Is the M rating on all Persona games legit

[Indy11]

Hi everyone.

my son is 12 and hes been bugging me to get him a Persona game. He says the rating is blown out of proportion.

is there sex, drugs and nudity in any or all of these?

or maybe which one is ok for a 12 year old. Hes played games with violence and mikd swearing like the S word

Thanks everyone.

ps.

i personally dont want shell out 80 usd. so im fine if its the older games

[ABlankMask]

It honestly depends on the game.

HOWEVER

From what I've seen from Persona 5, there are a LOT of things rightfully warranting the need for a M-rating even if there's no explicit sex or drugs.

>Most Persona Games, especially Persona 5, heavily deal with topics of Suicide, Murder, Dark Mental Fantasies, Societal Corruption, Emotional Manipulation, and Gang Activities. I doubt this covered the list across all games.

>In at least a handful of games, protagonist characters cast powerful spells/summon monsters by quite literally shooting themselves in the head. Persona 5 Is one of the ones i know of that does NOT do this.

There are some more mild entries, such as the Strikers game (where you're posting this question), as well as a few Rhythm-based games. Basically anything considered a spin-off game might be more suited for his age, but i doubt that's what he's trying to get at.

With this kind of game, we cant decide for you. You know to which extent your son is exposed to things already, and know how he behaves with such content. Taking what you know about his behavior, and what has been provided here, hopefully you can make the right call.

They are really good games, but it wont hurt to wait a few more years for a main-line game if you dont think he can handle them well. If the extent of his "swearing" and "violence" exposure is Roblox games, wait a few years.

[Indy11]

Originally posted by ABlankMask:

It honestly depends on the game.

HOWEVER

From what I've seen from Persona 5, there are a LOT of things rightfully warranting the need for a M-rating even if there's no explicit sex or drugs.

>Most Persona Games, especially Persona 5, heavily deal with topics of Suicide, Murder, Dark Mental Fantasies, Societal Corruption, Emotional Manipulation, and Gang Activities. I doubt this covered the list across all games.

>In at least a handful of games, protagonist characters cast powerful spells/summon monsters by quite literally shooting themselves in the head. Persona 5 Is one of the ones i know of that does NOT do this.

There are some more mild entries, such as the Strikers game (where you're posting this question), as well as a few Rhythm-based games. Basically anything considered a spin-off game might be more suited for his age, but i doubt that's what he's trying to get at.

With this kind of game, we cant decide for you. You know to which extent your son is exposed to things already, and know how he behaves with such content. Taking what you know about his behavior, and what has been provided here, hopefully you can make the right call.

They are really good games, but it wont hurt to wait a few more years for a main-line game if you dont think he can handle them well. If the extent of his "swearing" and "violence" exposure is Roblox games, wait a few years.

Thanks so much for this reply. i told him, hes gotta wait. Thanks again!!!!

[jchaosmaster]

Originally posted by Indy11:

Originally posted by ABlankMask:

It honestly depends on the game.

HOWEVER

From what I've seen from Persona 5, there are a LOT of things rightfully warranting the need for a M-rating even if there's no explicit sex or drugs.

>Most Persona Games, especially Persona 5, heavily deal with topics of Suicide, Murder, Dark Mental Fantasies, Societal Corruption, Emotional Manipulation, and Gang Activities. I doubt this covered the list across all games.

>In at least a handful of games, protagonist characters cast powerful spells/summon monsters by quite literally shooting themselves in the head. Persona 5 Is one of the ones i know of that does NOT do this.

There are some more mild entries, such as the Strikers game (where you're posting this question), as well as a few Rhythm-based games. Basically anything considered a spin-off game might be more suited for his age, but i doubt that's what he's trying to get at.

With this kind of game, we cant decide for you. You know to which extent your son is exposed to things already, and know how he behaves with such content. Taking what you know about his behavior, and what has been provided here, hopefully you can make the right call.

