Characters / Persona 3: Protagonists

Persona 3 Main Character Index
Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight | Persona 3 Reload
S.E.E.S. (Starting Members [The Protagonists | Yukari Takeba] | Later Members) | Social Links and NPCs | Antagonists

The Protagonists

The Protagonists with their respective Velvet Room Attendants in the background.

^{Click here to see Thanatos}

The God of Death

^{Click here to see Messiah}

The Savior

^{Click here to see Orpheus Telos}

The Cipher's Mask

"Done and dusted."

Arcana: The Fool, Death, Judgement, The Universe
Persona: Orpheus, Thanatos, Orpheus Telos, Messiah, Wild Card

The game's main character, a 16 year old transfer student enrolling into Gekkoukan High School in Iwatodai City. Upon discovering the presence of the Dark Hour, the protagonist unlocks their hidden power known as a Persona to combat the creatures of the Dark Hour known as Shadows. Being put as field leader of Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (S.E.E.S.), the Protagonist joins their new schoolmates in the ongoing struggle against Shadows.

The Protagonist is male in the PS2 versions of the game, but in Persona 3 Portable, a female protagonist can be chosen. Though their background story and overall role in the game are the same, their personality and interaction with characters are different. Canonically, the Protagonist's true gender is male though the female exists in an alternate timeline. While the Male Protagonist favors one handed swords (in the original release, he could wield any weapons sans firearms and knives), the Female Protagonist favors naginatas.

Early in the game, the Protagonist signed a contract with a mysterious boy named Pharos. Through this contract, they are able to enter the Velvet Room, a location between consciousness and subconsciousness. Unlike the rest of S.E.E.S., the Protagonist has the ability to use more than one Persona. This ability, known as the Wild Card, is what makes the Protagonist special and can be further enhanced through their interactions with others.

Their initial Persona is Orpheus of the Fool Arcana. In Greek Mythology, Orpheus is a musician, poet and prophet taught by the god Apollo. When his wife, Eurydice, passed away, a mournful Orpheus travels to the Underworld to rescue her. On their way out, Orpheus accidentally broke his promise to Hades to not look back until they had both arrived on the surface. Upon doing so, Eurydice vanishes, this time forever.

