History YMMV / Persona

** Except for the second and fourth games, where the names [[VideoGame/Persona2 Tatsuya Suou]] & [[VideoGame/Persona4 Yu Narukami]] are virtually agreed upon, the fanbase tends to get into rather intense debates about the names of the protagonists of [[VideoGame/Persona3 Persona 3]] & [[VideoGame/Persona5 Persona 5]], although nowadays, it's pretty much universally agreed by fans to be ''Makoto Yuki'' and ''Ren Amamiya'' respectively.

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** Whether the next ''Persona'' mainline game should keep the high school setting or take place in college/workplace (or just basically have all main characters be adults entirely) is up for debate with heaps of FanMyopia or ValuesDissonance. Some conclude that it would be impractical to have the calendar system for a working adult protagonist given Japan's notoriously long work hours, but others argue that having an adult protagonist would be a fresh approach for the series. The same controversy applies for whether to keep confining the main country location to strictly Japan or take place in another country entirely.

* FanMyopia: By simply existing on the internet, it's not uncommon to come across some salty reactions to ''Persona'' survey results coming out of either Japan or Southeast Asia. Like how certain characters from ''VideoGame/Persona4'' (Yosuke and Kanji)]] and ''VideoGame/Persona5'' (Akechi and Ryuji)]] respectively for example, have essentially swapped popularities between Eastern and Western audiences, as well as the Protagonists ranking first place in every poll. The character rankings, coupled with global fans misunderstanding the point of these polls (Such as mistakably believing the lowest ranked characters are "hated") and [[ValuesDissonance regional differences between the East and the West]] leave many feeling bitter that the preferences in other countries differs from their own. Not surprisingly Atlus or Sega can hold polls in the West as well and fans also tend to react negatively when the [[SilentMajority quieter majority]] has different preferences compared to that of the [[VocalMinority louder minority.]]

* ValuesDissonance: The view on the protagonist differs greatly between the East and the West. In Japan, along with South Korea, China and Southeast Asia, the silent protagonists from ''Persona 3'', ''4'', and ''5'' frequently ranks first place in official character surveys, which can seem baffling to the audience in North America and Europe. This is because the Eastern fans simply see it as a way to role play as a defined hero like any other typical JRPG, with how they pick the dialogue choices and progress through gameplay or schedule being a reflection of these players, combined with experiencing the hero's journey while the Western fans are [[BrokenBase divided]] on this idea, and consider a SelfInsert being a fully-defined character by the player, often bringing up character creators and even more personal projection.

* ValuesDissonance: The view on the protagonist differs greatly between the East and the West. In Japan, along with South Korea, China and Southeast Asia, the silent protagonists from ''Persona 3'', ''4'', and ''5'' frequently ranks first place in official character surveys, which can seem baffling to the audience in North America and Europe. This is because the Eastern fans simply see it as a way to role play as a defined hero like any other typical JRPG, with how they pick the dialogue choices and progress through gameplay or schedule being a reflection of these players, combined with experiencing the hero's journey while, the Western fans are [[BrokenBase divided]] on this idea, and consider a SelfInsert being a fully-defined character by the player, often bringing up character creators and even more personal projection.

** Prior to the modern ports, there was a debate whether just the idea of multiplatform port of the (mainline) ''Persona'' games was a good idea or not. The issue possibly got widespread since the announcement of [[VideoGame/Persona5 Joker]]'s inclusion in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' and it only got heated over time until then. Basically, fans that preferred the games to be [=PlayStation=] exclusive hated the idea, called out the wishful fans without access to those games as [[MemeticMutation "port beggars"]], and wished that ports would never happen, while non-[=PlayStation=] fans interested in actually playing the games called out the [=PlayStation=] fans as rude gatekeepers, brought up many issues to justify their wishes (from not wanting to buy a console just for one game (and good luck for the older ones) to being against emulation), and had to state that they refused to associate themselves with the Website/{{Twitter}} spammers that gave this kind of fan bad rep to begin with.

* FanMyopia: By simply existing on the internet, it's not uncommon to come across some salty reactions to ''Persona'' survey results coming out of either Japan or Southeast Asia. Like how certain characters from ''VideoGame/Persona4'' (Yosuke and Kanji)]] and ''VideoGame/Persona5'' (Akechi and Ryuji)]] respectively for example, have essentially swapped popularities between Eastern and Western audiences, as well as the Protagonist ranking first place in every poll. The character rankings, coupled with global fans misunderstanding the point of these polls (Such as mistakably believing the lowest ranked characters are "hated") and [[ValuesDissonance regional differences between the East and the West]] leave many feeling bitter that the preferences in other countries differs from their own. Not surprisingly Atlus or Sega can hold polls in the West as well and fans also tend to react negatively when the [[SilentMajority quieter majority]] has different preferences compared to that of the [[VocalMinority louder minority.]]

