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setsuntamew · 3 years

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So, Persona 5 Royal, huh?

Full disclosure: I had gotten about halfway through November on Wednesday and finished it out Saturday night, which took uhhh about 65-70 hours? Some of that was sitting there waiting for the PS4 controller to recharge or listening to music in the Thieves Den while eating, but I still feel like I need to own up to how extremely bad I am at making good decisions with my life XD

MOVING ON, THOUGH, HOLY SHIT. P5 was a very good game, but Royal’s additions & changes made it incredible. I like the ending way more; I think it’s more emotionally fulfilling and meaningful, especially with everyone’s more defined future plans. Definitely felt like everyone had more growth in the end!! Which is something I’d always thought P5 was lacking.

Snip snip for spoilers and the fact that this post ended up being too damn long, oops! the last third is basically Akechi feels and analyzing his ending, so......yeah XD

Part of why I plowed through SO much of Royal in so little time is....Akechi XD Like okay, this is my stupid fandom blog, I can be excited about him all I want!!! I got to Sae’s Palace and just....I couldn’t put it down. @dragonofeternal and I ordered an embarrassing amount of takeout instead of cooking because we just had to see how everything with Maruki and the third semester was gonna go down. I’d already been dying along the way because Akechi’s confidant dates are so good, I just. Fuck!!!

Also, look, for the entirity of Shido’s boss fight and the depths of Mementos/Yaldabaoth/etc, we’d look at each other every few minutes and just be like AKECHI SHOULD BE HERE WITH US, HE DESERVES TO GET HIS VENGEANCE ON HIS SHITTY DAD AND FORCED DESTINY!!!!!

December 24th had to be the longest god damn day in Akira’s life because like. Final exam grades are posted in the morning! He goes to school and then dives into hell, crawls his way back out, briefly dies by fading from human cognition, fights an actual fucking god, and then....ends up dissociating in Shibuya until Sae shows up and is like “oh hey thanks for everything you did, please sign up for being arrested now.” And while he’s still reeling from that, Akechi walks up to take his place, like some kind of bullshit knight in shining armor schtick, and leaves no room for conversation.

AND THEN WE HAVE TO GO ON A DATE

I romanced Hifumi this time around, because I wanted Akria to bang a girl who is just so incredibly out of his league, but....it’s not necessarily that I forgot I was dating someone, more that it had been *so many hours of plot* that I was emotionally exhausted. Like, Hifumi texted me and I was just like. Right. RIGHT. It’s still Christmas Eve, somehow. I was at *school* this morning. The whole world merged with Mementos briefly in the middle of this, Akechi is somehow alive, and I guess I’m going on a date now????

I do appreciate how many “god I’m just dissociating my way through this” conversation options there were for the date, tbh. I feel bad though, I really like Hifumi, but I feel like Akira is not giving a date his full emotional attention at that specific time. It feels a bit like emotional whiplash, more so than I remember it being in P5? Maybe it’s because I played it 4 years ago and there wasn’t the added emotional weight of Akechi’s reappearance, but it was just like....a lot, in Royal.

AND THEN THE NEW YEAR HAPPENED. I’d been spoiled on large parts of the third semester, mostly because Royal’s been out for a year already and I’m too curious for my own good. I’d also somehow lied to myself, saying I didn’t have time to play another Persona game right now, and yet here I am, 171 hours of game play within exactly a month, kicking myself for not knowing how deep in Persona hell I would get XD

Which is to say, as soon as the new year started, it felt I was drowning in anxiety. I knew something was wrong, I knew they were in a false reality, but knowing that sure as fuck didn’t make it easier to go through. If anything, it was somehow worse, knowing that it was all gonna come crumbling down, but I didn’t yet know the exact details, only the broad strokes of it. Just. Every time someone talked about something that was wrong, my heart would clench.

God, I’m so fucking tired, I pulled an all-nighter on Friday so I could get through Royal before having to work on Sunday, and I am feeling it right now. Life tips: don’t do what I do XD

Every moment with Akechi felt like borrowed time, at least for me, because I knew what was coming. I spent so much time in Mementos with him; I ended up putting just him and Akira in my party and plowing through everything, including trouncing the Reaper over and over just for the hell of it. I got his ultimate weapons, I spent so many nights in the jazz club with him that he ran out of dialogue options, and I still took him back for more. I accidentally failed to EVER trigger Sumire’s Showtime because every fight was just Akira and Akechi against the world, because fuck it, I’m playing this for fun!! If I want to play with them in stupid costumes and no one else in the party, I’m gonna. Royal did such an incredible job giving Akechi more depth and development: it was all I could hope for, and it made it that much fucking worse to know what was in store for him.

Somehow, I thought it would be harder for me to make the decision to refuse Maruki’s deal, since fuck, fuck what I wouldn’t give for Akechi to be alive???? But I barely hesitated, only really stopping because I had to emotionally brace myself for it, because a reality where he can’t carve out his own fate would be a disrespect to everything their relationship is built on.

I have a whole shit ton of feelings about post-beating Maruki but they’re basically all Akechi related meta so somehow they ended up at the end of this post, I’m sorry XD

I understand that they had to keep the going to jail bit because 1) Akechi didn’t turn himself in, Akira did and 2) it leads to the final events of the game, but let me just say....the emotional roller coaster of fighting Maruki, almost failing multiple times, waking up in jail, the Phantom Thieves & friends getting Akira out of jail, celebrating that, and then getting thrown into Valentines Day was a LOT for my heart to take. Once again, didn’t forget I had a girlfriend, just got too invested in the plot to really be thinking about her. It’s less than two weeks after the fight with Maruki and somehow, everything is supposed to be okay????

The scene with everyone talking about their future plans is such good character growth, though. Everyone feels like they’ve truly grown and are making decisions that, even though they might be painful or hard at times, are ultimately very important to them. It’s a really good contrast to the “almost everyone goes to Shujin and they all stay in Tokyo forever without doing anything for themselves” Maruki’s perfect reality bad end.

Standing in the Underground Mall on White Day, being told I had to get flowers but finally being able to have control of Akira again was....so bittersweet. The fact that the location of the date is the aquarium is a low fucking blow, and I almost threw the controller across the room I was so upset. Like. THE AQUARIUM IS UNLOCKED BECAUSE AKECHI HAS TICKETS HOW FUCKING DARE SOJIRO SUGGEST IT LIKE MY HEART ISN’T STILL ACHING????? God, speaking of that: The fucking god damn Featherman video game tore my heart out because I ended up playing it WHILE WORKING ON SHIDO’S PALACE and I cried a ton about Gray Pigeon because of course they had to dig the emotional knife in even deeper!! Just fuck me up, it’s fine, I’m just dying!!!!!!!!!!!!

I ended up scrolling through his texts to find the group chats that still had Akechi in them, and fuck, it was a LOT. Like. Maybe it’s because I’m too invested in the two of them, but it was probably the worst emotional whiplash of the whole game. Like, how am I supposed to go play happy with anyone while staring at texts from a reality built of lies? It wasn’t real but the proof lives on in his phone and his heart, and I’m still fucked up over it.

HOWEVER. FUCKING. I SPENT LIKE HALF AN HOUR BEING EMOTIONALLY COMPROMISED ABOUT ALL THIS AND THEN DISCOVERED THE BASTARD STILL HAD ALL HIS EQUIPMENT, INCLUDING THE ULTIMATE MALE ARMOR!!! He returned his shit after Sae’s Palace even though he thought Akira was dead, but this time it didn’t get fucking returned to my inventory, so he must have fucking run off with all his shit!!!!!!! Why the hell did none of it get returned if he was never alive in the true reality? Like I know it'll be returned for a new game+ but I like to nitpick game mechanics for story reasons, because one of the things I love most about video games is the experience of them as another layer to the story. The texts from the third semester shouldn’t exist anymore, since they never really existed, but there they are. Akechi insisted that he has a gap in his memory after Shido’s Palace up until seeing Akira on Christmas Eve, but who can say that wasn’t related to Maruki tampering with reality or some other Persona-related reason?

I mean. I got the full and complete True Ending; I saw him in the train station. If that’s not Akechi, then who the fuck is it? Atlus made sure to put the work in to make him a part of not just the main story but also, especially, the third semester, and for what....to have his final time on screen be as the butt of the joke, squished underneath everyone in the Mona-copter? As much as it hurts, his end in Shido’s Palace matters; it fits his character and he gets to go out fighting- carving his own path, really. In Royal, barring the tiny glimpse of someone who’s probably him in the train station, the last we see of him is when he watches Joker let go of the rope to finish off Maruki. I know we got the heart to heart where Akira agrees to reject Maruki’s deal and Akechi insists that he’d rather be dead than live in a false reality, but.....no one even says goodbye to him. It’s tragic, it’s painfully lonely, but it doesn’t feel right for such a major character.

Also, as undignified as it is, for the first time ever, Akechi looks like he actually belongs in the Phantom Thieves in that final moment. He’s never been the butt of their jokes before; they always kept him at arms’ reach and he took himself too seriously to be included, but for that brief moment, it really felt like he was part of their group. He stopped lying about himself for their last month together, and so even if they don’t all like him, they can make that decision based on the truth, instead of layers of lies. His death is all the more tragic for this; a life cut short just when he’s finally finding a place he belongs. But his death was already painful; why make it so, so much worse?

Final thing: I’m gonna be spending a ton of time in the Thieves Den trying to find Akechi’s opinions on everything, but also....hey. HEY. What do those six stars that Jose (probably?) painted on the wall mean? Is it just a reference to Persona 6???? LIKE????? I HAVE QUESTIONS. SO, SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!!

Anyway, I’ve gotta go cry into my Starbucks and desperately try to focus on actually doing my job at work, but I loved Royal deeply and cannot wait to drown in it ;w;

#persona 5 royal #p5r #persona 5 royal spoilers #goro akechi #akeshu #I have just so many Akechi feels I'm sorry #long post #persona 5 royal meta

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nightshadedawn · 3 years

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Persona 5 Royal Playthrough pt3

I ended up going through two Palaces before I could update y’all. Oh well.

...Yeah, no, quit calling me Miss Special Snowflake's boyfriend. It's not happening.

Ryuji, Morgana, and Yusuke having a conversation in the laundromat: "It's like he's our mom," says Ryuji... the mom friend.

Every time Morgana is like "I have to turn into a human so no one else can have Lady Ann!" then expects no one else to hear him makes me laugh. Like, bitch, no.

I have the restaurant in my Thieves Den 'cause I like it. Yusuke, Ryuji, and Morgana are there. They're so precious.

I got a three in a row Tycoon on cutthroat!!!

Ryuji and Ann just keep going "Shoulda figured" and other versions of the statement every time I win.

Ann just rejected Morgana's feelings HARD. I am happy.

Ryuji is too good, honestly. Why would anyone not like him? He's... He's always trying to build the team up, make them proud of themselves and what they've done. I will admit that he has his moments of being not a great human, but they're teenagers who were given absurd powers, so honestly, can you blame them?

I didn't know darts was an actual minigame! There's so many minigames. I'm so happy.

I don't like Akechi. I don't know why some people do. Like, his death scene was a bit... too late for a redemption for me, right after he tried to kill Joker, several times. His pain is understandable, but still... I can't.

Their "two sides of the same coin" also doesn't seem particularly fair. It's totally uneven in everything but color schemes.

Guys, GUYS, please, PLEASE decide whether you're going to react to my teasing or not.

"We don't have to deal with them directly," Ryuji says joyfully about the mafia. Oh you sweet, sweet, innocent child, if only you knew what I do.

I literally can't play this game around anyone else because I tend to yell "BABY!" to Ryuji, Ann, and Yusuke and "BITCH" or "FUCKER" to... a rather long list of villains in this game... and Makoto.

I can literally feel Yusuke's anxiety about his painting when you take him to Leblanc to see Sayuri.

How can you say Yusuke isn't gay when he says everything I do is beautiful?

I love Ryuji's 9th social link. It's LITERALLY written like a confession scene. This also means I kinda hate it because... I can't date him.

Also... PRETTY BOY RYUJI PRETTY BOY RYUJI PRETTY BOY RYUJI

I actually kinda thought that the new scene for Ryuji being a crossdresser is kinda funny??? Is this bad??? I wanna see him in a dress, tho. I gotta agree, he'd be a natural. Not the like, painfully obviously not taking it seriously from the dancing game, though.

Though I do think it's valid that he freaks out when two strange adults come up to him and try to take him somewhere, especially in a place known for being shady, and at night.

...When Ryuji complains about it, I do feel bad about ditching him. Then again, I blame the cat.

Ryuji may be my ideal type on paper, but I'm also highly attracted to Yusuke and this is so totally unfair.

*softly chanting* butlers butlers butlers butlers

Don't mind me just... *makes meticulous plot to avoid having Makoto join the team that i may or may not write a fanfic about*

Makoto is one dumbass bitch. Like, honestly, there's nothing she does that's in any way remotely smart.

...I thought I'd just skip Makoto's scenes until she became relevant, but here I am, still skipping her scenes. Does that mean she’s still irreleveant?

"Witch" I suggest, and Makoto complains! "Would you prefer "Bitch"? I can use that too.

I put Yusuke on the team in the middle of the palace through settings, replacing Morgana, who had been standing right behind me. Which made Yusuke stand right behind me. It looked like he was holding onto my waist and standing uncomfortably close. Bro, babe, I love you, but not in front of my boyfriend and girlfriend!

Just accept the compliment, guys, I'm not going to compliment Queen.

...Opening chests with Ann or Ryuji is just so sweet because they're so affectionate and touchy feely. Especially Ryuji.

Math. Fucking. Sucks. I should not have to use math in a game. I hate this. Obviously it's the Palace Makoto comes in that this happened.

Well, I finished the Palace in a day. I love the feeling. But it was getting close there. Joker and Yusuke were down to no spells...

...Yoshizawa hasn't showed up yet. When is she getting shoehorned in?

WHY IS THE VELVET ROOM RED!?

My very first playthrough I didn't execute a single execution except for the first one we have to do. It really screwed me over my second playthrough...

...I broke the electric chair. That's certainly something that happened.

147 games of Tycoon later and I've only been a beggar 31 times in total, versus the pure thirty wins in just Cutthroat.

They're in their summer uniforms and it makes make miss warmer weather already. It's fucking snowing outside. Grrrr.

Beat Kaneshiro! ...Wasn't a fan of his new boss battle. I'm even playing on safe mode! But whatever.

Makoto is a DISASTER at Tycoon. She exclusively got beggar all three times I played with her!

...RYUJI YOU CAN'T SAY SHIT LIKE THAT AND NOT LET ME DATE YOU.

Ann, sweeties, baby, you're doing so well.

She confessed to me, then in the call afterwards it was basically insinuated I proposed... WHICH IS LIKE FUCK YEAH 'CAUSE SHE ACCEPTED IT.

It makes me think of the future conversation where they're talking about marriage.

Anyway, if you haven't noticed, l love Ann.

My next playthrough I'm not gong to date her, though. I'm a completionist and I want ALL of the possible awards. But... I refuse to cheat on Ann. So I'll date everyone else then just hang with Ryuji... despite how cringy some of the date things are.

...If Akechi wasn't, you know EVIL and tried to KILL ME, SEVERAL TIMES, I might, MIGHT, like him. But in truth, I think that's really just the Persona 5: Revival talking. We get... into some stuff during that.

I know that either Atlus or the translators know EXACTLY what goes on in the Persona fandom because otherwise "He's too pretty to be wrong" would not be an option when talking to the newspaper girl about Akechi. I have to agree with her that his looks aren't really, you know, awesome enough for that.

Also, I read it as "He's too petty to be wrong" at first and I think that's an accurate sum of his character.

YO AKECHI-FUCK I HAVE NO NEED TO SEE YOUR ASS LIKE THAT WHEN I HAVE BOTH A BF AND AND GF.

...fucker fucking giving me shit about my fake glasses...

If you COULD date the boy out of mod, Akechi would definitely be the one they were pushing you to date. Like Makoto. Or Yoshizawa.

But hey, at least I get to not be nice to him.

I remember seeing this picture where Ann, Ryuji, and Joker kept going to the movies together and seeing 3D movies, and Joker couldn't wear the 3D glasses properly because of his own. I keep imagining that picture during this event with Caroline and Justine.

You know what? Some people call Joker a loli lover because of them, but nope! He's just adopted two more siblings. That is my stance on it.

