Velvet Room



Velvet Room (ベルベット・ルーム, Berubetto Ruumu) is a room located between consciousness and subconsciousness which is commonly featured in the Persona series.

Profile
The Velvet Room often manifests itself differently in the game, but it is always covered in blue velvet and hosted by Igor. The purpose of the Velvet Room is always to manage Personas. The room is invisible to all except those with high spiritual sensitivity. In Persona 3, Persona 3 FES, and Persona 4, the room is inaccessible to those who are not chosen. The Velvet Room has a distinct music theme titled "Poem of Everyone's Soul" (全ての人の魂の詩, Subete no hito no tamashii no uta), also known in English as "Aria of the Soul".

The method of summoning Personas in the Velvet Room significantly changes between Persona to Persona 2 to Persona 3 and Persona 4. In Persona, Igor calls the realm of unconsciousness, where he listens to a sad story from the other end which makes him cry, and the flood of emotion creates a riff that combines the two demons into the Persona. In Persona 2, the tarot cards given power the phone, which, combined with Belladonna and Nameless's music, summons the Persona directly. For the latter two, Igor performs an arcane ritual that fuses a certain number of Persona cards together to create a new one, which summons a Persona within the protagonist's soul.

Megami Ibunroku Persona
The Velvet Room is housed in the Joy Street Mall, the Black Market, and can be found in dungeons throughout the game. It appears as a room with blue velvet carpet and curtains covering the walls. Servants of Philemon, Igor, Nameless and Belladonna, are found in it.

Persona 2
In both Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, the Velvet Room is run by Igor, who is a servant of Philemon. Other servants of Philemon who resided in the room, including Nameless and Belladonna return from Persona along with the addition of the Demon Painter. The Velvet Room appears as a room draped in blue velvet with a piano and a microphone which resides on a stage in the centre of the room, and it is accessible through every large mall in Sumaru City, of which there is one in virtually every major district.

The background music of Velvet Room in Innocent Sin has included other classical pieces along the re-arranged "Aria of the Soul", they are and. Eternal Punishment has included (known as Pathétique) first half of first movement and  (also used in Gouma-Den of Devil Summoner and Soul Hackers) in addition but removed Clair de Lune. All of the pieces are selected each time the player enters the Velvet Room in a fixed order.

Aside from Persona summoning and management, the Velvet Room is used for story purposes when Ulala Serizawa is taken there during the events of Eternal Punishment to recover from her infection with the Joker curse.

Persona 3
The Velvet Room appears as an elevator that is endlessly ascending and can only be accessed by the Protagonist. The room is still run by Igor; however, he makes no reference to being a servant of Philemon. The Protagonist gains access to the Velvet room after signing a contract with a child. Igor mentions that a long time has passed since he had a visitor. The other denizens are now gone, however, Igor has a new assistant named Elizabeth. Elizabeth would later mention that those who set foot in the Velvet Room are bound to be on a quest in search for themselves. When the protagonist creates 'The Universe' the Velvet Room will stop ascending and the door to the elevator will fly open.

The room's appearance as an elevator can be considered as a reference to SEES' ascension in Tartarus throughout the game.

Persona 3 FES
The Velvet Room plays a larger role in Persona 3 FES. In the playable epilogue, titled The Answer, Aigis is given access to the Velvet Room and its services after being visited by a blue butterfly. It is in the Velvet Room where she learns about the Protagonist's unique ability. From time to time Elizabeth would try to cheer up Aigis from her grief regarding the Protagonist's death.

Persona 3 Portable
The Velvet Room has the same role as in Persona 3, and can only be accessed by either protagonist. The only difference this time is that the player can choose Igor's assistant, Theo or Elizabeth, if the player is using the Female Protagonist.

Persona 4
The Velvet Room appears as the interior of a limousine. Igor is still present and he has a new assistant named Margaret. It seems that the "limousine" is cruising along an unknown path through a dense fog, mirroring the situation over at the protagonist's own world.

Other than the protagonist, once, a Shadow managed to make an appearance in the Velvet Room. This prompted Igor to suggest that any creation with a powerful ego will be able to appear there; soon after this realization, the limousine moved again, this time on a definite path, with Igor remarking they were finally leaving the fog. The Velvet Room entrances can be found in Inaba's South Central Shopping District between Daidara Metalworks and Yomenaido Bookstore while the other can be found in the Midnight Channel's 'Entrance Hall".

Persona 4 Golden
The Velvet Room's purpose and appearance is much the same as the original Persona 4, except it adds a new character Marie, who manages skill cards and allows the player to give cards to her to store and later repurchase. In addition, this is the location where the Aeon Social Link is able to be formed with Marie, and the location that she can be found to engage in her social link.

Persona Mobile Online
In this mobile version of Persona (stylized mostly after Persona 3), the Velvet Room is where players use their Arcana Points to access new and stronger Persona of their respective Arcana.

Persona 4: Arena
The Velvet Room appears as the Character Select screen. Margaret stands beside Igor, who lays out his Tarot cards for the player, each Arcana corresponding to one of the 13 playable characters. In the game's Story Mode, the Room takes its usual form of a limousine interior or an elevator (in Aigis' Story Mode), while the character select version is a large dining hall where Igor sits on a sofa. In Aigis' story mode, the room appears as an elevator once more.

In the console versions, the Velvet Room is also the Network Mode menu. It is the same as the character select screen, with the exception of Margaret giving you your options of Ranked Match, Player Match, etc. as though you were in the request or Persona fusion menu. You may also change aspects of your profile, such as your custom title.

The Velvet Room is also an important location in Elizabeth, Aigis, and Yu Narukami's story modes. Elizabeth and Margaret still watch over their former guests, and will intervene whenever they are about to make dangerous mistakes.

Denizens of The Velvet Room

 * Igor: Igor is the only character to have always appeared in The Velvet Room. Igor claims to be a servant of Philemon, and he typically handles fusion.
 * Nameless: the piano player who appears in Revelations: Persona and Persona 2, he covers his eyes while playing the piano.
 * Belladonna: Belladonna is a soprano singer who accompanies Nameless's music. She covers her ears while singing.
 * Demon Painter: The demon painter only appears in Persona 2. He can convert free tarot cards into cards of another arcana. He is modeled after Kazuma Kaneko.
 * Elizabeth: Elizabeth is Igor's assistant in Persona 3. She handles the Persona compendium and offers the protagonist optional quests.
 * Theo: Theo is Igor's male assistant and the younger brother of Elizabeth, appearing in Persona 3 Portable. He handles the same duties as Elizabeth and will only appear when playing as the female protagonist.
 * Margaret: Margaret appears as Igor's assistant in Persona 4, and is Elizabeth's older sister, having taken over her role. She also handles the Persona compendium. Her requests are only Persona with specific abilities, but she also handles the Fusion forecast in return.
 * Marie: Marie is addressed as an apprentice in Persona 4 Golden. She is tasked with transactions related to Skill Cards.

Trivia

 * The name is most likely derived from the Edgar Allan Poe story "The Masque of the Red Death." It features a series of 7 rooms representing the different stages of life, and the one just before death is known as the "Velvet Room." In this room, the main character of the story, Prince Prospero, also meets his death.
 * The Velvet Room's license plate number in Persona 4 is CH-8700. This is most likely a reference to Küsnacht, Zurich(.ch is the country code for Switzerland, 8700 is the Küsnacht postal code), the location of the C. G. Jung Institute that Jung himself founded and administered until his death.
 * In the manga adaption of the first game, the room's name is mispelled as "Belbet Room".