The protagonist (Japanese: 主人公, Hepburn: shujinkō) is a character from Persona 3, a 2006 role-playing video game developed by Atlus.

"[11] In retrospect, he found that the character was not ambiguous enough and thus when creating the Persona 4 protagonist, Soejima made Yu Narukami with the idea that his entire personality be decided and portrayed by the player's in-game actions and decisions.

This led Akitaya to be extremely careful about how he went about constructing the character in terms of his speech, gestures and behavior all the while staying true to what was already established in the game.

[14] He elaborated that the protagonist's maniacal laugh and heavy breathing helped bring depth to the scene and establish animation director Keisuke Watabe's character designs as being one of the main attractions of the film.

However, even as Jun Kumagai began working on the screenplay, the placeholder went unchanged for the next four to five months and Akitaya found himself growing attached to it despite eventually changing it.

This selection alters some aspects of the story: the first Persona gained by the Protagonist, Orpheus, has a different appearance; Igor's assistant in the Velvet Room, Elizabeth, can be replaced with a male equivalent named Theodore.

[4][17] In making of this version of the protagonist, the staff aimed for a character whose new traits in comparison to the male would be new features for returning gamers as well as attract the female demographic.

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

[21] Igor, the proprietor of the Velvet Room, encourages the protagonist to form Social Links with people, as they will determine his potential in combat.

[22] As he works with SEES, the protagonist builds up the Social Link for the Fool Arcana, which symbolizes beginning and infinite possibilities of the journey ahead.

[24] The protagonist is an orphan; his parents died ten years prior to the events of Persona 3, which sees him returning to the city he grew up in.

[38] Makoto is portrayed as an ambivalent individual with an initial neutral viewpoint on the film's theme of life and death, making his growth via new found experiences the focus of the movie.

Richard Eisenbeis of Kotaku described the protagonist as being an initially "ambivalent, broken character..." whose growth takes center stage and gave the film "a suitable sense of completion.

[51] The addition of the female protagonist to Persona 3 Portable was praised by IGN for how different her interactions with other characters are, while also adding potential replay value.

[52] Destructoid agreed, commenting especially on how the new alternate version of the protagonist can form romantic relationships with characters that the original game could not show.

Sahmir and Norlela Ismail from University Teknologi Mara, saw the protagonist as distinctively kind and calm as he is used to dealing with the Dark Hour and often provides comfort to the other characters he meets.

[57] The relationship the female avatar develops with Koromaru has been compared by Juan F. Belmonte from University of Murcia with other famous relationships involving pets in gaming such as Shadow and Interceptor from Final Fantasy VI or Cloud Strife and Red XIII from Final Fantasy VII due to how the Persona pet develops when interacting with the protagonist to the point of feeling human as a result of understanding her.

The development of such bond has been compared to Freya and Zidane Tribal from Final Fantasy IX as both sides come across as interspecies relationships as a result of the romance.

[58] When Atlus announced the Persona 3 remake would not have the female protagonist, Inverse writer Willa Rowe heavily criticized that decision, as she viewed such avatar of the player as the best character in Persona 3 Portable; Inverse specifically enjoyed the female protagonist for several of her possible lines in the game which made her more likable than the male one while dealing with explicitly queer stories that are not mixed with negative stereotypes.

[60] Meanwhile, when it came to the replacement of English voice actors, Yuri Lowenthal believed Aleks Le was worthy of succeeding him for the role of the male protagonist.

[61] The desire to include the female avatar resulted into a mod created by fans of the game which attracted the attention of the media for showing the importance and popularity of such character.