A recap of...
Persona 5
Much of the story is told through flashbacks while Sae Niijima interrogates the protagonist. After preventing an assault, he is framed for assaulting the man responsible and put on probation for a year, resulting in expulsion from his school. He is sent to Tokyo to stay with family friend Sojiro Sakura and attend Shujin Academy during his year-long probation. After his arrival, he is drawn into the Velvet Room, where Igor warns him that he must be rehabilitated to avoid future ruin and grants him access to a supernatural mobile app. This leads him into the Metaverse and the Palace of the school's abusive volleyball coach Suguru Kamoshida, along with a fellow student, Ryuji Sakamoto, who had been labeled as a troublemaker due to having been provoked by Kamoshida into assaulting him. After the protagonist and Ryuji are captured by the corrupt manifestation of Kamoshida, also known as his Shadow Self, he awakens to his Persona, Arsène, to save Ryuji from being executed. The two escape to the lower levels of the Palace, where they meet Morgana. Morgana informs the protagonist of the ability to change wicked people's hearts by stealing their "Treasure," the emotional root of their behavior and desires, from the Palaces ruled by their Shadow selves. The protagonist assumes the codename Joker and, together with Morgana, Ryuji, and Ann Takamaki, another fellow student whose friend had been sexually assaulted by the teacher, reforms Kamoshida.
The group forms the Phantom Thieves of Hearts to steal corruption from the hearts of adults to reform the city, and slowly learns of a broader conspiracy to influence the hearts of Tokyo. They are joined along the way by Yusuke Kitagawa, an art student whom they help to reform his corrupt teacher, Ichiryusai Madarame; Sae's sister Makoto, the president of the school's student council who is assigned to spy on them but joins after being blackmailed by a criminal, Junya Kaneshiro, who they also reform; Sojiro's adopted daughter Futaba Sakura, who became depressed after the conspiracy murdered her mother and blamed her using a forged suicide note; and Haru Okumura, a corporate heiress who rebels against her billionaire father, Kunikazu Okumura, and his attempts to control her life and mistreatment of his employees. Over time, the Phantom Thieves attract the attention of the public and the police, including Sae and celebrity junior detective Goro Akechi.
However, the Phantom Thieves' popularity plummets after a masked assassin frames them for the death of Haru's father. While pursuing the conspiracy, Akechi joins the group and convinces them to change Sae's heart. After infiltrating Sae's Palace, Joker is captured by the police, and Sae interrogates him despite being removed from the case, at which point the story comes full-circle. Joker convinces Sae of the truth. Akechi is revealed to be the assassin and attempts to kill Joker, but the Phantom Thieves use the Metaverse to fake Joker's death. Aided by Sae and Sojiro, the Phantom Thieves go undercover and learn the conspiracy's leader is politician Masayoshi Shido, who was the one who framed and pressed charges against Joker. He has been using Akechi's Metaverse ability to remove obstacles in his path toward becoming Prime Minister and imposing his reforms on Japan. When the Phantom Thieves infiltrate Shido's Palace, they face Akechi, who reveals himself as Shido's illegitimate son and that his collusion with him was part of a plan to get revenge on Shido for abandoning him and his late mother. Once defeated, Akechi sacrifices himself to protect the Phantom Thieves from a group of enemies (including Shido's cognition of Akechi himself) and allow them to defeat Shido. Despite Shido's arrest and confession, the public's opinion of him remains unchanged, and Shido may be released through the manipulation of his allies.
The Phantom Thieves infiltrate the depths of Mementos, the Palace of everyone's hearts, to steal the Treasure at its core, believing that this will allow the public to realize the truth. Inside, they discover that the public is in chaos and has chosen to give up their autonomy. The Phantom Thieves are ejected from Mementos by the Treasure itself, manifested as the Holy Grail, and vanish after the Metaverse merges with reality. Upon awakening in the Velvet Room, Joker confronts Igor, Caroline, and Justine. Caroline and Justine regain their memories and integrate into Lavenza, their proper form. Lavenza reveals that the Igor in the Velvet Room until this point is actually Yaldabaoth, the God of Control, who imprisoned the actual Igor. Yaldabaoth, Mementos' Treasure made sentient, was created from humanity's wish to give up control and be free from suffering. Through a wager made with Igor over humanity's goals, Yaldabaoth had given Joker and Akechi their abilities to see the influence of their actions on society while steering the wager in his favor.
