Persona fans have been feasting over the last couple of years. With multiple Persona 5 spin-offs, ports of beloved entries like Persona 4 Golden, and now a brand-new remake of Persona 3, Atlus’ offshoot of the Shin Megami Tensei series has become a real juggernaut in the Japanese role-playing game space. But if the games aren’t enough Persona for you, there’s always manga! Official manga series set in the various Persona games pair fantastic art with digestible stories following the characters fans love.
Each Persona game has its own distinct cast and stories, and these tales are generally not suited for kids. While they are stylish, they’re also packed with dark stories centered the human psyche. But there is a silver lining to this mature subject matter, as Persona storylines also examine personal relationships, psychology, and how the characters discover their true selves through their personal journey.
The manga follows the same general storylines as the games they are adapted from. That’s something to consider if you’re planning on playing Person 3 Reload soon. But it’s always interesting to experience our favorite stories across different mediums, and since the manga focuses on the original Persona 3, there will certainly be differences.
Persona manga: Quick look
If you haven’t played the Persona games and are interested in checking out the manga first, just know that these stories tend to go in surprising and typically weird directions. Persona 3, for example, follows several students as their school transforms into a hostile tower called Tartarus every night during the Dark Hour. Full of danger, these students have to summon their Personas and fight back against the threats if they want to see the light of day.
Persona 4 is an even darker tale, as this series follows transfer student Souji Seta and his new friends as they investigate a string of mysterious murders and find themselves pulled into a twisted dimension. Persona 5, the best-known game in the series, is focused on the Phantom Thieves and their nightly exploits as they save people from the twisted desires of those around them.
What’s also great about these series is that they’re all printed in a standard size, so you can easily assemble a uniform collection of books to read through. Just in case you don’t feel like committing several dozen hours to each game. We’ve rounded up all of the Persona manga you can buy on Amazon below, including two different Persona 5 series, three Persona 4 series, a Persona Q series, and, of course, an 11-volume run covering Persona 3. Each volume typically costs $10-$14 in paperback, and you can save a few bucks by opting for the Kindle ebook version.