FUcking

Fucker

WHAT THE FRRRRRRRR

FUCK YOU ATULS OR TRANSLATORS OR WHATEVER

APHRODITE AND MARS ARE FROM TWO DIFFERENT MYTHOS. Aphrodite is GREEK, Mars is ROMAN. Their reversed are VENUS and ARES. USE ONE OR THE OTHER PEOPLE.

I get very pissed about this, and it's worse with Hades.

7/4 is the day I am screaming at, if you were wondering.

My dad asked me if the other students think Joker's stupid because every time I answer a question right they get all surprised.

I don't really like Makoto, as I'm sure you've noticed, but she was super nice about Ryuji's special move idea. And that put her ahead of Akechi in my book.

TESTS ARE NERVE WRACKING EVEN WHEN THEY'RE FICTIONAL

Yusuke and Ryuji are good boys, the best boys. And they're so awesome about their special move.

AND RYUJI OFFERED MONEY FOR YUSUKE'S FOOD. And implied that he did it before???? Ryuji, you best boy.

This boys' outing DOES make me happy, though. Like, insanely happy. Dunno why.

Maybe because Joker gets to be so flipping cheesy.

...fuck you, Yoshizawa.

HONESTLY WHAT THE EVER LOVING--- Grr. Too many choices while with her. Too many. OOC Joker when with her. 0/10.

I LOVE THE FESTIVAL PHOTO

And you know, it's really hard to choose between Lala-chan and Ann, but... GONNA TAKE ANN ON A DATE

Got her some flowers. Lets see if we can give them to her this time!

"Such a good FRIEND." Babe, we're DATING. For like, TWO WEEKS NOW.

AND I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO GIVE HER FLOWERS

Ann called Yusuke a pretty boy, but then she's missing out on the REAL pretty boy, Pretty Boy Ryuji.

Ryuji, why're you so worried about other girls when you've got ME?

"I like the shade." "What are you, moss!?" Oh, admit it, Ryuji, I'm growing on you.

Cargona. Snrk. Gods, I love you, Ryuji.

Dome town with Ryuji! "Isn't it all couples?" That's the point!

I COULD GIVE RYUJI THE ROSES!?

Sadly, I bought those for Ann. Ryuji, you get the noodles.

AND HE FUCKING LOVED IT.

"It feels like I really captured Ryuji's heart!" FUCK YEAH I DID

Gonna give Yusuke the bracelet when I get the chance.

Why is everyone color coded in the chat room? Kawakami, Akechi, Mishima, and the reporter are all ORANGE. What's the point? Well, Akechi's more of a golden orange, but close enough.

While Mishima is not my first choice for a date, he's definitely not my last.

...But the boy really needs some fucking sleep. He's not drawn with the bags under his eyes, but I can see them!

It's not fair that they give Akechi a kicked puppy sprite. I'm... goddamnit, they're trying to make me not hate him.

When Makoto doesn't know something, I'm brought great joy.

NO DAD MAKOTO IS NOT MY GIRLFRIEND ANN IS AND SHE IS LITERALLY R I G H T T H E R E

First day in Futaba's Palace! I've gotta say, this is my second favorite palace. Kamoshida, Futaba, Madarame, Sae, Okumura, Shido, Kaneshiro, Holy Grail. In that order. I HATE Kaneshiro's place and dealing with the Holy Grail. But whatevs, man. I love this game. (Vanilla, at least, this one is still on the fence)

I found out a cool little thing. On the uphill sand slopes in the town (don't know about anywhere else) if you're running and turn back quickly, Joker will do a little animation to steady himself. It was cool and made it seem, I dunno, more human? Anyway, while I was admiring this, Ryuji and Yusuke just stood at the top of the slope and Ann followed me while I was running. Best girlfriend ever.

Kin-Ki is looking pretty kin-ky if you know what I'm sayin'

Please don't murder me because I do terrible puns.

*we fall through the trap door* *Ryuji starts screaming* Same, baby, same.

...Makoto is seriously annoying. Like, she's got no business acting as familiar with Futaba's situation. The one who WOULD be the most familiar is Yusuke, and I'm glad he recognizes that. It's not the exact same, none of their stories are after all, but I feel like those two get each other better than even Ryuji and Joker understand each other.

Yusuke and Ryuji's special attack is THE BEST

Ryuji and Joker getting up close and personal in the shadows. All those fanfics coming true, man.

I thought Futaba was sloth, not wrath? Why are her Will Seeds called Wrath?

Beat it in one day! It's so satisfying to watch all those achievements when I leave the palace.

You know, I'm thinking of wearing the Christmas outfits for the final battle. Just to be kinda funny.

Spending a relaxing day with Yusuke after going through Futaba's Palace... kinda want to take him to the bathhouse to check out that new scene, but I also REALLY wanna feed the boy... gonna feed the boy.

Apparently I can only make 'decent curry.' Which is fine. Because "I" can't make curry at all. Joker, you've done much better than I.

THE DATE CHANGE SCREEN HAD A RAINBOW AND RYUJI WAS COMING OVER ON THE SAME DAY FUCK YEAH MY BISEXUAL BABY

...Broooooo, the way you talk about your manga is how I talk right before I start shipping.

Took him to the bathhouse, 'cause I don't gotta worry about Mama Sakamoto feeding him.

...Can I take Ann to the bathhouse?

Asked Ryuji to move in. He was all up for the idea until he remembered that I live in an attic.

I'm Charismatic now!

...I was all hoping Ann would stop by but then Akechi asked me out. Laaaaaaaame.

Ryuji's smile is so fucking cute.

...I say we just be honest, and everyone's so fucking stupid about it until Makoto explains it. This pisses me off. They're not that dumb... At least, they weren't until Makoto showed up.

Futaba's hiding in the closet. ...I've spent too many weeks making jokes about closets to not have a joke about it.

Really, Yusuke? You see those books and think she can't understand?

...Wait, that sassy tone of voice... You were TRYING to pull a reaction of her. I knew I shipped those two for a reason. OTP and BroTP. Doesn't matter, they're both awesome.

I love you Ann, but I don't think your situations were the same at all. It's not like both are valid and bad, but... different.

Joker is SO fast compared to the others, especially when he's speeding.

What the...

Holy fuck...

JOKER IS TOO EFFING COOL

THAT MOVE TO GET FROM THE ENTRANCE TO TO TREASURE DOOR? Awesome!

Damn, Joker has my heart too.

I kinda wish we could see Futaba's costumes in her Persona. That would be pretty neat.

The moment right before Wakaba appears is so aesthetically pleasing.

...Futaba being happy is almost enough for me to accept Maruki's offer, and I haven't gotten there yet.

Ryuji and Ann keep smacking each other out of their ailments. Like, you guys just love each other so much! It's awesome.

Joker has lackluster responses to Wakaba... I'm hoping that isn't one of those "Answer these wrong and you break her!" things... Not that I think I was, but still.

I liked Futaba's new animation for when she defied her mother.

I wish the anime looked more the cutscenes. I'm trying to rewatch the anime so I can pinpoint specific moments for future editing purposes, but it's kinda painful.

1- This is the SECOND TIME you've landed on Yusuke while running from trouble.

2- YUSUKE LET GO OF MY GIRL

No Makoto, I don't want to go see Futaba with you! I can go see her myself.

So, I like Takemi's new voice with her lines during this scene.

Sure, she collapses every so often and sleeps for a while. Stays like that for a few days. Sorry that I put her into a coma for a month, Boss...

SHE LOOKS SO CUTE WITHOUT GLASSES

Guys, we have a month. Stop worrying.

THE TWINS ARE SO CUTE WHILE HANGING ONTO THE BENCH PRESS

Damn, Joker's dying to the amusement of two little girls.

I'm kinda disappointed I didn't get results for all that training. But I liked the scene.

Yusuke just casually be lugging bigass paintings around.

Taking the girls to the church may have been one of the funnier moments. These cement them as Joker's little sisters. With Futaba. Damn, Joker, you got no brothers.

Yusuke promises to come by every day and we can tell him to take his clothes off. ATLUS, you have some EXPLAINING to DO.

..And Yusuke took it and ran with it. My sweet summer child, I don't think I could handle you in as little as possible on the day to day.

"The heat induced delirium made me think outside the box." Same.

Guts takes sooooooooooooo long to level up.

"Punish me more" he says, as if Takemi won't do it.

"Good god. Well, none of my medicine can cure THAT." AT LEAST WE'RE ALL ON THE SAME PAGE

BATHHOUSE WITH YUSUKE

Awe, he had fun. :)

#Persona 5 #akira kusuru #shuann #pegoryu #pegoryuann #persona 5 royal #yusuke kitagawa #ann takamaki #Ryuji Sakamoto #Pretty Boy Ryuji

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sonofanumbranwitch · 3 years

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P5S Seven Heavenly Virtues PT.3. Mariko Hyodo and The Jail of Temperance.

I want to start this one off by saying that Mariko’s Jail, at least in how it relates to her sin, is my least favorite. Namely because her story and character have absolutely NOTHING to do with the concept of gluttony. And I don’t just mean from a food perspective. Gluttony can mean an overindulgence in anything, but Mariko isn’t indulging in anything. Maybe her mayoral power, but that’s still not really the point of her story. The only thing relating her to gluttony is the food and utensils around her Jail, and that her shadow is a big fat monster. And considering pop cultures history of equating fat with evil, it just screams laziness directly into my face. So let’s fix that.

Now we have Mariko “Raphael” Hyodo and her Jail of Temperance. Instead of a clean-up initiative as part her mayoral campaign, she instead is pushing a health campaign. She’s working to limit access to unhealthy foods, and encourage the community to take part in events with heavy exercise involved. At first glance, everything she’s doing seems to be rather positive… Until the thieves catch her trying to force one her workers to vomit up some food.

“Please madame mayor it was just a burger!”

“Do you have any idea how many calories are in those things!? Now spit it all out! What will the people think if the staff in charge of their city is comprised of a bunch of flabby slobs!?”

The thieves confront her, and it plays out much the same in the original. Mariko tries to defend her actions by saying she has to be firm, otherwise people won’t push themselves towards excellence. She argues people lack restraint so she must provide it for them. Her Jail has the effect of not only making people support her campaign, but to obstain from eating unhealthy foods. The problem comes with now they aren't eating enough food to get the nutrients they need either. They feel compelled to only eat low-calorie vegetables like celery, and drink nothing but water, effectively starving themselves.

Her jail remains largely unchanged again. Except the frozen food has wasted away as it was left behind. Her shadow has also been redesigned to look more like her real-world self. Because the whole fat monster is evil because they’re fat is lazy and cliched so we’re not doing it. Instead she’s giving more White Witch from Narnia vibes.

The events leading to her trauma have changed as well. Instead of a snow sculpture oversight, the oversight is related to food catering. An employee hired a less than reputable company to cheaply provide food for the snow festival. But the food was contaminated and led to an outbreak of food poisoning which led to a lot of people getting sick. Even a young girl passed away from the illnesses she contracted due to her poisoning.

Mariko vowed she would restrain the evil and corruption within her city, and she would do whatever it took to look out for the safety and health of her citizens. This led her to her cold iron fist method of governance, and to her overlooking every health regulation in her city.

Her boss form takes an appearance similar to Temperantia from Bayonetta. She uses blast of cold wind to attack, and even uses her wind to restrain the parties movements.

“Someone had to take action! The evils of this world have no self-control Haru-Chan! If you give them an inch they will take a mile and leave nothing but pain and misery in their wake.”

“Mari-San! Don’t you see, you’ve lost restraint as well. I understand your desire to halt the injustice in your city. But you’ve gone out of your way to hurt innocent people as well. Wanting what’s best for your people I understand. But your grip on them is so tight that they can’t breath!”

“Haru-Chan…”

“My father was the same with me. He controlled every aspect of my life. I had no room to move, to be my true self. It was thanks to my friends I learned that life is worth a little risk and letting things out of control isn’t always a bad thing. You tried to control everyone around you so you wouldn’t be hurt again. But I promise there are people who don’t want to hurt you. I don’t.”

Another one down. This feels a lot more thematically aligned to me now. The complaint I’m trying to address with this series is that Atlus tended to slap a label of a sin on certain palaces and jails without really making it feel like that was a core theme of the dungeon. So hopefully I’ve fixed that if ever only slightly.

#persona 5 #persona 5 strikers #akira kusuru #ren amamiya #p5 joker #ryuji sakamoto #ann takamaki #p5 morgana #yusuke kitagawa #makoto niijima #futaba sakura #haru okumura #mariko hyodo #seven heavenly virtues #p5s

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mypunkpansexualtwin · 3 years

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Sumire and Ryuji from persona 5!

Hi volt! Sorry this took a while! Under a cut cause it’s gonna be a little long.

And for context for the rest of my followers, send me a character and I’ll talk about them!

Ryuji first! Because it’s the boy!

do I like them: Like him? Like him??? I adore the boy! That’s my boy!

5 good qualities: 1) Okay I know a lot of people put it in the negative qualities, but his anger. It consistently comes from a place of compassion, of seeing people being treated less than they deserve! I love a good example of righteous fury and Ryuji has it in spades. Plus, for me at least, it’s relatable. 2) That said, even if it’s (in my humble onion) good anger, it can get ahead of him/out of hand, and he recognizes that. And when it goes too far, he apologizes! He knows, admittedly often in retrospect, when he’s gone too far and needs to make up for it. And then he does! 3) Loyal, kind of to a fault. He’s ride or die for the protag from day one to endgame, even if you take the options to be an asshole to him and throw him under the bus for the entire game. He’s still looking out for the track team even though they don’t want anything to do with him. He deserves better. 4) He loves his mama. 5) That smile. Enough said.

3 bad qualities: 1) Always putting himself down. He’s fantastic and needs his confidence back. No, honey, you do not deserve to be beat up by your ex-teammates from track. I’m gonna beat them up right back, and then the people who let you think this way, starting with Atlus. 2) Protag can’t romance him. It’s not his fault though. 3) Poor boy got slapped with the Token Perv designation. (There is a pattern here to his bad qualities that are more about Atlus than the character himself.)

favourite episode/etc: I love his awakening (granted, I love all the awakenings) but probably my favorite thing is when he just. Invites you to go fishing on his birthday? Without actually telling you that’s what day it is? He just decides that what he wants for his birthday is to spend the day with his best friend just chillin’??? But doesn’t wanna pressure you? He’s! A good! Boy!

otp: Akiryu, pegoryu, whatever you wanna call it. Skull and Joker are soulmates and that’s that on that.

brotp: Ryuji&Ann and Ryuji&Futaba are my favorites, but just in general he deserves all the friendships.

ot3 ot4: Ryuji/Akira/Makoto/Haru. I could go on at length about why I adore the potential dynamic here. But I won’t on this post. Feel free to ask me about it sometime though. Buuut it’ll probably take me a while to answer, fair warning.

notp: Honestly, as long as it isn’t something Overtly Gross (cause 16), I don’t really have a notp for him. He’s full of love that needs to be shared.

best quote: Listen, we all love the “bein’ free” and “my place is next to you” quotes, so those go without saying. Instead, consider: “My whole life I thought I was banned from watching R-rated movies because my mom told me it stands for no-Ryuji.”

head canon: Shit, normally I have a few dozen headcanons rattling around in my brain at a time, but today I got nothin’ that I can dredge up and put to paper (metaphorically) so instead, uh, this song always makes me think of him.

And Sumi!

do I like them: I really do, partly out of spite for the part of the fandom that doesn’t like her, mostly out of genuine enjoyment for the character.

5 good qualities: 1) I’ll say it flat out, I respect her saying that the Phantom Thieves aren’t a permanent solution to society’s problems and that while they’re doing good work for those with no other options, society as a whole would stagnate for relying on them and not facing their own problems head-on. Because she’s absolutely right (as seen in the 12/24 Bad Ending), regardless of the particular irony of her circumstances when she said it. 2) Her overall growth from depression and self-deprecation to unflinching determination is super admirable and tbh kinda resonated with me. 3) Again, respect for turning down the Phantom Thieves to focus on herself. I like an ally character who won’t immediately bend over backwards for a player character, it keeps things interesting. 4) Impressively sneaky. Very important for a Phantom Thief, even if she isn’t officially one until almost the end. Tailed them in Sae’s palace without tipping them off on the 18th, eavesdropped on the conversation with Lavenza and just turned up in Maruki’s palace like it was no big deal, she’s fuckin’ impressive. 5) Who doesn’t love a good cook?

