Persona ITA: L'Ombra della Depressione

Persona ITA: l'Ombra della Depressione (Italian for "Shadow of Depression") is a spin-off of the Persona series. 
As the ITA in the title says, this is a spin-off set in Italy, more precisely in Kiriyama, a city near Palermo. 
==Gameplay==
The game is a turn-based JRPG, however it downplays heavily the social simulation elements in favor of a more plot-driven narrative similar to Persona 2. 
Some mechanics from Persona 5 return, like Downing and One More (when using an attack of a certain element against an enemy weak to it, or after hitting a Critical, the enemy is downed for a turn while the player gets an extra turn), Baton Pass (AKA passing the second turn to an ally), Follow-Up attacks, Demon Negotiation and All-Out Attacks (when all the enemies are Downed, the player can choose if negotiating with one of the Demons, either turning it into a Persona or asking for money and items, or use a devastating attack involving all of the party to hit all enemies).
Unlike Persona 5, the protagonist can be freely switched out of the party, and it's no longer a game over if the protagonist dies.
While the player can still explore the city of Kiriyama and the calendar system is still present, school life is completely removed. Unlike most Persona games, the player can choose to skip free days and jump directly to plot-relevant dates by simply opening the calendar and selecting the "Skip Free Days" option. Though it's not advisable to do so because it prevents from doing Bonding Events. 
Since the protagonist is not the Fool, Social Links do not exist, being replaced by Bond Events which work like Supports in Fire Emblem or Heart-to-Hearts in Xenoblade: instead of being from the protagonist with various NPCs, the Bond Events happen between two party members, both of which are voiced. Dialogue options are rarer, but appear from both sides of the conversation. On the other hand, Bond Events with some important NPCs are similar to Social Links, only that they each use different party members instead of just the protagonist. Romance options no longer exist.
All party members can fuse and switch Personas, but there's an affinity system: each character can only equip Personas of a set of five Arcanas, and Bonding Events serve to raise affinity. Like Social Links, Bonding Events grant certain abilities to the party.
There are six levels of Affinity: N/A (cannot equip Persona nor can it ever be raised), X (cannot equip Persona of this Arcana, but can level up after Bonding Events), C (can equip Personas whose level is at most ten levels lower than yours, can disobey and refuse to act), B (can equip Personas whose level is five level lower than yours, lower chance to disobey), A (can equip Personas whose level is equal to yours and no chance to disobey) and S (can equip Personas of higher level than yours and no chance to disobey).
Bonding Events between two party members all grant various common abilities: C level allows the party members to perform follow-up attacks in the other's turn, B level allows one to heal the other's status ailments if both are in the party, and A level allows one of the two to take a fatal hit for the other and survive with 1 HP.
The voice acting is in English, Japanese and Italian, as the characters are speaking Italian in-universe.
Igor does not exist (due to his seiyuu having passed away, and also because Andrea is not the Fool Arcana), and the Velvet Room takes the shape of Andrea's asylum. Anyone can go there and fuse Personas rather than just Andrea, and an unnamed man wearing a seven-eyed mask acts as the NPC that fuses Personas instead of Igor.
Social stats are completely taken away, possibly because Bonding Events affect multiple characters, and all of them have different social stats.
==Plot and themes==
The story deals with the Shadows, now named "Impuri" (Italian for "Unholy Ones") appearing in Kiriyama and wreaking havoc. Unlike most Persona games, people can see the Shadow, know about them and live in fear.
The story opens with Andrea hearing the news that one of his co-workers had thrown himself out of the window, but he doesn't care.
The news announced that many people started killing themselves while sleepwalking.
Despite Kiriyama having a defense force which protects people from the Impuri (which appear often and attack frequently in the town, however outside Domains they're weak enough that a normal gun can kill them), no one knows what may have caused these suicides, even though the Defense Force suspect it has something to do with the power of a really strong Impuro.
During the school break, Yukio sees a friend of his asleep in class and tries to wake him up. That man however stands up, with his eyes closed, and starts reciting the words: "Someone's watching me... A dark eye... I can't live... I want to... Die... Die... Die... Die...". 
