Turn (ターン*)? is a specific aspect of the combat system of the series. This article primarily turn order and how other mechanics interact with turns.
Overview[]
Combat in role-playing games generally switches back and forth between the player and the enemy turn. Normally, 1 action per party member can be received per turn.
Timer-based skills, such as Tarukaja and Tetrakarn, specifically go down by turns: at the end of the opponent's turn during which a timer-based buff was put in effect, its timer will go down by 1. (Example: if Rakukaja is cast, its timer will only reduce to 2 after the enemy's turn has ended, and it will run out in the same fashion.)
Certain games have an "Auto" function, where upon selecting it, the different party members will either repeat the last turn or only do one type of attack (such as normal melee attacks).
Megami Tensei / Megami Tensei II / Shin Megami Tensei / Shin Megami Tensei II / Shin Megami Tensei if... / Devil Summoner / Soul Hackers / Megami Ibunroku Persona[]
In the first Megami Tensei games, the different party members each choose their action the turn before they all act out in succession. Actions are realized after everyone choose what to do, and as such, enemies can interrupt the party's actions if they have more agility than the different party members.
Shin Megami Tensei NINE[]
 |
This topic is in need of research for the following reason: * Turns are divided into Physical and Magical phases, according to the HUD. What does this mean? This can be discussed on the article's talk page. |
NINE uses a fully automatic real time system. The player designates tactics for allies to use, and they fight automatically and in real time. They can manually give a specific order to be performed one turn as well, before the ally resumes its actions based on its preset tactics. The player is also able to call on his partner and their team of demons to provide support. Otherwise, everything happens automatically in real time, including the enemy actions.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne / Liberation Dx2 / Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner / Avatar Tuner 2[]
Nocturne introduces the Press Turn system, which works thusly: a certain number of turns is given depending on how many members there is in a party. If someone lands a critical hit or a weakness, a turn changes into a half turn, potentially doubling the number of turns. On the other hand, if someone misses/the opponent dodges the attack, or the opponent nullifies an attack, then the attacking party looses two turns. Additionally, if the opponent absorbs or repels an attack, then the attacking party looses all of their turns. The Press Turn system works both for the player party and the enemy party.
The Press Turn system is used in a number of games, such as the rest of the Shin Megami Tensei series after Nocturne (bar Strange Journey), and the Digital Devil Saga games.
Shin Megami Tensei IV / IV Apocalypse[]
In Shin Megami Tensei IV and Apocalypse, after Flynn/Nanashi's party uses up all of their turn, the assigned partner uses their turn to do one action, unless their HP is depleted. The partners cannot gain Press Turns, but can make enemies lose theirs if they dodge an attack or if they're hit with an attack they null/drain/repel.
In Apocalypse only, partners fill up a gauge after their turn. When that gauge is full, they interrupt the enemy's turn and do an attack which deals massive damage.
Both games use the Press Turn system.
Shin Megami Tensei V[]
The enemy section of the analysis menu. It indicates that in this battle, Hanuman goes first, followed by Oberon and finally Isis.
A horde of Mothmen. For reference, the first row always goes first, and both rows start from right to left (from the player's point of view.)
Because of how the game follows the Press Turn system, turn order primarily switches between the player and enemy turn. Within each faction's turn, the order of party members acting is dependent on how they're ordered in the party (party member on top goes first and so on until the end of their turn.)
Enemies follow a similar rule of order, but it's only visible via examining the list of party members on the analysis screen: the leftmost enemy goes first, and the rest of the enemy faction follows suit.
With random encounters, especially those that have the same demon, the turn order of the demons based on their positioning on the field is as follows:
| Order | Positioning | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Back row | 6th | 5th | 4th |
| Front row | 3rd | 2nd | 1st |
Persona 2: Innocent Sin / Eternal Punishment[]
In the Persona 2 duology, the player is able to change the turn order given by the game, so that a character that would originally act first will then act last. However, the player will not be able to make a character act before an enemy if they originally acted after an enemy's turn, instead it will make the character that would originally act first have their turn be after the enemy's turn. This is done in order to better facilitate the execution of fusion spells. The default turn order is decided by who has the highest Agility stat.
.png){kind=link}
Turn order UI in Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment PSX
In the PSX versions of Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, the player would change the characters' turn order and actions taken during said turns in the "Strategy" menu, and could choose between making the turn repeat itself indefinitely (the player being able to stop at any time by pressing the circle button during a character's turn), or have it so the turns stop after every character acts once in order to change the turn order or the actions taken. The UI would also say who's immediately next in line, with yellow text saying "NEXT" besides the character's name.
