Persona 4's Issues with Queerness

Alright. I think it’s time I finally did something on this. These sorts of issues have been near and dear to my heart ever since I figured out more of who I am, and I would be remiss to never bring these issues up. That is to say, I care a great bit about queer issues in media, and it’s why I really do mean it when I say: Persona 4 handles LGBT+ issues in a bad, phobic way. I want to talk about why.

Persona has never been a series that’s historically very good with queer representation. The games I have the most experience with, Persona 3 and 5, basically don’t have any LGBT+ representation. Persona 3 has one off colour joke and one sort of maybe implied relationship, and Persona 5 has one horribly offensive gay couple and one maybe trans woman. So, generally, the Persona series has been pretty, how shall I say, overt, with its issues in these categories. Refusal to acknowledge our existence and bad jokes at our expense is par for the course, and sadly expected.

Persona 4 is a bit different. Ostensibly, Persona 4 has LGBT+ representation, and main party members at that! Kanji’s entire dungeon is basically shouting at you “HE’S GAY”, and Naoto presents as a man and is implied to be transgender at many points. So, uh, yeah, actual, positive representation? Yay?

...Everything I just said is a lie. Kanji is not gay, Naoto is not trans, and Persona 4 is not LGBT+ friendly. At all. Persona 4’s phobic tendencies are more insidious and not obvious on the surface at all, and what seems like positive representation gives way to tone deaf writing and very uncomfortable implications and statements.

So, to start, let’s talk about what Kanji and Naoto’s character arcs actually are. Kanji and Naoto are actually stories about societal roles, and the struggle to fit in and carve out a sense of self and place where others will accept you. Kanji struggles with his need to be a “real man” and be tough, at odds with his love of socially feminine activities like handicraft. Naoto wishes to be a great detective, but feels she cannot be taken seriously as a woman in such a position, and so presents as male to achieve her goals. Both of these characters go through understanding who they want to be, how they limited and misunderstood themselves, and how adhering to these societal expectations will only make them miserable.

Alright. Let’s look at Kanji. A large part of this disconnect between his idea of a “real man” and his interests manifests in insecurity in his sexuality. It’s pretty clear from his dungeon alone, it being a bathhouse, with his shadow being every stereotype of a gay man imaginable.

But, the thing is, he’s not… really… gay. For much of the story, Kanji has a crush on Naoto, who is, mostly, presenting male. But he still holds attraction to her after that is dropped, which, while you could maybe interpret to mean he is bisexual, absolutely reeks of the writers trying to rewrite him as straight, and trying to cast all that implication of him being gay under the rug. Kanji’s sexuality is a tool for the writers. Not a serious idea to explore, not a central character theme, his sexuality is a means to make him confused, and that is all. The fact that the game ever refuses to say the word “gay” is pretty telling. Persona 4 does not actually care about gay issues one bit. Persona 4 cares about making Kanji weird, confused, and othered.

There’s a lot of issues with this idea of just using being gay as a way to be confused. It calls up the ugly phrase many folks have heard from people: “Oh, you’re just confused”. It casts exploring one’s sexuality as an ugly, odd thing that you should ideally never do. Kanji gets more integrated into the group as he “grows out” of this phase thing, which is just, well. I hope I don’t have to explain why that’s a bit of an issue.

There’s the other half of this issue, which is that this is a dirty, dirty tease, and to just say “no he’s not actually gay” is honestly kind of insulting. The writers couldn’t have been blind, c’mon. This is a tease, whether they intend it or not, and to walk back on this is deeply troubling. And in the spirit of “a tease”... Naoto.

Naoto’s whole shtick is that she feels forced into presenting male due to what she wants to do in life. Which would be fine, except, pardon my language, holy shit, what a dirty tease this is. You have gotta know what you’re implying when you write lines about “body modification surgery”, seriously. Everything about her pretty much implies she’s being written as transgender than then, just… no. It’s this ridiculous thing that’s honestly pretty insulting.

To get to the overall point, all this leads up to one central idea: in Persona 4, being LGBT+ makes you the “other”. It makes you the weird social outcast, it makes you unstable inside, it makes you unaccepted. Characters find themselves in this game, but finding yourself means shedding that stuff, because that’s “weird” and “confusing”. Queerness is built up as this plot point, and a negative plot point at that.