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In General

• 11th-Hour Superpower: After fighting the Nyx Avatar, they eventually ascend to the atmosphere, enter the Moon and fight with Nyx one on one. It attacks with concentrated death every turn; and while it initially does take away all but 1 HP, the power obtained from the bonds forged throughout the entire game heals them, allowing them to stand back up. It eventually allows the protagonist to dodge the attack, and finally completely block it. The fight finishes when they use all their life to cast Great Seal on Nyx.
• The Ace: Both are capable of summoning multiple Personas (more than one at the same time in fact), is seen as The Reliable One by all of their teammates, is the best player on whichever sports team they decide to join, and is a Chick Magnet/Dude Magnet. Junpei acknowledges this as well.
• Adaptational Wimp: For some reason, Portable changes Fusion Spells which originally use HP or SP in the original game and in FES into items which must be bought by exchanging certain numbers of specific materials in a specific shop; and the material can only be obtained via random drops in Tartarus. This means while Fusion Spells now don't cost anything, the more powerful ones require enormous count of materials (and thus grinding) to obtain even 1 copy of. Reload adjusts them as the Protagonist's Theurgy attacks and makes them available as soon as both Personas involved are unlocked, regardless of their current loadout.
• All-Loving Hero: There are dialogue choices, especially for the female protagonist, which play this straight. However, it can also be subverted as you can be pretty rude (and, yes, you will be called out for it). Social Links do indicate at the very least, they are very understanding towards others. The diversity of their relationships from an elderly couple, classmates, a Corrupt Corporate Executive, a Dirty Old Monk, as well as the strangest members of S.E.E.S. (a dog and a robot) show the capacity to understand pretty much anyone.
• The Anti-Nihilist: The protagonist starts the story seeing little to no meaning in their life, content to coast along, apathetic of desire or goals. As the plot moves along and they bond with others, they slowly open up and start seeing living itself as valuable regardless of circumstances. This allows them to continue fighting Nyx despite knowing defeating her is impossible.
• Archnemesis Mom: Their other main Persona, Thanatos, is the son of Nyx in Greek Mythology.
• Asleep for Days: The awakening to their Persona ability puts them out for a week.
• Asleep in Class: In the game, they have the option to sleep in class. Doing this cures their Tired/Cold status and can change it to Great (or boosts their Courage in Reload)
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Easily the best fighter in the group as well as the most versatile, which is why they're the leader of the combat team. To the point where it's lampshaded by their courage title becoming Badass when maxed out.
• Barrier Maiden:
  • They possesses the ego fragment of Death after the entity was split into thirteen fragments. As long as the protagonist is alive and Death does not have the other fragments, Death cannot become Nyx Avatar and the Fall is postponed indefinitely. Unfortunately, over the course of the game, S.E.E.S. destroys all of the other fragments with the protagonist leading them, allowing Death to absorb them and unwillingly resume its duties.
  • After the protagonist casts Great Seal, their soul becomes the only thing preventing Erebus from contacting Nyx and restarting the Fall.
• Barred from the Afterlife: At the end, their soul becomes the Great Seal barring Erebus from calling Nyx, a golden gate in the deepest realm in the Sea of Souls — which is also where all souls go after death to fade from the mortal world. Unless humanity as a whole can render the Great Seal unnecessary somehow, the soul in Great Seal will never be able to pass on to whatever comes after souls disappear in Persona universe.
• Battle Couple: When romancing any members of the party.
• The Berserker: In contrast to how Greek myth Thanatos is often understood as a bringer of peaceful death, the Persona Thanatos fights like a raving monster. It destroys Arcana Magician by essentially ripping and slashing it apart limb to limb before crushing a still twitching limb with its bare hand. In the fourth anime movie, it doesn't give Nyx Avatar any quarters: it begins by constantly pressing it with sword attacks, then knocks Nyx Avatar's sword off its hand with Frickin' Laser Beams from its head, then rips one of Nyx Avatar's wings. It is knocked away with a punch and then has its sword broken, but this only prompts Thanatos to brawl with Nyx Avatar with its bare hands and is ready to spam its laser again before finally being impaled through the head.
• Big Eater: Both are depicted as heavy eaters. Many of their Social Links often take place in restaurants or eateries.
  • The male protagonist can keep up with the Gourmet King and Mamoru in eating. Only Elizabeth outdoes him, during their date, but she does so in a way that indicates he managed to keep up through seven straight meals. In Persona Q, he's noted for eating several plates of yakisoba, while a side quest in Persona Q2 involves him getting into a donut eating contest with the P4 protagonist over this fact.
  • The female protagonist is noted by others to have quite the appetite. Junpei's impressed on how much she can fit so much food in her body during his Social Link. In the Drama CD, she orders a lot of food, with Yukari remarking how it's too large an order for her.
• Big Sleep: At the end of the epilogue, they die as they drift to sleep.
• Body Horror: During their Awakening, Thanatos suddenly bursts out from Orpheus from the inside, with its arms coming out through Orpheus' head.
• Bookends: They begin their Journey with the Persona Orpheus; one of the possible final Personas which they can obtain is Orpheus Telos, which is explicitly described as a reborn Orpheus.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: The protagonist sacrifices all of their life energy to create a seal for Nyx, which should have killed their body immediately. Despite this, they still manage to hold out until graduation before finally dying on the roof.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: The male protagonist is moody and indifferent, while the female protagonist is far perkier. This is particularly noticeable when they directly interact in Q2.
• Call-Back: The Japanese name of Orpheus Telos is Orpheus Kai, which means Orpheus Modified. This is a callback to Persona 2, in which the Japanese name of a Prime Persona is Modified Persona, indicating Orpheus Telos can be considered the Prime form of Orpheus.
• Cast from Lifespan: Casting Great Seal costs them all of their life force, represented as all of their HP in-game. The only reason they didn't immediately die afterwards is sheer willpower to last just long enough to fulfill their promise.
• Character Tic:
  • The male protagonist keeps his hands in his pockets a lot. Not only is he usually seen walking this in cutscenes, but he'll also even do it in gameplay if he's left alone for a few seconds. When finishing up a fight, he's usually seen slipping his free hand into his pocket after flourishing his weapon.
  • The female protagonist swings her naginata and taps her foot twice during battles and while exploring Tartarus. In Q2, her many of her model animations have her putting her hand to her chest.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Thanks to the Social Links and searching for the Lost Ones in Tartarus, they more or less develop this. Some of Elizabeth/Theodore's requests also require things like feeding a stray cat or watering a drying-up flowerbed.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Some of their dialogue options have them veer into this territory to hilarious degrees.
  • The male protagonist can be a bit over the clouds at times:
    • One example from Persona Q is when he drinks from a tea set found by the party, which they suspected was dangerous. His excuse? He thought he was at Chagall.
    • Some examples from the movies include him attempting to stop a train using a video game as a reference, and when he's at Yakushima he tries imitating a crab walking sideways.
  • Q2 shows that the female protagonist, like her male counterpart, can be a little airheaded and goofy even in tight situations. She is easily excited to be an honorary Phantom Thief, from pretending to be a cop to knocking out a cop using a karate chop that she learned from TV. Additionally, while the Phantom Thieves are complaining to be in the sewers, she is the only one who is having fun.
• Combination Attack: Fusion Spells (or Mixed Raid in Japanese) are spells performed by 2 specific Personas at once. The Protagonists of Persona 3 are notable for being the only ones in the entire franchise who can do these spells alone, due to their ability to evoke 2 Personas at the same time. The specifics of how they are used in gameplay differ across versions.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Their school life is more explored than the protagonists of the previous two games, who didn't deal with school life at all.
• Conveniently an Orphan: No parents to get in the way of adventuring. They died during an incident in the Moonlit Bridge, caused by Death and Aigis ten years ago.
• Cosmic Plaything: Their parents died when they were six, leaving them as orphans. An embodiment of death is sealed inside them, biding its time until it can return to full strength. They would later give their lives to become a Barrier Maiden to prevent the world's death wish from reaching Nyx, essentially barring their souls from reaching the afterlife in the process.
• Crucified Hero Shot: A further reference to their role as a Messianic Archetype. The female protagonist does this when she performs a Fusion Spell and the Great Seal. Said Seal had the appearance of the Male Protagonist with his arms outstretched and with bindings of barbed wire.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: When it first appears in an animated cutscene, Thanatos destroys the Magician Shadow with little effort. It also gives Nyx Avatar a hard time in the fourth movie.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: Orpheus is rather weak and will likely be removed after a few months. When Aigis first summons it however, it is capable of defeating Metis when Pallas Athena, an Ultimate Persona mind you, is unable to. Following this, however, it becomes a weak Persona again.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Ten years before the beginning of the game, the protagonist lost their parents in a car accident, in which they nearly died from it.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Their second Persona, Thanatos, is the Greek personification of Death.
• Dead Man Walking: After using their life force to create the Great Seal, the Protagonist and Aigis both know that they have sealed their fate. FES Playable Epilogue reveals their soul is already part of the Great Seal the moment it was cast, meaning their body was already soulless before perishing.
• Death Seeker: It's implied the protagonist have a death wish on some level, be it male or female.
• Determinator: Near the end of the game, the protagonist not only resolves to fight a battle that is logically impossible to win, but somehow manages to pull off an equally impossible solution. Almost as impressively, they cling to life for over a month after doing something that should have killed them immediately just to fulfill their promise to meet their friends on graduation day. This trope is basically exaggerated by the time it is revealed their soul is already gone by the time the protagonist pulled off the solution; the body somehow lived without a soul for a whole month to get a promise done.
• Definitely Just a Cold: During the epilogue, the gameplay notes the protagonist feels quite tired, but doesn't mention it as being very serious. A few days later, he/she's dead.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: After defeating Nyx Avatar proves pointless, the protagonist travels to confront Nyx in the Moon. They manage to withstand Nyx's attacks — which is basically Death itself compressed into form — long enough to seal it away. Subsequent reveals from the game art book and FES Updated Re Release reveal the protagonist did not seal Nyx as much as they sealed the force calling her to the world to render her dormant again, but given both materials go on extreme lengths to emphasize Nyx as an incomprehensible Cosmic Entity unlike anything else in Persona world, it just makes this trope more pronounced.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: In the game and film ending, they pass away in the arms of Aigis. In the New Game Plus of Portable, it can be any SEES member that the protagonist has established a romantic relationship with. The original ending with Aigis is still canon, however, and Reload once again makes her the only option (mainly due to making the scene a fully-animated cutscene).
• Divergent Character Evolution: The male and female protagonists get differing characterization and Ultimate Personas in Q2. The male is his usual moody, quiet self, and gets Orpheus Telos as his Ultimate, while the female is far perkier and gets Messiah as her Ultimate.
• Doomed Protagonist: As the contract they sign when arriving to the dorms subtly implies, they will die when Nyx comes within a year of starting the game. No matter what they try, their fate can't be changed, but their efforts can ensure that the Fall doesn't force that fate on the rest of the world in the process.
• Extracurricular Enthusiast: A sports club (kendo, swimming or track & field for MC; tennis or volleyball for FeMC), the student council, the sewing club, the cooking club (FeMC only), a culture club (MC only), committee work (FeMC only) and a club dedicated to fighting manifestations of the repressed human psyche.
• Extreme Omnisexual: Both of them can be in a relationship with several people at the same time, including a spirit (Elizabeth/Theodore) and a robot (Aigis).
• First Love: Both of the protagonists are the first (and so far, only) people Aigis shows romantic interest in.
• Fusion Dance: With the power of the Wild Card, they can create stronger Personas by fusing two or more Personas. The most notable being their Ultimate Persona, Messiah, which is created by fusing their two main Personas, Orpheus and Thanatos.
• Hates Being Alone: A character interpretation shared by both protagonists. As a result of growing up an orphan, they have been alone for most of their lives; so when they arrive to Tatsumi Port Island and join S.E.E.S., the experience gives them both a sense of purpose and companions they never had, which can reasonably explain their tendency to pursue Social Links. Even in a playthrough where the protagonist doesn't try to build non-mandatory Social Links at all, as long as they continue progressing the Journey the protagonist would still form unbreakable bonds with at least some people, which can be read as this trope to a certain degree. Subsequent adaptations tend to play this trope straight, with either protagonists:
  • In the movies, after becoming more fulfilled with his life thanks to S.E.E.S., the thought of going back to his lonely, empty existence scares Makoto. To the point, he starts requesting Tartarus missions more than ever, despite his friends not seeing the point since the Dark Hour will disappear when they destroy all 12 Shadows. It comes to a head by the end of the second movie, where his hesitation causes him to struggle against the Fortune and Strength Shadows, delaying the team long enough that they were unable to prevent Shinjiro's death.
  • In Q2, the P3P heroine spends most of her time with Persona users not from her team, and the only person she is familiar with is Theodore. Though she is able to make friends with them, she becomes more desperate to reunite with her own team members as they progress the movies. When she finally meets them, she is shocked to find out that not only they do not know her, her role is replaced by a male counterpart. Feeling alienated because S.E.E.S. do not know her, the P3P heroine falls into a depressive state and believes that her presence with the group is an error. Fortunately, Alternate Self or not, S.E.E.S. still manage to make her comfortable enough and that no matter where she is from, her bonds with them are the same.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: You can name them whatever you want, but said name will not be spoken aloud during dialogue, only written. Instead, the rest of SEES will just refer to them as "leader" when spoken aloud, and usually in the context of an operation, while Chihiro (a first year student) and Ken (an elementary student) will call them "senpai".
• The Hero: Your best fighter, both for physical and magical attacks, as well as intellectually and socially capable. They're also the can in which Death is sealed in.
• The Hero Dies: At the game's climax, the protagonist expends all of their life energy to seal away Nyx. They cling to life for a month and change before finally succumbing in the game's epilogue.
• Heroic BSoD: In the game, they both seem to avoid this, but the game text states this happens after Ryoji explains who he is and presents the choice to kill him.
  Narration: You cannot think clearly. How does a person choose the way he will die?