* ValuesDissonance: The view on the protagonist differs greatly between East and West, and this is one of the main reasons of FanMyopia regarding popularity polls mentioned above. In ''Persona'', the (silent) protagonists are designed as a SelfInsert, but this term alone differs greatly between the two regions. The Eastern fans simply see it as a way to role play as a defined hero like any other typical JRPG, with how they pick the dialogue choices and progress through gameplay or schedule being a reflection of these players. Since the point of these games is to experience the hero's journey, it is unsurprising that the protagonists tend to land first place in popularity in Japan and SEA. Meanwhile, the Western fans are [[BrokenBase divided]] on this idea, and consider a SelfInsert being a fully-defined character by the player, often bringing up character creators and even more personal projection. The protagonists having particular personality traits despite being a vessel for the players is often stated by these fans to be an indecisive direction and would rather just have a fully standalone character instead of as a player stand-in. So it is no wonder they have stronger preference for the supporting cast, whose character writing, compared to the "plain" protagonist, appeals more to the Western fanbase.

** Additionally, even among modern fans, there's a divide between those who like ''3'' and those who like ''4'' and/or ''5''. From a gameplay perspective, the former camp believes that the fourth and fifth games dumbed down the mechanics too much, while the latter camp supports the addition of AntiFrustrationFeatures and other improvements. From a story perspective, the former camp prefers the darker story and more focus on CharacterDevelopment in the story (e.g. having Persona evolutions be tied to in-story development), while the latter camp prefers the Investigation Team and Phantom Thieves being tighter-knit than S.E.E.S. was, and doesn't like the inability to do Social Links for male S.E.E.S. members in the third game, which they believe results in the characters getting less development thant hey should.

* FridgeHorror: The Social Link system introduced in ''Persona 3'' can easily be read as you deliberately cultivating "friendships" solely for the purpose of amassing more power for yourself. This is toned down in ''Persona 5''; most of your Confidants befriend you with the explicit understanding that you're getting some material benefit out of the relationship- for example, Sojiro asks you to help out at his cafe in order to earn your keep, and offers to teach you how to make coffee as a perk- and a throwaway line by Morgana indicates that he is aware of Social Links and has no issue with it.

* SelfImposedChallenge: One of the most common ones present in just about each game is the "[[StarterMon Starter]] Persona run". The idea behind it is that you have to beat the game using only your starting Persona, meaning you can't switch to any other Persona. This generally involves using each games various methods of powering up Persona's outside of fusion to give them skills that remove their AchillesHeel, buff their stats to the limit, and give them end game skills, such as Skill Cards, Strengthening via the Velvet Room, or using some form of LoopholeAbuse to empower them by the end game. It is possible to do this depending on the game, but it tends to be restricted to NewGamePlus because of the limitations of some games making this run harder than others.

* ShipsThatPassInTheNight: Despite them not even being from the same game, or even the same profession, [[VideoGame/Persona4 Adachi]] x [[VideoGame/Persona5 Sae]] has a rather strong following.

* ValuesDissonance:
** The view on the protagonist differs greatly between East and West, and this is one of the main reasons of FanMyopia regarding popularity polls mentioned above. In ''Persona'', the (silent) protagonists are designed as a SelfInsert, but this term alone differs greatly between the two regions. The Eastern fans simply see it as a way to role play as a defined hero like any other typical JRPG, with how they pick the dialogue choices and progress through gameplay or schedule being a reflection of these players. Since the point of these games is to experience the hero's journey, it is unsurprising that the protagonists tend to land first place in popularity in Japan and SEA. Meanwhile, the Western fans are [[BrokenBase divided]] on this idea, and consider a SelfInsert being a fully-defined character by the player, often bringing up character creators and even more personal projection. The protagonists having particular personality traits despite being a vessel for the players is often stated by these fans to be an indecisive direction and would rather just have a fully standalone character instead of as a player stand-in. So it is no wonder they have stronger preference for the supporting cast, whose character writing, compared to the "plain" protagonist, appeals more to the Western fanbase.

* BittersweetEnding: Many endings within the series have the characters win, but there's often some tragedy and uncertainty as well.
** Both games in the ''Persona 2 Duology'' have this. ''Innocent Sin'' ends with the heroes defeating Nyarlathotep, but Maya is killed and the world is destroyed. Philemon gives the characters a chance to save the world properly, but must forget Maya and their friendship with each other. If they remember, the world is also doomed. In ''Eternal Punishment'', the world is saved, but Tatsuya returns to his original, destroyed world. Later, Maya sees the Tatsuya from the current world, but decides not to approach him.
** In ''Persona 3'', S.E.E.S manage to stop Nyx from enacting The Fall, but at the cost of the protagonist sacrificing themselves. They die on Graduation Day, just as their friends regain their memories and arrive on the rooftop. In ''The Answer'', it's revealed the protagonist has become the seal to prevent Erebus, the manifestation of humanity's grief, from reaching Nyx to bring about The Fall. The other members of S.E.E.S are unable to truly defeat Erebus, as it'll always come back so long as humanity wishes for death. They resolve to at least ease the protagonist's burden by living life to the fullest, though Aigis and Elizabeth want to try and free them from their fate as a seal. As of ''Persona 4 Arena'', Elizabeth remains unsuccessful in completely destroying Erebus.
** ''Persona 5'' ends with the Phantom Thieves defeating Yaldabaoth and freeing humanity from his control, but they remain unsure if they truly reformed society. Not only that, but shortly after, Joker is placed in Juvenile Hall for his actions as the leader of the Phantom Thieves. though he eventually gets released and his criminal record is cleared.