3 bad qualities: 1) Not her fault, but the big gap in the story between maxing her confidant early on in the game and then not being really relevant at all until 3rd semester save for a couple of “hey remember she’s still around” cutscenes leaves her feeling really isolated from the rest of the game. It’s more an issue of the writing not making an effort to connect her to the rest of the group/story at large. (I have my issues with Persona 4 Golden, but the New Girl confidant was at least better linked to the rest of the team during her social link.) 2) Girl I get the depression aspect, but why did you think Kasumi wouldn’t have mourned your death beyond, “well now I’m gonna keep working at this goal for both of us”??? (I know, I know, she is grieving, but a lot less that we see her do as Sumire, and again, the depressive spiral that made her take off like that anyways, but still.) 3) Another complaint more at the writing team than at the character herself, but I do wish that the protag could have been a little more of a smartass to her like he can to the rest of the team. “Are you going to the park cleanup too?” “Nah, I’m wearing my school gym clothes for fun.” Y’know, harmless sass like that. She suffers from a little bit of “Here’s The New Waifu, Now Love Her” writing. 4) Atlus, please give me a Confidant item that gives me those sweet, sweet perks back in NG+.

favourite episode/etc: Her second/real awakening during the third semester. Partly because by the time we got to Makoto’s awakening, the tearing-off-the-mask moment was more of a “okay you’ve seen this part, on to The Reveal” and that was disappointing because I liked how visceral and cathartic the first three were, and boy did hers fuckin’ deliver on that. It was fantastic.

otp: I’m a sucker for Sumitaba. Although Harusumi snuck up on me recently.

brotp: Ann&Sumire and Yusuke&Sumire, but again just give her all the friends. And then a couple more just for good measure.

ot3: Sumire/Enough Food To Fuel The Growing Athlete/Writing That Doesn’t Food Shame Her

notp: Again, as long as it’s not an Overtly Nasty, You Need Jesus ship (saw one person ship her and maruki and just. Yikes.), I don’t really have a notp for her. That said, my first playthrough was more “that’s my little sister” than a character I wanted to romance, so shusumi took a little bit of a brain adjustment.

best quote: “I am myself! I’ll never forget that again!” Fuck yeah, girl, heal from that trauma!

head canon: Haru and the Yoshizawa twins were friends as very little kids in the same beginner ballet class.

#persona 5 #p5r spoilers #voltdracoatl #answers to questions y'all actually asked

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p5youllneverseeitcoming · 4 years

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So I finished Persona 5 Royal

And once again I was a crying mess when the ending credits rolled.

Now, I’d like to share my thoughts about this game but I also respect the fact that not everyone had the chance to finish it yet so anything that is a spoiler will be talked about under the cut.

Anyways, let’s begin.

From the very beginning... I love the new title screen, the fact that you can see each member just hanging out in the streets of Tokyo is so cute and I love it. It’s so easy to get a platinum trophy for Persona 5 Royal which at first I thought was somewhat disappointing as it doesn’t require you to play through it again but then I found out there’s a bunch of challenges in the Thieves Den so I was really glad I had a reason to play it again.

Speaking of the Thieves Den, it’s really nice to see your team members just chat about the decorations you put in there, like for example Yusuke and Ann casually chatting in front of a Reaper statue like it’s no big deal. On a small sidenote, my mum really likes the fact that you can play Tycoon in the Thieves Den and I’m not gonna lie she spent hours playing with them which means I now have thousands of tokens but nothing to spend them on :’)

Much of P5R is very similar to the vanilla P5 except of course the fact that there’s 2 new characters being introduced to the story. You still get sent to Tokyo for ‘assaulting’ the drunk man however, the first change that you really notice is Sojiro’s conversation with you when he is taking you home on the Sunday you visit the school. Of course, by this point you know that there have been many psychotic breakdowns and a lot of accidents but what Sojiro tells you is... Interesting to say the least. I didn’t think of it much at first but then again I went into Royal completely spoiler free (except of course with the knowledge of how Persona 5 plays out) but eventually you find out that what he said was actually really important.

Another thing I really loved that they put in Royal is the fact that they managed to make the battle system even better. I always thought it was pretty amazing but they somehow managed to make it even better. First off, you can Baton Pass right off the bat. No need to establish a social link with the party members or anything, which honestly makes everything so much easier, especially in the early game. They also decided, you know what this nasty crime boy needs? Unlimited bullets... Well sorta. Remember how in Persona 5 you only had a limited amount of bullets per infiltration? Well, now they replenish every battle which of course means I did the only rational thing:

You also get the grappling hook in Royal and honestly? Just watching Joker do flips all over the place is really aesthetically pleasing. I love that they reworked the Palaces so that the grappling hook plays a big part in getting around and as I said, it’s just so fun to see Joker zooming through the air.

They added new Shadows/Personas to Royal which I think is fantastic as it makes returning players not bored of the battles but they also changed some weaknesses/removed weaknesses for some shadows which means you gotta strategise a little bit more. They also changed up the Palace Ruler Bosses but I found them... A lot more easier than the original? I don’t know if it’s due to the fact that I love to grind a lot before finishing a Palace or if I just had the perfect Personas for the occasion but yeah... That’s not to say the changes are bad! I still really liked them but it was just... Really easy for me lol.

Another major change is the fact that Morgana decided that you may be a tired boi after going to the Metaverse but you still have enough energy to do some things in the cafe. That makes it like a ton easier to max out your social stats which means you can max out your confidants a lot faster, I managed to max out everyone and still had days where I literally had nothing to do which just shows how much time you actually save now.

Along with the fact that they fixed some translation errors, they also improved the sprites and added a lot more voice lines which was really nice in my opinion, it was a lot better when a character was expressing a certain emotion and their sprite actually matched it instead of just them facing one way and occasionally changing the facial expression.

I’ll mention this briefly seeing as this is sort of spoilery but I really loved the new confidants. The fact that you can actually hang out with Akechi and get to know him instead of being forced to level him up automatically was so good. The scenes where you would automatically rank up are still there but they kinda act as a filler of sorts now which in all honesty I didn’t mind.

Ummm... That’s about all I can think of that doesn’t contain spoilers so... The section below will have spoilers so please only read this when you finish the game!

I’m going to talk about Akechi’s Confidant for a bit because I just really loved it okay? You learn so much about him, even things that seem trivial like the fact that he’s left handed become... Well rather important near the end. The more time you spend with him, the more you see how much Akira actually means to him. When you defeat him in his Rank 8 event, I actually loved it when he said he hated Akira. That was pure Akechi right there, no lies, no fake smiles just pure, honest truth. Also, I love how he decided to be extra and dramatic by throwing his glove as a challenge. It’s also really significant, at least to me, mainly because you never see him without gloves, in a way, this sort of showed that he fully exposed his true self to Akira. Their exchange in Shido’s Palace when you remind him that you still have his glove... That was really sad. I really wish there was some way you could help him, but alas, you can’t always have happy endings.

I’m not gonna lie, I was really confused when I got to 12/24 and we still went to Mementos. You discover a Palace and explore it for a bit but then it’s kind of... Forgotten? Like Morgana is genuinely like: Lmao this doesn’t concern us atm so you know, killed God with the power of friendship, was ready to stop being a Phantom Thief and surrender myself to the police but then... Mr. Sketchy himself just appears out of nowhere and decides that he’ll take Akira’s place for him

When I first saw him I was like: Omg? How is this even possible? Can I hug him? But then weird things started happening in the story

Reality becomes distorted after New Years and you see that right away when your cat, is no longer a cat. But that’s not all, Futaba’s mother is alive and well as well as Haru’s father and supposedly they were never dead in the first place. I was really confused but then guess who turns up to clear some things up... Mr. Pankechi.

This post is already long as hecc so I won’t go into details but I really like the new Palace. It’s so different to the other Palaces and for once the Palace Ruler is not some evil adult... He’s actually quite the opposite.

I’m going to quickly talk about Kasumi for a second now, or rather Sumire. Honestly when you learn the truth, I was really shocked. Remember when I said what Sojiro tells you becomes important near the end? Yeah well it’s like the game was telling you from the start that she’s not really who she says she is. Just like Akechi, I was fully convinced that the New Palace was hers but I was kind of relieved to find out that wasn’t the case. As a party member, I really like her, she’s really cute and her Persona abilities are helpful in the new Palace. As a confidant... Again, she’s just so cute. When you help her pick out the glasses for her dad... Bruh I just wanted to give her headpats all day. Once you unlock the rest of her confidant, it’s really nice to see her grow and accept the fact that she doesn’t have to be Kasumi appreciated, and once she accepts that she’s Sumire but she’ll still do everything to make Kasumi’s dream come true it was honestly so satisfying.

I think the thing I loved the most though is the fact that Akechi becomes your navigator for a little while and honestly? I wish I had the option to keep him as the navigator. His lines are so funny because they’re helpful but at the same time they’re so passive aggressive! ALSO his Showtime with Joker is by far my favourite Showtime. I love how he’s able to just be himself and literally rip enemies apart and Joker’s just there like: Yeah I’ll play along why not. Whenever they finish and Akechi is just there like: “Don’t waste my time.” ... Big mood, me when I’m driving around Mementos trying to find the stamps.

One more thing I gotta talk about... The ending. I love it so much. I think it’s a lot better than the original Persona 5 ending and here’s why. First of all, the fact that you see the Thieves still being themselves is just so sweet I love these funky kids, that fact that Maruki gives you a lift to the station and he accepts that this is the world that you have to live in? Amazing, thank you Atlus. The fact that Morgana is just snoozing in your bag? Beautiful, let me pet my cat plz. But most importantly... The edgy pancake loving detective LIVES, granted Akira doesn’t actually see him but I DID. I burst into tears when I saw him walk by, I’m so glad he got to live in a reality where he isn’t anyone’s puppet anymore. He can finally fix the mistakes he did, don’t get me wrong, Akechi is still a bad person, I mean he literally killed people but he still deserved a second chance, and seeing him alive means that he finally has a chance to do that... Bruh I was crying so much.

Anyway, I could talk about this game for hours but here are just some of my thoughts that I wanted to share, I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to say later on but for now... Have this mess I call a post!

#p5r #p5 #persona 5 #persona 5 royal #p5r spoilers #persona 5 spoilers

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sillyfudgemonkeys · 4 years

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@moldygreenblue (tumblr why are you always like this? ;w; lemme tag)

I believe I went off on her a little before (outside her dungeon, x) Anyway Futaba’s there for a number of reasons:

I hate her dungeon, her shadow, just her whole arc from a lore perspective. The rules are broken....no...shattered for her, not just P5′s rules but previous games’ rules. (I think I mentioned it in these posts x, x, x, btw these are all pre Royal.....Atlus probs saw a post about it and was like “we need to add doubts in Royal maybe now it’ll make sense!” srry boo but she says it’s no her mom and her cognition should reflect that right away you still messed up, also too little too late).

I’m pretty sure I remember talking about how I do no think she is a good representation of mental illness, she basically is cured with the “power of friendship” after a week (of being conscious), and they only use her lingering issues when they need it for plot reasons (on top of the fact iirc the writing between main story and CoOp is contradictory, iirc she’s like “MC you’re the one who saved me! I can only go out if I’m with YOU!” and then the next day of one of my playthroughs Yusuke literally picks her up and she’s like “oh I’m fine now, and it’s thanks to EVERYONE!” and it’s just....pandering for a romance in that CoOp). It pisses me off she’s the rep for mental illness.

She takes up too much screen time, and it feels like a lot of actual issues/obstacles we could just....overcome is instead made so we NEED to use her (I’m looking at you dungeon 3 of PQ2, you can suck it, Fuuka should’ve been the focus, literally makes no sense for Futaba to be the focus????)

Ties into point 1 but still deserves it’s own point. I hate how she’s like “THEY STOLE MY HEART! THEY CHANGED MY COGNITION!” but....we didn’t.......we literally didn’t. Did we help/save her with our intervention? Yes, but it’s not cause it was supernatural, we just showed up for her. Did WE solve her issue supernaturally.....no....not really, we didn’t get a chance (remember how....there was no treasure! oOo yeah we go into her Palace, but that’s not really changing her, it’s us going in irl and being like “yo ya gotta go outside! get that sunny D!” than us screwing with her dungeon). She solved it herself, Yaldy gave her the app, she ran into her Shadow, she accepted her Shadow, she solved it on her own. Not only is it a straight up lie, and conflating someone changing their mind/”heart” with the PT way of changing hearts (as well as the fact you know....we didn’t change her cognition, she did), but it also reduces her own involvement in her own healing process and overcoming the obstacle herself. We were just the spark, the rest of the flame emerged from Futaba. Like listen, the IRL stuff we did was important, but when it came down to the wire, it was her own memory and faith in herself and her mom that helped her confront herself and her false memories (because y’know...she couldn’t hear us). And it pisses me off that the writers would take something important to a character and her message, away for some bullshit reason.

I dunno some times she acted like an ass and it was just annoying, I already had Makoto/Yusuke/Goro/MC(even Mona/Ryu at times, to other’s not each other, obvie they do it to each other) kinda getting away(or have gotten away) with that without much reprimanding. (and tbh, anything that could possibly be redeemable, is either nonexistent, or overshadowed by the fact she’s mostly just there for her be connected to a literal mother of a plot device, no her hacking isn’t needed you have superpowers and another world WHY do you need to rely on her????literally states in the first dungeon you can’t use a phone camera in the metaverse even, but for some reason a laptop is fully working?????I know one is part of the phone and the other is a comp but it’s our only tech we know/can relate back to, so what does it mean Atlus? Is the comp allowed but the phone isn’t? Why? Just explain. Here’s one I just made up for you: Phone has to have the app open at all times in the metaverse! Or, actually no tech works well in the Metaverse, which means no laptop, one or the other choose please)

Oh she kinda screws us over, until we joined we didn’t have any connections to doing anything illegal. Yeah she throws that out the window. I mean we can always sell her out, but we are her enablers/accomplices.

Someone I know who was studying hacking at the time (for their work) was like “she’s kind of pulling that shit outta her ass.” And it hurt them to watch any of her scenes play out (I think the wire tap was the one thing she got a pass on tho). It doesn’t help it’s not really explained enough (so they can see if it’s plausible). To them it’s cringe, to me it shows convenience for the story (obvie I care more about how it hinders the story skadlfj;alfj and if it’s like they say, it annoys me even more).

Spinoff wise I hate how she tries to grope Anne and Makoto in P5D, and I hate how she takes up a shit load of screen time in PQ2 (I don’t care Hikari is a shut in, gdi Fuuka earned that spotlight in dungeon 3, it makes no sense why Futaba would do it, hell Fuuka should’ve been chiming in due to her knowing what it’s like to be bullied, same with Rise iirc she was also bullied, like god damn, PQ2 really went “We’re gonna give all the screen time to P5 kids even tho they won’t really do jack shit with most of it, and just have P3/4 kids chime in enough to remember they exist”)

Basically I don’t like what she brings to the table, esp since the game makes us rely on her. She doesn’t spark the exact same amount of rage that Makoto does (tho if you saw me my last playthrough during Futaba’s dungeon I’d say it’s pretty close), but it does feel insulting from a long time fan/lore fiend/just a freaking viewer trying to consume the medium that’s seeing there’s some toxic stuff in her writing (and I don’t mean “toxic” I mean “it’s really bad to freaking think that friends will fix your mental health, it won’t, and it’s unfair to you and your friends to even think of putting that onto them” bad levels of thinking).

I also find she’s a wasted opportunity, such as “oh what if we solved this mental illness with supernatural means? what could possibly go wrong? Esp with how drastic the change is for other people we’ve done it to! :D” *cough* *cough* If only they figured out that’d be kinda interesting *cough**cough* Oh mean what a violet coughing fit, I mean violent.... >.> *in a bad canadian accent* I really need soome air eh?..........8U ANYWAY, the biggest role she serves (besides spotlight stealing to justify having a hacker), is a connection to her mom and showcasing that even “good people” can have palaces.....sadly the latter seems to fall on deaf ears on even fans of this game.....and the writers/characters. So uhhhh good job failing at the latter (for awhile at least), and uhhh....we could just NOT have the former! I think the gov could be shady without them also getting in on supernatural stuff but that’s just me. 030

#moldygreenblue #silly reply #silly replies #persona problems #that one pun isn't the best not the correct pronunciation but it's close enough #p5r spoilers #persona 5 royal spoilers #if you can find the spoilers then you already played the game

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twilightknight17 · 4 years

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Today on Royal: Pain! :’D

He’s eating the map and I’m getting steadily more weirded out by all of this the longer it goes on.

