Dark Hour

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The Dark Hour (影時間, Kage-jikan) is a phenomenon occurring in Persona 3 and its subsequent re-releases and remakes.

Dark Hour Artwork.

Profile

The Dark Hour is a twenty-fifth hour to every day, ocurring every midnight. During the Dark Hour, most people are transmogrified into inanimate coffins, where they retain no knowledge of it, though one can become active if beckoned by the Shadows' call or through certain abilities, as demonstrated by Strega. Should they survive until the end of the Dark Hour, they will lose all of their memories related to it, though figments may remain.

Those with the 'Potential' to summon a Persona experience the Dark Hour without being transmogrified, retaining all of their memories of it, though they tend to experience some form of fatigue from it. If a person's potential or Persona are lost, their memories relating to the Dark Hour are also lost.

During the Dark Hour, the Moon appears to grow in size, natural lighting becomes green in color and water takes a red color, appearing like blood. Additionally, all machinery requiring electricity becomes inactive, though those equipped with a Plume of Dusk can remain functional, and Gekkoukan High School transforms into Tartarus.

History

This section contains spoilers. (Skip Section)

The Dark Hour was conceived in 1999 as a consequence of the efforts of the Kirijo Group in gathering Shadows in order to initiate The Fall. The Shadows would have been used to manifest Death, who would then call Nyx to end life on Earth, though the project was sabotaged at the last moment by Eiichiro Takeba, leaving Death incomplete and separating its power into 12 pieces, each representing an Arcana. The 12 Arcana Shadows destroyed the facilities on Tatsumi Port Island and created the Dark Hour and Tartarus, while Death fled to Moonlight Bridge, where it was engaged in battle by Aigis.

The battle with Death proved to be too much for Aigis, as it was still extremely powerful despite being incomplete, and caused collateral damage that would end up killing Makoto Yuki's parents, though he would survive. Realizing that she couldn't defeat it, Aigis chose to instead seal Death into Yuki, who happened to be the only candidate in the area due to his potential allowing him to remain active in the Dark Hour. The incident was covered up by the Kirijo Group, placing the blame on Eiichiro Takeba, and Gekkoukan High School was built on the site of the research facility.

Ten years later, in 2009, Makoto Yuki eventually returns to Tatsumi Port Island as a transfer student to Gekkoukan High School. His arrival, and consequently the arrival of Death within him, reawakens the Arcana Shadows, where they begin appearing every full moon. This leads to Yuki awakening to his Persona and being recruited to S.E.E.S. to explore Tartarus and defeat the Arcana Shadows under the false pretense of ending the Dark Hour, as advised by Shuji Ikutsuki, a former researcher who embraced The Fall and sought to hasten Death's recovery. Death, on its part, had lost its memory, and instead manifested itself as Pharos to Yuki, who formed a friendship with it, granting Death an aspect of humanity. The fully-recovered Death then leaves Yuki and manifests itself into reality as Ryoji Mochizuki, the Appriser of The Fall, still without its memories as Death or Pharos.

Ryoji Mochizuki befriends the members of S.E.E.S. and lives as a high school student until the next full moon, where he finally regains all of his memories and meets Aigis at the Moonlight Bridge once again, where the latter attempts to engage him in battle and lose to the now complete Death. Mochizuki explains to S.E.E.S. that his existence signifies the certainty of Nyx's arrival, though he gives them a choice: Yuki, being the one who granted him humanity, can kill him, removing all of their memories of the Dark Hour and allowing them to live in ignorance until The Fall. Despite Mochizuki's wishes, S.E.E.S. and Yuki decide against killing him, choosing instead to try and fight against Nyx, despite being warned of her indescribable power.

On January 31st, 2010, S.E.E.S. arrives at the top of Tartarus to confront Nyx Avatar. Despite being able to initially best it in battle, they are unable to stop it from calling Nyx. As The Fall begins, Yuki awakens to the Universe, allowing him to confront Nyx's core and perform the Great Seal at the cost of his own life. This makes Nyx dormant, preventing The Fall and eliminating the Dark Hour, and separates it from Erebus, who seeks to break the seal and reawaken Nyx.

End of spoilers.

Mechanics

Persona 3 and Persona 3 FES

The player may choose to explore Tartarus with any available members of S.E.E.S. on most nights. While exploring Tartarus, active party members will become Tired over time, limiting their performance. Should the player return to the entrance, Tired party members will leave for the night, becoming unavailable, unless it is the night before a full moon.

On the day of a full moon, the player will be forced to conduct the operation during the Dark Hour, which implies skipping any free time they would have had otherwise.

Persona 3 Portable

The mechanics of the Dark Hour remain the same as in FES and the original release, except exhaustion only applies after the Dark Hour ends.

Persona 3 Reload

The mechanics of the Dark Hour remain the same as in Portable, except the exhaustion mechanic was entirely removed.

Nomenclature

Names in Other Languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	影時間 Kage jikan	Shadow Hour
French	Heure sombre	Shadowy Hour
German	Dark Hour	Dark Hour
Italian	Ora Buia	Dark Hour
Brazilian Portuguese	Hora Sombria	Shadowy Hour
Russian	Темный час Temnyy chas	Dark hour
Spanish	Hora Oscura	Dark Hour

Gallery

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  Dark Hour in Persona 3 Reload