingly obscure [[http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=1&cId=3172364 interview]] with ''Persona 4'''s staff, the games ''do'' all take place in the same world.
** The Kirijo Group used to be part of the Nanjo Group from ''[[VideoGame/{{Persona 1}} Persona 1]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/Persona2 2]]''.
** Igor and the Velvet Room appear once again, Igor with an identical appearance to his other appearances and in the same role, and the Velvet Room still blue as always, although its appearance has changed from the previous installments (and would continue to change in subsequent titles).
** Characters from ''Persona 1'' and ''2'' are referred to on the television in the lounge.
** In the English localization, there are many references to ''VideoGame/Persona2'' in the aptly named MMORPG ''Innocent Sin'', mostly related to Maya and Tatsuya (in the original Japanese version, the MMO was named ''[[VideoGame/MegamiTenseiII Devil Busters]]'' and the screen names were [[Literature/DigitalDevilStory Y-Ko and N-Jima]]).
** Additionally, a number of characters and locations from ''Persona 4'' cameo in ''Persona 3 Portable'':
*** The power outage which cancels Rise's appearance at Escapade is discussed during the Hermit full moon mission.
*** Yukiko, the town of Inaba, and the Amagi Inn appear in the female protagonist's story, and Chie is mentioned.
*** Kashiwagi, a teacher in ''Persona 4'', appears in the male protagonist's story.
* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Almost every single person in SEES is missing at least one parent with Fuuka as the only apparent exception. Makes living together in a dorm and fighting Shadows easier. In several cases (notably those of Ken and the protagonist) the loss of their parents is directly linked to the same Dark Hour-related incidents and issues that get them involved in the plot.
* CoolBike: Mitsuru's motorcycle is one of the only few machineries and equipment that work during the Dark Hour.
* CoolButInefficient: Several high-end Personas can only be made through special fusion using four or more specific Personas. You must have each of the ingredients on hand to perform the special fusion, so one Persona will demand up to ''half'' your max stock to fuse. It becomes very, very costly when you're discarding your favourites to free up space, paying out the nose for the fusion components, and then paying out the nose again to re-summon what you've tossed out.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Tanaka, who's gleefully amoral about the shopping channel he runs. Initially comes into play with the Kirijo Group, though the truth turns out to be more complicated than that.
* CreditsMedley: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in a strange way. The ''FES'' rerelease features a new ''opening'' with a new song, which combines and remixes elements of several other songs in the game - most notably the credits theme.
* CreditsMontage: The end credits use clips from the animated cutscenes, interspersed with images of the party members and their respective Persona. The end credits for ''The Answer'' replace the clips with the animated cutscenes from the epilogue, and move [[spoiler:Aigis to the head of the cast list whilst bumping the Male Protagonist to the end]], and the end credits for ''Portable'' remove the clips of the animated cutscenes due to their absence in that version of the game.
* CreepyChild: Pharos.
* CriticalFailure: It's possible that when an attack misses, there's a random chance the flubbed attack will cause the aggressor to trip and be Downed. Rage-inducing when it happens to your party members (and one of the reasons why Accuracy/Evasion buffs are relevant), but hilarious when it happens to enemies. Even the ''bosses'' can trip (at a very rare chance, mind).
* CriticalHit: The animations that show it are quite satisfying to see, they down an enemy, and they grant an ExtraTurn. There exist skills to raise crit rate and a passive to protect against taking crits.
* CrucifiedHeroShot:
** SEES in ''The Journey'' after [[spoiler:Ikutsuki ties the group up in this manner]].
** [[spoiler:The Protagonist, in their new existence as the Great Seal]] in ''The Answer''.
* CrutchCharacter: Ken in ''The Answer'', thanks to starting with "medium" level skills Zionga and Cruel Attack, as well as learning Diarama relatively quickly, when every other character bar Metis starts with "low" level. Unfortunately, he still has the same MasterOfNone problems he had in ''The Journey''.
* CurbStompBattle:
** Thanatos positively mauls the Magician Arcana boss during the opening stages of the game.
** When [[spoiler:Ikutsuki shows his true colors]], he has [[spoiler:Aigis]] do this to the SEES group, managing to knock them all out... somehow. The details aren't shown because of how absurd it seems.
** After awakening to [[spoiler:the knowledge that he's actually Death, Ryoji gives one to Aigis when she attacks him]].
* CustomUniform: Only one of the main characters (Aigis) wears the school uniform properly, and even then, she still stands out as she wears the winter uniform during the summer. The rest of the team tend to alter their uniform by adding their own custom accessories and/or foregoing the uniform jacket.
* CutAndPasteEnvironments: One of the few big complaints about the game is that the randomly-generated floors in Tartarus tend to get repetitive after a while. You ''and'' your character will end up fatigued after spending too much time there.
* CuteKitten: There are plenty of stray cats to feed and befriend in the city. One of Elizabeth's Requests is to feed one in particular. When you do feed it, it comes back looking larger and healthier.
* CutsceneIncompetence: Considering relative power levels at the time, it's rather egregious that no one was able to flee or fight back when [[spoiler:Ikutsuki orders Aigis to attack the rest of SEES on November 4th]], particularly given that it was one vs. six ''and'' that on Mitsuru's instruction, SEES all turned up to Tartarus ready for a fight. Tellingly, the anime adaptation alters events and has [[spoiler:Mitsuru's father take SEES' equipment upon visiting the dorm to (mistakenly) congratulate them on ending the Dark Hour, and upon SEES' arrival at Tartarus, Ikutsuki reveals that Aigis currently has Mitsuru's father as a hostage]] in order to justify why no-one could fight back.
* CutscenePowerToTheMax:
** Thanatos absolutely destroys the Magician Shadow after the protagonist awakens to his Persona.
** Takaya is much more deadly in cutscenes than he is in boss battles.
** After [[spoiler:Chidori sacrifices herself to revive him]], Junpei completely blows his stack, awakens to his Ultimate Persona, and promptly hits Jin (who normally reflects fire damage) with a fireball so strong it knocks him ten feet in the air.
* DamageSpongeBoss:
** Tartarus bosses have a very simplistic moveset, and if they come alone (as opposed to [[WolfpackBoss a group of three]]), they have incredible HP and defenses to make up for lower numbers.
** The Vision Quest rematches with the Full Moon Bosses don't really change up their mechanics too much aside from bigger numbers across the board, and some of them turn into wars of attrition this way. Standout examples are the Hermit, which has 16,000 HP and also uses Spirit Drain to sap away your ability to keep up the attrition game, and the Hanged Man, who has 18,000 HP and has phases where you can't even hit it.
* DamnYouMuscleMemory:
** Closer to just the "memory" part, but players that first played the female route blind after getting used to ''FES'' (or just the male route in general) have been reported to assume Yukari's S. Link would start after the Yakushima trip, when she is actually available starting in April (which means early-game) and without any special requirements in this case, causing potentially wasted time slots. Though ''Portable'' in general rearranged S. Link schedules for existing characters (resulting in new fan guides), Yukari stands out compared to other female party member links due to the massive difference between male and female routes.
** The 1.0.1 update for the remastered ''Portable'' reduces the extra button press needed to access the submenu while exploring Tartarus, so just a single button press is needed. Expect to accidentally pick a command when opening it in this version.
* DarkestHour: The start of December serves as this - [[spoiler:Ryoji is revealed to be Death, Aigis is out of commission after her attempt at killing him resulted in a CurbStompBattle at her expense, and the rest of SEES are in such a funk after learning of the impending end of the world that everyone just mopes around the dorm for a week - unwilling to go to Tartarus or just hang out - until Junpei nearly fights the Protagonist over their carrying Death inside them for ten years and Mitsuru makes the point that moping around isn't helping anyone make a decision on what to do before ordering everyone to resume their normal lives.]]
* DarkWorld: The Dark Hour.
* DatingSim: The Social Links serve as your RelationshipValues that can be leveled up to ten by choose the right dialogue choices suitable for certain conversations. Though not all of them are romantic.
* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler:Shinjiro Aragaki.]]
** [[spoiler:The Answer reveals that ''everyone in the world'' is this to some degree, which is why Nyx attempts to bring The Fall in the first place.]]
* DeflectorShields: Several.
** Tetrakarn and Makarakarn double as [[AttackReflector attack reflectors]], as they each generate a barrier on a target ally, which then reflects one physical or magic attack onto its caster, respectively. The physical and magic mirrors are these skills in item form.
** Enemies and Personas can reflect individual elements, with the latter case being possible either inherently or through passive skills.
* DefunctOnlineVideoGames: InUniverse: The "Innocent Sin" MMORPG Junpei gives you a copy of to access gradually becomes this as you progress the Hermit Social Link online with "Maya" (real name: [[spoiler:Ms. Toriumi]]), with you two basically being the only players due to the playerbase moving on to other games. Eventually during the final stages of the Social Link, the developers announce the shutdown of the servers, but not before "Maya" leaves you a sand drawing the protagonist saves as their phone wallpaper.
* DemonicInvaders: The Shadows.
* DemotedToExtra: In ''Portable'', if you choose to play as the heroine, all of the Social Links who are replaced by your party members (plus newcomers Rio and Saori) lose pretty much all of their plot relevance. Kenji, Kaz, Keisuke, and Yuko make bit appearances, Chihiro maintains her bit appearances in Hidetoshi's Social Link, Maya never appears in her online identity (although she still makes appearances as [[spoiler:Ms. Toriumi]]), and Hayase and Nozomi are completely removed.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment:
** The Glossary description for New Year's Eve [[spoiler:mentions the choice of either killing Ryoji or having everyone's knowledge of the Fall erased... except the later is the result of the former. The actual choice is to spare Ryoji and fight Nyx, or kill Ryoji and erase everyone's knowledge of the Fall]].
** The repeated "equipped" on the Attack description for Strike and Pierce on ''Portable'', as already mentioned on BlindIdiotTranslation.
* DependingOnTheArtist:
** Mitsuru's hair colour varies between her character model, portraits, key art and the animated cutscenes - her character model features a dark red that leans towards brown, her portraits give her dark red hair, whilst the animated cutscenes render her hair as being dark brown without any hints of red.
** Yukari is generally depicted as having shoulder length hair; there are several animated cutscenes - notably the Kyoto trip and during ''The Answer'' - that instead show her hair as going past her shoulders and reaching partway down her back.
** Messiah's artwork shows that the Persona carries Thanatos' coffin lid cape on a chain tied around one of his arms; whilst this detail is present in the Platform/PlayStation2 versions of the game, the coffin lids are missing from Messiah's model in ''Persona 3 Portable''.
* DevelopersForesight:
** If the player did not prepare enough before a Full Moon boss battle, there is a high chance that they will have a hard time defeating it, preventing the story to progress further. Fortunately, saving and reloading exists and the player can easily load an earlier save to grind. There are also no means of saving during the Full Moon events so that the player may not accidentally "brick" their progress, nor override their previous save files if they wish to go back days before the Full Moon and grind further. In addition, party members will never get tired the day before Full Moons, allowing the team to grind as much as they want; and if a party member ''is'' tired when a Full Moon rolls around, they'll be suddenly restored to "Good" condition.
** If you don't enter Tartarus at all for 10 days after the first time you go there, Mitsuru will scold you for not adequately training and automatically send you there regardless of how you respond to her.
** In the updated version of the game, people will sometimes be stuck in Tartarus, requiring the player to save them. This can be a character you have a Social Link with, including Maiko. If this happens to her after you've completed her Social Link, which involves her moving away, Kurosawa will mention later that she came back to visit.
** Jin's battle strategy is focused on exploiting weaknesses, especially during his final fight when he has skills corresponding to all elements. If you give your party equipment to resist or nullify their elemental weaknesses, Jin recognizes what the player's doing and expresses his frustration at it.
** In lieu of the male route's festival clean-up scene (which has all romanced girls up to that point show up and the protagonist's male friends end up distracting them; the female route plays the scene differently) and Junpei's comment on one of the protagonist's girlfriends if he has any during the January conversation, the female route slips in or alters certain existing dialogue depending on which character(s) she has romanced. For example, if the player plays out Yukari's Rank 9 S. Link event while having already romanced Akihiko, Yukari will add an extra remark that having the protagonist come along with her (the line offering this normally ends the conversation) would anger him, making her change her mind.
** Hierophant S. Link's Rank 8 event ends with Bunkichi and the player character going to the school. If this happens on a Sunday (only possible in ''Portable'' due to schedule changes between versions) or any other day the school is closed, the narration will note that the player character and Bunkichi leap over the school gates just to see the persimmon tree.
** The female route's Star S. Link's Rank 5 ends differently depending on if the player has already started the Priestess S. Link in the current run, which makes the main character join the cooking club in this route. Should this condition is fulfilled, Akihiko will notice this and ask her to make pancakes for him.
** In the HD rerelease of ''Persona 3 Portable'', [[HelloInsertNameHere player character names]] input in one language are incompatible with others, so switching the game language will cause all existing save files of a different language to default the player name to the CanonName: "Makoto Yuki" for the male protagonist, and "Kotone Shiomi" for the female protagonist.
* DialogDuringGameplay: Your party members are quite chatty during battle, and they provide all sorts of commentary on things like scoring a critical hit, missing an attack, finishing off an enemy, another party member finishing off an enemy, getting inflicted with a status element, an ally getting downed, number of enemies left, etc, etc.
* DialogueTree: Of course, it is a Simulation Game. ''Portable'' takes it up a notch with the female protagonist's Social Links, in the cases of one choice immediately appearing after another.
* DidntSeeThatComing: [[spoiler:Shuji Ikutsuki]]'s plans to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt are derailed because he forgot to [[spoiler:crucify the dog]].
* DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu:
** While Elizabeth isn't evil, she is still [[OptionalBoss one of the most deadly foes in the game]] and the motivations of her and Igor are left highly ambiguous. However in the UpdatedRerelease, the protagonist has the delightful option of escorting [[DarkMagicalGirl the princess of darkness]] around town on several innocent dates where Elizabeth's [[NoSocialSkills lack of knowledge on human social behaviour]] causes all manner of hijinks with her unfamiliarity to the world. For bonus points, [[DidYouJustRomanceCthulhu you even get to sleep with her]], and unlike the other romance options, there is no doubt whatsoever what happened during the FadeToBlack.
** Her brother Theodore from the [[Platform/PlaystationPortable PSP]] version is just as dangerous in combat, and possibly even more of a FishOutOfWater when it comes to dealing with human society.
** And an interesting variation: when [[spoiler:the Appriser of Death]] [[HeelRealization realizes]] [[TomatoInTheMirror who he]] [[TheGrimReaper really is]] and [[ApocalypseHow what]] [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt he will cause]], and shares this information with his friends --friends with whom he [[spoiler:had eaten ramen with, peeped on girls with, attended classes with, and enjoyed hot baths with at an onsen during a school trip]]. It hits them all pretty hard with the implications of all the time they've spent together. And even then, although he can [[OneWingedAngel willingly change back and forth into his true form]], he will still sit quietly and converse with his friends about the ultimate outcome.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: The heroes are hoping to accomplish this by game's end. They [[spoiler:[[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu partly succeed]]]].
* DidYouJustRomanceCthulhu:
** In ''[[UpdatedRerelease Portable]]'' on the Female Main Character's route, you're given the chance to initiate a romantic S.Link with [[spoiler:Ryoji Mochizuki, the human form of Nyx Avatar]]. That is, you can make [[spoiler:the personification of Death itself]] fall in love with you.
** While it's not an official social link, a male main character is asked to show Elizabeth what sex is like during their last outing. The female main character can similarly win the affection of, and have an OptionalSexualEncounter with, [[DiscountLesbians Elizabeth]] or her younger brother Theodore. It's not clear exactly what Elizabeth and Theodore ''are,'' but whatever they are, it's not human, and as the game's {{Superboss}}es they are just as if not more powerful than the above mentioned character.
* DieOrFly: This is the idea behind the Evokers--even though they're not real guns and don't actually fire anything, the act of putting something nearly identical to a gun to one's head and pulling the trigger is visceral enough to trigger the fight-or-flight survival instinct that causes a Persona to manifest. In a specific example of this trope, at the beginning of the game, the main character awakens his Persona abilities after being attacked by the first Full Moon Shadow. [[spoiler:It helps that someone nearby is giving him a nudge toward pulling the trigger.]]
* DigitalDestruction: Common complaints of the HD remaster of ''Portable'' are that the backgrounds were poorly upscaled to 4K by the A.I. they used and the sound is muffled for no reason, even more than the original release of it on the [=PSP=].
* DisappearsIntoLight: What happens to the character involved with the [[spoiler:Sun social link]].
* DiscOneFinalBoss: [[spoiler:The Hanged Man, the final of the Full Moon Shadows]].
* DiscOneFinalDungeon: The game attempts this trope with the fourth block of Tartarus; assuming you complete the block before the full moon in November, you reach the top of the block only to find that it's also the top of the [[StarScraper massive tower]]. Only after three {{Disc One Final Boss}}es, [[DualBoss two of which are fought simultaneously]], and a WhamEpisode, do the final two blocks emerge for you to plow through.
* DiscOneNuke:
** A "Quad elemental" Lilim can easily be fused by level 8, able to last for many times what its strength suggests. A similar combination for a quad elemental Pale Rider also exists and is obtainable by the time Lilim is outdated. A similar recipe exists to create a 4-element Yomotsu Shikome a level 9 Hermit persona. It's slightly better than Lilim because Shikome has no weakness and is resistant to Darkness/Mudo.
** Completing Elizabeth/Theodore's requests promptly in ''Portable'' will reward you with weapons and armor that ''far'' outstrip anything you're going to get anytime soon outside of rare chest rewards.
** [=Getsu-Ei=] is a medium-strength Slash attack that hits harder on a full moon. You can access it around June to July, and it serves as a very good source of damage for the Full Moon Shadows until you start finding heavy-duty skills.
* DiscountCard: Officer Kurosawa will sometimes offer weapons and accessories at a cheaper price on specific days.
* DiscountLesbians: ''Persona 3 Portable'' allows the Female Protagonist to choose Elizabeth as their Attendant, and does not change any of the dialogue from her date requests - allowing the Female Protagonist to hook up with Elizabeth. However, this trope applies as Elizabeth is effectively a [[AmbiguouslyHuman spirit in human form]].
* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler:Chidori]], as of [=FES=]. Following [[spoiler:her hospitalisation by SEES]], the player has the opportunity to speak to [[spoiler:Junpei at the Dorms]] on four separate days and encourage him to [[spoiler:not give up on his relationship with Chidori]]. Doing so triggers a cutscene during December, where Mitsuru [[spoiler:speaks to an unknown party over the phone, and is informed that Chidori's corpse has been transmogrifying into a coffin during the Dark Hour; Chidori finally ressucitates in mid-January, albeit without her memories of the Dark Hour]].
* DissonantSerenity: The last boss, after having [[OneWingedAngel went through 13 forms]] without his [[CreepyMonotone creepy, emotionless, echoing voice]] changing in any way, finally starts to sound upset about halfway through his final form -- at which point he starts using his [[TurnsRed really annoying special attack]], ''Night Queen'':
-->Let us finish this! It is the path of your choosing!!
* DitchingTheDubNames: The localized versions of the remastered port of ''Portable'' keep the Japanese names on the shops. Since Game Panic (called Game Parade in the original) does not use Japanese characters on its sign, it is referred to as Game Parade regardless of language.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
** Several of the Persona designs have this in play, but it's difficult to see the Tower Arcana Persona called Mara as anything but ''a penis on wheels''. If you have this Persona as your main when you visit the Velvet Room, Elizabeth even seems to comment on how ''masculine'' it seems... Theodore, on the other hand, does not approve, protesting that it isn't ladylike.
** The [[DrivenToSuicide method]] of summoning Personas is more than a little troubling. They [[{{Handwave}} explain]] the Evoker by saying that the act of putting a gun to your head and pulling the trigger evokes a visceral mental trauma that causes your Persona to manifest itself. Of course, there's some AppliedPhlebotinum crammed in there too.
** Persona users rarely ever smile, especially when summoning for the first time considering how painful or awkward it is. The Protagonist is a special case in many ways, especially when you consider that the creepy-as-hell expression on his face looks ''very'' similar to that of [[spoiler:the Nyx Avatar]], who is, of course, [[spoiler:a form of Ryoji, who is Death, who manifests as Thanatos in that cutscene]].
** The final social link event for [[RobotGirl Aigis]] in ''[[UpdatedRerelease FES]]'' doesn't even try to be subtle about what [[spoiler:touching her Papillon Heart]] is supposed to [[OptionalSexualEncounter stand in for]]. For bonus points, the fact that she disables her arms and legs beforehand adds an additional, probably unintentionally creepy dimension to the encounter.
--->'''Aigis:''' [[spoiler:Since you'll be coming in direct contact with my heart, I... I apologize in advance if I say something odd, or make unusual noises...]]
** The special function given to Aigis and her 'sisters' makes them move twice as fast, do more damage, and leaves them overheated and immobile afterwards, and is called ''[[TheImmodestOrgasm Orgia]] Mode''. (That might seem like a bit of a stretch, but with a guy like [[PungeonMaster Ikutsuki]] on the team, you can never be too sure.)
*** The ''Orgia Mode'' can cause unintentional [[http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=orgia surprised looks]] on Spanish player's faces. (The game was never translated to Spanish, it was released as is).
** The command console recording of Fuuka and her vibrating waist slimmer. Mitsuru comes by her room, wanting to have a word with her, but changes her mind after hearing the vibrations and Fuuka's high-pitched voice from the other side of the door.
--->Yes! I'm, I'm, cooooming now!
* DontCelebrateJustYet: [[spoiler:Upon defeating all the Shadows that they think are causing [[TheHiddenHour the Dark Hour]], S.E.E.S. celebrate their believed success. That is, until they notice Ikutski's missing and the Dark Hour hasn't stopped. When they find him, they discover that the Dark Hour was never going to end and he's actually been a StrawNihilist manipulating S.E.E.S. in ''his'' goal to [[AGodAmI rule the Earth after The Fall]], a plan of which would've been pointless from the start as The Fall would kill all of humanity indiscriminately, Ikutski included. Rightfully, the agency calls him out on his insanity.]]
* DownerEnding: The bad ending. See MultipleEndings below.
* DramaticIrony: During January, the Second Years have meetings with their home room teachers where they discuss their plans for post-graduation, whilst the Third Years take their college entrance exams, [[spoiler:all with the knowledge of that world could end at the end of the month]]. If the player speaks to Mitsuru beforehand or Akihiko afterwards, they both note the absurdity of the situation and [[spoiler:Akihiko likens it to sticking a middle finger up at Nyx]].
* DrivenToSuicide: The method of summoning Personas by firing a remarkably-realistic gun replica at one's own head is not at all subtle in its symbolism of teen suicide. Judging by the way the user's head jerks back when they fire the Evoker, along with Yukari breaking down and being unable to pull the trigger in the opening, it's obvious the Evokers a bit more than just toy guns. It's implied that [[DysfunctionJunction the party]] are all at least just a bit suicidal (at least, before CharacterDevelopment helps them over some of their issues), and in the case of [[spoiler:poor Ken]], it's all but explicitly stated. By the end of the game, [[spoiler:the only actual suicide that occurs is an injured Jin blowing himself up when Shadows begin attacking him]].
* DysfunctionJunction: All members of the main cast, and most of the Social Links. The protagonist encounters: a terminally ill teenager, a cultist who uses bulimia to deal with survivor's guilt, an alcoholic monk, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a girl afraid of men]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes E & F]]
* EarlyBirdBoss: The Rampage Drive on the 14th floor is tough because at the earliest point you can face it, your battle options are limited. You've got only three party members and a limited selection of Personas and Fusion options, while the Rampage Drive is the first boss with no weakness, has resistances to neuter Junpei's offensive capability, and carries a party-wide lightning attack that hits the weakness of Yukari, your party's main healer. Once you've gotten more levels and a wider variety of skills at your fingertips, though, it's significantly easier.
* EarlyBirdCameo:
** Upon first arriving at Gekkoukan High, several of the future Social Links can be seen going about their day as the Protagonist first heads to the Faculty Office before class, whilst several more (Along with future party members Akihiko and Ken) are seen as the Protagonist is shown walking through the various locations of the game on the first days before the player gets free reign to decide how to spend their time after-school. This number is reduced in ''Portable'', due to the format of the game meaning that those first after-school segments are cut, whilst on the Female Protagonist route, the characters shown don't change from those that are exclusive to the Male Protagonist route.
** Ken can be found talking with Yukari and Junpei by the temple several months before he gains any plot importance.
** Thanatos, the ultimate Persona of the Death arcana, can't be obtained by the Protagonist until fairly late in the game. However, when Orpheus first appears, Thanatos suddenly bursts out of his body and sticks around just long enough to [[CurbStompBattle violently curb-stomp the Magician]] and reveal the Protagonist's Wild Card ability.
** Several were added in ''Persona 3 Portable''.
*** A seemingly nondescript "Man Drinking Alone" starts appearing at Club Escapade as the story progresses, and goes on about various problems he has in his love life. When you speak to him the final time, he suddenly has a portrait and eventually states that his situation will probably have "nothing to do with your problems" in the bright red text reserved for critical information that the player needs to take note of. This is Vincent, star of the Atlus game ''VideoGame/{{Catherine}}'', which was in production at the time of [=P3P=]'s release, and the things he complains about are all references to the plot of his game.
*** In the Male Protagonist route, Noriko Kashiwagi appears during "Operation Babe Hunt". She is one of the teachers at Yasogami High, the school featured in ''VideoGame/Persona4''.
*** In the Female Protagonist route, Yukiko Amagi from ''VideoGame/Persona4'' appears over a year and a half before the events of her game begin.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: It might be a little odd to call it ''early'', but this was the first "modern" Persona title after a soft reboot. Needless to say, as the very first game with the new design paradigm, there were a number of areas where what would become P-Studio was still sussing out what game designs worked the best, and there's some comparatively oddball mechanics as a result:
** The most infamous is the original's inability to control other party members, and their resulting ArtificialStupidity which could go so far as to render some members borderline useless even with some AI nursing (poor Mitsuru). As a result, you leaned far harder on the protagonist, who was more fighting alone with some support characters than with a proper team. This was especially weird given that other SMT and ''Persona'' games prior let you control your team; ''Persona 4'' restored direct control while still leaving AI control an option, and the design has remained since, even getting backported into ''[=P3P=]'' and ''VideoGame/Persona3Reload''.
** On the subject of combat, the ability to split the party up to explore a floor. Your teammates didn't appear on the map just for [[AllInARow decoration]], you can split the team up to explore the dungeon faster, but this means they'll have to fight alone if they encounter a Shadow. In practice this is rarely worth it (partially because, thanks to [=PS2=] memory limits, dungeon floors never get ''that'' big) and by and large people just explored as a team. Later games kept teammates on the field but dropped the split-up function.
** Another combat subject is the ''three physical melee elements''. ''SMT'' splitting physical damage types isn't totally new, but having three separate schools and resistances for physicals was unique and made physical resistance quite a bit more complicated. Later Personas, and even later SMT titles, rolled it into a single "melee" school (with "pierce" returning as Gun-type attacks for ''SMT 4'' and ''[=P5=]''), making physical immunity easier to manage.
** The plot-driven Full Moon Boss battles are fixed events that happen on specific dates, independent of your exploration of Tartarus, while Tartarus itself has its own set of boss battles tied to progressing it. Later games streamlined their boss battles by removing the distinction between plot-driven and dungeon-based bosses, with both ''VideoGame/Persona4'' and ''VideoGame/Persona5'' both tying their story bosses directly to dungeon exploration, which was itself revamped to more closely reflect the story progression, as well as providing you with a timeline within which to accomplish your objective rather than requiring you to prepare with specific dates in mind. While ''VideoGame/Persona5'' does have its own Tartarus equivalent in the form of Mementos, in that both dungeons are procedurally generated and are not directly impacted by the plot, any bosses fought there are the result of taking up sidequests, and not tied to dungeon progression.
** There are only three social stats - Academics, Charm, and Courage - with a total of six ranks in each. ''VideoGame/Persona4'' would add an additional two social stats, but reduce the total ranks in each to five.
** Unlike later games, party members have lives outside of SEES and aren't always available to go dungeon-crawling with you. Later games have the other party members always available unless a major story event mandates otherwise.
** The last combat related subject of note is the protagonist's ability to equip every melee weapon. In the original ''Persona 3'' and ''Persona 3 FES'', this was done because of the party members being uncontrollable, so you needed a way to hit every physical element that didn't cost HP. It also allowed every melee weapon type to be available after [[spoiler:Shinjiro died]], as otherwise they'd be useless inclusions. Ever since ''Persona 4'' removed physical melee elements and allowed for direct party member control, future protagonists (as well as the protagonists of ''Persona 3 Portable'' and ''VideoGame/Persona3Reload'') have been restricted to one type of melee weapon.
