Sort by game

This page is for searching by game instead of by theme to see which parts of which pages are most relevant per game. Note that while more pages will have relevant parts for each game, this is listing mainly the most relevant ones. As such, not every page on the wiki will be linked to by this page.

For specific themes relating to the sides in particular rather than the game as a whole view the sort by alignment page. Since a description of each alignment's themes is on that page, all the details of the sides won't be re-recounted here.

## Series wide

Ethics and politics of alignments: while not every game has explicit aligments, most games implicitly have villains who fit into the dynamic in some kind of light, even if not an explicit one.

Spiritual concepts of the sides. The different spiritual views of the sides are sorted into distinct sections on the page. While mostly applying to mainline, this also has some references to side games.

Metaphysics and cosmology: the aspects relating to the multiverse tend to be a subtle thing with a little info given in each game, rather than something individual games tend to focus on for very long. As such, playing more games in general all by default give more info about the multiverse.

Movie and literature references: this page details the references from the entire series.

## Shin megami tensei

### In general

Ethics and politics of alignments: The alignments are in a big way the core dynamic and interaction of mainline. And they are relatively consistent across mainline, though more is added and the versions are a little different each time.

Theistic perspectives of the alignments: Mainline revolves around the religions who are present in most of the games explicitly or implicitly. As such every game adds to the overall vision.

Pantheistic perspectives of the alignments: Similar to the above context, the religions are present in most of the games, and so every mainline game adds to the overall understanding.

Symbols and aesthetics of the sides: Various games use different symbols, but the overall depiction of the sides grows over the course of the series.

Outfits and locations of the sides: Similar to the above depiction of symbols.

Carl jung: The overall dynamic of the sides heavily ties to the jungian depiction of the two influences, as well as the fact that the demons' presence is a metaphor for and works similarly to the archetypes.

Other psychology and sociology: in keeping with the above psychological vision, the fact that demons are metaphors for social forces is relevant series-wide.

Transhumanism: the different alignments each have different approaches to the idea.

Sexuality and gender: The sides in general also have aspects that tie to gender depictions.

Existentialism is a major aspect of the series as a whole, with one in an ambiguous situation and the need to choose under this ambiguity being a core aspect.

Philosophy of mind: The way the demons are treated like literal entities, and the depictions of mind as an overall dynamic is something all the games add to a bit.

Christianity and Judaism: The overall dynamic of mainline establishes an abrahamic paradigm as the dominant one, and depicts many things as viewed in relation to it. while this is not the only paradigm, the more specific ones of the side are depicted on the sort by alignment page.

Heterodox christianity: In many games the law side proper is shown as distinct form yhvh himself in various ways. Giving a tone of a different paradigm.

Taoism: Law and chaos are depicted as in an interconnected flow series wide, as if they were like yin and yang in a sense.

Kabbalah: The kabbalic imagery is strong series-wide, with the names for the human world and abyss being based on them.

Buddhism and Hinduism: The emphasis placed on rebirth and the rebirth of the world is very dharmic in tone. Likewise, dharmic religion is a major inspiration for chaos.

Satanism: Chaos as a religion is heavily satanist in tone, based on real satanist beliefs.

Alchemy: Demon fusion in general, and the elements are depicted as being alchemic in nature.

Binary oppositions: The distinction between law and chaos is depicted in a collection of binaries.

Nietzsche: A common association, especially for neutral and chaos is nietzschean ideals.

Hegel: Aspects of dialectic are common to the series, as well as the idea of the end of history for law.

### Shin megami tensei I

Norse mythology: Thor is shown on the law side and surtr on the chaos side to establish that yhvh also functions kind of like a father god, and law as similar to pantheons who hold back chaotic nature.

Greek mythology: Yhvh is directly equated to zeus to show a similar slant of yhvh being a father god, as well as the adoption of greek ideas into christianity.

Shinto: Neutral is depicted as heavily shinto in tone, calling it to mind as something more mundane to the japanese setting. Neutral and chaos both look heavily more japanese relative to law in this game.

