I Am Responsible for Self-Improvement: Persona 3 Portable Part 3

Please read these entries before reading Part 3 to develop the theme of responsibility.

Part 1 can be found here.
Part 2 can be found here.

One of the key challenges in life is accepting the reality that we all have rights and responsibilities. It is very easy with certain worldviews to focus only on one or the other, especially as society degrades into more protective and isolationist stances. This stance of rights and responsibilities is common in the Persona 3 world. In Part 3, I am going to examine the responsibility for self-improvement present in the Persona 3 world and what this can teach us about the importance of continuous self-improvement.

All screenshots are taken from my PS5

The Journey

Persona 3 Portable’s first social link is number 0 the Fool. The Fool signifies the beginning of the journey, someone with very little who begins the journey to gain the world. In Tarot the Fool progresses through 22 stages to gain the world. In P3P, the journey is an invitation to meet people, to improve your social stats, and learn in a variety of ways. This responsibility is paramount to being able to overcome the large challenges faced by the heroes in P3P. There are several facets to learning in order to become the strongest possible MC to take on the threats facing the world.

Learning as Mentorship

The MC in P3P is in school a lot. There are many teachers who are quirky and have their own passions and interests. Mr. Ono loves the period of the Samurai so much he always wears a Samurai helmet. Mr. Edogawa loves magic and attributes a lot of spiritual practices to the search for magic. Mrs. Terauchi loves poetry by authors who are not in the curriculum. Each teacher (mentor) teaches through their own unique lens to give important information. While many of these teachers focus on social stat boosts, the discipline it takes to go to school daily is an important part of learning. Being willing to learn means being able to listen and take in information from others. Learning is vital to process new challenges as they arise and that is the responsibility of the MC in P3P and it is our own responsibility as we engage with our world. As adults, it becomes harder to find learning and reflective experiences because we are not immersed in a world where these experiences are woven into the fabric of our daily routines. Primary, secondary, and university work all are progressive growth toward being a life-long learner as their ideal, even if it flops in practice most of the time.

Learning as Dread

The privilege of power often comes with a deep look into how organizations and the world function. The quote from Yukari above is the perfect example of the dread which comes from accepting the responsibility of power and our own journeys. Dread is extremely difficult because it shakes the foundations of what we thought we knew.

Spoiler alert: this dialogue takes place after Yukari finds out that her dad was a key figure in the creation of Tartarus and the Dark Hour with his work with the Kirijo Group.

P3P is one of the best examples of a game where each character has to deal with their own dread as they come to understand themselves and the power of Persona. I picked this example as a raw moment where Yukari learns an unsettling truth about her own past because these are the sudden changes which are difficult to face in the moment and it is dread which lingers and effects behavior as trauma. Learning is trauma. Learning is a building and rebuilding of your personhood based on where new evidence takes you. Accepting leadership and power at its best is embracing the challenges of this journey. Many of the problems in our world occur when people seek leadership who do not want the responsibility of seeing into dread and grappling with unsettling truths. Those who fall into leadership but try to avoid it often understand this truth of seeing more and having it weigh heavily on one’s heart. Learning is also taking responsibility for the actions we have done wrong and making space for empathy for others who have been hurt by the state of our world.

Training before a big battle is vital, especially when the full moon is coming!

Learning as Training

Learning is daily work and that includes awareness of ourselves as physical beings. As people age, management of homeostatic conditions to provide balance becomes more difficult. I have had to incorporate more stretching and physical movement as my metabolism has slowed and I have to adjust to aches and pains as they become more prevalent. In P3P, the team knows they will face tough challenges with the shadows as the full moon approaches. Training in P3P is facing hundreds of floors of mazes which are automatically changed every time you enter the dungeon anew. Training is a repetition to improve reaction time and strength. Each entry into the dungeon gives players the opportunity to scan more enemies, gain new abilities, and test new weapons. Is a Naginata better than the Hockey Stick which gives me +3 strength? The floors of Tartarus are a great place to test those possibilities.

Training is a grind for most of the game. It is a great metaphor for training. Training is not easy but if training is done consistently, one can accomplish a variety of physical and mental tasks with practice and grounding in one’s own gifts. For example, I am not physically gifted but excel with mental exercises. Thus, to try to do physical activity for its own sake for me is not easy. However, if I tie my physical activity to mental recentering, it is much easier to find space to do simple physical exercises which draw me into a recentered state.

Conclusion

Learning is an essential practice for navigating new situations as they arise. Adaptation is one of the few certainties in life and without adaptation humanity as a species would disappear. Proper adaptation requires learning to understand what new situations are coming forth and what are the best adaptations. In P3P, the MC has to take on new routines of being in a new school, studying, going to Tartarus, and building strong connections. These are all avenues of learning which enable to MC to take on grave threats. Our final part of the P3P series will explore being responsible for improving the world. With all of her great powers, opportunities, and connections, the MC is given a great responsibility to stop the shadows and restore the world to its natural state. Join us next week for the fourth and final part of our Persona 3 Portable Series!