20 years ago, Persona 3’s social stats changed how we think about video game characters

In 2006, Atlus released Persona 3 for the PlayStation 2 in Japan. While following the premise of the first two games and pushing the series’ visual style further, the third entry in the series introduced the now-familiar calendar system and plenty of new ideas. Now, 20 years after its release, it’s clear to see that Persona 3 paved the way for what has become one of the most successful JRPG series in recent years. It established a formula that would be replicated and improved upon by Atlus and other studios. But on top of all that, Persona 3 also expanded the JRPG language used to represent characters.