I’m definitely worried now. Where the fuck is the Velvet Room. How is he powerful enough to override the Velvet Room?

So he wants me to see “his reality”. Which means going out and seeing how happy all of Akira’s friends are. And they are happy! ...but not happy enough that a few well-placed dialogue choices can’t start poking holes in the story they’ve been fed. Maruki’s not perfect at this. And honestly, he’s taken Akira’s friends, not given him anything. We went from everyone wanting to spend time with Akira to everyone having other things to do. Ryuji doesn’t even know why they’re friends. Thinking about how they met is what starts to crack his illusion.

While I was looking for my friends, I ran across this couch outside the furniture store in Kichijoji.

Examining it yields only this:

So now I gotta go back to Kichijoji after it frees me from the plot so I can see what’s up with this conspicuously Velvet blue couch.

(I will say, if I have one complaint about this part, is that it’s six days of the same thing. Wake up, locate Friend, see how they’re doing, return home, spend evening in bed contemplating whether this is a good thing because Friend is happy. You can’t do anything else, see how any of your other confidants are doing... What does Iwai’s ideal world look like? Takemi’s? Hifumi’s?)

I think out of everyone I feel the most bad for Morgana.

I mean, he spends half the game as it is worrying that he’s some sort of monster instead of a human. And now that he’s human and I’ve gone and jabbed a hole in his dream, he’s spending a week growing more and more afraid as he realizes that something isn’t right about himself. That’s just straight-up existential terror.

Goro didn’t really find a lot during his week of investigating. Mostly just that Maruki’s been doing cognitive psience stuff since college, and that Okumura and Wakaba are...actually alive.

Does that mean if we end the dream, we’re murdering them?

Not taking the Misericorde with me feels like a betrayal of my role as heir to the title of Trickster, but I can’t really turn down an extra thirty points of attack. X’‘‘D Especially since Goro and I are going into the Palace alone.

Other than the weird security cameras, this place really is beautiful. And apparently the music that I like so much is called “Gentle Madman”. Stop hitting all these fucking tropes I like, Maruki. It’s not fair.

Oh heck, wait, are we doing this now? This is an actual question? I assumed that was for the endgame. Well, if I’m here... The safe room was right downstairs...

Let me be selfish. Just for one moment. Please.

Please.

.....no, wait, this hurts.

This hurts a lot.

Because they deserve this. They all deserve this happiness. I’ve never heard Goro sound that genuinely happy as he did in this ending. But the only way to give them this is to leave them trapped under the will of a dictator. And they deserve better than that.

From the Den:

They’re looking at you. Judging you for the sin of the choice you made.

I find it interesting that while Akira and Goro are clearly looking at you with full knowledge of what you did, the game itself doesn’t seem particularly judgemental. I got the “view the ending” trophy and the option to save clear data, which to me implies that it’s...obviously the wrong choice, but a valid choice regardless. I never got the “Good” Ending in vanilla P5, so I don’t know if that offered the same level of legitimacy. This was treated as a real ending.

[reloading save data]

Of course we can’t accept this reality, why would he even think we would do that? X’‘D

Sumire is throwing a fit because she still wants to be Kasumi, and is getting ready to fight us. Shit. Still, she’s inexperienced, and both of us are strong enough to han--

Goro: I could deal with this, but I’m assuming you want her to leave here alive, right?

It’s sweet of you to take what I want into consideration, but yeah, I’d really rather not kill her, so just tone it dow-- Aaaaand he’s walking away and leaving me to fight her alone. Thanks, honey.

Shoutout to using the same strategy as the battle arena and just equipping something that repels physical. She took her own swords dance to the face and got knocked out.

......what the fuck are you doing? This just looks like torture.

I know for a fact that that’s not Nyarlathotep because I’m pretty sure I’d have had people beating down my door to point it out already. Because crucifixion pose by itself? Common imagery. Tentacles? ...coincidence, probably. But if this had been Nyar puppeteering Maruki or something? I’m one step away from being Super Duper Valid. I already feel pretty valid anyway.

HELLO, Persona 3! Nice(?) to see an out of control persona again. I wonder how close her persona was to reverting to a shadow? Sumire feels like more of a “dungeon” sort of person. Since she’s suppressing something.

But...what was Maruki’s goal here? Beating us into submission? He’s just letting Sumire’s emotional torment go out of control; hell, he’s literally feeding into it with the Biyarkis. He’s using her to fight us, and that’s...disgusting, honestly. You want everyone to be happy, but you’re going to let her throw herself at us over and over? Really?

Why do I feel like all of this “I want you to understand, we can talk, you’ll see things my way”, all of this asking for consent, is bullshit? Does he really want us to see things his way? Or can he actually not alter our reality without consent?

Thank god for the cavalry because this battle was clearly impossible from the first round. I love that the other Thieves have no idea what the fuck is going on, but their leader is in danger so they’re gonna Fight.

I think there’s not. We don’t want to talk. Fuck off. And also stop swiping tropes I like. You’re not Rubicante; you’re not earning my respect by refusing to fight me when I’m tired.

Goro, I know you’re Done with everything, but that’s really not helping.

The Phantom Thieves are momentarily baffled, because it’s clear that we have to change Maruki’s heart, but they’re getting thrown off by the fact that he’s not “evil”. Yeah, he’s not. He has good intentions. But he’s doing bad things to accomplish those intentions. Doing bad things for good reasons is still bad.

...if he wasn’t like this... maybe it would be okay. If he could make everyone happy, erase their trauma, make the world better...without rewriting memories or being a brainwashing dictator... That might not be wrong. But he’s made it pretty clear that he’s on a power trip and doesn’t want dissent, which is no better than Yaldabaoth.

What we did to Futaba and what he’s doing are vastly different things.

...Morgana calls her “Lady Lavenza” and that’s really cute, actually. I’m realizing I portray Lavenza as more of a child than the game does, but I like both.

Oh so now we can press Morgana for what’s wrong. Learned from your prior mistakes, huh, ‘Kira? XD

.....I love her.

It’s extremely weird to have the whole squad interacting with the Velvet attendant and addressing her by name. That’s so strange in comparison to how it usually is. But these are strange times, and once again, it’s unnerving how much power Maruki has.

He’s strong enough that he’s suppressing the Velvet Room. That’s horrifying. I wonder if he knows they exist; I could see him considering them a threat to his ideal world. Normally I’d be sure that Igor and Lavenza could kick his ass if he tried anything, but... I genuinely don’t know anymore. Igor is still recovering from being imprisoned, and Lavenza is barely able to manifest to talk to us.

Meanwhile, Maruki is using a persona.

Normally I’d be fussed about him summoning in reality, but apparently reality is still half-fused with Mementos, which in the greater scope of Persona lore feels like something similar to what was happening in P1 and P2. The collective unconscious is very close to the surface. I’d be curious whether or not the kids could summon outside of the Palace with a bit of practice, but I’m sure the game won’t go into that.

...although, that doesn’t explain him being able to use his powers in reality before the beginning of the year. Mementos only started fusing with reality in December.

I’m looking directly at you, Atlus. You made a human villain stronger than what I imagined for the strongest persona-user?

......oh, Mona, I’ve got like 3 different notes documents for you to read about why that can be allowed. X’D

*cracks knuckles* Not to take Goro’s side, but...we already killed one god, didn’t we?

But...this is our fault, and we have to fix it. I don’t completely understand how Maruki granting the Thieves’ wishes transferred the belief of the masses to him, but... This can’t go on. If Mementos completely fuses, this becomes permanent, and there will be no way out. Time to go.

I really do appreciate that Goro was invited as one of the Phantom Thieves. And Ryuji asked for his input on whether we’re going after Maruki.

...you all said it. He’s one of you now. No take-backs.

#Li plays P5R #long post #these posts keep getting longer #so much is happening X'''DDD

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tristis-333 · 4 years

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Ranking Persona 5 Royal’s third tier Personas

So I’ve wanted to do this for a while. I’ve been making a lot more contemplative post lately and it’s time for something more fun because I have a lot of opinions on these new Personas. So starting off with the worse,

9. Agnes

Agnes is easily the worse design of the new Persona’s because the original form, Johana, beats her out in every single possible category. First off the name, I know she’s based on the historical documents but every time I hear the name all I can picture is Makoto riding in on someone’s grandma. The gold is nice, but the black is very dull in comparison to Johana’s silvers and blues. Why isn’t she navy blue? You know Makoto’s signature color? Then there’s what it does to the symbolism of Makoto’s development. Some people have interpreted Johana transforming to Anat as symbolic of Makoto learning to stand on her own two feet, Anat stands tall like Makoto vows to. So with it turning back into a bike does that mean Makoto isn’t standing on her own anymore? Agnes fails to surpass her’s original and nothing it brings to the table is interesting enough to make it stand on her own. She skids in at dead last.

8 Al Azif

Al Azif is marginally better than Agnes, but suffers again from not taking certain ideas far enough. The colors are much duller, yet again. And while I do enjoy the modern star ship design nothing about it really makes it stand out from anything you might see in Star Trek or any other sci-fi film. I think adding in more of the gothic elements from Necronomicon would have done a lot to amplify the design. Make it more golden to call back to the pyramid that served as Futaba’s palace, and add gargoyles and brighten the lights to neon green to make them pop more. Persona 5 is supposed to be stylish but Al Azif is little more than a shiny pebble.

7. Ella

Ella is kinda of an odd ball among the Personas because while I really like her design she just doesn’t feel like she fits with Sumire. I, and many other people, have complained that Sumire’s thief outfit doesn’t fit with her Persona. This is only made more obvious by the fact that her previous form, Vanadis, was such a better fit design wise. That being said Ella gets points back for just how cool her design is, with the thigh high boots, being made from what seems to be porcelain or china, and even tossing her bouquet back when she casts a spell. Neat design, but just an odd fit.

6 Celestine

I was going to put Celestine higher, but the more I thought about it there were just details in her design that bug me. First I would change the hair to black with red streaks as opposed to the red with blue we got, to draw back to Carmen’s original design. As well as add more frills and leopard prints. Also change the bunny ears on her hat to cat ears. The third tier persona’s should be an evolution on their original designs and Celestine just goes to far from her roots for my liking.

5. Gorokichi

Gorokichi isn’t higher on this list for one reason. The coat isn’t blue. Each of the phantom thieves have their signature color like they’re power rangers, and my baby nerd mind loves consistency with color pallets. I just want all the pink replaced with an icy blue. But other than that, I love him! He’s fierce, he’s loud, he’s ready to back hand slap you for having the audacity to approach him. He’s just one piece away from perfect.

4. William

Not much to say on William really. He’s just a solid evolution and modernizing of his original form. The more I look at him I just love the little details. The year of his hanging on the hood, the skull and crossbones on his back, and the touches of yellow to add color. Give me his jacket!

3. Raoul

Raoul is lower on this list for weird reasons. Atlus, why is the protagonist’s new persona DLC? I’ve been tolerant with a lot of the bullshit you’ve been pulling, but this is pushing it. But I still love the design. Again, give me his fricken jacket. If someone had told me Michael Jackson would come back to us a demon of rebellion I would have said… sounds about right.

2. Diego

I am thou, does thou lift bro!? Diego manages to build on Zorro in everyway I could want. He’s slick and stylish and I love the Velvet Room blues calling back to Morgana’s origins. Not much more to say, except more of this please.

1.Lucy

She’s beauty, she’s grace, she doesn’t have a face. I know I said the third tier persona’s should evolve from their originals and Lucy does deviate a bit from Milady. But her concept is so great I can’t help it. I’ve already made a whole post dedicated to how much I love this design so I’m just going to rehash what I said there. Haru’s costume is kind of tricky because there is nothing about it that really implies a trickster, but I think that’s the point. Her persona is Milady de Winter who was a clever espionage agent in the Three Musketeers, and I think therein lies the clue to what Haru sees as a rebel. Haru is not an infiltrator but is rather a planter, in the sense she “plants” herself among the enemy hiding in plain sight. Her costume doesn’t look like a trickster because she doesn’t want anyone to realize she’s a trickster. And her new persona Lucy perfectly shows off this aspect of her. Lucy is designed like an undercover woman, with her trench coat, and head scarf. Adding that Lucy doesn’t have a face, it’s clear she doesn’t want anyone to recognize her as she does her spying. Lucy manages to build on her original form and shows us an underlying aspect of her user and is just fun all around. 10/10 All hail the faceless countess.

Hereward is not on this list, because I was so disinterested in anything to do with Akechi by the end of the game, I didn’t even bother unlocking him my first playthrough. And there isn’t much to say. He’s batman…get it? Because Robin hood was sorta kinda like superman so he turned into the edge lord version of that. But, as I’ve stated previously on this blog, Akechi’s not Batman. He will NEVER be Batman.

#persona 5 #persona 5 royal #akira kurusu #ren amamiya #p5 joker #Ryuji Sakamoto #ann takamaki #morgana #yusuke kitawaga #makoto niijima #futaba sakura #haru okumaru #goro akechi #goro the trash man akechi #ultimate persona #third tier personas

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it-will-not-last-the-night · 5 years

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Blegh

In terms of Persona 5 I’d been riding high mostly since P5D. I’d been positive mostly over it because P5D and fan-generated content had been lovely overall and really engaging and enjoyable. It had helped me forget that the main game itself seriously does upset me at times and I have a less than ideal opinion of it.

*Sigh*

Now I’m starting to feel like that again. Both announcements of today have left brought back to mind some of my biggest problems with Persona 5 and the way Atlus writes in general. What are they? A bit of a lesson then in me;

For myself there are three events in Persona 5 that I really REALLY just consider outright despicable. In no order they are; 1) Two homosexual adult males being negatively stereotyped as child molesters targeting Ryuji 2) Ryuji’s friends responding to one of the greatest acts of selflessness in the entire story by physically abusing Ryuji and 3) The Valentine’s Day event making Canon that Akira/Ren is horrible, Sojiro is horrible and that Atlus thinks all the girls are vapid idiots.

‘Magical Valentine’ raises an issue I’ve always had but makes it even more forceful. You see in the game the Valentine’s Event is only ‘optionally’ canon. You can play a canonical run-through and not have it occur. So you can, legitimately, without needing headcanon or fanon, just have your own canon playthrough in which the girls are not vapid idiots. The anime however, now, makes it that, for the Animation, it is canon that Akira/Ren is an awful person and that the girls are vapid idiots. Oh and that Sojiro is just literally the worst like...like he is scum in this event. As bas as Akira/Ren is (and he’s bad in this version!) the bigger problem I think a LOT of people forget about the Valentine’s Harem Route is that it literally casts Sojiro as a Guardian of Futaba who would lie to conceal her boyfriend’s infidelities...even when said infidelities LITERALLY CAUSE FUTABA TO CRY!

So the animation is now making it canon that; 1) Akira/Ren sees no reason he has to be honest or forthright with any females in his life 2) Sojiro holds such low regard for his daughter he will aide Akira/Ren in an ongoing deception and emotional manipulation of her RIGHT AFTER SHE OVERCAME A SUICIDAL PHASE OF HER LIFE and 3) That Ann, Makoto, Futaba, Haru, Takemi, Kawakami, Ohya, Hifumi and Chihaya all fall in love with the exact same person and are literally when confronted with incontervertible evidence of his infedilities not only tricked into instantly accepting that them all bringing him chocolate on Valentine’s Day was a ‘misunderstanding’ but, in the case of the Phantom Thieves members, this has so little impact on them that mere days later they have no reaction.

AKA the ending Valentine’s Harem Route basically says: “Akira/Ren successfully cheated on all the girls in his life, and is free to continue to do so since they are so stupid that they could be convinced to assume it was a ‘misunderstanding’ even under the most blatantly false of pretext,” the ending basically gives carte blanche to say that Akira/Ren will probably keep cheating on the women in his life because, well, they’re so stupid that even if they all end up right in front of him, confessing their love for him to each other’s faces...they somehow think this was a ‘misunderstanding’?

That’s gonna be canon now for the animation. Not ‘optional’ canon, just...just outright canon. Literally everything in the Canon is soured now. Did you like Ren’s bond with Ann in the foregoing episodes? Well bad news; Ren literally is willing to commit to an intimate relationship with her and then emotionally cheat on her with several different women at once. Did you like how Ren played a pivotal role in building Futaba’s character and helping her grow out of her emotional turmoil? Well sucks for you cause Ren is literally willing to lie to this girl’s face and tell her he loves her whilst carrying on behind her back with numerous other women.