Oh, Kanji’s not gay, he just likes feminine activities.

Oh, Naoto isn’t trans, she just looks up to male role models.

I’m sure you’ve probably heard those arguments before if you’re queer, or even if you’re not, you almost certainly know of them. They’re these destabilizing attacks on one’s identity, constantly doubting them. And this is basically exactly what Persona 4 says. To the game, you can have a story about defying society's expectations and being yourself, but for god’s sake, don’t put a gay person in there. That’d be weird.

I hope we can do better than this.

The Drums of Persona Shopping

This is going to be the most ridiculously specific thing I have ever written about.

I write way too much about Persona already. If you couldn’t tell, I do have a certain fondness for the series. A lot of what I love is the small stuff, where you can clearly tell effort and care was placed into even the tiniest of things. So, in the spirit of that, I’m gonna talk about the drum track to one song in Persona 5, specifically, Butterfly Kiss.

So, some background quick; if you haven’t played Persona 5 (how dare you), this is the song that plays when you visit Tae Takemi, the resident doctor and medicine shop of the game. It’s background music for your shopping, basically. So keep that idea of what it’s meant for in mind, and let’s dive right in…

...Into some drum terminology! Hehe. I promise, this’ll be quick and painless.

Hi Hat: The cymbal you see drummers tapping on all the time. I’ll be talking about two kinds of hits here, taps and crashes. Taps are quick and quiet, crashes are longer and louder.

Snare: You know that sharp snap of a drum beat you hear during songs? That’s the snare. You’ll pick up on it quick.

Beats: Count “1 2 3 4” over and over to yourself to the beat of the song. Congrats, you now have the skeleton of how drum beats are counted.

And that’s about it! Here’s the song, and let’s get going:

So, to establish the beat of the song that lasts until about 40 seconds in, let’s get our bearings. This beat can be quite chaotic at first, so to steady yourself, focus on the loud snare hit every few seconds. That snare hits on the “4” of the “1 2 3 4” beat mentioned above. To make it simpler: the beat loops after every snare hit. Now, in that timeframe is where we’re gonna focus.

The progression of beats (this isn’t tied to the 1 2 3 4, just fits in the time from 1-4) overall goes:

Crash - Tap Tap Tap - Crash - Snare - Crash - Tap Tap Tap - Crash - Snare

This beat almost breaths as it goes. It goes from the quiet taps, to the louder crash, to the loud BANG on the snare, then back to the crash, then the taps, and on and on it goes. It’s got this up and down rhythm to it that makes the song feel like it’s never standing still, even at the lowest, most calm moments. It’s really good beat variance, and most importantly, it never feels like it’s jumping around or being sudden, as a more casual, shopping theme should. It’s just good work all around.

Of course, the song can’t stay like this forever, and when shifting to the next bit (0:40), we’re going into steady triplets on the hi-hat. You’ll hear the snare every 6 taps, and 2 hits on the bass drum in between. Basically, the point of this part is meant to be a climax to the song of sorts, going smooth, steady, and high intensity, while keeping it not overwhelming by never throwing in any odd, off beat hits.

As the song comes off this height, it doesn’t quite go back into the beat from before right away. A variation of the earlier beat plays right after the high point (1:10). This version has the hi hat constantly going in the background at a much louder volume. As well, the snare hits much earlier and much more suddenly in this section compared to the first one. This is a sort of cool down period, taking a half step from the more intense part so it doesn’t jump up and down, keeping the smooth feeling of the song going.

And that’s basically all the differences in the drum beat throughout the song! These beats aim to create interesting, constantly changing beats while also trying to keep it from jumping around. To achieve this, the song keeps the individual, low energy beats breathing up and down smoothly, while relying on the high energy segments to carry it by themselves. In between these beats, it takes careful pains to make the transitions as smooth as possible. It’s a beat and song that never feels like it’s standing still, always feeling like it’s moving in a unique and interesting way. It’s just another feather in Persona 5’s impressive musical cap.

Blooming Villain: A Top Tier Boss Theme

I am a complete and utter drum nerd. I love drums. I listen to the drum track of songs far, FAR too much. And because of that, I was kinda flipping out when I heard Persona 5’s boss theme, Blooming Villain, which is a heavily drum based track. There’s plenty of other cool parts to this song, but the drums are what carry it through and make the song so heavy and so gosh dang good. 

