From Pyramids to Obscure Gods
- Within Persona 5’s modern Tokyo setting, imagined worlds are created that represent the cognitive processes of various characters. These ‘palaces’ allow the player to explore locations far removed from the game’s real-world, contemporary backdrop. One episode creates an ancient Egyptian world. This article examines how this world has been produced and the different transmedial tropes and other influences that its developers have drawn upon. Many references are recognisable to a broad audience (pyramids, gods, hieroglyphs), while others reflect Japanese pop-cultural trends (in various manga and anime), including the mention of an obscure Egyptian god, Medjed. The intentionally fictitious nature of these ‘palaces’ means that the Egypt that appears in this game is not bound by the need to replicate an ‘accurate’ landscape. Instead, the developers were free to design a gamescape that combines multiple and diverse receptions of ancient Egypt.
Author details: | Jennifer CromwellORCiDGND |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol14.199 |
ISSN: | 2364-7612 |
Title of parent work (English): | thersites 14 |
Subtitle (English): | The Creation of an Egyptian World in Persona 5 |
Editor(s): | Annemarie Ambühl, Filippo Carlà-Uhink, Christian Rollinger, Christine Walde |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2022/05/09 |
Publication year: | 2022 |
Publishing institution: | Universität Potsdam |
Release date: | 2022/05/24 |
Tag: | Egypt; Persona 5; gods; pyramids; videogames |
Volume: | 2022 |
Issue: | 14 |
Number of pages: | 40 |
First page: | 1 |
Last Page: | 40 |
Organizational units: | Philosophische Fakultät / Historisches Institut |
DDC classification: | 9 Geschichte und Geografie / 90 Geschichte / 900 Geschichte und Geografie |
Peer review: | Referiert |
Publishing method: | Open Access / Gold Open-Access |
Collection(s): | Universität Potsdam / Zeitschriften / thersites, ISSN 2364-7612 / thersites Vol. 14 |
License (German): | CC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |