The Persona Franchise Needs To Start Adding Personality To Their Protagonists

Despite how largely popular the Persona franchise is and how you may argue that the modern trilogy games are overrated in certain ways, while I’m a huge fan of them all, going as far as sinking 500+ hours across Persona 2 to 5, I think I need to address my major criticism about the game; it’s protagonists.

Now, this isn’t about how they’re presented or even how they’re the driving force of the game’s events to present to the audience, but specifically how, without any voiced dialogue, they sort of feel disconnected with the overarching storytelling and, besides that, seem devoid of any personality despite their minor voiced scenes.

There’s a pretty simple solution for Atlus to alleviate this issue, and I understand many are fine with how protagonists already are and work in Persona games, but since we’re leaning into Persona 6 in the near future, it’s about time they switched it up.

A Stale Element That Deserves An Attitude Adjustment

Look, I love the fact that you get to shape how YOU want the protagonist to speak in almost every single situation where it demands it, but I’d like some complexity here. Why not bring back the mechanic from Persona 3, where you could reverse Social Links from bad choices?

Also, can the protagonist please have an actual realistic and humane conversation with the social link or character? Even games like Tales of Arise do it better with Alphen, the main character, proactively talking and having moments with his love interest or party members.

The silent protagonist formula is a detriment to this series, which is primarily character interaction and development driven, and needs to go.
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Sure, Joker is a fashionable and savvy guy himself canonically, but I’d appreciate it if, in the future, Persona 6 does things differently and allows you to actually have your protagonist be a central figure, that or at least have him feel organic amidst the other wonderfully written characters.

I mean, just look at how Soul Hackers 2 (despite being one of Atlus’s weaker titles in the modern era) manages to incorporate a fully talkative protagonist in the form of Ringo, with a personality of being lively and fun; it just proves my point about how superficial the muted protagonists feel in comparison to the Persona franchise.

Can We Please Retire The Voiceless Personality?

Despite being a huge fan of the series, my major complaint about the whole series has always been how our protagonist doesn’t talk. Technically, they do, but they NEVER talk in any of the main story scenarios unless you’re summoning the countless types of Personas during battles.

The whole idea of the side characters/social links doing all the talking while you occasionally nod or a dialogue bubble comes out of your MC’s mouth seriously needs to be changed. It seems incredibly unrealistic to me at this point with the three trilogy titles, making Persona 6 the perfect title to finally change things up.

Atlus had so many amazing voice actors bring life to the protagonists of the Persona games, like Johnny Yong Bosch with Yu Narukami or Xander Mobus with Ren Amamiya/Joker. Still, unless you watch the Persona anime adaptations in the dub version, you hardly ever hear them do normal dialogue with your party members, especially when the situation demands it.

Times Where The Silence Felt Valid And Justified

On the bright side, the silent attitude has also been valid in some cases, especially for Persona 3: Reload, as its protagonist, Makoto Yuki, is a character void of any feelings but slowly, throughout his journey, finds answers in his life from the friends and bonds he creates. That’s the only time I feel a voiceless protagonist truly works, and it’s a reason why I think he’s the best protagonist of the trilogy titles.

Atlus needs to add more layers to the protagonists instead of making them feel one-dimensional all the time. Moreover, at least allow them to feel more impactful instead of acting as an exposition catalyst.

I know silent protagonists tend to work greatly in other JRPGs, but Persona isn’t one of them—not anymore, at least. I just want this trend to stop here. I know the new ‘Metaphor: Refantazio’ from Atlus is doing just that, but my only wish is that, hopefully, they lean into this idea with Persona 6, too.