?Abstract ?This article explores different psychological and philosophical theories that influenced the ?making of the ground-breaking game: Persona 3. It discusses how the game takes from the ?theories of prominent psychoanalysts to add to the immersive experience of the game. ?Specifically, the theories of Persona, Shadow, and archetype of renowned psychiatrist and ?psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Furthermore, it explains how the narrative of the game follows the ?main character through the Jungian individuation process. ?The article also analyzes how “The Theme of the Three Caskets”, an essay written by Sigmund ?Freud, heavily influenced the game’s narrative and mechanics, and how the game ?communicates the themes of the essay explicitly through the opening of the game and through ?the characters dialogue, and discreetly through its unique handling of time models. It also ?explores how the narrative and game mechanics interplay and reinforce one another to ?effectively present the overall themes of the game to the player. ?Keywords: Persona 3, Philosophy, Psychology, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Memento Mori, ?Theme of the Three Caskets ?Introduction ?While most Roleplaying games follow the protagonist on adventures that incorporates ?Legendary swords, mythical creatures and vast worlds, the Persona series is quite modest in ?that regard, with its story typically happening in an ordinary Japanese town, without dragons, ?or semi-open-world adventures. And while the vast majority of RPGs emphasize the exploration ?of new environments and leading the characters to a triumphant happy ending, Persona 3 is ?more introspective, with it focusing on the inner turmoil of the characters, and the motives that ?keeps them going on, furthermore, the game doesn’t end with the characters living happily ?ever after. In fact, it ends with the shocking death of the protagonist. The mood of the game is ?also different, with its bleak urban setting contrasting the vivid natural environments of ?traditional RPGs, and the cold blue coloring scheme of the artwork contrasting the usually ?bright coloring of most RPGs. Persona 3 is then, at a glance, not your typical RPG. This is true for ?every game in the persona series, but there are still stark differences between persona 3 and ?every other game in the series. Persona 4 and 5 for example, use exuberant yellow and bold red ?coloring schemes, they end triumphantly without the death of the protagonist and they don’t ?delve as much into the characters motives. These differences however, are totally logical (and ?justified), considering the different themes and stories that each of these games present. The ?persona series is all about storytelling, with every design and narrative aspect of the game set ?to accentuate and strengthen the impact of the game’s story and its overall themes. It doesn’t ?come as a surprise then that one of the most acclaimed aspects of persona 3 is its storytelling, with the game being described as “One of the most ambitious storytelling projects in ?videogame history.” (Oyama, 2012). ?But there’s another hidden reason that makes the game’s storytelling so compelling and ?effective. The Persona series and Persona 3 in particular are known to be fraught with ?symbolism, psychological and philosophical concepts, and it’s included in a way that even if the ?player totally missed it, it wouldn’t affect his gaming experience. The game openly uses terms ?that are deeply seated in psychology like “persona” and “shadow” but subtly presents ?psychological concepts such as “individuation” throughout the course of the game. ?Furthermore, Persona 3 is the first game in the series to include the now-signature blend of ?social simulation and RPG elements like dungeon crawling. It established a new formula that ?both persona 4 and 5 followed to great commercial success and critical acclaim. But when ?Persona 3 introduced the seemingly unnecessary social simulation aspect of the game, it was, ?arguably, because it was another tool to deliver the themes of the game (Lee, 2013), and it was ?a move influenced by a number of psychological theories and philosophical concepts. ?The purpose of this article is to identify these different concepts and theories, and how they ?influenced the narrative and gameplay aspects of persona 3. And even though the game is ?influenced by the theories of many philosophers and psychoanalysts, this article would only ?focus on the theories and concepts of two influential psychoanalysts: Sigmund Freud and Carl ?Jung. Specifically, the psychoanalytical theories of Jung, and the philosophical concepts of ?Freud. Each theory and concept will be thoroughly explained in the context of the game, and ?specific aspects of the game will be examined to assess the extent of influence that these ?theories had over them. ?Methodology ?Most of the data used in this article was gathered from selected web articles and online ?references. These references and articles were selected based on relevancy, credibility, and ?overall adequacy of information, articles which drifted off-topic were excluded. ?The first step after gathering the necessary data was determining the different psychological ?and philosophical theories that influenced the game. This was done by reading through ?different web articles, blogs, forums, and official interviews with the makers of the game. These ?psychological and philosophical theories were then thoroughly studied. Each theory was ?challenged for its relevancy to the game, with great attention being paid to how each of the ingame