#goddamn you atlus

[arcsin27]

Yeah the “ren and akechi playing chess on a quiet afternoon was akechis wish as well not just rens” is gonna carry me for a few months

#goddamn you atlus #just rip my heart to shreds again why don’t you #read this like a confessional on a reality show or something lol #persona 5 #p5 #akechi #ren #akeshu #shuake #p5 art book

[spitblaze]

brain: you're heavily invested in an rpg that doesnt engage with moral nuance?? thats pretty cringe bro

me: hey just checking we're still heavily invested in pokemon right. the pokemon series that is made primarily for children and whose deepest moral diving is 'peta sucks'. that pokemon series

brain: yeah why

me: cool just checking

#spitblaze says things #yea brain. its a squenix snes throwback style turn based rpg. its not gonna have the narrative depth of a goddamn shin megami tensei game #will you lay the fuck off and let me enjoy my funny little pixel people in peace #anyway idk why brain is complaining. cotc isnt even a mainline game its a mobile spinoff #and while the writing isnt as good as the mainline games its still pretty fuckin good for a mobile spinoff #it gets me invested in its original npcs which is more than i can say for. any other phone game ive played lmao #(except maybe pokemas?? paulo's got a cool thing goin on) #tbh this feels dismissive of pokemon but uuuuuuuh gen 5 was really the most nuanced the series ever got i think #7 had some! 9 DEFINITELY had some #but 5 sticks out the most for sure #also if i wanted an rpg with moral/ethical depth. as mentioned. i would play an atlus/rgg game :V

[silent-partner-412]

i wanna talk about this phenomenon cuz i’m sick of seeing it.

it’s become cliche to this point that in basically any atlus game, it will inevitably circle back to persona 5 in its criticism. somehow, despite it being YEARS since persona 5 came out, game journalists still manage to keep bringing it up, sometimes in blatantly stupid ways like the example shown here.

here’s the thing: this is bad criticism. anybody could tell you that. saying “this thing is worse because it’s not this other thing” is an emotional response to something you’d tell your friend, not a genuine piece of criticism you’d make about a product. i’m almost certain this author was aware of this. so why did they include it?

cuz people won’t stop fucking sharing these to fucking dunk on them.

seriously. without fail, the reason i learn these exist is never by reading the articles. i don’t really read game reviews from professional sites. i only know of these because people find these reviews and spread them around to every fan of atlus’s games, and everybody makes fun of how stupid the journalist is for making a dumb callback to persona 5. i’m willing to bet that’s also how most other people find these reviews too.

these game journalism sites want clicks. they want attention. they want people to spread around the silly persona 5 comparisons because that’s the only way a lot of people will actually see or care about the article. and people fall for it every goddamn time. and honestly, i’m just sick of it. i wish all persona and smt fans would just fucking ignore it when this happens, because i’m convinced that’s the only way it will ever stop happening.

#persona #persona 3 #persona 3 reload #persona 5 #it also doesn’t help that persona 5 itself gets caught in the crossfires of all this #this makes people start harboring more undeserved resentment for the game which for god’s sake it doesn’t need more of that #so many of the dunks are like haha that should be a pro actually #and i’m like cmon man #why can’t people just be normal about that goddamn game

[cartridge4daculture]

There's not a single day that goes by that I don't think about Yosuke Hanamura getting shoved back into the closet HARD by Atlus

Could you imagine, could you even goddamn imagine how different gaming as a culture would look if in 08/09 if Yu and Yosuke were the faces of lgbtq representation from Japan for the eight straight years P4 reigned as Atlus's golden goose

#yosuke hanamura #persona 4 #gaming #jrpgs

[furinana]

Thoughts on Kaneko's departure, the current state of Megaten and etcetera

When scrolling through jpn Twitter, I got reminded of a certain Atlus survey from years ago. For those unfamiliar, Atlus surveys often wonder about how receptive people would be regarding derivative content (spinoffs, remakes etc) of several titles you could think of. Among those that would turn out real were Soul Hackers and obviously the Personas.