Yaldabaoth offers Joker to return the world to its previous state at the cost of the world's freedom. If Joker accepts the offer, an alternate ending happens where the Phantom Thieves return to fame at the cost of humanity's free will. If Joker rejects the offer, he reunites with the rest of the Phantom Thieves and fights Yaldabaoth, and as his confidants rally the support of the people, they rebel against Yaldabaoth's control and allow Joker to awaken his ultimate persona, Satanael, to destroy Yaldabaoth and the Metaverse. After Yaldabaoth's defeat, Joker turns himself in to the police for Shido to be prosecuted. While Joker is incarcerated, the rest of the Phantom Thieves and his confidants help secure evidence of his innocence in the assault charge, leading to his conviction being overturned. By spring, Joker's friends drive him back to his hometown.
The group forms the Phantom Thieves of Hearts to steal corruption from the hearts of adults to reform the city, and slowly learns of a broader conspiracy to influence the hearts of Tokyo. They are joined along the way by Yusuke Kitagawa, an art student whom they help to reform his corrupt teacher, Ichiryusai Madarame; Sae's sister Makoto, the president of the school's student council who is assigned to spy on them but joins after being blackmailed by a criminal, Junya Kaneshiro, who they also reform; Sojiro's adopted daughter Futaba Sakura, who became depressed after the conspiracy murdered her mother and blamed her using a forged suicide note; and Haru Okumura, a corporate heiress who rebels against her billionaire father, Kunikazu Okumura, and his attempts to control her life and mistreatment of his employees. Over time, the Phantom Thieves attract the attention of the public and the police, including Sae and celebrity junior detective Goro Akechi.
However, the Phantom Thieves' popularity plummets after a masked assassin frames them for the death of Haru's father. While pursuing the conspiracy, Akechi joins the group and convinces them to change Sae's heart. After infiltrating Sae's Palace, Joker is captured by the police, and Sae interrogates him despite being removed from the case, at which point the story comes full-circle. Joker convinces Sae of the truth. Akechi is revealed to be the assassin and attempts to kill Joker, but the Phantom Thieves use the Metaverse to fake Joker's death. Aided by Sae and Sojiro, the Phantom Thieves go undercover and learn the conspiracy's leader is politician Masayoshi Shido, who was the one who framed and pressed charges against Joker. He has been using Akechi's Metaverse ability to remove obstacles in his path toward becoming Prime Minister and imposing his reforms on Japan. When the Phantom Thieves infiltrate Shido's Palace, they face Akechi, who reveals himself as Shido's illegitimate son and that his collusion with him was part of a plan to get revenge on Shido for abandoning him and his late mother. Once defeated, Akechi sacrifices himself to protect the Phantom Thieves from a group of enemies (including Shido's cognition of Akechi himself) and allow them to defeat Shido. Despite Shido's arrest and confession, the public's opinion of him remains unchanged, and Shido may be released through the manipulation of his allies.
The Phantom Thieves infiltrate the depths of Mementos, the Palace of everyone's hearts, to steal the Treasure at its core, believing that this will allow the public to realize the truth. Inside, they discover that the public is in chaos and has chosen to give up their autonomy. The Phantom Thieves are ejected from Mementos by the Treasure itself, manifested as the Holy Grail, and vanish after the Metaverse merges with reality. Upon awakening in the Velvet Room, Joker confronts Igor, Caroline, and Justine. Caroline and Justine regain their memories and integrate into Lavenza, their proper form. Lavenza reveals that the Igor in the Velvet Room until this point is actually Yaldabaoth, the God of Control, who imprisoned the actual Igor. Yaldabaoth, Mementos' Treasure made sentient, was created from humanity's wish to give up control and be free from suffering. Through a wager made with Igor over humanity's goals, Yaldabaoth had given Joker and Akechi their abilities to see the influence of their actions on society while steering the wager in his favor.
Yaldabaoth offers Joker to return the world to its previous state at the cost of the world's freedom. If Joker accepts the offer, an alternate ending happens where the Phantom Thieves return to fame at the cost of humanity's free will. If Joker rejects the offer, he reunites with the rest of the Phantom Thieves and fights Yaldabaoth, and as his confidants rally the support of the people, they rebel against Yaldabaoth's control and allow Joker to awaken his ultimate persona, Satanael, to destroy Yaldabaoth and the Metaverse. After Yaldabaoth's defeat, Joker turns himself in to the police for Shido to be prosecuted. While Joker is incarcerated, the rest of the Phantom Thieves and his confidants help secure evidence of his innocence in the assault charge, leading to his conviction being overturned. By spring, Joker's friends drive him back to his hometown.
