Ever since Persona 2 the main characters' starting personae have all been from a single ancient mythos. In P2 it was Greek/Roman (Apollo, Maia, Artemis, etc.), P3 was Greek again (Orpheus, Hermes, etc.), and P4 was ancient Japanese folklore (Izanagi, Amaterasu, etc.).

What ancient mythology do you think the P5 protagonists' personae will be from?

There seems to be a "journey to the underworld" pattern with the MC's persona. Both Orpheus and Izanagi went to the underworld to try and rescue their wives.

Egyptian could be cool, although pretty sure there's an Anubis somewhere in there already.

@wolf_blitzer85 said:

Egyptian could be cool.

Japanese high school students playing mystical card games with Egyptian deities involved? Never been done before. (I was referring more to Yu-Gi-Oh. That was the joke.)

@wolf_blitzer85 said:

Egyptian could be cool, although pretty sure there's an Anubis somewhere in there already.

There have been plenty of persona that were in previous games that have been redone for main characters. Look at Susano-o from Persona 3 then Susano-o from Persona 4. Or Take Mikazuchi. He's just some swordsman in P3 but he's a giant skull themed robot in P4.

I'd like to see Norse personally. Maybe Aztec? They've had Aztec deities before.

Pokemon. There. Close this thread.

Lovecraftian theme would be interesting...

Egyptian

Vikings. 

@Shirogane said:

Lovecraftian theme would be interesting...

Then Nyarlathotep could come back and troll some more.

All of them combined.

@Shirogane said:

Lovecraftian theme would be interesting...

Well, Philemon, the guy who supposedly gives you the power to summon personae is from Lovecraft. And the final boss in the first game was also Lovecraftian in origin.

Aztec would be aw--
 
@Shirogane said:

Lovecraftian theme would be interesting...

Doesn't the series already draw bits and pieces from just about every mythology/pantheon? They've added new deities/mythical beasts here and there, but I feel like the SMT series has been working from the same stock list of demons/creatures for most of its existence, and I don't really expect that to change very much.

It's been said already but Aztec. They have some of the coolest most unique gods I've ever seen. I hope they don't go Greek again, so overrated, and Norse Gods are too much like regular dudes.

@Video_Game_King said:

@wolf_blitzer85 said:

Egyptian could be cool.

Japanese high school students playing mystical card games with Egyptian deities involved? Never been done before. (I was referring more to Yu-Gi-Oh. That was the joke.)

What are you talking about? Clearly Joey is from Brooklyn.

@BisonHero said:

Doesn't the series already draw bits and pieces from just about every mythology/pantheon? They've added new deities/mythical beasts here and there, but I feel like the SMT series has been working from the same stock list of demons/creatures for most of its existence, and I don't really expect that to change very much.

Yes, but that's not what this thread is about. It's about what overall mythology the main characters' personas will draw from. EG. Norse gods have appeared as Personas/demons in previous SMT games but if Atlus were to go with a Norse theme for the main characters' personas in P5 they would likely be completely different than in previous games.

How about straight up christianity. Lucider already has his Helel and Lucifer form. One can be your starting persona the other your ultimate.

@Nottle said:

How about straight up christianity. Lucider already has his Helel and Lucifer form. One can be your starting persona the other your ultimate.

Well they already have mainline SMT for that, just like they shouldn't do hinduism again because that was digital devil saga's thing.

@Hunter5024 said:

It's been said already but Aztec. They have some of the coolest most unique gods I've ever seen. I hope they don't go Greek again, so overrated, and Norse Gods are too much like regular dudes.

I know, totally right. You spend all that time talking her into it and then the reality is just messy and disgusting.

They've pretty much had everything ever so continue doing that!

My vote's for Norse, too. Besides, with the Avengers out this summer, Thor is hot again. Synergy!

Norse.

While it would never happen, I would actually like all of them to be references to videogames or something (probably really subtle ones of references to old games but maybe a couple high-level personae which are more well-known such as one called Link or something).

That or I would like them to use multiple mythologies but each type of persona had names based on one mythology (like for instance all the astronomy ones like Sun, Moon and Star groups could have all Greek Gods while others could all be Aztec or all Egyption or all Japanese or all Chinese etc... origis). I think it would make it interesting and bring some more definition to each group from a thematic perspective and possibly even create more of a differentiation between main characters as their Persona will sound very different.

I'd like to see either Norse or Hindu Personas get centre stage.

My vote is for Norse. Have the Fool Arcana be associated with a team member instead of the whole team, and make that person's base persona be Loki.

@Animasta said:

@Nottle said:

How about straight up christianity. Lucider already has his Helel and Lucifer form. One can be your starting persona the other your ultimate.

Well they already have mainline SMT for that, just like they shouldn't do hinduism again because that was digital devil saga's thing.

This makes me want to play the main SMT games so much more.

@Hunter5024 said:

@Animasta said:

@Nottle said:

How about straight up christianity. Lucider already has his Helel and Lucifer form. One can be your starting persona the other your ultimate.

Well they already have mainline SMT for that, just like they shouldn't do hinduism again because that was digital devil saga's thing.