Taoism: The balance of law and chaos was established here, with the taoist god Taishang LaoJun taking the form of lao tsu and functioning as the main god of neutral.

Shugendo: Neutral is depicted as heavily based in shugendo, with its founder en no ozuno being one of its major figures.

Movie and literature references: Cyberpunk is a major tone of the first two games. Devilman comparisons are also found on this page.

Devilman: The inspirations from devilman to SMT are most apparent in SMTI, in which the story as a whole closely follows devilman's overall plot. Beginning in an everyday situation where you come in contact with demons, and are warned that humanity's entire future is at stake, even though not many are seen yet, and so are given the demons' powers by a mysterious person to fight them. Then over time the apocalypse begins, people try to use nukes to defeat the demons but it is not sucessful, angels appear late in the story, and the entire struggle ends on a small platform surrounded by water.

### Shin megami tensei II

Christianity and judaism: Aleph being created to function like a christ figure is a major plot point of the game. As well as detailing some old testament / new testament binary.

Movie and literature references: Cyberpunk is a major tone of the first two games.

Greek mythology: The law side is shown with a heavily greek tone to call to mind the adoption of greek ideas into the christian paradigm. Hecate also shows up as a chaos demon.

Taoism: The association of neutral and taoism remains here, with the neutral church explicitly having a yin yang symbol in it.

Kabbalah: The abyss is shaped like the tree of life, and the avatars of god appear in the form of the sephirot.

Knights templar: The dynamic of the center, and them falling into siding with demons is meant to call the accusations of the templars to mind.

Sumerian-Babylonian mythology: Ishtar's restoration and tiamat's presence both parralel babylonian mythology.

Cannanite mythology: bel demons are shown to derive from baals, and bel, as gods rather than just be fallen angels. Them being lumped in with fallen angels calling to mind the demonization of foreign gods.

Heterodox christianity: Since at the end even on law you kill god and move past the church, it has a tone of death of god theology, and other heterodox ideas. On top of the fact that the law side is already post christian in general.

Shinto: Many major figures from shinto show up, with a major sub plot being the kunitsukami betraying the amatsukami after being manipulated by the center. The neutral church also still has multiple shinto associations in it.

Buddhism and Hinduism: On top of the buddhist associations of chaos, here yhvh and satan are depicted kind of like vishnu and shiva and as a buddha and wrathful deity, to show the absorption of various ideas into the paradigm. Even though most historical ideas absorbed were not from the east.

Satanism: Crowley shows up in-game as a figure on the chaos side. Note that like many real satanisms, demons are depicted as demonized foreign gods.

Cao dai: Although a very small association, one of the avatars of god looks like cao dai, likely to call to mind east and west syncretism.

### Nocturne

Buddhism and Hinduism: Nocturne takes place in the buddhist womb realm, and has a composite mix of cosmic egg, virochana, and brahma presiding over rebirth. The different endings correspond to aspects of buddhism, with shijima being serenity and the static nature of buddhist heaven, yosuga being karma and self-power, musubi being non clinging (here meaning to others), reset being the fortunate balanced nature of human birth, and middle way, and tde being an end to reincarnation.

Shinto: Although more vague than the Buddhist elements, since nocturne is an eastern slanted game various figures show up like kagutsuchi and izanagi and izanami depicted as being behind the creation of the old world.

Existentialism was depicted in a very direct way in nocturne, via the rules of the vortex world. In nocturne, the god you summon cannot give you your reason, but you have to decide it on your own. As a depiction of the existentialist conception of how ultimate responsibility for your values and decisions has to be internal. Even if you trust someone else's decisionmaking the choice to do so is personal. This is mixed with a dynamic where it shows how your decisions are reflected into a worldview that affects the external world.

Psychology and sociology. Nocturne in particular uses demons in ways that don't match their lore, or even depictions in the other games, to make the postmodern point that all of these beings are symbols that have a meaning to humanity, but the symbol's meaning is not set in stone. Since it takes place in a world where the logic of a reality is not set, the meaning of what angels, etc, represent can change.

