We Begin! This Game Recap! Of Persona 3 Reload! In Japan in 2009! with Makoto Yuki, a teenage boy returning to the city of Tatsumi Port Island ten years after his parents died in a car accident, as a student transferring into the local Gekkoukan High School, moving into the nearby Iwatodai Dormitory, both of which are owned and operated by the Kirijo Group, a globally-operating multinational trading company. Arriving very late, he’s greeted by a mysterious boy, calling himself Pharos, who introduces himself to Makoto and asks him to sign a cryptic contract stating that he’ll accept full responsibility for his own actions. Makoto’s quickly brought into SEES, or the “Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad”, a club at Gekkoukan which disguises itself as a completely normal after-school club, after his awareness of the monstrous Shadows and the Dark Hour is revealed. The Dark Hour’s a secret 25th hour at the end of every day which only a select few with the "potential" are aware of, during which everyone else "transmogrifies" into coffins. Shadows are also causing many people to become victims of Apathy Syndrome, a mysterious condition that puts them into a vegetative trance-like state in which they lose the will to live; these victims are referred to as "the Lost." Makoto discovers that he has the rare ability to summon multiple Personas: entities which are the manifestations of one’s personality, into battle, while most Persona-users can only summon one. After awakening to his Persona ability, he’s transported to the Velvet Room, which its proprietor, Igor, claims is a realm between "dream and reality." Igor explains to him that his Persona ability is special: he’s the only member of SEES capable of wielding multiple Personas in battle due to possessing the Wild Card, an ability related to the various Tarot Arcana intertwined with Personas. The Velvet Room is where Makoto may fuse two or more Personas to create new ones with the help of Igor’s assistant, Elizabeth. Igor also encourages him to meet people and form bonds with them, which are known as Social Links. According to Igor, the power of Makoto’s Social Links will determine his potential in combat. With the help of their Personas, SEES is able to explore a mysterious tower called Tartarus, which only manifests during the Dark Hour, at Gekkoukan. They must also defeat Greater Shadows, which appear every full moon and attack the city, believing that by killing all twelve of them, they’ll be able to end the appearance of the Dark Hour. SEES summons their Personas by using gun-like items called Evokers to shoot themselves in the head. Members of SEES are all attending Gekkoukan: Shuji Ikutsuki, chairman and adviser of SEES, and chief director of Gekkoukan, Mitsuru Kirijo, leader of SEES and heir to the Kirijo Group, Akihiko Sanada, an orphaned friend of Mitsuru, whose sister Miki burned to death in a fire as a child, Yukari Takeba, a girl who forms a strong bond with Makoto, whose father Eiichiro worked for the Kirijo Group until he died in an accident a decade ago, Junpei Iori, a classmate of Makoto and Yukari, who resents his alcoholic father, and Fuuka Yamagishi, a girl being bullied at school, who takes over as the team's support member and Navigator. Makoto is made the new Leader of SEES by the group after demonstrating his decisiveness under pressure, and his powerful Wild Card ability. During the Dark Hour, SEES begins to encounter a mysterious and somewhat-hostile group called Strega, consisting of Takaya Sakaki, Jin Shirato and Chidori Yoshino. Strega also has Persona-summoning abilities due to being Artificial Persona-users, whose Personas have been forcibly manifested through the Kirijo Group’s experimentation, requiring them to take Persona Suppressors: drugs that prevent their Personas from killing them. After several Full Moon Operations, Mitsuru’s forced to reveal to the team the origin of Tartarus and the Dark Hour, which she’s been hiding from SEES. Ten years ago, the Kirijo Group, founded by Mitsuru's grandfather, Kouetsu Kirijo, began amassing and containing Shadows at their laboratory. They studied and performed experiments on them, seeking to harness their power. However, the experiments went awry, causing an explosion which destroyed the laboratory, later rebuilt as Gekkoukan as part of a cover-up, which allowed the Shadows to escape and assemble into twelve Greater Shadows. Each is affiliated with one of the twelve Major Tarot Arcana. Ikutsuki informs them that if they defeat all twelve of the Greater Shadows, then Tartarus and the Dark Hour will disappear forever. As the year continues, the group adds a few more Persona-users to their team who have the "potential": Ken Amada, an orphaned boy whose mother died two years ago, Koromaru, a dog whose previous carer died, Shinjiro Aragaki, Akihiko's foster brother who was also orphaned. He initially worked with Mitsuru and Akihiko a few years ago when SEES was first founded, but quit, before recently being convinced to return, and Aigis, a female android SEES encountered while vacationing at Yakushima, an island where the Kirijo group has both a large manor and a research laboratory, where