This makes me want to play the main SMT games so much more.

Aren't the mainline games on the NES, SNES, and PS2. I should check them out.

@Adaurin: The MC has a split personality, social link with yourself!

@alternate said:

@Hunter5024 said:

It's been said already but Aztec. They have some of the coolest most unique gods I've ever seen. I hope they don't go Greek again, so overrated, and Norse Gods are too much like regular dudes.

I know, totally right. You spend all that time talking her into it and then the reality is just messy and disgusting.

Jesus Christ

@Nottle said:

@Hunter5024 said:

@Animasta said:

@Nottle said:

How about straight up christianity. Lucider already has his Helel and Lucifer form. One can be your starting persona the other your ultimate.

Well they already have mainline SMT for that, just like they shouldn't do hinduism again because that was digital devil saga's thing.

This makes me want to play the main SMT games so much more.

Aren't the mainline games on the NES, SNES, and PS2. I should check them out.

They are all over the place. I dont think it's easy to get ahold of a copy though.

@PenguinDust said:

My vote's for Norse, too. Besides, with the Avengers out this summer, Thor is hot again. Synergy!

or forgo the norse and jet put the avengers in. summing hulk or iron man to smash deamons would be fun

@Hunter5024 said:

@Nottle said:

@Hunter5024 said:

@Animasta said:

@Nottle said:

How about straight up christianity. Lucider already has his Helel and Lucifer form. One can be your starting persona the other your ultimate.

Well they already have mainline SMT for that, just like they shouldn't do hinduism again because that was digital devil saga's thing.

This makes me want to play the main SMT games so much more.

Aren't the mainline games on the NES, SNES, and PS2. I should check them out.

They are all over the place. I dont think it's easy to get ahold of a copy though.

My friend has copy of nocturne, the first 2 weren't available outside of japan right? Maybe there is a translation somewhere.

@Hunter5024: There's plenty of fan translations for the first two. If it's the whole christianity part that interests you, in SMT: Devil Survivor on the DS/3DS you and your brother are the reincarnations of Cain and Abel. You then have to take part in a demon tournament to basically decide who the next God/Satan is going to be. Then it turns out you're secretly the second coming of Jesus or something. Also the game was fun.

@dogman795: That sounds radical. Is that like a spoiler though? Well whatever, I'm still planning on picking that one up sometime too.

@Hunter5024: It's not that much of a spoiler, since you find out those first two things pretty early and there's a lot more to the story than just the tournament.

Norse. And then have Amon Amarth do the entire soundtrack.

@SlightConfuse said:

@PenguinDust said:

My vote's for Norse, too. Besides, with the Avengers out this summer, Thor is hot again. Synergy!

or forgo the norse and just put the avengers in. summing hulk or iron man to smash deamons would be fun

I don't think that could happen because of licensing and all that, but I like where you're going with this. Perhaps, instead they could use a Japanese modern mythology like Capcom or an anime/manga group such as CLAMP or Sunrise. Summon Ryu for a physical attack, Blanka for electrical, Dhalism for fire, Morrigan Aensland (Darkstalkers) for Dark attack, Sasquatch for ice, etc... The Japanese always seem to have an easier time doing crossovers with their own creations rather than Western properties with the exception of Marvel, of course. That was the Marvel of old, though so I'm not sure about the new Disney Marvel which is trying to regather all their character licenses.

Celtic, but that will never happen.

So what's between Greece and Japan? (Besides the whole world, basically?) India of course. As others have said, I think it's a pretty solid bet. The scope of Hindu myth and folklore is so huge they wouldn't necessarily have to lean on the regulars like Shiva and Vishnu, or touch anything near what was done in Digital Devil Saga.

If they want to continue with the "descent into the underworld" theme, then they still have Babylonian/Mesopotamian myth with Ishtar and Tammuz...except that was used in Catherine. In Norse myth, there was the descent to the underworld to try and reclaim Baldr from death...except that was more or less already used in Devil Survivor.

What I'm saying really is it could be anything! But I have to agree along the lines that Norse and Hindu myth are the top choices.

@Video_Game_King said:

@wolf_blitzer85 said:

Egyptian could be cool.

Japanese high school students playing mystical card games with Egyptian deities involved? Never been done before. (I was referring more to Yu-Gi-Oh. That was the joke.)

Awww... explaining it ruined it.

Persona need some lovecraft, I mean after 4 games there not a single cthulhu summon?

Norse all the way.

Kryptonian!

Aborigine or native American? They're both under used as mythological sources.

Egyptian or Norse wouldn't be so bad.

Modern.

MC should have the Batman, sidekicks have the Avengers and the main villain should probably be the Master Chief.

An other vote for Norse on my part. Hindu would also be interesing.

@Shirogane said:

Lovecraftian theme would be interesting...

Or that. Yeah, let's go with that.

I wouldn't want to see Nores as I found Thor my go to persona, and no doubt he'd be the persona of a team mate. I think Egyptian would be pretty cool as long as they don't use Isis, who is Yukaris ultimate persona.