The Metaverse (イセカイ, Isekai)? is the place where combat takes place during Persona 5 and its direct sequels.
Appearances
Details
Much like Tartarus and the Midnight Channel, the Metaverse is formed from the collective unconscious, although unlike those respective areas, the areas in the Metaverse are personalized spaces overlaid into areas in real-like Tokyo. While usually not directly affecting the real world, the Metaverse is known to fuse with it should its master wish to. A Metaverse Navigator is required to transverse into any areas of the Metaverse, and anyone without a persona will inevitably run into a life-threatening situation inside it.
Persona 5
The Metaverse takes the form of Palaces, with a central Palace manifesting under the Shibuya subway known as Mementos, where Shadows of the general public are imprisoned. However, certain distorted desires, such as an overwhelming desire for control or suicidal depression can result in personalized spaces known as Palaces to form. All of these personalized places overlay onto certain areas of its owner's interest, and are representations of its host's distorted desires, powered by a Treasure, or an item of significance to its owner. Usually, the Palace's host is unaware that such a place exists, and most events that the Shadow encounters there is of no relevance to the real person. Shadows patrol the area for intruders; unlike past installments, these Shadows take the form of mythical figures commonly seen in the Shin Megami Tensei series once exposed and can be negotiated with like their mainline counterparts, although they are still Shadows and not the real entity. Should the treasure be taken, the Palace will be destroyed and its owner will supposedly become a better person. In reality, many of them merely become apathetic. Therefore, the Palace owner will attempt to defend the treasure at all costs.
It was later revealed that there is a reason why Change of Hearts performed by the Phantom Thieves of Hearts do not work as planned; the public are all imprisoned in the Depths of Mementos, also known as the "Prison of Regression." Once the Palace ruler's treasure is stolen, their Shadow returns to there, rendering them apathetic. This is imperative for Yaldabaoth's plan of control, as he can use it to justify that humanity are ignorant masses who wish for his control, and so no corrupt conspiracies like the ones he set up and assigned the Phantom Thieves to dismantle can exist.
After Shido is taken down, Yaldabaoth, in the form of the Treasure of Mementos takes action on his own, setting up the final stages of his game by inversely making people wish for Shido to return even if he shouldn't be able to. Once he exiles the party out of Mementos as the Holy Grail, he takes a step further by fusing Mementos Depths with the real world and making the public think that the Phantom Thieves do not exist, exiling them from the real world and into a Velvet Room, where he was exposed as impersonating Igor and his offer for the protagonist to enforce for him in exchange of eternal serenity and ignorance refused. After freeing the Velvet Room and his teammates, the protagonist and the other Phantom Thieves scale the Qliphoth World for their first real rebellion: Taking down Yaldabaoth. After Yaldabaoth was defeated, the Qliphoth World was erased from the surface world.
Royal
Should the protagonist maximize his Confidant bonds with Takuto Maruki, he would had been inadvertently taught him how to use the Metaverse to change public cognition. As the other Phantom Thieves told them their desires as well, after Yaldabaoth accidentally corrupts his persona Adam Kadmon, he was capable of gaining access to a structure directly connected to Mementos and fashion it as his Palace so he can change the public's cognition and history in general so all suffering never happened in the first place for anyone affected. At the night after the God of Control was defeated, Goro Akechi comes to take the protagonist's place to testify for the Metaverse-related incidents and was taken to prison, while the woman who was harassed by Shido found and the corrupt politician arrested at the end of the year.
During the next month, extensive effects of the reality warping overlay on Tokyo begin to display without any physical effects in the real world, and only sensible by the protagonist, starting by an unknown teenager that is not supposed to be living in LeBlanc living there (Which is actually Morgana), followed by mentions of Wakaba Isshiki, Kunikazu Okumura and the Niijima sisters' father being alive while they clearly should not be, and Ichiryusai Madarame, Shiho Suzui and Ryuji's former track team being mentioned to reconcile with their former acquaintances as well. During the next day, Wakaba can be personally seen celebrating New Year with Futaba, with the protagonist being considered the only one acting oddly. Later on, Akechi personally appears in LeBlanc and takes the protagonist to a nearby laundry to discuss the oddities. Joined by Kasumi Yoshizawa who noticed that the structure that appeared last October is now visible in the real world, the trio go into the Palace in order to meet the instigator, only to reveal that Maruki is the instigator and the Palace ruler, who did all of this to make sure humanity will no longer suffer anymore.