Persona producer explains why most of the protagonists are male students

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Summary

  • The male protagonists of the Persona series reflect the theme of growth in coming-of-age stories: the high school years symbolize the transition to adult life.
  • Producer Kazuhisa Wada explains that the male protagonists of Persona games reflect the perceived higher mental age and maturity of female students.
  • Fans suggest that the next Persona game could include older protagonists as the series evolves with the player base; potential for college-age characters.



Over the years the Person is out there, some fans have been wondering why most of the games' protagonists are male students, and the producer has now offered an answer to that. This trend continued in Personthe most recent entry, Person 5which took the world by storm upon release.

Person was a much-loved RPG series, derived from the original Megami Tensei games. Since both series continued side by side, Person it has almost always had a male protagonist, with the only exceptions Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, Persona 3 portableAND Person 3the epilogue. However, also inside Persona 3 portablethe female protagonist is technically non-canon to the series, meaning the only non-male, non-student protagonists are from Person 2: Eternal Punishment AND Person 3the epilogue.


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Now, the manufacturer of the Person Kazuhisa Wada explained why this tends to be the case. Speaking at the CEDEC+KYUSHU 2024 conference, Wada said that Person the games are designed to be coming-of-age stories, with the theme of growth. As such, choose high school students as the majority Person protagonists and party members just makes sense, given that the middle and high school years tend to be when people start to get a taste of adult life.


What about the gender of the protagonist characters?

As for the gender of the protagonists, Wada said that this mainly depends on the perceived differences in the mental maturity of girls and boys. Wada noted that female high school students tend to have a “higher mental age” or be more mature than their male counterparts. As such, males have more room to grow and evolve, making them a better choice for the protagonist in this context. Having said that, Wada underlines that it is not excluded that the protagonists of the games are women or non-students.


At the moment it remains to be seen whether Person 6 will upset this common mold of the series. Many players have asked for an older one Person protagonist, perhaps because the fandom that has followed the series since the beginning has aged. According to Wada's reasoning, even adults still have room to grow and mature throughout their lives. A college or post-college-aged protagonist, for example, could be an interesting version.

Unfortunately, though Person 5 is now eight years old, no real revelations have been made regarding the franchise's sixth main installment. However, Atlus has kept fans busy with the fifth installment by introducing them Persona 5 Realan expansion of the story of the original game, Person 5: Dancing by starlight, Persona 5 Attackers, Persona Tactics 5and also to Person 5 mobile game.

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