** The ability to reverse and even break Social Links. If you decline a link's invitations too many times (or if you spend too much time with other girls, for the ladies) you can give them the idea you no longer want to be friends, putting the link into a reverse state. Hitting certain dialogue landmines in rank up scenes can also trigger this or even put the link into a break state (Yukari being particularly infamous for this). Reverse means you need to dedicate some time periods to the link before you'll gain points again, while a broken link won't even give an EXP bonus anymore. While it was a somewhat more realistic depiction of friendship (especially with teens), in practice it made juggling the time aspect that much more difficult and game-y, and tended to hurt immersion. ''Persona 4'' mostly did away with the feature[[note]]declining invites no longer has a penalty and there's no more jealousy mechanic; a few reversal landmines remain in dialogue, but this time you need to be pretty willfully dense and not paying attention to the message of the link to hit them[[/note]], and ''VideoGame/Persona5'' removes it entirely.
** Romantic Social Links worked a bit differently. In ''3'', a link with a romance-able girl will turn romantic at around two-thirds of the way in - usually around level 6 or 7. This not only feeds into the jealousy mechanic noted above, but also means the links tend to be focused a bit more ''on'' romance (compared to links in later games, which are more their own stories about the quandary a character faces). Weirder still, however, is that ''there is no option to just be friends'' - if you hit the romance point in a link, you're romantically involved with that person. This means that you have ''no choice'' but to be a philanderer if you want to see all the content and get EXP boosts for all Persona Arcana. Needless to say, this was a common complaint and ''4'' addressed it almost immediately. Like combat, this got revised in the female route of ''[=P3P=]'', though the male route retains the mechanics. The male protagonist's social links would eventually be revised in ''VideoGame/Persona3Reload''.
** Social Links would phone the Protagonist up during the week to make plans for Sunday, and it would be up to the player to keep track of if they had already made plans with someone else - with repeatedly declining invites or cancelling plans having a negative effect on the Social Link. From ''VideoGame/Persona4'' onwards, Social Links would only contact the Protagonist to make plans for that day, and there was no penalty for declining as the game would progress to the event upon the player agreeing to meet with someone rather than present every option available at that time; this method was backported to ''Persona 3 Portable'' and ''VideoGame/Persona3Reload''.
** Party member Social Links are only able to be progressed during school time, despite the entire party living in the same dorm, and neither Aigis or any of the male party members were given links of their own; the intention seems to have been that the SEES link covered all the party members as friends, with the character specific links for the girls serving to show how intimate their relationship with the Protagonist became, but the result is that Aigis and the male party members feel comparatively under-developed as a result. Subsequent games made sure to give every party member their own Social Link, whilst Aigis would receive one in ''FES'' and the remaining party members were amongst the new Social Links given to the Female Protagonist route in ''Portable''.
** ''3'' has a much more science-fiction feel compared to ''4'' and ''5''. ''3'' includes a lot technology specifically designed for dealing with personas and shadows, such as the evokers, as well as other sci-fi technology such as RidiculouslyHumanRobots. ''4'' and ''5'', by contrast, are more pure UrbanFantasy where the use of technology is limited to PostModernMagik involving realistic tech, such as televisions and smartphones.
** Unlike the later two games, the party members don't get their Ultimate Personas by completing their Social Links but automatically through story events.
** Neither ''FES'' or ''Portable'' provide the cast with a third tier Persona evolution, as this would not become a staple of the {{Updated Rerelease}}s until ''[[VideoGame/Persona4 Persona 4 Golden]]''.
** Upon completing every Social Link in a single playthrough in one of the {{Updated Rerelease}}s, the player is given the ability to fuse a higher level version of Orpheus; this practice would not carry forward into later games.
** Whilst ''Persona 3'' is unabashedly set in Japan, it still American-ises some of the terminology used instead of using the Japanese equivalent - namely referring to classes as Junior and Senior years. Subsequent games would instead use the Japanese terminology, and refer to the high school classes as First, Second, and Third Years. Additionally, all characters refer to each other on a FirstNameBasis and without honorifics, whereas later games' dubs would preserve these elements from the original.
** Armor is split between two slots, Armor for Defense and Footwear for Evasion; subsequent games would streamline this and place both stats on the Armor and remove Footwear as an equipment category. Additionally, certain armor pieces would change the cosmetic appearance of the characters, rather than have a separate slot for costumes, as would be the case in subsequent games.
** Upon starting a NewGamePlus, you retain the Persona compendium, money and equipment that you finished the game with, in addition to retaining the Protagonist's level and starting the game with the full shop inventory already available; however, you have to progress through the story again to unlock access to the compendium and advanced fusion. Subsequent games changed this, only allowing the Persona compendium, any unused Skill Cards, money and shop inventory to carry forward, but not restricting access to the compendium and advanced fusion.
** Messiah, the Protagonist's ultimate Persona, can be fused upon completion of the Judgment Social Link but doesn't appear in the final battle unless fused from Orpheus and Thanatos beforehand. In subsequent games, the ultimate Persona of the Protagonist first appears [[EleventhHourSuperpower at the climax of the]] TrueFinalBoss, and subsequently cannot be fused until NewGamePlus and with a much higher fusion cost.
** The main narrative runs through to December 31st, at which point the following month (and climax of the story) is unlocked dependent on a decision made by the player. Subsequent games would reach these points a month earlier in the narrative, with the climax of the story coming in the run-up to Christmas before skipping ahead to the end of the school year, and the inclusion of content set in the third semester would be a selling point for the UpdatedRerelease of those games.
* EasierThanEasy: Beginner in ''Portable''. Whereas Easy tweaks calculations in favor of the player party and gives you 10 items that allow you to revive from defeat, Beginner on top of that gives you an additional 20 of those items.
* EasterEgg:
** The Mitsuru and Aigis variation of the Summer Festival scene, which is by far the most obscure to get. You have to refuse all the girls' offers, then go to Naganaki Shrine at night (normally you're locked out of everywhere but Paulownia Mall at nighttime, this ''one specific day'' is one of the few times you're not) to see the scene. Without knowing about this, you'd assume their trip to the festival was just a NoodleIncident. Related, there's an episode title of [[ShowWithinAShow Featherman R]] that you'll only see if you ''don't'' go to the festival, and it's by far one of the weirdest in the game.
** Barring the protagonist, make a team entirely of girls, entirely of guys (either Akihiko, Junpei, and Ken, or Akihiko, Shinjiro and Ken - other combinations don't work), entirely of 2nd year students (Junpei, Yukari and Aigis), or of the original SEES members (Mitsuru, Akihiko, and Shinjiro) and talk to one of them in Tartarus -- the team members will comment on the current party composition.
** Put Akihiko and Ken together in a party with a female protagonist who's become lovers with both of them. The atmosphere will be incredibly awkward, compounded further if the fourth party member is Junpei.
** Tartarus conversation also changes depending on the date and the player's latest S. Link activity. Most of it is the expected ones tied to story progression, but if the player had done a S. Link event with a party member earlier that day, he/she will comment on how he/she had just talked to the main character. A romanced party member will express his/her embarrassment if talked to. However, if the Tartarus exploration takes place on 12/25, the party member the player picked for the Christmas Eve event earlier will comment on the irony.
** Equip Mara as your Persona and enter the Velvet Room and Elizabeth or Theodore will make an... ''interesting'' comment.
--->'''Elizabeth:''' Oh, my... Tee-hee... It's very manly, that much is certain.\\
'''Theodore:''' ... Wh-why do you have that... thing... equipped? It's very... unladylike.
* EasyLevelTrick: The Strength and Fortune boss fight is complicated by Fortune's roulette wheel which can benefit either side depending on the result. If you can manipulate it to inflict Fear on the enemy side, you can instantly kill them with a use of Ghastly Wail. You're unlikely to have a Persona that can do that on a fresh playthrough, but it can dramatically shorten the Vision Quest rematch in ''Portable''.
* EasyModeMockery: In the PSP rerelease, the descriptions of the difficulty levels have subtle shades of this. Easy mode is passive-aggressively described as being for people who don't have time for tactical combat, as if the game is offended that you aren't playing it seriously. And the description for Normal difficulty implies if you aren't playing on at least that level, you aren't enjoying the game at all.
* EducationMama:
** Maiko's mother. Her father is aware that Maiko's skipping piano lessons but doesn't seem to mind.
** Part of the reason Fuuka joined SEES is to escape her parents. They put academic pressure on her thanks to being mechanics in a family full of doctors. Note, [[DysfunctionJunction this is the most mundane of the SEES backstories.]]
* EldritchAbomination: [[spoiler:Nyx]] in ''Persona 3'', and [[spoiler:Erebus]] in ''Persona 3: FES''.
* EldritchLocation: Tartarus and the Abyss of Time.
* ElementalPowers: Each Persona-user tends to specialize with one element, but it's not as pervasive as the [[VideoGame/Persona2 the previous]] or [[VideoGame/Persona4 the next]] games.
** PlayingWithFire: Junpei and Koromaru; Junpei's is more for exploiting enemy weaknesses and knocking them down, as his innate strength is more geared towards his physical attacks, and Koromaru also specializes in CastingAShadow. The protagonist's initial Persona, Orpheus, also learns the Agi spell.
** BlowYouAway: Yukari.
** AnIcePerson: Mitsuru.
** ShockAndAwe: Akihiko, and Ken to a lesser extent.
** LightEmUp: Ken specializes in this more.
* ElementalTiers:
** [[AnIcePerson Bufu]] and [[ShockAndAwe Zio]] spells have higher MP cost than [[PlayingWithFire Agi]] and [[BlowYouAway Garu]] spells. They actually have the same power, but Bufu and Zio can [[StatusInflictionAttack inflict Freeze and Shock ailments]], respectively, while the other two only deal damage. ''Persona 4'' removed the higher cost for Bufu and Zio, along with the said ailment status effects.
** NonElemental / [[TheBigGuy Physical Specialists]]: Aigis and Shinjiro strictly use physical attacks, with the latter having the highest physical attack in the party. Aigis mixes hers with stat boosts and a single-target healing spell, whereas the only other spells Shinjiro can learn is one StatusInflictionAttack spell, Evil Smile, which is still to assist his physical attacking.
* EliteMooks: The enemies represented as "purple slimes" of one block are actually normal mooks encountered on the next block. Considering the level ranges being significant when exploring blocks, these kinds of enemies prove to be a challenge compared to the other enemies encountered on the current block.
* EliteTweak:
** With a bit of effort, Lilim can be fused with all four basic elemental spells, making her pretty much the only Persona you'll need to fight with until level 20 or so. Having no elemental weaknesses and a reasonably high magic stat is the icing on the cake.
** Helel can be this as it is possible to fuse him in such a way that he can cast multi-target elemental spells for no mana, or be completely immune to all types of damage (except Almighty as its unblockable). The methods for doing this however can politely be described as "time consuming and prone to randomness" and impolitely described as "completely insane".
* EmbarrassingButEmpoweringOutfit: The female-only ChainmailBikini style "High Cut Armor", renamed to "Battle Panties" in ''Persona 3: Portable''. It significantly raises a party members' attack and defense, can be gotten early on in the game and isn't usurped as the best armor for a while. However, it's also very skimpy and one the few costumes that the girls will comment on specifically if you equip it (usually you get a generic "thanks!" message, but with the HCA you get a "...really? I have to wear this?" one instead). In ''Persona 3: FES'' and ''Portable'', it also changes the character model, and the Female Protagonist can also wear it with pride too.
* EnemyScan: One of [[MissionControl Mitsuru, then Fuuka's]] major abilities. Unlike future games to come, their scanning takes two to three turns before fully revealing the target's elemental affinities (and moveset, in Fuuka's case). The scan will not show the bosses' moveset, and Tartarus Guardians completely obscure their scan results.
* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: Mitsuru. She has a very ''obsessive'' fangirl outside the main character's classroom. In ''Portable'', one of Akihiko's fangirls will mention that any girl seen with Akihiko is fair game for an attack ''except'' Mitsuru, as she has special powers.
* EventDrivenClock: During the first full moon, you get about nine minutes to get to the front of a train and destroy the Shadow controlling it. The clock only stops when you're on the menus. Oh, and the boss is a MookMaker. Good luck.
* EverybodyWasKungFuFighting: Everyone in the party is capable of fighting with dangerous weapons, which is justified by scenes either showing S.E.E.S. training or making them involved in a school club related to their weapons.
* EvilAllAlong: [[spoiler:Ikutsuki]]
* EvilCounterpart: Strega, a group of Persona-users opposing the heroes' own group SEES, sees themselves as this. [[spoiler:Since both groups report to the same guy and Strega never manages to do much to stop SEES, their "Evil Counterpart" status is Takaya's wishful thinking.]]
* EvilLaugh: Takaya delivers a particularly maniacal one in his final fight against SEES.
* ExpansionPack: ''Persona 3: FES'' (Notably allows the player to [[OldSaveBonus carry over painfully limited amounts of data from a game of the original]]).
* ExtendedGameplay: You've just defeated the TrueFinalBoss, and the next thing that you do is to... [[spoiler:go to school, just like what you usually did on the normal gameplay. Except that this is the last school day for both the protagonist and the gang]].
* ExtremityExtremist: The humanoid members of S.E.E.S. (with the exception of Mitsuru's kicks and Shinjiro's headbutts in their Critical Hit animations) and Strega will only use their arms in combat.
* EyedScreen: A cut-in of just the character's eyes will appear when you perform powerful Persona attacks that hit the enemy's weak spot.
** Fuuka gets one, just before she knows what the Evoker is used for an reveals that she has a Persona.
** When fighting Strega or [[spoiler:your fellow party members]] they do this on the first turn as they summon their Persona.
** The {{Superboss}} does this ''before'' the fight, indicating how much trouble you're in.
* FaceOfAThug: Takeharu Kirijo is a grim looking guy with an eyepatch and clearly makes some people like Junpei uneasy, but he's actually a pretty good guy. The first thing we see him talk about is lecturing Mitsuru on not being forthcoming with the other members of SEES regarding Tartarus, telling her that nothing about the situation is her fault and urging her to be more open and friendly with the group in general. The next thing he does is give them a lot of exposition himself with special attention paid to Yukari since her father was a researcher for the company.
* {{Fanservice}}: In FES, the player can dress the female characters in a variety of interesting outfits, such as {{Meido}} or a swimsuit. The males (including the MC) can wear swimsuits as well.
** In the PSP version of the game you can dress ''yourself'' in these outfits when playing as the female lead, and the male [=NPCs=] react accordingly. The female lead's path in the PSP version also alters the love motel sequence, so that instead of Yukari, it's Akihiko. In a towel. Or Junpei, if you prefer. His reaction is ''hilarious''.
** Also, in [=P3P=], you can dress the guys up in butler outfits, even Koromaru and there are new {{Sexy Santa Dress}}es for Aigis, Mitsuru and Yukari.
* FantasticVoyagePlot: Mentioned in a preview for ShowWithinAShow Phoenix Ranger Featherman R, referencing ep. 43 of ''Series/ChoujinSentaiJetman''.
* FantasyGunControl: The hero asks why they have to be armed with things like bows and swords. The weapons supplier points out they already carry something that looks like a gun, and it would be a very bad idea to get the two confused.
* FastForwardMechanic: There are time periods (i.e Evening, Afternoon) that can be skipped to, if you choose to immediately return to the dorm.
* FateWorseThanDeath:
** When speaking to Mitsuru after [[spoiler:rescuing Fuuka from Tartarus]], she refuses to divulge exactly what Mr. Ekoda's punishment for covering up instances of bullying at school, but just warns that it wasn't pleasant.
** Mitsuru's "Execution" is described as such by Akihiko.
* FestivalEpisode: Has two: The Summer Festival in August and the New Year's Festival on January 1st.
* FetchQuest: Most of Elizabeth's requests fall under this category. She will either request a specific item that you will need to ask someone in the dorm for on a specific date, a specific item that will be obtainable somewhere in the world, or X number of an item dropped by specific enemies found within Tartarus - and they won't drop the item unless the quest is active.
* {{Fiction 500}}: The Kirijo Group.
* TheFinalTemptation: [[spoiler:Ryoji's request for you to kill him.]]
* FirstFatherWins: A variation is invoked with Mutatsu the elderly monk's Social Link; he and his wife are long divorced, but she never remarried. The conflict of his S-Link involves convincing him to reconcile with her and his adult son.
* FirstGirlWins: Played with when obtaining a LoveInterest for the male protagonist; [[spoiler:it's seemingly Yukari, as he meets her first at the dorm, but as it turns out, he met ''Aigis'' ten years ago when Death was sealed into him - she was responsible for that.]].
* FishOutOfWater: Elizabeth, Theo and Mitsuru during your dates.
* FlunkyBoss: Some of the Full Moon Shadows will summon lesser Shadows to assist them in the battle. One boss in The Answer (the Rebellious Cyclops) will also do this. The Hanged Man shadow ''repeatedly'' summons minions that take him out of your attack range, making for a very long fight (if you aren't over-leveled).
* FoodPorn:
** The Female Protagonist can join the cooking club for making food items that can be shared with a character for boosts to their Social Link status. Share it during a date and not only do you get the boost, they sometimes blush.
** Happens to S.E.E.S. in Shinjiro's Social Link route where he takes the advice of the protagonist and cooks a party for everyone.
* ForDoomTheBellTolls: [[spoiler:After destroying the Arcana Hanged Man Shadow, SEES thought that the Dark Hour is over. Except it isn't, and they begin hearing a bell ringing from Tartarus, signifying [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the Fall]].]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** When Junpei asks why the school suddenly turned into Tartarus upon seeing it for the first time and if Mitsuru knows the reason behind it, Mitsuru answers with a nervous "No..." During this scene and the conversations that follow, Mitsuru is seen looking away from the group, as if she were hiding something. [[spoiler:Her family was involved in the accidental creation of Tartarus]].
** The opening has a shot of the main dorm the Protagonist is staying in overlayed with shots of Pharos, Ryoji, and the Protagonist himself, heavily implying all three are linked.
** Akihiko looks suspiciously surprised when Ken is introduced as a dormmate on July 18 and as an official S.E.E.S. member on August 28, implying that he is hiding something from the kid. Akihiko [[spoiler:knows about Shinjiro's involvement in the death of Ken's mother]].
** Shinjiro's Persona [[spoiler:Castor, is depicted as having been impaled in the chest, and it subtly foreshadows how he dies. During the day of his death, Ken readies his spear towards and attempts to impale him but is unable to do so. Shinjiro then takes a bullet to the chest in protecting Ken from Takaya.]]
** The coming of Nyx is referred to as The Fall. Not for any philosophical reasons, but simply because [[spoiler:it involves the moon literally falling out of the sky and crashing into the planet]].
** Combined with SpoilerCover, according to Japanese superstitions, if three people take a picture side by side, the person at the center will die first. Guess where [[spoiler:the protagonist is standing on the picture above]]?
%% Fridge Logic, Horror, and Brilliance go on the Fridge subpage. If you came here to edit for this, click the cancel edit button on the top left.
* FoulMedicine: If you visit Mr. Edogawa while Tired or Sick, he'll offer a strange concoction to help the protagonist get better. The protagonist is repulsed by it, and gets a Courage boost if they go ahead and drink it.
* FourIsDeath:
** October 4th is not a good day. [[spoiler:Shinjiro accidentally killed Ken's mother on October 4th of 2007. On October 4th of 2009, Ken plans to kill Shinjiro in revenge, only for Shinjiro to take a bullet for him instead.]]
** On November 4th, [[spoiler:Ikutsuki reveals his intention to end the world, and kills Mitsuru's father, only to die himself.]]
** Additionally, the Full Moon Shadows begin to appear starting in April, the fourth month of the year.
** [[spoiler:[[OptionalBoss The Reaper]]]] has exactly 4444 HP.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: The female leads fit this: Yukari is sanguine, Mitsuru is choleric, Fuuka is phlegmatic, and Aigis is melancholy.
* FranchiseCodifier: The previous ''Persona'' games were fairly standard dungeon crawling [=JRPGs=]. This is the game that established the franchise's identity as a combination of JRPG and social sim that still holds strong today.
* FromBadToWorse: Cases of Apathy Syndrome continue to worsen throughout the storyline even with S.E.E.S giving the spread of the disease a temporary reprieve by vanquishing each Full Moon Shadow. Eventually, even that stops working, because [[spoiler:Ikutski had been manipulating them all into targeting the Shadows to begin with. All S.E.E.S has been doing until now is unknowingly setting the stage for Nyx's summoning, and Apathy Syndrome cases skyrocket after the last Full Moon Shadow is defeated, which consequently dooms everyone to Nyx's arrival.]]
* FunctionalMagic: The school nurse, while acting as a substitute teacher, actually teaches classes on magic throughout history, including defining the meanings of the tarot cards which correspond to the social links. The lessons are actually [[ShownTheirWork startlingly accurate]].
* FunWithAcronyms: '''S'''pecialized '''E'''xtracurricular '''E'''xecution '''S'''quad.
* FunWithHomophones: In the 2023 remastered version of ''Portable'', rescuing a missing person awards you the "S.E.E.S. the Day" achievement which is a wordplay on the phrase "seize the day".
* FusionDance: In addition to the usual Persona Fusion mechanics, [[spoiler:Junpei's Persona Hermes evolves into Trismegistus by fusing with Chidori's Medea, and inherits her Spring of Life passive.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes G & H]]
* GameplayAndStoryIntegration:
** Despite the effectiveness of HealingHands Dia spells, there are clear limits on the ''availability'' of the stronger healing spells, both in gameplay and in story. In the first month of the game Mitsuru doesn't ask Yukari to heal Akihiko's injuries which confine him to a hospital for some time, which makes sense as Yukari only has access to starter healing skills at that point.
** The original ''VideoGame/Persona1'' shows that standard healing spells are much less effective on people who have yet to awaken their Persona. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, this seems to extend to people who can't or don't intend to use their Persona, as Shinjiro can attest to.]]
** When Akihiko returns from the hospital, he is in Great condition, like how the protagonist will be in Great condition if they sleep at night instead of study.
** Since Aigis is a machine, she can't be poisoned.
** Over the course of the first few months of the game, Junpei becomes increasingly jealous and hostile towards the Protagonist. On the Female Protagonist route, this results in the player being locked out of progressing Junpei's Social Link between the July Full Moon operation and the summer exams, when Junpei apologises.
** Chidori has a notable HealingFactor, to the point she heals from injuries ([[DeathSeeker mostly self-inflicted]]) at an abnormal rate. Her self-recovery is represented in game as her Spring of Life passive, which heals 8% of her max HP per turn.
** [[spoiler:During the PostFinalBoss fight against Nyx, the protagonist gains the Great Seal ability to seal Nyx away, which costs 100% of the player's HP to use. Sure enough, the fight ends with the protagonist doing a HeroicSacrifice.]]
** Usually, romanced S. Links' involvement is limited to special events/holidays like in all other ''Persona'' games since then. Any other nod to this is shown from interacting with them in Tartarus (this type of dungeon conversation also applies to ''Persona 4''). In the female route, probably because of the smaller romance pool involving S.E.E.S. party members, having certain characters romanced will alter various dialogue from dorm conversation on certain dates (remarks about Ryoji, post-Kyoto trip[[note]]In the Kyoto trip itself, this also applies while talking to Akihiko at the inn, where he has a different dialogue if romanced. The male route's equivalent, Yuko, also has altered dialogue if her S. Link has progressed far enough to be considered romantic.[[/note]], etc.) to conversation with a different S. Link character (like Yukari's extra remark as mentioned on DevelopersForesight) [[spoiler:to the climactic scene between post-Nyx Avatar fight and the final confrontation against Nyx, where Akihiko/Ken, alongside Aigis as in the original, will yell the player character's name.]]
* GameplayAndStorySegregation:
** Social Links aren't directly tied to the main plot. For example, even if someone in your party has been reversed, they'll still talk to you normally at the dorm.
** When SEES learn of the coming of Nyx, [[spoiler:Ryoji repeatedly states that only the Protagonist can hurt him. Come the final battle, and the entire party are able to cause damage to Nyx Avatar, despite the game making it abundantly clear that Nyx Avatar is the former Ryoji. [[DownplayedTrope That being said, the protagonist ''is'' the only one who manages to actually defeat Nyx, as even winning against Nyx Avatar doesn't stop the Fall until the protagonist sacrifices themselves to become the Great Seal]].]]
** In ''Portable'', both Orpheus variants are treated as separate Personas, which is normal considering how later games featuring both of them treat them like this as well. However, it is possible to have both in the Compendium by playing both routes (as in clearing one and then start NewGamePlus on the other) regardless of the current main character being played as, which also has a consequence of duplicating Susano-o's recipe on the Special Fusion screen[[note]]One for male, one for female. The result is still the exact same Persona regardless.[[/note]], the only time this oddity happens.
* GeniusBruiser:
** Mitsuru's grades are the top of Gekkoukan's third year class whilst Akihiko is among the higher scoring students, and are both combat ready party members.
** Once your Academics reach level 6, the Protagonist officially becomes a "Genius". They're probably also the one dishing out the most damage in Tartarus.
* GenkiGirl: The female protagonist will generally tend toward this in her dialogue options.
* GenreBusting: It's an RPG UrbanFantasy about saving the world and the true self and romance and horror and psychology and resolutions and with dating sim mechanics.
* GiantMook: The Tower Boss Shadows are essentially "upgraded" versions of the normal enemy Shadows.
* GlassCannon: The Magical Magus boss, who is defeatable at reasonable levels only by rushing it with its weakness for repeated All-Out Attacks.
* GlobalCurrencyException: Shinshoudo Antiques. Like Rag's Shop in other games, she only accepts jewels for unique items.
* GoWaitOutside: The game follows a strict calendar time outside the dungeons, where each day is divided into time periods that some actions will advance. For instance, antique shop owner always requires a day (or two, for everyone's ultimate weapons) to produce requested weapons.
* GoingCommando: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]]. Ken asks the girls if they're wearing underwear under their kimonos during the New Year's festival (note that in several regions of Japan, kimonos really aren't worn with anything underneath), mentioning overhearing it from Junpei. The girls aren't very amused. When Ken later asks if Junpei was telling the truth, the protagonist can either confirm or deny or simply dodge the question.
* GoingThroughTheMotions: Blatantly so. Other than the rare anime-styled scenes, the game's dialogue sequences consist of characters using the same pool of animations throughout the entire game, and only a few scenes receive special animations. Perhaps the most obvious example of this trope comes when the group goes to Yakushima - when Akihiko's wearing a swimsuit, he trades his CoatOverTheShoulder for a towel he carries around in the exact same manner. It's a ''bit'' better than most games that do this, though, as each character at least has their own animation pool - characters all have different walk cycles and sit down in different positions, for example.
* {{Gonk}}:
** The Moon Social Link of the male protagonist is the only obese character in the game.
** And of course, Igor. The recurring epitome of the Persona series.
* GottaKillEmAll: The initial goal of SEES is to defeat the twelve Full Moon Shadows that have been popping up ever since the protagonist first joined the party. [[spoiler:[[NiceJobBreakingItHero Unfortunately, in doing so, they release]] the herald of [[EveryoneHatesHades Nyx]], the AnthropomorphicPersonification of death, who had been split in twelve by Aigis and [[SealedEvilInACan sealed inside the protagonist ten years ago]]]].
* GraduateFromTheStory: Features this in both the good and bad ending, even though the hero and the majority of the team are not graduating that year.
* GratuitousEnglish:
** Yukari will sometimes say "OK" when initiating an All Out Attack.
** In the Japanese version, Mitsuru will sometimes speak in this manner, reflecting her cultured status.
** The soundtrack is full of these, thanks to the vocalists, especially Lotus Juice.
* GratuitousForeignLanguage:
** Almost the entire soundtrack is in English, despite being sung entirely by Japanese people. Lotus Juice's rapping doesn't sound too bad because he was raised in America, but Yumi Kawamura's vocals can be very, very difficult to make out. The only Japanese vocal songs in the game are the credits themes of both ''the Journey'' and ''the Answer''.
** Mitsuru occasionally speaks English in the Japanese version. [[KeepItForeign This is changed to French in the English release.]] In ''Portable'', Akihiko joins in during the third Full Moon event with "Oui."
** Bebe, the foreign exchange student who mixes Japanese in with what seems to be (Bebe doesn't have any voice acting, all of his dialogue coming in text boxes) a French accent. In the Japanese version, his speech uses a lot of katakana implying odd stressing as well as using odd, archaic pronouns (referring to himself as "sessha" and tagging "-dono" when referring to the protagonist).
** The song "Changing Seasons" contains French proverbs in the breakdown section, and the street names in the town map are also written in French.
** Even ''Spanish'' shows up occasionally in the English version. After finishing a battle, Shinjiro may quip "Adios, asshole," and late in the game Aigis may yell "[[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay Hasta la vista!]]" when attacking an enemy. Bebe will also start using "Hasta la vista" if the protagonist [[TheGadfly tells]] him that phrase when he asks how to say "goodbye" in Japanese.
* GreenEyedMonster:
** Junpei quickly becomes jealous of the Protagonist after joining SEES, largely due to their being named field leader over himself and his own insecurities over the Protagonist being a more skilled fighter than him.
** Downplayed at the start of the Male Protagonist's route, as rumors quickly spread about him and Yukari dating because they arrived at school together on the first day. The Male Protagonist is never subject to anything more than his classmates recognising him because of the rumor, whilst a Drama CD reveals that many of the male second year students formed a broken hearts club over the rumors.
** At numerous points in the Female Protagonist's Social Link with Akihiko, it is made abundantly clear that Akihiko's harem of fangirls are seething with jealousy that he's paying attention to the [=FeMC=] over them - you can't even ''start'' the Social Link if your Charm isn't high enough for you to ignore the dirty looks you receive just for talking to him.
** Upon Ryoji's arrival at Gekkoukan High, he quickly develops a similar following to Akihiko. During his Social Link with the Female Protagonist, the third rank kicks off with Ryoji choosing to spend time with her over any of his admirers, many of whom watch on in envy as the two leave together.
* GriefSong: [[spoiler:The credits theme, "Memories of You"]].
* TheGrimReaper:
** An [[HopelessBossFight incredibly strong]] OptionalBoss called Death stalks Tartarus and will chase you down if you remain on a floor for too long. He forgoes the SinisterScythe in exchange for [[GunsAkimbo dual]] [[RevolversAreJustBetter revolvers]]. Said revolvers also have 3 foot long barrels.
** All Personas with the Death Arcana are gods/incarnations of death from varying religions, including "Western" Death (Pale Rider), Samael, Alice (''Devil Survivor 2'', anyone?) and the ultimate Death Persona, [[Myth/GreekMythology Thanatos]].
** [[spoiler:Nyx Avatar is the AnthropomorphicPersonification of death.]]
* GroundhogDayLoop: In the opening of ''The Answer'', [[spoiler:midnight occurs]] and the date is still March 31st, and it remains that way for the rest of the adventure. Interacting with the TV after each dungeon will show the same news report.
* GroupPictureEnding: The remaining members of S.E.E.S. did this after defeating the 12th Shadow. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] however, since they quickly found out that their task was not over.
* GuestStarPartyMember: [[spoiler:Shinjiro Aragaki]] is this in a roundabout way, as he's only available for one in-game month [[spoiler:before his PlotlineDeath]]. This is covered up by the fact that his Persona, [[spoiler:Castor]], can learn a full list of skills up to Level 70, whereas your other party members will learn their last skill in the mid 40's or 50's, and cannot learn more [[spoiler:until they obtain their Ultimate Personas]], but chances are he won't learn them unless you deliberately go and level grind him. [[spoiler:''Portable'' allows the player to experience some of his late-game skills without grinding, but only in one of the Vision Quest battles where the gimmick revolves around finding the opportunity to knock down using his (or the main character's) Strike skills.]]
* GuideDangIt:
** Maxing out all Social Links in one go for Orpheus Telos requires a lot of micromanagement, especially when you're starting from scratch and need time to raise your social stats. Made slightly easier and slightly harder for the Female Protagonist's route as more social links are available at night but she has two links ([[spoiler:Shinjiro and Ryoji]]) which have a set time frame (one month for both) to max out.
** The Female Protagonist's few romantic social links can be difficult to turn in that direction, especially in comparison to the male protagonist's automatic romances. Though Shinjiro's is often cited because [[spoiler:one would not usually spend time with a Social Link after raising it to maximum]], Akihiko deserves a mention because he requires multiple flags, and a single mistake will keep them friends only. For even more fun, it's possible to completely break that Link altogether. In addition to the flags for Akihiko, if the player reaches rank 7 of his Link before the [[spoiler:October Full Moon event]], then it freezes until after the event ends, [[spoiler:coinciding with Shinjiro's death]]. This can trip up many first-timers doing a blind run.
** As for [[spoiler:Ryoji]]'s Link: Anyone who played the original ''P3'' or ''FES'' would realize [[spoiler:that he only shows up for a month and thus would want to take the opportunity to spend time with him whenever possible]], but woe unto someone who thinks that, [[spoiler:oh, they have plenty of time]]. It is ''very'' easy to make their Link impossible to finish if the player doesn't take, and accept, every chance to hang out with him.
** The [[{{Superboss}} optional battle]] with [[spoiler:Elizabeth/Theodore]] is impossible to win without exactly the right set-up of Personas and equipment, with absolutely nothing to indicate the restrictions on Personas. If one of the unsaid rules is broken, the Protagonist will immediately be hit with a Megidolaon that does 9999 damage -- and their health caps at 999. There ''is'' a pattern to the attacks, if one even makes it far enough to pick it out, but that doesn't make things much easier.
** Each stage of Vision Quest in ''Portable'' qualifies for various reasons.
*** The Full Moon boss rematches in yield an additional reward if you fulfil an unspecified objective during the battle. Not even the Official Perfect Guide divulges what they are, and the community has conflicting observations about them.
*** The attribute doors (Power, Magic, Endurance, Speed, and Luck) are varying degrees of frustrating, with each battle designed to be won in a very specific manner. Endurance and Speed are considered the worst offenders, as you need to follow a very specific set of actions in order to complete them without getting yourself killed.
*** Margaret doesn't have as many unspoken rules as her siblings do, and permits you to bring a full party and even nullify her attacks. Bad news is that she has her own unspoken rules (mainly about dealing enough damage by a certain number of turns) before she drops a 9999-damage Megidoalon on you.
* GuiltBasedGaming: Social Links are largely this, as it fits standard DatingSim mechanics, including choosing the ''best'' response to advance the link and avoid hurting feelings, as well as choosing whom to spend time with wisely to avoid jealousy and other unfortunate episodes. The game also guilts trip you for refusing a Social Link's offer to spend time with them, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOkWsE6bVRI especially if the player refuses to spend Christmas Eve with another character.]]
* GunsAreWorthless: Aigis and [[spoiler:Takaya]] use firearms as their primary weapons, but they aren't especially powerful. Though in cutscenes, [[spoiler:Shinjiro, Mitsuru's father, Ikutsuki, and Junpei (who manages to get better) are all killed by wounds inflicted by gunfire]].
* GunTwirling: The Protagonist and Mitsuru do this when they use their Evokers; seeing as how they're not guns either way, gun safety isn't that much an issue.
* GuysSmashGirlsShoot: With the exception of the Protagonist in the [=PS2=] versions of the game, Yukari and Aigis are the only party members who use ranged weapons. The trope is further enforced by Akihiko's boxing, and by Junpei's Persona and Shinjiro's entire fighting style being based around causing as much damage as possible.
* HairMemento: Aigis can't give the Protagonist organic hair, as she is a robot. However, she wants to fulfil the emotional meaning of this trope, so she gives them one of the damaged screws that had to be replaced after [[spoiler:she was heavily damaged trying to fight Death on her own]].
* HappyEndingOverride: At the end of the main storyline, Aigis, while obviously a bit saddened [[spoiler:by the Protagonist's death, seems to have been expecting it and accepts it]]. By the time of ''The Answer'', which was only added as part of the UpdatedRerelease, [[spoiler:Aigis has completely lost herself with him dead, and our hero's death was completely unexpected by both her and the rest of SEES]].
* HarderThanHard: ''Portable'' added "Maniac" mode, in which enemies do double damage, enemy advantage rates are boosted even further compared to Hard and any benefits from New Game+ are lost as the player starts over from scratch. This is to offset the plethora of AntiFrustrationFeatures that are added to the same game.
* HardWorkHardlyWorks: This is averted when it comes to increasing the hero's non-combat statistics. Before exams, he'll need to have studied quite regularly to get the most out of it, and one of the characters even tells him that studying a bit each day rather than just cramming will go further.
* HeadphonesEqualIsolation: At least at first. The protagonist is shown listening to a remix of "Burn My Dread" in the first scene, but his headphones become an accessory after that.
* HealingWinds: Cool Breeze is a passive effect that recovers a small amount of HP and SP after every battle.
* {{Hellhound}}: Although Cerberus appears in nearly every game in the ''[=MegaTen=]'' family, this is one of the few games where he actually looks like his mythological namesake: a three-headed hound. Naturally, his elemental affinities are Dark and Fire.
* HellIsThatNoise: While you're exploring [[EldritchLocation Tartarus]], if you spend too much time on any given floor, [[TheGrimReaper Death]] (an OptionalBoss that's powerful enough to be a HopelessBossFight for the vast majority of the game) will spawn. And start ''[[StalkedByTheBell chasing you]]''. When Death spawns -- and for as long as it's following you -- it makes the ''very'' distinctive noise of rattling chains. When you hear that noise, it's time to ''[[RunOrDie run]]''.
* TheHeroDies: Implied in the good ending, where [[spoiler:the Protagonist uses a move that requires all of his HP to seal Nyx away. When the game picks up again a month later, he keeps thinking to himself how very tired he is and the game ends with him closing his eyes and finally "falling asleep" in Aigis's lap as [[GoIntoTheLight the light shines on him and the screen fades to white.]]]] Outright confirmed in ''The Answer'', where [[spoiler:the Protagonist's death]] is the main source of conflict.
* HeroicBSOD:
** Mitsuru suffers one of these after [[spoiler:watching Shuji Ikutsuki murder her father before her very eyes]].
** The entirety of SEES undergoes two - one after [[spoiler:Shinjiro's death]] and later [[spoiler:learning about the upcoming apocalypse]].
* HeroicSacrifice:
** 10 years before the events of the game, [[spoiler:Yukari's father died as a result of the explosion caused by his attempt to stop the experiment that led to the creation of the Dark Hour]].
** Played straight and defied with the events of October 4th - [[spoiler:Takaya interrupts Shinjiro and Ken's confrontation over the former accidentally killing the latter's mother, and shoots Shinjiro non-fatally before demanding the name of SEES' support member. Ken lies and claims that it's him to protect Fuuka, and Shinjiro dives infront of Ken as Takaya fires at him, taking the bullet and dying]].
** [[spoiler:After Ikutsuki attempts to sacrifice SEES to bring about the Fall, Mitsuru's father shoots him to protect his daughter and the rest of the team, but is fatally shot by Ikutsuki in the process]] on November 4th.
** [[spoiler:The Great Seal amounts to this]] in the good ending, with [[spoiler:the Protagonist giving their life to seal Nyx and save everyone else]].
%% Hey, It's That Voice goes on the Trivia subpage.
* HiddenHeartOfGold: Shinjiro Aragaki. Residential badass [[{{Jerkass}} foul-mouthed punk]] [[BadassLongcoat in imposing clothes]], enjoys and fosters an extremely intimidating image (and would rather be seen that way, even by SEES,) with a soft spot for dogs and cooking. If you spend time with him, he tells the protagonist to take care of their health and enjoy their life after recovering from a cold. [[spoiler:It's rather ironic, seeing as they both make a HeroicSacrifice]]. The Moon S.Link clarifies that the jerkassery is more or less a facade (with good reason). He drops the act completely when he spends time with the heroine, and even has a [[WhenSheSmiles fairly attractive smile]].
* TheHiddenHour: The Dark Hour. It's even called as such by Ikutsuki in a cutscene very early in the game.
-->'''Ikutsuki''': "The Dark Hour occurs every day at twelve midnight: you could say its the 'hidden' hour."
* HighSchool:
** Gekkoukan High, the game's main setting. Most of the Protagonist's time is spent there, be it as a high school student or as a member of SEES, after it turns into [[EvilTowerOfOminousness Tartarus]] during the Dark Hour.
** On the Female Protagonist route in ''Portable'', a mandatory event early in Summer takes the Female Protagonist to Yasogami High, the setting of ''VideoGame/Persona4''.
* HoaxHogan: Gigas-type Shadows from this game and onwards are giant wrestlers sporting Hogan's signature hairstyle and moustache wearing a poorly-sized Shadow mask that still leaves their mouth and moustache visible. Their skill animation is GivingSomeoneThePointerFinger and their attack animation has them performing the Axe Bomber.
* {{Honorifics}}: Retained from the original Japanese, albeit inconsistently, particularly between Senpai-Kohai, and Junpei's "Yukaricchi" is changed to "Yuka-''tan''" in the English version.
* HotSpringsEpisode: The Kyoto school trip segment has a "minigame" where you have to avoid the girls when you "accidentally" stay in after it changes over from men-only to women-only.
* AHouseDivided: The cause of conflict in the climax of ''The Answer'', [[spoiler:as SEES is conflicted over what they need to do when offered the chance to revisit the dead protagonist in the past.]]
* HowWeGotHere: The FES epilogue ''The Answer'' begins with an unexplained but fierce battle between Akihiko and Aigis, while Metis and Ken are seen fighting in the background. Much of the subsequent game is Aigis recounting the events that led up to what she obliquely calls "the incident".
* HurricaneOfPuns: One of Ikutsuki's hobbies is apparently coming up with bad puns to use in future conversations.
* HyperactiveMetabolism: A lot of the healing items in the game are edible. Everyone, including Aigis, can eat them.
* HypercompetentSidekick:
** The Protagonist is effectively one, as whilst they become the Field Leader of SEES, both Mitsuru and Akihiko have seniority and SEES won't enter Tartarus if neither of them are present, with Mitsuru very much being shown as the overall leader of the team.
** On more than one occasion, Jin is the sole reason Takaya doesn't get himself killed fighting with SEES, as Jin keeps having to remind him of the greater scope of their goals and to show restraint.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes I-L]]
* IAmSpartacus: [[spoiler:Ken claims himself to be the MissionControl, and he would have been shot by Takaya if not for Shinjiro's sacrifice]].
* ICallHimMisterHappy: Female variant. The B and J on the Priestess boss' breasts stand for Boaz and Jachin, two pillars in the biblical temple of Solomon. However, the two are reversed. Boaz is supposed to be on the left and Jachin on the right.
* IdleAnimation:
** The male protagonist in the [=PS2=] versions will perform several idle animations when standing still for a given period of time, such as stretching his arms to his shoes, will put his hands in his pockets, and then look around, yawn, and stretch.
** In all versions of the game during battle sequences, the characters will also have idle animations while waiting for their turns, such as Aigis doing her iconic robotic pose.
* IgnoranceIsBliss: Lampshaded by Ken in the dorm during December where the "normal people" don't even have to worry about the [[spoiler:coming of Nyx and The Fall. Ryoji also makes this case to the protagonist shortly before Nyx's arrival, and the ending you get is determined by whether or not you agree with him]].
* ImmunityDisability: One of the reasons why fighting the OptionalBoss is hard and tedious. You can at most resist her attacks. If you happen to null, absorb or reflect the element she's going to use, you get a 9999 damage [[NonElemental Megidolaon]] to your face instead. This is an exception however, as other times being immune will greatly help you throughout the game.
* ImplausibleHairColor: Everyone (but Aigis and Bebe) is Japanese, thus logically should have dark brown or black hair, but...
** The female MC has a fairly light auburn.
** Mitsuru's hair color is a fairly dark red.
** Chidori's is a very bright red, though given her [[ElegantGothicLolita style]], it's likely dyed.
** Yukari's hair is a light brown.
** Akihiko has naturally gray/silver hair.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: For every weapon type, there are one or two gag weapons, all of them silly, yet most of them are rather powerful. The highlights include a toy bow with suction cup arrows, a baseball bat with nails (used as a two-handed sword), a bus stop sign (used as a hammer), umbrellas (used like Mitsuru's rapiers), a steel pipe (used as a one-handed sword), some kitchen knives, a broom (used as a spear), a bone (for Koromaru), a RocketPunch (for Aigis), ''Jack Frost plush toys'' (used as boxing gloves, of all things), and in the PSP version, there are lacrosse sticks and hockey sticks for the female protagonist. The bus stop sign, which only Shinjiro can use (at least in the PSP version) is the most famous one; it reappears in ''VideoGame/Persona4'' and makes some funny cameos in a [[AudioAdaptation CD drama]] and a light novel, where Shinjiro actually wields it.
* InfallibleBabble:
** In the beginning of the game, while you're being told things like "Time never waits, it delivers all to the same end," you're also told that [[spoiler:the main character has one year]]. Even if you did read it in the beginning, the meaning you get from it would be painfully different from what actually happens.
** You will occasionally hear students talking about rumors in the entrance of the campus. Most of which reflect the current state of the city, or plot, while some would give a hint about newly-introduced characters, clubs, or stores - a clue about a potential Social Link that you might unlock from that day onwards.
* InformalEulogy:
** Fuuka MissionControl begging the player character to get up, or denying that he could possibly be defeated, in various fashions when WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou is invoked.
** And once the screen fades to black, [[GameOverMan Igor]] waxes poetic on the Main Character's death, as stated by the introductory quote of this page.
* InstantDeathBullet:
** [[spoiler:Junpei gets shot by Takaya ''once'' and dies immediately. He gets better, though.]] Doubly dubious in that he had no trouble with [[spoiler:Chidori]] ''stabbing him with axes'' just five minutes earlier thanks to GameplayAndStorySegregation.
** Averted by [[spoiler:Shinji]]. It takes two, and even then he still has enough energy to get up and walk a few steps away.
* InstantRunes: Light ("Hama") and Darkness ("Mudo") skills utilize this.
* InterfaceSpoiler: Played straight at times and averted at others.
** There's a FirstEpisodeTwist in that the full moon counter is visible in the corner of the screen from the very beginning, even before the full moon has any significance whatsoever.
** It's also easy to get suspicious of the game being almost over on two counts when [[spoiler:you beat the last full moon Shadow]]. First, you still don't have a maxed Fool link (at Rank ''6'' before the fight), which is independent of your actions, and second, [[spoiler:the aftermath of Shinjiro's death has each member of SEES beginning to find their resolve and gain their Ultimate Personas. When you face the November full moon Shadow, only Akihiko, Ken, and Fuuka have them; in fact, if you talk to Aigis one night after Fuuka's transforms, she'll even mention that more transformations are on the way]]. This can also be spoiled even earlier if the player is the type to clear every request as soon as it is available, as unlocking request #47 directly spoils that [[spoiler:there is more to Tartarus despite the game trying to trick players that Tziah, the highest block at the time, has a definitive end.]]
** On the other hand, the game goes out of its way to avert this by adding useless information to the interface in order to make it consistent. [[spoiler:Fuuka and her Persona have a full set of battle stats even though she never enters battle. Similarly, Shinjiro's Persona has a full set of skills he can learn as he levels, even though he'll die before learning most of them unless the player goes out of their way to level-grind him during the month of September.]]
** Another aversion comes in hiding the true length of the game by the amount of learned skills. For cast members, you might underestimate how far they'll meaningfully progress but [[spoiler:you later unlock the second form of the characters' personas, which opens spells further than they would otherwise have learned.]]
** A DoubleSubversion comes in when the game attempts to hide how long the game is playable. Normally, a player would expect the game to go through every day up until the end of the game, but this is not the case. It has really random and useless crap in the calendar that barely has any kind of significance used in the game other than as special holidays, taking exams, and doing special stuff with friends/social links/what have you. Additionally, [[spoiler:the month of January]] is the last month fully playable [[spoiler:if on the Good End]]. However, [[spoiler:the game skips to March 3 in both endings and plays until March 5 (March 4 is only playable in the Good End), which is significant since this is before the Graduation Reception, a diverging point in both the Bad End and Good End.]]
* InTheEndYouAreOnYourOwn: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. [[spoiler:Even though the protagonist faces Nyx by himself, his social links and fellow S.E.E.S. members voice their support for him, [[ThePowerOfFriendship which gives him the power to seal Nyx away.]]]]
* InUniverseGameClock:
** Mostly due to your protagonist's regular schedule of WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld. The game announces when the "clock" progresses to the next time of day (or the next day).
** Feel free to take the monorail back and forth across the city as many times as you want while doing Fetch Quests; it takes no time. But leave your dorm on Sunday, realize right outside the door that you forgot to do something, and try to go back in? The act of walking through the door will take all day, and it'll be evening by the time you make it inside.
* {{Irony}}:
** The bad ending is basically your (former) party members discussing the future, eventually deciding to celebrate it with a karaoke session. [[spoiler:They're all about to die, [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt along with the rest of the world]], and no one knows this. At all. And it's [[YouBastard all your fault]].]]
** Knowing that the Messiah Persona is based from [[Literature/TheBible Jesus Christ]], it can be ironic to look at the Persona's skills and know that it is immune to Pierce attacks.
* IrrelevantSidequest: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by having either Elizabeth or Theodore wishing to test your resourcefulness and power (or just indulge their curiosity about the outside world, such as ordering you to obtain a takoyaki).
* ItemCrafting: ''[[UpdatedRerelease FES]]'' allows you to forge weapons at the Antique Shop by fusing your Personas with 'Nihil' weapons dropped by a MetalSlime. Most of the time the result is a fairly generic weapon with a special effect dependant on the Arcana of the Persona used, but certain combinations will yield [[InfinityPlusOneSword mythological weapons which are easily the best in the game]].
* ItMakesSenseInContext: "The Fall" is not a term that's mentioned a lot, but it is very significant. [[spoiler:It means "TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt" as done by Nyx.]]
* ItsAllUpstairsFromHere: Tartarus is the first, last, and pretty much only dungeon in the game.
* ItsASmallNetAfterAll: According to Fuuka it turns out Strega's Jin uses the screen name... "Jin".
* KidnappedForExperimentation: In their efforts to harness the power of Shadows, the Kirijo Group took to taking children, both offered up and forcibly taken, in order to forcibly give them [[FightingSpirit Personas]]. Of the experiment, all but four of the children [[WouldHurtAChild ended up dying]], with the survivors being [[spoiler:Mitsuru, Jin, Chidori, and Takaya, the latter three going on to form Strega while Mitsuru became a founding member of S.E.E.S.]].
* LampshadeHanging: Following the first day of school in January, Junpei asks to speak to the Protagonist in private; on the Male Protagonist route, Junpei jokes about the fact that it's taken until January for the two to actually have a meaningful one-on-one conversation.
* LastChanceHitPoint: In Portable, if your Social Link with SEES is high enough, your party members can "withstand the attack" that would otherwise kill them. However, this only works once per battle.
* LastDiscMagic:
** Messiah, the ultimate form of the Judgement Arcana, and one of the last Personae you can obtain due to its incredibly high base level. It's about as strong as you'd expect.
** Orpheus Telos, a Persona added to ''FES'' and ''Portable'', is only able to be fused once you have completed every Social Link on a single playthrough.
** The "severe damage" forms of the elemental spells, only available from high-level personae that mostly require you to finish a social link to unlock. All except the fire spell are single-target only, but by that point you should have the SP to spend quite comfortably.
* LastDisrespects: [[spoiler:During Shinji's service, you overhear two upperclassmen complaining about how they don't want to waste time sitting through it, and that he was probably 'just some punk'. One then asks your hero if he happened to know the guy, then dismisses the possibility, as you're just a ''junior''.]]
* LastEpisodeThemeReprise: ''Twice'' on the final day - battle against [[spoiler:Nyx Avatar]] is set to "Battle for Everyone's Souls", [[AutobotsRockOut rockin' remix]] of the Velvet Room theme, and [[spoiler:Nyx herself]] is fought to the sound of "Burn My Dread -Last Battle-", remix of the opening.
* LawfulStupid: Mr. Ekoda, the classic literature teacher with seniority in Gekkoukan High. He does what he believes is in the best interest of the school and his students, which includes covering up the disappearance of Fuuka caused by bullies to save the ''bullies''' reputation, [[spoiler:and suspending Saori because of a gossip magazine's false story about her being promiscuous, and nearly suspending the main character, just for being her (only) friend]]. Mitsuru's punishment for him of the former act, and [[spoiler:Miss Ounishi and Toriumi, his two kohai, brushing him off to support Saori wholeheartedly]] were definitely well deserved.
* LawyerFriendlyCameo
** One available Persona is Comicbook/GhostRider... Er, we mean ''Hell Biker''. Bonus points for its original Japanese name being [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Hell's Angel]].
** The Gigas Shadows are blatantly patterned after Wrestling/HulkHogan.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall:
** When Igor greets the protagonist when they arrive in the Velvet Room for the first time, he mentions how it's been a long time since the Velvet Room had a guest, in reference of the seven year gap between ''Innocent Sin'' (when Tatsuya, Maya, and his friends first became guests of the Velvet Room), released in 1999 and this game, which released in 2006.
** [[spoiler:Fusing Satan, the second highest Persona in FES, will cause him to have a unique line that has him taunt the player.]]
** When it appears to Junpei and Akihiko that the main character has "picked up" Aigis, Akihiko complains that the [[SilentProtagonist protagonist]] didn't even say anything.
** If you try to add Ken to your party in ''The Answer'', he will sometimes mention that he needs to be stronger because his [[CharacterLevel level]] is low.
* LeeroyJenkins: Junpei gets suckered into doing this during the monorail incident. Naturally you end up having to catch up with him and help him out, but he isn't too happy about it.
* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: The opening theme, "Burn My Dread," is actually the piece that the Main Character is constantly listening to in his "Atlus Audio" [=MP3=] player, as evidenced during his arrival at Tatsumi Port Island and during the FinalBattle.
* {{Leitmotif}}: The main melody of the [[spoiler:ending song, Memories of You]] is part of the song that plays during Social Link scenes, Joy. [[spoiler:Bittersweet and borderline depressing when you consider that these scenes are the memories the Protagonist is leaving with his/her lovers and friends.]]
* LetThemDieHappy: Essentially the motivation behind [[spoiler:Ryoji's request to kill him]] -- doing so would [[LaserGuidedAmnesia erase everyone's memories]] of the Dark Hour and their knowledge of their own doom.
* TheLethalConnotationOfGunsAndOthers: Takaya's magnum revolver. Despite the protagonists being shocked, stabbed, burned, frozen, and pierced, one shot from his gun [[spoiler:kills both Shinjiro and Junpei, only one of whom gets better, though the former can be saved by a PocketProtector in ''[[UpdatedRerelease Persona 3 Portable]]'' if his Social Link is maxed out]]. Granted, it ''is'' a [[HandCannon high-powered magnum]], but still. GameplayAndStorySegregation is at play here, too. When you fight him, his magnum doesn't do remarkable numbers.
* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain:
** When Yukari first meets the protagonist when the DarkHour was active, she mistook him for an enemy shadow and nearly attacked him, only stopping when Mitsuru intervened and cleared things between them. The next day after school, she tells the protagonist to never speak about what happened the night before to anyone else. Junpei, having overheard without being aware of the context, quickly assumes something else happened between them.
** During the Shirakawa Boulevard incident, both Yukari and the protagonist get enthralled by the Lovers shadow, resulting in both of them getting trapped in a compromising position with Yukari wearing nothing but a ModestyTowel. After snapping out of it, Yukari warns the protagonist to never speak of the incident to anyone. The incident remains a sore spot for her even into November, where she stomps on Ryoji's foot after he offers to take her out on a date at Shirakawa Boulevard.
* LevelGrinding: The whole point of Tartarus, lampshaded frequently. [[ForcedLevelGrinding Unless you level grind, the Full Moon Shadows (and quite a few Guardians) will kill you.]] A somewhat justifiable point of contention with this game is that the game pretty much has the Dating Sim phase and the Level Grinding phase.
* LevelUpAtIntimacy5: the Social Links. You can also [[YouLoseAtZeroTrust screw up your links and reverse the related arcana, meaning it can't be leveled up until you fix it. Screwing up then means you Break it, which is]] ''[[YouLoseAtZeroTrust not]]'' [[YouLoseAtZeroTrust good]].
* LimitedSocialCircle: Fuuka appears to be the only person in SEES to be shown with friends outside the group. Yukari occasionally mentions having friends outside the group, but is never shown with them.
* LivingWithTheVillain: Major plot twist. Twice. [[spoiler:The entire SEES with Ikutsuki, and the Protagonist with Pharos/Ryoji.]]
* LocomotiveLevel: The first boss of the game, Priestess, hijacks a train you're investigating.
* LogoJoke: The logos for ''Persona 3'' and ''Persona 3 FES'' use a custom [=7x7=] pixel typeface. With the logo for ''Persona 3 Portable'', it switches to the same typeface used in the Platform/PlayStationPortable branding for the ''Portable'' portion of the logo.
* LonelyPianoPiece:
** "Living with Determination", which plays during sad scenes both in the main story and in Social Links. It receives a TriumphantReprise [[spoiler:as the dorm theme for the final month of the game]].
** "Memories of the City" and "Memories of the School", which are sad, simple piano melodies [[spoiler:that replace the previously-upbeat city and school themes, respectively, in the game's final month]].
* LoopholeAbuse: In vanilla and ''FES'', teammates will leave Tartarus if they return to the first floor with the main character while having the Tired/Sick condition. However, there is a way of preserving teammate availability the whole night once they get Tired/Sick should the player need to save, heal, swap out teammates, or use the Velvet Room, as long as there are PreExistingEncounters close to the stairs, close enough to pull this off. The player has to set the teammates to go after enemies (or let them get caught), then once they all engage in battle on-map (but do not let them finish or leave them knocked out), go up the stairs and confirm to leave them behind. Once the player is all alone on the next floor, he may warp back to the first floor and find everyone ready to rejoin. This abuses the fact that all teammates left behind (but not knocked out) will remain available on the first floor (having them knocked out will force them to leave) and the game thinks the player is exploring solo after that[[note]]When determining whether a teammate leaves or not upon returning to the first floor, the game checks the Condition of the active party only and not anyone on standby, assuming that Tired/Sick party members would not go to Tartarus in the first place according to Mitsuru or Fuuka. The game forgets the possibility of Tired/Sick teammates that were warped back safely to the first floor because of the player confirming to go up stairs while they were still busy battling enemies on-map. Since the player is left exploring alone after that, the game does not have any teammate to check the Condition for.[[/note]], so there are no teammates to comment their need to leave for the night.
* LosingTheTeamSpirit: [[spoiler:Following the Protagonist's death, the group broke up into factions and started fighting each other, setting up the story for the Answer.]]
* LostInTranslation:
** Mitsuru's GratuitousEnglish is obviously impossible to retain in, well, the English localization. So it was changed to French quips, to non-English speakers' chagrin.
** Junpei's "oteakezamurai" gag early in the game is one of the {{Running Gag}}s in the franchise. Cultural barriers and availability make this confusing to players without prior knowledge. English speakers know this better as the "Ace Detective" joke, but this became an issue down to the road like in ''VideoGame/PersonaQ2NewCinemaLabyrinth'' where the gag is brought up more frequently complete with animated gestures (Junpei raising both arms high as a literal interpretation of the joke).
** A shop named Shinshoudo Antiques is supposed to foreshadow the relation between the shopkeeper and Tartarus, and not just in terms of weapon fusion [[spoiler:and Old Document]] relevance. [[spoiler:In Japanese, Monad Depths is '''Shinshou''' Mona'''do''', which is of course lost in translation.]]
** ''The Answer'' has a mistranslation that caused confusion for ''years''. [[spoiler:At one point, Junpei mentioned that he hesitated about going back in time to when Chidori died, regardless of whether the player saved her or not in ''The Journey''.]] In the Japanese version, Junpei does not namedrop them at all and uses ''aitsu'' which is a vague way to address "that person." [[spoiler:Since the context is that everyone is talking about the MC from ''The Journey'' using the similar way of addressing, he is in fact talking about him.]] It makes sense that he became enthusiastic in ''VideoGame/Persona4ArenaUltimax''. In hindsight, the localization made the namedrop stick out like a sore thumb for not connecting to the conversation at all.
* LovecraftLite: [[spoiler:Mankind accidentally summons]] an EldritchLocation from the sea of humanity's collective unconscious that slowly starts consuming the minds of everyone around it and turning them into TheHeartless. While the game can be at times depressing, and death is a major theme of it, ultimately the game is optimistic enough that it falls under this rather than an outright CosmicHorrorStory. [[spoiler:While it does come at a cost, the bad guy ''is'' able to be defeated, no apocalypse comes, and peace is restored to the world]].