[Left: Nocturne, both SMTIV games and Digital Devil Saga as part of the selectable options for a "full remake title" in an Atlus survey from 2020. Right: Shigeo Komori's comment on the future of the franchise in 2022]

The good: the current staff (still) cares enough to attempt to shine a new spotlight on old entries even if some would be deemed less profitable for the current fanbase's standards. The hmm: with Kaneko gone and cementing that "the old days won't return", the shoes become large for newcomers to fit in. Even if one has soul behind the job, the current industry prioritizing long developments and less risky directions makes it tough for them to create even one third of what the original staff was able to do in the same amount of time. On top of it, seeing this huge list of "potential works to get rehashed" almost in a Disney remake vein isn't particularly exciting. SMTIVA was only 4 years old in that goddamn screenshot and you already are throwing the possibility of a remake? Hello?

Non-Persona stuff is so far in-between nowadays that it's hard to write a conclusive piece regarding how far the current staff can go without relying on already established works.

Well... we can comment on the mixed reaction on popular illustrator Shirow Miwa being hired for a "sequel" of Soul Hackers.

The main point of concern here: with one-time artists and non-centralized direction, it becomes harder to achieve a worldbuilding where the worlds of different games smoothly connect together like they did back in the golden era of Megaten.

Recurring characters like Lucifer or Tamaki felt appropriately part of the universe even across different games they were at due to Kaneko's design philosophy of sticking closely to real-life fashion aside having a character's personality and background closely define how they would look staying consistent in the entries he contributed to.

On the other hand, Shirow Miwa was specifically told he should just design on his own instead of working around Kaneko's style that molded the franchise to this day. The feeling that long-time Devil Summoner fans didn't like it due to aesthetic clash was on the air thus contributing on the motives for why the game couldn't grab a significant part of potential buyers.

Before going too deep on this, let's not get the wrong idea: non-staff illustrators being collaborators aren't at all new for Megaten titles. Yasuomi Umetsu for SMT Nine, Suzuhito Yasuda for the Devil Survivor duology, toi8 for Tokyo Mirage, Tatsuro Iwamoto for Dx2, the list goes on. But behind those entries, there's noticeably a lack of commitment prevalent in those decisions. Most are treated as self-contained worlds separated from the world of games Kaneko worked as the main designer, thus they're treated as their own thing instead of another part of the puzzle hence considered "safer to experiment".

Anyone can understand the amount of expectation that such a bold numbered title like Soul Hackers 2, in a subseries well-known for hit after hit like the Devil Summoner series carries above these, however.

Specially when one-time collabs have been shown to carry the risk of underperforming considerably.

[SMT Nine and Tokyo Mirage had the excuse of being in flopped consoles but how lenient can you be to Soul Hackers 2?]

Another recent example of mixed reactions (albeit to a minor degree) were the SMTIV-exclusive demons drawn by Tokusatsu media-related artists Keita Amemiya, Yoshihiro Nishimura and Kyouma Aki: most didn't reappear even for the SMTIV sequel and the few ones that leaped had to be redrawn by Doi, the actual staff artist that took over the role of main character & demon designer thus the face of the current mainline.

[Doi-designed demons such as Chironnupu or Mermaid are the sole examples of SMTIV reps carrying over to other games]

The thing is, SMTIV was the fastest-selling mainline game (even compared to big ones like Nocturne or SMTV) while Apocalypse sold enough to beat Strange Journey's sales. Did it sell well because of the collabs or despite them? Either way, they seem to have decided to stick with style consistency over quantity.

Doi worked under Kaneko for several years before being given the opportunity to produce original designs for the games thus the picture of a recurring staff artist that is deeply involved in how the franchise shaped itself and is well-acquainted with elements that both old and new fans want earns more trust and familiarity compared to one-time contributors.

[It's also important to acknowledge that Doi isn't the only artist retouching art for current Megaten around: Akira Odagaki was the one behind the remake of Strange Journey, with Doi only providing Alex and the exclusive demon additions]

While Kaneko's resigning was understandably a shock for many fans, one cannot argue against his desires towards a career path of more freedom, considering the unstable state that many creatives go through in the game industry, veterans and greenhorns alike:

Is Kaneko a misunderstood genius that Atlus was extremely foolish to let go? Or is he out of touch and will be another Keiji Inafune/Yuji Naka case? Only time will tell. But both things can be true

As a sidenote, Kaneko's interest in shady business practices feels similarly disconnected from reality as something Ishida said in the Soul Hackers 2 interview:

[Nevermind doxxing, bots taking over or drones killing innocent people, guys. Technology turned out to be completely harmless]

What else do we have left?

When talking of style consistency and thought-provoking worldbuilding ties to other titles, mainline SMT as of now stays as the one thing I have been interested on even when under a different team.