They are really good games, but it wont hurt to wait a few more years for a main-line game if you dont think he can handle them well. If the extent of his "swearing" and "violence" exposure is Roblox games, wait a few years.

Thanks so much for this reply. i told him, hes gotta wait. Thanks again!!!!

It the same with most the games honestly, 4 Golden is a long running murder mystery while nothing his graphically Violent seen on screen some bits can get dark.

If your want a slightly cleaner game i honestly would recommend number 3. Despite all the gun pointing at head business it's a lot less deep in it's surface as the undertone is more about exempting responsibility and accepting early mortality. If you want to really encourage/discourage i would also recommend the PS3 Portal launch. The game is basically a dungeon crawler mix with visual novel. AKA game which the main story is voiced but the sub stories and side quests are mostly voiceless requiring reading. Plus by being a VA 99% of graphic images are removed. Again the game is still about death with some later enemies being generic hit men but compared to a lot of stories the game is tame.

[Kuja Feralus]

I'd also urge caution when it comes to Persona and even the wider range of Megami Tensei games. There's a lot of dark and adult themes regarding topics that I wouldn't allow my cousins' kids to access until they show a lot more emotional and mental maturity due to themes of depression, societal pressures, social corruption, and references to self-harm, as well as a lot of characters processing and grieving the loss of friends and loved ones.

Some of the themes in Persona 4 also included social issues of discrimination and stereotypes based on gender and how those stereotypes have impacted the lives of at least two characters, and one of said characters' shadow forms was portrayed as a gay stereotype due to the character's perception of gender norms impacting their self esteem and sense of masculinity. The character himself was not actually gay or gay-coded, just negatively impacted by social pressures and stereotypes regarding his hobbies and interests (Sewing being one of them, which makes sense as his family is in the textiles and fabrics business) and a severe desire to appear more masculine by adopting a violent delinquent reputation.

The Persona games as a whole don't typically get explicit with regards to violence, sex, or nudity, but they do tackle a lot of subject matter and themes that are very mature in tone and intensity, especially when it comes to trauma, mental health, social norms and pressures, and grieving/loss.

[CosmicPotato]

I mean, even if your kid can handle the games themself; I'd give it at least another year unless they have decent comprehension. I might just be speaking for myself here but most 12 year olds haven't yet gotten in situations or learnt about situations similar to those which are shown in the games; they often won't understand what things like death and denial really are; which might subtract from the story experience for them.
Alongside this most Persona games involve social links; which are basically just "lots of cutscenes". At least when I was 12 I did NOT want to do allat exposition in a game.

Anyways with all of that stated and considering it was already a no... I do have an idea but it's not a particularly well thought out one.

Atlus (developers of Persona) recently released Metaphor Re:Fantazio. Which takes all the issues I just mentioned up to 8 hundred quadrillion; but it's quite similar to Persona and would probably fill that itch while having themes that wouldn't corrupt my innocent mind at age 12. There is minimum sexual content (more specifically, all the Persona games I've played have "ew" scenes in them which I definitely would not subject on a child; let alone my worst enemy [god bless the skip button these games are great otherwise but 😭) in Metaphor; there is a fair amount of violence, but while it can be graphic it's not the type of graphic that would give them nightmares or exceptionally bad ideas.
Worth mentioning though that Metaphor has political themes; so if you understandably want to keep your kid away from games that are political in nature, it probably wouldn't be a good pick either. In that case the best way to fill the itch would probably to look up something like "JRPG's that are good for kids".

[Indy11]

Just want to say thanks to everyone for providing such detailed responses. I told him he had to wait. He kind of got over it. Hes into another game now.

[Blk_Mage_Ctype]

If your son still has any interest in Persona, then you might want to look into this game...

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1042550/Digimon_Story_Cyber_Sleuth_Complete_Edition/

It has a lot in common with the Persona games, but is only rated T for Teen. It still has some disturbing elements, but not nearly as dark as the Persona Series.

[maahes78]

I have an 11 year old and there is no way in hell that I would let him play any persona game.

The rating is definitely warranted.