Summary
This article contains spoilers for thePersonaseries.
Personais an iconic RPG series with quite a lot of history behind it at this point, withPersona 6guaranteed to add to that legacy upon its release. The themes of the games are deeply rooted in various tropes, which have often reoccurred through multiple entries in the series. While there is an absence of major details at the moment, one major trope already seems very likely to appear inPersona 6.
Not counting its mother series,Shin Megami Tensei,Personais a series with nearly thirty years under its belt at this point. Such a long history would be bound to produce tropes in any series, butPersonais a uniquely thematic seriesthat has tended to lean particularly hard into recurring motifs. With its character writing being a defining trait of the series, there is one character trope in particular thatPersona 6is bound to inherit from its ancestor.
Persona 6’s Villain Could Be Hiding in Plain Sight
Persona Thrives On Tradition
Personahas a number of tropes that persist throughout the series. With its heavy focus on thematic elements such as the Major Arcana of Tarot,Personaintentionally employs character archetypesin order to enhance its storytelling. This leads to some characters between entries sharing more than a few similarities.
This principle rings true most evidently through the characters that join the player’s party during their journey. For example, modernPersonagames all introduce the player to a “dumb best friend” character. This character largely exists to make the player feel at home despite their circumstances and serve as a reliable combatant to boot.
However, these patterns extend beyond party members and other friends. After all, not everyone is going to be a ride-or-die for the protagonist and their goals. In fact,Personais host to just as many tropes for villains as it is for its heroes, and onemajor tradition could persist inPersona 6.
Twist Villains Have Become Persona Mainstays
Villains inPersonafollow a couple of major patterns as well. For starters, each game generally features at least two major antagonists. These antagonists fall into two distinct archetypes themselves and could inform a lot about what shapePersona 6’s villainmay take.
There is first a villain who is more down to earth, or at the very least a human character. They often serve as a commentary on people’s place in the modern world and are a mirror of the protagonist’s place in society. However, upon defeating them, players are then introduced to a final antagonist who operates on a much grander scale. They are typically a literal god, and comment on the human condition as a whole, among other high concepts.
Not counting thevillain added toPersona 5 Royal, Masayoshi Shido is the primary antagonist of the Phantom Thieves. Shido is a politician revealed to be responsible for branding the protagonist as a criminal, but the story shifts upon defeating him. Players are then tasked with defeating Yaldabaoth, the God of Control, who is evidently responsible for humanity’s willingness to accept the controlling nature of others.
Persona 6’s Villain Could Follow Series Tradition
These tropes do not exist in a vacuum, and it is in fact the way that these final antagonists are introduced that makes one solikely to appear inPersona 6. While Yaldabaoth may not appear in his godly form from the get-go, he is introduced to characters long before he is revealed as an antagonist.
This feature is anything but unique toPersona 5.Persona 3introduces players to the final antagonist almost immediately, andPersona 4introduces its final villain through an entirely innocuous gas station interaction that is very early in the game’s runtime. Though they may become godlike villains in the game’s final hours, they are introduced in the game’s first hours as an ally or even a total stranger.
Persona 6could very well subvert this trope. After all, a twist isn’t a twist if players see it coming. At this point in the series' history, players may be more surprised if the enigmatic figure they meet early in the game turns out not to be a villain. However, exceptions exist because of their rules, andPersona 6seems all the more likely to hide its villain in plain sight.