SMT5 went through the shortcoming of being another unfinished debut release requiring an inhanced version to truly shine its full potential (which is unfortunate for day1 fans but then again, Nocturne was fully guilty of this for three times).

Kaneko is irreplaceable. But I also enjoy Doi's contributions (alongside Yamai's and Kozuka's) and given the appropriate time and budget, I believe in the potential that the staff responsible for the latest SMTs has in building ground on their own, even regarding new ways of twisting expectations of long-time players and extending the world of SMT to bigger horizons instead of plain soft resets in the continuity.

And at the end of the day, other members of the original staff exist beyond Kaneko and are amazingly receptive to keeping on celebrating the franchise such as Tsukasa Masuko (that recently released a new soundtrack arrangement for Megami Tensei 1&2 funded by Kickstarter) or of course, original franchise creator Aya Nishitani himself that often deepdives into Megaten worldbuilding concepts and theories to the franchise on his Twitter account, even going as far as translating for free the last book of the Megami Tensei novel trilogy for the enjoyment of English-speaking fans.

#general megaten tag

[1eos]

my thing about yosuke is because of his various transgressions I barely like him but I just find him weirdly compelling? Idk I think he's kinda realistic, he's always reminded me of those guys in high school who could be pretty likeable sometimes but sucked soooo bad. He's very teenage boy in that way. Also feel free to bitch about the atlus ake/shu propaganda I love hearing your takes you're always so correct and wise 🤭

THAT'S REALLY ITTTTT. he's so fascinating and ive built such a rich character study of him in my head and my ideas are amazing so i think i like him then i go back to the source material and every time im like 'goddamn yosuke SUCKSSSS' but i can't really hate him lol the magician characters are always annoying but charming boys who are early in their de-bastardification process 😭😭😭 as for akesh* I HOPE EVERYONE THAT LIKES THEM GOES TO HELLLLLLLLLLL. i have written so many dissertations on how persona 5 having the silent hill 2 problem and trying to copy details from the best entry in the series (persona 4) is the source of all their problems but i'll say it again! atlus wanted to have another adachi/souji moment so bad but make them the same age so they could have ethical yaoi but it just did not work. if they wanted that they SHOULDVE made makoto a boy and ooooooooooooooooooo the yaoi wouldve written itself. like its so crazy the wrote a worthy rival in makoto who was actively out to get u in the beginning where u could see her but the narrative wanted to suddenly swap it up and be like 'look at akechi' BITCH ITS TOO LATE. especially bc it was already done better with adachi like you cannot do that twist again it was too good! there was build up! i havent talked abt it much but the way persona 5 is set up with it being an interrogation that purposefully hides a bunch of stuff from the audience was really good to get you into the game but made other things less impactful SUCH AS AKECHI. which is a shame bc the set piece of the casino was amazing but as a character and as a narrative foil akechi fell short hes truly just an ugly low rent version of naoto and adachi mixed together w a predictable sob story back story like boooooooo booooooooooooooooo you'll never be the persona 3 betrayal!

#asks #which is why im worried abt persona 6.........like.........................

[smokeybrandreviews]

Festival Season

I am a massive fan of MegaTen games. I love everything about them; the battle systems, characters, and overall world. I fell in love with the summoning and fusion systems of these games almost immediately and longed for other franchises to do something similar. It was basically Digimon Fusion before Digimon was a thing. Who wouldn’t want to Lego two Pokemon into a goddamn MewTwo? The missus introduced me to this brave new world with the purchase of Digital Devil Saga so long ago. It was one of the first gifts I ever got her. Watching her play that sh*t really awakened something within me. It was like watching my kid brother playing Final Fantasy IX for the first time but with, you know, violent monstrosities. Way back then, during the golden age of the JRPG, on the PS2, we made it a point to play all of the obscure titles. Nippon Ichi and Atlus were our bread and butter. We had copies of Stella Deus, every DIsgaea available, and even Soul Nomad. No one talks about Soul Nomad. One day, she came home with Persona 3. On that list was Persona 3 vanilla. Bro, after we booted it up and those first few notes of Burn My Dread popped, I was hooked. I must have put three hundred hours into that game. I conquered everything I could in that game, romanced every option, and completed one hundred percent of that sh*t. I unlocked every Persona on just two runs and readily did it again when FES released. The Answer was kind if disappointing but I didn’t mind running through the enhanced world of P3 once again. And then I did it one more time when P3P dropped, though, admittedly, Portable is my least favorite of the lot. Persona 3 opened my eyes to a world of RPGs beyond just your Final Fantasys and Dragon Warriors. Because I enjoyed this one game so much, I was open to trying out others. I wouldn’t have touched Magna Carta if not for Persona. I would have missed out on Rogue Galaxy. Wouldn’t have given Shining Force EXA a second thought. If I had never played Persona 3, I would have never played 4 or 5, and that sh*t seems so bewildering to me because those games are some of my all-time favorites. In fact, for a long while, Persona 5 was my favorite of these games. I wrote a whole thing about, about how, while I loved 3, 5 was a close second. It had legitimately closed that gap after Royal dropped but then Persona 3 Reload was announced. Guess who pulled ahead once again.

