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To be or not to be

Persona 3 endings guide and how to get the true ending

You wouldn't kill a friend... right?

Persona 3 endings: An anime young man with blue hair in a bob cut is standing in a dimly lit train station. He he holds a phone in his hand and wears a bored expression
Josh Broadwell avatar
Guide by Josh Broadwell Contributor
Updated on

Getting the best Persona 3 ending is refreshingly easy compared to later games in the RPG series, since it hinges on making just one decision.

You’ll know the decision when you get there, but the problem is, there’s no clear indication what your decision will lead to.

The game points you in the wrong direction intentionally, but if you’ve been taking note of the story’s general direction, you may have an inkling of what the right thing to do is anyway. We avoid naming specific characters involved in this ending, so you don’t have to worry about dodging spoilers.

If you're still working your way through the school year, check out our Persona 3 answers guide to ace every exam.

Now you don't need a Vita to play the best Persona games!

Persona 3 endings explained

Persona 3 has a bad ending and a true ending, and these two are the same whether you’re playing Persona 3 Portable or Persona 3 FES. No Social Links matter. You can go through the entire game without maxing out a single Social Link, and it won’t influence how the game ends – though there are some extra lines of dialogue in the final boss battle from people whose links you maxed.

Persona 3 Portable bad ending

Persona 3 endings: An anime young man with blue hair in a bob cut, wearing a black blazer with a white collared shirt, is lunging forward with his hand outstretched. He's in a narrow corridor lit dimly by eerie green light

It all comes down to a choice you make on New Year’s Eve. On December 31st, one of Persona 3’s main characters gives you an ultimatum. You can kill them and die in peace or leave them alive and die in misery. Chat with the other members of the squad in the dorm, and then find this character to give them your decision.

If you kill them, the game ends exactly as they said it would. No one has a clue about the fate that awaits them, and while everyone dies, they die quickly and happily.

You also don’t get to play through January or face the final boss.

Persona 3 Portable true ending

If you tell the character no and refuse to kill them, time passes as normal. You have the entire month of January to play through, which means more time to max out Social Links – and more classroom tests to take.

At the end of the month, you have to go through the entirety of Tartarus with no shortcuts for story reasons. There’s a series of boss battles, and at the top is the final, multi-part boss fight. Portable doesn’t have an extra dungeon or the “The Answer” ending, so once the battle ends, that’s it.

Why stop at one group of high school kids saving the world? If you're checking out the other modern Persona games, have a look at our Persona 4 endings guide and Persona 5 Royal endings guide to make sure you can see everything both games have to offer.

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