* LoveHotels: One BossBattle takes place inside one. Ironically enough, it takes place on July 7th, the date of the [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseHolidays Tanabata festival]]. Non-ironically, it involves the battle against the Lovers arcana.
* LoveHurts: As demonstrated by The Answer, where [[spoiler:Aigis]] and [[spoiler:Yukari]] are both plagued by painful memories of [[spoiler:the protagonist]].
* LoveMakesYouCrazy: Yukari's attempt to win the key and go back in time to [[spoiler:see the Main Character again]] even if it might undo their victory over Nyx and doom the world.
* LyricalDissonance:
** "When the Moon Reaches for the Stars", the standard Port Island theme, is a happy-sounding J-pop with lyrics about a person who CannotSpitItOut to a crush and feels incredibly depressed about it. It doesn't help that Yumi Kawamura's extremely thick accent makes the English lyrics hard to make out.
** "Changing Seasons", the second semester music theme, is probably even more cheery than "When the Moon" and has a breakdown consisting of French proverbs. Said proverbs are about grief and loneliness.
** "Kimi no Kioku", [[spoiler:the credits theme]]. It's an upbeat and cheery tune... [[spoiler:with the lyrics about the loss of a loved one i.e. our hero, ladies and gentlemen.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes M & N]]
* MacGuffinMelee: The Answer has one point where [[spoiler:all of the main party members are fighting each other]] over their individual pieces of the Key of Time.
* MagikarpPower:
** Odin is pretty unremarkable at first (well, by the standards of a [[OlympusMons level 63 persona]], anyway...) but a bit of grinding gets him Thunder Reign, an "extreme" tier Lightning spell. If that doesn't kill the enemy outright, it's also guaranteed to put them in Shocked status, meaning any subsequent physical attacks against them will critical. Level Odin a little more, and he gets Spell Mastery, which cuts his SP costs in half.
** Daisoujou hardly seems worth the effort to fuse... until you realize it's the only way to get Samsara, the strongest light spell in the game, which has a high chance of delivering an instant KO to all enemies.
** Junpei starts off as a decent tank, but quickly falls out of favor when nearly every boss uses his weakness element. Keep him leveled up, though, and he becomes a force to be reckoned with come endgame.
* TheMagnificent: The most powerful Persona of each Arcana is named with an appropriately badass-sounding epithet when the player unlocks them by completing the appropriate Social Link.
* ManipulativeEditing: Played for drama when [[spoiler:it turns out Yukari's dead father told the future '''''NOT''''' to kill the full moon shadows, but the not was edited out]].
* ManualLeaderAIParty: You can choose your allies' style of moves (general, offensive, healing, etc.) but not control their actions directly. ''Portable'' added direct control option to them, although in ''Portable'' it defaults to "Act Freely" A.I. control and has to be changed manually.
* MarathonBoss: The final boss, which consists of ''13'' "forms" (or, more accurately, 13 distinct attack patterns pertaining to a particular Arcanum, each with its own HP bar) with no breaks. 14, if you count the very first (Fool), but it doesn't attack you while in that one.
* MarketBasedTitle: ''Persona 3'', ''FES'', and ''Portable'' all had the ''Shin Megami Tensei'' branding appended to it outside of Japan, behind the actual titles of the game. This would be dropped for games post-''Persona 4 Arena'', as the franchise had become a much bigger and more popular phenomenon by then, outstripping its parent series. This is reflected in related media like ''Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight'' and the remake, ''Persona 3 Reload''.
* MeaningfulName: The tower is called ''Tartarus''. There are ''Shadows'' coming from it, which are formed from the darkness of a person's heart, [[{{Hell}} and they all center around Tartarus]]. The Persona that the MC starts with is called ''Orpheus''. The main cast finds a humanoid robot called ''Aegis''[[note]]which is Greek for ''shield''[[/note]] somewhere in the middle of the game, and then meets ''Metis''[[note]]Greek for ''prudence'' and ''wisdom''[[/note]] in the epilogue. [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Have you heard of this before]]?
* MegaDungeon: Tartarus a 264-floor tower divided into six blocks with an optional 10-floor underground dungeon.
* {{Meido}}:
** Yukari is infuriated when she has to dress up in a maid outfit for the Archery Club's Maid Cafe as part of Gekkoukan's culture festival, whilst various male students are overjoyed at the prospect of seeing her in the outfit - luckily for Yukari, the culture festival is cancelled when a tsunami hits. Later, a video recording (Pointedly dated ''after'' the festival was cancelled) can be found of Yukari happily wearing the outfit whilst in her room, suggesting that her protests were more because AllMenArePerverts than an actual dislike of the outfit.
** Each of the female characters has a maid outfit, given out as rewards by solving a few of the quests Elisabeth offers. All 3 girls also give appropriate responses to being offered a maid outfit - Yukari doesn't like it but will wear it regardless, and Mitsuru seems to contemplate if that makes her an actual servant. Aigis simply states "This is the outfit I've worn at the lab before." Playing the Female Protagonist in ''Persona 3: Portable'' makes it possible to dress her up as a {{Meido}} as well. In other words, if you do it right you can lead an entire team of maids against TheLegionsOfHell.
* MentalShutdown: People victimized by Shadows during the Dark Hour develop what's called Apathy Syndrome, which in more severe cases manifests as a loss of mental capacity albeit with biological functions intact.
* MessianicArchetype: The Protagonist. [[spoiler:Just to hammer the point home, their ultimate Persona is actually called "Messiah".]]
* MetalSlime: The "Wealth Hand," the "Treasure Hand," and various other gold-plated "Hand" Shadows, show up in Tartarus as gold shadows that flee the moment they notice you and are notoriously hard to catch. In-battle, they hardly lift a finger but are difficult to kill, and drop valuable items when defeated. Occasionally you can find a floor made of nothing but these, though [[StalkedByTheBell the Reaper's arrival]] is cut to a ''quarter'' on those floors.
* MiniGame: After certain battles, there's a 3-card Monte (involving two to five cards instead) style card game called "Shuffle Time" where you can "win" a new Persona, a new weapon, gold, extra experience, a free healing (either for yourself or the entire party), and/or a visit from Death.
* MistakenForMasturbating: The [[{{Omake}} video recording]] of Fuuka, where she's wearing a vibrating stomach trimmer, in her bedroom, in order to get in shape for the Summer Trip. Unfortunately, the settings got stuck on high, leaving her disabled and in an uncontrollable laughing fit. Mitsuru knocks on her bedroom door and Fuuka yells [[DoubleEntendre "I'm coming"]], with the vibrating stomach-trimmer humming in the background. Cue a very awkward Mitsuru who quickly apologizes for bothering her and runs off again post-haste.
* MockingTheMourner: During [[spoiler:Shinjiro's memorial service at Gekkoukan after he sacrifices himself to save Ken]], two students in front of the protagonist and Junpei call him "just some punk", which leads to Junpei (and optionally the protagonist) angrily telling them to shut up.
* MomentKiller: Happens to the Male Protagonist and Yukari at Yakushima Island (courtesy of Junpei, of course...).
* MonsterOfTheWeek: Or "Boss of the Month" as the Arcana Shadows are fought during Full Moons, which occur monthly. Also, Pharos will often remind the player if there is only one week left before the Full Moon, invoking this trope.
* MoodWhiplash: A few of the social links plots (Hierophant, most school activated ones) are fairly light.
* MoreFriendsMoreBenefits: The social link system, of course. The romantic part of it also applies since you have to date all the girls to clear them. They can get jealous and reverse if you're not careful about how you do it.
* MrExposition: Metis in The Answer, played perfectly straight.
* MultipleDemographicAppeal: A major reason for the game's breakout success. The strategic battle system, stat management and extensive customization features appealed to the usual Creator/{{Atlus}} audience of hardcore RPG enthusiasts, the art style and setting appealed to anime fans, and the social sim element appealed to female players (so much so that the PSP UpdatedRerelease introduced a new female main character and respective campaign).
* MultipleEndings: Two, depending on a choice made near the end of the game.
** Bad Ending: [[spoiler:The protagonist, [[WhatYouAreInTheDark despite everyone else's insistence on fighting to the end]], kills Ryoji, wiping everyone's memories of the past school year and allowing the party to live without fear of the coming apocalypse.]] While this renders the entire month of January unplayable, it ''does'' count as a proper ending, rolling credits and allowing the creation of a NewGamePlus.
** Good Ending: [[spoiler:The protagonist lets Ryoji live, and the party must use the last month of the game to reach the top of Tartarus to battle Nyx on January 31st and avert the end of the world. They succeed, the protagonist having to use his soul to seal Nyx away. The game then cuts ahead about a month, giving a few more days of play time in the form of an epilogue before the protagonist dies with a smile on Aigis' [[LapPillow lap]] on graduation day.]]
* MundaneUtility: In the {{Audio Play}}s, the Kirijo Group conducts sensitive meetings -- [[spoiler:such as the reading of Takeharu's will after his passing]] -- during the Dark Hour because no normal person nor recording device can spy on them that way.
* MySisterIsOffLimits: Played with during the ending in March. If Kenji's link is maxed out in FES, he'll mention his sister will be attending Gekkoukan during the next year, and initially has no issue with the idea of the protagonist dating her (in fact, he says it'll keep her too busy to bother him). As soon as he realizes he'd potentially be the MC's brother-in-law, however, he takes the offer back.
* MythologyGag:
** In the English localization, ''Innocent Sin Online'' (and the accompanying player names Maya and Tatsuya) is one big reference to the characters of ''VideoGame/Persona2'' and the locations in ''VideoGame/{{Persona|1}}'' (and was originally a reference to ''Megami Tensei'', the game that started it all). Also, several fusions (particularly the ones that Elizabeth requests) are those of key characters from other ''[[Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei MegaTen]]'' games; Alice and Lilith, for example, were important characters in ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei''.
** Early in the game, Junpei comments that rumors can't become real, which was a major plot point in ''VideoGame/Persona2''.
** At one point, [[VideoGame/Persona2 meeting with a counselor to decide your future]] is a big plot point. (Noted that [[spoiler:TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt is also supposed to happen]] makes this meaningful in another way.)
** The Reaper bears a particularly strong resemblance to JOKER [[spoiler:aka Tatsuya Sudou from ''Eternal Punishment.'']] Both wear a very similar (although the Reaper's is significantly more bloody) trench coat/overcoat. Like how JOKER wore a paper bag on his head, the Reaper wears a sack on his head. Most notable of all, [[spoiler:the Reaper appears to be missing the same eye that Tatsuya lost moments before his death.]]
** The [=TV=] set in the lounge is sometimes tuned into "Trish's Who's Who!" which apparently interviews notable people in the area. Though their names are never given, judging from the descriptions, these include several characters from ''VideoGame/{{Persona|1}}'' and ''VideoGame/Persona2,'' serving as something of an epilogue to those characters. Trish ''herself'' is a reference to a fairy in all [[OneGameForThePriceOfTwo three]] games, though is obviously not the same character.
** The OneWomanWail appearing in "Aria of Soul" and "The Battle for Everyone's Soul" is inherited from ''VideoGame/{{Persona|1}}'' and ''VideoGame/Persona2'', where the aria was sung by Igor's assistant Belladonna, and is likely being used in this game as a reference to Nyx's usual [=MegaTen=] appearance--an opera diva.
*** Also: "The Battle for Everyone's Soul" is a rock remix of the first half of the first ''VideoGame/{{Persona|1}}''[='=]s version of theme. While it uses rock instruments, the rhythm is mostly the same (compare [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn3Q0Tz2zfg this]] to [[http://youtu.be/2kBqP06eDRY this]]).
** In the ''Portable'' UpdatedRerelease, there's a few references to ''VideoGame/Persona4''. One that won't be apparent to many is the fact that Ken's favorite food is the exact same one as his fellow Justice Arcana, Nanako.
** Hypnos, Nemesis and Thanatos were boss fights of the Snow Queen quest in the original ''VideoGame/{{Persona|1}}''. Now they are Personas of Takaya, Ken and the Protagonist respectively.
*** Also, Takaya's design is similar to that of Hypnos' boss form.
** Yukari's [[IconicItem heart-shaped choker]] is pretty much a PaletteSwap of the same accessory present in the Demon/Persona [[SuccubiAndIncubi Succubus]]' design since ''[[VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne Nocturne]]'' and on. They even wear it the same way, with the heart symbol to the front and the left side of the neck.
** A bow found in Monad Block is called Mary's Resolve in the original game but changed to Maki's Resolve in ''Portable''. This is a reference to Maki Sonomura from the first ''VideoGame/{{Persona|1}} who is renamed Mary in ''Revelations'' but kept her Japanese name in the Portable rerelease.
** The Sugar Key is required to fuse King Frost. In ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'', the Sugar Key is required to open a chest in a sidequest that leads to the boss King Frost.
** There is a drink called "Cielo Mist" which is made in Jamaica. That is a reference to Cielo, a party member in ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga''.
** The Agni, Varuna, Indra, and Vayu Bracers offer a large boost to Fire, Ice, Elec, and Wind damage respectively. These are named after Atma Avatars in ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'' of the corresponding element specialization.
** The Best Friends fusion spell requires Decarabia and Forneus, two demons who are friends in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne''. Elizabeth comments that Decarabia waited for Forneus forever, not knowing that the Demi-Fiend killed him.
** A security tape from FES shows Mitsuru and Officer Kurosawa going into Junpei's room because Mitsuru thinks that someone broke in... but it's really just messy. In ''Eternal Punishment'', Katsuya the cop has a similar assessment of Ulala and Maya's messy apartment.
** Bebe enjoys Kyoto more than Destiny World. Destiny Land is a location in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI'', ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'', and ''VideoGame/Persona5'' appearing each time as a BlandNameProduct of Disneyland.
** The save screen in the 2023 version of ''Portable'' is modeled after the interface of the PSP's save menus.
** In ''Persona 3 Reload'', when the Protagonist sits down to listen to his music player at the start of the intro, the first song he cues up is '''''"Burn My Dread"''''', the original opening song, followed by ''''''"Want To Be Close"''''', the protagonist's school-time leitmotif, before he cues up the new opening song.
* NaginatasAreFeminine: While the male protagonist in ''Portable'' uses a [[HeroesPreferSwords single-handed sword]], his female counterpart only uses naginatas (which are a separate class from Ken's Spear weapon class).
* NecessaryFail: On the Male Protagonist's route, regardless of your choice, [[spoiler:at rank nine the Moon will inevitably reverse. This is rectified shortly thereafter on the same night, though.]]
* {{Nerf}}:
** Several skills were changed this way between vanilla P3 and ''FES''. Some are minor like upping the SP cost for [[OneHitKill Samsara and Die for Me!]] from 35 in vanilla to 40 in ''FES'', but some are more notable:
*** Many physical skills are made weaker to accomodate the reduced cost in the latter version, as the vanilla version is notorious for the absurdly high HP cost for something that ends up inferior to magic skills.
*** The Regenerate passive skills restore less HP per turn in ''FES'', possibly in response to the lowered HP cost for physical skills as noted above.
*** One very notable change, however, is making element Break skills cost far more SP in ''FES'' (from 15 in vanilla to 40 in ''FES''), which in this version can easily drain teammate SP if poor matchup or ArtificialStupidity sets in.
** Personas:
*** Byakko was nerfed hard between vanilla and ''FES''. In vanilla, Byakko was the Ultimate Persona of the Temperance Arcana and was a contender as one of the best Personas in the game. It was Phys-based with a very solid set of skills in Deathbound[[note]]High BP Slash skill, targets all enemies, 25% crit chance.[[/note]], High Counter[[note]]Passive, 20% chance to counter Phys attacks.[[/note]], Endure[[note]]Survive with 1 HP upon taking a fatal hit.[[/note]], and Fist Master[[note]]Boosts damage inflicted with glove-type weapons.[[/note]]. Byakko's magic side was not bad either, being Ice-based (drains Ice as well) and having the all-target Mabufudyne as an innate skill, which can be boosted further with Ice Amp which Byakko can also learn. In ''FES'', Byakko's position is usurped by Yurlungur and changed to be Elec-based, but this change brought down Byakko's skill set to be less powerful. ''FES'' Byakko keeps Deathbound and Endure, but loses out High Counter and Fist Master. The Zio family dominates the magic side, but ''FES'' Byakko only learns Elec Boost by level up, requiring inheritance to get Amp. And though the change from draining Ice to Elec is obvious and the addition of Slash resistance is nice, ''FES'' Byakko gains an additional weakness to Fire (totaling 2 weaknesses counting Dark).
*** The Ultimate Persona of Star Arcana, Lucifer in vanilla has impressive resistances, nullifying ''all 3 physical attack types'' and Dark, on top of high end stats, unique moves, and being one of the Personas needed to unlock Armaggedon. Notably, in ''FES'' and ''Portable'', Lucifer of Star Arcana is renamed into Lucifel (in Japanese) or Helel (in English), and only resists all physical attacks rather than being immune. Likewise, Lucifer of Judgment Arcana also only resists physical.
** Starting from ''FES'', using the offertory (raises Academics) or the fortune box takes up a time slot, though this is more to do with how the free time locations have been overhauled compared to vanilla (there, the fortune box could not be used to increase Social Link points).
** To match ''Persona 4'' (and to go with the revamped condition system), returning to the first floor of Tartarus no longer fully heals the party in ''Portable''. The player has to pay a fee at the clock to heal there.
** Probably due to following the [=QoL=] updates from ''VideoGame/Persona4'', checking turn order in ''Portable'' is only limited to who will act next in line, instead of displaying numbers representing turn order on all battlers.
** The Down status gets this in ''Portable'' as downed battlers no longer waste a turn before getting back up (on the bright side, no more risk of easily stunlocked party). Instead, it requires a Dizzy status to achieve the same effect, same as in ''Persona 4''.
** In ''Portable'', certain skills can no longer be passed down through fusion, turning them into SecretArt. No more Thanatos with Die for Me! here.
** ''Portable'' makes Fusion Spells usable items that must be stocked by trading rare items at the Antiques Store, rather than accessible as long as you have the prerequisite Personas in stock. They no longer cost HP or SP to use, but they're a lot less spammable (so you can't mash Armageddon to kill everything now) and take more effort to stock up.
** The Reaper is nerfed in a way in ''Portable'' where it can now use single-target skills instead of just spamming skills on the entire party every turn.
* NewGamePlus: You can carry over some things into a new run after completing the game, such as your level, yen, and Persona Compendium. In ''Portable'', this is averted with the new Maniac difficulty, which does not allow you to carry over anything from a previous playthrough.
* NewKidStigma: A downplayed example. While not outright ostracized, the protagonist is viewed with a certain amount of envy and jealousy due to having just arrived and yet getting to stay in the same dorm as some of the most popular students in school (in truth, this to make their WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld activities easier). In addition, his aloof, detached air also makes him difficult to approach, something brought up by some of the Social Link characters. In fact, it's even brought up that bad rumours follow him around because he doesn't socialise and has been seen wandering around seedier parts of town.
* NewTransferStudent: Happens three times, with the first being the main character himself, followed by [[spoiler:Aigis]], and lastly [[spoiler:Ryoji]] The homeroom teacher even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this on the third occurrence.
* NextSundayAD: Takes place in 2009-2010, a few years after the game's release. As the game uses the real world lunar calendar, this was likely done to make sure [[spoiler:the final Full Moon boss takes place on a significant date: January 31st]].
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:Yeah... funny story, turns out the Full Moon Shadows you've been killing the whole game were actually the only thing keeping the personification of Death itself from descending upon the world and obliterating all life. Whoops?]]
* NietzscheWannabe: Two notable examples:
** First, [[spoiler:Shuji Ikutsuki]], who betrays the team later in the game. It turns out that [[spoiler:his role in guiding SEES]] was really just his means of [[EvilPlan orchestrating his devious plot]] to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. He nearly succeeds, too.
** Strega is another group that fits this trope. Although initially they're only out to stop the main character from eliminating the Dark Hour, as the true nature of the Shadow threat is revealed, [[spoiler:they embrace the Fall, even going so far as to set up their own {{Cult}} to help bring it about]].
* NintendoHard: Hard Mode, which augments the enemies, gives them a random chance to go first when they shouldn't, and makes it near impossible to run. With the vastly increased damage and elemental weakness system, it's entirely possible for a higher level party to die before they can move if they are ambushed. Doubly so for ''Persona 3: FES: The Answer'', which buffs various enemies and locks you out of the Persona Compendium, which means you cannot re-summon older Persona on demand to match enemies you are fighting. That being said, in ''The Answer'', Personas level up faster than in ''The Journey''.
* NobodyHereButUsBirds: During the trip to Kyoto, the guys stay in the hotsprings when they change over to the girls' turn. In ''Portable'', at one point the male protagonist can attempt to distract Yukari by imitating a cat. When she questions if it was a fox, [[TooDumbToLive he can insist it was a cat]].
* NoFairCheating:
** In the vanilla version only, if you try to use an Action Replay to hack in party members that are not supposed to be accessible at a particular point in the game, get inaccessible Personas, or get the [[spoiler:Universe]] Persona earlier than the final battle, whoever is your MissionControl will express anger or shock -- ''complete with English translation and voice acting!''
--->'''Fuuka:''' Cheaters never win!\\
'''Mitsuru:''' ...You're cheating. I'll have to punish you.
** Not caring about breaking OptionalBoss rules and just let Plumes of Dusk or infinite restarts be your lifeline? Nope, all the boss will do at this point is always the 9999-damage attack, and the boss will always move first after the player's revival to ensure that the message came across.
* NoFourthWall: Your characters speak a dialogue line every time they level up in the [=PS2=] versions, but Junpei takes the cake by invoking this trope:
-->'''Junpei:''' Tat-ta-da-dah! Junpei has leveled-up!
* NoIndoorVoice: Some of the Personas upon being fused have a case of this, with their dialogue being written entirely in capital letters.
* NonActionProtagonist: Fuuka Yamagishi, the MissionControl of ''VideoGame/Persona3'', is one of these. Physically speaking, while the other members of S.E.E.S. are physically adept at combating [[TheHeartless Shadows]], Fuuka is a shy, grungy nerdy girl who is introduced by being a bullying victim of a girl posse. Then she ends up in Tartarus by accident, and shortly after summoning her Persona for the first time [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome while surviving ten hours]] in the vitality-sapping dungeon, she allows you to see the strengths and weaknesses of the Boss Shadows that just [[CurbStompBattle wiped the floor with]] two of your allies. Even though her Persona is not capable of combat, she's still a critical ally to S.E.E.S.'s efforts in Tartarus and a valuable member of the team.
* NonstandardGameOver: Several in ''The Answer''. First off, when you die, instead of Igor's original speech to the main character about how death comes for everyone, eventually, you get a lecture about [[spoiler:how the main character gave his life so you could live yours, but now that you've died, it was all a waste]]. Then, in the [[spoiler:arena battles]], if you die to [[spoiler:the other [=PCs=]]], instead of immediately dying, [[spoiler:the other [=PCs=] give you a lecture about their decision on what to do with the time machine]] and then [[spoiler:the ''narrator'' laments you not being able to find out [[TakeAThirdOption a different path than the obvious two]].]]
* NoodleIncident: Mr. Ekoda's punishment for lying about Fuuka's whereabouts to protect his career. If you ask Mitsuru afterwards, she'll tell you that [[AwfulTruth you don't want to know what it was]].
* NothingIsScarier:
** [[spoiler:The real horror about the Bad Ending is the fact that Aigis is the only one who remembers the events. Not only does this mean that the Fall ''will happen'', but all of the progress and CharacterDevelopment made throughout the game was made for nothing.]]
** Gameplay-wise, if the floor has no enemies the moment you enter it, something worse is going to happen. Fuuka even lampshades that "something is not right". It is during these times when [[StalkedByTheBell The Reaper]] will spawn faster than usual.
* NotSoDifferentRemark: Shinjiro pretty much tells this to Ken [[spoiler:when Ken tells Shinjiro that he's going to kill him to avenge his mother, who died when Shinjiro accidentally lost control of his persona. Shinjiro tells Ken that if he goes through with killing him, he'll become what Shinji was to him and regret it later on in life.]]
* NotTooDeadToSaveTheDay:
** [[spoiler:Shinjiro's voice is heard once again]] in the final boss battle.
--->[[spoiler:'''Shinjiro''']]: Alright, let's do this!
** If you completed his Social Link, [[spoiler:Akinari]] adds his own encouragement in the EleventhHourSuperpower scene immediately preceding said battle.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes O-R]]
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Subverted with [[spoiler:Ikutsuki]]. After TheReveal, it seems that all of his [[spoiler:terrible jokes]] were just an act to throw off suspicion. However, a video of him in FES shows that [[spoiler:he still makes those jokes when no one is around, and he finds them genuinely funny.]]
* OjouRinglets: Mitsuru comes from a wealthy family and kept her hair up in curls until junior high, as seen in ''FES'''s flashbacks. Even in high school, she keeps one loose curl.
* OldSaveBonus: Creating a new game in ''FES'' when you have save data from the original ''Persona 3'' lets you carry over the following from that save; Your Academics, Charm, and Courage rankings, discovered Fusion Spells list, any key items you possess that unlock Persona fusions, and your Persona compendium - however, the Personas in your compendium will be reset to their base level, stats, and skills.
* OneWingedAngel: The [[BigBad final boss]] was human 31 days before the encounter. As of January 31, he looks strongly similar to another Persona you might have, of the Death Arcana.
* OnlyTheLeadsGetADownerEnding: [[spoiler:The game ends with the Fall successfully averted and Nyx sealed away, but it comes at the cost of the protagonist sacrificing their life in the process. ''The Answer'' campaign deals with the fallout of said sacrifice among their friends and allies in SEES. ]]
* OptionalSexualEncounter: Heavily implied to be the ending to the romantic social links, [[spoiler:''and'' to a side-quest from Elizabeth]].
* OverlyLongGag: One of Elizabeth's requests in ''FES'' has you bring her a Sengoku-era helm from Mr. Ono. The first time you talk to him, he tells you he'll see if he has any he can part with at home, and to come back another day. The next day, Mr. Ono won't be there, and you'll instead get an extracurricular lecture from another named teacher. This happens ''five times'' until you finally run into Mr. Ono again on your seventh visit to the faculty office.
* PaintingTheFourthWall: When lecturing about summoning magic, Mr. Edogawa says "It's widely seen in books, movies, better video games, and so on..."
* PaletteSwap: The enemies you encounter have several variations scattered along the blocks of Tartarus, which use the same models, but of different colors depending on the current block's color scheme.
* PantheraAwesome: A few of the fusable personas are these. Ose is a bipedal, dual-sword wielding, cape-wearing cheetah while Gdon, available around the same level, is a tiger that has [[PlayingWithFire flames rising from his back]]. The White Tiger Byakko, one of the four heavenly beasts, is also available for fusion.
* ParentalAbandonment: The main character, Akihiko and Shinjiro are all orphans, Yukari's mom is cold and unsupportive and her dad is dead, Junpei's dad is a drunk, Mitsuru's father is caring but distant [[spoiler:and dies in the story]], Fuuka's parents are excessively demanding and distant, Ken's mom is dead, and Koromaru's owner died. People with single parents don't even mention the other parent. Even Aigis' creators died ten years prior to the games events.
* PermanentlyMissableContent:
** Certain personas need key items to be accessed. Unfortunately, you must complete Elizabeth's requests for these items. While going on a date with Elizabeth seems like an easy request, forgetting to claim your reward by the deadline not only ensures that you will not get that key item, but also ensures that you will not be able to complete any more of the Elizabeth Date quests. Ouch. There goes your 100% completion.
** The Female protagonist has quite a few of these concerning ''Social Links'', resulting in some very GuideDangIt moments. Chief among them is Shinjiro's small window of availability and the fact that you can't ''not'' hang out with Ryoji whenever he's available or invites you out, under penalty of not being able to complete his S. Link. Also, if you don't speak directly to Rio and Saori before certain rank ups, you will never be able to start Tower and Devil.
** Another request: "I'd Like to Sip Oden Juice". The drink-loving girl at school has it, but she'll only give it to you in exchange for a "rare drink". What she means is one of the drinks only available in Kyoto, and you're only in Kyoto at one point in the game. Not that hard if you know what to do, [[GuideDangIt but if you don't]], it's Permanently missable. (Annoyingly, the game taunts you by giving the quest no deadline, when it really does have one)
** Forgetting to initiate the Temperance S. Link before the third Full Moon will render it unavailable for the rest of the current playthrough.
** In ''Portable'', two S. Link characters can end up lost in Tartarus. The Hierophant and the Hanged Man S. Links can be lost (thus freezing their progresses entirely) in the current save file if the player does not rescue the corresponding characters before the next respective Full Moon. If the S. Link(s) reached MAX prior to losing them, the corresponding characters themselves will not show up in the epilogue unlike most other maxed out S. Links.
* PersonalityPowers: Quite literally, since a Persona is a manifestation of its user's psyche. At one point, Akihiko notes that his Persona is weak against Mitsuru's favored element and wonders (uncomfortably) if that means something.
* PervertRevengeMode: Can we say that it's one of the results for the HotSpringsEpisode and leave it at that?
* PhantomZone: Though normal humans are unaware of anything that goes on in the Dark Hour, damage to buildings (and people) carries over into the real world, which is why SEES has to stop the Shadows rampaging outside of Tartarus.
* PiecesOfGod:
** Not obvious at first, but [[spoiler:the twelve Full Moon Shadows qualify. Each of the twelve is a fragment of a thirteenth Arcana Shadow, Death, which was sealed inside the Protagonist and takes the form of Pharos. Defeating the others allows them to reintegrate, which is a ''very bad thing'' as a completed Death has no choice but to trigger [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt The Fall]] and summon [[EldritchAbomination Nyx]] to wipe out all life on earth, whether he wants to or not]].
** [[AllThereInTheManual Supplemental materials]] also reveal that [[spoiler:all [[TheHeartless Shadows]] are actually fragments of Nyx which conscious minds on Earth have evolved to lock inside themselves. [[GuardianEntity Personas]] are the result of a strong-willed person controlling their personal Shadow, which makes them fragments of Nyx as well]].
* PinkGirlBlueBoy:
** Junpei and Yukari invoke this in their designs, with the duo always having at least one item of clothing in the appropriate color.
** The PSP rerelease changes all of the blue menus to [[PinkMeansFeminine pink]] for the female protagonist. This extends to their respective [[RedOniBlueOni personalities]] and, more obviously, their color schemes--the male protagonist has improbable blue hair, while the female protagonist has [[RedEyesTakeWarning improbable red eyes]].
* PinPullingTeeth: [[spoiler:Upon being defeated near the top of Tartarus, a wounded Jin stays behind and does this to blow up the Shadows climbing up from lower floors.]]
* PlayableEpilogue:
** After defeating the FinalBoss, the game gives you a few playable days to see how things turn out for your maxed-out Social Links before it wraps up proper.
** ''The Answer'' takes place a few months after ''The Journey'', dealing with how the end of the main game has affected the rest of the party members.
* PleasePutSomeClothesOn:
** [[spoiler:When the party is split up during the July 7th operation in the female route, the player can pick the option that tells either Junpei or Akihiko to put their clothes on when they step out of the shower.]]
** Equipping the female protagonist with the "[[{{Stripperiffic}} Battle Panties]]" and talking to her love interest while she's wearing them in Tartarus inevitably gets some form of this reaction. The bikini gets similarly amusing reactions.
* PlotlineDeath: [[spoiler:Shinjiro]] and [[spoiler:Chidori]] both die in the course of the game.
* PointOfNoReturn: You are required to go to Tartarus on the final day, [[spoiler:January 31]]. Once the Dark Hour comes on that day, you will not be able to exit Tartarus, even to stock up, sell your loot, or trade gems. As the Fated Day approaches, your characters remind you that you won't be able to leave once you enter.
* PoliceAreUseless: Due to the nature of the Dark Hour, the police aren't able to really do anything. One of them, Officer Kurosawa, does provide weapons to SEES, presumably due to the Kirijo Group's influence, and he actually takes a more active role in assisting both the Group and the Shadow Operatives (what the remnants of SEES become after high school) in ''VideoGame/Persona4Arena''.
* PoorCommunicationKills: Despite the RuleOfFunny being in play, couldn't the guys have avoided execution at the hot springs if someone had just called out and said, "Don't come in yet!"?
** Junpei mentions that that they could have told them it was a misunderstanding, then Akihiko mentions that Mitsuru would not have thought of it as an accident regardless and probably would have still have "executed" them.
** Strega initially becomes [=SEES=]'s enemy because they're told that the defeat of the twelve major arcana shadows will result in the end of Tartarus and the Dark Hour; they immediately assume that that also means the end of the power of Persona. Mitsuru and Aigis (at least) are both well aware that this isn't the case.
* PostFinalBoss: After defeating the final boss, the [[spoiler:Nyx Avatar]], the Player Character [[spoiler:travels to fight Nyx]]. Although its attacks deal the cap of 9,999, the MC is able to [[TheDeterminator persevere through]] and through ThePowerOfFriendship [[spoiler:and a HeroicSacrifice, is able to forge the Great Seal and avert the Fall for good.]]
* PostVictoryCollapse: The main character collapses into a coma for an entire ''week'' after his first battle against the Shadows. [[spoiler:Don't get us started on the '''good''' ending, either.]]
* ThePowerOfFriendship:
** The Social Link system: the main character can form relationships called Social Links with significant people. Each one is associated with [[TarotMotifs one of the Major Arcana]] and will power up Persona of the matching Tarot class when fused in the Velvet Room.
** [[spoiler:The Power Of Friendship literally empowers the Protagonist at the end, giving him a new Arcanum and allowing him to seal Nyx.]]
* PowerOfTheGodHand: The single strongest Strike attack is named God's Hand and depicted as a giant golden fist striking from the sky.
* PowerUpLetdown: In ''FES'', specifically in ''The Journey'', the Vorpal Blade skill obtained from accepting a Persona skill change that randomly happens after level-ups is bugged. It costs very little HP to cast, does 1 damage, and has no damage bonus from the main character's "Great" condition.[[labelnote:Explanation]]''FES'' runs two separate files for skill stats to take account of the moon phase and condition mechanics, which are available in ''The Journey'' but not in ''The Answer''. However, while trying to retain Vorpal Blade and Weary Thrust (skills that are powered up depending on the user's condition) in ''The Answer'', the game is forced to define them twice as skill names and descriptions are kept in a single file each unlike the stats, but in the process, ''The Answer'' version of Vorpal Blade is left unfinished. An oversight causes any skill change in ''The Journey'' that results in Vorpal Blade to instead call the unfinished ''Answer'' version. Thankfully, passing this bugged skill down through fusion will turn it into the proper version.[[/labelnote]]
* PreexistingEncounters: Tartarus and other areas with {{Mooks}} use the skippable variety.
* ProductPlacement: The protagonist's headphones and [=MP3=] player were a real product from Audio Technica, and a real Sony Walkman, respectively. Unfortunately, they both long went out of production.
* ProductionForeshadowing: Vincent from ''VideoGame/{{Catherine}}'' makes an EarlyBirdCameo in the ''Portable'', drinking alone at Club Escapade PSP version. He makes references to events that involve his own then-upcoming adventure.
* ProgressiveInstrumentation: The music in [[EldritchLocation Tartarus]] works like this. The first block (of 6) has a simple beat in the background. Each new block has an additional instrument added.
* ProlongedPrologue: The game has a little over an hour of cutscenes (and one battle sequence) between the start of the game and when you get the ability to fully decide what to do with your day. You do get a few opportunities to save in the interim.
%%* PsychoSupporter: Jin.
* PungeonMaster: Shuji Ikutsuki demonstrates a love for puns in his introductory cutscene, [[LamePunReaction to the chagrin of the other SEES members]]. The first unlockable secret recording in the console also features Ikutsuki coming up with a HurricaneOfPuns and ''loving it''.
* PutOnABus: Most of your Social Links end with this. Some of them come back during the last few days, though.
** The sports club student, Kazushi [[spoiler:withdraws from the championship to have his failing knee operated on.]]
** The culture club student, Keisuke [[spoiler:leaves the club to study to be a doctor.]]
** The girl at the shrine, Maiko [[spoiler:moves away with her mother after her parents divorce.]]
** The transfer student, Bebe [[spoiler:moves back to France, albeit by choice.]]
** The businessman, Tanaka [[spoiler:doesn't go anywhere, but straight up tells the protagonist to stop hanging out with him. Sure enough, he quits appearing on the overworld when you complete his link.]]
** The unusual monk, Mutatsu [[spoiler:quits hanging at the night club to go find his family and apologize for his actions.]]
** The rival athlete, Mamoru [[spoiler:moves away and takes a factory job to support his family, since his father is dead and his mother is unable to work.]]
** The gourmet king, Nozomi [[spoiler:leaves to become a food critic.]]
** The dying young man, Akinari [[spoiler:mysteriously fades from existance. It is later revealed that he [[BusCrash died later in the link.]]]]
** The online game player, "Maya" [[spoiler:logs off of ''Innocent Sin Online'' for good before the servers shut down. Subverted because it's later revealed that she was the protagonist's teacher Ms. Toriumi all along.]]
** The mysterious boy, Pharos [[spoiler:fades away. He isn't gone for long though because he re-appears soon afterwards as Ryoji Mochizuki, who is in-turn revealed to be the Appriser of Nyx.]]
* PuttingTheBandBackTogether: ''The Answer'' has the remnants of SEES team up to explore the Abyss of Time and deal with their grief [[spoiler:over the Protagonist's death.]]
* PuzzleBoss:
** The final Full Moon Shadow is untouchable until you destroy its three statues, and even then it can re-summon them to regain this protection.
** The Vision Quests in ''Portable'' -- The Full Moon Shadow rematches impose restrictions on your party, and even have hidden objectives to achieve for additional rewards. The Attribute Tests have fixed battle conditions and bosses with rotating affinities, and you have to figure out the route to victory within its terms.
* PyrrhicVictory: The main game. Congratulations, you [[spoiler:saved the world and your friends from Nyx, and ended the Dark Hour... at the cost of you pulling a HeroicSacrifice and leaving your friends behind, and it's shown in ''The Answer'' they don't take it well at first.]]
* RageAgainstTheMentor: Yukari calls out Mitsuru at one SEES meeting for hiding information about the Shadow threat from them. Mitsuru's reasoning: "It never seemed relevant." [[spoiler:That and Mitsuru was still traumatized from being a guinea pig in the events that led to the present crisis]]. Junpei goes into a period of this after the main character leads several successful missions.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: We've got a NewTransferStudent, a SchoolIdol, the ClassClown, the BigManOnCampus, the {{Ojou}}, a TechnoWizard, a RobotGirl, an IntellectualAnimal, an AdorablyPrecociousChild, and finally, a JerkWithAHeartOfGold. All of them were brought together for the purpose of defeating blob monsters with the physical manifestations of their psyches.
* RainOfArrows: The "Arrow Rain" and "Myriad Arrows" physical skill usable by both the players and enemies alike rains arrows on the battlefield.
* RamenSlurp: Really loudly, whenever the characters are in ramen shops.
* RandomlyGeneratedLevels: The game randomly generates most of the non-boss floors of Tartarus, although it follows a few design rules. For instance, floors between a Tartarus Boss and a plot-determined barrier will invariably be smaller than the norm, and the party will usually appear extremely close to the stairs to the next floor (with the small inconvenience that The Reaper will spawn that much faster, too.)
* RandomNumberGod: If you're unlucky you'll be mercilessly killed by bosses by random chance, i. e., getting Mudo'd by the Intrepid Knight or charmed the whole battle by the 4th full moon boss. At higher difficulties, getting back attacked meant the Protagonist getting attacked several times in a row and dying before you can do anything.
* RareCandy: The Incense cards you earn over the course of the game. Wand cards drawn in Shuffle Time also have a slight chance of increasing a random stat(s) instead of granting bonus EXP. Notably, incense card boosts carry over in fusion. In ''Portable,'' the Incense cards are replaced with Minor Arcana Royalty cards (Queen of Wands, King of Swords, etc.) which you do not use during Fusion, but any time you please on whatever Persona you have equipped.
* RealMenTakeItBlack: Ken Amada says even he drinks coffee black in a random optional conversation you can have with him (which you can even joke you like it with hot sauce)
* RecurringRiff:
** There are bits and pieces of "[[{{Leitmotif}} Burn My Dread]]" and "Memories of You" (the opening and ending themes) scattered everywhere in the soundtrack.
** "Soul Phrase", the opening theme to ''Persona 3 Portable'', is incorporated into several of the new soundtrack pieces included in the Female Protagonist route.
* RedArmbandOfLeadership:
** All members of SEES wear one when participating in "club activities" - even the dog.
** Student Council disciplinary officer Hidetoshi wears a ''yellow'' armband of leadership, presumably to distinguish it from the red SEES armbands.
* RedemptionDemotion: In ''The Answer''. [[spoiler:Your party members suddenly develop 2000 HP, immunities to their favored element, Light, and Dark, and skills like Megidolaon when you fight them as bosses in Colosseo Purgatorio. At least Akihiko, Yukari, and Mitsuru lose their healing spells.]]
* RedOniBlueOni: The now-two Protagonists of ''Persona 3 Portable'' form a rare ''DistaffCounterpart'' version of this.
* RelationshipValues: Cultivating your Social Links allows you to make better Personas.
* RescueArc: How Fuuka ends up joining the team - she gets locked in the school overnight, and then trapped in Tartarus when the Dark Hour occurs. SEES then head
* RevolversAreJustBetter: TheGrimReaper OptionalBoss [[GunsAkimbo dual-wields]] revolvers with five-foot long barrels.
* RevolvingDoorCasting: Igor is the only true consistent in the whole Persona series; while Philemon appears from time to time; he doesn't play a crucial role outside of ''Persona''.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: [[spoiler:Strega, when it came to pursuing the Full Moon Shadows]]
* RippleEffectProofMemory: Comes up in both endings:
** In the Good Ending, [[spoiler:everyone in SEES (temporarily) forgets about the Dark Hour, and how it effected their relationships with one another, with the exception of the Protagonist and Aigis]].
** In the Bad Ending, [[spoiler:Aigis is the only one who remembers the Dark Hour and that [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the Fall]] is imminent, as the rest of SEES blissfully go about the end of the school year. Unlike the Good Ending, however, the characters aren't even vaguely aware that something isn't right and all of their CharacterDevelopment is undone]].
* RoboFamily: Aigis and Metis are said to be sisters, as were all of the anti-shadow weapons that were built with Aigis.
* RousingSpeech: You will hear the voices of your maxed-out Social Links right before finishing the final boss.
* RuleOfDrama: A solid rule for the Dark Hour is that electricity doesn't work (with the exception of Mitsuru's bike and the dorm computer, [[HandWave explained as "special"]]). The streetlights however are still on when [[spoiler:Shinjiro dies]]. Naturally [[spoiler:[[http://www.drunkduck.com/Persona_3_FTW/5177574 fans have poked fun at it]]]].
* RunningGag:
** Akihiko's tendency to mention that he must "train to become stronger", as well as taking protein-filled food will sometimes be commented by other S.E.E.S. (particularly Mitsuru) as a sign of his recklessness.
** Mr. Edogawa giving the player character "concoctions" if the he/she is affected by the Tired status. Sometimes it helps you, sometimes it doesn't. But the description of the drink makes it sound like it is made from rituals.
** There will always be at least two students getting bored at the events in the school auditorium.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes S & T]]
* SacrificialRevivalSpell: [[spoiler:Chidori]] revives [[spoiler:Junpei]] after the latter was fatally wounded, at the cost of their own life.
* SadBattleMusic: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Wi1Y8cmjyM Heartful Cry]]", which plays then you're ''[[spoiler:forced to fight the SEES members themselves]]'' in "The Answer". But bloody hell is it ''[[AwesomeMusic/Persona3 awesome]]''.
* SarcasticDevotee: Shinjiro's battle quotes indicate this.
* ScamReligion: The Male Protagonist's Moon Social Link revolves around one.
* ScaryFlashlightFace: Junpei does this when explaining a ghost story
* SchoolClubFront: The Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (known as SEES) is registered as a school club with Chairman Ikutsuki as its advisor, and members even stay in the same dorm. However, the true purpose of the "club" is to investigate the Shadows, Tartarus and the Dark Hour. All members possess the ability to summon a Persona, which is the only known weapon against the Shadows.
* SchoolFestival: The Culture Festival, subverted ([[{{Fanservice}} unfortunately]] for [[MostGamersAreMale some]]).
* SchoolUniformsAreTheNewBlack: The SEES team chooses to wear their winter uniforms whenever they explore Tartarus even during weekends and holidays. [[ImpossiblyCoolClothes You can't really hold it against them]].
* SchrodingersGun:
** The player has the choice of multiple sports clubs to join at the beginning of the school year - swimming, track, or kendo on the Male route, and volleyball or tennis on the Female route. The focus of the sports-related Social Links (Both Chariot and the Male's Strength) will always be in the same club no matter what.
** The player can join either music, photo, or art club later on in the year. Both Fuuka and Keisuke, the subject of the Fortune Social Link, will always be in the same club the player joins.
** In a New Game+ ending on ''Portable,'' if the player romanced at least one SEES member during the course of the game, they may choose one of them to meet the protagonist on the school roof during the ending, even though logically there should be no way to influence who is arriving. More specifically, the game narrates that the protagonist hears someone's voice and asks the player to identify whose it is.
* ScrewDestiny: Ultimately, [[spoiler:what the choice to spare Ryoji and fight Nyx comes down to]]. It's made abundantly clear to the members of SEES that [[spoiler:Nyx cannot be defeated - everyone ultimately decides to go face the emodiment of Death regardless]].
* ScriptedBattle: After beating the FinalBoss, you get one last fight with the PostFinalBoss, [[spoiler:Nyx's true form]], with the protagonist alone. [[ZeroEffortBoss You can't lose the battle,]] but your options are highly restricted.
* SecretAIMoves: [[spoiler:In the endgame of ''The Answer'', the shadow of the Protagonist will use your party's Personas against you, and he can use skills they don't normally learn. Also, when SEES splits up and fights each other, they can also use skills that they don't normally learn against you, such as Yukari and Mitsuru dropping Megidolaon on you.]]
* SecretProjectRefugeeFamily: [[spoiler:Strega's members consist of three Persona users whose powers were artificially awakened by the Kirijo Group's experiments]].
* SelfDamagingAttackBackfire: Rarely, when going for a regular attack, there is a chance of the attacker overshooting their attack and stumbling, which leaves them in the same state as if their weakness had been attacked - and in the case the shadows, open to an all-out attack. Ranged weapons won't cause this, giving them a small extra benefit.
* SelfDeprecation: When lecturing about summoning magic, Mr. Edogawa says "It's widely seen in books, movies, better video games, and so on..." Notice the "better", implying "better than this one".
* SequentialBoss: The final boss, [[spoiler:Nyx Avatar]], takes this to extremes. You fight a whopping ''fourteen'' forms of this boss. The first thirteen are not difficult, varying only in the elemental resistances and types of attacks used, but the fourteenth and final form has greatly increased HP, attack power, and defense, and can pose significant issues barring LevelGrinding.
* SexyDiscretionShot: Whenever you [[LevelUpAtIntimacy5 max out]] with a girl, the camera fades to black and says "You spend a tender moment with her." In ''Portable'', it's "You spend a long time with" them.
* SexyManInstantHarem:
** Early on, [[ChickMagnet Akihiko]] asks you and Junpei to meet him at the police station...while surrounded by a group of (according to Junpei) ''very'' attractive girls. Humourously, Akihiko completely ignores them for the whole event, implying that he's used to this trope and even finds it rather annoying. The Female Protagonist's Social Link with him deconstructs the trope - while Akihiko may find a lot of girls who are ''attracted'' to him, it's been a long time since he's found anyone who has ''affection'' for him.
** Happens a second time when Ryoji arrives in the Fall semester, although it's only made prominent in his Social Link with the Female Protagonist.
* SexySantaDress: One of the armor outfit sets in ''Portable'' is this, and it's not only visible armor, it's different for every girl.
* ShieldedCoreBoss: The Hanged Man boss has its three statues. Sometimes the only hit you get on it is the All Out Attack after it falls as it regenerates them immediately after their destruction.
* ShootTheMedicFirst:
** Frequently a viable strategy, especially against the bosses who come with minions. On the flip side, if all four of your party members can heal...
** During the Strength-Chariot Full Moon Boss, this trope is subverted as both of the bosses can revive the other one if one of them is beaten. The trick is to kill both of them at the same turn.
* ShopFodder: Coins you get by killing the game's MetalSlime are usually worth a lot of money, and some of the items dropped by bosses are only there for you to sell.
* ShoutOut: Has its [[ShoutOut/Persona3 own page]].
* ShowdownAtHighNoon: The gunfight between [[spoiler:Takeharu Kirijo and Shuji Ikutsuki]]. Literally inverted in that it takes place during the Dark Hour, and thus at midnight. Subverted in that [[spoiler:each man kills the other]].
* ShownTheirWork: All over the place, but particularly with the TarotMotifs. Is Persona 3 the only example to get Lovers and [[spoiler:Death]] right?
** The Female Protagonist's hair pins, spell out the Roman numerals "XXII" or 22, which, along with 0, is the number given for the Fool.
** Thanatos, [[spoiler:a form which Death gains after being sealed into the protagonist, along with his identities as Pharos and Ryoji]]. Thanatos was the bringer of peaceful death [[spoiler:and Ryoji's offer on December 31st can be seen as a way for the protagonists to accept the Fall/Death with relative ease]].
* ShowWithinAShow: Phoenix Ranger Featherman R returns from ''VideoGame/Persona2''. The show can be watched on the dorm TV every Sunday, most of the episodes direct references to ones from ''Series/ChoujinSentaiJetman'', the '''real''' bird Sentai.
* ShutUpHannibal: On January 31, [[spoiler:just below the top of Tartarus, Takaya confronts the heroes one final time, suggests that the end of the world is nigh and cannot be stopped, and asks why they are not celebrating the end of the world.]] Yukari responds succinctly, and when he ''doesn't'' and continues his [[StrawNihilist nihilistic]] MotiveRant about "shining a light upon this darkened world", Junpei takes up the debate instead.
-->'''Yukari:''' ''Will you shut up already!?''\\
... \\
'''Junpei:''' ''You're so full of [[PrecisionFStrike shit]]! I'm not dying so you can have [[LiteralistSnarking a friggin' night-light]]!''
* SicklyGreenGlow: One radiates from the moon during the Dark Hour, giving the world an ominous green hue over everything outside Tartarus.
* SignatureMove: There are spells and abilities that are exclusive to specific Personae, a majority of which cannot be passed through Fusion:
** Literature/{{Alice|InWonderland}} has her regularly possessing the destructive "Die For Me!" attack. She summons armies of corrupted Wonderland soldiers and has them skewering her enemies from the sky. Its counter-part is the "Samsara" which is exclusive to Daisoujou.
** Surt, the fire giant from Myth/NorseMythology has his signature Fire spell Ragnarok. Sometimes, Loki, Thor and Odin join in the fun with Niflheim, Thunder Reign and Panta Rhei.
** Mara and "Maralagidyne", a "Severe"-tier Fire spell that targets all enemies, is a play on its name, and is infamous for its squicky animation.
* SittingOnTheRoof: Some Social Link stages have the characters go up to Gekkoukan High's rooftop for contemplation purposes.
* SituationalDamageAttack:
** Getsu-ei is a Slash attack that deals more damage on a Full Moon. Zan-ei does the same but on a New Moon.
** Vorpal Blade deals even more damage when you're feeling Great. Weary Thrust hits harder if you're feeling Tired.
** Vile Assault and Cruel Attack inflict even more damage on Downed enemies.
* SkirtsAndLadders: When climbing up onto the monorail in the first full moon, Yukari - wearing the short skirt that she wears as part of her school uniform - goes first and pre-empts this with a "Don't look up!"
* SliceOfLife: The game takes a page from this genre and defaults to this for CharacterDevelopment during the breather scenes.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Subverted with Junpei; he actually comes to realize his status as one and suffers a major inferiority complex as a result.
* SmugSnake: [[spoiler:Shuji Ikutsuki, during his MotiveRant.]]
* SnobbyHobbies: Mitsuru Kirijo is the heiress to the Kirijo Group and is in Gekkoukan's fencing club, and rides a sports motorcycle that helps her get around during the Dark Hour.
* SoftReboot: This game can be considered this to the ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' series, being released 6 years after the previous entry in the franchise and with a new director and writer. Persona 3 was the game that introduced many of the elements that the series would continue to use going forward; the protagonist being a wildcard and assigned the Fool Arcana, Igor being the in charge of the Velvet Room, Social Links, and emphasis on the [[SimulationGame day-today school life]] of the protagonists. InUniverse, the first three games of the series have gotten the occasional Easter egg or reference, but 3 is effectively the "first" game in the modern Persona universe.
* SoLongAndThanksForAllTheGear: Averted when [[spoiler:Shinjiro dies]]. You can go through his stuff in his old room in the dorm and take back the equipment you lent him.
* SomeoneHasToDie: [[spoiler:Played straight by the Protagonist, when they sacrifices their soul to become the Great Seal.]]
* SoundtrackDissonance:
** Averted and played straight. During the daytime when the protagonist is exploring Port Island and attending school, the music is very cheery and upbeat J-pop, which is pretty strange for such a serious game. However, when night rolls around and the party heads out to Tartarus or a dungeon, the music becomes significantly darker, more frantic electronic/rap tunes.
** Completely averted later on, where [[spoiler:the happy-sounding exploration music of Port Island, the school, and the dorm are replaced with piano instrumentals for the final month - bleak in the former two's case, triumphant in the latter's]].
* SoUnfunnyItsFunny: Ikutsuki's jokes are so incredibly lame that it might be difficult not to laugh at them.
* SoWhatDoWeDoNow:
** After defeating the 12 Shadows, the entire group experiences this and cannot be bothered to go to Tartarus for quite some time. This is not due to completion but rather [[spoiler:the discovery your entire party was being used by Shuji Ikutsuki to bring [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt The Fall]].]] Mitsuru is gone for almost a month [[spoiler:due to the death of her father]].
** Moreover, one of the main themes of ''The Answer'' is how the ex-SEES members are going to move on with their lives after [[spoiler:the Main Character's HeroicSacrifice]].
* SpeakIllOfTheDead: After [[spoiler:one of your TrueCompanions dies]], the school holds a memorial service. During this, you overhear some of the students talking shit about the recently deceased, and can choose to confront them. Junpei will no matter what.
* SpiritAdvisor: Pharos appears during the Dark Hour across the first two thirds of the game, warning you of impending Full Moon Shadows and offering commentary of your current situation.
* SpoilerOpening:
** [[spoiler:The words that flash up on the screen during the opening heavily imply that the main character will die by the end of the game.]] In addition, there is a fair bit of {{Foreshadowing}} of the connection between [[spoiler:the protagonist, Pharos and Ryoji, shows some vague imagery of Shinjiro's and Ikutsuki's deaths]], and the lyrics of the theme song hint at [[spoiler:the main character's death, with references to a "ticking clock"]].
** The opening of ''FES'' shows some sequences of the TournamentArc of ''The Answer'', and [[spoiler:the very last shot of the opening is the protagonist activating the Great Seal at the end of the game]].
** Again in ''Portable''[='=]s unique opening. [[spoiler:Both protagonists at the end are seen over a coffin and are about to use their evokers and the screen turns red when they shoot.]] Also some double imagery is seen with regards to [[spoiler:October 4th. In one half of the screen Ken is calmly standing but in the other half, he's putting his evoker to his head and Shinjiro can be seen in an escalator behind him.]] Also in the "rapid montage" the group shot of SEES is sandwiched by the love interests in the group.
* SpoilerTitle: Parodied in the ShowWithinAShow Phoenix Ranger Featherman R, with one of its episodes being titled "Death of a Condor! Get your Tissues Ready, Kids!", referencing the semi-infamous last episode of ''Series/ChoujinSentaiJetman''.
* StalkerWithACrush
** Early in the game, Aigis -- for reasons she doesn't fully understand herself -- seems to have an obsession with the main character, taking it to the point that she actually ''breaks into his dorm room'' to monitor him. [[spoiler:We later find out that it's because ten years ago she [[SealedEvilInACan sealed away]] the CosmicHorror's herald [[BarrierMaiden inside his body]]. Her memories of the event were corrupted, which is why she can't explain her desire to be near him]].
** There's an entertaining mini-saga that unfolds between two [=NPCs=]: at the start of the year, a girl is stalking a guy she has a massive crush on and slowly becomes repulsed by him. But while she's doing this, he's slowly falling in love with her. Within a month or two, ''he's'' the one stalking ''her''. He finally asks her out at the end, gets turned down, and in the epilogue she's back to stalking him while he's not interested.
* StarCrossedLovers: [[spoiler:Female Protagonist and Ryoji if you opt for Lovers path in his S link.]]
* StartScreen:
** The original release featured a shot of a full moon through a blue window pane, behind the Protagonist's silhouette as "The Voice Someone Calls" (The music from the entrance to Tartarus) plays.
** ''FES'' updated this menu by switching from blue to the SicklyGreenGlow of the Dark Hour, swapping the Protagonist out for Aigis and incorporating a piano arrangement of "Brand New Days" as the title theme.
** ''Portable'' swapped the title screen out entirely, instead focusing on a shot of Tartarus and a full moon behind a portrait of the Male Protagonist, before swapping to the Female Protagonist after pressing start. Every time the player subsequently returns to the title screen in the same session, the order of the Protagonists swaps.
* StartsWithASuicide: Subverted in two ways. Yukari is seen brandishing a gun to her head and is apparently trying to kill herself in the opening scene, but drops it and starts crying when she's unable to go through with it. Subverted again when it's later learned it was an Evoker and not a real gun, and that she was trying to summon her Persona, which she couldn't go through with out of fear.
* StatusEffects: Most of them are consistent with the rest of the series. In addition to regular battle effects (Poison, Charm, Panic, which is similar to Silence, Rage, Fear, Distress, Freeze and Shock - the latter three reduce evasion to zero and make the character more prone to a critical hit), there's also your characters' Condition, which will change depending on how long you do a Tartarus run. Being in Tartarus for too long will make you tired, and overexerting yourself more will make you sick. A sick character in particular's battle performance will greatly suffer. Performing certain tasks can put a character in "Great" condition, which improves battle performance. The Endurance stat in this game is important because a higher endurance allows for a longer run, and by the final two months of the game, one would be hard-pressed to have characters get tired from a long run.
** The ''Portable'' version of the game eases this by only having characters get tired ''after'' they complete a run, and resting times to improve Condition are shortened, so in context, one can do a long grinding session from the get-go that would have been impossible in the original and FES games. ''The Answer'' does away with Conditions all together.
** Also in ''Portable'', "Downed" (knocked down from either a critical hit or exposed to an elemental weakness) characters recover and can attack on the same turn (this was lifted from ''VideoGame/Persona4''), whereas originally, a turn had to be wasted getting back up. The Dizzy status effect is also exclusive to ''Portable''.
* StealthPun:
** Akihiko fights Shadows with various fist weapons, including gloves. So basically, he's a ''Shadow Boxer''.
** Much of Mara's stats and innate skills are a variety of thinly veiled dick jokes (weak against ice, belongs to the Tower arcana, has the strongest Pierce type attack in the game, etc) and Messiah (who's basically Jesus) comes equipped with Absorb Pierce.
** The whole time you are taking down the 12 shadows you are leveling up the Fool arcana that represents SEES. [[spoiler: Which contrary to what you are led to believe does not stop the Dark Hour, the Shadows, etc. In other words,it's a Fool's Errand. Reversed when you judge the world is worth saving despite it being the harder path and start leveling up the Judgement arcana by ascending the final block with your reformed team to defeat Nyx.]]
* TheStinger: A brief one in both endings. A "[[TheEnd Fin]]" is displayed on the final shot of both, though both were removed from ''Persona 3 Portable'' as that version of the game lacked animated cutscenes.
** In the bad ending, [[spoiler:Akihiko and Mitsuru leaving school on graduation day, before cutting to Yukari, the Male Protagonist, and Junpei partying inside a karaoke booth, ignorant of the upcoming apocalypse]].
** In the good ending, [[spoiler:the Male Protagonist and Aigis are joined on the roof of the school by the rest of the party, presumably only moments after his death. Aigis looks at the group and smiles]].
* StudentCouncilPresident: Mitsuru Kirijo.
* StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: The only way to start the Devil Social Link is to pay the man clearly trying to rip you off 40,000 yen over a period of three visits. He even points this out after you pay the third time
* SummonMagic: The "Evoking" of one's Persona in battle, mainly carried out by [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything shooting oneself in the head with a gun-shaped Evoker]].
* {{Superboss}}:
** [[TheGrimReaper The Reaper]], who huts the party down in Tartarus if they spend too much time on a specific floor.
** Upon defeating the Reaper, the player unlocks the Monad Depths and a request to defeat the ultimate enemy - [[spoiler:Elizabeth]]. In ''Persona 3 Portable'', [[spoiler:Theodore]] can replace the latter depending on choices made at the start of the game.
** ''Persona 3 Portable'' opens an entire roomful of bonus bosses during the final month, presided over by [[spoiler:Margaret from ''Persona 4'']]; most of these are harder variations on the Full Moon bosses with vastly increased stats and other limiting conditions for each fight. Defeat all of ''those'', and you can fight [[spoiler:Margaret herself]].
* SuperMode: Aigis's "Orgia Mode" gives her increased firepower for a few turns. Metis also has this functionality, with the added bonus of making her skills free to cast.