I got Reload day one and immediately dove into to. It felt familiar, yet, new. It definitely got all the bells and whistles that made Persona 5 so enjoyable but was still definitely Persona 3. I got my copy for the PS4 so, while the presentation is loads better than the original, and it shows, it’s comparable to Persona 5. Having that “side-by-side” experience just solidifies that P3 IS my favorite Persona title and one of my all-time favorite games, period. I was a little bummed Burn My Dread wasn’t the opening song but Full Moon Full ain’t too shabby on its own. More than that, the quality of life changes are amazing. It’s the little things like the Online Saves or the fact you don't get fatigued in Tartarus anymore. I love how the original character designs got a remix, bringing them closer in line with that Persona 5 aesthetic, and boy do they steal from that P5 aesthetic let me tell you! The thing is, though, it feels full circle to me. I remember, way back when I was playing P5 (shout out to Tae Takemi, best girl in the entire game), that P5 feels like the spiritual successor to P3 in every way P4 is not. Don’t get me wrong, P4 is a classic, but it feels out of place in the trio, almost disconnected. Also, I remember hating Teddy. It’s like, did P3 influence P5, only to have that sh*t bleed back into Reload? I don’t know, and I don’t really care. I get to play Persona 3, on my PS4, with the look of Persona 5. I cannot stress how dope that is. Also, Satanael is DLC. You KNOW I bought due and have been decimating the early game! Thanatos is my second favorite Persona, always, Alice is the first (especially after I customize her), but Ren’s ultimate Persona is a strong third. Like, laughably so. There’s just something about summoning a Demon God that feels so…powerful. Also, you shoot God in the face. How can you not love that?

I’m ten hours into Reload and it is everything I ever dreamed  a full-on Persona 3 remake should be. This isn’t that bait and switch FFVII pulled with Remake. No, for all intents and purposes, this IS Persona 3 but with modern game play and graphics. It’s like I’m popping ion the game for the very first time, damn near twenty years later. The Protagonist is as stoic as ever and the city of Tatsumi Port Island is alive with a vibrancy only the power of PS4 could bring. Building this game on the Unreal engine was a stroke of genius because the models are crisp, detailed, and fluid. There are so many little particle effects that make everything pop. The biggest upgrade is the UI. The thing is, I’m old as f*ck. I’ve been gaming since the old NES days. I’ve seen the evolution of video game and, for me, they peaked way back in the PS3 era. When P3 originally came out, I had no problem with how the title was presented. It got a little flashier with P3P and Persona 4 added their own flair, but Persona 5 really went in on the showmanship. P3R gets a bit of that and it goes a very long way to captivating the player. I thought modern hardware would affect the charm of these OG designs, but it doesn’t. It actually enhances them considerably. It’s subtle, but the bodies are longer, the eyes are smaller, and the overall proportions feel more realistic. I kind of love it. I also love the redesigns, so far. I mean, Mitsuru is gorgeous and I adore the new-ish Elizabeth model, but I’m holding judgment until the very end when I get to see Nyx again. And definitely get my ass throttled by her. Now, admittedly, not all that shimmers is gold. The fact that the Answer, the additional part of FES, isn’t included in what is a very obvious FES remake, kind of bones. I hear that it will be DLC down the line and that sucks. I like Metis. Her design was dope. I’m also not that huge a fan of Thanatos’ first reveal being made with in-game models. The visceral nature of that genesis feels lost when not in animation. It’s good in its own way but, goddamn, did that sh*t hit different way back when. These are, of course, superficial gripes because I am having the time of my life with this game! And it’s only the first play through. That New Game is about to slap crazy hard! I cannot wait to run it back with my heavy hitters on deck. Satanael be damned, getting Thanatos and my laughably OP Alice in the mix is going to be the best!

