10 of My Favourite Persona Songs
You never saw this coming…
For those who are unaware, the ‘Persona’ franchise began some 20 years ago, marketed as a spinoff from the ‘Shin Megami Tensei’ (SMT), baring the title in all of the games up until ‘Persona 4’. Despite being a spin-off franchise, ‘Persona’ has definitely become far more popular than SMT. Whether this is for better or for worse, I will let you decide…
One of the things that the Persona games are infamous for is their incredibly varied and fantastic soundtracks, composed by various members of the ATLUS Sound Team, but mostly by a man called Shoji Meguro, the Sound Team’s head. Like the various anime the games take their inspirations from, the games are filled with MANY songs, to tug and pull on the emotions of the players, becoming infectious earworms that burrow deep within the bowels of the player’s souls. And with ‘Persona 5: Royal’ around the corner (in Japan at least), we are already being blessed with new music through the many trailers.
This blog is a celebration of such much, as I will list 10 of my favourite songs from the Persona franchise. For this list, I have some rules I wish to establish.
- For this blog to be properly appreciated, one must understand the definition of a song. All songs are pieces of music, but not all pieces of music are songs. Songs are pieces of music where the melody (the bit you would hum or sing to) has to be sung, usually with lyrics. This means this list WILL NOT be containing instrumentals. Such instrumentals will have a list of their own.
- I won’t be limiting one song per instalment, because that would make this a very short blog.
- I will not be covering any arrangements found in the dancing games or arrangement albums. Those will have their own lists.
- This list will not be ranked in any shape or form.
- There will be snippets of music theory littered throughout this blog.
- At the time of typing, I have not finished playing both ‘Persona 2’ instalments, so I can’t comment on how the songs fair in those games. Similarly, I have not played the spinoffs and won’t cover them either.
- I also won’t be reviewing any songs composed for the films and animes
And with the rules in place, I am comfortable with proceeding with waffling about some of my favourite Persona songs.
1. School Days (Persona 1 (PSP Version))
It seemed a sensible idea to start off the list with the theme from the remake of the first Persona game.
The first three Persona games (1, 2.1 & 2.2) were very different in presentation and tone to the latest three (3–5) and are all interesting relics, which I would only recommend to those who call themselves die-hard Persona fans.
Whereas a lot of the soundtrack are redone/remastered versions of the PS1’s original soundtrack, ‘School Days’ (that plays at the beginning sections of the game) is found only on the PSP version. Whilst ‘Persona 1’ is very different from the more popular Persona games, this bouncy little J-Pop song has a wonderful sense of nostalgia to it, which I am putting down to the use of the Major 7ths, a sound I have always associated with sunsets (or sunrises, depending on what mode I’m in). The inclusion of a song (a love song at that may I add) like this drags Persona into the same sonic sound as later games, thus bringing it into the same world as later games. As odd as this may sound, longterm Persona players will know what I mean.
2. Tokyo Daylight (Persona 5)
The latest entry of the Persona franchise has a very brave soundtrack genre choice. Mostly consisting of Acid Jazz, this cue serves a similar purpose to that of the previous song. You wander around the game’s city, making commuting around the game map a fun experience. In the case of ‘Persona 5’, you explore the various town of the country’s capital, Tokyo, mostly Shibuya.
Like much of its soundtrack, the harmonies are bold and adventurous filled with many extended harmonies, most notably the B minor 9 chord, a favourite chord of Shoji Meguro. It is a very modern sound for a very modern audience, most of which will be late teenagers or those in their early 20s, who would naturally gravitate to such a sound. It is also quite unusual to hear scat vocals in such a setting, sung brilliantly by Lyn.
3. Want To Be Close (Persona 3/Persona 3 FES)
Much of the story to ‘Persona 3’ (and it’s extended version FES, and PSP remake) is very dark and gloomy, not shying aware from any dark and morbid subject matters. What helps to move the story along (and keep player morale at a much needed high!) is this cue.
You will hear it during the first semester at Gekkokukan High School, the protagonist's high school for the year. It is rather upbeat, but peaceful cue, thanks to those suspended harmonies, that are neither major or minor. There was a sense of exploration in this cue, which I think did a fine job at reflecting that you are the new kid on the block.
4. Heartbeat, Heartbreak (Persona 4/Persona 4 GOLDEN)
Much of this game’s soundtrack is heavily inspired by J-Pop/Rock, but that does not mean that the game’s don’t step away from their jazzy backgrounds.
This cue, like many others on this list, plays when you wander around the hub world, this one being in the fictional town of Inaba. Unlike the other wandering-around cues, this one can only be heard when accompanied by rain.
It is a rather short, consisting of one verse and chorus that loops, so the composition has to keep the listener engaged, which is why the intro/link sections establish the key of C minor before immediately shifting to F minor, the subdominant, resolving back to C minor. It is a simple trick, but a very effective one.
5. Dance! (Persona 4: Dancing All Night)
I said I wouldn’t cover the dancing game arrangements. I said nothing about the original songs!
I am both ashamed and proud to love the dancing games as much as I do, as they are very clearly attempting to milk idiots like me as much coin as humanly possible. That said, ‘Dancing All Night’ does have an enjoyable and surprisingly deep plot.
This is the theme for the game and I have very little to say about it other than it is disco with a funky and busy bassline, stabby piano, all in E minor, the go-to key for disco and house music, and I love it. Those with the trained ear will notice that a harmonic trick used in ‘Heartbeat, Heartbreak’ is used here, only with far more colour.
