Persona Protagonists Are Invariably High School Boys Due to 'Mental Age'

Which tends to be lower than their contemporaries.Persona is a long-running JRPG series known for its killer combat, heady philosophical musings, and incredible sense of style. Later entries focus on the day-to-day life of a high school student in Japan, whether in the suburbs (Persona 3), a rural town (Persona 4), or the incomparable city of Tokyo itself (Persona 5). With a lone exception, the protagonists of these games are invariably teenage boys.Players of Persona, however, especially if they have grown up with the games, are likely decades older than these heroes, and of course, women love the series as well. Persona 3 Portable did feature the option to play as a female protagonist (putting a surprising amount of unique content behind this playthrough), but this was not included in the 2024 remake, Persona 3: Reload. Fans have long called for a protagonist in a future game to be an adult, attending college or university; we think that Japanese corporate/salaryman culture could work quite well, keeping the calendar aspect, too.Read the full article on pushsquare.com

Persona is a long-running JRPG series known for its killer combat, heady philosophical musings, and incredible sense of style. Later entries focus on the day-to-day life of a high school student in Japan, whether in the suburbs ( Persona 3 ), a rural town ( Persona 4 ), or the incomparable city of Tokyo itself ( Persona 5 ). With a lone exception, the protagonists of these games are invariably teenage boys.

Players of Persona, however, especially if they have grown up with the games, are likely decades older than these heroes, and of course, women love the series as well. Persona 3 Portable did feature the option to play as a female protagonist (putting a surprising amount of unique content behind this playthrough), but this was not included in the 2024 remake, Persona 3: Reload . Fans have long called for a protagonist in a future game to be an adult, attending college or university; we think that Japanese corporate/salaryman culture could work quite well, keeping the calendar aspect, too.

In any case, Persona team director Kazuhisa Wada seems to feel differently, explaining why Persona protagonists share so many immutable characteristics. Wada made the following comments at the CEDEC + KYUSHU 2024 conference (thanks, GamesRadar+ ), attended by Famitsu : "Persona is a story about growing up..

. Such a setting can be most effectively used with students on the verge of becoming adults. Another big factor is that student life is something that most people have experienced, so it's easy to empathize with.

As for gender, this has to do with mental age. It seems that when it comes to the same high school students, women tend to have a higher mental age than men. However, we don't necessarily think that adults or women are unacceptable.

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