It sort of goes without saying that this kinda wrecks P5A completely since, canonically, Akira/Ren is now just an irredeemable asshole and the female characters are reduced to stock harem-style idiot love interests with basically 0 individuality because everyone has to love the Protagonist (self-insert!).

But when you think about it even in the original game...this was a problem. Sure you could choose not to do it...but you could also choose to do it. This means, technically, as far as Atlus’ writing is concerned, canonically Akira/Ren has it in him to be a complete asshole with no respect for women or his friends...and the females in the game are all vapid idiots. That’s technically canon since that’s required for the Valentine’s Route to work.

Oh, also, that Sojiro is the worst. The worst.

The Valentine’s Harem Event, like the Ryuji abusing event post Shido’s Palace. does irrevocable damage to the characters and the content itself, kinda ruining it since for it to be canon...well it means the characters are terrible people or stupid. Why I sort of have to choose to ignore them to actually like the story.

Of course what does all this writing have in common? It’s a JOKE! Haha! Ryuji’s being abused, isn’t this funny? Haha! The girls are all vapid idiots and Joker’s such a chick magnet they have no varying tastes in partner at all! Haha! Gay men want to force Ryuji to undress for them!

Isn’t this funny? I mean, no, of course not. In almost all these cases the ‘humour’ is...someone suffering. A common retort I then see is; it’s not canon, its just for a joke.

But the problem is it is, all, strictly canon. I could definitely understand if these things were packaged as clear ‘not canon’ events.

Here’s an example; the Blazblue game series has ‘joke’ endings which are explicitly not canon but usually feature bizarre or ‘funny’ scenes. One of said scenes is a reoccuring bit in which the protagonist Ragna is made to wear glasses that causes the female cast to all fall in love with him. Putting aside the fact for the moment that, to me, this still isn’t funny since its treating the Mind Rape of the entire female cast as a ‘joke’ the fact remains that it is, however, not canon. The creators make sure that nothing that happens here technically infringes on or diminished the canon character content by making it explicitly non-canon.

Persona 5, both the game and now the Animation, take no such efforts. There are no efforts to make clear that Ryuji being beaten up is a ‘comedic non-canon overreaction’ or that Akira/Ren being a womanizing prick and Sojiro being the WORST are just ‘comedic non-canon skits’ all these are played as explicitly, irrefutably, canon. That is how the characters are, as far as Atlus is concerned. That is their opinions, their beliefs etc.

Is it weird that P5 Dancing has the best, most wholesome, most healthy characterization of the entire Persona 5 Franchise? I suppose maybe the mangas are good to, I must admit I’ve never read any of them since from what I can tell Ryuji is basically ignored in all of them in favour of focus on the girls.

Atlus has a writing problem and that problem is centered I fear on a simple fact; the protagonist is a self-insert who is assumed to be a self-insert for a very specific formula; a young male who sees female characters as things he wishes to collect for himself and wants to feel adored by. Almost all of the major writing problems stem from this; Girls seem exploited or turned into vapid haremettes? Well, obviously, gotta appeal to that ‘chick magnet’ fantasy. Homosexuality is cast as negative or frightning? Well, obviously, the fantasy being appealed to is explicitly heterosexual in nature, everything else is ‘icky’. Other males seem to constantly be the butt of a joke or consistently shown up compared to the protagonist? Naturally since the fantasy is about making the player feel like ‘the man’ and all other men are simply lame by comparison so that the girls will only love the protagonist (the self-insert).

What really bums me out about all of this is that Atlus can write such amazing scenes as Ryuji’s ‘the place I belong is next to you,’ but then in that same game or anime have the Valentine’s Event and the Ship scene. I imagine in part this is due to it being a game first, story second, so they feel there are ‘beats’ that need to be there (the loser must be made fun of, the protagonist must get all the girls) even if, from a storyboarding point of view...it just makes the characters look A) Very inconsistent in personality and attitude (Ren’s infamous standing up for a stranger being assaulted but then instantly refusing to step in to help Ryuji in Shinjuku) or B) Like massive asshats (The entire Valentine’s Event from Ren and Sojiro’s perspectives.

It is just...its sad. I want to like this story because there is legitimately good characters and writing but...in the name of appealing to the lowest common denominator it gets weighted down by stuff which is explicitly canon and makes the characters awful.

It really makes it tough to like it at times.

*Sigh*

At the end of the day I don’t know how to handle this. Accepting its canon makes a lot of people awful or stupid. Headcanoning it away is fine but...then I gotta accept I don’t like Persona 5 per say, I like what I, or other fans, create from Persona 5.

Also can we please just be able to date Ryuji. Please Atlus. We don’t need another female character to be another fangirl for Joker, to be another vapid idiot who can be duped by the WORST Sojiro, please Atlus, please. Please. There are ENOUGH love interests Atlus, please try perhaps instead stop treating women like little toys for a protagonist to effortlessly collect and dupe.

Watching all the Persona 5 Girls (sans Sae) in the Valentine’s Event is painful. They are characters I like, many of them have good writing...and then they are reduced to props to make a player feel “Oh yeah! Such a chick magnet! They all want me! Women are simply a commodity by which I inflate my own sense of self-worth since having multiple of them attracted to me and betrayed by me makes me feel as if this is a positive development and not a negative one!”

And I do mean that seriously. Look at most content or statements around the Valentine’s Event. They frame it positively. The ‘harem’ ending, Joker is such a ‘chick magnet’ and so ‘alpha’ etc. etc.

Terrible emotional betrayal? Deep seated trust issues? Sojiro treating his own daughter like garbage? Ignored because ‘Joker is a PLAYER! WOOO!” And this is overall seen as a positive development.

By now I’ve rambled on ridiculously long but if I must have a conclusion it is thus; Please give us a Female Protagonist who can date the other boys and stop selling this sexist approach where non-protagonist males and all females serve the same purpose; inflating the ego of the player character.

#persona 5 #p5 #persona 5 the animation #p5a #akira kusuru #kusuru akira #ren amamiya #amamiya ren #joker #phantom thieves of heart #phantom thieves #sojiro sakura #sakura sojiro #sojiro

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monasatlantis · 4 years

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Persona 5 Royal Final Review

After 108 hours of gameplay I finally finished Persona 5 Royal. (P5R from now on.) And it is time for my game-review. Usually, if I replay a game, I don’t review it a second time. But I think the Royal version deserves its own review.

Of course, spoiler for P5R are under the cut!

I don’t want to drag that review too long, but there are certain things that need to be said and that is what I am going to do.

First of all, my overall feeling for the game was, that I enjoyed playing it a lot more then the original P5. The things that were changed or added be it plotwise or in the battle- and gamesystem seemed small in the beginning but overall made for a better game experience and made the game more enjoyable and fun.

Of course, knowing almost all of the characters and the overall plot helped a lot to find yourself right at home relatively fast.

I really have to give a huge praise for the prologue to Atlus once more. Because damn do they know what they are doing. The one from the original was already perfect. I mean, I’ve seen my fair share of Prologues in JRPGs and also my fair share of the “This is were you are, now work your butt off to actually reach this point in the game” - ones. But none has ever be as good as the one from Persona 5. So here I was, starting P5R expecting to see the same great prologue again and got slightly panicked the moment I realized something was different. When Violet showed up, I feared it would ruin the amazingness of the original Start of the game by giving to much focus on her. Instead, the scene made the start even better. Because... at this point, we know nothing more about her then that she is the new female character from P5R and she just swoops in, saves Joker and reminds him of a promise we know nothing about. Casually mentioning she is not a part of Jokers Team too, so that at the end of this scene your like: “Okay... who are you, what kind of promise did you have with MY Joker without my consent and why are you a persona user but not part of my freaking team?” Which adds questions to the beginning of a game we actually already know. So in case you’ve watched that Prologue from the original P5 so often, that you are tired of watching Joker jump out of that window like the showoff he is, now you have a new scene that makes the beginning of the game interesting all over again. Really good job Atlus!

Now... let me tell you about my greatest fear about P5R. I know you all don’t want to hear that, but this game was literally Atlus milking the Akechi and the Akira/Ren x Akechi Fans. They knew they could sell a game twice for the same price, with relatively small changes that could have fitted into a DLC, if they just give all those fans more Akechi and more Akechi x Akira/Ren interactions. And for those who dislike Akechi and/or the ship they added Kasumi/Sumire as an alternative, being a new, interesting female character made to fit Joker in the weirdest possible way. So my greatest fear was, that P5R would be full of fanservice and nothing else but that. I feared that the Akira x Akechi ship was pushed to the absolut max (with Atlus still refusing to allow Joker to date him or any guy despite that...) and also pushing Kasumi/Sumire as the female love interest for the other side of the fandom.

Did Atlus do that? Lets say it that way... my fear was for nothing, but it was still a slight bit of fanservice for Akechi and pushing for Sumi (Kasumi/Sumire) there. It was kept in moderation tho (honestly, I’ve seen worse. Much worse. Seriously. Play Cold Steel, then you get what I mean XD) and as every game would use a trump-card like that as a selling-point at least a bit. So I do not blame Atlus for doing so as well, since, once again, it was kept in moderation.

So... about Akechi, Sumi and Maruki and what they add to the game and how they got included in the game and how it works for the game... I have to say, I think they did a really great job with adding those 3 character to the game. (Or in Akechis case, making him a real confidant...) Most of the time, when characters are added in a later version, you often can feel that those characters didn’t originally belong there and they feel like someone cut out a piece of a cake and tried to make the cake look whole again by adding a piece of a different cake, that has the same size, but still doesn’t really fit. Atlus didn’t cut the cake, they put cream on top of it XD

Lets start with talking about the good and bad of making Akechi an actual confidant. But before that, let me complain about the time-limits set for those 3 confidants. They were stressing me out! And with those time-limits, you are basically forced to focus in maxing those 3 first, so that you had barely time for your own teammate. And you have to max them, for the true ending and the third semester. So... I would have wished that wasn’t the case, but I get why it had to be... Now... please tell me I was not the only one facepalming when Akechi gave Joker a headshot and his confidant-level rose in the original game. Because it makes all those “Joker loves Akechi killing him” - jokes a lot less questionable then they should be ^^’ I felt a lot more comfortable playing billiard with Akechi instead - although I have to admit that it felt slightly weird and I was a bit uncomfortable at first. But you get used to it. And I think it also improves one certain part of the story greatly. And that is the part were the game wants to tell you that Joker and Akechi have such a great, strong, special bond. Because in the original game, they hardly ever do anything together, besides those short encounters every now and then. This time, it felt much more real for Akira and Akechi to be close, because they took the time and made the effort to actually spend time with each other and get to know each other. It also gives the player more chances to decide what to do with that traitor. And I guess new player were even more shocked now when Jokers favorite friend suddenly shot him in the head without even hesitating. It really makes the game better in a way. Especially with Akechi suddenly throwing his glove at Joker, telling him he hates him all of the sudden, when you are reaching level 8 of his confidant. It makes everything more round, when it comes to Akechi and his complicated relationship with Joker. There are no “bads” about Akechi becoming a real confidant. It was a good choice and made the game better. So in a way, Atlus wanting to make money by giving fanservice, benefited the game greatly.

Now to Maruki. He seemed to be... relatively unimportant. Honestly, if I didn’t knew I need to max him for the third semester, I probably wouldn’t have done it. Because he is just some random counselor how apparently finds Joker interesting - as many other characters do - so why should I care? Now imagine all those “blind” playing players who didn’t google how to get the third semester and true ending and wondering what they did wrong when they didn’t get it just to find out they had to max out some random confidant guy like Maruki. Those poor souls. So... is that a bad thing? No its not! You are supposed to be shocked and surprised in the third semester when you find out that this sympathetic but relativly boring confidant actually was the guy behind the fake reality. Especially after making it look like it was actually Sumis palace at first. I do have to say tho... he gave me “traitor-vibes” immediately, so I somehow saw it coming. But that is just me being wary of characters in lab coats thanks to certain games... They really made great work with that man tho. Every member of the team had counseling with him (Akechi aside) giving him the knowledge of most of their dreams and wished and problems and also making him look more sympathetic for being so friendly understanding and helpful. Even as the ruler of the fake reality, he actually had “good intentions” at the end, they were still egoistic, but he truly believed he would help people, making it hard to totally hate him and making it also understandable that the other characters didn’t hate him. Even after you want to despise him for what he did to Sumi, she herself said that without it, she might would not have made it, making it hard to hate him for it. The way he was added to the game, felt whole and never gave you the feeling that he didn’t belong there. So once again, good job!

Now... on to Sumi. She has her first encounter with Joker relatively early on in the game and you keep having scenes with her throughout the game, even if you do not do her confidant. Actually, whenever I was a bit sad that Kasumi wasn’t there, she suddenly showed up. Be it at the end of the Hawaii trip of the great scene from the school festival or her running towards Joker in Leblanc after he faked his death. You never have the feeling that she shouldn’t be as close to Joker as she is, because the game makes sure to let them have lots of interactions and encounters with each other, even outside of her confidant-scenes. They did give a hint or to of her true story too. So I wasn’t surprised when the truth came to light in the third semester. Overall I have to say they really overdid it a bit with the drama of her story, but it adds up to why Sumire is the way she is, after you force her to be herself. I was certainly sad I could only have her as my teammate so late in the game tho. Her powers are really great. And it it also a bit depressing if you want to date her (whish the game obviously wants you to do...) and have to wait until almost the end of the game to finally be able to do so. For a month at best no less. all those dates you missed... oh well, dating her is cute at least. I do have one big complain about her character tho. In this totally awkward scene were she was sitting in a Café with Joker and Akechi (or was I the only one feeling awkward sitting there with Boyfriend on the one and Girlfriend on the other side? ^^’) when Akechi - that sneaky bastard - asked her about the Phanthom Thieves she said she doesn’t think its right to count on them, that people should solve their problems themselves and not rely on others so much. Which is right on one hand. I mean, it was great foreshadowing. At some point people really just expected the Phantom Thieves to solve all their problems making way for their great downfall when they couldn’t meet the high expectations. BUT Sumi was the last of all the characters who had the right to say something like that. From the beginning as Kasumi, to the End as Sumire... she always relies on Joker for giving her strength, hope, motivation and a reason to fight and live and get stronger. I doubt she would have managed to overcome her trauma without him. So how did she solve and of her problems herself without always relying on others? I am sorry, but she was not the right person to say that. (But at least, after realizing Akira/Ren was Joker she immediately felt bad about talking not so nice about his team infront of him - although Mr-Sneaky-Bastard set this up on purpose so he should be the one apologizing here...) Anyway. Aside from the scene were the PT fought the god, were she was missing for some reason, she was added very well into the story and made a good addition to the team at the end. She earned her place in the game and made for a nice alternative dating-partner.

Finally... I wanna talk about the damn third semester. Because after all the work and stress we went to to get there... it was a bit of a letdown for me. Tho the start was a shocker with everything that happened, it dragged on and on and on and on and on and on and on. You go into the palace after having absolutly no real freetime between the final boss from the original game and this new final bosses palace. Here in this palace, you lose Kasumi, then you are forced to go out of the palace, just so you can walk around to watch your friend be happy for days with the game making it unnecessarily hard and time-consuming for you by refusing you to use insta-travel for no apparent reason. Then you go back to the palast, save Sumire and are forced to get out of it again. Then you go back in, are forced to go back out again, then you are forced to go to Mementos and go through all the new stupid levels there because otherwise you can’t continue with the palace. Then you go back to the palace AGAIN which seems to never end and has many strong enemy immune to physical attacks because saving SP is a total unnecessary thing in this immensely huge palace. And when you finally almost reached the end of the damn palace you are forced to make a stupid puzzle. URG! Now, you are finally through with the palace, now you have an immense amount of freetime, which still isn’t enough to max many more confidants especially not if you also want to use this last chance to max Sumi. And at this point, it just feels like enough. The game is going on for too long. It has to end. And yet, the final boss, just like this final palace and the third semester goes on and on and on and on and on. Every time you think you have beating him, he rises again and again and again and again. And was that fist-fight with Joker really necessary at the end?

