Megami Tensei
"Persona" is the largest and most popular spin-off from the "Megami Tensei" series. The first entry in the series, "Megami Ibunroku Persona" (originally released overseas as ""), was released in 1996 in Japan and North America. The first "Persona 2" title, "", was released in 1999 in Japan. The second game, "", was released in 2000 in Japan and North America. "Persona 3" was released in 2006 in Japan, 2007 in North America, and 2008 in Europe. Its sequel, "Persona 4", was released in 2008 in Japan and North America, and in 2009 in Europe. A sixth entry in the series, "Persona 5", was released in Japan on September 15, 2016, and was released in North America and Europe on April 4, 2017, to critical acclaims. In addition to the main "Persona" games are spin-offs, so far focused on "Persona 3" and "4": the canon spin-off "", two fighting games "Persona 4 Arena" and its sequel "Arena Ultimax" as well as the crossover fighting game "", and rhythm game "". While "Persona 3" and "4" used the "Shin Megami Tensei" moniker, it was dropped for the "Persona 4 Arena" duology and "Persona 4 Golden" as it would have made the titles too long to be practical.
Persona 3
The soundtrack for "Persona 3" was composed entirely by Shoji Meguro, with the sole exception of "Adventured Act", which was composed by Yosuke Uda. It was released as a two disc soundtrack in Japan by Aniplex on July 19, 2006. A selection of tracks from the full soundtrack was bundled with the North American release of the game. An arranged album, titled "Burn My Dread -Reincarnation: Persona 3-", was also released in Japan by Aniplex on April 18, 2007. It contains eleven arrangements of tracks from "Persona 3", as well as an extended version of the song "Burn My Dread." Meguro stated that the development of "Persona 3" was one of his first opportunities to fully realize his music in video games. The soundtrack features a high use of vocals, though Meguro did not consider this as special or exceptional. A tune from previous "Persona" titles he rearranged was "Aria of the Soul", the theme of the Velvet Room. The game's battle theme, "Mass Destruction", was originally just a prototype, but the reception to it was so positive that it went into the final game. In the past, the hardware limitations of the original PlayStation required him to compose music in 100-200 kilobyte samples, which he felt made the music sound "pretty cheap". The move to the PlayStation 2 allowed for real-time streaming of music. Meguro considers this "the point at which [he] was finally able to express [his] music without making any compromises". He was also worried about the pronunciation of the English lyrics.