she escaped from after suddenly re-activating, despite having been deactivated for years. For reasons she can’t explain, she has a need to be near Makoto, even breaking into his dorm room at night to monitor him. On October 4th, during one of their full moon missions, Shinjiro meets Ken at the location where Ken's mother was killed. Two years earlier on the exact date, Shinjiro had accidentally caused the death of Ken's mother when his Persona went berserk while on a SEES mission. For this reason, Shinjiro distanced himself from SEES and began taking Persona Suppressors, consumed by guilt. However, Ken views him only as a murderer, and joined SEES for the sole reason of getting revenge by killing him in return. Shinjiro had no intention of resisting Ken's attempt to enact vengeance, but he warns Ken that if he continues, he could end up the same way as him. However, while Ken struggles to go through with his plan, the two are interrupted by Takaya. He reveals that the suppressors Shinjiro was taking would inevitably kill him anyway, rendering Ken's plan for revenge moot. Takaya draws his revolver and shoots Shinjiro to incapacitate him, questioning the two as to the identity and whereabouts of their team’s Navigator. Ken falsely identifies himself as the Navigator to protect Fuuka, leading Takaya to prepare to shoot Ken as well. However, as Takaya attempts to shoot Ken, Shinjiro jumps in front of him, taking a second, fatal bullet and sacrificing his own life to protect Ken. Just before he dies, he tells Ken to make his own life matter and asks Akihiko, who’s just arrived with the rest of SEES, to take care of Ken. This final sacrifice later wins Ken's respect and inspires Akihiko's resolve. SEES falls into a period of depression; Mitsuru and Akihiko take the loss of Shinjiro hard, and Ken as well. Mitsuru and Yukari also become closer during this time. On November 3rd, SEES fights Takaya and Jin, who supposedly kill themselves by falling off Tatsumi city’s nearby Moonlight Bridge, before SEES defeats the final Greater Shadow. However, while celebrating their victory on November 4th, SEES realizes that the Dark Hour still remains. They learn they’ve been misled by Ikutsuki; by destroying the Greater Shadows, they’ve unwittingly freed the parts of a powerful being called Death, who if fully restored, will bring about the end of the world by summoning Nyx, an even more powerful being that will destroy everything. It’s revealed that the Kirijo Group was attempting to do this ten years ago, but Yukari’s father, Eiichiro Takeba, sacrificed his life to sabotage a critical experiment after learning this truth, causing Death to be split into 13 different parts: the 12 Greater Shadows and a weakened Death. Aigis, designed by the Kirijo Group as an anti-Shadow weapon, battled Death but was unable to fully defeat it, instead sealing it into the body of a young boy nearby, revealed to be Makoto, after his parents were killed in the car accident as collateral damage from the fight. Ikutsuki reveals that he tricked SEES into re-uniting the parts of Death due to his goal of becoming all-powerful by serving Nyx, leaving him one of the only survivors of the destroyed world. He re-programs Aigis to capture the rest of SEES and take them to the top of a tower where he hangs them on crosses, in an attempt to sacrifice them to empower Death. Ikutsuki shoots and kills Mitsuru's father, Takeharu Kirijo, and orders Aigis to kill the other SEES members, however, Aigis' will proves too strong and she frees them instead. Ikutsuki, being wounded from Takeharu’s gunshot, stumbles and falls from the roof to his death. On November 9th, SEES learns about Ryoji Mochizuki, a mysterious teenage boy who’s enrolled at Gekkoukan a few days after the defeat of the final Great Shadow. Aigis seems to be wary of Ryoji, claiming that he’s dangerous. On November 22nd, Fuuka senses a Strega member outside Tartarus: Chidori. Throughout the year, Junpei and Chidori have entered into a somewhat-romantic relationship. Junpei runs to Chidori, and the rest of SEES follows. Chidori turns hostile and attacks the party. Takaya and Jin arrive, revealing themselves to have survived, and Takaya claims Chidori has been "poisoned" by them. Takaya shoots Junpei, causing Chidori to save Junpei's life by using her Persona's healing powers, sacrificing her life in the process. On December 2nd, Ryoji and Aigis face off at the Moonlight Bridge. Aigis is heavily damaged by Ryoji and is forced to undergo extensive repairs at the Kirijo Group laboratory. SEES confronts Ryoji, who tells them he is the "Appriser", Death, who has been born from the re-union of the twelve Greater Shadows and himself. Ryoji informs SEES that if they don’t kill him by December 31st, he will unwillingly usher in Nyx’s arrival and the end of the world, known as the Fall. Ryoji also confirms that a decade ago, he was defeated by Aigis on the Moonlight Bridge, and he was sealed inside Makoto, causing him to become dormant and lose his memories until now, having been made whole again. On December 30th, after recovering from her damages from fighting Ryoji, Aigis returns to SEES. On December 31st, Makoto is