representation conforms to the studied theory. Irrelevant theories were subsequently ?excluded from the analysis process. The selected theories were then analyzed and categorized ?by the level of influence that they had on the gaming experience, with each theory then ?thoroughly explored within the context of the game. The World of Persona 3 ?The story of Persona 3 happens in the fictional town of Iwatodai, where a period of time called ?the dark hour exists between one day and the next. During the dark hour, most people in ?Iwatodai are transmogrified into coffins and are unaware of its existence. The dark hour causes ?a labyrinth called Tartarus to emerge, where beasts called “shadows” roam. The shadows feed ?on the mind of their victims, leaving them without any cognitive functionality in ordinary day’s ?hours. The nameless protagonist, who’s a high school student, is one of few people who can ?function during the dark hour, and he joins a group of people who fight shadows with beasts of ?their own called “personas.” The game follows the protagonist as he balances high school life ?and Tartarus exploration. ?Carl Jung ?Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung theorized that the persona is “a kind of mask, designed on the one ?hand to make a definite impression upon others, and on the other to conceal the true nature of ?the individual.” (Jung, 1953, p. 190) ?Simply put, people create and develop personas to interact with the external social world. But ?“the external social world” is vast and full of different personalities; therefore we create ?different personas to deal with different type of personalities and social situations. ?For example, the persona one uses to interact with business associates would be very different ?from the one he uses to interact with his family. A persona then, reflects what society deems ?acceptable. ?The game explores this heavily through its social simulating aspect known simply as “social ?links.” In social links, the player must decide through choices which personality to use for ?different characters, with each social link requiring different choices that mirrors the use of a ?different persona. This emphasizes the need to use different personas in different situations, ?subtly suggesting that it’s a skill essential to socialize effectively, even in the real world. ?The game also explores the existence of “shadows.” In Jungian Psychology, the shadow ?“personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself” ?(Jung, 1996, p. 284) and is “a tight passage, a narrow door, whose painful constriction no one is ?spared who goes down to the deep well.” (Jung, 1996, p. 21) ?If a persona is what society deems acceptable, a shadow is the exact opposite. People tend to ?reject or repress undesirable traits of their personalities, which could cause a number of ?psychological problems. For example, shadows are prone to “psychological projection”, a term ?used to describe the instance of when an unconsciously perceived inferiority in one’s personality is projected as a moral deficiency in others. This could act as a thickening layer of ?illusion between the ego and the real world, and subsequently lead to negative behaviours such ?as victim blaming, bullying and projection of marital guilt. ?Shadows are present in the game as different monsters that manifest from people’s negative ?and repressed parts of their personalities. The end of the game focuses on the death drive as a ?shadow, suggesting that everyone has the death-seeking drive as a shadow buried deep within ?his subconscious. The term “archetype” was used by Jung to describe universal, archaic patterns and images that ?derive from the collective unconsciousness. (Feist, 2009) ?Nicholas (1980), emphasized the psychological and archetypal significance of the tarot, and ?connected the Jungian individuation process to the tarot trumps. This is implied in the persona ?series, in that the characters who share the same tarot card arcana often face the same ?problems and react to it similarly, suggesting that they have the same archetypal identity. ?In Jungian psychology, “individuation” is the process in which the individual self develops out of ?an undifferentiated unconscious. (Jung, 1973) The story of Persona 3 follows the main character ?through the three Steps of Jungian individuation, as summarized in table 1. Table 1: Jungian Individuation Process ?Steps Of ?individuation ?Step one: ?Assimilation of the ?Shadow ?Step two: ?Confrontation with ?the Anima/ Animus ?Step three: ?Encounter with the ?Mana Figure. ?Description Shadow: unconscious ?aspects of the ?personality which the ?conscious ego does ?not identify in itself. ?Because one tends to ?reject or remain ?ignorant of the least ?desirable aspects of ?one's personality. ?The first step of ?Individuation is the ?acknowledgement of ?the existence of a ?shadow as a part of ?one’s personality. Anima/ Animus: ?Archetypes of the ?unconscious mind ?that are feminine for ?a man (Anima) and ?masculine for a ?woman (Animus). ?They have a huge ?impact on one's ?interactions with ?others and creative ?abilities. ?The second step of ?individuation is the ?spiritual guidance ?that occurs after ?confrontation with ?the feminine side of a ?man’s personality or ?the masculine side of ?a woman’s ?personality. ?Mana: the encounter ?with a wise old man/ ?mother archetype. ?The wise man ?symbolizes distinct ?thinking which is ?unknown to the ego. ?The third and final ?step of Individuation ?is the encounter with ?one’s inborn wisdom. In-game ?Representation ?The Shadows Inside ?Tartarus: They are ?the physical form of ?repressed parts of ?humans’ ?personalities. ?The main character ?acknowledges his ?shadow Thanatos/ ?Pharos as part of ?himself. ?Elizabeth: She guides ?the main character ?spiritually by helping ?him access his ?various Personas. ?Nyx's Avatar: He ?gives the main ?character wise ?speeches on the ?nature of the Arcana ?and life. ?The encounter with ?the Mana, Nyx's ?Avatar, leads the ?main character into ?the final stage of ?individuation. Sigmund Freud ?In his 1913 essay titled “the theme of the three caskets”, Sigmund Freud argues that in the ?situation where a man chooses between three different things, he always chooses the third and ?final choice. This situation is taken from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, where three ?suitors must choose between three caskets in order to marry a girl named Portia. One of the ?caskets is gold, and the other two are silver and lead. Each one of the suitors chooses a casket, ?with each one of them giving a justification for the choice he made. ?Freud argues that the situation where a man chooses between three caskets is actually of a ?man choosing between three fates. And a man always chooses the third, symbolically speaking, ?the third choice is death. ?Freud also explores two other stories in which there are also three similar choices: Cinderella ?and Cordelia. In Cinderella’s story, the prince chooses Cinderella as the third of her sisters, and ?in Cordelia’s story, where king Lear wanted to divide his kingdom on his three daughters based on their love for him, Cordelia, as the third choice, was also the best among them. Freud ?concluded that concealment and dumbness are the primary similarities between these choices. ?“Cordelia makes herself unrecognizable, inconspicuous like lead, she remains dumb, she ‘loves ?and is silent’. Cinderella hides and cannot be found. We may perhaps be allowed to equate ?concealment and dumbness.” (Freud, 1913, p. 293) ?He went on to link these qualities to death. “if we decide to regard the peculiarities of our ‘third ?choice’ as concentrated in her ‘dumbness’ then psychoanalysis will tell us that in dreams ?dumbness is a common representation of death.” ?And about concealment, he wrote “hiding and being unfindable-a thing that confronts the ?prince in the fairy tale of Cinderella three times, is another unmistakable symbol of death.” (Freud, 1913, p. 294) ?In persona 3, the fact that humans always choose the third choice (death) is explicitly stated in ?the final arc of the story. In it, it turns out that the impending apocalypse is actually happening ?because of people’s desire of death, known as “the death drive” or “Thanatos” in psychology. ?Furthermore, Nyx, the being who will bring upon that apocalypse remains ‘hiding’ and is ?‘unfindable’ to the heroes throughout the story. Freud also wrote in “the theme of the three caskets” about the inevitability of death. In it he ?explained: "The Moerae were created as a result of a discovery that warned man that he too is ?a part of nature and therefore subject to the immutable law of death.”(Freud, 1913, P.298) The game communicates that death is “immutable” and inevitable in various ways, discreetly ?and explicitly: ?There are many instances where the game explicitly reminds us of the inevitability of death ?using the philosophical concept: Memento Mori. Remember that you will die. Before you begin ?a new game, in the game’s opening, “Memento Mori” flashes two times, and “remember that ?you are mortal”, “remember you will die” and “Remember your death” also appear during the ?opening. And right after starting a new game the lines “time never waits. It delivers us all ?equally to the same end.” appear on the screen. Furthermore, one of the first lines of dialogue ?you receive after starting a new game is: “no one can escape time, it delivers us all to the same end. You can’t plug your ears and cover your eyes.” There are many other examples where the ?game uses dialogue to remind the player of the inevitability of death. ?The use of evokers also serves as a reminder of death. The characters in this game point a gunshaped device towards their head in order to summon their personas. It is implied in the game ?that as the persona-user points the evoker to his head, he remembers death which clears up his ?mind and allow him to bring about the persona. Furthermore, in the dark hour, people without ?the potential are transmogrified into coffins, also signifying death. ?If we look at the plot as whole, we’d find out that it is, thematically speaking, about death. A ?great chunk of the game is about how characters deal with, or have dealt with death during the ?course of the story, and in the backstories of the characters. “The game is about how these ?characters respond to death, the inevitability of death, and the meaning of their lives in the ?face of certain death.” (Lee, 2013) ?The game explores the concept of the inevitability of death discreetly through the game ?mechanics, namely through time mechanics. Lee (2013) argued that while the plot is about ?death, the game mechanics are an exploration of time. And the relationship between them is ?explored through the interplay of the mechanics and the narrative. ?If we examine videogames in general to get some perspective, we’d find out that games handle ?time progression in two different ways (or a combination of the two ways), as summarized in ?table 2. Table 2: Typical time models in videogames. ?Player/ Plot Dependent Time Progression Automatic Time Progression ?Time is progressed by the player. Time is progressed by the computer using real ?time. ?Mainly used in plot