* SuperMovePortraitAttack: The game shows a close-up of the hero every time a Fusion Spell is used. Portraits of the Personas involved will appear to his sides. It also randomly shows a cut-in of a character's eyes when their Persona either hits a weakness or gets a CriticalHit (and the very first time they summon in battle as part of the story). This applies both to party members and enemy Persona-users (plus the optional superboss). Finally, when all enemies are knocked down, a character will suggest (via portrait pop-up and a voice-over) initiating an [[BigBallOfViolence All-Out Attack]]. Agree, and the screen will throw up the portraits of all characters participating in the attack.
* SupernaturalGoldEyes:
** Elizabeth and Theodore, who have only a nodding acquaintance with humanity. Their origins are never explained, but the use of golden eyes to mark someone's Shadow self in ''VideoGame/Persona2'' and ''VideoGame/Persona4'' has had some interesting implications.
** In a similar vein, Takaya, who isn't a Shadow or a supernatural entity himself, but has supernatural powers nonetheless. ''VideoGame/Persona4'' also demonstrated that people possessed by their own Shadows exhibit this trait, possibly implying the same about him.
** In the movie adaptation, [[spoiler:Makoto briefly has his eyes turn gold after he summons his Ultimate Persona, Messiah]].
* SuperTitle64Advance: ''Persona 3 Portable''. Its official abbreviation of "''[=P3P=]''" visually resembles "PSP."
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** The LogicalWeakness of a Persona user is that when they are not focused enough to evoke and maintain the presence of their Personas to protect themselves, they are no different from a normal human. [[spoiler:Thus, it is no surprise gunfire can easily kill one in cutscenes when they would have normally shrugged it off in battles.]]
** Social Links requires you to form bonds with various people in order to maximize Persona fusions. Unfortunately, in order to maximize efficiency, the protagonist usually has to pick dialogue options that agrees to their thinking no matter how self-destructive they are (Kazuchi and Hidetoshi) or how unsavory they are (Nozomi and Tanaka) lest the player wants to waste more time gaining points. [[spoiler: At one point, you are forced to say something critical to [[{{Jerkass}} Nozomi]] which results in him ''immediately cutting ties with you'' and by extension ''reversing'' the Social Link. [[{{FissionMailed}} Fortunately, the Social Link is immediately restored after an untimely event.]]]]
* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: The remix of "Burn My Dread" [[spoiler:used for the final battle]] is an in-universe song, as the protagonist is seen listening to it in the opening. [[spoiler:The song contains lyrics about [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall how the game is almost over]], the hardships the protagonist had to go through to reach this point, and that this is the hero's last chance to save the world]].
* SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity: Be wary if you're suddenly encountering nothing but [[MoneySpider Golden Shadows]]. [[OptionalBoss Death]] is likely on his way. Be even warier if you come across a floor with ''no shadows'' and lots of rare golden chests. Death is likely to be around the next corner.
* TakeAThirdOption: Aigis's decision in [[spoiler:the PC arena battles]] in ''The Answer''. Yukari and Mitsuru [[spoiler:want to use the time key to go back and see the Main Character again]], Akihiko and Ken [[spoiler:want to respect the decisions the main character made]], and Junpei and Koromaru [[spoiler:want to beat the crap out of everyone until they listen to reason]]. Aigis takes a fourth option -- [[spoiler:to watch the miracle being performed so they can figure out what, exactly, the Main Character knew when he made his sacrifice.]]
* TakesOneToKillOne: During a flashback in "The Answer", when a young Mitsuru and her father's entourage first entered Tartarus, one of officers note Shadows are ''completely unaffected'' by conventional weapons. However, mundane weapons in the hands of Persona users are capable of harming Shadows just fine. It is subsequently explained by Metis that Personas operate under the same powers and laws as Shadows, and it extends to any weapon a Persona user has at hand.
* TakeYourTime:
** Nefariously played straight with the Dark Hour. It's a proverbial twenty-fifth hour, and yet the player can take as much time as they need grinding in Tartarus. The only thing that they need to keep an eye on is the condition of their party members, which does wear down over time, but by the time October rolls around, it takes a lot of effort for the party to tire out. In ''Portable,'' the mid-dungeon tiring function is removed, so you can go for long runs right from the beginning of the game. The only part of the game where there's any urgency (the game's ''only'' TimedMission in this case) is the first Full Moon boss, and it's because the train you're riding on is about to crash, not because of the Dark Hour ending.
** On the other hand, because the game runs on a calendar-driven school year, the "day" portion of the game averts this; this also applies to Social Links and most of Elizabeth/Theodore's requests.
* TakingTheBullet:
** [[spoiler:Shinjiro literally takes a bullet for Ken, ''after he had already been shot once.'' '''By a high caliber round''', at that.]]
** In Portable, after reaching certain level of Social Link with SEES, there is a chance that one of your teammates will take damage from attack that would kill the MC. Since [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou losing the leader means Game Over]], it's pretty helpful.
* TarotMotifs: Absolutely pervade the game.
** Each Persona and each Shadow in the game is associated with a particular Arcana. Additionally, the game's protagonist can develop Social Links with other characters; each of these characters is also associated with a particular Arcana--the higher level a particular Social Link is, the more of a boost you'll get when fusing a Persona of that Arcana.
** The ''Minor'' Arcana also appear when dungeon crawling (you can draw cards after battles that have various effects based on the suit) and as RareCandy items in the Portable rererlease.
* TeaserEquipment: Alternate clothing can be purchased from the police station early on. Sadly, by the time you'll be able to afford it, more effective armor is already available.
* TemptingFate: During the October 4th Full Moon, Yukari jests that the team won't have to face the remaining three shadows within three full moons if they don't appear as one on one battles. Cue Fuuka, who confirmed that her hunch was right - Strength and Fortune appear at the same time.
* ThatCameOutWrong: During the Protagonist's first day at Gekkoukan, Yukari tells them "Seriously, don't say anything about last night" - right in front of a very surprised Junpei, who is not yet a SEES member at this point. She was referring, of course, to their awkward first encounter at the dorm which happened in the last few moments of the Dark Hour, but Junpei immediately latches onto the less innocent interpretation, a situation further exacerbated on the Male Protagonist route by the fact their classmates have started spreading rumours about the two because they seen arriving at school together. Cue stereotypical reaction from Yukari when she realizes exactly what she said.
* ThemeMusicPowerUp: In the opening scene of the game, the protagonist has his headphones on listening to the song ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSq_nfTs4Ko Burn My Dread-Last Battle-]]'' while the audience only gets the muffled version that comes as a result. During [[spoiler:the final sealing of Nyx]], the song finally plays as the background music in its full glory to represent the fact that [[spoiler:you will win this fight no matter what, though at [[HeroicSacrifice the ultimate price]].]]
* ThemeNaming:
** Igor and his assistants are named after characters in the novel Frankenstein.
** Also the mythology used; in this game, most of the main characters' personas are derived from Myth/GreekMythology.
* TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: Elizabeth/Theo's response if you ask what's in Octopia's takoyaki.
* ThisIsADrill: An... ''interesting'' set of pictures on the Japanese ''Persona 3:Portable'' blog was released on 9 October 2009, [[http://www.famitsu.com/blog/p3p/1228238_2045.html one of which]].
* ThisIsReality: To quote Mitsuru early on: "This isn't a game, Akihiko." (Right)
* ThroughHisStomach: Of the various gifts the protagonist can give to S.Links, the ones most guaranteed to go over well are the various homemade foods made at cooking club. Additionally, starting Koromaru's S.Link in the female protagonist's route involves feeding him.
* TimedMission:
** In the second full moon event, the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Boss Of The Month]] takes control of a monorail and traps the party inside, forcing you to fight your way through to the front and defeat said boss before the train crashes.
** Margaret's {{superboss}} battle in ''Portable'' involves needing to deal enough damage within ten turns to force her to change phases. If you don't, she forces a TotalPartyKill.
* TimeSkip: Happens if the player chooses to [[spoiler:kill Ryoji in the bad ending, the game will skip 3 months into graduation day]]. Otherwise, on the normal ending, the game will skip from January 31st to the month of March.
* TimeTravel: Prominently featured in ''Persona 3: FES'', with numerous iterations.
** IntangibleTimeTravel: Most of the "Doors of Time" only allow the party to view the event in question without being able to interact with it.
** PortalToThePast: One of the "Doors of Time" leads to a past version of Paulownia Mall, allowing the team to buy supplies.
** TemporalParadox: At one point late in the game, Junpei voices the worry that [[spoiler:by traveling back in time to see the Main Character one more time, they'll undo their defeat of [[CosmicHorror Nyx]] in the previous time]].
* TitleDrop: The Answer side story, and the last line of its Game Over message.
-->He who had been your proof... your life itself...'' ''The answer'' ''has has been lost, never to be found again."''
* TookALevelInBadass:
** Level 6 Courage bestows upon you, quite literally, the title of Badass.
** Happens to S.E.E.S (except Koromaru) as they obtain their respective Ultimate Persona, especially [[spoiler:Junpei who receives his in the middle of a fight against Strega, while the others simply obtain theirs in their free time]]. This upgrade is also reflected in gameplay as their resistance upgrades into an immunity and they begin learning stronger skills in the higher levels.
* TookALevelInJerkass: [[spoiler:Yukari]] in ''The Answer''. [[spoiler:She gets better.]]
* TournamentArc: In ''The Answer'', [[spoiler:the splintered party members organize a short tournament to settle their differences. Naturally, the main character's faction winds up fighting everybody else, two at a time.]]
* TragicMonster: [[spoiler:Ryoji, who is the avatar of Nyx.]]
* TraumaCongaLine:
** Think of Shinjiro, about what happened to him. [[spoiler:And every single thing that he's gone through is actually very serious and manages to totally avoid going overboard, which is what makes it so incredibly awful.]]
** [[spoiler:SEES in general gets hit with this very hard. Especially later in the game, starting in October and ending in the Answer.]]
* TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening: Apparently required in order to summon a Persona.
* TripleShifter: Battling in Tartarus ''does'' affect you if you stay in there too long; characters can become "Tired" or "Sick," both affecting combat performance as long as the effect lasts.
* TriumphantReprise:
** [[spoiler:The dorm theme in the final month of the game changes to]] a remix of "Living with Determination". While the main piano melody remains unchanged, the addition of an upbeat drumbeat gives the song a fitting climactic feel, representing the party's resolve to [[spoiler:avert the upcoming apocalypse]].
** The main theme, "Burn My Dread", [[spoiler:gets a hip-hop remix that was [[{{Bookends}} first heard in the game's opening cutscene]] for the post-final boss sequence]].
* TroubledButCute: Shinjiro. Gets elevated to levels way beyond eleven in his Social Link, which was added for the female's story in ''Portable'' (complete with a romance option).
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour: The imagery of children and teenagers committing mock-suicide is more than a little unsettling at first, is likely the single biggest reason behind the game's M rating in North America. (Well, that and [[GagPenis Mara]].)
* TrueArtIsAngsty: Akinari's pink alligator story is a sad one, with the eponymous character's difficulty in life due to being born an unnatural color, the loss of its only friend, and its BittersweetEnding. He felt that makes a good, hopeful story.
* TrueCompanions:
** As mentioned above. Surprisingly for a ''Shin Megami Tensei'' game, the Gekkoukan team is a very pure example of the trope. It's explicitly mentioned when they begin their [[TheFool Fool's Journey]] as SEES (Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad) and their determination to fight a CosmicHorror makes them change their name to [[spoiler:Nyx Annihilation Team, empowered by the Judgement Arcana]].
** Though its played with a bit in that unlike the ''VideoGame/Persona4'' cast, they aren't all best friends with each other. The second years and the third years of the group tend to keep to themselves most of the time and they do fight a fair amount as tension rises. And [[spoiler:aside from Yukari and Mitsuru, it seems none of them become best friends by the end.]] That said, on a professional level they trust each other completely by the end of the game.
* {{Tsundere}}: The MC's [[spoiler:homeroom teacher, Ms. Toriumi]], if the protagonist completes the Hermit S. Link. Upon discovering who "Tatsuya" is, she flips out, asks the MC out to dinner, then ''throws a dictionary'' on the ground and runs away while beet red in the face yelling "To hell with this!"
* TurnsRed: A few bosses do this, but most notably, the FinalBoss, on its last form, begins using a technique that grants it "Repel" status against '''everything''' (including the supposedly unblockable Almighty spells) for a few turns, and then it starts using the Night Queen attack, which deals massive Almighty damage to the party and has the capability of inflicting any status effect on the party..
* TwoGuysAndAGirl:
** The dynamic between the Protagonist, Junpei, and Yukari. Tellingly, this relationship is maintained even in the Bad Ending, wherein [[spoiler:everyone loses their memories of the past year]].
** Akihiko, Mitsuru, and Shinjiro were also the original founding members of SEES. Interesting enough, they're also the only two characters Mitsuru is on first name basis with as well.
** Downplayed with Strega - whilst Takaya, Jin and Chidori fit on a surface level, they only share three scenes together as a trio, and Chidori's relationships with Takaya and Jin aren't fleshed out [[spoiler:before her death]]. Expanded materials, such as a Drama CD and a novelization, would further develop their group dynamic.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes U-Z]]
* UnbrokenVigil: Yukari keeps one for the Protagonist, after they collapse and spend a week in a coma after awakening to their power.
* UndyingLoyalty: Koromaru is a FictionalCounterpart of UsefulNotes/{{Hachiko}}. Even a year after his owner was killed, Koromaru would still go on the same walk that his owner used to take him on every day. [[spoiler:Koromaru is eventually revealed have a human-like intelligence and joins the party as a TeamPet to avenge his master, who turns out to have been killed by Shadows.]]
* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: Because advancing the story line is irrespective of how much time the party has actually spent dungeon crawling and gaining levels, this can happen if the next Full Moon area is accessed too early: if SEES isn't leveled up enough, beating the Full Moon boss can be practically impossible, and there are rarely ever enemies to grind out levels on in the Full Moon areas. Thankfully, this isn't a fatal example, as save files can always be reloaded. The developers were obviously aware of this and made steps to avoid it, as stated in the DevelopersForesight entry above.
* UpdatedRerelease:
** ''Persona 3 FES'' added a Social Link for Aigis, the ability to take Koromaru for walks, the ability to [[spoiler:revive Chidori]] and new story events to accommodate this, video recordings of the S.E.E.S. members in their free time, and a variety of quality of life changes such as more Personas and a harder diffculty mode. It also included "The Answer" - a PlayableEpilogue to the main story.
** ''Persona 3 Portable'' reworked the '''FES'' version of the game as a VisualNovel due to technical limitations, with only the Full Moon operations and Tartarus exploration retaining the 3D overworld. Whilst lacking "The Answer" and anime cutscenes of the console version, ''Portable'' added a [[ArrangeMode Female Protagonist that offered a different path through the narrative]]. It also backported a number of quality of life changes from ''VideoGame/Persona4'', which had released in the interim.
* UrbanFantasy: The game is set in a city of 2009 Japan, where a strange phenomenon occurs at midnight, monsters known as Shadows hunt helpless victims, and scientists have developed Anti-Shadow weapons in the form of androids.
* UselessUsefulSpell:
** Averted, as per [=MegaTen=] fare; though some enemies (and all bosses) are immune or resistant to some, bad status effect skills and instant death spells are completely viable. A VERY lethal combination is a Fear inducing skill followed by [[HellIsThatNoise Ghastly Wail]], which will NEVER miss. Ever. Bonus points if you first use a skill that increases suceptibility to status effects. This makes boss encounters like Fortune & Strength even more anticlimax than they already are...
** Still played straight thanks to your teammates using [[ArtificialStupidity said spells at the worst possible times.]] Even if the spells aren't useless, they're tremendously situational. The straightest example is Yukari keeping Charmdi the entire game. A team member's skill slot being permanently taken by a single-target status heal that only works for one status is obviously a bad idea. On the useful side, Charm is probably the single most devastating status you can have and when it's a threat you will be glad it's there.
* UseYourHead: [[TheBigGuy Shinjiro]] uses this as part of his critical animation, and to easily knock down a thug that was charging at him... right before challenging the thug to try and kill him. The thug's reaction?
-->'''Thug:''' ScrewThisImOuttaHere!
* VerbalTic: In the Japanese version Aigis ends most of her sentences with the formal "de arimasu." She drops it after her CharacterDevelopment.
* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon:
** Averted in the traditional sense, as Tartarus is the ''only'' dungeon in the game. That being said, it's divided into six blocks (and a basement), with the sixth and topmost block only unlocking in the final month of the game if you've fulfilled the requirements for the good ending. Even then, the topmost floors of the tower which lead to the final few bosses only become accessible on the final playable ''day'' of the game.
** The Empyrean section of ''The Answer'' marks the final leg of dungeon crawling, as the end of this segment holds [[spoiler:the protagonist's Shadow, which then cues SEES's infighting and then the final boss of The Answer.]]
* VictoryPose: Whoever lands the killing blow will pull a victory pose. If the final blow was an All-Out Attack, the game treats it as the main character landing the kill.
* VideoGameCaringPotential: Most of the social links involve helping each of the [=NPCs=] overcome their problems. Since the Female Protagonist in [=P3P=] has a new set of social links, including all the male members of SEES, the caring potential's practically doubled.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential:
** Forcing your allies to [[NonLethalKO kill]] themselves on various barriers is very effective for at least one boss.
** What's that? Death is coming and you aren't near a stairway or access point? Quick! Split the team up on the floor and hope the Reaper chases down one of your teammates while you flee to safety!
* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Some of the more callous dialogue choices in your Social Link events are bound to tick off the other party. Too many missteps and you may even reverse the Link!
* VirtualPaperDoll: You can purchase (for ludicrously high prices, mind) or find some special outfits that will change a character's outfit in battle. For both genders, they include each character's summer and winter casual outfits, and swimsuits for whoever went on the Yakushima trip (Aigis instead has her iconic blue sundress). For the boys, they get a Shirt of Chivalry (clothing inspired by Japanese peasant wear) with a different kanji on the back derived from each guy's personality, and for the girls, all of them get maid outfits, and Yukari and Mitsuru get [[{{Stripperific}} high-cut armor]] (renamed "Battle Panties" in the PSP version), which looks like something you'd find in the closet of the love hotel from the July full moon mission. The Portable version also adds butler suits for the boys, Santa dresses for the girls, and if you're playing as the female protagonist, she can also wear the Battle Panties.
* VisualInitiativeQueue: Hold down R1 during battle and everyone involved will have a number appear next to them showing their turn in battle.
* VisualNovel: ''Portable'' exchanges full 3D environments and models in the downtime cutscenes for static sprites and backgrounds, making the game feel more like a visual novel to compensate for the portable console's limits. This also does mean that nearly every character gets a conversation sprite.
* VisualPun: The persona [[http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Mara Mara]] is a rather {{NSFW}} example of this. The Persona[=/=]Demon is also a RunningGag for the series.
* WakeUpCallBoss:
** The Hierophant. It's the first boss in the entire game that shows just how much status effects are going to fuck you over, having an attack that causes Fear against the part and following up with a party scaled physical attack, and if more than one character has Fear and you don't have Junpei with you, or you do have Junpei and he gets affected and skips his turn, it's going to cause some massive damage, as well as getting a guaranteed bonus turn in [=P3P=]. While there are harder bosses in the game, including before this one, it really is the first boss that shows just how insane some of the battles can get and how one turn can screw with your strategy.
** Early on, there's the third Guardian Shadow, Rampage Drive. It nullifies all physical attacks (and also repels Strike), is resistant to Fire (what Junpei excels in), and can use the Electric Skill Mazio (Yukari's weakness). Unless if you can use Persona Fusion efficiently to get Omoikane (resists Elec, decent Magic stat), or level up Pixie enough to learn Pulinpa (inflicts Panic, preventing Skills to be cast), you might have to sacrifice quite a bit to get the first Old Document.
* WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld: The game's main premise in a nutshell. Mitsuru will often remind you that, as a student, your studies are every bit as important as your duties at [=SEES=]. Conversely, Yukari and Junpei will complain about having exams so soon after a grueling plot-driven boss battle.
* WeakButSkilled: The Michael Persona has a full-team heal, two ma-dyne spells, repels his weakness, and learns the unique move ''Heaven's Blade'', which has the highest critical rate in the game and will do almost as much damage as Brave Blade. However, he has very low stats that don't grow easily.
* WeaponSpecialization: With most of them connecting to a personality trait of each party member, while some don't.
** The Male Protagonist can use any weapon type, but he usually prefers one-handed swords, [[HeroesPreferSwords unsurprisingly]]. He's locked into that option for ''Persona 3 Portable''.
** The Female Protagonist from the PSP version wields naginatas, possibly to evoke [[YamatoNadeshiko the image of the wives of samurai who wielded them]].
** Yukari uses bows; she's a member of the archery club.
** Junpei uses two-handed swords, wielding them like a baseball bat. He offhandedly mentions that he wanted to be a baseball player as a kid.
** Akihiko, captain of Gekkoukan's boxing team, fights with his fists, with his equipment including gloves and spurs.
** Mitsuru is a member of Gekkoukan's fencing team; she can use any sort of one-handed sword in the original and FES games, but is locked to rapiers in the Portable version.
** Aigis, a robot, uses gun attachments on her arms.
** Koromaru uses a small knife that he holds in his mouth, probably to avoid directly biting the Shadows.
** Ken uses large, unwieldy spears. He says he does so to compensate for his shorter stature against foes.
** Shinjiro, the resident [[TheBigGuy heavy hitter]], uses axes. Metis in ''The Answer'' also uses them.
* WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou: If the Protagonist kicks the bucket, the game is over. Although it's not apparent at first, it turns out there's a storyline reason for this: [[spoiler:the [[BarrierMaiden Protagonist]] is the human vessel for the cosmic force of Death. If they were to be killed in battle, Death would be released, and all would be lost.]]
* WeirdMoon: Like most of the SMT games, bad mojo brews when the moon is full. In ''Persona 3'', which is unique in that it has a set amount of time before the world ends, there's a set number of full moons and each calls forth one or more extremely powerful Shadows themed after a specific Arcana of the Tarot - beginning with the WarmupBoss, The Magician.
* WeUsedToBeFriends: Akihiko and Mitsuru with Shinjiro.
* WeWereYourTeam: After the death of [[spoiler:the MC, the remaining members of S.E.E.S. went their separate ways]]. The separation itself was not all that unusual: after all, the group no longer had a reason to exist and two of its members had just finished high school. However, during the events of ''The Answer'' in ''FES'', it's made clear that [[spoiler:the MC was the only person who could keep the group together and that everyone was devastated by his sudden and unexplained death. The void left behind by his departure not only ended up trapping the remaining members of S.E.E.S. in a GroundhogDayLoop, but also led them to fight among themselves.]]
* WeWouldHaveToldYouBut: Mitsuru knows more about Tartarus and the Dark Hour than she initially lets on.
* WhamEpisode: The full moons towards the end of 2009 carry many big revelations with them.
** On October 4th, [[spoiler:Ken confronts Shinji over the death of his mother, and as Strega intervenes, Shinji dies taking a bullet for Ken.]]
** On November 4th, [[spoiler:you find out the Dark Hour hasn't gone away despite defeating all the Full Moon Shadows, and Ikutsuki's been playing all of S.E.E.S. to bring about The Fall.]]
** On December 2nd, [[spoiler:you learn that Ryoji is the embodiment of the Death Arcana Shadow that had been sealed away within the protagonist, and was involved with the death of the protagonist's parents ten years ago.]]
* WhamLine: The PostFinalBoss drops one when it comes time to use your ultimate skill to [[spoiler:seal away Nyx]]: The "Great Seal" skill's [[spoiler:HP cost, which is [[HeroicSacrifice all of your hit points]]]].
* WhamShot:
** [[spoiler:The usual Dark Hour intro animation playing on 11.04, when you were led to believe you'd got rid of it for good.]]
** At the beginning of ''The Answer'', [[spoiler:Aigis attempting to summon Athena to protect Ken from Metis, only for [[ChangingOfTheGuard Orpheus]] to emerge instead.]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: What happened to [[spoiler:Takaya]] after he collapsed in laughter atop Tartarus during [[spoiler:the ending sequence]]? Everyone else was [[spoiler:sent to the foot of the tower as it went away]], so where did he go?
* WhatTheHellHero: Mitsuru will lecture you if you don't go into Tartarus within the first 10 days of being recruited after you come back to the dorms.
* WhatTheHellPlayer: In ''Portable'', failing (or not bothering) to rescue Bunkichi or Maiko while their respective Social Link is maxed out will cause Mitsuko or Maiko's father respectively to leave an unpleasant remark during the PlayableEpilogue.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: The choice regarding whether to [[spoiler:kill Ryoji or try to fight Nyx]] ultimately comes down to this, since if the protagonist goes against the rest of the team's wishes and [[spoiler:kills him]], nobody will remember that it was ever even an issue.
* WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve: The plot of the game literally revolves around this due to the occurrence of the Dark Hour. If you go to Tartarus, or during scripted Dark Hour events, a clock appears, ticking towards 12 o'clock before breaking apart.
* WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys: Officer Kurosawa sells the main characters weapons and armor. This doesn't explain where he gets all these functional ''medieval weapons'', however.
* WholePlotReference:
** The entire plot is very familar to those who've played ''VideoGame/{{Persona|1}}'' at least with the Snow Queen Quest. [[spoiler:NietzscheWannabe who wants to bring about the end of the world through a sacrifice, check. Not to metion that the Snow Queen IS Nyx.]] Also the main aesop of the main game (Don't run away from your problems) is mirrored in Ken's CharacterDevelopment.
** The game also shares many similarities with ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', mainly its theme of fighting against an unknown threat (Angels/Shadows), the approaching end of the world ([[spoiler:Instrumentality/The Fall]]) and how people deal with death. Now if you add in the fact that the Protagonist shares quite a few characteristics with Shinji (even the headphones!), Aigis with Rei, Yukari with Asuka, [[spoiler:and Ryoji with Kaworu]], the game feels very different.
** The game is also very similar to the original four [[Franchise/DotHack .hack]] games. In .hack, The Cursed Wave, a sentient computer virus, puts people into a vegetative state to herald the coming of 8 bosses [[spoiler:who are parts of one big super boss, Morganna, who threatens to end the world]]. In Persona 3, The Shadows, sentient manifestations of the human psyche, put people into a vegetative state to herald the coming of 12 bosses [[spoiler:who are parts of one big super boss, Death, who threatens to end the world via two bigger super bosses, Nyx and Erebus]]. There is also the appearance of an unrelated third party in both; .hack has Cubia, a downright EldritchAbomination, while Persona 3 has a group of Persona users called Strega who use Personas for pleasure and excitement. However, [[spoiler:in .hack, Corbenik, the last of the eight bosses, is the Final Boss, while here, Corbenik's counterpart, the Hanged Man, is not. Afterwards, it is also revealed that Strega is connected to the plot, unlike Cubia, who was his own case.]] Even the gameplay is fairly similar, from the controlling of your party members through generic tactics and listening to their squeals of delight when they gain levels to the in-universe names for elements and types of spells, where Repth in the .hack universe becomes Dia. The social links can even be seen as extended, more central to the plot versions of the e-mails you could send your teammates in the .hack games.
* WistfulAmnesia: [[spoiler:As an act of mercy to let the party die peacefully, Ryoji gives them the choice of killing him, which causes them to forget about everything related to the Dark Hour and lets them lead peaceful lives until The Fall happens. It doesn't work on Aigis, though, and she has no choice but to wait for the end to come, knowing she cannot do a thing about it.]]
* WrenchWench: Fuuka Yamagishi likes to work on electronics.
* WrongGenreSavvy: It is not until ''The Answer'' that SEES learns that Shadows are not invaders from another world but people's dark psyche taking physical form.
* {{Yakuza}}:
** The Kirijo Group, complete with a company-owned High School ([[spoiler:that doubled as a Shadow research facility]], a (presumably) company-owned hospital capable of holding its patients hostage without raising eyebrows, and access to military-grade weaponry, is either this or a ''very'' corrupt and powerful local corporation... And in Japan, there's usually very little to separate the former from the latter.
** There's also officer Kurosawa's 'connections'... Which appear to have no problem giving a police officer access to lethal weaponry to sell off-the-counter to ''schoolchildren''. It's vaguely implied that his 'connections' are Kirijo pulling strings, too.
* YearOutsideHourInside: Akihiko theorizes this about Tartarus, which only shows up during the Dark Hour. When [[spoiler:Fuuka is trapped inside]], she claims to have only been there for a few hours, when in reality she's been missing for several days.
* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe:
** Averted, surprisingly. "Thou art I, and I am thou..." looks awkward, but is a legitimate use of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subject_complement subject complements]].
** An equivalent of this is in the Japanese version as well (it uses "[[UsefulNotes/JapanesePronouns nanji]]"), though the Japanese version isn't grammatically incorrect.
* YouKilledMyFather:
** A subdued version plays out as Yukari's convinced that the Kirijo Group is hiding the truth about her father's death, and she's spent the past few years trying to find out what really happened. Once she learns the answer, [[BreakTheCutie it doesn't help]].
** And the whole October 4th affair is [[spoiler:that Shinjiro [[AccidentalMurder accidentally murdered]] Ken's mom when going after a shadow with his newly found Persona. Ken wasn't very happy about that.]]
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: [[spoiler:Hooray, you've destroyed the last of the Full Moon shadows and destroyed the Dark Hour! ...right?]]
[[/folder]]