• Heroic Sacrifice: They use all their life to create a seal over Nyx, so it cannot be called forth.
• Heroic Willpower: When the protagonist faces Nyx down in the Moon, they manage to survive the concentrated Death for some time before their bonds start empowering them and giving them the strength to oppose the continuous assault.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Effectively serves as one. 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.
• I Am Who?: Aigis sealed a fragment of Death, who is meant to be Nyx Avatar, inside him/her as a child.
• Instrument of Murder: Orpheus uses its lyre both to cast spells and as a melee weapon.
• Interpretative Character: The protagonist of Persona 3 is notable for being more of a blank slate than protagonists before or after them (except for the original Persona protagonist).
  • Unlike the others, the protagonist is almost entirely characterized by the player and their choices; for example, it is possible to finish the whole game while neglecting or (even reversing) Social Links (indicating an unpleasant Jerkass main character), and there is hardly any event which posits the character as inconsistent for being so. This is in contrast to previous and subsequent protagonists, many of whom have several mandatory events which would make them seem out of character if the player tries to make them act like jerks, or not in accordance with what the game expects the player to play.
  • By the end of the game, the protagonist's only defined personality traits are their backstory as an orphan, Friendless Background, enjoying music and food to a certain degree, either growing apathetic or used to the Dark Hour enough to see it as Unusually Uninteresting Sight, being Not Afraid to Die out of sheer apathy to life, forging bonds with the S.E.E.S and Pharos or Death which nurtures their Character Development, feeling pressured and tempted by Ryoji's offer to blissfully ignore the end of the world, becoming an Übermensch if the offer is rejected, going on to face Nyx, attain the Universe Arcana from their bonds, and making the choice to sacrifice themself to prevent the end of the world. The protagonist is not defined anymore than that, to the point that whereas most protagonists will finish the game with their Ultimate Persona awakened to represent their Character Development, Persona 3 protagonist can end the Journey without Messiah and/or Orpheus Telos, their Ultimate Personas.
  • The female protagonist is conceptualized with more defined personality traits, such as being generally more cheerful and outgoing, but even that is noted to be a front for her true apathetic personality before Character Development kicks in. One can also argue the fact the female protagonist even exists proves the protagonist of Persona 3 is so fluid narratively that you can replace their gender and it will not change things much.
  • This trope is especially apparent in all adaptations of Persona 3, as both protagonists always get a different general personality and character focus across the manga, the movie, the theaters, and spinoff Q games.
• Jack of All Trades: The compendium describes Orpheus Telos as having "endless possibilities", referring to the fact that its skillset is completely customizable and how it only learns skills from the Personas that fuse into it.
• Karma Houdini:
  • Unlike later protagonists in the series, the Persona 3 protagonist never faces any consequences for cheating on multiple romantic paramours. In fact, in all releases prior to Reload, the male protagonist is outright forced to cheat on his girlfriends in order to fuse Orpheus Telos.
  • Karma does bite him to a degree in one of the CD dramas where he gets guilt-tripped and scared to death by the S.E.E.S. girls when they found out that his date clashes with that of another girl. Even though it turns out to be a dream, the protagonist has never felt so scared before.
• The Leader: Zig-Zagged: Mitsuru is The Captain and pretty much the top of the authority chain next to Ikutski. However, the protagonist is given the title of Field Commander and is able to give other party members orders (such as telling them to split up to cover more ground on a floor). S/he keeps this position even after Mitsuru rejoins the front line.
• Living on Borrowed Time: After casting the Great Seal, the protagonist's soul is not even in their body anymore and the body should have died instantly. They stay alive just long enough to fulfill their promise to meet their friends on the school rooftop on Graduation Day.
• Messianic Archetype: Their ultimate Persona is called Messiah, and at the end of their journey, they sacrifice themselves after leading the group forward, to stop the end of the world. In addition, the Male Protagonist's appearance on the Great Seal resembles Jesus Christ when He was crucified. To further relate the Protagonist with Jesus Christ, most of Messiah's skills that it learned naturally are a reference to Christ Himself (Salvation, Absorb Pierce, Enduring Soul, and God's Hand). Absorb Pierce could be a reference in which Christ was pierced with the Spear of Destiny while Enduring Soul likely references Christ being resurrected three days after He died. In addition, they close their eyes for good on March 5, 2010, which is a Friday, evoking parallels to Good Friday.
• New Transfer Student: Starts the year by transferring into the school without knowing anyone.
• Not Afraid to Die: Both protagonists are noted for their lack of fear of death. According to the movie adaptations at least, this is due to sheer apathy towards existence.
• Only the Leads Get a Downer Ending: They sucessfully stop the Fall from happening and seal Nyx away, but this comes at the cost of their own life and they die a few months later. While The Answer deals with the fallout of their death between the rest of SEES, the story ends with them moving on with their lives.
• Out-of-Clothes Experience:
  • When either protagonists use a Fusion spell in the original and Portable, they are naked in their mind.
  • Averted in Reload which doesn't include such a scene when using a Fusion Spell.
• Pals with Jesus: Implied. Their ultimate persona is called Messiah and it is immune to pierce damage and resurrects the protagonist once per battle if they are killed.
• Parental Abandonment: Their parents died in an accident. It was caused by a combination of several factors snowballing into an accident — the Dark Hour beginning, Death fracturing into 13 fragments, and the battle between Aigis and the ego fragment of Death at the Moonlit Bridge.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: The color themes for the menus are blue for the male character and pink for the female.
• Playing with Fire: Their initial Persona Orpheus starts with an Agi skill. In Persona Q and Persona Q2, both protagonists are stuck with Orpheus as their main Persona and fire becomes their main elemental specialty, even after their Persona evolves later on.
• Power-Strain Blackout: Collapses and is unconscious for several days after summoning their Persona for the first time.
• Powers via Possession: Their unique ability to use two Personas simultaneously for fusion spells (which is their Theurgy skill in Reload) comes from housing a portion of Death in their souls for most of their lives. This is believed to have enhanced their affinity and power as a Wild Card.
• Reality Warper: The protagonist attains this level in the climax of their battle with Nyx in the Moon. Nyx herself is a Reality Warper of cosmic proportions, so the fact the protagonist's Universe Arcana can help them withstand her repeated attacks in the form of concentrated Death already qualifies, but they go a step further and essentially use their own soul as an eternal seal to keep Nyx from heeding the call of humanity's collective wish for death again.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The female protagonist is the Red Oni to the male protagonist's Blue Oni.
• Related in the Adaptation: While they are unrelated in the games, being alternate selves of each other from different universes, The Weird Masquerade theater adaptation makes both protagonists siblings, but kills one off in the same accident that claimed their parents. Which one dies and which one survives to the present day depends on which version of the play is running.
• The Reliable One: Along with being the Living Emotional Crutch for their Social Links, they're also made the field leader and can become Mitsuru's assistant in the Student Body Council. On top of that, they also join a few clubs and can achieve top grades in their class. It's that kind of game.
• Resigned to the Call: They didn't exactly move to Iwatodai expecting anything out of the ordinary, although it is implied that they are used to experiencing the Dark Hour. Some of the lines the player can choose at the beginning also express uncertainty about being a Persona user and the field leader. As time goes on, they become used to fighting shadows, a development noted by Pharos.
• Right Man in the Wrong Place: In a sense. The incident which led to Death/Pharos being sealed in them was essentially a random accident that could have happened to anyone; they just happened to be the only survivor around after Aigis defeated the ego fragment of Death and was desperate enough to stick it into any living being around to prevent it from regenerating at the time. Despite having no grand destiny and facing a situation that should have been impossible, they still manage to save the world through their own choices.
• Robosexual: Both protagonists can pursue a romance with Aigis. In both cases Aigis worries that she is an unworthy love interest for them; in the male one's case it's because she is a machine, and for the female one it's also focused on her fear that Kotone won't return her feelings due to both of them presenting as girls.
• Rookie Red Ranger: Downplayed and justified. At first, the protagonist is named field leader because of the three S.E.E.S. members with real experience, one is injured, one is stuck on the back lines providing support, and one has outright left. When Akihiko rejoins, he decides to let the protagonist continue leading so he can focus on training, and by the time Mitsuru rejoins the front lines, there's no point in fixing what isn't broken.
• Schrödinger's Player Character:
  • In Portable, the player has the option to play as either one of them, and neither one appears in the other route. This is even carried over to side materials; the FeMC's only CD Drama appearances have her as the leader, and the stage play has two versions with a male and female lead, coinciding with different performance dates.
  • The Weird Masquerade has both protagonists being siblings and one of them died in the same accident that claimed their parents.
  • Persona Q2 reveals that both protagonists are the same person from different worlds with their gender being the only significant difference.
• Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: After defeating the ego fragment of Death ten years before the plot, Aigis sealed it into a nearby child as the only way to prevent it from restoring itself (as it is otherwise a Perpetual-Motion Monster). That child grew up to become the Protagonist ten years later. Death eventually escaped them and reconstituted itself after its twelve fragments were killed, but the decade they spent together deeply impacted both of them.
• Sealed Evil in a Duel: Their soul forms the Great Seal which bars Erebus, the embodiment of mankind's death wish, from reaching Nyx. Erebus cannot be fully destroyed as longs as mankind desires death, so the Protagonist must endure its attacks for as long as humankind desires death — which according to Elizabeth and Margaret in other games, might very well take eons if not all eternity.
• Silent Protagonist: Downplayed since they both shout to call their Personas. Averted in Persona Q for the male character if you choose the P4 side, and averted for both the male and female protagonists in Persona Q2.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With anyone they romance.
• Suddenly Speaking: Should the player choose the P4 route in PQ, the male protagonist is fully voiced. The trend continues in PQ2 alongside the female protagonist getting voiced as well. The male protagonist is also fully voiced in the movie adaption as well as in Dancing in Moonlight.
• Superpower Lottery: They're the resident Wild Cards. That alone would be enough, but they also have the unique ability to summon two Personas at once for a fusion spell (in Portable, this is turned into expendable items, while Reload made this their Theurgy ability), a result of containing Death in their soul giving them greater affinity to all Arcanas. At the end of their journey, their bonds with all of their Social Links including with Death itself permits them to attain the Universe Arcana, described by Igor as the power at the beginning and the end of all things (in English version, "the power to bring a new beginning or the ultimate end"), a feat so exceptional to the point Igor claims he never even dreams of seeing it with his own eyes. This is what allows them to stop the descent of Nyx, which subsequent side material and Updated Re Release reveal to be the Cosmic Entity responsible for life itself and the collective consciousness. Subsequent games also distinguish the protagonist from their direct successors, notably Protagonists of Persona 4 and 5, who would attain the World Arcana at the end of their journeys as opposed to the Universe.
• Supporting Protagonist: In contrast to their successors, the P3 protagonist is neither the true leader of S.E.E.S. (Mitsuru and Akihiko both outrank them), the driver of their actions, or the one most connected to the plot. While they were involved in the events that lead to the plot beginning, they were only a bystander who got caught up in them through sheer bad luck. Most of the game's story focuses on the emotional journeys of the other members of S.E.E.S., with very little direct involvement of the Protagonist. It isn't until the tail end of the game where they became more central to both the group and story.
• Übermensch: In the Good Ending, it's clear they, above all other protagonists in the Persona series, embody this ideology the most. Faced with the certainty of death due to the coming of Nyx, they endure a whole month of seeing their friends and their whole city slowly succumb to despair and nihilism, but does not fall in line with the rest. While their friends do come around in the end, it is ultimately their own will to keep fighting on despite the odds which earns them ultimate power, giving them the strength to perform a Heroic Sacrifice to save the world — or more precisely, those they cherish, the rest of the world being collateral.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Their arrival to Tatsumi Port Island is what caused the events of the game. Since they unknowingly carried the ego fragment of Death within them, their presence awoke its wayward fragments as the 12 Arcana Shadows after a decade of dormancy.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: If they die, it's Game Over. This is justified later once it is revealed they're containing Death, who will herald the Fall unopposed if it escapes, but you don't learn this until shortly after it stops being true. After which... absolutely nothing changes, and it's still Game Over if you die because they're the only one who can face Nyx, attain the Universe Arcana and avert the Fall.
• Whole-Plot Reference: Orpheus ultimately failed in his task to save the one he loved, because right at the end of his journey, he turned back to face her, thus breaking his deal with Hades and casting Eurydice back into the Underworld forever. At the end of the game, the Protagonist is given the choice to kill Ryoji and forget everything that happened in the past year. While this ensures a relatively peaceful death for both the protagonist and their friends, it ultimately causes the end of the world, and undoes the Character Development they all faced throughout their journey. Choosing to let Ryoji live means the protagonist has overcome the inevitable Downer Ending which the original tale of Orpheus had because they're willing to see their journey through to the end without looking back. This is made even more apparent by the fact that their Ultimate Persona, Messiah, becomes available only after they make that choice.
• World's Strongest Man: After obtaining the Universe Arcana, they become one of the strongest beings in the Persona series, and the strongest player character bar none. Being able to face and seal Nyx — the entity which influenced life to evolve the collective consciousness itself — and the enlightenment they receive from the said feat, make them more powerful than any protagonist before or since. Even Igor is surprised at how powerful they become.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: Their Ultimate Persona, Messiah, is formed from the seemingly contradictory fusion of Orpheus and Thanatos, representing their acceptance of both life and death.
• You Cannot Grasp the True Form: In the original releases, the final Arcana, the Universe, has no visible art on it. It transcends all other Arcana so much, it is effectively incomprehensible by human cognition and no single image could ever capture all of its meanings. In both the fourth animated film and Reload, this is Averted: the Universe Arcana uses the same artwork as the World.

