#possible p5r spoilers

[vaniillamyk]

THE CLOCK STRIKES MIDNIGHT

#persona 5 #persona 5 royal #p5 #p5r #digital art #art #sumire yoshizawa #kasumi yoshizawa #illustration #illust #persona series #persona fanart #possible p5r spoilers

[plushiehamuko]

“hey squishy are you ok” “haha yeah i’m good lol” (<- her ass is TRYING NOT TO SCREAM CRY AND THROW UP over the fact that that ugly piece of shit motherfucking dumbass bitch forced her girl of all time to move to another school)

#squishy talks too much #p5r spoilers #i just got to the part where ann is like ‘yeah shiho’s gonna switch schools’ yesterday #and i have never been more upset about anything in my life #SHIHOOOO MY GIRL SHIHO HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO ME #deleting persona deleting it rn never playing again (/j) #i hope kamoshida lives a long ass life of guilt and the horrors only to die in the most excruciatingly painful way possible. anyways

[hopskipandarump]

"you cant ship akechi with joker he tried to kill him and said he hates him its toxic" yeah thats the point genius thats what makes it hot

#i cant handle pure fluff shuakeshu it just feels so wrong you gotta sandwich that shit with some fucked up things #shuakeshu is just akechi getting a crush and not knowing how to handle it so he goes about it in the worst way possible #ren is looking at him like someone looks at an angry scruffy kitten #and each time the social link ranks up ren walks out with about 5 new and progressively more fucked up kinks and akechi simmers in gay rage #rumprabbiting #p5r spoilers

[angelheartgamer]

Anyway, akechi who is alive but not without consequences and Danny who is relapsing into self hatred because he wasn't fast enough to stop the consequences 🙂

I think about the boiler room a lot. so much. I'm not sure how I'll actually end up writing it when I get there, but there's so many fun options 🥺🥺🥺🥺

If you see me posting sketches of akechi with scars later,,,,

#danny phantom #danny fenton #persona 5 royal #goro akechi #dp x p5r #persona 5 #persona 5 spoilers #? #i think #implied spoilers #anyways #im going to make it so sad #possibly #who knows #rn im trying to get myself to write the first scene i wanted when i first started writing this

[bobzora]

happened to read some yt comments from like, before royal was released, but there were trailers/etc. and the speculation on goro is so funny "theory that he'll be an optional confidant" that happened yep. "he'd better survive" happened for at least a little while. "what if maxing his confidant allowed him to live" depends on interpretation but you definitely get something. i've been laughing at the words "goro car leg leak" for a solid minute.

#bobtalk #p5r spoilers #apparently someone spotted his BM leg on the monabus in a trailer.thats so funny #the desperation of goro fans is really funny. im glad i got into 5 post royal bc vanilla just isnt the same.lmao #vanilla is like 'wow that was a really good game im gonna be stuck on this for a while' and royal is like 'i am just a normal game i wont h #urt you (lying lying lying) (will change you as a person) (quite possibly for the worse)'

[definitelynotafurinasimp]

Hu tao , Amber and Kujo Sara with an innocent looking s/o when in battle they ace crazy and ruthless like Akechi in persona 5 royal when showing his true personality

Since I can't exactly make a post with 9 characters, I'm just picking the two I can think of something to write

Them with an innocent looking reader that turns out to be a merciless fighter

characters: Kujou Sara / Yelan x gn!reader (separate)

warnings: mentions of blood, although nothing graphic, reader commits some... rather over the top acts of "not exactly being goofy" (I mean, cmon, you can't expect them being the sanest of the bunch when they're compared to goro akechi)

a/n: Idk if you planned on sending me this request the moment I was done with p5r, but I have to applause you for the timeing.

Also, I'm so sorry for those people finding out about akechi not exactly being like he seems through this request, Idk how to hide the spoiler in the ask.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Kujou Sara

Sara knew how trouble looked, she had to deal with it on an almost daily basis with that oni running after her, demanding a rematch even though the winner was already clear, but whenever she looked at you, she saw a person that wouldn’t be able to harm a fly. And while she would never dare to say it out loud, looking at you always put her mind at ease, the same way others might have relaxed when seeing a cute dog doing nothing but existing.

So when she heard about how the road you frequently took was being blocked by a couple of thugs, her first instinct was to assemble a group as quickly as possible and try to clear it out before something were to happen to you, only to arrive just in time to watch you beating them into submission and seemingly enjoying every last second of it.

“...y/n?”, Sara couldn’t help but utter your name, completely dumbfounded by what she had just witnessed, only for you to dust off your clothes and turn to her with the same innocent smile you always wore.

“Oh, hey Sara! What are you doing here?”, you asked after noticing the other soldiers who looked just as surprised as their general, all of them having known you for a long enough time to have felt certain of your nature.

“Oh my- Sorry that you have to see me in this state, my clothes are completely dirty… I don’t know if I’ll be able to get the stains out of this- they just had to offer a fight on the one day I decided to dress in my favorite clothes…”, you apologized after following her stare back to your bloodied clothes, letting out a frustrated sigh as you inspected your shirt.

“That’s not- How- D-doesn’t matter. I’m just glad you’re unharmed”, the general’s voice betrayed her shock, only for her to quickly regain her composure.

Seeing you escape unharmed was a huge relief, even if she would be lying if she said what she saw wasn’t at least somewhat worrying… 

…what worried her more however, was that her heart skipped a beat or two while watching you show such strength.

Yelan

Yelan, being Yelan, didn’t need long to find out about your… change in behaviour when embroiled in a fight. After all, she couldn’t call herself an expert at reading people if she couldn’t even figure out someone this close to her.

Luckily for you, she quickly figured out that you going rogue only ever happened when you were attacked and never when you started a fight, causing her to confidently put you into the “no harm for innocent” box.

It also had the added upside of basically having a guard dog with her on every mission who didn’t hesitate for even a second to throw themself at any criminal stupid enough to try and harm her, and sure, while she would have been easily able to handle them herself, Yelan was the last person that would complain about not having to do something tiring.

“That’s enough”, Yelan finally put an end to your ‘advanced method of self-defense’, causing you to immediately get up, leaving the treasure hoarder to solemnly reflect on his decision to threaten you. That was if he was still conscious. “I need him to answer my questions later”, she explained further after seeing you send her a questioning look, her, as usual, mysterious voice refusing to betray any emotions.

As she bent down to inspect the person lying on the floor, you finally managed to calm yourself down, feeling the usual mix of shock and disappointment as you looked down at your knuckles, sighing as you looked for a bit of water to wash them, before making your way back, scooping the criminal up and taking his weapon, which by now laid several feet away from him, in case it could be used as evidence or something of those sorts.

“I know he began it by threatening us, but I can easily handle a dozen of them on my own, so at least try to refrain yourself from going overboard next time. The last thing we need is for word about a mysterious figure beating up people in the middle of night”, she told you off, only for you to nod as you continued to look down, causing Yelan to put on a soft smile.

“Good, now let’s get this done and over with. I have a pair of new dice and you look like just the right person to test them with.”

#sara is a simp for stronk people. That's a hill I'm ready to die on #kujou sara x reader #kujou sara x you #kujou sara x y/n #kujou sara #yelan x reader #yelan x you #yelan x y/n #yelan

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Hello!

Hi! I’m AnonymousStory - you can call me Story, or Rain!

A place where I talk about stuff and write. This blog is mostly Bungou Stray Dogs and Trigun, and I'm also a long-time Hatoful Boyfriend fan! I also have an Ao3 and a Kofi page!