He tries to stop him, and sees that a red eye has appeared on his forehead. He holds the boy, but he's compelled to throw himself off, and soon after, Yukio himself falls asleep (because the Silent One had cast a sleeping spell on him, but Yukio doesn't realize that).
Yukio and all of his classmates attempt to kill themselves, but in the middle of doing so, Yukio suddenly sees a blue butterfly and hears a voice that tells him to wake up (actually the man from the supposed Velvet Room), which allows him to returns conscious and escape the nightmare through sheer willpower, awakening his Persona Baldr. 
Once Yukio wakes up, he finds out he's only one of his class to be still alive and that the school is enveloped in dark tentacles and a dark mist. They're surrounded by Shadows and Yukio awakens his Persona, Baldr, out of his desire to escape. He successfully runs off and saves Marika, his best friend, who is in the other class and had attempted to run off on her own before getting caught. The first dungeon is then played as Yukio, not as Andrea.
When Yukio and Marika reach the school entrance, they get cornered by the Dark Knight. Marika awakens her Persona out of her desire to protect Yukio, urging him to run away. The Knight resists Marika's attacks, and even she's forced to escape.
Yukio decides to warn Andrea about the incident at school, so Andrea goes there with him, sees the school turned into a Domain, and uses his Persona Skoll to help him explore (he already had awakened it before, but started fearing the power of Personas and refused to use it because of an incident that had happened in the past).
They find out that inside the school there's a Nightmare Eye, which allows the Nightmare to infest people's dreams. They no longer meet the Dark Knight, but they fight the Nightmare Eye, which transforms into a demon named an Incubo Impuro.
Soon after, Yukio and Marika decide to form the Shadow Destroyers, and Andrea only joins them out of desire to protect Yukio, despite having no interest in fighting the Impuri. 
After Andrea defeats the Nightmare, he absorbs it in his body and decides to take control of the Nightmare Core for himself, in order to turn Yukio and Elisa into real people.
The entire city of Kiriyama is revealed to be a mental construct borne by Andrea's distorted desire to have Yukio and Elisa back and his old memories of Kiriyama (similar to a Palace from Persona 5) that serves as a cover for the Nightmare Core, while the real Andrea has been in a mental hospital and is being experimented upon.
The final dungeon is the Nightmare Core, which is a dark maze hidden beneath the city that represents Andrea's messed-up psyche. After reaching it, Andrea fuses with it and he obtains his ultimate Persona Yamata no Orochi. From now on, the whole city becomes his Domain and the player is forced to explore the final dungeon and fight the final boss. 
As the game goes on, Yukio is more and more convinced that he's not real and decides that, instead of becoming real, like Andrea wanted him to be, he needs to commit the ultimate sacrifice and allow the real Andrea to get over the grief. In the final confrontation, Andrea offers Yukio the chance to become real, but he acknowledges he's just a Cognition and refuses. He develops the special Persona Mordred and uses the special attack Patricide to ultimately destroy Yamata no Orochi and wake up the real Andrea from his coma, forcing him to accept his Shadow Self and erasing himself and his mother from existence.
Personas are summoned through traditional Japanese musical instruments.
While Persona 5 had the Deadly Sins as bosses, here they are the protagonists.
Unlike the Persona series, which had a lot of high school students as protagonists, only three party members (Marika, Yukio and Giuseppe) are in high school, while most of them are adults.
Personas are themed after Norse gods, and the Ultimates are themed after Japanese mythology, aside from ELISA (named after her real self) and Mordred, whose name is from a son who murdered his father, hinting at the fact that Andrea becomes the final boss, and Yukio defeats him.
Ultimate Personas are obtained during the story like in P3 rather than after Social Links, and all have roles in the plot. Mordred is, like Izanagi no Okami and Satanael, the Ultimate Persona of the World Arcana used in the final boss for a single attack ("Myriad Truths" for Izanagi no Okami, "Sinful Shell" for Satanael and "Patricide" for Mordred), but he's called a Special Persona because Yukio had already evolved Baldr into Fujin, and Mordred is a new persona created ex-novo rather than the mutation of Fujin. Unlike Satanael and Izanagi no Okami, the masses do not play a part in the mutation. It's just Yukio's own character development (which is absent for the previous protagonists).