Mithraic mysteries: While the game as a whole has a subtle overarching tone of buddhism, and japanese religion in general, shijima in particular is also aesthetically based heavily in the mithraic mysteries.

Sumerian-Babylonian mythology: Yosuga is likely meant to call to mind how some abrahamic ideas derived from babylon, and it is showing the recreation of the older paradigm. Though it is likely lumping babylon and caanan together.

Cannanite mythology: Yosuga is likely showing the derived nature of some aspects of abrahamic religion crom the cannanite and babylonian ideas.

Kabbalah. While less kabbalah based than some of the other games, a few aspects of it still draw from it, namely the menorahs corresponding to the sephirot, and the connection to the absolute.

Satanism. The true demonending closely matches the eschatology of the temple of the black light. While this may not be a direct reference, they likely have a similar source and underlying logic.

### Strange journey

Christianity and judaism: The schwarzwelt is depicted as structured around the deadly sins.

Sumerian-Babylonian mythology: The depiction of chaos and law has a kind of babylonian tone, relating to the triumph of marduk over tiamat. Here with yhvh taking the role of marduk and the creation of order, with tiamat representing the primal chaos.

Physics and philosophy of physics: Strange journey talks heavily about various physics concepts like exotic matter, quantum fields, and the schwarzwelt itself being described in a sense as another universe.

Kabbalah: Mem aleph is based on a directly kabbalic concept, and this frames into context how to view the development of the alignments. The expanse is also referred to as atziluth in strange journey, which contextualizes the overall kabbalic dynamic of the worlds, and the archetypical nature of demons.

Environmentalism and ecology: The overall scenario of the game is based on an environmental catastrophe, and the efforts taken to limit its damage.

Gnosticism: A piece of yhvh is shown in the form of the demiurge in strange journey. Though notably with a less dark tone than in many games.

Plato: The idea of the demiurge being good was actually the original idea, coming from plato.

Greek mythology: As of the remake, various greek elements are made more explicit such as the presence of zeus and demeter. However, in the original, mem aleph is still there and meant to be the gaia of the gaians.

Taoism: Although ambiguous, it is likely that the three wisemen are meant to be the three pure ones of taoism.

Heterodox christianity: In the remake there is a large element of death of god theology, since in the new law ending an explicit focus is given on why the world of peace shouldn't be structured around divine commands.

Alchemy: Ouroboros is depicted as one of the mothers in keeping with chaos' association with the natural world.

### Shin megami tensei IV

Dead sea scrolls: the chaos side's tone resembles that of the beings in the dead sea scrolls a bit more, wanting to disseminate knowledge not just of good and evil, but also in the sense of various information. Like in the dead sea scrolls, this information is depicted as dangerous for people to have, and so the question is posed of whether witholding it for the sake of people's safety is a good path. Azazel shows up as a character working for chaos to depict these themes.

Another aspect that is tied to the dead sea scrolls is the depiction of mastema as working for the neutral side. Because here is is depicted in this way to correspond to his depiction in the dead sea scrolls of an angel who was given command over demons to tempt mankind. Though here, he commands demons as a law figure, not to lead them to evil but as a kind of balance of influences to help work towards a neutral world. This puts him at odds with the overtly lawful angels who work for a world of law.

The Divine Comedy: The areas purgatorium and paradiso are presumably named after the latter two books of the divine comedy.

Kabbalah: Merkabah in IV is shown as a half light and half dark being. This is in keeping with kabbalic ideas about how the darkness is not necessarily a distinct thing from the system, but part of it and that what we call demons may in fact be just angels acting in a dark capacity. And so the light and dark are connected in a deeper order. the avatar of god is still depicted as a sphere in reference to the sephirot. Information about merkabah mysticism is also on this page.

Buddhism and Hinduism: In IV, law is associated with preservation, and chaos with destruction / metamorphosis. This is an explicit tie in to the hindu contrast between vishnu and shiva. Who notably are depicted as having those alignment leanings. For once, law has a slight buddhist tone with hugo's outfit and the emphasis placed on emptiness.

Shinto: Masakado is depicted as the guardian spirit of tokyo in a shinto light.