I do mostly analysis type stuff, so I've organized all of my personal thoughts and my occasional writing here for convenience. Sometimes you guys send in amazing asks that give cool observations or have sparked discussion, so I marked those down on this list of asks here! Any art stuff is under the tag #my art. :)

BSD Analysis and Thoughts

Flower Meanings for Lucy, Tanizaki, and Naomi

Higuchi's Salary

Bird Symbolism in the Fukufuku Breakup Scene

Higuchi and Akutagawa Thoughts

Thoughts on the Anime Adaptation

BSD Flower Meanings

Jouno's "Death" and Characterization

The Agency's Older Brother (Ranpo's Character Development)

Atsushi and Fukuchi Similarities and Possible Connection

Atsushi-Kunikida Dynamic Appreciation

Atsushi Has Two Abilities Theory

Odasaku and Kyouka Commonalities

Fyodor Does Not Have a God Complex (+ the Fyolai Dynamic)

Fyodor Character Thoughts

Mori and Lacking "Kokoro"

Does Higuchi Have a Healing Ability?

Dazai Likes People

Dazai is Always Both (Manipulative and Genuine)

Theories About Sigma's Lack of Memories

Tachihara and Self-Identity

Shibusawa, N, and Orphanage Director Parallels

Everything About The Book So Far (Masterpost)

Chuuya and Emotional Vulnerability

Chuuya's Core Need is Stability

How Yosano Likely Feels About Dazai

Q's Relevance and Parallels to Double Black

Akutagawa and Feeling Glad for Others

Conspiracy to Commit Murder

Chuuya is Intelligent

Chuuya, Control and Autonomy (Chapter 105.5 Thoughts)

Potential Ango Backstory that is Probably Going to Be Wrong but Whatever

Atsushi, Action and Autonomy (Chapter 105 Thoughts)

Kouyou's Influence on Chuuya

Chuuya's Potential Relevance to the Main Manga

Dazai's Backstory Theories

Everything We Know About the History of the Old Boss, Mori and Dazai

Mushitarou Character Analysis (Why His Arc Works!)

That Scene From Dead Apple... (Is So Tender)

Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Dazai's Waking

Kyouka and Her Adorable Intense Focus

Dazai, Chuuya and Their Similar Cores

Harukawa-sensei's Focus on Eyes

Dazai and Ango's Friendship

Mori - Always the Lesser Evil

Chapter 25 - the Q Chapter - as a Turning Point in Dazai's Character Arc

Dazai and Touch Part 3 - Partners

Why the Rimbaud Fight in Fifteen is So Good

Dazai is Different from Mori and Fyodor

Akutagawa Might Break Out of the Vampire Brainwashing Because of His Promise to Atsushi

Dazai and Touch Part 2 - Mentees

Dazai and Touch Part 1 - Friends

Trigun Analysis and Thoughts

Trigun Book Club Masterpost! (all thoughts, ramblings, and analysis!)

Collection of Trigun Stampede Thoughts

Trigun Stampede Vash Character Analysis

My original Trigun Stampede liveblog can be found under the tag #story watches trigun stampede!

Other Analysis and Thoughts

Hatoful Thoughts: Social Status and the Hawk/Dove Party Conflict

Hatoful Thoughts: Sakuya and Yuuya Character Similarities

Hatoful Thoughts: Sakuya's Route End Music

Platonic Awkwardness and Why It's Good

Hatoful Thoughts: Anghel Higure Propaganda

P5R Random Thoughts #2: Awakenings as a Triumph but Not a Cure

P5R Random Thoughts #1: Joker's Difficulty in Holding His Transformation

Writing

Interpretation of Dreams (bsd skkrbb fic)

Clear Eye (bsd fic - skk)

A Chirp Off the Old Block (hatoful fic)

The Narrative Ghost (bsd au fic)

My Magnum Opus

Why YOU Should Play Hatoful Boyfriend, A Presentation

Also, if you are at all curious, I have a sideblog where I post chapters of an original story called The Capture of Light! I would be honoured if you'd consider checking it out! :D

Feel free to send asks about stuff, or just to say hi!

***This blog is not spoiler-free! You have been warned!***

#hello! #i write semi-coherent things every once in awhile when i am not suffering :) #storyrambles #there's a lot more here than i realized - i hope things are actually easier to find #and not incredibly overwhelming...