There are no "mascot" characters, because Yukio and Elisa are themselves Cognitions.
==Party members==
Andrea Goglio (Tower Arcana; weapon: grenade launcher; Persona: Skoll; element: Ice, Physical and Dark; Ultimate Persona: Yamata no Orochi (final boss, non-playable)): the protagonist, a man with a life filled with failures that escaped in the Cognitive World to escape his past and live a normal life. The Andrea the player controls is actually a Shadow Self with his own ego, while the real Andrea is in a coma in the depths of the Nightmare Core. His "Persona Costume" is a black samurai-like warrior with a dragon motif, and he summons his Persona using a koto. His deadly sin is Cavum.  Andrea is tormented by the Impuri Supremi but cannot accept his past and move on as he's too traumatically scarred by the deaths of his son and wife. His ultimate Persona Yamata no Orochi represents him fully abandoning himself to his maniacal desires, and becomes the final boss as it attempts to envelop the entire Kiriyama in darkness to open a portal for the real world and attempt to turn himself, Yukio and Elisa into real people by killing the real Andrea. 
He's the complete antithesis of Joker from Persona 5: he's not silent (he's an actual character and does not represent the player), he's a 35-year-old father with a past tied to the plot (while Joker's past was never mentioned), he's the Tower Arcana rather than the Fool (representing the fact that he's an actual character), he is not the founder of his team, but rather one of its most passive members (only enters the team to protect his wife Elisa and his son Yukio), he's an unreliable narrator, he has a Shadow Self (while Joker had a Palace but no Shadow), and, instead of getting an ultimate Persona and defeating the final boss, he BECOMES the final boss.
Elisa Fubini (Temperance Arcana; weapon: sniper rifle, mystic touch (as ELISA, Almighty elemental); Persona: Freya; element: Wind and Healing, Almighty and Healing (as ELISA); Ultimate Persona: ELISA (herself)): Andrea's wife and Yukio's mother. She's a Cognition because the real Elisa killed herself after the real Yukio's death from cancer. Her Persona costume is a Miko dress and she summons her Persona through a shamisen guitar. She has no Deadly Sin, and she is herself her own Ultimate Persona. While her civilian name is in katakana (like most Italian names), her Persona is written with the Kanji for "God" (read in nanori as "El") and "Oath" (read as "Isa").
Yukio Goglio (Fool/World Arcana; weapon: handgun; Persona: Baldr; element: Light (and Wind as Fujin); Ultimate Persona: Fujin; Special Persona: Mordred): Andrea's son and the founder of the Shadow Destroyers. He convinces his father to help him to defeat the Shadows. He's the Cognition Andrea is most attached to, but developed the awareness that he's not real and an instinct to defeat the Shadows and escape from Andrea's dream. Unlike many Fool Arcana, which are silent and do not have character development, Yukio is actually foolish and starts deluding himself that he's real so much that he follows his father in his goal. Only when the entire city is made into a Domain, he realizes he's a Cognition and decides to defeat Andrea and wake up his real self. His Persona costume is a ninja, and he summons his Persona through a shakuhachi flute. His deadly sin is Pride.
Marika Vattani (navigator at first; Moon Arcana; weapon: UZI submachine gun; Persona: Mani; element: Psy and Status Ailments; Ultimate Persona: Tsukuyomi). One of the founding members of the Shadow Destroyers. She's Denise's little sister and envious of her (in her Bonding Event with her, the two make peace). She suffers a lot from her envy because her family has problems in maintaining her sister at university, so she always got to be the unfavorite and hates her sister because she can't do what she wants because she has to "respect Denise". Her Persona costume is a white and purple samurai armor reminiscent of a ghost, and she summons her Persona using a horn. Her deadly sin is Envy.