Turn order UI in Innocent Sin PSP
However, in the PSP versions of Innocent Sin, the player must choose every character's actions individually before acting, unless they choose to repeat the last actions performed through the "Auto" option. In the remasters of both games, the order of turn for both the enemy and the party is present to the right side of the screen.
Persona 3 / Persona 4 / Persona 5[]
In the Persona games starting with Persona 3, turns are divided on an individual basis, so turns can zigzag between individual enemies and allies. Who gets to play their next turn can always be seen via the controls. The turn order is generally based on the Agility stat, so party members with higher Agility go earlier. In Persona 5, this setup is applied for regular non-boss fights, Mementos requests battles and the guardian mini-bosses in the Qliphoth World. In such battles, party icon arrangement has no bearing on turn order, and it purely represents the positioning of the party members on the field: from the protagonist's point of view, the one on his right goes first, the one on his left goes second, and the leftmost ally goes third. The protagonist's position is fixed, and as such his positioning likewise cannot convey his turn order.
In non-boss fights, the party that successfully ambushes will gain priority to go first in the first turn.
During boss battles and mid-bosses, turn order is more straightforward, as it does not account for Agility, but instead switches between all members from the player party, then the enemy. Turn order between party members is determined based on how the party is arranged. In Persona 5, this arrangement is displayed in the UI as character icons going from left to right, starting with the protagonist and is as follows:
Battle icons indicating the party's turn order in boss fights
- At a Palace's entrance, the protagonist can talk to a character to add them to the party. The first character added this way will be the second in line and so on.
- If the protagonist talks to a character while the party is full to replace a party member, that newly added character will take the last (rightmost) position.
- If the party is set up from the Stat Menu instead, turn order will follow the Menu's default arrangement, from top to bottom, meaning the characters that chronologically joined the team first will go first:
- The protagonist → Ryuji Sakamoto → Morgana → Ann Takamaki → Yusuke Kitagawa → Makoto Niijima → Haru Okumura → Goro Akechi → Sumire Yoshizawa.
- If the party is changed in battle, the switched-in character will take the same position as the one they replaced.
- In Persona 5 Royal, certain boss battles have irregular turn orders.
- Ichiryusai Madarame: In the first phase, his eyes take their turns in between the protagonist and the second party member's turns, while his nose and mouth take their turns after the third party member has acted.
- Junya Kaneshiro: The turn order for party members other than the protagonist is reversed. Meaning, even though the protagonist is still the one going first, the next party member to take action is the one with the rightmost icon.
- Cognitive Wakaba: In the first phase, turn order for all combatants is purely determined by Agility without zigzagging.
- Masayoshi Shido: Similarly, in the phases against the Beast/Wings/Tomb of Human Sacrifice, turn order for all combatants is purely determined by Agility without zigzagging.
Either way, turn order is determined at the start of the fight and cannot be changed afterwards. This applies to both the protagonist's ability to switch Personas, as well as ally combatants switching in and out. However, if enemy Shadows come in multiple waves, turn order would be recalculated at the beginning with each wave, especially for the protagonist if his currently equipped Persona is different from the one he had at the start of the previous wave.
A user's turn does not end until they have exhausted their actions; by default, they only get 1 action per turn, but can extend it via several means, such as One Mores. For enemies, it can be artificially extended so they can act more than once per turn.
Timer-based conditions, such as buffs, debuffs and ailments, go down by 1 whenever the affected user's turn ends, but only expire once the user starts their next turn when the duration has reached 0. If the condition is caused by the user casting a skill on themselves, that turn is counted towards the countdown timer, meaning a buff cast on oneself expires faster than it would be when cast on an ally. For example, if party member A cast Marakukaja, party member B would be able to use it for 3 turns, and the buff would permanently expire on the beginning of the 4th. However, for party member A, as the timer has already begun to run down, they would only have 2 more turns to make use of the ability before it expires on the 3rd turn, one turn sooner than party member B.
Although One Mores cannot bypass the limitation of duration, in Persona 5, extra actions granted by Baton Pass are not considered a turn for status expiration, thus, a user casting a buff on themselves after receiving a Baton Pass may fully exploit the effect for the next 3 turns.
Persona 5: The Phantom X[]
The UI, displaying the current combatant, followed by 2 party members, 3 Jack o' Lanterns and another ally.
Turn order between party members and enemies is displayed at the top left corner of the screen. The currently active user is also highlighted as reference. There is no means to distinguish Shadows resembling the same species.
Devil Survivor / Devil Survivor 2[]
In the Devil Survivor duology, characters may gain an Extra Turn by performing certain actions, such as landing a critical hit or targeting a weakness, or nullifying / repelling / absorbing an attack. Extra Turns take place after everyone's turn occurred, and characters are able to cancel an opponent's Extra Turn by hitting them with a critical or a weakness, or resisting one of their attack.