6. Memories of You (Persona 3/Persona 3 FES)
The latter part of the game is when the game becomes it’s most sad and downright depressing, for reasons I will avoid for spoiler reasons. What I will mention is how clever the music is at these portions of the games.
The more upbeat and jolly cues of ‘Changing Seasons’ and ‘Want To Be Close’ are replaced by ‘Memories of The City’, ‘Memories of The School’ and an arrangement that combines ‘Living with Determination’ and ‘Iwatodai Dormitory’ when you are travelling around the school, Port Island and Iwatodai Dormitory respectfully. This is all very sad and serious as they appear on 31st December, when the party has worked out <<INSERT SPOILER HERE>>. These cues connect very nicely with what happens in the story and is an incredibly powerful moment, both narratively and harmonically (most of them are in B minor, or very close to B minor (Bb or C minor)).
These three cues and a few others also hint at the ending credits song ‘Memories of You’, which is probably one of my favourite songs ever. By this point, with what had just happened in the plot, I was crying like I’d lost a family member. I was devastated. From a performance point of view, it is a blast to play live.
7. Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There (Persona 5)
Once you’ve finished wiping your eyes, we shall return to the world of Acid Jazz! Niiiiiiiiiice
We live in a world where big music companies practically force songwriters and producers to write 4-chord songs (there have been many videos on the matter), and with Persona 5 being the most accessible game in the franchise to date, this musical direction of Acid Jazz is so brave, bold and potentially stupid.
The game opens with this song, which has a clear G Dorian sound (The use of the C chord gives this away as opposed to C minor). The intro then immediately going to G major for the verse (who does that?!). I believe the chord progression here is GM7, Gm7, GM13(?) and G minor-major 7. This repeats before the brilliant use of a D half-diminished chord on the words ‘it’s useless’ which is fantastic word-painting I think. For the uninitiated, there are not standard harmonic progressions. This is the first thing you hear when booting up the game, and as a love of JRPGs and a lover of all things music, I was stunned and was really glad that the Persona fanbase loved this ‘funky jazz shit’, to quote a fan response.
8. Current Net Price Tanaka (Persona 3/Persona 3 FES & Persona 4/Persona 4 GOLDEN)
Some of the cues found in the Persona games are a little bit silly. This is one of them.
In ‘Persona 3’, one of the characters you are able to form a social link/confidant with is a Tanaka Shachou, who is presented as a successful and cunning businessman, be it with immoral practices. The player can buy items from him if they tune in to his own home shopping show, ‘Tanaka’s Amazing Commodities’, which runs every (in-game) Sunday morning. Since then, he has appeared in every Persona game, be it as a cameo character, who the player can buy things from.
This ‘song’ is essentially his theme, and it is a strange guilty pleasure of mine. It made me giggle when I first heard it, and I often wonder how pissed the sound team were when they were writing.
9. The Whims of Fate (Persona 5)
You hear this song towards the end of the game, in the game’s penultimate dungeon, which has a large, brightly-coloured rigged-casino. As it is the only dungeon in the game to have its own song, you know you’ve reached a climactic part of the story!
The main reason as to why I love this groovy D minor tune is that whilst the melody is upbeat, catchy and somewhat lighthearted, the lyrics themselves are twisted and incredibly cynical, like many of the songs found in the ‘Persona’ games. It’s lyrics fit the themes of the game’s narratives and this particular setting like a glove. My only criticism is that I wish it was a little bit longer!
10. Aria of The Soul (All Persona games)
It would be a pretty poor list if I didn’t include everyone’s favourite woman wailing into a microphone since 1996!
You may know this song by ‘Hymn of The Soul’, ‘Song of Everybody’s Souls’ or ‘The Poem of Everyone’s Souls’, but the name it usually adopts is ‘Aria of The Soul’, as it is an aria, a song for a solo voice, typically one in an opera or oratorio. This one, however, is lyricless and has a piano and strings.
As the definition implies, this song is far more Classical in its arrangement and performance. Alongside the vocals, there is always a piano and mournfully sad string section in B minor. Like many true Classical pieces, this piece ends on the major equivalent (B major), a technique known as a ‘tierce de picardie’ (or ‘picardie third’ if you are a lazy American).
The piece can only be heard when the protagonist enters ‘The Velvet Room’, a realm found within mind and matter, and dream and reality. There, the player can forge new Personas, to aid them in battle. It is very fitting that this piece has a different sound to whatever genre a Persona game soundtrack is going for, as The Velvet Room is disconnected from our own reality, as are it’s residents, Igor, Philemon and the various eccentric attendants, Elizabeth, Magret, Theodore and Lavenza.
There have been many adaptions/versions/revisions of ‘Aria of The Soul’ throughout the last 20 years, so I wish not to list them all for you in this blog. For now, I will leave you the most recent version that is used in the main entry Persona games.
Coda
If you have been listening to the various songs in this blog as you’ve been reading (or know the music well enough not to listen to them), you should begin to appreciate that the music found in the various Persona games are incredibly varied. I have barely scratched the surface!
With so many Persona game songs I wish to celebrate, I refuse to leave this list here. So, I have decided to carry on with this list in next week’s blog! If you have enjoyed this blog, come back next week for more Persona music appreciation! I also plan to explore the arrangement albums in an upcoming blog, so hover around on my Twitter page for when that hits the airwaves!
If this is your first time reading a Daniel Mayfair blog, thank you very much for reaching the end of the blog. If you wish to read more Persona related blogs to keep you busy, I will leave links to all the Persona games I have reviewed below.
What is your favourite Persona song and why? Let’s start a conversation, people!