We begin with 4 heavy thuds on the drum, going immediately into hi-hat hits at the same pace. This pattern is what makes up the first 25 seconds or so of the song, and it sets the stage for what is really a song driven by the drums. Every time the drums beat, they overtake the melody in the background, which is actually fairly unusual for a standard beat. The cymbals clicking away keep the beat constantly going, and to make sure when the drums do hit it’s a lot more impactful.

The other half of this opening segment is the deep, almost ghastly wail going on. While it provides some nice instrumentation, i guess, the real value in this comes from the tone it sets. It comes across as dark and deeply menacing, while also building things up, like you’re gearing up to fight some evil force. Very appropriate for a boss theme.

Ok, so for the song proper, the drums get kind of complex but also super interesting so we’re gonna have to break it down a little bit. To start, you can tell that the hi hat is now being slammed down upon on every quarter note (starts at 0:25). After 2 loops, the main quarter note beat then swaps from a hi hat to the ride cymbal (at 0:38), making the beat ring rather than crash. The ride cymbal is moreso used for continuing beats, so it’s smart to switch to this halfway through the verse to give the song more of a steady feel and lay back on the intensity for a bit. Another thing you’ll notice is that the snare drum is hitting all over the place, but typically in between the main 4 “beats”, adding some chaos to the song.

The next 20 or so seconds (starting at 0:50) are purely a bass riff with hi hat hits going at the same time. The most interesting bit here is the snare hits: again, they’re off the main 4 beats, but when you combine that with how normally understated this segment is, it catches you off guard and makes a much bigger impact than the offbeat hits earlier. Besides that, this lull in the song really adds weight to the next bit. Most of the song is running at high intensity, so in order to make the “climax” of sorts in the song sound more impactful, they added a very low key segment before it to build it up by being quiet, ironically enough.

When transitioning to the final part, a quick pause with 2 guitar chords kicks it off, which is fitting for the only part of the song where the drums take a backseat (being in the background with your standard rock beat). I don’t honestly have much to say on this part, just that it’s an excellent release of tension and really explodes into the grand feel these boss fights give.

And that’s Blooming Villain, surprisingly only a minute and a half long before it loops. The rest of the song has some minor differences, but overall I’ve covered the meat of the song here. It’s rather impressive how a 90 second loop can sustain up to 20 minute encounters, but that’s the beauty of variance and pacing a song properly. Truly one of Persona 5’s best tracks.

Mass Destruction: the best battle theme

I really liked that analysis I did on Persona 3’s theme, so I figured it would be just as fun to jump into Persona 3’s well known battle theme, Mass Destruction! 

BabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBaby

...Ok, but in all seriousness, this is a great way to start the battle. It’s like they took the typical *whoosh* sound effect you have in classic RPG’s (and this game too) when transitioning to battle and integrated it right into the music. It’s a jarring shift right before it lands into the groove of the song, and settles perfectly into the gameplay.

We then get a quick instrumental piece before going into the song, with the usual spoken lyrics that often comes with the rap genres. What I really wanna talk about here is the drum beat, real quick. It stays mostly constant throughout the song, and established here is a really quirky and unique beat on the kick drum. Beatbeat. Snare. Beat beatbeat snare. If I’m confusing you, just listen for the beat in the song, you’ll catch it really quick. This is not a typical way to use the drums at all, and really serves as a distinct and memorable way to lay the groundwork for a song full of quick sounds and sudden stops.

Most of the next part of the song is rapping, and the lyrics are more meant to serve a beat than convey a specific message. I’m gonna highlight specific lyrics and parts of the song that are interesting musically or thematically, rather than combing through the entire thing. 

Spoilers in the next paragraph only

One of the more interesting lyrics is “the enemy you're fighting covers all society” (0:22), which quite straightforwardly references the all encompassing terror and threat that Nyx is. Also probably a call forward to The Answer in FES, where it’s revealed that all of society unconsciously wishes for death in some way. It’s a lyric that’s super easy to miss and won’t make sense until you know the full story, but I like it quite a bit.

Soon after, there are 2 quick interjections in the lyrics from a backup singer (0:22):

The enemy you're fighting covers all society

(Damn right)

Mom's not here, gotta fight

(All night)

Really they’re just there to prevent the song from devolving into an endless stream of words and make it more interesting, but damn if it’s not really cool and fun regardless.