** In the afternoon of July 18, Akihiko looks suspiciously surprised and worried when Ken is formally introduced as a resident of the Iwatodai Dorm. This hints that Akihiko [[spoiler:knows more about the kid's backstory, specifically Shinjiro's involvement in the death of Ken's mother]].

** Whilst ''Persona 3'' is unabashedly set in Japan, it still American-ises some of the terminology used instead of using the Japanese equivalent - namely referring to classes as Junior and Senior years. All characters refer to each other on a FirstNameBasis and without honorifics, whereas later games' dubs would preserve these elements from the original. Subsequent games would instead use the Japanese terminology, and refer to the high school classes as First, Second, and Third Years.

* BagOfSpilling: You know all those [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity+1 Swords]], rare armors, and useful artifacts you picked up during The Journey? All gone in The Answer. Along with character levels being reset to around 20. Lampshaded by Ken and Akihiko, who liken it to studying for a test and forgetting everything immediately afterward.

* CriticalFailure: On the flip-side, it's possible that when an attack misses, there's a random chance the flubbed attack will cause the aggressor to trip and be Downed. Rage-inducing when it happens to your party members (and one of the reasons why Accuracy/Evasion buffs are relevant), but hilarious when it happens to enemies. Even the ''bosses'' can trip (at a very rare chance, mind).
* CriticalHit: The animations that show it are quite satisfying to see, and they grant an ExtraTurn. There exist skills to raise crit rate and a passive to protect against taking crits.