#Persona #Persona 3 #Persona 3 Reload #MegaTen #Shin Megami Tensei

[tacitusauxilium]

I AM FUCKING SOBBING RIGHT NOW. I FUCKING LOVE THIS GAME, I LOVE SHINJIRO ARAGAKI, AND I LOVE HOW HE IS SUCH A GOOD GODDAMN HUMAN BEING—THANK YOU FOR HIS SIDE STORY BEAUTIFUL GODS AT ATLUS!

AND THEN THEY GIVE YOU THE FORM TO KEEP I AM CRYING AND SCREAMING AND THROWING UP

HE WANTED TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL BUT DID NOT KNOW WHEN—I AM IN SPAIN WITH OUT THE S

#ooc #kiki speaks #mobile post #[ kindhearted but brooding ;; Shinjiro Aragaki ] #(I AM FUCKING DONE. I CANNOT EVEN FANTOM THE IDEA #SOMEONE HOLD ME RIGHT NOW 😭😭😭) #persona 3 reload spoilers #persona 3 reload #post 10/4 events — spoilers

[arcplaysgames]

Akechi's other persona is fucking Loki, hahahahahaha fuck. The personification of the spanner in the works, goddamn.

Akechi uses his "Lose Your Mind" power on himself and goes completely off his shits, morphing into his MUCH BETTER AND COOLER black mask armor.

It's a fucking delight to have been dealing with this utterly fake-ass bitch and the constancy of his false gentility for this entire game, and just listen to him shred his own voice with the force of his anger and madness.

Quite the glow-up! /claps

also he uses Tetrakarn which is fucking cheating and ruins my usual strat of annihilating people with Athena's utterly broken skills.

.... wow that is staggeringly smart tbh. Akechi's entire Detective Prince resume is a fucking facade. he created the cases himself with his powers and then solved them. Wow. That's diabolically clever.

It cannot be overstated: Ann is the nicest person in any Atlus game ever. She is the kindest fucking person. It's staggering every time she does it.

Alas, as much as I would personally love to get my hands on this new and improved Akechi, Shido created a safety catch for his favorite boy-shaded weapon.

Shido always planned to murder Akechi to tie him up as a loose end, so the Cognitive Akechi living in Shido's head is here to do the honors.

Haru is so high on the tier list tbh. She's fabulous and she is the one who wanted the Thieves to go after her own father. She's walked this path before and reaches out to Akechi, who literally killed her father.

Akechi draws on Reverie.

Cinematic parallels, baby. But this time he's saving Reverie's life.

He shoots his Cognitive copy (who might also be his Shadow, blah blah, lore) and shoots a switch to seal the bulkhead, closing himself off with his Shadow.

It's a blunt metaphor, but I do like it. In the end, Akechi's true adversary was himself.

At some point, someone on the Persona team is going to go "huh it seems like the characters we use as our second-biggest bad guy are always the best characters in our games, especially in comparison to our boring as fuck final bosses. maybe we should make them the real villains?"

and then Persona will finally be good, guys. it'll finally happen.

WHAT THE FUCK, FUCK METATRON, I WANT LOKI

Anyway. The team go and secure the path to the treasure, and that's that.

I COULD NOT HELP BUT FUCKING NOTICE

in the infiltration log, which summarizes everything you did on your Palace visit, Akechi is completely absent.

That is literally too huge to not be intentional.

Reverie, are you good?

I dunno if he's good, honestly.

#p5 #persona liveblog

[sketchy--akechi]

How do you think Goro Akechi's love confession would have gone if Atlus wasn't so goddamn homophobic? Because all I can think of is this:

"I'm now in a relationship with Akechi..."

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

~~bonus~~

Futaba: Akira's dating Akechi.

Haru: Why does that make me nervous?

I think I'd have to take a look at the other love confessions to give a good answer because to be fair... I haven't seen any of them LOL I didn't romance anyone bc I was just like. well if Akechi can't have Akira then no one can

#which got me the CUTEST white day event!! and on valentines day i got chocolate from ryuji #the game really doesnt punish you for not dating anyone it felt more like a reward LMAO #txt #asks

[elendsessor]

OKAY WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

you have to coax a female party member to “be sexy” to summon kama and literally the only party member who can. is. is goddamn airi.

she is 15. she is a child. a CHILD. she looks like a child, she acts like a child, she canonically is a child.

whoever on the writing staff fucking decided this, i really really really hope you get mental help. again nothing truly new for atlus but. are you actually fucking joking.