heavy roleplaying games ?or turn based games. ?Mainly used in arcade-style platforming and ?time-sensitive puzzle games. ?Time is measured in plot events, or turns. Time is measured in minutes and seconds. ?Time will never progress in the game unless ?the player decides to take action by ?choosing to progress the plot, engage in an ?activity, or take a turn. ?Time progress automatically. ?In Final Fantasy VII the main character can ?stand idly and time will never progress in ?the game unless the player chooses to ?advance the story. ?In chess time will never pass (the game will ?never progress) unless the player decides ?moves his piece. ?In Sonic the hedgehog. The main character will ?die if he stands idly for a certain amount of ?time. ?In Tetris the game would end in a loss state if ?the player takes “too much” time.Persona 3 uses a combination of these two models. Time models in persona 3 are split between ?two models, one activates when the main character is in his hometown (Iwatodai), and it shifts ?into another time model when the main character explores the dungeon aspect of the game ?(Tartarus). ?Furthermore, time is also divided between what we’d call Plot time, and ordinary time. Plot ?time activates whenever there’s a plot event happening whether it’s in Iwatodai or Tartarus. ?Ordinary time activates whenever there aren’t any plot events. During Iwatodai Time, in ordinary time, time passage is player-dependant, the player advances ?time by choosing to engage in an activity. During Tartarus time, in ordinary time, time passage ?is automatic (see table 3), this is discreetly communicated in two ways, the first one is that if ?you stayed on one floor for “too much” time The Reaper (a powerful shadow) will come and in ?all likelihood kill you, the second one is that if you explore Tartarus for too long you’d become ?fatigued and you’d have to eventually return home to rest. During plot time, the player is also ?not in control of the passage of time. ?Table 3: time models in Persona 3. ?Persona 3 Time Model Tartarus Time Iwatodai Time ?Ordinary Time No Player Dependent Time ?Progression Player Dependent Time ?Progression Plot Time No Player Dependent Time ?Progression No Player Dependent Time ?Progression “The characters in this game are all struggling with or against death. Every character’s arc is ?somehow linked to a death that either informs their backstory or takes place during the ?narrative. The crux of most of these characters’ arcs is the lack of control over death.” (Lee, ?2013) ?Here’s where the game discreetly communicates the inevitability of death, and the lack of ?control over death. ?“Put simply, in Persona 3, control over time is equal to control over death.” (Lee, 2013) ?The game deliberately takes control of time and subsequently death when it matters most to ?the player, during plot time, when the narrative is at its most shocking and intense. ? This makes the player feel the same lack of control over death that the characters in the game ?do. Persona 3 then, purposefully uses game mechanics about time and narrative about death ?to imbue the player with a personal sensation of the fear of the inevitability of death. This is ?supported by Persona 3 Director Katsura Hashino as he states in an interview on Persona 3: ?official Design Works: “It is my hope that by playing this game and realizing the true inevitability ?of death, the player will take a moment to think about life and death in the real world after ?turning the game off.” (Moylan, 2012.) Conclusion ?Persona 3 has been described as a “game you will enjoy while playing and spend lots of time ?pondering when you're done.” (Healy, 2010.) I believe this description to be an ?understatement. And as this article explained how Persona 3 is able to masterfully draw from ?the theories of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud and pour them into its mechanics and narrative. ?The level of depth that this game packs makes it hard for it to be briefed into one article. There ?are still a lot of aspects about the game that could be studied further. A lot of other ?philosophical theories could be studied within the scope of the game. Zhaunghi’s Butterfly ?(Butterfly – a thematic…., 2014.), Jacque Lacan’s mirror stage concept (Neko, 2011.) and the ?mythologies of Orpheus, Thanatos and nearly all other personas have influenced the game to a ?degree. And while persona 3 was released more than a decade ago, its influence on the ?franchise and presence in the gaming community is still strong. Its successful standing of “the ?test of time” is aided by its brave influences and by its use of storytelling tools like symbolism to ?convey its themes. And as storytelling in videogames is rapidly evolving, many games are ?starting to incorporate complex psychological and philosophical theories in it, which may in the ?future cumulate to the emergence of games that surpass movies, plays, and even works of ?literature in terms of depth and storytelling brilliancy. ? References ?Analysis / Persona 3. (2015). (n.p.). Retrieved from ?www.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Analysis/Persona3 ?Bingham, J., & Tamarkin, N. 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Persona 3 FES and thought provoking religious symbolism. Retrieved from: ?www.venturebeat.com/community/2012/01/15/controversial-religious-symbolism-in-persona- 3-fes/ VanOrd, K., (2007). Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 review. San Francisco: GameSpot, CBS ?Interactive. Retrieved from https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/shin-megami-tensei-persona- 3/1900-6175580/ ?