Now that we are officially talking about the third semester... lets also talk about Akechi (again) and also some plotholes. So Akechi is like... having multiple personalities in the last part of the game. One time, he is an absolute bloodthirsty asshole and the next time he is your worried teammate. I mean... how did we go from: “Save your girlfriend yourself, Joker, because if I handle this, she will end up dead.” to Akechi stopping Sumi from running towards Dr.Maruki to keep her save from falling debris? I guess in the end being part of Jokers team finally got to him XD So... Akechis existence in the third semester is a huge problem for the plot. Despite the intentions of the true ending, Akechi is believed to be dead and only lives on because Maruki brought him back so he can have a second chance for a happy live with Joker. That would mean that he was made up by Marukis fake reality to fulfill either Jokers wish or Akechis wish. BUT the moment everyone else of the team realizes they were in a fact reality, that what they had and did wasn’t real, it was gone. Mona becoming a cat again. Futubas mother was gone. The moment both Akira and Akechi knew that Akechi wasn’t real, he should have vanished, but he didn’t. Now lets say the reason he didn’t vanish, was because he was actually still alive in the real world (maybe in some sort of coma or something, which would explain his memory problems, because then he wasn’t made up by Maruki, but just got pulled out of whatever state he was in in reality...) then it is still a plothole why nobody, not even Maruki himself didn’t wonder why everyone elses true reality came back when they realized the truth but Akechi still stayed there until the fake reality was gone. I think in the end, Atlus didn’t fully think that truth and messed it up a little bit. Also... in Kasumis case. It is said that when people called her “Sumire” she just heard what her changed cognition wanted to hear, which was that people called her Kasumi. BUT if only her cognition was changed, why didn’t she end up in a psychiatry after claiming that her little sister Sumire is dead and that she herself is Kasumi? It doesn’t make any sense, if only her own cognition changed. Once again, not thought through in the end, I think.

Anyway... all in all it was a really good and enjoyable game. I gave it 9 out of 10 points.

#p5r spoilers #P5R mona version review

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crossgartered · 4 years

Text

P5R Liveblog (13/?)

Haru arc

[[MORE]]

Oh...? Are you hung up on Wakaba, too, Doctor?

Oh, Rumi. ...Who's Rumi?

IS IT KASUMI'S SISTER??? bc you know there's weird stuff going on there

Probably not but this is for wild guessing anyway

If we can believe Kasumi then her sister is younger than her

And that'd be pretty weird to talk about in a romantic context

The problem is if kasumi is to be believed

she's dead I know she's dead I don't think she knows she's dead but she's super dead

Or in a coma I guess but let's be real here

I don't trust Shibusawa in the slightest. He's definitely going to try to take that research. I wouldn't be surprised if he was one of those men in black suits, either. He's rich - he goes to the Wilton on a whim, with his "buddies" - he could definitely be one of Shido's men.

OMFNDJD THIS LES MIS KNOCK OFF FILLS ME WITH JOY

Hoo boy. Maruki... I don't think you'll be very pleased with our answer. I do think you have good intentions, now, but you will definitely be an antagonist here.

I'm still really impressed with Chihaya. She really thought that the protag would hate her once she told her story, that her fortune said he was supposed to hate her, and she "never thought [he] would overturn even that fate". And yet, she told him anyway.

A Yusuke & Ann showtime!! : D I wonder what it'll be like?

THATS SO INCREDIBLY ANIME I LOVE IT

Haru idolizing superheroines vs Ann idolizing lady villains fight

I cannot waittt to see what they do with cognitive Haru, if they decided to make her this time around

YUSUKE CAN DUPLICATE IN PALACES?!?!?

A Will Seed with lasers barring the way? Interesting.

FUTABA FINISHING TOUCH FUTABA FINISHING TOUCH!!!!

Huh, it's kinda goofier than I was expecting.

"When a person is continually faced with oppression, they come to welcome its presence." Yusuke : (

"Such psychological trickery is being used here. I... experienced it first-hand for many years." YUSUKE : C

It's kinda nice that those workers are being blocked by lasers instead of us being too intimidated by their number to just go after them. ...Am I remembering this correctly?

Oh, Noir... I'm glad I get the option to ask if she's okay.

The Yumizuki High uniform really does suit Yusuke.

I wonder if there's a way to talk to people about their outfits.

Does Futaba's thing happen in place of Joker's, now? That's kind of a shame

HEY DO YOU THINK IT'S POSSIBLE TO HAVE FUTABA SHOWTIMES?!?????

Airlock time.

Man I want to see robot/cyborg Haru so badly come on Okumura I know she's here

This stuff about being okay for 30 sec as long as you close your eyes and mouth sounds wrong but I don't know enough about the condition of the human body in space enough to dispute it so okay I fuess

Anyway this is run by clap your hands if you believe kinda magic so it doesn't really matter anyway (also, thank god for Futaba saying that it'd work)

It's interesting - space factories/stations aren't a typical heist target (nor are castles, tbh, but museums, banks, pyramids, casinos? Naturally) (space stations in general can be, in the right genre. But this is set up a bit unusually for that). Corporate offices of shady companies, however...

Spaceeeeee ahdskdjs this is SO COOL

what the fuck what the fuck was something else going through the airlock?!?!

Ugh, how aggravating. I had been able to get the Will Seed the entire time until I pulled the lever that allowed me to progress

What is this shadow???? I'm not sure I know it! "Pagan savior", huh?

No, guys, there's another airlock room. Stop saying 'the treasure is just beyond that door!' when there is a whole other area/floor to go through. Especially since you have a map

Futaba gets motion sickness...oh no I'm so sorry ;u;

I...actually remembered the first half of the solution to the transfer line. I got out of there in practically no time. Heck yeah!

"Thou hast to awakened to the ultimate secret of the Sun, granting thee infinite power..." Yoshida...! TAT

I always end up maxing him right around the end of Okumura's Palace. I feel so bad. His newfound popularity is gonna absolutely tank soon. ;-;

Man, who even gets elected after the populace starts caring again? I don't know how Japanese politics works, really, like at all, honestly, but probably he has a subordinate who can take his place. But like, his whole crew's gotta be corrupt, right? Especially someone who'd be his replacement. Though honestly, considering how paranoid he got by the end, he probably chose someone weak-willed in order to prevent

Oh wait hold on I just looked up how this works. Apparently, uh...

Huh. I'm not sure if the cabinet resigns if the prime minister does usually or if that's just if the house passes a vote of no confidence. But, the prime minister appoints the ministers, so if the prime minister changes then there could be an issue there, probably?

But anyway. Looks like the Diet would immediately try to vote for a different person once the prime minister seat is vacant.

Huh, I wonder who gets voted in, then. Well, we only know of 2 candidates other than Shido, and Yoshida doesn't have the funding or even (yet) the popularity to become prime minister, so Matsushida is really the only other choice unless they pick someone we haven't heard about.

Oh my GOD I hate the school. They're being such assholes to Kasumi. She got 3rd place!!! That's amazing!!! This isn't even a school specializing in gymnastics!!!!!! YOU SPECIALIZED IN VOLLEYBALL AND EVEN IF THAT WERENT THE CASE YOURE TERRIBLE

*ahem* Anyway.

You can tell that Maruki is quietly pissed and honestly? Valid. Super valid. Same, Maruki, same.

She's not gonna get that text, with how her phone is.

"we took in those sisters to improve Shujin's standing, but at this rate, we're only going to end up suffering for it." Oh??? Oh??????

"not only have we lost one of them, but the other ones not doing us any good. Talk about a waste of effort..." Hooooly shit you asshole

Wait, hold on, it's October already????!? November's just a month away!! I have less than 3 months for social linking! And I still haven't maxed knowledge or kindness! (Or guts, but whatever) I've only maxed 1 person! Although I'm close to maxing Ryuji & Ann & Yusuke. And some npcs

AHHHHH CUTSCENE CUTSCENE!!!!

So the keywords - lab, stadium, and ... Either Maruki or Kasumi for the person. OH MAN AND EITHER WAY IM ALREADY IN MY PHANTOM THIEF CLOTHES

ONE OF THEM DOESNT TRUST ME

It's probably Maruki, right? Bc of the lab... But also I thought the whole wish fulfillment thing was going to be his cogpsi project... With the help of Jose, maybe...

Speaking of Jose, Jose looks like a toy, especially with that hair and those ears. I wonder what material he's supposed to be? Based on the ears I'd say plastic, maybe, but the hair looks more ceramic to me.

Anyway, back to the relevant FUCKING PALACE WOOHOO

I haven't even sent a calling card for Okumura yet so we're not dealing with this anytime soon

Ooh, this music... <3

Oh man, I totally forgot I had Morgana in the maid costume. I gotta get him into something more serious

Why is dancewear not the p5dsn costume??

This is...really empty...

I am suddenly really scared at what the people are going to look like

There are pigeons here...

But wait, if this is Maruki's Palace, then this is bc of all his grief... He doesn't want anyone to hurt, ever again. The people will be their ideal selves, probably...

...I'd love to see a cognition of myself, tbh. That won't happen, but I'd love it.

This place is really beautiful... With the music it seems like a sad place...

Look at all these wires

That's probably the sister, right?

Unless that's the cognition of Yoshizawa when she was alive and her current self is her ideal self.

The shadow attacked the cognition???!?!

YUP this is definitely Maruki's Palace

Hmm. Interesting.

Oh, Cendrillon really is perfect for her, huh.

SHES DOING A MAGICAL GIRL TRANAFORMATION WHAY

WHAT

WHY????

IM NOT UPSET ITS JUST A LITTLE WHAT????

Does her outfit look like mine a little bit bc she's using me as a role model for her source of confidence - confidence that she is using/interpreting for her inner rebellious spirit?

Wait, lost my train of thought

Aww, I mistimed that. I was hoping to get a Kasumi finishing touch

MORGANA-SENPAI

It is definitely an unfair consequence

Oh, so that's why, narratively, her phone sucks. It's to prevent us from figuring out whose Palace it is.

Yeah, this time it's entirely on you, Morgana.

... it's because of gymnastics? And not because you disagree with us on an ideological level? ...okay. sure. Whatever.

Hoo boy. This is gonna suck when Okumura has his mental shutdown. I wonder how she'll react.

She is of the Faith arcana, whatever that means. Maybe she'll keep faith in me? I did max her half-confidant

It's cool, Kasumi. I really didn't do much. You may have a debt of gratitude or whatever but like you don't actually need to repay it. Just keep being my friend and maybe one day you'll quit keeping score

*sigh*

If only. Too bad you're probably dead.

SHOWTIME WITH HARU? SHOWTIME WITH HARU? PLEASE?

Oh, Mona-chan. I figured as much, but I was still hoping...

Anyway, Haru&Mona showtime still very good!

Man, I would kill to hear their explanations for what they're doing.

...this is incredibly violent, isn't it? I anticipate it with bated breath

Oh man, can you imagine a showtime with Kasumi? Maybe with Akechi, if Atlus isn't going to give me one

Which, fair enough, from a gameplay standpoint

Still. : (

"the Phantom Thief Basic Training"?

Oh, good, we're actually addressing cognitive people with Haru.

Oh, this is either gonna suck if they address the implications, or we're gonna see cognitive Haru. >: 3

Dream world, huh...

THE YUSUKE-HARU FRIENDSHIP IS SO UNDERSTATED AND UNDERRATED I WANT MORE CONTENT

THERE SHE IS!!! THERE SHW IS!!!!

Oh, man, I had a lot of feelings during that fight. That time limit though

I like how they updated this fight

Although I think I'm a little underleveled, potentially. I could not destroy her before she self-destructed, and it took me a while to beat the chief directors and executive director. Oneshotted Okumura himself, though.

OH MAN I SHOULD HAVE READ THIS BILLIARDS BOOK EARLIER

I DIDNT REALIZE I COULD INCREASE MY TECHNICALS????

I already thought that technicals were beefed up from how they were - I guess this is part of that!

Wish I had another book on kindness, ugh.

SO THATS HOW THEY CHANGED POSITION HACK

Ann & Haru have such similar colors. I wish they would have darkened Haru's a little bit more

Wait I never got to see the Haru-Mona showtime

I even had both in my party : (

GOD IWAI YOU'RE SO SHADY

I forgot to start his social link until now whoops

Although I've only had my guts high enough for past ~2ish weeks so there's that at least

Guh, I have to get to Mementos and start up Shinya's...

How many part-time jobs does this have? Like, 5? Maybe 6, if you count him helping out Sojiro? The convenience store, the beef bowl place, the flower shop, Crossroads, and now the gun shop. Anything I'm missing? I feel like I'm missing one.

Desire & Hope is really pretty. The Desire underneath is kinda weirdly desaturated compared to the hope, though. Not sure if it actually works as well as Desire did by itself. Idk. They're both good, but I liked how Desire looked a bit more. I understand that D&H has personal meaning, though. Who knows, maybe in person I would feel differently

I kinda really like that Yusuke tends to go more abstract with his stuff, even if he does try out a bunch of different styles

Maxing Yusuke. And thank god for Affinity Readings. Finally got Ryuji at a point where I can max him.

Oh. I had forgotten how Kamu Susano-o looks. ...

#p5r liveblog #p5r #p5r spoilers #persona 5 royal #long post #this one gets emotional at video games

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existential-fox · 7 years

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Persona 5 Review

I’ve had time to digest this game fully, to reflect on it, and to consider the full impact of the characters, story, gameplay, and themes. I can say in all confidence that this is a tremendously fun and quirky game that has kept me entertained throughout, however there are some small criticisms that I’d love to see ATLUS improve upon in their next work. They do not detract from the overall package but tending to them would most certainly enhance the experience.

Criticisms-

My number one criticism is going to be the repetition of some segments of the game and dialogue. I think it’s necessary to address this and not brush it under the rug as improving on this will make for a more streamline, concise, and engaging game overall.

When I speak of repetition I speak of over used battle dialogue, of dialogue sections where the characters say the same thing over and over but in different ways, of the same song being used throughout the game for standard battle (and it’s a darn good song don’t get me wrong),and palace text reminders. I am not saying that the dialogue needs to be taken away, or even that more has to be added, but that simply sometimes silence is preferable over hearing the same line three times in a row when critical striking enemies. There’s simply too much of it, and while I love some of the battle dialogue (”IT’S TIME FOR SOME BLOOD SHED”) the enormous amount of the same line doesn’t make it feel special or intimate with your teammate, but simply annoying. This certainly isn’t restricted to Persona 5. I think it’s a JRPG trend of sorts but it’s something I feel can be improved upon.

Likewise, I love the story segments of the game but I feel they would flow better with a little less of different characters saying the same thing. I get this is probably a way to help each individual have a part to play but it feels more tedious then constructive, especially when getting to a juicy part and not being able to throw yourself into the plot because it seems to have halted for characters to all have input. I don’t think this is as bad as the battle quotes but it’s still something that could be looked at.

The song thing is...debatable. I love the boss themes and they feel special enough to be enjoyable whenever they come up, however I think a standard theme for each Palace would not be inadvisable. This is a JRPG trend since Final Fantasy and others have often had the same standard battle, but while I have many criticisms of FF XV I do have to note that they did mix up their themes in their large world and having something similar in Persona 5 would not go amiss.

The Palace texts are annoying after a while. I understand for the first palace it is necessary so a new player will not forget, but it gets to a point where you really don’t need to be told every day. You know. Have some faith in players, and if they end up missing it and dying then it’s completely on their head.

My second criticism is a more subjective one. Ryuji. I love this guy. He’s a little blonde and hot headed but he has a massive heart and a determination that can’t be matched easily. However the treatment in parts of the game vary from buttmonkey to full on punching bag. I didn’t like it. In comparison Yusuke and Futaba’s bickering was a lot more enjoyable as they both got the upper hand at points. But Ryuji is always the punching bag to absolutely everyone. Even his amazing moment at the end of Palace 7 is tarnished by a quick “comedy” segment of all the girls beating him up rather then actually fully acknowledging what he did for everyone. Especially considering he.is.a.domestic.abuse.survivor. I can’t say how this could be improved on in another game as it will have different characters, but please...please...don’t shit on one character for the entirety of the game for “comedy”. It gets old and fails to highlight the character’s positives.

The stealth mechanic is strange to handle sometimes I will say. It never mucked up my game but it is frustrating sometimes when you leave cover without meaning to or can’t jump to another cover spot easily even though you know one is there.

The only other criticism I would have is Mementos. It’s too easy. I found palaces challenging and fun, but Mementos a slog at times. I think they did well to include teammate banter and weather affecting how Mementos is, but it feels a little empty still. I don’t expect the puzzles of the palaces but a few optional challenges could be fun- kill ten enemies in a certain time, negotiate with a persona perfectly or end up fighting twice as many, use such and such team members only, etc.- and add in some tempting rewards like lockpick ingredients or SP rewarding items. My ideas are completely pulled out of the air but you get the picture.

