The Persona games center around people with the ability to manifest discrete elements of their psyche as the eponymous Personas, summoning these entities to aid them in combat. The games also frequently feature a juxtaposition between everyday, modern life and a supernatural world of monsters and demons.
Since launching in 1996 on the original PlayStation, the franchise has spawned numerous games for consoles and handheld, along with multiple animes. Prior entries in the series have received spotty localization for Western audiences, but a growing and vocal fan base has meant that more recent releases have come stateside earlier. Most recently the dungeon crawling spin-off Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth came to Nintendo 3DS and the fighting game Persona 4 Arena Ultimax arrived on PS3 and Xbox 360.
