Persona 3 and Dark City (1998)

[TechnologicalMF]

So one of my favorite movies Dark City (1998) has an imo very direct inspiration on Persona 3 which has surprisingly to my knowledge only been brought up on 2 GameFAQs posts.

I won't go into it too much as Dark City just has some of my favorite premises and plots ever, doing a lot of things Matrix gets praise for way before it, but basically in Dark City there is imagine a group of characters that wait for a countdown on a really old school clock to 12 AM and then time basically stops along with electronics etc. and only that organization (and those who wield the powers as them) can interact with the world.

If you've ever played Persona 3, this should ring a bell right away as this is basically the exact concept of the Dark Hour (even the name lol) with how only Persona users can really interact with this period while the rest of the humans turn into coffins. Also, the clocks in general have a very similar aesthetic too.

Post automatically merged: Mar 24, 2025

Also, if anyone becomes interested to check this movie out: I heavily advise you to try your best to watch the director's cut. Not only does it not have an opening narration that literally spoils a twist in the movie, but it has 10 minutes extra of atmospheric world-building.

If you have no way of watching it and have to make do with a theatrical cut, I recommend you mute temporarily and then unmute as soon as the narration stops. I can rewatch the opening to tell you exactly when to unmute as it has been a bit since I watched it

 

[Viviana Santos]

Wow, I didn't know that. Very cool!

 

[TechnologicalMF]

Wow, I didn't know that. Very cool!

There's surprisingly little people pointing in out in the entire history of the internet, its a little crazy honestly.
I might make a video on it

 

[sun0wl]

That's wild. Reminds me of the heavy inspiration Kojima seemed to take from the Snake Plisskin movies. I just finished P3P (FINALLY) so I'll have to check out this movie. Thanks for sharing. You really should consider making a video essay, or just a plain old fashioned article and posting here (Writer's Guild).

 

[TechnologicalMF]

That's wild. Reminds me of the heavy inspiration Kojima seemed to take from the Snake Plisskin movies. I just finished P3P (FINALLY) so I'll have to check out this movie. Thanks for sharing. You really should consider making a video essay, or just a plain old fashioned article and posting here (Writer's Guild).

It'll probably be in video form, but I honestly find video essays a little obnoxious.
Like it'll be classified as that but I have no intention of formatting it the sort of stereotypical way if you get me, something about it just makes me cringe lol

 

[blackfrostbufu]

Hm, that's super intriguing. I think I know how I am spending my evening!

 

[CardcaptorEd2019]

I've had Dark City on my watch list for a while now. Seeing that Persona 3 had taken inspiration from it has gotten me motivated to watch it some time in the next couple of days

 

[TechnologicalMF]

Hm, that's super intriguing. I think I know how I am spending my evening!

I've had Dark City on my watch list for a while now. Seeing that Persona 3 had taken inspiration from it has gotten me motivated to watch it some time in the next couple of days

If you remember this topic after watching it, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Another thing I forgot to mention is, the movie plays around with the idea of a dynamically changing layout, a lot like how Tartarus changes. In fact, some of the visuals of that are EXTREMELY similar.

Post automatically merged: Mar 25, 2025

This movie also manages to feel like another JRPG to me, the Midgar segment from FF7. There are some shots that really fucking remind me of Midgar as well. However, that came before this movie's existence