* BaitAndSwitchGunshot: [[spoiler:After betraying the S.E.E.S and getting shot by Takeharu, Ikutski tries to force Aigis into executing the S.E.E.S, even as they desperately plead with her to resist. Aigis does visibly hesitate but eventually opens fire...to free them from their restraints.]]

* AnAesop: There are times people afraid of death, or want to die, but you have to remember that you are mortal. And when you have someone you care about die, you have to talk about your problem and move on, not just for your sake, but for the person you cared about too.

* AdaptationDistillation: In order to compensate for the PSP having weaker hardware than the [=PS2=], some changes were made to the game's presentation style. Cutscenes are no longer rendered in full 3D, but instead use VisualNovel-style static backgrounds and portraits, with non-verbal animations instead being described in narration, and exploring the city has similarly been changed from fully-3D environments to 2D point-and-click maps. Other than that, the core game is mostly the same.

** Equip Mara as your persona and enter the Velvet Room and Elizabeth or Theodore will make an... ''interesting'' comment.
-->'''Elizabeth:''' Oh, my... Tee-hee... It's very manly, that much is certain.\\

* BizarroEpisode: Parodied in-universe. Some of the [[ShowWithinAShow Phoenix Ranger Featherman R]] episodes are clearly this, for example "[[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Episode 26: Caveman Love! Romance knows no boundaries -- not even between different eras!]]" [[note]] It's a reference to ep. 26 of ''Series/ChoujinSentaiJetman'', where the yellow ranger ends up in prehistoric times and falls in love with a native woman. [[/note]]

** Whilst ''Persona 3'' is unabashedly set in Japan, it still American-ises some of the terminology used instead of using the Japanese equivalent - namely referring to classes as Junior and Senior years. Subsequent games would instead use the Japanese terminology, and refer to the high school classes as First, Second, and Third Years.

A VideoGameRemake built on the MediaNotes/UnrealEngine, ''VideoGame/Persona3Reload'', was announced on June 11th, 2023 and released on February 2, 2024 for PC, Platform/XboxOne, Platform/XboxSeriesXAndS, Platform/PlayStation4, and Platform/PlayStation5. Although the game includes [[https://gbatemp.net/threads/persona-3-reload-wont-feature-the-answer-or-the-female-protagonist-will-have-some-fes-content.634479/ features and story elements]] from ''FES'' and ''Portable'', it does not feature the Female Protagonist. ''[[PlayableEpilogue The Answer]]'' will be added later in 2024 as DLC.

A VideoGameRemake built on the MediaNotes/UnrealEngine, ''VideoGame/Persona3Reload'', was announced on June 11th, 2023 and released on February 2, 2024 for PC, Platform/XboxOne, Platform/XboxSeriesXAndS, Platform/PlayStation4, and Platform/PlayStation5. Although the game includes [[https://gbatemp.net/threads/persona-3-reload-wont-feature-the-answer-or-the-female-protagonist-will-have-some-fes-content.634479/ features and story elements]] from ''FES'' and ''Portable'', it does not feature ''[[PlayableEpilogue The Answer]]'' or the Female Protagonist.

* ShowWithinAShow: Phoenix Ranger Featherman R returns from ''VideoGame/Persona2''. The show can be watched on the dorm TV every Sunday.

* BizarroEpisode: Parodied in-universe. Some of the [[ShowWithinAShow Phoenix Ranger Featherman R]] episodes are clearly this, for example "[[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Episode 26: Caveman Love! Romance knows no boundaries -- not even between different eras!]]"

* FantasticVoyagePlot: Mentioned in a preview for ShowWithinAShow Phoenix Ranger Featherman R.

* SpoilerTitle: Parodied in the ShowWithinAShow Phoenix Ranger Featherman R, with one of its episodes being titled "Death of a Condor! Get your Tissues Ready, Kids!"

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[ThematicThemeTune I will burn my dread.]]''[[labelnote:note]]From left to right: [[BromanticFoil Junpei]], [[MessianicArchetype the Protagonist]], and [[DefrostingIceQueen Yukari]]. In the back: your personal GuardianEntity, [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Thanatos]].[[/labelnote]]]]

** Tf your allies are left on "Act Freely", this can be applied to your Party Members. Granted, they will listen to what Fuuka has to say once she finishes her EnemyScan, but that won't stop Mitsuru from using [[UselessUsefulSpell Marin Karin]] at the worst possible time. You'd best make use of tactics like "Full Assault", "Same Target", "Knock Down", or "Heal/Support" to railroad your party's decisions and avert this trope as much as you can.

** Speaking of which, if your allies are left on "Act Freely", this can be applied to your Party Members. Granted, they will listen to what Fuuka has to say once she finishes her EnemyScan, but that won't stop Mitsuru from using [[UselessUsefulSpell Marin Karin]] at the worst possible time. You'd best make use of tactics like "Full Assault", "Same Target", "Knock Down", or "Heal/Support" to railroad your party's decisions and avert this trope as much as you can.

** Speaking of ''VideoGame/Persona2'', the Reaper bears a particularly strong resemblance to JOKER [[spoiler:aka Tatsuya Sudou from ''Eternal Punishment.'']] Both wear a very similar (although the Reaper's is significantly more bloody) trench coat/overcoat. Like how JOKER wore a paper bag on his head, the Reaper wears a sack on his head. Most notable of all, [[spoiler:the Reaper appears to be missing the same eye that Tatsuya lost moments before his death.]]

** Speaking of ''VideoGame/Persona2'', the Reaper bears a particularly strong resemblance to JOKER[[spoiler:aka Tatsuya Sudou from ''Eternal Punishment.'']] Both wear a very similar (although the Reaper's is significantly more bloody) trench coat/overcoat. Like how JOKER wore a paper bag on his head, the Reaper wears a sack on his head. Most notable of all, [[spoiler:the Reaper appears to be missing the same eye that Tatsuya lost moments before his death.]]

* LawfulStupid: Mr. Ekoda, the classic literature teacher with seniority in Gekkoukan High. He does what he believes is in the best interest of the school and his students, which includes covering up the disappearance of Fuuka caused by bullies to save the ''bullies''' reputation, [[spoiler:and suspending Saori because of a gossip magazine's false story about her being promiscuous, and nearly suspending the main character, just for being her (only) friend]]. Mitsuru's punishment for him of the former act, and [[spoiler:Miss Ounishi and Toriumi, his two kohai, brushing him off to support Saori's SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome wholeheartedly]] were definitely well deserved.

** In the English localization, ''Innocent Sin Online'' (and the accompanying player names Maya and Tatsuya) is one big reference to the characters of ''VideoGame/Persona2'' and the locations in ''VideoGame/{{Persona|1}}'' (and was originally a ShoutOut to ''Megami Tensei'', the game that started it all). Also, several fusions (particularly the ones that Elizabeth requests) are those of key characters from other ''[[Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei MegaTen]]'' games; Alice and Lilith, for example, were important characters in ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei''.

* {{Tsundere}}: The MC's [[spoiler:homeroom teacher, Ms. Toriumi]], if the protagonist completes the Hermit S. Link. Upon discovering who "Tatsuya" is, she flips out, asks the MC out to dinner, then ''throws a dictionary'' at him.

** When SEES learn of the coming of Nyx, [[spoiler:Ryoji repeatedly states that only the Protagonist can hurt him. Come the final battle, and the entire party are able to cause damage to Nyx Avatar, despite the game making it abundantly clear that Nyx Avatar is the former Ryoji. [[DownplayedTrope That being said, the protagonist ''is'' the only one who manages to actually defeat Nyx, as even winning against Nyx Avatar doesn't stop the Fall until the protagonist sacrifices themselves to become the Great Seal]].