The Male Protagonist

Male Protagonist/Makoto Yuki/Minato Arisato/Sakuya Shiomi

"Done and dusted."

^{Click here to see the male protagonist in his new battle outfit in Reload.}

^{Click here to see Orpheus (Male)}

The Master of Strings

"I don't really care."

Weapons: One-handed swords ^note as of P3P, PQ, and Reload. In the original game and FES, he can wield all weapon classes except firearms and knives
Theurgy (Reload): Fusion Spell ^note Fusion Spells are unlocked by registering certain Personas in the compendium; in addition, only a handful of Fusion Spells from previous versions are retained as Theurgy abilities
Voiced by: Akira Ishida (Japanese), Yuri Lowenthal (English; original), Aleks Le (English; Reload)
Live actor: Shouta Aoi

The local Heroic Mime of 3. His parents died ten years before the events of the game and he has moved around a lot as a result. He has an affinity with the Fool Arcana and begins the game with the persona Orpheus. More impressively, he also possesses the rare Wild Card, which allows him to store multiple personas. He can also wield various weapons but defaults to a one-handed sword. (In the PSP port, this is his only usable weapon type) In general, he is very calm and responsible, in contrast to Junpei and numerous NPCs who behave like typical high school students. Although quiet, he has significant leadership skills and can think and plan during battle.

