Burn My Dread is a brilliant theme

So if you couldn’t tell, I really like Persona 3. A lot. And while there is so much I still want to say, so badly, I wanna pull back, and start at the very beginning. Specifically, the first thing you’ll hear upon booting the game up. Burn My Dread is a brilliant opening theme, and I want to go through the entire thing. Song here so you can listen along:

The song opens with the the twang of some guitar chords, with the shake of a hi hat in the background. This is a super effective way to open it, as it gives off an ominous vibe while also setting up a nice tempo and beat for the entire song to follow. Adding in a drum kick halfway through this segment (0:10) is a nice way to slowly ramp things up without it being sudden or jarring.

As the lyrics start up, we get pauses after the first two phrases in music and vocals. This is a nice way to keep the song varied by taking away, not adding, as it’s a noticeable shift when the pauses stop afterwards. It’s also another example of nice, smooth build up, as it feels like the song is being “filled in” more so than stuff is just being added. It’s also notable that the abrupt pausing is still present in the vocals, so you get a nice ebb and flow while not breaking the pacing of the entire song.

Partway in (0:38) we get a shaker sound effect in the background, replacing the hi hat from before with something more distinct and that blends together more. We also get some synths in the background filling out the song once again, lending it some more variety and more importantly, the last bit of musical buildup. The vocals and what’s being said are left to raise it up before the climax of the song. That’s one of the best parts of this entire thing, how well it flows. When something musical is added it flows in very naturally and is never jarring and it knows that lyrics can build something up just as well.

The snare drum beats several times, and the song is name dropped right after as all that buildup is released at once (0:58). The drums aren’t a soft backing beat anymore, and instead are being played as loud and piercingly as possible. Crash cymbals (the loudest cymbals you can use) are now in full use alongside this. The vocals are practically being shouted now, and the lyrics have shifted to a more desperate tone and subject matter, compared to the more descriptive words from before.

The song then takes it down a notch for the final verse, while still keeping that intense feeling in the lyrics and instruments. Rather than have the song slow down at all for the ending, it eventually just suddenly cuts to one guitar chord, and lets that fade out, leaving a very strong final impression of the lyrical and musical intensity on you.

One final note: the lyrics are very evocative, and don’t even try to be subtle at all, which I like. It lets the song be super impactful and meaningful to everyone on even their first listen to it. In the first part, they’re quite literal, describing what happens in the game and the setting. See “dreamless dorm”, “windless night”, “nightly dance of bleeding swords”, etc. It lends it a ghostly and otherworldly feel, especially with how cut apart they are, and once you know how literal it really is, that feeling is only intensified. Finally, the last part of the song wails about the general themes of the game. This is one of those “it gets meaningful once you’ve played the game” things, but it’s carried so confidently that even before that you get chills just listening to it. They know what they wanted to do and executed on it with no reservations.

Burn My Dread is undoubtedly one of the greatest themes I have ever heard. It weaves it’s music perfectly. The vocals are on point in tone, context, and timing. And most importantly, it will stick in your head for how unique and confident it is. Shoji Meguro, man.

Persona in the information age

I am so glad to see a game that tackles the information age in such a head on way. Besides Persona 5, the only game in recent memory that uses this a lot is Watch Dogs 2, and even then that’s mainly just a way to call your experience points a “follower count”.

Spoiler warning

Persona 5 doesn’t do much with it to influence the gameplay, but when I realized it was gonna impact the story, I almost squealed. A very long RPG is the perfect medium to see how information spreads day by day, and how public opinion changes. And to see how your actions influence what the public is saying, and how your group reacts to that, is simply one of the best parts of the game’s story.

It is absolutely drenched in public opinion. You walk down the street and you hear public chatter about whatever news is on their minds. Gossip and rumors abound when you’re in school. Sometimes at the end or start of the day the game will cut to more public whispers. And finally, you’ve always got the Phantom Thieves popularity bar down in the right corner, with messages from users on their opinion of you.

Before I go any further, this is excellent worldbuilding by itself! I honestly wouldn’t care if this was all there was. It makes the world feel alive and breathing, it tells you what others think, it gives even a basic walk down the street to buy some medicine a worldbuilding experience. Simply going about your day is how the game builds character for the city, and it’s brilliant. There’s no need for exposition on the world when you get it every few seconds naturally.

However, there’s more to it than that. Besides just being good worldbuilding, it’s also integrated into the story quite well. The slow climb at the start making your fights seem important yet unknown. Your skyrocketing popularity that almost proves to be your group’s undoing. We see a fantastic showing of how public opinions swings almost overnight after you’re framed for murder.

People react realistically to it too. It ends up being a great source of character development and understanding. Ryuji, for example, lets a lot of it go to his head. He wants to be a source of hope for people, and have their exploits be shown and appreciated by all. But through that, he understands that this sort of world is very volatile, and public opinion swings like mad.