Positives-

Despite all I just said it’s amazing to see how far they’ve improved upon Persona 4 with this game. Social Links/Confidants are a lot more integral to the gameplay and the overall theme of the story. Palaces are unique, atmospheric, and challenging. The music is the best it’s ever been imo. The gameplay has enough going on to keep it fresh with critical strikes, negotiations, guns, stealth, baton passes and so on. I spent most of my game using Yusuke, Makoto, and Ann but I mixed it up in the end simply because I had to with the last two big bosses. Every character has something to bring to the table that another doesn’t, whether that be Morgana being the healing powerhouse with critical luck strikes, or Yusuke with his hard hitting countering evasiveness.

Story wise this game is easily on par with Persona 4. This is rather subjective but I found myself enjoying the characters a lot more in this one. There isn’t a character I disliked, though there are certainly favorites that I have! I felt that all the characters (and this includes confidants) had a struggle I could relate to. They have all been made to feel taken advantage of or that they don’t belong in what they truly want to do. Fitting in with the theme of what happens in the end, Persona 5′s confidants are all about their relationship with society as much as with the MC you control. They all wear masks because they don’t feel they can show “the true them” in the world they live in. As an existential counsellor I want to say here that a lot of what is said is spot on in regards to the human condition and how we present ourselves. While I didn’t manage to maximise all of the links, I can say Yusuke’s route was my definite favorite due to exactly those reasons above. His route isn’t just the presentation of the human condition of existence, but he actively questions it and debates it while trying to find the answer to his art block. It’s hilarious to watch at times too as this naive art student baffles himself with the concept of love and what it means to different people.

And the humor is on point too. There were several times I was laughing out loud at something a team mate said or a situation they had gotten themselves into. The game most definitely has it’s serious and emotional moments but it hits you just as hard with it’s quirky sense of humor and narm.

The last thing I wanted to talk about was the overarching story and themes.The story tells you that what you see on the surface isn’t always the same underneath, but that both of these sides can equally be true. Polite and studious Makoto doesn’t go away when she embraces her anger inside and her need to stand up for herself, it simply enhances who she already is in both roles. Of course this doesn’t always mean everything we hold inside is true as we see with Futaba but it’s by looking deeply at our own selves that we are able to identify that truth for ourselves rather then running away or living a lie. The game presents people as complex and nuanced (which again is why I love Yusuke’s link as it emphasizes this) rather then as straight up villains or heroes. True, people like Kamoshida are certainly deplorable but the game gives you an understanding in his treasure being an olympic medal, it doesn’t simply present him as evil for the sake of it. The main characters question their motives constantly and even get much too wrapped up in the idea of fame at a certain point. Which is understandable as the game has given ample time to establishing this cast have been ignored and cast aside by society, so of course they would get caught up in it.

The theme of freedom is ever present in the story: the freedom to be yourself, the freedom to make your own choices, the freedom to change, the freedom to help change society etc. The main character is on probation, accused of a crime when he was defending a woman from assault, and a lot of emphasis is put on “whether he is ready to face the consequences of his actions”. I don’t think these words are said lightly or simply meant in terms of an unfair trial. The main character chose to save that woman. Ryuji chose to punch Kamoshida, Ann chose to ignore Kamoshida’s requests to the detriment of her friend. Yusuke chose to ignore the truth of what Madarame was doing. etc. etc. And while in all these instances a person of power has an unfair degree of power over those characters, I think it can also be said that we will always face consequences for our actions and have some responsibility for that. Because we are responsible for our own lives and the world we create for ourselves. I’m truly not saying it is wrong to protect a woman from assault (it’s not), but I’m saying that in doing so you take on the burden of whatever comes next from that decision, good or bad. In that way we are all prisoners of fate, but at the same time we are all free to thus choose how to live our lives.

And that leads me to my very last point. My favorite part of the theme. That we all have our own worlds and have a choice on how we construct them. The world is as real as we make it and perspectives can be changed, as we can change ourselves.

"The whole world is a product of cognition... not just the Metaverse. It can be freely re-made. The same goes for you, and everyone else. Soon a new world will come. One where mankind isn't held captive. The world will shine brightly as long as you hold hope in your hearts. Remember... There's no such thing as the "real" world. What each person sees and feels - those are what shape reality. This is what gives the world infinite potential. Even if you feel that only darkness lies ahead... As long as you hold hands together... See it through as one... the world will never end! The world exists within all of you!"

This is Morgana basically telling the cast and you, the player, that we all have the freedom to change the worlds we exist in. It’s not static, fixed, or fated, it is something we have the power to change even when we feel powerless, we just might need some help from other worlds or people when we feel stuck in order to bring about a new change. It is imperative we don’t forget that as while external factors may have a degree of power over us, the world we shape within ourselves is completely of our own design.

Anyway I’m giving this game 9.8/10 and Yusuke is the best character.

#persona 5 #review #video games

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nightshadedawn · 4 years

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Persona 5: Royal playthrough pt2

I love the fact that you can talk to individuals in safe rooms and they'll have something to say about the thing you just did.

Is it just me or are Yusuke's safe room animations different?

I can't help but imagine that one guy who does "What You Favorite Ship from [Show] Says about You"

Ryuji/Joker - You're always a slut for dumb blondes that can dominate you in the bedroom.

Ann/Joker - You're always a slut for dumb blondes who can dominate you in the bedroom... AND you're hetrosexual.

Ann/Joker/Ryuji - One day you decided what's better then one dumb blond that can dominate you? TWO dumb blondes that can dominate you.

But also- "What's better than one dumbass bisexual? THREE dumbass bisexual."

And I couldn't help thinking it: Makoto/Joker- "You think that a strong female character is a one who punches and shoots things instead of a well written one."

There is only one braincell between Ann, Joker, and Ryuji, and Joker usually has it.

I saw Akechi in a clip and shouted THAT BASTARD

I usually play when no one else is up but my brother is up and gives me weird looks whenever I growl at the TV

I am growling at Makoto, for context

Walked to school with Ryuji. It was awesome.

Rethinking my "I'm okay with Kasumi" POV

I need more Ann in my life. I wanna walk under an umbrella with Ann and be super stupid romantic.

Ann and Ryuji were at the Captain Kidd thing in my Thieves den, and she called Captain Kidd cute, inadvertantly calling Ryuji cute, and I was so sure he was about to blush.

Ryuji be defending me against Makoto. "My friend here's an upstanding guy." Nice.

...Makoto's a fucking bitch.

Morgana keeps calling her sharp, but most of the stuff is just like... bitch, you keep walking into this stuff. It's like the shittiest mystery ever. And no one's gonna let down their guard with your upfrotn questions.

...Morgana has watched anime, I do not take critisism.

"Morgana... TRAAAAANSFORM!" seems like an in universe Featherman thing.

Also, I think that Morgana turning into a bus is a reference to 'Totoro' and the orange cat bus?

Ryuji climbing up from to sit with his boyfriend is literally adorable.

...I'm going to ram Morgana into all the walls, just because he doesn't want me to.

...Butler Joker has a monocule and I CAN'T.

Joker's Christmas outfit amuses me. Ryuji's is the best. The part of me that is attracted to Ann for her personality says her outfit is too sexualized, but the part that likes he body...

Morgana freaking out about Jose complimenting Ann and Ann loving it is just... great, with me having the knowledge that I am going to date her.

If you haven't play as cat Morgana in the Thieves Den what the fuck are you doing with yourself. This is the cutest shit I have ever, ever seen. I have never squealed so much in... at least the last month.

"You two seem pretty close," Makoto says. Bitch, I'd marry her if that were an option.

...Ryuji be calling be a pacifist, but I'm just like... hun... no.

OH COME ON. Ann and Ryuji get to fall for snacks but the first time I try Ann gives me dirty looks?

Honestly, going through the story, I think it's characters like Yusuke and Haru who have it the worst. Their fathers/father-figures betrayed them and used them for their own personal gains. And even Haru had it easier, because she was legitimately her father's daughter and an adult. She inherited everything after he died. What did Yusuke get? A schoolarship to Kosei he had earned by his own merits and severe trauma.

HOSTAGE SITUATIONS HAPPEN AS EARLY AS MADARAME'S PALACE!? I've only have to deal with it once, with Ann in the Holy Grail thing. I think some Black Ooze took her hostage, but that was my first playthrough! Now Ryuji's been taken hostage by Ame-no-uzume. :,(

SHE CALLED HIM MY PARTNER. P4 FLASHBACKS.

...I- I- My life for Ryuji's? I- Yeah. Battlewise, bad plan. But- But my boy-

THE BITCH DOES NOT GET TO PLEAD FOR HER LIFE AFTER THREANING RYUJI

Aw, Ryuji leveled up. :)

...Will Seeds look like demonic potatoes. Yummy.

I like that Palace Ruler Alertness doesn't go up as much as in vanilla.

Ryuji really is the kind of person to pick at anything, isn't he? Walls, scabs, loose thred, peeling paint.

The way Joker runs looks so weird from a distance.

The little whispering shit near the Will Seeds is so fucking creepy, not gonna lie.

5/22 and I'm slamming Madarame into the ground!

I can't STOP SEEING MATHEW MERCER EVERY TIME YUSUKE TALKS. I heard it and now I can't unhear it. I only knew him as the DM in Critical Role and now I'm fuuuuuucked.

...Yusuke really does have the most tragic backstory. Never knew his dad, mom died when he was a kid, and was raised by a bastard who used him for his own selfish gains. The others at least knew their parents for a time. Yusuke's been an orphan basically his entire life...

AAAAAAnd then Ryuji ruined it by complaining baout black coffee (not that I blame him, yuck)

"We have too many dude..." I say, and Yusuke looks so innocent when he offers to dress as a woman. I would support this notion! I have seen his outfit in the dancing game! Allow me this, Atlus!

...Morgana is so full of himself.

You can't have Ann, cat! She's already taken!

So... Morgana makes comentary about me saving even when I'm... not taking forever on the save screen? Weird.

Igor paused when asked about the man in the black mask. Proof early on that he knew something! (We all know that he did, but there's proof now, hindsight and all)

Joker has dry humor. That, or no one else has a sense or humor in this game. Either way, I love picking on Morgana.

Why does telling Ann 'I love you' during her confiant route only give you a +2? Because, like, I really do...

Anyways, did you know that out of all the datable options, Ann is the one you can say that to the most?

Opperation Maidwatch is so awkward.

...I really need a comic where Ann dresses the boys off based off that one event with her, Mishima, Ryuji, and Joker.

Where's the logic in there being an event in the middle of a palace run that, you know, eats into palace run time? Not that I need it, but still.

Every time I go on a date with Ryuji, I get super happy.

...Can this game PLEASE let me have at least nuetral responses to the redheaed first year? I'm- I don't LIKE HER. It's the them trying to make Makoto the prefered love interest all over again. Not having it, mates.

Ryuji, you try to be a punk, but you're so judgemental of everyone's outfits. Can't fool me, pretty boy.

...This entire clean up thing really bothers me. Like, it's literally useless. I don't think you can do anything after it, and COME ON. What else are people using this time for unless it's preping for palaces?

Ryuji is a Good Boy and it's literally just the preceeding reputation that kills it.

Maruki is still a meme. Literally that one meme where the guy throws sparkles everywhere.

Fuck off, Yoshizawa, I wanna go find my datemates and go home. I don't wanna eat soup with you.

"I drive without a liscene too." "Even *I* can tell you're joking." Bitch, if you've SEEN what I do in the Metaverse...

...This makes me worried for how they've shoehorned her Awakening into this... I hope it's during Kaneshiro's Palace. That'll make it more bearable.

...Can I not do her social link, or is it story built? 'Cause if I don't have to, I don't want to. But then again... I should probably do it to be a completionest.

Well, I'm sorry Sae, but I wouldn't call a TEENAGER an expert in anything. You also sound too soft. Aren't you still trying to hound him?

The who 'I am Thou' thing sounds so broken and sad for Faith. I don't like this.

I almost wanna bet real money on Tycoon so Yusuke can have some money for food.

Ryuji's just looking at me all wide eyed after I win another game of Tycoon and is like "Shoulda figured." so I'm just sitting here like... Yeah, I'm pretty good at this. I take it seriously even when it's not a serious game.

Anyway, onto Kaneshiro! And fucking Makoto...

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tumblunni · 7 years

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I finally got yusuke and makoto aaaa I am so happy Goddammit I wanna spend every day hugging the new best party members! But also I kinda wanna punch atlus for getting EVEN WORSE about the homophobia and transphobia seriously Its like every persona gets worse??? Its so fucked up cos persona 2 actually had a canonical gay romance and at the same time p3 and p4 came out we had digital devil saga with its unparalleled respectful portrayal of intersex and nonbinary characters. Like seriously how many writing teams work in the smt crew?? Were the open minded ones all fired midway through the PlayStation 2 era?? WHAT HAPPENED. How can a company even go backwards so much?? God its like... If both things are indeed written by the same groups of people then its like 'hey this game is MORE MAINSTREAM so we'd better throw lgbtq fans under the bus to try and get more popular lol' :p So yeah anyway there's these really friggin 1960s scare campaign level caricatured gay NPCs. They only exist in the red light district cos lol of course, and they only exist to be jokes about how you literally should not ever talk with or make eye contact with gay men because they will rape you. This is the 'funny' ending to the red light district side quest. Ryuji literally just WALKS PAST a gay couple and they suddenly decide to grab and rape him??? And its 'funny'??? Just cos they're drawn as ugly stereotypes and they talk like 'ooo darling u r so naughty always going for the underage straight boys ooo lol we're gonna convert you'. And then your protagonist is given no option but to let ryuji be dragged off and sexually harassed??? He didn't even do anything to 'comically' deserve this 'punishment', its not even funny within it's own narrative! And you just see him again the next day and he's like 'ha ha lol u left me to get raped, what a funny man you are' and its NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN?? just brushed away that he managed to escape them so its no big deal. And then these rapist stereotype NPCs continue to exist in that area forever so I can never be free of them ever time I wanna go to the damn fortune teller shop... Oh and the bartender is also a negative stereotype of trans women, she's drawn in the same cliché 'ugly style' they gave the fat schoolgirl in p4 and she has facial hair and a 'comical' masculine voice. And like.. God... I thought at least she escaped the worst of it cos she never gets any lines of dialogue in this side quest, but now random social links are mentioning her and like SERIOUSLY MISHIMA LEAVE HER ALONE! 'Oh man that interview with that reporter was awful cos the bartender was 'a drag queen' and I felt like 'he' was gonna rape me even though we barely even made eye contact' JUST STOP. GAME, PLEASE STOP. And UUUUUUGH all the 'lol it looks like a gay option but haha it will never be an option' teasing in yusuke's friendship scenes! There's none of that usual 'oh lol ur reading too much into it, he's totally straight' NO THE WRITERS FUCKIN KNOW WHAT THEY DID. You literally have one scene where the two of you get mistaken for a gay couple in the park and the passers by are all 'oh well nowadays people are kinky like that' as if its something lewd, and somehow its meant to be funny??? Its been a huge eye opener to me... I don't even think atlus is intentionally queerbaiting now, I was giving them too much credit to think they were actually trying to appeal to the queer market! I just think all the huge amounts of teasing a gay option is meant to be A JOKE to them. They think that people will laugh their heads off at merely mentioning that gay people exist, and everyone would ~obviously~ be totes grossed out and know that everyone is really straight. Why wouldn't they be! They're so straight that you can say they're gay and its a funny funny joke! Those silly queer folks taking it seriously! Those silly very large portion of our audience! Silly how persona 4 became so popular in that market! Silly how we're so fucking desperate we'll even buy something only vaguely teasing representation in a really insulting way! And silly how I've got so used to it that I'm already feeling like 'oh people will think I'm not a real fan if I criticize this, I'd better keep my mouth shut'... Gahhhhhhh YOU LITERALLY HAVE PEOPLE SAYING YUSUKE IS MY GAY OPTION THATS HOW MUCH THIS DUMB RECURRING 'JOKE' HAS ASCENDED INTO ABSURDITY HA HA LETS JUST STATE THAT GAY PEOPLE EXIST MAYBE YOU CAN DATE THIS CHARACTER BUT NOPE WHAT A FUNNY WHAT A PUNCHLINE WHAT A MINIMUM EFFORT FUCKING MESS ... gah sorry I'm shutting up now Anyway I like yusuke a lot and I really fucking wish he was an option. Or at least they wouldn't outright mock me for wanting it. Also Ann x makoto is already hitting me hard and she's barely been in the party for five seconds. They just had a really heartwarming side plot of going from enemies to best friends and they have so much in common and all the boys are constantly being perverted assholes to Ann so she needs to end up with someone better. Seriously this game even goes out of its way yo have like a month long 'joke' of yusuke being mistaken for perving on ann when he's actually not interested in her and doesn't even know what he did wrong! Somehow even the one boy who isn't hitting on her has to somehow hit on her???? And ha ha 'comedy' equals 'hey Ann you have to strip naked in front of a stranger that we all think is a rapist, it is The Only Way'. Fucking glad yusuke turned out to not be that awful, but still it made me so uncomfortable geez... Did the whole Palace in like two days just to get it over with... ... Okay NOW I am done complaining! This is also why I love finally getting another female character, and one that doesn't have to wear a super sexualized battle outfit and do stupid poses that seem completely out of character. Seriously Ann freaks out and tries to cover her chest the first time she transforms, and she just has to.. Deal with it?? And the phantom thief uniforms are meant to be based on your soul so why is it even possible for someone to not be comfortable wearing it? Is it meant to be some kind of stupid 'lol she is repressed and secretly she wants to dress sexy even if she says she doesn't' sort of thing...? Wouldn't have been uncomfortable if she actually seemed like she chose the damn boob suit :P Okay Okay NOW I am done I just had to get out all my complaints cos a lot of this game made me very happy and I hate how some very small scenes have so much impact they threaten to ruin that :P Also I REALLY WANT TO DATE YUSUKE Fuck u game for suggesting I date him if you ain't gonna deliver KEEP YO MOUTH SHUT *goes back to sitting grumpily in a swan boat*