given the option to kill Ryoji, and must make a major decision. If Makoto were to kill Ryoji, the members of SEES would lose significant portions of their memories of the last year, such as the Dark Hour and their relationships with each other. They would lead normal lives, living in blissful ignorance, until the inevitable end of the world occurs and all of humanity dies. Makoto, Yukari, and Junpei would know of each other only as ordinary classmates, but they would only barely recognize Aigis, from the fact she lives in the same dorm as them, though she would retain her memories, being inorganic. They would also forget about their close relationships with Akihiko, who would simply be the captain of the boxing team to them, and Mitsuru, simply the student council president. Mitsuru would believe that her father died from sudden illness, as that's how the Kirijo Group covered up his death, forgetting that she witnessed his true death and last moments alive. Additionally, with the major events of the past year forgotten, SEES members would lose their inner-strength, becoming the undeveloped, weaker version of themselves: Mitsuru would lose her self-confidence following her father's death, Yukari would lose her courage after learning of her father’s sacrifice, Junpei would lose his determination after forgetting Chidori, and Makoto would lose his decisiveness and leadership ability, having never had to step up and lead SEES. Life would continue as normal for everyone in blissful ignorance until the day of the Fall, when the world would suddenly come to an end. However, Makoto chooses the other option, to spare Ryoji’s life, and Ryoji then informs everyone that the Fall will occur in one month, on January 31st, 2010, and everyone begins the new year with memories fully-intact, resolving to find a way to prevent the Fall. Takaya creates a religious cult centered on the coming of Nyx and the Fall as a salvation, with himself as the high priest, and Jin boosting his popularity through internet social media. Takaya begins using his preaching and religion to manipulate and control those who are emotionally vulnerable, full of fear and scared of their impending death. In a newspaper interview, Takaya claims that the world is in a state of turmoil, with little hope for salvation. He then claims that a magnificent being is the only salvation for humanity, which he identifies as Nyx. Takaya then states that he’s received a blessing from Nyx, and has learned of her divine power. He further manipulates the public by stating that there are also “those who have been blessed by Nyx” that use this “blessing” for their own selfish goals. SEES deduces that Takaya is attempting to make the public hate SEES by convincing everyone that they’re the ones responsible for the impending end of the world. Throughout January, the mental condition of Tatsumi Port Island residents becomes erratic. The amount of Lost drastically increases, and Apathy Syndrome is rampant. Graffiti and trash fill the streets, with no one bothering to clean it. Takaya's followers begin distributing brochures and pamphlets about the impending apocalypse and Nyx's salvation. It’s revealed that Chidori’s alive, due to some of her Persona’s residual healing energy bringing her back to life after her death, however she no longer has the “potential” or her Persona, and has forgotten the past few years of her life, including Junpei, and so their relationship begins anew. On January 31st, SEES battles their way through hordes of Shadows, with the goal of reaching the top of Tartarus, in order to face off against Nyx in a final battle. On the way, they’re also forced to fight Jin and Takaya; both of whom they defeat before reaching the top, and despite sparing their lives, Jin is seemingly killed when he sacrifices himself to kill a large group of Shadows, and Takaya seemingly succumbs to his wounds after they’re exacerbated by Nyx’s extreme gravitational force. At the top, SEES encounters Ryoji, now in his true form as the Avatar of Nyx. Though they defeat him, the Nyx Avatar still succeeds in summoning Nyx; the moon splits open, revealing a strange device that begins to kill people across the Earth. Makoto uses all of the Social Links he gained between SEES and his other acquaintances to create the Tarot Arcana power of the “Universe” within himself, a seal which he then uses to lock Nyx away, at the cost of sacrificing his own life essence. With Nyx sealed, the Dark Hour and Tartarus disappear, and the world returns to normal, though the memories of the past year are initially lost to all the members of SEES except Makoto and Aigis. As the SEES members finish the school year, their memories return to them, including a promise they made to gather on the school's roof once they saved the world and survived to Mitsuru and Akihiko’s graduation day shortly after. They arrive on the roof to find Makoto lying in Aigis' lap, smiling at the brief reunion with the other SEES members, while Aigis tells Makoto that she’ll always be by his side, protecting him. Makoto, who’s been feeling unwell and tired after using his life force to seal Nyx away, then gently drifts off to sleep, and dies.