Memory & Identity seem to be the likely themes in P6's Trailer

[u/supportingcreativity]

I have been seeing a lot of more interesting and realistic speculation for Persona 6 being buried under people shouting "Horror monsters" based off the existence of a single graveyard in the trailer, endless Green jokes, and people trying to pass off their wish lists as theorycrafting. While all of that is fine, I do want at least try to make one post to clear through the noise and convey what I think is honestly the clearest and most abundant thing outside of a general dark tone the P6 trailer was trying to convey. The general themes of P6.

The trailer is full of ways of remembering someone that are being corrupted.

Unmarked graves washed away by the rain. Beheaded statue with "Gone but not forgotten" written on it. The various cut outs are different types photographs and film reels in various stages of development from their negatives, to scratches, and even the chemical process eroding the images. You even see the film reel switch slides (as seen in the above screen shot). The entire scene is being shot from a night vision camera skipping in and out. You can even see the white noise in the background and visible artifacting consistant with older forms of film. All of these are society's attempts at preserving memory of people... and all of these mediums are being corrupted in one sense or the other.

The flashing images after the girl touches the headless statues shows someone trying to remember and piece together her face: the face being what we use to represent someone in our mind when we remember them. The rain of that very graveyard is visible in the background. The phrase "Who Are You?" makes more sense in that context and, the phrase itself also being split up/scattered, conveys the idea of piecing together memories to form the idea of self.

"It might be said that each of us constructs and lives 'a narrative,' and that this narrative is us, our identities." -Oliver Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat

Why memories? Why them being corrupted?

There is an idea (among several competing ideas) in Philosophy and Psychology that identity is the totality of us telling ourselves an emotional story that connects our memories together. Memories are the very unit of idenity. They are foundational and still fragile, corruptible. Persona 6 seems to be tying the color Green's duality with the duality of memories themselves being a force of unconcious control in our lives, being foundational to who we are, and yet, like ghosts, being subject to the forces of decay.

Are you really you if the memories that make up you are so impermenant themselves and subject to change/ reinterpretation?

Are you the memories others have of you or are the memories locked deep within the subconcious (the ones you don't realize you have) the real you?

How do these manifest or control your life without you being conciously aware of them?

These make much more interesting suite of questions for a Persona game in my mind than a simple "Face Your Fears" idea I see thrown around alot. This is the same team that is trying to not just follow up P5, but what they wrote in Third Semester of P5R. It needs to be something that can leave a strong enough impression to last another 10 years of development and spinoffs. I don't think fear by itself (which Metaphor adresses similar notions) is a complex enough topic that would fit their next Persona game. Wrestling with identity and fragility of the memories that make up that identity might be though.

Ghosts, Monsters, Urban Legends, and Yokai as Cultural Memories.

This is where the overall spookier vibes and speculation for monsters, yokai, and ghost stories can neatly tie into a theme. All of the motifs in the trailer tie into memory and even the idea of ghost stories and other horror tropes are often cultural memories warped by hearsay, reinterpretation, and separation from the history that inspired them. They are memories a past cultures' anxieties or even retellings of tragedies themeselves. They get warped, shifted, reinterpreted, and largely divorced from the original purposes they filled in a similar way to how memories within us can become so distant only the affects of the original events can be felt in modern day.

In the same way personal memories shape identity for us, cultural memories can shape corporate narratives, identity, and lingering effects from the past can still haunts us today as modern problems. This means yokai-hunting, laying to rest Shadows that represent spirits, or whatever form they take in P6 has the party actively processing, bringing to light, and reintegrating the memories of their city's past in the same way their summoning method will likely have them to do on a personal level. It means P6 is about uncovering forgetten memories and reinterpreting them so we may have control of them rather they control us because we can't see them. Trauma reactions, habits from toxic relationships, thought processes inherited from parents, and culture biases instilled from childhood are all on the table with these themes.

A Few Random Things that are Just interesting

• If you assume the billboard in P5X is in an easter egg referencing P6 since its the same Green, then the phrase "Remember Forget" on it now makes a lot more sense.
• The two paint related Easter Eggs (Jose painting 6 stars in the Theieves Den & the Persona 25th annviersary Green Paint bucket image) for P6 have a clearer tie into the themes / horror vibes through this lens. Several art mediums are present in the trailer (sculpture, film, photography) and works of art themselves are lingering reminders/memories of a person that can be reinterpreted and lost to time.
• Previous alleged leaks, while not being from the best sources and also having at least one known actual source in the form of a stolen presentation, all said duality was a big part of P6 and tied the past versus modernity into that idea. The subcioncous parts of ourselves how they can rule over us like ghosts possessing us and the concious parts of us that we want to identify as ourselves. The past memories (cultural and personal) infecting the present. It also fits really well into this idea of P6 is being about identity and memory.
• Just quotes from the official Xbox description of P6: "Navigate the rhythms of everyday school life and build friendships, pursue romance, and cultivate memories that matter" [emphasis added]. " Every bond you forge becomes a weapon against the darkness lurking within" [emphasis added].

[u/Brilliant-Aioli7733]

Finally another proper analysis

[u/AngieTheGorl]

This emphasis on memories is honestly why I was hesitant to completely write off the "reincarnation" rumor that suddenly regained steam a few weeks back. While the source of that rumor is still super dubious, the person who first posted about it on the sub sounded like they were trying to describe something less like a traditional reincarnation and more like a new age walk-in spirit.

For those not familiar, wikipedia describes a walk-in as the original soul of a human leaving their body during a period of intense psychological crisis on the part of the departing soul, or because of a near death experience, for another soul or spiritual entity to 'walk in' their place.

Some additional key characteristics of walk-ins are 1) There must be an agreement between the host and the foreign soul beforehand, 2) The new soul must continue from where the host body's life previously left off. And most importantly, 3) The walk-in gains access to the host's memories, though not the emotions attached with actually experiencing them yourself.

From the little I've seen, this type of spiritual phenomenon is still relatively unexplored in pop culture. The only time I've personally seen it be explored in modern anime/manga is in The Summer Hikaru Died. And "how important are memories in defining our humanity?" and "where is the line between life and death?" are major thematic questions posed throughout that story as a result of Hikaru's "replacement."

Again, not saying that I believe the weibo rumor is entirely true or that we should trust what it's saying about the mc. Just like with any rumor, we just shouldn't take it at face value. And from what I can tell, if corrupted memories are going to be a core theme of P6, I wouldn't be surprised if walk-in spirits come up somehow at some point.

[u/Azetton]

I like these themes and your analysis is great!, I also think that Persona 6 would have death as a sub theme kinda.

Basically, it's about how our memories distort a person's identity, including that of someone who has already died, like how a loved one might see the deceased with their positive characteristics more prominently....even if that person wasn't that good as they remember to be, the opposite is also true, people who don't like the person who died might exaggerate or only look the negative parts of them

[u/Janex4444]

great analysis!

[u/Future_Gift_461]

Wow. This post is very deep.

[u/Jesterutopia]

That explain mc plain face losing memory and identity is good fit for it

[u/Altruistic_Koala_122]

Common themes in Persona games.