Gnosticism: The way chaos emphasizes knowledge has a gnostic tone.

Jedi and Sith: Introduced in IV is the choice to compare law and chaos explicitly with the jedi and sith.

Stoicism: Though present in many games, the stoic associations for law are depicted the most overtly in SMTIV.

Sumerian-Babylonian mythology: There is a sidequest that highlights how the origin of demons are in the gods of babylon. Namely, abrahamic religion demonizing other gods.

Canaanite religion: That beelzebub is derived from baal is shown here, though ironically with beelzebub being depicted as the stronger form.

### Shin megami tensei IV: apocalypse

Christianity and Judaism: The depiction of heaven and hell and their relation and the apocalypse are of course still relevant here, but the tiers of angels are more relevant than normal.

Kabbalah: IVA has a lot more in terms of kabbalah references than many of the games. The fact that lucifer was manipulated by yhvh and was part of his system rather than opposed to it is in keeping with kabbalic views about how darkness and demonic activity is part of the world system rather than opposed to it, and both are connected as part of the bigger picture. This is even shown with the kabbalic tree of life appearing as a symbol when lucifer and merkabah merge into satan. Satan as the counterpoint to god in an almost divine capacity is likewise a kabbalic interpretation.

The disconnect between yhvh and merkabah and the high and low angels and their realms likewise calls the kabbalic idea of the worlds to mind. As well as the explicit depiction of yhvh as like the adam kadmon to the ein sof of the great will / axiom. And this description of it as a whole society and some angels even as going against god being kabbalic in tone.

Irish mythology: The relation between Dagda, Danu, and the fairies is contextualized via information about irish mythology.

Buddhism and Hinduism: The divine powers have as two of their main members krishna and maitreya. Krishna here describes a goal that is similar to the hindu moksha of people uniting with god, and maitreya emphasizes the buddhist idea of non attachment.

Dead sea scrolls: Fallen angels are depicted as capable of reproducing with humans, with one of your party being an offspring of semyaza.

Gnosticism: Although subtle, there are a few gnosticism references such as yhvh being depicted as the demiurge of gnosticism, as well as angels being called archons.

Heterodox Christianity: Some of the specific language used by krishna when referring to his goal of the singularity seems to imply that it is based on tielhard de chardin's idea of the omega point.

Physics and philosophy of physics: Yhvh's universe is described in terms of brane cosmology, relating how the worlds work to the idea of branes.

Death: Iva has a bit more focus on death on some other games, with there being an undercurrent of theme about the fact how even if some identity is preserved after death, that death is still a major loss.

Canaanite religion: That beelzebub is derived from baal is shown here, with beelzebub returning to his godly form to side with the divine powers.

### Shin megami tensei V.

The Divine Comedy: Although most aspects of V can be covered by the general overview listing, its worth mentioning that tao is associated with beatrice from the divine comedy.

## Devil Summoner

### Soul hackers

Native american religion: The game is based in native american religions, especially the idea of the vision quest.

Dead sea scrolls: The villain side is composed of the fallen angels seen in the book of the watchers, which is an earlier interpretation of fallen angels.

### Soul hackers 2

Gnosticism: Aion is based on the gnostic idea of aeons, and its protection of the world from the great one is loosely tied to the idea of the demiurge.

### Raidou 1

Shinto: The main villain in raidou 1 was one of the kunitsukami, considering what happened to them, being deposed by the amatsukami to be an act of oppression and seeking revenge for this.

Alchemy: Although this is not a major aspect of the games, the character victor is heavily tied to alchemy and it presents demon fusion as altimately based in an alchemical light.

Metaphysics and cosmology: Raidou 1 has a bit about various timelines, and the question over what exists. It also details a bit of info about the demon world. Similar in raidou 2.

Ethics and politics of alignments: Although there are no alignments proper in the game, the final boss is a figure who comes from the world of SMTII, ruled by a dark law group, who is traveling back through time and believes the ends justify the means, being willing to destroy tokyo in order to prevent the sequence of events that lead to this. There is also a subtle indication of the main villain being a god of chaos rebelling against the social order.