He is transferred into Gekkoukan High School in his second year of high school. Upon arriving at his new dorm during the Dark Hour, he is asked by Pharos to sign a contract that states, "I chooseth this fate of my own free will." Within days of moving into the dorm, he has his first encounter with the Shadows and awakens to his power. After being recruited into S.E.E.S., he's appointed as field leader by Mitsuru and Akihiko due to the ease with which he can summon his Persona, a position that eventually becomes permanent. He also visits the Velvet Room and has periodic chats with Pharos, the mysterious young boy who initially presented him with the Velvet Room contract.

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• Adaptational Badass:
  • Not for him, but his initial Persona Orpheus was beefed up to make him more prominent in the movies. In the game, his weak level 1 status plus 2 major weaknesses (Zio and Mudo) made him only useful at the start of the story, with players quickly moving on to other Personas ASAP. In the movie, he's Makoto's main Persona and he even got to throw a few hits at the Magician Full-Moon Shadow before Thanatos came along to finish the job.
  • Downplayed with Orpheus in Reload: While he reatins his innate weaknesses and can only learn skills until Level 5, he has Dia and is now resistant to Fire. He's also not completely deadweight like in Portable, since he can still be as powerful as in the movies with enough Incense and Skill Cards, if not more so.
  • Thanatos would also recieve this treatment in Reload. He's now at Level 78 as opposed to Level 64 in the original, has Maeigaon, Megidolaon, and innate resistances to other four elements. The only trade-off is he doesn't have Door of Hades from his DLC appearance in Persona 5.
  • Zig-zagged with Messiah. In the original game, he has innate immunity to Light, is weak to Dark, can learn Absorb Pierce, and the only active skills he had are Salvation and Megidolaon. Later versions gave him innate resistance to the other four elements, God's Hand, Enduring Soul, and the Portable-exclusive Magic Skill Up. His Persona 5 incarnation has Oratorio, which is basically a combination of Mediarahan and Dekunda. In Reload, however, while he lacks Magic Skill Up and Oratorio, he can deflect Dark this time and learn Null Phys in place of Absorb Pierce.
• Adaptational Wimp: Played with in Reload. Fusion Spells are relegated to being part of the Theurgy mechanic, which consumes a gauge separate from HP and SP, which in turn can only be filled up by using Persona skills a certain number of times. This means they cannot be used on command as long as the player has enough HP/SP anymore. He also has 18 Fusion Spells in prior versions, whereas he only has 7 in Reload. This trope is also zigzagged, as the effects of most Theurgy skills in Reload are appropriately more devastating than their original versions, such as dealing damage which bypasses resistances or giving stronger buffs. The only Fusion Spell which receives a straight Nerf as Theurgy is Armageddon, which is the only Theurgy in the game to come with a drawback; in addition to depleting the Theurgy gauge, upon usage it will reduce the protagonist's HP and SP all the way down to 1, making it a harrowing case of Death or Glory Attack, especially since more bosses can actually survive it in Reload compared to its original appearances, such as Takaya.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Between the manga and the anime film tetralogy, from which Persona Q takes cues from regarding the male protagonist's character. In the manga, the protagonist is aloof but is much more prone to showing emotions (such as dismay from Yukari being suspicious of him in their first encounter). In the films, he's aloof and stoic, not to mention somewhat antisocial until he starts to bond with the rest of S.E.E.S and especially Ryoji. Q takes some cues from this by having him act stoic and aloof, but also being The Comically Serious.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • From a mechanical and technical story standpoint, the male protagonist isn't as close with the male members of S.E.E.S. as he is with the female members, who all have Social Links with him. While this remains the case in Reload, Linked Episodes give the male protagonist the option to become closer with the male members.
  • In prior versions of the game, the protagonist and Takaya have little to no interaction with one another beyond animosity at the latter for having killed Shinjiro. In Reload, the male protagonist can "befriend" Takaya via Linked Episodes, with said events involving Takaya trying to have the protagonist understand his line of thinking.
• Alliterative Name: His name in the stage play adaptation, Sakuya Shiomi.
• Ambiguous Situation: The final volume of the manga ends in the same manner as the game, with one notable change - as the members of S.E.E.S. arrive on the Gekkoukan rooftop, having remembered their promise to meet there on graduation day, Minato stands up to greet them. It is unclear if this is supposed to indicate his survival, or if it is just symbolic of him watching over his friends.
• Badass Biker: In Spring of Birth, he rides on Mitsuru's motorcycle to save Fuuka from the Emperor and Empress Shadows.
• Balance Buff: Each re-release of Persona 3 usually does something to make his day to day life more convenient or easier in some way.
  • From P3 to FES:
    • The biggest buff he got is related to his Social Links from the original P3 to FES. In the original P3 it wasn't planned for him to be able to complete all Social Links, and while it is possible, you won't have any free day time activity for anything but Social Links, and even if you do manage to do all Social Links, there's no Orpheus Telos as a reward. FES made it so Social Links advance faster, so you can use daytime for other things once you know what you're doing.
    • Related to that is Devil becoming a night time Social Link. In the original P3 only Tower was available at night, so this gives you another Social Link to use up your night time activities.
    • Arcades in the original P3 only increased Persona's stats, it was FES that allowed them to also be used to increase social stats.
    • Nihil Weapons are also a FES addition.
  • From FES to Portable:
    • Skill Cards from Portable are a great quality of life addition as they allow you to give skills to any Persona, granted you have the Skill Card for it, and the skill can be turned into a card (Magic Skill Up from Messiah isn't available for example). This also makes Orpheus Telos a much better Persona as you can be less picky about what skills he inherits, as you can just create skill cards in advance to give to him.
    • Portable gave an unique buff to Charm that no other Persona game has done yet. Once you reach max Charm, any choice you make will give more points, and this stacks with using a matching Persona, so Social Links advance far faster now.
  • From Portable to Reload:
    • Reload retains the manual inheritance mechanic introduced in Persona 4, allowing fused Personas to retain skills manually instead of relying on the Random Number God.
    • Shuffle Time is not only easier to use, but gives better rewards across the board and removes Blank and Cursed Cards. Sword cards now give Skill Cards instead of weapons, allowing the player to customize their Personas further, while Cup cards provide a wider range of beneficial effects aside from restoring HP. In addition, Major Arcana cards that grant various benefits are introduced, ranging from increasing All-Out Attack damage to increasing the stats of Personas present in the inventory to allowing for the fusion of Personas up to five levels above the protagonist.
    • Reload also introduces the Characteristic mechanic for all the party members. In the protagonist's case, he gets Weakness Boost and then Weakness Amp after achieving 30% and 60% completion of the Compendium respectively, which increases the damage he deals whenever he hits a weakness.
• Behemoth Battle: In the manga's rendition of the final battle with Nyx Avatar, Messiah grows to the size of a Kaiju against it. Both of them were large enough to tower over the Moonlight Bridge.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He can chase off a group of thugs single-handed without much problem and the use of his Persona. In the audio dramas, the one time he ever expresses anger is when his friends are in danger.
• Big Brother Mentor: The Movie gives him this role towards Ken, thanks to Mitsuru making him Ken's bodyguard before he joined S.E.E.S. thanks to having similar backstories.
• Bishie Sparkle: Both him and Akihiko in the manga, when they're having their ping-pong match.
• Better as Friends: In prior versions of 3, the male protagonist engages in a romantic relationship with most of his female Social Links^note The only ones he does not romance are Maiko, Maya, and Aigis; Maiko is an elementary school student, Maya is an online friend (while she does give him a confession, nothing ultimately comes of it since she gives it to him the day Innocent Sin's servers shut down), and despite the romantic undertones, Aigis isn't an "official" romance option. Reload gives him the option to pursue platonic relationships with them instead.
• Broken Ace: Comes close to this during the second movie. As the Wild Card, he's the most powerful member of the group, and thus the most reliable in battle. But as S.E.E.S. gets closer to eliminating all the Full-Moon Shadows, Makoto realizes his time with them will end soon, as his reliability in battle is the main asset that allows him to remain close to S.E.E.S. and gives him a purpose in life. This comes to a head at the end, where his insecurity of losing both leads to his performance in battle decreasing, most notably the battle on October 4th.
• Broken Bird: How the movie characterizes him, emphasizing how much the deaths of his parents left him traumatized. He gets somewhat better in the second film, but his fear of losing his new happiness indicates he's not fully healed.
• Canon Name: He has no default name in the game, but the adaptions provide him with no less than three:
  • The manga (and the early Japanese trailers for Persona Q) names him Minato Arisato.
  • The stage play refers to him as Sakuya Shiomi.
  • The movie series, Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight, and the modern rereleases of Portable call him Makoto Yuki, so it's quite likely that this is what Atlus considers his "canon" name, much like with Persona 4's Yu Narukami. Although, him being named Makoto can make things a bit confusing, considering that there is already a Makoto later in the series.
• The Casanova:
  • Can be played this way. The lack of a "friends only" option for the girls means if you want Orpheus Telos, obtainable by getting Rank 10 with every Social Link, you have to play him like this in the original, FES and Portable versions of the game. However, Persona 3 Reload allows him to achieve Rank 10 with the girls without romancing them.
  • Averted in the movie adaptations, where he never shows any interest in anyone other than Aigis.
• Character Catchphrase: "Doudemo ii," the meaning of which depends on the context. Generally, it can be translated as "Whatever" or "I don't care". It's one of the most common dialogue choices for the male protagonist. In the drama CDs, it's usually used when he has no opinion on something. This gets lampshaded in Persona Q in one of the answer choices in the Group Date Cafe (on the P4 side, obviously). In fact, if you choose it, it locks him as your destined partner.
• Character Development: Extremely subtle, but a lot of the dialogue choices at the end and middle portions of the game are drastically different from his earliest interactions, going from cold and occasionally Jerkass to compassionate, open, or at worst Jerk with a Heart of Gold. Ditto for the movies, as he goes from being almost completely emotionally dead to expressive and contemplative.
• Chick Magnet:
  • Every girl he meets seems to fall for him. By the end of the year, Fuuka, Mitsuru, Yukari, Chihiro, Yuko, Elizabeth, and even the likes of Maiko, Ms. Toriumi, and Aigis can fall for him; even when he gains the option to keep their relationships platonic in Reload, it's still evident to a degree that they hold a torch for him. In fact, until Persona 5 Royal added Kasumi, he had the exact same number of love interests as Joker.
  • Persona 3 Portable actually makes this into a running gag, with his looks actually charming girls during the infamous Operation Babe Hunt.
• The Comically Serious: Leans towards this in Persona Q.
  Yukari: Uh, I don't think he's joking. He's usually serious...
• Composite Character: In a sense, he's this with the Female Protagonist in the P3 movies. In the original games and Portable he never really interacted with Ryoji, while the Female Protagonist did in her social links with him. The movies took a cue from the Female Protagonist route and he got much more screentime with Ryoji. This was later repeated in Reload, which gave Ryoji his own set of Linked Episodes to flesh out his friendship with the male protagonist.
• Continuity Cameo:
  • In Chapter 33 of the Persona 4 manga, when Chihiro briefly mentions her former phobia of men and having help with her speech addressing the Yasogami High students, a photograph of the Student Council from 2009 is shown with all members in attendance, including the male protagonist, although his back is turned and his face isn't shown.
  • In Chapter 25 of the Persona 4: Arena Ultimax manga, as Yu heads off to fight Minazuki, Mitsuru briefly has a vision of the Male Protagonist looking back at his friends as she wonders if he shared Narukami's sentiment that even if he falls, he'll be able to get up again because of his friends.
  • Appears as an optional boss battle in the Challenge Mode of Persona 5 Royal under the name "S.E.E.S. Boy."