[p5x-theories]

The reason I think Black Mask Crow will be a separate unit from Prince Crow

In P5R Akechi plays differently after he drops the Detective Prince facade, it’s not just a cosmetic change.  Loki is a separate Persona from Robin Hood, he has a new all-out attack, his attitude has changed (which would likely translate into a different highlight attack in terms of P5X gameplay), etc.  This would make him a lot more complicated than the average P5X unit.  That’s extra effort for a character that as far as we know isn’t going to properly appear.

It would a a lot simpler and easier to just make the two sides of Akechi into two different units.  And as a bonus, this means that you can get fans who want him to pull for two versions instead of one.

Even accounting for costume changes it’s probably easier to program it so that if you buy a skin for one version it applies to both.  Or maybe they’ll just make you buy them twice (this is a money-hungry gacha game after all.)

Of course this all assumes that Black Mask Akechi will be in the game at all, which as you pointed out is not guaranteed.  ATLUS has been weird about promoting him in the past because they apparently care deeply about spoilers.

In reference to this post!

Fair enough! I do agree Black Mask is more elaborate than just cosmetic changes, so you may have a point that he just makes more sense to be separate instead. I think my biggest reason for suggesting maybe he’d be cosmetic is that otherwise, it’d be possible to have (technically) two Akechi teammates at once? But, considering that they are just cognitive copies, maybe that isn’t actually as wild as it sounds, haha!

#submission #theories #goro akechi #two akechis in one place isn't actually that out there anyway I suppose. there is the cognitive akechi in shido's palace after all

[pascalishere]

Huh, never would have thought the persona series would have me seriously thinking about things.

(P5R spoilers ahead)

I don’t know if I could bring myself to go against Maruki’s reality, or any other analogues.

Obviously on an individual level, I want life to be easy. I am not too proud to beg! Forgoing all autonomy and responsibility is very sexy to me, on every level imaginable. But, I know that’s not gonna happen anytime soon. So, I’ll keep on trucking, and making active effort towards positive change. Besides, I don’t think reaching Peace through hard work is so impossible anymore.

Things get a lil more complicated if we zoom out like the game does though. If Maruki’s plan was to envelope everybody in the Actualization thing, then I’m really unsure of what the right decision is. On one paw, running away from your problems is way worse than struggling through them. A life without pain/struggle is impossible, and it shouldn’t be strived for. And I don’t even mean that in the capitalist “up by the bootstraps” way, I mean that in that in a world filled with everything, some things will inevitably hamper your ideal reality. What Maruki did to Sumire is INCREDIBLY fucked up, and he should’ve known better. Helping her work through her grief and survivor’s guilt would have been much more beneficial to her in the long run.

But if the fake reality is so seamless that all the phantom thieves needed the Super Special Protagonist to snap them out of it. I mean, is it possible to run away from a problem that “never existed” in the first place? If the cognition of the affected life is as rewritten as the game seems to say, what’s the difference between running away and just living, business as usual?

Plus, if everyone’s life is actualized into a life without pain, then it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that the structural/societal problems we face would be altered as well. The only thing I don’t think could be completely altered through changes in cognition is climate change. If everyone lives in a “reality” where everything’s fine while the same factors get worse, what then? Would they all be violently pulled out of the dream as the oceans melt?

Still, I don’t know if I’d have the heart to take the chance for a utopia away from everybody on the planet. It’s ultimately a completely fictional scenario, and it’s not up to me anyway.

But I can’t help but wonder…

Still, this is the persona series post-p2 duology. I’m sure the Obvious Answer will beat me over the head soon enough. In the meantime, I’m really loving this ambiguity.

#pascal barks #persona #persona 5 #P5R #p5r spoilers #takuto maruki #sumire yoshizawa #kasumi yoshizawa #faux philosophy #innocent sin is the best persona game fight me

[shuttershocky]

"If you like Ursula K Le Guin’s work, the final arc is thematic inversion of one of her short stories. I love it so much." As someone who loves both her writing and P5R, can you please elaborate?

Spoilers after the break

Maruki's arc reminded me of The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, in that it's about a vague, almost contradictory utopia that is only possible by the pain and suffering of a single child, where this is ignored / accepted by the majority. The difference is in this case, the scapegoat is not just willing, but the creator.