(please do not get me wrong—i do really like desu2, but i am more than willing to point out flaws and this is just a massive bad decision and not okay in any reality whatsoever.)

#how is this okay #how is this real #i was warned about this but i thought it’d be in a fate rank and not a mandatory thing #no joke this is disgusting #shantien rambles #devil survivor

[haejjoon]

No but honestly? THANK YOU FOR THE MAKOTO STUFF. Omg I do NOT like her, ESPECIALLY for the cop stuff.

Like they go “oh we hate the police” but then have this? Like she sees Akira get physically abused and drugged and utterly fucked around by this system and just goes “yea I wanna be apart of that :)” to his face?! Like bruh??? It just makes no goddamn sense to me.

honestly i didnt expect sm people to agree with me 😭😭 jumped into it fully expecting an inbox full of hatemail whoopsie

id like to give atlus the benefit of the doubt and say it was just a mischaracterization or localization issue but like.. it isnt even out of character for her to come to that conclusion tbh.

i've come to realize that makoto doesn't really think before she does things???? or consider other peoples opinions regarding what she believes is right??

- she jumped into those thugs' car without informing the pts beforehand

- she texted tsukasa (the host guy from her confidant story) like eiko to trick him without running it by her friend first

- she spearheads every single major decision the phantom thieves make (i understand it's to keep the plot moving but with the way atlus depicts her it comes off as her not even considering what the other pts have to say. like ann and yusuke have Nothing to contribute to the conversation after she joins, and i get that their lines were taken by her, but in the context of plot its always come off as them being unable to jump in with ideas of their own).

so in this context im like... no yeah her wanting to be a cop makes perfect sense actually. shes convinced herself that its the logical decision to make and the protagonist doesnt even have a choice to disagree with her. aoooaaghfhbfghhf

[boypussydilf]

WE’RE SO FUCKED SUMIRE SHOULD HAVE KEPT HER HAIR DOWN SUMIRE SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN A NEW PHANTOM THIEF OUTFIT AFTER REAWAKENING even in her confidant in the end all she does is either try to emulate akira or do things for his approval she’s just moved on to the next person to idolize. clawing my eyes out atlus shouldve fucking cared about her they shouldve been interested in actually goddamn telling a story about her. None of this is ever about her why can’t it be about her. They delivered nothing. Please doesn’t she ever get to be a version of Sumire that isn’t trying to be someone else or changing what she does to fit what other people want. What I’m saying again is she should’ve been allowed to wear the fuckugly cheetah print outfit from that one rank of her confidant because she liked it. She said she thought it was cool and she gave it up because you don’t even have so much as an option to be nice to her about it. She got nothing. Atlus had such a great character on their hands and they did her every disservice because they didn’t care about her. They try to water her down and simplify her story so they can cram it into a section of gameplay that should’ve just been a sequel but I KNOW. I BELIEVE IN YOU SUMIRE I WILL BE YOUR CHAMPION IN THIS WORLD. I can imagine anything and I can imagine a sumi third sem arc and scenes and 6-10th confidant ranks that actually do her justice. Can’t she have a moment to find out who she is, who she is on her own. Can’t she get some earned confidence.

#i. i should be getting ready for bed #but imagine if persona was good……….. #basilposting #p5r

[junpei-iori-ace-defective]

what's your opinion on the whole akihiko characterization discourse going on. also get well soon man!!

Ty homie! Also I have a lot of opinions on Akihiko!

Let me preface this with, I don’t think it’s Alejandro’s fault. I’ve met him before, he’s super chill! He’s a great voice actor! I think with better voice directing/writing this issue could have been completely avoided.

Spoilers/Full Opinion under the cut bc, oh boy do I have a l o t to say.

So. First things first I do agree that Aki’s new voice is waaaaay too deep. Like. I understand wanting him to sound a little more mature but he did not need to be THAT deep. Bro should not be lower than Shinji. However, I don’t think that is Alejandro’s fault.

In stressful scenes, when Aki’s voice gets a little higher, I was literally screaming in my brain. “THATS IT THATS HOW HE SHOULD SOUND!”. I think the voice director was so focused on trying to make Aki sound more mature that they were pushing Saab too far in the deep direction.