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Or prequel for that matter, in comparison to Yu Narukami from Persona 4: The Animation. In contrast to Yu's more sociable if not oddball personality, Makoto is introverted who can come off as extremely cold and indifferent to his friends. Both of them develop a strong attachment to their friends, which triggers their Heroic BSoD due to their unwillingness to lose their friends once their goal is completed. Unlike Yu who manages to bounce back in his battle against Shadow Mitsuo, Makoto fails to overcome it until the third movie, only reinforced when his hesitation inadvertently causes Shinjiro's death.
• Crossover Cameo: Appears as a downloadable costume for the Mii Swordfighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • In the movie tetralogy. Heavy on the snark side. His dialogue choices in the game and in Persona Q also lean towards this.
    Makoto: That's impressive. You chained your nose to your face so you wouldn't lose it.
  • And after slapping Junpei's face in the second movie: "Sorry. Live strong."
• Defrosting Ice Queen: As the game progresses, his dialogue options start becoming kinder.
  • He's noticeably less distant and more open in the second movie than the first.
  • He regresses for a while in the third movie, but recovers and becomes even more open after he befriends Ryoji. He even starts to smile more!
• Demoted to Extra: In Persona Q, he was the protagonist or the deuteragonist depending on which route you were playing. In Q2, he gets a couple of lines here and there but he and Yu are pushed slightly out of the spotlight to focus on his female counterpart and Joker from Persona 5.
• Depending on the Writer: His personality when properly characterized varies heavily from source to source. All that's really consistent is that he's quiet and somewhat disinterested, implied to not really fear death, and genuinely cares about his friends even if he doesn't show it:
  • In the original game, his personality is mostly a blank slate. The frequent "I don't care" dialogue options obviously suggest a sort of apathy, and many of his "rude" dialogue choices gradually disappear as the plot progresses.
  • In Persona Q, he comes off as somewhat eccentric with weird thought processes. He speaks with a bored, lethargic voice in the English dub.
  • The manga shows Minato as constantly drowsy. He's very expressive in it compared to other sources, even though he's still quiet.
  • Noriaki Akitaya, director of the P3 movies, said that the basic characterization of Makoto in the movies came from fan reaction to his character. The films give him the most focused growth of any other source, showing him as emotionally-stunted and utterly ambivalent to whatever happens to him, and he's implied to have some sort of depression and/or PTSD. When his new friends in S.E.E.S. gradually get him to open up more, this causes his apathy to disappear and a fear of death to begin growing, and he comes to be hesitant to defeat the Arcana Shadows to end the Dark Hour because he doesn't want to return to a lonely life when S.E.E.S.' job is over.
• Deuteragonist: Of the P4 story in Persona Q being the leader of the P3 cast.
• Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: Can optionally date Elizabeth, who requests he show her around Port Island. The places she requests to visit start to become more personal, a development she notes herself, as she falls in love with him. Her final date has her visit his room, followed by an implied sex scene if the player chooses to do so.
• Emo Teen: While his personality is mostly shaped by the player, his dialogue options in the game come off as being low-energy and sullen. His catchphrase is even "whatever." This interpretation is used in the movie, although he grows out of it near the end of Spring of Birth. The manga and Persona Q drop the "emo" half all together, making him more of an eccentric introvert (Although some dramatic moments in the manga later on make it resurface).
• Emotionless Girl: Or rather, Emotionless Guy. The only time you'll ever really hear him raise his voice in Persona Q is if a shadow dodges his attack. Besides that, he usually speaks in a deadpan monotone. A stark contrast with his Japanese voice actor, Akira Ishida, who gives him a wide range of emotions, setting more on light-hearted and laid back notes. Especially in Persona Q, as most of his lines sound like they were said with a smile.
• Everyone Has Standards: Played for Laughs during the Group Date Cafe event in Persona Q. He maintains his passive and stoic nature when going through the whole embarrassing ordeal with every girl (and guy) he's got with him as his "destined partner." This completely goes away if he gets Koromaru as his destined partner, and he freaks out the whole way through to the end—recoiling in horror at the realization that he and the dog will have to marry each other—that is, until his friends rescue him in time.
• Face Death with Dignity: The lyrics of the final boss theme in Reload imply he knows he's going to have to lay down his life to save humanity, and he's okay with that.
  Burn My Dread!
  Tear up the fear, I got it locked down!
  The end is coming near so burn your dread!
  Burn My Dread!
  Accepted my fate, don't worry about a thing!
  It's in my bag so burn your dread!
• The Gadfly: He has a few choices that can be interpreted this way, but the most unambiguous case of him being this is when he meets Maya outside of the game they play, she freaks out because he's the student she confessed having a crush on, and regardless of the choices you make, she'll comment he has a smirk on his face while watching her embarrassment.
  Ms. Toriumi: Wipe that smile off your face! Or I'll wipe it off for you with my fists!!
• Gender-Blender Name: The anime movies and Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight have somewhat established Makoto Yuki as his canon name, which can also be used by a girl, and is even the name of a female character.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Played for laughs in the second movie after slapping Junpei in the face.
  Makoto: Sorry. Live strong.
• Go Out with a Smile: He dies on the school roof content and with a smile, looking merely tired. The stone statue of him chained to the Great Seal also has a tired but genuine looking smile.
• Harmful to Minors: Witnessed his parents' deaths as a kid. The movies make this worse by his statement that he's been experiencing the Dark Hour for a long time as well, something left ambiguous in the game.
• Hates Being Touched: Makoto in the first movie. This goes ignored by Junpei. By the second movie he seems to not care anymore.
  Makoto: Personal space.
• Headphones Equal Isolation: He's quiet and rather reserved. Several people comment on the headphones he always wears as well. While somewhat aloof, he does join several school clubs and enjoy being around others.
• The Heart: It is him who manages to hold the group together and leads them to victory. His death greatly affects the group (especially Aigis and Yukari) to the point they barely talk to each other for the next few weeks. Eventually things get so out of hand that the group splits apart and battles one another over whether or not to try saving him by changing the past.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: When he awakens to his Persona, he's given a one-handed sword, but he can equip any weapon aside from guns and knives throughout the course of the game in the original Persona 3 and FES. In Portable, Q, and Reload, he's limited to equipping one-handed swords.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • The game's narration implies he undergoes this during the game's darkest hours, such as after the death of Shinjiro and learning about the upcoming apocalypse.
  • In the movies, he slowly enters one during the final quarter of the second film, but it takes full effect after Shinjiro dies.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners:
  • Develops this bond with Junpei over the course of the latter half of the game, once Junpei has outgrown his jealousy.
  • His friendship with Ryoji in the manga, the third film, and potentially in Reload if you do his Linked Episodes. By contrast, he didn't have that many personal interactions with Ryoji in the original game.
• Hypocritical Humor: If Joker flirts with Hikari in Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth, the Male Protagonist will comment how Joker should watch his back due to his womanizing, despite the fact that the protagonist is practically required to be a womanizer in order to complete his Social Links due the lack of a Platonic route with his female friends prior to the release of Reload.
• Hiding Behind Your Bangs: His hair covers his right eye. This gets lampshaded during the Tower Social Lin, and joked about during Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: In the same vein as Yu in Persona 4: The Animation, Makoto becomes reluctant to end the Dark Hour as it means that the group will go their separate ways and he will be all alone again. As revealed by the sequel games, his fears are unfounded. Unfortunately, he doesn't live to see it.
• Implied Love Interest: Whilst the choice is ultimately up to the player, the main narrative of Persona 3 still leans towards a specifics choices, carried forward to subsequent games. Additionally, unlike the adaptations of Persona 4^note Or at least, the original anime adaptation and Persona 5, the adaptations of Persona 3 also lean towards a specific love interest.
  • Yukari and the protagonist have a number of Ship Tease scenes in the early section of the game, such as a shadow trying to force the two together, and one where Yukari opens up to the protagonist about her past, with an optional hug at the end. The Answer confirms Yukari did indeed have feelings for him.
  • As the game progresses, Aigis is given more scenes with the protagonist. They hold hands after her fight with Ryoji, they have one-on-one scenes late in the game, and, most notably, in the ending of the game the protagonist dies in Aigis' lap. This is especially noteworthy as the player couldn't chose to romance Aigis in the original game, though she was given a Social Link in all future iterations. In The Answer, Aigis is the protagonist, as she inherits his powers after his death.
  • In the manga adaptation, it is never definitively stated who Minato is interested in, and the only Social Links included in the manga are those belonging to Aigis and Yukari. However, when Aigis confesses her feelings to him, Minato simply thanks her for giving him the life he's currently living by sealing Death within him, which is treated like a polite rejection; whilst Yukari and Minato are shown spending Christmas Eve together in addition to the dates from her Social Link, and she even appears alongside him in the scenes depicting Aigis' Social Link.
  • In the animated movie tetralogy, Makoto only shows interest in Aigis, and they have several new scenes together.
• In-Series Nickname: "Leader." In the drama CDs, as he has no 'canon name', his friends in S.E.E.S. take to referring to him as such. It eventually spreads to the protagonist's other friends, who note how well the nickname fits him.
• Jack of All Trades: To differentiate himself from his female counterpart in Persona Q2, his version of Orpheus has a good spread of physical and magic skills, and his unique passive lets him be competent with most kinds of damage-dealing elements. His Persona also evolves into Orpheus Telos which has a very even resistance spread.
• Jerkass: Can be played this way early-game. Some of his dialogue options are downright cruel. For example, during Kazushi's social link he can suggest that the perfect present to his younger brother (who uses a wheelchair) would be running shoes and can also tell a little girl that her parents' divorce is her fault. It becomes less and less frequent as the game progresses, but it does not completely disappear. The movie version downplays this somewhat, as he is less verbally abrasive and more coldly detached from everyone else, particularly in the first film.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Late-game, his jerkish dialogue options get replaced with lines leaning toward this, implying at least a certain degree of Character Development.
• Living Emotional Crutch: To Aigis and Yukari. At the same time, The Answer deconstructs this by showing how hard both of them were hit by his death, thereby making him an emotional crutch in the literal sense. It is only after they both learn of his sacrifice that they finally come to terms with his passing, and vow to live out their lives to the fullest for his sake.
  • In Yukari's case, regardless if they forged a romantic relationship or not, the Protagonist was the first person that Yukari could open up to. When it seems that her father was indeed responsible for the Dark Hour and her faith in him shattered as a result, it was the Protagonist who ends up instilling in Yukari a renewed sense of purpose. Her Social Link also has the Protagonist become a confidant for her to vent out her frustrations towards her estranged mother, and it was him who pushes for the two to reconcile. [[spoiler:After his death, her grief causes her to lash out and comes close to breaking S.E.E.S. apart.
  • In the case of Aigis, her protectiveness was initially the result of her programming and the entity sealed within him. But her failure to destroy Death and thereby prevent the Fall, which would mean failing her designated purpose, causes her to lapse into an existential crisis. She manages to overcome this by vowing to continue protecting the Protagonist, who she became emotionally attached to. But his unexpected passing causes her to lapse into depression once again, to the point that she began subconsciously rejecting her newfound emotions in order to erase the pain she was experiencing.
• The Lost Lenore: To Aigis and Yukari in The Answer. As of Persona 4: Arena, Aigis still refers to the protagonist affectionately.