This is all, well, very realistic? It’s one of the main reasons why Persona 5 is so grounded, because we live that world of information every day. It’s refreshing to see a game not strictly about communication tackle it so head on, because this is a part of life nowadays that affects everything. It leads to one of the most realized worlds I’ve experienced in a game, and I really do hope that it leads to more games set in a more modern world. It’s a brilliant tool for storytelling.

Persona 3 and death

Persona 3 is really damn mature, for a game about a bunch of high schoolers. The entire game is bathed in this serious tone that slowly reveals itself as you peel away the happy-go-lucky cover the first part of the game shows. It's a slow burn, right until the game punches you in the gut and rips the entire facade apart.

Let's talk about death and Persona 3.

SPOILERS BELOW

So death is a really really hard thing to do in media. I don't care if you're writing a book, a movie, a T.V. show, whatever, I will not blame the writers behind it if they mess up a death scene and aftermath. It's reallllly hard to balance story pacing and realistic and appropriate reactions to death. Death in real life is complicated, messy, follows absolutely no script, and hits often randomly. And the way people react to and deal with death is often at odds with good story writing practices. How are you supposed to translate something so random into the neat, tight pacing of a good story?

I'm not here to diss other writers, however. I just wanna focus on what Persona 3 does right. It's already got a fantastic idea for a plot, but what really propels the game story forwards is how it does death. There are 3 major deaths that get explored: Shinjiro, Mitsuru's father, and Chidori. They each fundamentally alter the plot and the characters in them, and more importantly, they make an impact on the player as well.

A lot of that comes down to how unexpected they are. The game format is perfectly suited to this, and the writers took full advantage of it. Daily life in Persona is predictable for the first few months. Wake up, go to school, hang out with friends, Tartarus. You fall into a routine, only broken up by full moon operations and the occasional event. It's comfortable, working as a team and being a student.

So it makes it all the more shocking when things suddenly take a turn for the tragic on October 4th. When Ken and Shinji are missing for the operation, you know something's up.And that something ends with Shinj dead. It's a shocking swerve for the plot, and it hits suddenly and hard. Every single event and operation has ended in success thus far, and to suddenly take a hit this hard is really stunning.

The same can be said of the other deaths. Mitsuru's father's death comes on the day you celebrate your supposed victory. All of a sudden, you've been betrayed by Ikutski, and he and Mitsuru's father lie dead. As for chidori, her death suddenly comes between full moons. Most major events have either been well telegraphed or come around a full moon, so to suddenly have a major death partway through the month is throwing a curveball.

The most interesting part about Persona 3 and death, however, is that the deaths are not the focus. Surprisingly, the game sees fit to examine how death impacts the characters, and not the world around them. Shinji's a thug. Chidori's an unknown person with no home. Mitsuru's father's impact is only felt in far off business areas. So we're left to examine how the characters understand, see, react to, and deal with the deaths of people they know and care about.

Each reaction is real and varied. Ken blames himself, and feels like with Shinji gone, he doesn't have anything left to live for. In many ways, Ken is actually responsible for the death, and from that he tries to take full responsibility, eating him up inside. Hell, in the immediate aftermath, everyone worries about Ken committing suicide, because it has become quite clear by this point that all that was motivating him in life was his mother's killer.

By the same token, Mitsuru is shaken up completely and utterly by her father's death. His death is so much more than the loss of a loved one to her. It's symbolic of her mission the past few months being a lie. It tears a hole in her plans for the future and rips away her clear goals and motivations.

And poor, poor Junpei. His entire life he'd been searching for a concrete thing to do, something to wholly enjoy and be good at. Forming a relationship with Chidori gave him a spark and brought some light to his doubts.And when she is torn away from him, he is completely and utterly crushed. This is a loss hitting so hard that Junpei almost shuts down and just hides in his room.

And there's something to how each character moves past or comes to terms with deaths. Sometimes, it's a gut wrenching process that a character doesn't even fully recover from. Junpei is broken in a big way after Chidori, and while ultimately he does pull through, his personality has become more determined, more angry, and less happy. Mitsuru becomes resolute and focused. Ken perhaps doesn't change, but uses Shinji's death and the circumstances around it to find a new purpose in life.

Notably, we also get to see how death can simply strengthen. I haven't mentioned Akihiko much, and that's because Shinji's death strengthens his resolve that was already there. He's sad, yes, you can visibly hear anguish in his voice the day after. But he knows what he needs to do, and one day of crying is all he truly needs to come to terms with it.

This is all a lot of varied stuff, and that is absolutely what makes Persona 3 fantastic at dealing with death. Everyone reacts in and understandable and realistic way. Some people never move past it. Some people move past it right away. Everyone mourns differently. Mitsuru throws herself into work. Junpei locks himself away. Ken seeks isolation and contemplation. It's not enough for the game to just say "oh they're sad" and try to carry the shock value of a death. There are real character repercussions to each and every death in this game.

Because in the end, that's what Persona 3 is about. Loss. The sadness of loss, how we deal with loss, and perhaps what we gain from it. It gives real weight to what death means. And in doing so, in pushing past the idea of death simply being sad, it gives shape to a beautifully written series of tragic events. Persona 3 does death right.