### Raidou 2

Christianity and Judaism: King abbadon and the appolyn horde are themes that are meant to parallel the christian apocalypse.

Ethics and politics of alignments: Raidou 2 does have explicit alignments, although they are scaled down to more of a reason given for why you do what you do, ranging from the reasons being based on duty or propriety versus because you want to or choose to. And the endings do not vary by much. Yhvh is an implicit figure in the backstory however, and since it takes place in the same world as SMTI and II, his events being compared to the other depictions of yhvh as a distinct ideological drive is relevant.

Death: Like persona 3, the end boss of raidou 2 has a heavy focus on death, though here the focus is first on despair, rather than on death itself, with death being seen as a potential outcome, rather than the thing being reacted to

## Digital devil saga

Buddhism and Hinduism: Digital devil saga's world is based heavily in hinduism. Anything on the page pertaining to hinduism is relevant.

Physics and philosophy of physics: Digital devil saga is heavily about the overlap between hindu metaphysics and quantum physics. The parts about OSR and Digital Physics, Quantum non individuality, and classical eastern metaphysics are relevant. This mainly focusing on the fact that it describes the world as if it was made out of data, with is actually a close description of modern physics.

Pantheism and panentheism: Since dds is heavily based on the pantheistic views of schrodinger at the overlap between hindu metaphysics and quantum physics, the scientific pantheism aspect describing schrodinger's own views are relevant, as well as the short detailing of pantheism in the side games. And of course the general pantheistic dynamic as a whole can be tied to the overall themes.

Philosophy of mind: A major focus of the game is the monistic view of identity, detailed on this page.

Metaphysics and cosmology: A major part of dds is reincarnation, and the changes in identity that stem from it. With the main cast being reincarnationa of characters from the backstory. Detailed on the identity part of this page. Likewise, the game goes a bit into the multiverse, and details the nature of multiple worlds.

Theism: Although dds has more of a pantheistic focus, it is notable for being one of the games where you challenge a god, while still ending on good terms with it, accepting it as tied to reality itself.

Ethics and politics of alignments: In DDS2, margot cuvier is a form of dark law, and jenna angel professes to be chaos aligned, but in actuality is trying to end the world.

Environmentalism and ecology: In dds2 they talk about how mankind's actions ruined the environment. And the ruined environment is a major facet of the game's plot.

Sexuality and gender: Due to having a female writer, many of the characters are considered depicted as through a female lens. There are also issues of hermaphroditism.

## Devil survivor

### In general

Ethics and politics of alignments: Like in mainline, alignments have a big focus in the devil survivor series. In devil survivor 1, the endings tend to correspond to the mainline alignments with a slight shift. The law analogue retains much of the lawful ideology, though turned more moderate. The chaos analogue is more vague, although is similar in tone. Though in overclocked, the don't kill naoya ending doesn't introduce much chaos to earth at all. And it is actually the bad ending where you run away that leads to mentioning of the world of strength.

In devil survivor 2 the connotations are changed slightly. While chaos is normally depicted as the underdog to law, in desu 2 the chaos analogue is depicted as the one in power, with the law analogue as the underdog. And these things are depicted as more explicitly political, but less religious. A few aspects are changed. For instance, yamato represents the hierarchical aspect of chaos, but the nature focus and emphasis on freedom are a distinct ending represented by AO. And here the law analogue is depicted as passionate and yamato depicted as cold. While normally it is the other way around. The law analogue, despite having a similar ideology is notably depicted as anti-pragmatic, rejecting utilitarian logic or being willing to make sacrifices when necessary. More information on the devil survivor part of this page.

In triangulum the endings are not alignment based, though they do imply that all of them are loosely neutral due to the absence of being anything else. Miyako is depicted as a law leaning character, in keeping with the paternalistic and utilitarian aspects of law.

### Devil survivor 1

Christianity and Judaism: Law is still depicted as abrahamic, although devil survivor focuses less on fallen angels here, and more on old testament interactions between judaism, and various bels. Much focus is also placed on various old testament stories, as well as especially on cain and abel.