• Meaningful Name: In the anime, the name "Makoto Yuuki" (結城 理) can be read as "True Binding Castle", which references his connection to Nyx, Death and Tartarus.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: In Reload, the Protagonist's Combat Characteristic is unlocked and upgraded as you fill up the Persona Compendium, unlike the other party members whose Combat Characteristics are unlocked and upgraded by repeatedly bonding with them in their chosen dorm activity.
• Moment of Weakness: In the second anime movie he doesn't kill the Wheel of Fortune Shadow fast enough when he has a chance due to his conflicting feelings on ending the Dark Hour. Since the battle drags on, the crew is too late to save Shinjiro. Makoto's face at the end, in addition to his issues with death being thrown in his face, makes it clear he feels responsible as well. This continues to haunt him for the rest of the movies.
• Multi-Melee Master: In the PS2 versions of Persona 3, he can wield any weapon other than Aigis' guns or Koromaru's knives.
• Nerf: Between re-releases of Persona 3, Atlus tends to tone him down.
  • From the original P3 to FES the biggest nerf done to him are related to Lucifer/Helel. In the original P3 Lucifer is of Star Arcana, blocks all physical attacks and Dark, and also naturally learns Victory Cry, which makes Armageddon spammable, trivializing every combat against regular enemies and Reaper. In FES, Helel (a Decomposite Character) no longer learns Victory Cry without fusion, and merely resists physical attacks.
  • From FES to Portable he got the biggest nerfs.
    • No longer can he use almost every weapon type, he's limited to only one handed swords, severely limiting his melee combat options, a limitation that sticks for Reload.
    • Fusion Spells zig-zag this, he can't naturally use them by having two personas anymore, you need to either find or create the spell card for it, and while this makes some spells like Cadenza more useable since you won't need to carry weak personas as prerequisite, it also makes stronger ones like Armageddon much more restrictive to use because they're more expensive to create, and while there are specific conditions in Vision Quest to get up to 15 Armageddons, this is more limited than just having Helel and Satan and using it.
    • In P3 and FES he could do one night time activity that isn't Tartarus or Social Link related, and still study if the player wants to do so. In P3P he can only do a night time activity or study. This makes his academic stat take much longer to be maxed out since in FES you could play the quiz game at the arcade center for 4 academic points on wednesdays and saturdays, and then study at night for 2 more, while in P3P you'll only get 4 points if you play the quiz game but he'll go to sleep once he's done. Consequently, this also makes getting the highest grade at the first test impossible outside of NG+ unless you neglect social links to study, since you need it to be at level 3, and even in FES it was already difficult to get it to level 3 before the first test ^note Though this is mitigated by Mitsuru's previous top 1 rewards being moved to top 10, and the new top 1 rewards are skill cards, so at least getting the stat upgrade items she gives is easier than before
  • From previous versions of the game to Reload: Zig-zagged in the case of Fusion Spells. While they no longer require the requisite Personas to be present in his inventory, merely being present in the Compendium, they're now connected to the new Theurgy mechanic, meaning that they can't be spammed every turn. There are also less Fusion Spells to choose from this time, and Armageddon also drops your HP and SP to 1, to make it even less spammable.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the movies, the fact S.E.E.S will be disbanded and the fear that his friends will drift apart if the Dark Hour ends destroys his resolve. This leads him to hesitate to kill a full moon Shadow twice. While in the grand scheme of things killing the shadows brought on the end of the world, it's these two instances that directly cause Shinjiro's death. He spends the next two movies despairing over these moments of weakness.
• No Name Given: In his Superboss appearance in Persona 5 Royal, he is referred to simply as "S.E.E.S. Boy".
• No Social Skills: Ironically, he starts out the movie series like this, not being able to empathize much with people and often appearing coldly dismissive to his surroundings. However, Character Development allows him to show more and more of his Hidden Heart of Gold as the films go on, and by the second movie he's more talkative and sociable with people.
• Not So Stoic:
  • Near the end of the game, a panicked Junpei is calling him out on his part in the upcoming apocalypse by letting Ryoji grow into Nyx Avatar, which he had no control over. One of the dialogue options is a simple "I'm scared too."
  • The second P3P audio drama is a good example of him losing his cool. Don't ever endanger his Social Links.
  • This occurs several times in the movie, particularly when his friends are in danger.
  • Persona Q gives him several opportunities to blush in embarrassment, or react in a shocked manner.
  • Aigis promising to never die and leave him while she's falling to pieces in the third movie causes his depressed and emotionally stunted state to break down and embrace her.
• Official Couple: He gets together with Aigis in the film adaptations.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted with all of his possible names. His manga name, Minato Arisato, is shared with Minato, a teacher from Persona 2's PSP release. Sakuya Shiomi from The Weird Masquerade, while it isn't shared with any other character, it is shared with Konohana Sakuya, Yukiko's initial Persona. His canon name from the movie, Makoto Yuki, is shared it with Makoto Niijima from Persona 5.
• Orphan's Ordeal: The movie emphasizes this more, since it's mentioned that he was shuffled around different relatives, contributing to his distant nature.
• Present Absence: While he is absent in Persona 4: Arena and Persona 4: Arena Ultimax on account of being dead/The Great Seal, he is often mentioned by the Shadow Operatives and how his actions had changed their lives over the past few years.
• Pretty Boy: He's remarked on looking handsome and androgynous by a few characters, with Tanaka looking to make him a model for his company. Yuko also notices he has long eyelashes.
• Quickly-Demoted Leader: In the P4 route of Persona Q and in Persona Q2, he's introduced as the leader of S.E.E.S., but quickly cedes overall command of the group to your protagonist.
• The Quiet One: His justification for being a silent protagonist - dialogue options are fairly rare, and when they do show up, they're generally very laconic and to the point. During the movies, he only says about a single sentence every ten minutes, whilst he can go entire volumes of the manga without speaking. Lampshaded a few times. Averted in Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, where he speaks just as much as everyone else.
• Really Gets Around: In the original releases, five of his S. Links end with him 'spending a long time' in a bedroom with a girl. Six if you include Elizabeth, and while Aigis apparently lacks the bits necessary, she gets a scene full of Does This Remind You of Anything? moments. Reload gives players the option to not enact a romance route with some of these links.
• Real Men Wear Pink: One of his dialogue choices in Yukari's social link is that he thinks pink is cute. It's also an option for him to join the Fashion Club and sew clothes with Bebe. He has a girly first name in the stage play and a unisex one in the movies.
• Rei Ayanami Expy: Particularly in the movies, he's like a male version of her, being a Stoic Emotionless Guy with blue hair and The Unfettered member of their team who eventually warms up to them. He even gets a When He Smiles moment at the end of the first movie!
• Secret Art:
  • His unique skill in Persona Q is Debilitate, which decreases an enemy's attack, defense, and hit/evasion rate.
  • His unique skill in Q2 is Fool Card that increases his elemental damage output. This upgrades to Judgement Card which has a stronger damage bonus.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Barring Ken, he's the shortest of the male characters, but can also potentially be the smartest.
• Signature Move: His Personas have their own signature skills by the time Persona 5 rolls around.
  • Orpheus has Cadenza, which is originally a Fusion Spell with Apsaras that can heal up to 50% of the party's overall HP and boost their evasion rates.
  • Thanatos has his own version of Megidola called Door of Hades, which deals heavy Almighty damage to all enemies with a chance of insta-kill.
  • Messiah has Magic Skill Up and Oratorio as his signature skills: the former can boost all magical skills by 50% (though it's only exclusive to Portable) while the latter is a combined Mediarahan and Dekunda to the party.
• Slasher Smile: He sports a rather scary one during his first Persona summoning. Thankfully a non-villainous example.
• Sleepyhead: In the manga, Minato tends towards sleepiness, though he can switch to Hyper-Awareness if it's really important, like debates and Tartarus battles. Or if he just wants to win that ping-pong match against Akihiko-senpai.
• Southpaw Advantage: He adopts a left-handed stance when wielding greatswords.
• Squishy Wizard: Leans towards this in Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth. He has high magic and speed, but the worst affinities out of all characters, including a weakness to Mudo, which is very common in late game. Messiah does give him more resistances than most other characters, but he still has fewer of them than his successor does, and he doesn't lose that Mudo weakness either. Despite his short range you might want to put him in the back row.
• The Stoic:
  • He tends to be quite quiet and inexpressive. When he is introduced to Yukari in the manga, he smiles and says 'Nice to meet you', and promptly thinks 'That was out of character for me!'
  • A key character trait in the movies. Makoto is emotionally detached from everything he's told to do, always giving a simple "Understood" whenever someone gives him orders. He appears to almost never act on his own will, which Yukari eventually calls him out on before the Fuuka rescue mission.
  • Basically speaking, compared to Yu in Persona 4: The Animation, aside from a couple of snarky remarks, his stoic attitude is treated much more seriously thanks to his Dark and Troubled Past. Even his Cloud Cuckoo Lander moments, while funny, are less zany than Yu's.
• Suddenly Voiced: Other than his occasional lines when summoning Personas in 3 proper, he's only ever voiced in various adaptations - and even then, he's still fairly quiet. For English fans, Persona Q - released over seven years after 3 - is the first time he ever speaks properly.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Implied through dialogue in the game. In the movies, he starts off with a very icy personality that masks his sweeter side.
• Superboss: He appears in Persona 5 Royal as a DLC boss fight.
• Trauma Button: In the movies, seeing people in danger of dying, or being told they will die, triggers back memories of his parents' car accident. It contributes to his Heroic BSoD after Shinjiro's death.
• Uncertain Doom: The manga is far more ambigious about his fate. Unlike the game and the movie where he passes away in Aigis's arms, the manga's final pages has him stand up and greet his friends on the roof. However, he's also shown to be suffering from the effects of the Great Seal, implying that he's still Living on Borrowed Time.
• The Unfettered: Starts off this way in the movie series.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: When he experiences the Dark Hour for the first time, he just shrugs and keeps walking. In the movie tetralogy, it's revealed that he has known about the Dark Hour for ten years and hadn't reacted much to it.
• Vocal Evolution: For the English dub, in the original games, in the few instances where the protagonist talked (basically any time he called out his Persona), it was done with Yuri Lowenthal's more typical voice that he uses for most roles. Come Persona Q, his delivery on most of his lines are a lot more deadpan and lethargic, partly to emphasize his characterization and partly to distinguish him from the more upbeat Yosuke (whom Yuri Lowenthal also voices) in the same game. To contrast this further, the tone is usually deeper to mark the contrast with Yosuke more. His voice in Dancing in Moonlight and as a DLC boss fight in Persona 5 Royal is a middle ground between his original voice and later voice for Q.
• Warrior Therapist: Ends up being a mediator between Fuuka and Natsuki in the first movie.
• Wham Line: Played for Laughs. He has an option to drop one on Hermit social link once he meets her in real life, confirming to her he really is the student she confessed having a crush on.
  Hello, Maya-san.
• When She Smiles:
  • Smiles normally for the first time at the end of the first movie, surprising both Yukari and Junpei.
  • He strikes again in the third movie when he genuinely laughs for the first time.
  • Due to Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight being Lighter and Softer compared to the main game, Makoto often appears with a smile on his face. If he joins Elizabeth as one of her Fever Time partners, his departure features a shot focused on Makoto walking away with a smile on his face - a direct contrast to every other Fever Time, where the departing dancer quickly makes their way off stage without taking the focus away from the lead dancer.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: In Reload, one hangout interaction he can have with Aigis at the rooftop of the Iwatodai dorm has him react uncomfortably with bugs when she points out there's a baby ladybug on one of the plant's leaves.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: To Aigis twice in the last movie. The first time is when she blames herself for sealing Death into him. The second time he does this is to talk her down during her suicide attempt, with much more success.