Much of the rest of the rapping bit is just some cool sounding words and a nice flow. You’ve got another interjection (0:33):

Freaked out now, and dead on arrival

(What?)

Some lyrics make nice reference to more themes in the game, like “right here, Shadow 10 o'clock direction”, evoking the common clock thematics this game employs. There’s not much more to say about this segment regardless, besides that it’s just a dang good time to listen to in general.

So, the transition to the next part is pretty cool too. The final lyrics Lotus Juice provides for the song are (0:47):

You're the only one, one world, one love

But the battle goes on, Shadows of Mass Destruction

Repetitive use of the word “one” forms  nice flow in your head already, backed up by how this line has no pauses in it, makes it slide through nicely. Finally, there’s a noticeable pause before “destruction”, giving weight to the explosion of sound that’s about to come right after.

With a crash, the song moves into the next part with a very emphasized “Oh yeah!”. The aim of this song, after all, is to provide the player with some great backing music for battles, and energetic jumps like this make is engaging and groovy.

This part of the song is really meant to be high energy, more than anything else. “Da da dada, da da dada” aren’t like, actual words at all, but there’s a lot of energy put into it, as they clearly wanted this part of the song to be that more than any lyrical mastery. The occasional “baby baby” breaks it up and makes sure this part of the song isn’t monotonous either.

And as one final note, the backing music takes a turn for more energy here too. Trumpets are added to the song for the phrases right after the transition. It moves into some twang-y synths afterwards to keep the energy sustained and not boring. And finally, if you listen, you’ll notice the snare drum is louder in this part compared to the earlier rapping part.

And that’s Mass Destruction! An excellent battle theme that feels like it was built to be a battle theme in every aspect. No getting bogged down in thematics, no trying to overcomplicate things, just a few shoutouts to the story thrown in and a killer beat make this a battle theme that you’ll never truly get tired of. Oh yeah, indeed.

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.

Persona and Sound

The music of Persona 3 and 5 is super, super interesting. They’ve both got different styles and all that, obviously, but the intent and how each soundtrack works with the game is quite different.

(Also i won’t be looking at 4 because it’s somewhere in the middle and I want to look at a clear dichotomy. Sorry 4, your ost was killer though)

Basically, 3’s soundtrack is informed by the tone and themes, and 5’s soundtrack informs the tone and themes. That sound kinda pretentious? Well, yeah, but it’s actually a pretty important distinction. 3’s soundtrack carries the themes and tone of the game. Every song on the ost feels like it was written in close consultation with the writers, and it really shows. Whereas in 5, it almost feels like the entire soundtrack was composed first, and the writers wrote a story from that basepoint.

This is probably very confusing so let’s compare the main themes, Burn My Dread, and Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There. They’re both very very good songs, and accomplish very different things.

Let’s start with Persona 3. Burn My Dread is a song about the themes of the game, and as a piece of music is very much in service to them. It doesn’t vaguely establish a tone, it directly and pointedly sets up what the themes are, the activities and locations you go through every day. "Dreamless dorm". "Windless night". "I still live". Those lyrics are to the point and powerful, and given great prominence and space between them. Of course, in doing so it does give up some song flow, and overall I’d say is a weaker song than P5’s theme, however it makes up for it in being a song that tells a story, and it’s themes.

Persona 5 goes for a more conventional song, with a much different effect. It vaguely sets up a tone, and a vibe that’ll last throughout the game. While that sounds not as strong as 3’s, it’s a really damn strong tone setter. The story of P5 is very grounded (well, for persona) and has a lot of conflicting themes that all work in story, but they alone cannot establish a tone. That’s where songs like this theme come in, tying together all the elements with a sound that brings it all together. Listen to it, then listen to 3’s theme. You’ll almost certainly come away with a better idea of what 5 is like than what 3 is like. It’s smartly made, and while the songs aren’t as evocative as 3, they serve just as important a role and are excellently done.

I really don’t wanna get into which one is better, because that would be a, uh, bloodbath. I have my preferences (read: i prefer 3) but on the whole it’s super interesting to see how each game uses sound to reinforce, inform, and establish story and themes in the game, and they both do a top notch job of it.