Samuele "Osamu" Paonessa (Devil Arcana; weapon: gatling minigun; Persona: Draugr; element: Status Ailments and Dark; Ultimate Persona: Shutendoji). His Persona costume is a punk-samurai hybrid armor and he summons his Persona using a biwa lute. His Deadly Sin is Wrath.
Ilaria Sugita (Hermit Arcana; weapon: assault rifle; Persona: Surtr; element: Fire and Healing; Ultimate Persona: Hinokagutsuchi). A young artist born with a genetic disorder that lives in a small house near a wood, spending her time practicing meditation, painting and singing. She refuses social interactions because she was bullied in her childhood and hates being seen suffering, and sees in nature "the only true friend". Her Persona costume is a geisha kimono decorated with flowers, and she summons it using a dotaku bell. Her Deadly Sin is Sloth.
Denise Vattani (Sun Arcana; weapon: bow; Persona: Sol; element: Nuke; Ultimate Persona: Amaterasu). She's Marika's big sister, a university student, and her family suffers from economical problems because their father has lost his job and her mother works hard to maintain her in college. She likes buying expensive things and making the most of the money she gets, which her sister knows and despises about her. Before she's beaten almost to death, she doesn't care about her sister, so much that she at first sides with the bad guys to murder her. Her Persona costume is a samurai-vocaloid hybrid suit and she summons the Persona using a kokyu violin. Her deadly sin is Greed.
Nicola Astorino (navigator; Hierophant Arcana; weapon: N/A; Persona: Forseti; element: N|A; Ultimate Persona: Kuebiko). His costume is a buddhist monk robe and he summons his Persona through a kagurabue flute. A Christian priest, that in the past had taken part in people smuggling, as he had taken in a lot of irregular immigrants, allowing the mafia to employ them into dirty business. Once he joins the Shadow Destroyers, he realizes that clandestine immigration leads to exploitation and decides that it's better to help the immigrants in their homeland. His Deadly Sin is Fraud, which is not a Deadly Sin but it's punished in Dante's Inferno as something worse than a Deadly Sin.
Giuseppe Morimoto (Strength Arcana; weapon: bazooka; Persona: Thor; element: Thunder and Physical; Ultimate Persona: Raijin). An overweight and mentally unstable boy that has a strong weakness complex, which developed into bulimia. He eats a lot because he feels compulsed to "give himself the strength he needs" because in the past he had been a recurring target of a bully and couldn't do anything to protect himself. His Persona costume is a karate gi and he summons his Persona by playing a gong. His Deadly Sin is Gluttony.
Erika Rubino (Hanged Man Arcana; weapon: gatling gun; Persona: Odin; element: Physical and Almighty; Ultimate Persona: Ushikawamaru). A former porno actress and prostitute, who is sick of her old lifestyle which had led her to drug addiction, violence and torture. Her Persona costume is a samurai armor and she summons her persona using a tsuzumi drum. Her Deadly Sin is Lust.
==Other characters==
The villains include a trio of murderous Shadow Commanders (or "Impuri Supremi") named The Dark Knight, The Silent One and the Nightmare, all of whom are Persona users and represent an aspect of Andrea's past. Also Denise is a villain until beaten to near death by Marika.
The Dark Knight is a black knight using the Persona Yata-Excalibur, which takes the form of a heavy suit of armor that covers the entire body, a giant sword and a heavy shield, reflects Physical, and resists all magic unless the shield is broken. He represents Andrea's past feeling of weakness after failing to protect his son, the real Yukio, from a premature death from cancer, and his wife from the consequent psychotic breakdown and suicide. His Arcana is the Emperor
The Silent One is a dark assassin shrouded in a black suit, with a bird mask that covers the face, that uses the Persona Kusanagi-Shinigami which looks like a ninja, is immune to Dark, Light and Status Ailments (but damaged normally by anything else) and is based on instant kills, status ailments, quick multi-hit physical attacks and attacks with high critical chance. He specializes in killing people from the shadows and represent Andrea's feeling like an empty shell and desire to die and "go to a paradise of darkness". His Arcana is Death.