#bunni plays p5 #seriously i swear i am enjoying it #it was just a nasty surprise #its like 'hello telegram from 5 decades ago! i brought my stereotypes!'#gtfo dr who this is not what th trdis is for

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doktorpeace · 7 years

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P5 Update after the break I’m very very far into the game so there will be heavy spoilers, just read through later if you aren’t at least in Mid November:

I guess first I’ll give an overview of my progress and general playstyle before moving onto thoughts about characters, social links, and the story. It’s currently 11/14 in game, so I’ll be delving into Sae’s dungeon soon. Like I mentioned before I’ve maxed 4/5 social stats, everything except Kindness which is at rank 4. Including the Confidants which will max out on their own eventually but have not yet (Fool, Magician, Judgement and I’m going to assume Justice) I’ve completed 13 social links with Haru’s (Rank 7), The Twin Wardens’ (Rank 8), Iwai’s (Rank 7), and Futaba’s (Rank 2) pretty likely to finish before the game is over. The only one I’m concerned for is Futaba’s since I’ve shamefully raised hers so little. Thus far I’ve completed every Palace in just one visit a piece, discounting any story forced segments like the first couple visits to Kamoshida and Madarame’s Palaces. I’ve really liked this game’s schedule tbh. Overall while I feel some of the story segments take up too much time, specifically during October, I don’t mind so much because I’ve gotten a lot done on a near completely blind first playthrough, and there’s still more I can do. While initially I was worried that social stats took too long to level up I feel it successfully threads the needle between 3′s “They’ll cap without effort” and 4′s “Fuck you for trying” approach for first time runs. They take effort and dedication, but like I said I’ve maxed nearly all of them. I also like how different confidant relationships will help improve your social stats as well, it’s a great secondary incentive to max certain ones and to stick with them. On top of that, there are more major barriers that require certain social stats and while some feel a little arbitrary (maxed charm for Makoto past rank 5) it makes sense to incentivize players to spend time on them as well. Another improvement to Confidants I enjoy over previous social links is how they all give a variety of skills. I know I focused on Hifumi’s and Kawakami’s way more than I might have otherwise just because their skills are so good and varied. Hifumi’s in particular add a lot of tactical depth. On the opposite end though, I know I ended up putting Ohya and Chihaya on the backburner because their skills weren’t that useful, though I certainly got a lot of use out of Chihaya’s social stat booster readings. Honestly, I just wish I had taken the time to max Sojiro’s. I like him a lot but he’s only at rank 3 because I spent the time I could have spent with him in the early game on my social stats. *sad trombone* For transparency, I’ve completed: Makoto’s, Yusuke’s, Ann’s, Ryuji’s, Takemi’s, Kawakami’s, Hifumi’s, Mishima’s, and Yoshida’s, and then another 3-4 will max automatically. I’ve enjoyed them all thoroughly, Yoshida’s in particular is one of my favorite non-party member Social Links in the entire franchise. I also like how Akira’s dialogue with women is much more respectful and natural than Yu’s or Minato’s was. He gets a lot more dialogue that doesn’t have sexual tension and feels like what an actual person would say, which leads to great character relationships and dynamics between him and characters like Ann, Makoto, and Hifumi even if you elect not to date them. In some cases I’d even say that his relationship dynamic is stronger if you do not date them, particularly with Futaba and Ann. (please don’t kill me avaterem if you’re reading this) This isn’t to say that electing to date one of them is bad or lesser per se, I just feel like there was a great dynamic between him and Ann as Just Friends which honestly I didn’t feel was there between Minato and Yukari or Yu and Rise, for instance. Combat wise this game’s been a little on the easy side but I’ve enjoyed it a lot. I’ll definitely play new game+ through on hard or maybe even higher, we’ll see. All the party members fill unique niches and the greater variety of skills this game has helps keep them all fresh. Nobody overlaps unlike with 3 and 4 so that’s great. The Palace Bosses have all had really great fights, though I feel visually Kamoshida’s was still the most impressive because it was very out there comparatively. Still, they all fit thematically with who you’re fighting and they’ve all been very fun. Ever since she joined Makoto has been on the team and I just swap around the two members who aren’t Akira or Makoto. Generally it’s been a good move because she’s an extremely well balanced tank with good spread damage and support skills. The Palaces themselves have also been very enjoyable, they’ve each taken at least a somewhat different approach to design and I like that so far. Kamoshida’s has a good number of mandatory stops to keep you from getting worn out, and otherwise goes fairly easy since it’s the tutorial level basically. Madarame’s requires a mandatory stop to do stuff in real life which was neat and otherwise its level design was super cool and well realized thematically. Kaneshiro’s is a gauntlet through, it’s super long and fairly tough for its time in the story but there’s nothing stopping you except your own pacing and skill from actually just completing it in one go. Its level of difficulty is consistent throughout with no real spikes anywhere, it’s also the dungeon I had the most trouble keeping a low alertness rating in because it has a lot of unique mechanics. Futaba’s Palace is similar, though its difficulty is very spike-y. The dungeon itself isn’t too long, but the enemy mobs are generally speaking a good bit higher level than you are and many of them are only weak to PSI skills, which only Joker can have, or are weak to nothing at all. It’s the only dungeon that I made heavy use of just running away from encounters in. Most recently was Okumura’s Palace which is honestly one of my favorites. Its a great puzzle-dungeon that’s incredibly front loaded with challenge. If you can’t figure out that the worker drones are weak to fire then you’re in for an extremely bad time. On top of that several of the normal enemies in the first area are immune to regular attacks and guns, then it makes you fight a lot of unforgiving sub bosses up front but rewards you with an area where all the enemies are weak to physical attacks and guns. Then Haru really comes into play in spite of being a bit weaker than the others by virtue of lacking baton pass, the nearer you get to the end the more enemy types are weak to PSI and Gun skills, which Haru will just chew through. Overall it’s really well designed, but definitely much easier than 3 and 4. I’ve only had one game over happen and it was to a very unfortunate string of criticals. On a side note: Mementos is a nice bone throw to people who liked Tartarus a lot, though because of how it works it’s never challenging. I don’t have a lot to say on it, but I have a sneaking suspicion it’s gonna be the true final dungeon we do where we fight god or whatever because this is a Persona game so I know we’re gonna fight a god at some point, probably after the story mostly ends and we time skip to March. The story’s been very good so far. I was wondering when we’d get into the meat of it and oh boy October really delivered. There’s been this tension about the whole game because like, the first thing you learn is that you fucked up and got caught. You’re recounting what all happened to the prosecutor who’s in charge of your case. It’s flowed well and while a couple of the early segments, like within the first hour mostly, were somewhat stilted I’ve felt that way about every atlus product I’ve ever played. It’s just their weakpoint in storytelling as a company. This game does a great job not leaving things hanging, basically everything I’ve wondered about has been addressed in some way, even down to “Jeez Ryuji and Morgana are being really hostile towards each other” becomes an actual plot point and I like that a lot. Which btw Morgana running away called me the fuck out because like yeah, I’d totally benched him more or less in favor of the human party members since Yusuke joined. Since then I know I’ve been using him more not because I felt bad but because it made me appreciate having him more. I’ll do a full write up on the story once I’m totally done, all I really have to say right now is I haven’t trusted Akechi one fucking iota all game and that hasn’t changed now. He’s a good character, but he’s sus as fuck and I’m waiting to fight him as a boss later. If he ends up just being an actually good boy and not betraying us I’ll eat my hat. But I’m dead fucking certain that he’s Future Prime Minister Shido’s darknet hitman who goes and assassinates people for him using the Metaverse. I’ve already caught Akechi in a lie, he said he only received his persona a month ago but that’s BULLSHIT because he could understand what Morgana was saying all the way back in May. He’s known about and been able to access the Metaverse for a long time. The only thing I’ve really not had addressed yet is why exactly was Akira accepted at this school? Kobayakawa mentioned it was because of ‘outside influence’ at the start of the game and that still hasn’t been addressed. The Phantom Thieves are great. Easily my favorite player group of the three people actually care about between SEES, The Investigation Team, and now these guys. They have a great set of dynamics and relationships, and you get a ton more interparty interaction and dialogue thanks to the text chat logs. They’ve all been great and it’s neat seeing the nuances of their relationships both as a group and individually. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean I like either other group less now, but after P4 neatly sorted the investigation team into sets of two all game it’s refreshing to see them all interact with each other directly and often. They’re all interesting and good characters. Morgana’s improved a lot. I already liked him better than Teddie, but after the Okumura arc of the story he’s improved a lot. I like him a good bit, but I’ll still wait to talk about him in full until the story’s over. Ryuji’s still great. He’s the ‘your first and best friend’ of the game. Compared one to one I probably don’t like him as much as Junpei but he’s real close. Obviously he blows Yosuke out of the water because he’s actually a good and enjoyable character. Ryuji’s dates are also really great, he’s just an earnest, good, vulgar boy trying his best. His hot headed-ness has actually been a detriment for the group a couple of times, which is good because him shouting about being Phantom Thieves in public and being overly combative toward Morgana (for understandable enough reasons) SHOULD come up. Still, he shows great growth and humility over the course of the story, particularly when he apologizes to Morgana and after he gets angry during a meeting and scares Haru and Futaba by punching some furniture he tells Akira that it made him feel shitty and he’s going to apologize to them individually. He’s great, I love him, and he’s strong in combat to boot. Ann is still the explosive, great, multifaceted character she was and I like her even more now that I’ve finished her Confidant relationship. She’s a very good character and honestly the driving force behind a lot of P5′s feminist messages. She’s a great character who can be silly, friendly, and serious all at the same time and it doesn’t feel like she’s whipping around from one personality to another, she’s just really well realized. One of my favorite things about her is that she’s allowed to be angry, she’s allowed to be pissed off and shout and rage against society in the same way as Ryuji. She’s never as loud as him, but it’s still great. As a party member she’s a little weaker than the others, mostly because he gun fucking sucks lol. That said she has a great mix of offense and utility, I just wish her speed were a bit higher. Yusuke’s even better now that I’ve taken him on like, 4 dates and finished his Confidant relationship. Like, putting aside that he’s obviously gay for a moment there is way more erotic and romantic tension between him and Akira than there is between Akira and most other characters. His dialogue, the way they interact, Akira’s response options and what motions he makes around him, it’s all very homoerotic and it makes me even more confused as to why he’s not romanceable. He has more date locations you can take him on than several of the romance options, just make him a full romance please Atlus. Aside from that, I love his character, he’s great. As a character he’s also great representation for people on the autism spectrum, imo. This game never outright says “Yusuke is autistic” but it’s extremely obvious he’s intended to be on the spectrum given some of his dialogue, behavior, and the particular use of the word ‘eccentric’ and ‘eccentricities’ in regards to him and only him. Japanese games don’t like saying shit like that outright but it’s totally clear if you just pay attention. His Confidant Relationship is also one of my favorites in the game. You get a great look at his life circumstances, some of his philosophical beliefs, and you get to see this great maturity come about as he takes it all in and turns it into his art. I think it was really meaningful that his final art piece for that competition was just him going back to the canvas he started on and making something more out of it. He’s a well rounded character and is also one of my favorite combat party members because he’s so fucking strong. His damage output is absurd to be frank and his followup attack is one of my favorites, he just instantly kills whatever enemy has the most health on the field. It’s great. Makoto’s a total babe tbh... She’s got the punk biker aesthetic when you’re in the metaverse, her weapons of choice are her fists and revolvers, she does the whole ‘Pretend we’re dating and whoops we just don’t stop’ thing. She’s a little socially awkward but not totally, she’s the boss friend and voice of reason, though she isn’t beyond jokes and she’s just great. I’m weak, she’s powerful, I love this character. It also helps that she’s clearly the secondary protagonist of the game in the same way that Mitsuru and Naoto were before her, so she gets a lot of nice extra focus in the story. Not so much as to detract from the others, but her being Sae’s sister naturally makes her interactions with her sister the main way we see Sae characterized. I’ve got a lot to say about her but I can’t really get it into words right now. I’ll talk about her more later cause some drama’s gonna go down I’m sure of it. Futaba’s the character I was most worried about going in, but I’ve been happily proven wrong. I was worried she’d just be your NEET Japanese Gamer Waifu and she’s absolutely not. I mean, she is literally a NEET Japanese Gamer Girl, but the story doesn’t sexualize her nor does it make her the ‘obvious’ romance like how Yukari and Rise were in 3 and 4. She’s a character with paranoid schizophrenia for christsake and they manage to not only handle that well, but they kept the integrity of her character all throughout it and make her own effort the reason she improves, not the phantom thieves magically fixing her. I’m still not over it. I haven’t done much of her confidant relationship, but I do really like what I’ve seen of her. She’s driven and works hard, but she’s got her limits and is trying hard to broaden her horizons. She’s very comedic as well in the text logs but in a way that makes sense for someone her age and background. Her relationship with the others is a little stilted, but it doesn’t feel awkward, it makes sense because really she only interacts to any major degree with Akira, Yusuke, and Morgana. And finally we have Haru! I love her, she’s so fucking cute and such a sweet character. It’s kind of funny how she’s almost the same as Mitsuru but is so different. They’re both 1%ers who are the sole daughters and heirs to a conglomerate, are set up for an aranaged marriage they do not want, and whose dads die suddenly. Plus they’re both Empress Arcana. Yet the major difference is Mitsuru’s dad was supportive and she was prepared to inherit her company, where Haru has neither of those things. She was a passenger to her dad’s corrupt will and suddenly has all of this thrust upon her. I think it’s neat how similar they are in concept yet they’re totally different. I haven’t completed her confidant relationship yet but so far I like how down to earth it is. She just needs someone she can trust and talk with about her life issues. It’s cute seeing her go out and try different hobbies of her own choice just to get away from it all and to see what comes of it. Oh, I just realized, but also like Mitsuru she copes with her situation by burying herself in more work, though with Haru it’s with getting more hobbies to do where Mitsuru just takes on more corporate responsibilities. I hope this ends well for her. Honestly I wish she joined us sooner, I get the feeling she won’t be around for enough time to get the focus she deserves. Also, and this is just me, but I feel people saying ‘This game’s gay representation is shit just like Atlus always is’ really aren’t giving the game its dues. Yes, those two NPCs are bad and solely negative inclusions that just randomly throw in two (admittedly very short) scenes with a couple of predatory gay guys. But to only highlight them and ignore characters like Lala Escargot being well handled and shown to be nothing but a good person, Yusuke being pretty gay, and even the main character explicitly and without joking being able to show attraction to men multiple times is just unfair. The game’s gay representation isn’t perfect, but it’s certainly a lot better than Persona 3 or 4′s initial releases. Though Persona 3′s cast ended up being very queer with later content if you just compare the initial releases of each game Persona 5 blows the others out of the water by means of actually having positive queer representation. All in all, it’s still amazing, 10/10, my game of the year without question. I love it.

#P5 #P5 Spoilers

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