Copyright: persona 3

The fourth game in the Persona series (since Persona 2 consists of two games), featuring a dark story about death, grief, mortality, and teenagers capable of summoning demons from their psyche with fake guns. It is notable for being the game that put the Persona series on the map, as the previous games were and still are fairly niche.

Persona 3 functions as a soft reboot of the series, and took it in a new direction by incorporating life sim and time management elements into jRPG gameplay. The game takes place over a single school year, with players being limited to two actions per day. During the day they can pursue various character-related subplots in a format similar to that of dating sims; during the night, they can take actions that improve their stats, or fight demons in "Tartarus", a supernatural tower that appears only during a secret thirteenth hour of the day.

After the game's initial success, the publishers released a remastered version, Persona 3 FES. In additional to several gameplay tweaks, it includes a sequel scenario (called "Episode Aigis" in Japan and "The Answer" globally) exploring the cast's grief following the death of the protagonist. This scenario was remade and released as DLC for the 2024 remake Persona 3 Reload.

The series is notable for having an unusual character roster even by jRPG standards, including a spear-wielding elementary schooler, an anti-demon android, and a sword-wielding dog. It is also notable for being the only Persona game to date with an option to play as a female protagonist, though only in the PSP port released in 2009.