Persona 2: Innocent Sin,the second of theShin Megami Tenseisub-franchise, released back in 1999 exclusively in Japan. It wouldn’t release for Europe and North America until 2011 on the PlayStation Portable, but its sequelEternal Punishmentreleased in both Japan and North America, strangely. What’s also interesting is that it was arguably more progressive than more recent games in thePersonafranchise, especially considering Japan’s complex take on certain societal issues.
It’s clear that the series has changed quite a bit since its beginnings with every single installment.Persona 5implemented many quality of life improvements thatPersona 4needed, andPersona 4was a big change of pace fromPersona 3’s dark and angsty undertones. But perhaps not all of these changes have been positive. WithPersona 6in development, it’s important that Atlus changes one thing fans have been hoping to see for years, something that was present inPersona 2but has been missing from every succeeding installment: queer relationships.
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Queer Portrayal in the Persona Series and Japanese Franchises
Japan has a complicated history pertaining to same-sex marriage and how society treats it, and this is emblematic through gaming. For example, theHarvest Moonseries didn’t allow for players to romance villagers of the same gender untilHarvest Moon DS Cute, and this was only in the Japanese version; it was censored out of localized copies, and the series, now known asStory of Seasons, wouldn’t bring back this feature untilFriends of Mineral Town, but only in the English versions, not in Japan.
Similarly, another Marvelous IP known asRune Factoryis finally adding same-sex marriage, but only once it was localized. Looking at a long list of Japan’s hottest RPGs,TalesandFire Emblemare some of the few to include queer romance at some point in time, and they’re typically lacking pretty heavily.
Personashares a similar history to these other Japanese franchises. At some point in development,Persona 4originally planned to have a gay relationshipbetween the player character and Yosuke, who had an unused voiced line featuring a love confession hidden within the game files. Luckily, PC mods finally make this romance possible, but queer romance was a highly requested feature that was left out ofPersona 5as well. Many fans wished that Joker could’ve romanced Yusuke or Ryuji in addition to the lovely ladies, and his relationship with Akechi inPersona 5Royalarguably has some tender undertones.
That being said, another Atlus IP known asCatherine: Full Bodydoes depict queer romance. Of the three ladies available (in this extended version, not the original release), Rin is often mistaken for a woman for his dress, pink hair, and soft voice. In order to fit into society better, they pretend to be a woman and hopes that Vincent will still accept their feelings. While it might seem progressive on the surface,Catherine: Full Bodystill has some unfortunate gendered tropes and transphobic comments.
Strangely, queer romanceappeared inPersona 2, which featured two protagonists, one male and one female, as a duology. Though its relationships may not be as fully fleshed as more recentPersonatitles, they still existed in some capacity. Playing as Tatsuya Suou, fans could choose between Lisa, Maya, Jun, with the latter being a man. If players answer “Eikichi” when prompted, it’s not taken seriously unlike when replying with “Jun.” And there are other lines in the game to imply that Tatsuya is bisexual as well, such as saying that “all the male students are handsome” alongside a similar statement about the women: “All the female students are gorgeous.”
Aside from the relationship availability itself,Persona 2has been said to depict gay people more realistically thanPersona 5, where they were shown as flamboyant, possibly pedophilic caricatures. Stereotypes are one of many things the queer community is constantly running from, so seeing a couple of adult dudes hitting on Joker andRyuji inPersona 5was exhausting.Persona 2handled the subject with more care, by not painting Jun’s sexuality in a bad light or making it the butt of a bad joke.
WithPersona 6currently in development, players are expecting the series to finally take the leap into queer relationships. As unpopular opinion as it may be, some are also hoping to seePersona 6’s protagonist be femaleinstead of another teen boy. In regards to stereotypes and forward-thinking,Persona 2is a great example to take notes from.