Also I don’t know how they broke up the recording sessions, but I could tell a BIG difference in the voice acting for the whole cast when the Yakushima trip happened. Like they all sounded so much better. Especially Aki and Yukari. I can’t tell if it was just me getting used to the new cast, or if it was a new session, but they did sound better. While still being deep, Aki did sound more like himself and Yukari had some of her bite back.

Aki also improved writing and voice acting wise for his second awakening and after. To quote from the live blog I did on discord “no more damnit shinji. But goddamn Alejandro put his whole soul into that.”

I think with better voice directing Alejandro could have really made Aki shine. Idk if it was just. Miscommunication or smth bc the rest of them sounded fine. But I still don’t think it’s on Saab. I know he has the range. It seems like a direction issue to me.

Now on to the writing/characterization. Whooo boy it is r o u g h.

Every. Single. Fucking. Word. Out. Of. This. Mans. Mouth. Was. Protein. They flanderized my boy sooooooo bad.

I’ve been told they wanted to make him closer to the japanese version and the arena games but like. I don’t think it was this bad????

I honestly think it was Atlus’ attempt to add more comic relief to the game. Which I understand, but I don’t think it was needed.

Part of the charm, for me at least, is how depressing Persona 3 is. Like. Of course the game is depressing as shit! It’s about death, destruction, doom, gloom, despair, ect. It’s supposed to feel so hopeless because that’s how it really hammers home it’s main point. In the last act, you, S.E.E.S., and other characters realize even though life is depressing and cruel, that there’s hope in the end. That the bonds you have forged will save you AND the world. Like you gotta hit rock bottom to get back up!

So trying to add more comedy just feels. Off. Especially choosing Aki of all people to be comic relief. Junpei has always been the comic relief TM but his character is done so fucking good that even though he’s the comic relief TM, the moments where he does get serious hit so much fucking harder.

Unfortunately with Aki, it does not work the same way. Aki is such a serious character that it’s hard to make him comic relief without ruining his character, which is exactly what fucking happened. All the serious scenes, especially with Shinji, just felt so weird bc the game sets up Aki as mr protein workout man. That when he is serious, it feels like a completely different character.

Like with his video recording that you can watch in the meeting room. What makes that funny is Aki is such a serious character that seeing him be an absolute idiot and fumble IS the humor.

I think Aki is just like. The worst choice to make comic relief. Like everyone else has funny bits and quirks, which makes them so realistic and likable! And Aki does too! But turning his whole character into work out protein work out is just a massive disservice to his character.

It did seem to taper off towards the back half of the game. Especially after Shinji’s death, and progressing through his link episodes. But all of the flanderization did hurt his character really bad. I hope Atlus stops trying to add humor where there doesn’t need to be any. Because honestly it doesn’t make shit funny, it just makes things not make sense.

(Side note, I think thats also what the other persona games suffer from too. Is Atlus being worried about the games being too dark that they add humor where there doesn’t need to be any. Which leads to weird plot things/mischaracterization)

Long story short, Do better Atlus lmao. I still love Reload. It’s literally the best remake I’ve ever seen/played. And I think all game studios should look at Reload and take notes. But it has its issues. And so does this version of Aki.

#asks #persona 3 #reload #sorry about the essay lmao #ive been thinking about this for a while #tbh #also feel free to discuss in the notes #i like seeing other people’s thoughts

[hecksupremechips]

I think why Shinjiro not getting to live in the male protagonist version of the story is such a dealbreaker for me (other than the fact that he’s my favorite character) is that it just kinda fucking sucks that the memento mori theme is being applied to a guy who’s deeply suicidal. Like yes, it’s a tragedy that someone so kind and loving dies without a second chance. Yes, it’s true that pushing people away and drugging yourself to death is a poor way of spending your life and that if Shinjiro decides he wants to live after all, he’s still gonna get hit with the repercussions of his actions and die anyways. I get that. But it just sucks so bad that they chose to do this with someone who’s actively suicidal and instead of really acknowledging his depression properly they just kill him off. And then when a version of the story exists where he gets to have a happy ending, they try to make you forget it and stick to the version where he dies. Cuz idk, caring about the wellbeing of your suicidal friend is just too goddamn gay for atlus to handle lol. It just rubs me such the wrong way as someone who relates pretty heavily to the mental health struggles and personality of Shinji that his death is something that’s so wanted by atlus aaaaa