The Nightmare is a beautiful bishonen with black skin and white hair, apparently innocent and weak, but really skilled in magic with his powerful Persona Yasakani-Samyaza, which takes the form of a weird bloody mass of dead bodies which reflects all magic (but is weak to Physical), specializes in Almighty spells and status ailments (including possessing party members, which he often uses on Andrea himself) and can see the entire city through his Nightmare Eyes, parts of him which summon Impuri and create the Domains. He represents Andrea's obsessive psychological disorder and deep depression. His Arcana is the Judgement.
The Nightmare has a Bonding Event with Andrea that advances with the plot. It doesn't involve them actually bonding but involves The Nightmare appearing in Andrea's dreams to convince him that he's the real Andrea and Andrea falling more and more victim to his manipulations. This "Bonding Event" makes Andrea the only character that doesn't have a Judgement affinity of "N/A". Once Andrea betrays the party, Yukio gets his Judgement affinity instantly changed to S to make up for his absence.
An important character is the unnamed masked man that replaces Igor in the Velvet Room, who can be considered a greater-scope villain.
In the ending, it's revealed that the masked man's the avatar of an expert in Cognitive Psience named Sigmund Joker. Sigmund knows about the Metaverse from his late son Siegfried (a boy who had been in the Metaverse years prior), and attempted to recreate it after the events of Persona 5 Scramble. Sigmund took Andrea and various other people that were affected by strong psychological traumas (so had developed a really strong Shadow Self) and never accepted their Shadows. Sigmund connected them directly to Siegfried's Persona, giving birth to a new tpye of Metaverse named the Nightmare Core. The Velvet Room of this game is revealed to be not the actual Velvet Room, but Sigmund's lab infested by the Nightmare Core, which Andrea sees as the Velvet Room only because he's a Shadow Self.
==Music==
The music combines J-rock and traditional Japanese music (although the tracks with lyrics are sung in both Japanese and Italian), in stark contrast with Persona 5's Acid Jazz, Persona 4's non-traditional J-Pop and Persona 3's rapping. Most of the tracks are composed by WagakkiBand alongside Italian J-Pop artist Sottofasciasemplice and sung by Yuko Suzuhana, but some of them are traditional Japanese-style remix of songs written by Italian J-Rock singer Skoll, still sung in Italian by Yuko Suzuhana, for instance, the game's main theme is a Japanese-style remix of "Neo Geo", while the battle theme is a remix of "Bushido".
Neo Geo (Main Theme) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT1QIZl99cA
Bushido (Battle Theme) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H7OTQVM-aY
High School Domain theme- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p463On7Akbk
Note: all these tracks are in their original version, not in the Japanese-style WagakkiBand cover that is used in-game.
==Trivia==
* This is the first Persona game to have Italian voice acting. 
* This is the first Persona game not to be set in Japan.
* The name Andrea Goglio and his Persona Skoll are a reference to the obscure Italian J-Rock singer Federico Goglio, whose pseudonym is Skoll. His son Yukio is a reference to Yukio Mishima, whom Skoll had dedicated various songs to.
* This is the first Persona game to have a Fool Arcana party member with a canon name.
* Sigmund Joker is implied to be the father of Joker from Persona 5. If that happens to be the case, then Joker's name is Siegfried rather than Ren, Joker is his actual last name and he's dead by the time this game takes place (2030). As Persona 6 confirms, he died in September 2029. 
* This is the second time a party member has a Persona named after himself/herself: Maya Amano from Persona 2 had Maia, while Elisa Fubini from this game has ELISA. Unlike Maia, ELISA is a form of Elisa herself rather than just a Persona she acquired. 
* This game's soundtrack marks the first time Yuko Suzuhana sings in Italian, and the first time Italian J-Pop musician Sottofasciasemplice makes music for a video game.
*Kiriyama is written with Kanji that mean "fog mountain". 
Category:Persona (series)
Category:Persona Games
Category:Japanese Role-Playing Games
Category:Games set in Italy