Persona Vs. Shin Megami Tensei: The Difference Between Personas And Demons

thegamer.com:

Shin Megami Tensei (SMT) has long been one of the cornerstones of the RPG genre, notable for its modern, real-world settings and its monster-catching gameplay in which you collect a party full of demons, deities, and mythological figures by convincing them to join your side. Add to that incredibly harsh yet fun gameplay, and you have a recipe for success.

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Persona is a spin-off of the SMT games that nowadays blends in some visual novel-style gameplay and typically features casts of high school students who gain the power to summon the titular beasts.

Personas and the demons of SMT share names, designs, and even movesets - but they're fundamentally different beings.

That said, let's start with the similarities. In terms of gameplay, both personas and demons are acquired in similar ways - they can either be convinced to join you through conversation in battle or, in some cases, by impressing them with your skill, or you can fuse two that you already have together to create a new one.

Additionally, as mentioned, the majority of personas can also be found as Demons in the SMT games - the series as a whole shares the same systems, and that includes their rosters. Exclusive personas tend to belong to principal characters, and are usually only found in one game - unless added to other games as DLC, which is what has happened to many previously-exclusive personas in Persona 5.

This is largely where the similarities cease to be. The fundamental difference between demons and personas is what exactly they are. How did they come to be in the world? What is the in-game justification for letting teenagers partner up with deities, the undead, and mythological heroes?

Explaining the origin of demons is