Theism: A big aspect of devil survivor is the idea of theism in general, and how people choose their own gods. This page details the way in which gods gain power from belief, which is also a metaphor for social constructs.

Christianity (heterodox): details the religious existentialism of paul tillich which is used to contextualize the way in which people choose their own gods.

Existentialism: The religious existentialist views of tillich overlap with the more generla existentialist ideas found here.

Sumerian-Babylonian mythology: The game heavily revolves around marduk (referred to in game as bel) and how various later bels derived from him, all of which were opponents of abrahamic religion.

Canaanite religion: The war of bel and their overall struggle against the forces of law corresponds to actual old testament times when various caananite religions that derived from babylonian religion were at odds with judaism.

Carl Jung: The depiction of gods here heavily ties to the archetypical.

Other psychology and sociology: The way gods are described in terms of gaining power form belief corresponds to the ideas of social organisms.

Philosophy of mind: The general parts about identity and group minds and how they tie to demons are detailed on this page.

Metaphysics and cosmology: the themes of identity, specifically the identity of abel and how it relates to future individuals are detailed in here in part.

Shinto: Amane's eigth day in overclocked corresponds to the story in overclocked of the amatsukami taking over control of japan from Okuninushi. Here the role of the amatsukami is played by the angels, representing foreign gods against the kunitsu, the native gods of japan.

Norse mythology: Loki appears in the game as a major character, and balder gets lumped in with the bels as another one of them, with his name changed to belder to match.

Movie and literature references: the entire aspect with the brand of death in amane's eigth day is somewhat based on the book and movie minority report.

Binary oppositions: The normal alignments show up in devil survivor, along with their normal associations.

### Devil survivor 2

Physics and philosophy of physics: Like in digital devil saga, devil survivor 2 talks heavily about the world interpreted as a data system. It also talks a bit about the fundamental forces of reality, although the ones it depicts in-game do perfectly match the ones from physics.

Philosophy of mind: Philosophy of mind is mentioned more directly in record breaker than in any other game, with fumi explicitly mentioning many of its concepts, describing qualia, and trying to create a machine that could store experiences. Another aspect relating to identity comes in in that miyako was literally created from the partial identity of yamato, despite becoming a distinct being.

Metaphysics and cosmology: in keeping with the talk about identity and rebirth, devil survivor 2, especially in Triangulum where it details the essence of miyako and people being composed of data it has some identity based info detailed on this page.

Astrology: Devil survivor 2 rather than being based on other religious figures is based on stars, and uses astrological concepts as a heavy basis.

Cthulhu Mythos: Although this is a very subtle depiction, one aspect of devil survivor 2 is the fact that the star beings are depicted as representing a type of cosmic order that does not care about humanity.

Philosophy of agency and free will: Although this is not a major theme here, questions of the nature of freedom if the world was reprogrammed do apply.

Movie and literature references: Devil survivor 2 as a whole's first arc is a close parallel to the anime evangelion, being based around working with an allegedly governmental agency that protects humanity's future against incomprehensible beings who are trying to end it. The art even closely matches that from evangelion. The second arc has some aspects which match Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

## Persona

### In general

Carl Jung: the persona series as a whole is of course explicitly based on jung. Mainly the ideas of the persona and shadow.

Psychology and sociology: Although the main psychological angle of the persona games is viewed through the lens of jung, since the games in general focus more directly about psychology than do other serieses, and so the other psychological aspects are relevant as well.

Existentialism: The persona series focusing more on the individual and their internal struggle and place in the world has a unique approach to existentialist themes, relative to mainline. Since while mainline is about choice and ideology, persona is more about finding your place in the world, and discovering yourself in general. Various games' themes in the persona series overlap with existentialist approaches to these topics.

Tarot: A common motif in the persona series in general is tarot, and its symbolical relationship to individuals.

Movie and literature references: The attendants of the velvet room are all named after figures from the book frankenstein, or other frankenstein related works.