The Female Protagonist

Female Protagonist/Kotone Shiomi

^{Click here to see Orpheus (Female)}

The Mistress of Strings

"Let's try to think positive."

Weapons: Naginatas
Voiced by: Marina Inoue (Japanese), Laura Bailey (English)
Live actor: Kana Asumi

Persona 3 Portable provides the option of playing as a female main character. While her history and basic storyline are identical to the original male version, she is not a mere Gender Flip. In addition to a very different character design, her personality is much more upbeat and optimistic than the moody male protagonist. She manifests an alternative, feminine form of Orpheus, and several of her social links focus on different characters, most notably previously undeveloped male members of S.E.E.S.

Many of the tropes which apply to the male protagonist apply to the female as well, except as noted:

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• Adapted Out: Her route is not included in Reload^note Per Word of God, she was excluded due to budgetary restraints and implementing her would have proven more costly than making both Reload and Episode Aigis: The Answer put together.
• Alternate Self: The female protagonist comes from a parallel world from the main universe. When she meets the mainstream S.E.E.S. in Q2, she feels out of place as she knows them but they do not know her.
• Angst: In Q2, she feels out of place among S.E.E.S. as they are from an alternate world and thus, didn't know her. Through a side quest, however, S.E.E.S. gets to know her more, elevating her mood.
• Arrange Mode: Essentially what her game, especially her social links, are to the Male Protagonist's. Some social links become available available earlier like Lovers, others become available much later like Fortune. And even those available at around the same time may be easier or harder to advance, like her Magician social link taking longer to complete than Male Protagonist's. One of the most noticeable changes in her social links in early game is Hermit. Male Protagonist's is an online game that can only advance in sundays or when it's a day off, and it uses day and night time, while Female Protagonist's is just another school related one, and this frees up her non-school days to do other social links, or raise social stats, or pray at the shrine to get points for a social link, so she has slightly more flexibility early on.
• Beneath the Mask: Her cheerful and happy-go-lucky attitude is nothing more than a mask she wore to hide the depression she has been hiding from others. Remove that mask and she is a mirror to her male counterpart. This is prominent after Ryoji's reveal after which she becomes more serious and in Q2 when S.E.E.S. doesn't recognize her and she is all alone.
• Beware the Nice Ones: As nice as she can be, she has her moments of outright anger towards others. At multiple points during Saori's Social Link, she can threaten the people badmouthing her, and in her drama CD she gets pissed off at Kenji for indirectly hurting Rio's feelings and saying how he feels girls dressing up as adults aren't to his tastes.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: A unique dialogue tree has this as one of the reactions to Ikutsuki's betrayal, using Maya's catchphrase "Let's think positive."
• Breaking Old Trends: She's the first Persona protagonist not to have her anime name declared canon, primarily because she hasn't appeared in any anime. Instead, she uses her stage adaptation name.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Can be the Gentle Girl to some characters, including her male counterpart.
• The Bus Came Back: Persona Q2 marks her first appearance since P3P.
• Canon Name: In the live-action stage play she's named Kotone Shiomi, which would then be further canonized when it was used for her cameo appearance in Puzzle & Dragons and as her default name in the rerelease of Portable.
• Character Catchphrase: "Leave it to me!", which can normally be said when the other members are feeling stressed, or when caught up in an intense moment.
• Combos: To differentiate herself from her male counterpart in Persona Q2, her skill set is focused on Link skills, delivering a long chain of hits as the party follows up after her initial strike. She even innately learns Combo Arts to let her normal attacks execute twice, allowing her to support other Link combos that her teammates may initiate.
• Cool Big Sis: Evolves into one for Maiko and non-romantic Ken. Mitsuru can also be this to her if you finish her Social Link.
• A Day in the Limelight: Persona Q2 serves as one for her, giving her her first major role since the original release of Persona 3 Portable. It's quite telling that she joins partway through the first dungeon, before Makoto^note From the Phantom Thieves, not her male counterpart. and Haru (two of the incumbent main characters of the series) and long before any of her own party members.
• Depraved Bisexual: Inverted. Her potential romantic options include two gay options in the form of Elizabeth and Aigis but she is also a very brave and selfless girl who fights to protect humanity from Shadows and ends up sacrificing her life to stop Nyx.
• Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?:
  • She has the choice to develop a personal relationship with Theodore by granting his requests to show him around various Port Island locations. He falls in love with her in the process, and the last such request may lead to the two of them having sex.
  • She can do the same with Elizabeth, should she be chosen as your velvet room attendant.
  • Ryoji is an avatar of Nyx, and falls in love with her. If his S. Link is pursued as a romance, the penultimate rank of it ends in an implied sex scene.
• Divine Date: She can romance Ryoji, who happens to be an avatar of Nyx.
• Dude Magnet:
  • By the end of the game, it's possible for Akihiko, Shinjiro, Ken, Ryoji, Hidetoshi, Bebe, and Theodore to all be in love with her — plus Maiko's father awkwardly asking her out. Her popularity is also noted by Junpei in passing during his S. Link.
  • There's even a Dogged Nice Guy at Club Escapade who will periodically give her rare items because of his obsessive love towards her.
  • In Q2, the boys from the other casts also find her attractive to the point Morgana, who normally only has eyes for Ann, finds her cute as well.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Aigis's interactions with her are just as romantic as they are with the male protagonist, now with added Gayngst. Mitsuru and Yukari also have very intense relationships with her. If you pick Elizabeth, she shows a lot of romantic interest, about as much as she does with the male protagonist.
• Extreme Omnisexual: Kotone is rather notable amongst the realm of Persona protagonists for how wide her selection of potential romantic partners is. On the male side, Kotone can sleep with Velvet Room attendant Theodore and Ryoji the amnesiac avatar of Nyx herself. Further, unlike all of the other contemporary Persona protagonists, Kotone has two completely unambiguous gay options in the form of Aigis and Elizabeth. Aigis being an android, and Elizabeth being the other Velvet Room attendant available for Kotone.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: Girls in Persona games have a tendency to be awful cooks, but the FeMC is not one of them. She's even good enough to rescue cookies from the clutches of the evil chef Fuuka. In fact, if done correctly, FeMC (with some help) can turn Fuuka into one as well, culminating in the two baking a fabulous cake and having a very close-and-personal celebration together.
• Foil: Everything about her is lighter compared to her male counterpart; her personality (happy-go-lucky to his stoicism), her color (pink instead of blue), her dialogue options, and most of her theme music.
• Game-Favored Gender:
  • An odd, possibly unintentional version of this can give her an advantage at Portable's endgame for a while even though it'd be expected for both protagonists to be about the same near the end. Vel Vel Muruga is her strongest weapon, it can be created by fusing a Nihil Weapon with Kartikeya, a level 70 Persona. Meanwhile, the Male Protagonist can only get his strongest weapon, Lucifer's Blade, by fusing Lucifer with a Nihil Weapon, and Lucifer is a level 88 Persona. So she can have a weapon that gives +10 to all of her stats and won't miss 18 levels earlier, which is quite convenient as it'll make the battles against the game's last bosses and Margaret's Vision Quest challenges much easier.
  • Zigzagged in regards to Social Links. The heroine gets two new Social Links (Shinjiro and Ryoji) that automatically level up no matter what choices are made in dialogue and one of these (Shinjiro) takes place at night where your time is much less valuable. However, both of these links also have a strict one month deadline, with Ryoji's in particular freezing if you miss so much as one opportunity to spend time with him.
    • Her Hermit Social Link is just another school related one, while Male Protagonist's is an online game that uses up day and night time. Because of that, she has extra night time to increase social stats, and can even have day time to do the same or pray in shrines to increase other social links in case there's no other ones to advance, which gives her a slight advantage in early game.
• Gender Flip: Personally averted, but her version of Orpheus is.
• Genki Girl:
  • As compared to the male protagonist, her dialogue options tend to be much more energetic and upbeat. Characters will also note on occasion that she manages to stay cheerful even during the end of the world or that an energetic flower, like the sunflower, suits her.
  • After the reveal of who Ryoji is and the coming of the Fall, her dialogue options become more serious, indicating how the plot has affected her. In general her responses in Ryoji's Fortune s-link while she can flirt with him in in game cutscenes like in Kyoto, for example, are way more mature than in other s-links indicating the influence of his later reveal on her personality and that her cheerful facade isn't her true/only personality.
  • PQ2 reinforces this and makes it clear that her genki nature is fundamental to her personality and not just a product of fun dialogue responses.
• Guide Dang It!: Her Moon and Fortune Social Links are unlike any other Social Link in the game, as they're on a month time limit. Fortune is the worst of the two since on top of being timed, you also can't refuse going out on dates with him, because unlike every other Social Link, the dates do increase the Social Link's rank, and if you refuse going out with him even once you can't advance it anymore.
• The Heart: She's as much of a pillar as the male character, but compared to him, she shows some more incentive to take charge and act as a "boss" like their successor. It does help that unlike her male counterpart, she has Social Links with all of her teammates rather than just having links with the girls in the party, while the male protagonist didn't even have any dedicated sidestories with the male members of S.E.E.S prior to Reload. In Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth, despite having multiple characters who play into this trope, she notably manages to stand out.
• Heroic BSoD: In Q2, the female protagonist finds out that S.E.E.S. is from a parallel universe and none of the members know her since her position as leader is taken by her male counterpart. With the one thing that gave her life meaning gone, she becomes dejected and moody.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Yukari, they grow so close that Yukari puts off finding a boyfriend so that she can spend as much time with the Female Protagonist as possible, and if the player doesn't romance any of the male characters, or romances one that is not available on Christmas, she will spend Christmas with Yukari (with Fuuka tagging along).
• In-Series Nickname: Same as the male protagonist, her comrades in S.E.E.S. all refer to her as "Leader" in both the game and drama CDs.
• Lady of War: She's quite graceful in battle.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Seems to be noticeably more serious in battle when compared to her usual cheerful demeanor in dialogue.
• Lighter and Softer: Considering how her dialogue is noticeably more upbeat and cheerful than her male counterpart's. She even dresses in much brighter colors.
• Lipstick Lesbian: Downplayed. She is very feminine and is clearly some denomination of queer as, in addition to the male romance options, she can hook up with Elizabeth and pursue a relationship with Aigis (who presents as female despite being a robot). That said, she is more of a Tomboy with a Girly Streak, especially in comparison to the likes of Mitsuru.
• Magic Skirt: Zigzagged. There's nothing there to see when the camera peeks up during a Follow-up attack (as the character model shows nothing past the legs and fades into the skirt), but there are plenty of opportunities for a Panty Shot should she fall down after a normal attack misses and during her critical hit attack motions mostly during the jumping spin attack.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: For Shinjiro's S. Link, she takes the time to nudge him into interacting with the rest of S.E.E.S., something he would rarely do otherwise. It's not that he can't, but rather that he's a little shy, of all things.
• Meaningful Name: Her name in the stage play is Koto-ne, which means "lyre", alluding to the mythological Orpheus's instrument.
• Meet Cute: Her introduction to Ryoji.
• Mirror Character: After meeting S.E.E.S. from the prime timeline in Q2, she begins to relate herself to Hikari as they are both outcasts who didn't fit in the groups they are. Incidentally, she is also quite similar to her male counterpart's gloomy personality during this period of Heroic BSoD, showing that her gung-ho attitude is simply a façade to hide her sorrow.
• Naginatas Are Feminine: The naginata weapon class is unique, separate from Ken's spear class, and is her signature weapon.
• No Name Given: Because she isn't focused as much as her male counterpart, not appearing in any media for nearly 10 years, the female protagonist was one of the only protagonists of the series to not be given a Canon Name, and she is only identified as P3P Heroine in Q2. The only official name she ever received, Kotone Shiomi (from the live-action play), would eventual be canonized in the ninth generation re-release of Portable.
• One of the Boys: She is just as ecstatic in doing boy activities as she is in girl activities.
• Our Spirits Are Different: The P3P heroine enters the movie world in Persona Q2 via a dream. The real copy still exists and is having a study nap, indicating that just like Hikari who enters via the same way, that is not the real person but merely her soul.
• Out of Focus:
  • She doesn't get the same amount of attention or merchandise as her male counterpart, and unlike him she's exclusive to the Portable port of the game. She doesn't have much prominence in side materials either (out of the many drama CDs, she appears in only one). Thankfully, the stage play gives her a good deal of spotlight (including giving her a name), and it's helped that they take a number of cues from the movies. She has also been confirmed to not be in the Reload remake.
  • She's finally made an appearance alongside her male counterpart in Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth, making it her first game since the release of P3P. Furthermore, P3P eventually became the first version of Persona 3 to be ported to eighth-gen platforms and beyond, giving her even further prominence in marketing Persona 3 to a new generation of players.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In Q2, she disguises herself as a Kamocity policewoman in order to trick another policeman in order to gain access to the electric panel he is guarding. Unfortunately, her poor impression as one fails to fool the officer even before he tricks her with a non-existing password.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Much like her male counterpart, she develops a very close and prominent friendship with Junpei. However, it's notable that he also lacks a romance option with her, meaning their relationship is purely platonic (with Junpei calling her a Very Important Friend). ^note There were scrapped plans for a Junpei romance, however. It's also of note that while Junpei does explicitly reject her if she does confess her feelings, he does say that he's willing to revisit the topic down the line, just not at the moment.
• Plucky Girl: Even in the darkest stretches of the game, her dialogue options remain determinedly upbeat.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Inverted. She has red eyes but she is also a brave and selfless individual who fights to save humanity from destruction.
• Red Is Heroic: She has red eyes and she fights together with other S.E.E.S. members to save the world from being destroyed by the Shadows.
• Secret Art: Her version of Orpheus in Persona Q2 has Resonance, which increases the strength of each successive Link follow-up. It upgrades to Telepathic Bond which has a greater damage bonus. Note that these skills are similar to those learned by Ken.
• Signature Headgear: Her trademark hair pins look like the Roman numerals for the number 22. The MC is consistently equated with the "Fool" arcana, which is card #0 among the Major Arcana. However, it's also card #22.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: All of her possible love interests are genuinely nice guys and gals —even Shinjiro.
• Sixth Ranger: In Q2.
  • She can be considered an honorary member of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts as she teams up with them early in the game and helps them to defeat Kamoshidaman.
  • She is a late joiner to S.E.E.S. as led by the Male Protagonist, and despite the whole alternate timeline thing manages to bond with them pretty well.
• The Social Expert: Her naturally kind and upbeat personality in PQ2 makes her fast friends among the cast, even with naturally shy characters like Futaba and Hikari.
  Futaba: Wow...I swear, the new girl's social skills are maxed out...
• Something Only They Would Say: She frequently brings up S.E.E.S.'s various quirks in Persona Q2, which helps them trust her even though they've never met her before.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Ryoji. Before he accepts his fate as part of Nyx, he tells her that he'd have given anything to be with her forever and gives her a ring so she'll always remember that he loved her. They are also on different sides due to Ryoji's alignment with Nyx. The fact both of them end up dead — at least as human beings, as the protagonist's soul still lingers as Great Seal while Ryoji mentions as Death, he only sleeps after Nyx returns to dormancy — reinforces this trope further.
• Stepford Smiler:
  • Some of her character interactions, particularly with Akihiko, comment that she shoulders too much responsibility on her own. Like her male counterpart, it is likely she is still traumatized from the deaths of her parents 10 years ago.
  • She has the option to tell Pharos that she can see why some might wish for death, implying that, to some degree, she understands what that's like.
  • She goes through quite a lot of this in Persona Q2 once she realizes that the S.E.E.S. she meets doesn't know her at all, call someone else their leader, and aren't even from her timeline.
• Supreme Chef: Unlike many of the girls in Persona, Kotone is very capable as a chef, and her specialty is sweets!
• Token Minority: She is one of the few explicitly non-heterosexual characters in the game and the franchise in general as she can romance Aigis and Elizabeth in addition to the male romance options which strongly implies that she is bisexual or pansexual. Downplayed, in that there are a few other LGBT characters in the game like the previously mentioned Aigis and Elizabeth as well as an unnamed female student who is obsessed with Mitsuru.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Her willingness to fight with the rest of S.E.E.S., combined with her being chosen as the field leader, gets her pegged as a tomboy by both Junpei and Shinjiro in passing, while the "girly" part comes from her more feminine style of casual clothes and the fact that she's a great cook, particularly of sweets.
• Tranquil Fury: In her Drama CD, when she starts losing patience with Kenji's obliviousness towards Rio's feelings.
  Junpei: She's smiling, but her eyes are below freezing.
• Tritagonist: She is this in Persona Q2, being the second most important protagonist after Joker and effectively being his second-in-command, as well as the third-most important character in the game behind Joker (who is arguably a Supporting Protagonist this time around) and Hikari, who is the true focus of the storyline.
• Women Are Wiser: Downplayed. While her fighting skills and intelligence are equal to that of the Male Protagonist she lacks his jerkass tendencies and is much more friendly and polite.

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"I'm getting sleepier... My eyes feel heavy..."

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