#persona #shinjiro aragaki #this is kinda difficult to talk about and its probably controversial idk #like i get its a tragedy but my god cant atlus just handle their mentally ill and traumatized characters better 😵‍💫 #especially since theres a version of the story where he lives and its just significantly better??? #this obviously isnt the only problem that’s gonna happen with reload (kotone 😭) but its a big one #also since theyre not doing his social link either its just like wow so yall just really wanna screw him over huh #there’s probably a whole essay i could write about why shinji living doesnt defy the theme but honestly? #fuck the theme of its gotta kill him off lol i dont care p3 is already such a mess story wise #like strega being the villains is sooooooo 😟 #suicidal fans deserve the happy ending for the one character that they relate to #i genuinely dont think i can play a version of the story where he dies and i hate how the male protag route is treated as the true canon #i feel very strongly about this its a definite dealbreaker for me #i dont expect this to be the most agreeable opinion but please at least understand why people hate shinji dying #and how its in particular treated as good writing

[chungledown-bimothy]

LoL Worlds 2023 Finals Reaction Post

instead of a million text posts, i'm gonna just make this one extremely long one.

oh my god t1's first draft. they are not here to fuck around. but also if they don't get a solid early game advantage then uh. fear.

if that was damn near any midlaner other than xiaohu, that would have been first blood for sure. but SO well counterplayed by weibo wow

if i have to watch t1 lose worlds finals to jayce again i'm going to delete that goddamn champion from the entire game.

weiwei is doing WORK keeping weibo in this.

t1's neutral objective control my god

eyyyy atlus ty for the cloud soul

weiwei didn't die???? just maokai things jfc

what does this literally perfect neutral objective control mean if you can't fuckin win a skirmish though

XIAOHU DIDN'T DIE????

yeah okay lost the dragon and the stacking delay isn't great but the won fight is big. both gold wise and mentally

bengi isn't here D:

keria. the love of my life. guma looked dead to rights, but keria simply will not allow that.

i was so afraid zeus wouldn't be able to stand up to theshy. that really was my biggest fear for this series, and it is so reassuring that he absolutely is

god it's only 28 minutes into game 1 and i'm already struggling to stay awake

zeus fucking melted that dragon holy shit

hell yeah boys, 2 more games of that <3 <3 <3

DRAVEN!

yeah okay there's the yone ban lol

nocturne? oooh oner is feeling himself today

this is such a fun draft omg. still very scared about top lane, but the big picture t1's put together is fantastic. looove watching t1 play that clean, clean macro.

hmm don't love that start for the bot lane. not idea.

holy shit theshy (impressed) holy shit theshy (my dude you're throwing)

THE EXECUTE zeus is the only god i worship actually

wow i've got way fewer thoughts this game. the time is catching up to me and i'm too eepy for that much thought lol

lmao guma just looked at crisp and he exploded. and oner's ults have been so, so good this whole game

i know it's hope that kills you. and it's been very, very rough to watch t1's finals appearances these last few years, so i've not really let myself hope. but i can't help it at this point

zeus series mvp, but oner deserves it too

MATCH POINT LET'S FUCKING GOOOO

i really hope they stay together if they win. i don't want to have to divide my loyalties.

...oh god what if they win and then faker retires.

BENGI'S NOT THERE OH NO i'd forgored D:

xayah rakan ^_^ ^_^ ^_^

brad is fun but like. weird choice so early on imo

akali! lee sin! you fucking love to see it

lmao imagine picking kennen into zeus. the aatrox is a ballsy choice, but he's absolutely earned that at this point

oner and zeus own this series.

awww man that grand entrance was so good it's tragic it wasn't quite enough

i have so many more thoughts about this game than i have the energy to make coherent let alone type oop

damn that herald just isn't gonna die good for them

FAKER TRIPLE KILL and he's so focused it doesn't even register on his face

and he just. keeps. going. then zeus cleans up with the double kill.

fuck i have to pee so bad but i can't miss a second of this live

that should have been a pick onto keria. but no, 2 kills for t1. jfc

this is it. they've done it. oh my fucking god.

we've hit hitting them with their wallets territory. idk maybe there's some miracle somewhere but not really. not with t1 playing like this. not with their lead.

HOW DID ZEUS NOT DIE

oh my god they did it they're so cute i cannot see what i'm typing through the tears

the first professional league i ever watched was the last time t1 won worlds.

AND THEY'RE IN KOREA FUCKING HELL

holy shit they did it. fuck i'm so fucking proud of them

faker was so casual about the win, too. that boy i swear to god i have never wanted to suck a dick so bad in my life

#lolesports #t1 #t1 lol #league of legends