### Persona 2

Cthulhu Mythos: The main villain of persona 2 is nyarlathotep, who acts in keeping with his role of one of the few lovecraftian beings who seeks to deliberately bring humans to ruin. The lovecraftian depiction here is actually meant to be anti-lovecraftian, implying rejection of the idea of human existence as futile, depicted through defeating things lovecraft depicted as unable to be overcome.

Movie and literature references: more information about lovecraftian references in the games is found on this page.

### Persona 3

Death: The main theme of persona 3 is death and the various reactions to it.

Greek mythology: Many of the main figures in persona 3 are archaic figures from greek mythology. Being the original figures who existed before the gods or even the titans. Representing a primal truth that later ideas later came from.

Christianity and Judaism: The final persona of the main character is messiah, representing the christ figure essence of sacrificing yourself for the greater good, as well as his essence of being the one who overcame death in christian theology.

Ethics and politics of alignments: Although this is a very subtle theme, the messiah persona as the ultimate persona in 3 is meant to call to mind lawful qualities, with self sacrifice being seen as a major quality of law.

### Persona 4

Shinto: The main figures and enemies in persona 4 all come from shinto lore. Being the personas of the characters and the end bosses.

Carl Jung: the main drive of persona 4 revolves around facing your shadow, and accepting the truth of your own being.

Psychology and sociology: in keeping with the jungian element, the aspects tying to self acceptance in general, and awareness of one's own self identity are also related to p4.

Sexuality and gender: Kanji and naoto in persona 4 both experience issues of sexuality or gender expression and their relation.

### Persona 5

Kabbalah: Mementos is explicitly shaped like and named after the tree of death from kabbalah. Implicating that mementos represents the hidden sinful act of humanity as a whole. At its center is the embodiment of sloth, implicating it as humanity's core sin.

Gnosticism: The final boss of persona 5 is the gnostic demiurge, and it represents a sense of control as a whole, seeing most humans as incapable of making their own decisions.

The Divine Comedy: Persona 5 is structured heavily around the divine comedy, and the idea of the deadly sins, especially at the end parts. Mementos itself is shaped like common depictions of dante's inferno, with its lead in to the final area corresponding to the divine comedy's structure of traveling to the center of hell only to end up back on the surface, and then traveling into the sky to meet god. Like the divine comedy, persona 5 is about spiritual development as a person.

Psychology and sociology: In addition to the persona series in general being based on psychology, persona 5's central themes revolve around power structures, and how abuse exists within them. So the sociological aspect here is also heavily relevant to the game. As is the part about cognitive distortions, which are a big part about persona 5. Another major aspect is the part where it explains cognition, and how people's world is shaped by their perceptions, which ties to sociological concepts of constructs.

Philosophy of agency and free will: Persona 5 delves slightly into questions of agency in consideration of the questions of how you are essentially brainwashing figures. It also veers a little into the questions of agency that arise from the contrast between yourself and larger social forces.

Existentialism: The idea of cognition also relates to existentialist ideas about how meaning is shaped by individuals. Since the world you move through is one of meaning, and so the real world is irrevocably one of meaning, rather than inert physical facts. This statement said nearly verbatim near the end of the game about how the world of perception is what the real world is to you.

Ethics and politics of alignments: although your team is not the ideology of chaos by the standards of mainline, you are depicted with demons to represent demonization, and rebellion against a social order, in keeping with aspects of chaos in mainline. Although it was actually kaneshiro who spouts chaos sounding ideology, talking about the strong getting ahead. The end of the game is similar to a law analogue, focusing on a controlled social order to prevent people being at odds with the system. Although likewise it is not entirely equivalent to mainline law, despite calling for comparison. The comparison of the everyday masses with law, and the ones who abuse them with chaos being a theme called to mind in mainline also, such as in SMTIV.

Metaphysics and cosmology: Persona 5 details the existence of spiritual worlds and how gods are born from human thoughts a bit.

Movie and literature references: Even more than other games in the series, persona 5 is heavily based on various media, with your main personas being various literary figures. In addition, the plot as a whole is heavily based on inception, and there are specific examples like the character of goro being heavily based on light yagami from deathnote.