Characters of Persona 3

Atlus's 2006 role-playing video game Persona 3 focuses on the exploits of the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (SEES), a group of high-schoolers defending their home city from monsters known as Shadows.

Persona 3 mixes elements of role-playing and simulation games: during the day, the player attends school, and is able to spend time with other characters, forming relationships known as Social Links.

The members of SEES include Yukari Takeba, a popular girl; Junpei Iori, a class clown and the Protagonist's best friend; Akihiko Sanada, the captain of Gekkoukan's boxing team; Mitsuru Kirijo, Gekkoukan's student council president; Fuuka Yamagishi, a shy girl who takes on a support role in battle; Aigis, a female android designed to fight Shadows; Ken Amada, an elementary school student whose mother was killed by a Persona-user; Koromaru, a dog capable of summoning a Persona; and Shinjiro Aragaki, a returning member of SEES who had previously left the team.

Over the course of the game, the player is challenged to manage his day-to-day schedule as he attends school, takes part in extracurricular activities, and spends time with classmates and other characters.

In Persona 3 Portable, Junpei becomes the Social Link for the Magician Arcana (魔術師, Majutsushi), representing action, initiative, and immaturity,[18] when the player controls the female protagonist.

Throughout the story, Mitsuru hides many details about Tartarus and the Dark Hour from the group, due to feelings of guilt over her family's involvement in the accident that created them.

In the Empress Arcana (女帝, Jotei) Social Link, representing life brought forth from motherhood,[21] the protagonist will help free her from some of the expectations attached to her family name.

[30] SEES later learns from Natsuki Moriyama that she and her friends—the students responsible for bullying her—had locked Fuuka in the school gymnasium; the same day, they returned to let her out for fear that she would commit suicide, but found no one inside.

Due to the Shadows frequently changing their weaknesses, Mitsuru and Yukari find themselves unable to land a hit and are defeated before the rest of SEES can back them up.

The ordeal causes her to fall unconscious for several days, after which Fuuka accepts Mitsuru's offer to join SEES, and moves into the dorm with the rest of the team.

In June, Yukari asks her to research an incident related to Gekkoukan which occurred ten years ago, as she believes Mitsuru is hiding something about the origins of Tartarus, as well as her father's death.

Aigis is introduced during SEES' summer beach vacation, where she is simultaneously the target of Mitsuru's retrieval mission and Junpei's "Operation Babe Hunt."

During the battle at that very location on Moonlight Bridge, she realized Death could not be defeated and decided to seal the entity away in a young boy who was the sole survivor of a nearby car crash.

Aigis is the main playable protagonist, inheriting the power to summon multiple Personas including Orpheus (オルフェウス, Orufeusu) of The Fool Arcana, but loses the ability to use Orgia Mode.

Two years prior, while the group was hunting a Shadow, he briefly lost control of his Persona, Castor (カストール, Kasutōru) of The Hierophant Arcana, resulting in the death of Ken's mother.

Ken is the Social Link for the Justice Arcana (正義, Seigi) in Persona 3 Portable, representing the knowledge of what is right and wrong,[50] if the player is controlling the female protagonist.

Due to cultural differences, his Social Link is slightly edited in the English version in order to make Ken's feelings seem more like a crush with the female protagonist seeing him as a younger brother.

Because the character's design is focused on the idea that he is a young boy, Soejima jokingly wrote Ken's name as "Kid Amada" on concept sketches.

In spite of this, he often inadvertently helps SEES by revealing important information, such as the truth behind Strega, their involvement in the coming of Nyx, and Shuji Ikutsuki's real allegiance.

Like Takaya, she shows unusual Persona abilities, such as being able to heal living creatures (including her own wounds) and manifest Medea outside of the Dark Hour.

Ten days before the first full moon of December, Chidori is broken out of the hospital and rejoins Strega, but her loyalties begin to falter when she is forced to fight Junpei, and when he is wounded by Takaya, she comes to terms with her love for him.

It is later revealed that ten years prior, Ikutsuki worked as a scientist at Kirijo's Ergo Research division, studying Shadows and performing various inhumane experiments while attempting to artificially induce Personas into individuals like Strega and Sho Minazuki, the latter of whom treated him as a father.

Ten years prior to the events of Persona 3, the two fought on the same bridge, and Aigis, unable to defeat Death, sealed it inside the protagonist, who was a child at the time.

He is the Social Link of the Fortune Arcana (運命, Unmei) in Persona 3 Portable, representing fate and opportunities provided by it,[79] when the player controls the female protagionst.

At this stage, Rei is abducted and the school's clock tower undergoes a Tartarus-esque transformation, and although Zen at first decides to save her on his own, SEES and the Investigation Team resolve to stay and help him out.

Unable to cope with the pain of living, she ended up in the Cinema in the collective unconsciousness during a dream, there she meets Nagi, who promises Hikari to protect her from any harm by isolating her from reality.

Andre Laurent Jean Geraux (アンドレ･ローラン･ジャン･ジェラール, Andore Rōran Jan Jerāru), or Bebe (ベベ) for short, is a French exchange student engrossed with Japanese culture.

[106] Maya (Y-Ko (Y子, Waiko) in Japan) is a player in the fictional MMORPG Innocent Sin Online; at the conclusion of her Social Link's story, she professes her love to the protagonist in the game.

"[119] Heidi Kemps of GamesRadar said that Persona 3 contained "a memorable cast of characters", although listed "Fuuka's inability to shut up" as a negative point at the conclusion of the review.

[120] In his review for Eurogamer, Rob Fahey wrote that developer Atlus made a "wise decision" in choosing to represent characters in the world in 3D, while using "lovely 2D artwork to convey expressions and emotions.