Maruki is possibly the most powerful Persona user we've ever seen, but it's also clear from his awakening that his godlike power is only really accessible through his trauma, which is so bad that if you look at his shadow on the wall when he realizes the pain that Rumi's in, it lines up with the windowsill to "hang" him.

The whole thing is basically an ultrapowered trauma response from an extremely empathetic person. Maruki's response to his pain is to go mad at the idea that it can happen to other people, and to become obsessed with the idea that he can make sure he will be the last person on Earth who ever has to suffer, using the power he draws from his suffering.

In that way, he's sort of a twisted version of the child. Rather than the utopia committing an atrocity on one of its own, the child creates utopia by subjecting themselves to darkness.

This also changes the roles of the ones who walk away from utopia. The Thieves all have their own selfish reasons of course, but Joker's is twofold: he wants true freedom and to live in the reality he bled in, but Maruki's his friend too, a friend that needs to be saved from themselves. They can't just walk away, they have to destroy Maruki's utopia entirely.

[luimnigh]

I posted 9,449 times in 2022

1,311 posts created (14%)

8,138 posts reblogged (86%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@venn364

@aspiringwarriorlibrarian

@dingdongyouarewrong

@disregardcanon

@preciousmetaltimeofnight

I tagged 4,466 of my posts in 2022

#uncaptioned - 570 posts

#rwby - 446 posts

#asks - 303 posts

#anonymous - 253 posts

#uk politics - 201 posts

#signal boost - 137 posts

#toh spoilers - 132 posts

#luimnigh plays p5r - 115 posts

#tumblr - 109 posts

#ableism - 108 posts

Longest Tag: 136 characters

#being raised by aunts and uncles is a great way to give your character a stable home life without having the narrative weight of parents

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

...do people not understand that we want corporations to use Blaze?

Guys, it's non-targeted advertising. The best you get is choosing a specific country. It's not the laser-beam powered by cookies and tracking software that's part of the wider internet hellscape, it's spraying a bunch in a general direction.

It's the way adverts used to be and the way we want it to go back to being.

We want to advertisers to get used to this way again, rather than push for more targeted tools.

3,511 notes - Posted November 11, 2022

#4

One thing I love about Goncharov is that Tumblr just decided it was a 1973 film.

That's actually really early in Martin Scorsese's career. Depending on when in the year it came out, it'd either be his third or fourth film, coming out the same year as his breakthrough film, Mean Streets.

It'd possibly be his first film with Robert De Niro (also in Mean Streets), and would absolutely be his first film with Al Pacino, who he never worked with until 2019's The Irishman.

If this was a real piece of lost media, you could absolutely see why film buffs would be so into it.

4,800 notes - Posted November 22, 2022

#3

Officially, there are no eligibility requirements to be UK Prime Minister. Realistically, you need to be the leader of the majority party in Parliament, and a Member of Parliament.

So what's the eligibility requirements to be an MP?

Over 18; citizen of the UK, Commonwealth, or Ireland; not a police officer, soldier, civil servant, judge, or Member of the House of Lords; and not a member of a foreign legislature (excluding Commonwealth nations and Ireland), or the European Parliament, the Northern Irish Assembly, and Welsh Senedd.

Not even a residency requirement.

So if you fit those criteria, and the Tories keep losing Prime Ministers at this rate, look forward to your mandatory week as Prime Minister.

4,833 notes - Posted October 24, 2022

#2

Okay, here's my idea:

The British should put a time limit on the Monarchy.

Not like declaring a republic tomorrow, but deciding on a date in the future that ends the British Monarchy.

And there's a perfect date for it coming up!

October 14th, 2066.

A thousand years since the Battle of Hastings. A thousand years of this one specific bloodline ruling England.

Call time on the Monarchy after exactly one thousand years. Nice, and neat.

Even better: Charles isn't living 44 years. He'll be gone in about twenty. Now William? He's what, 40? Yeah, he can live another 44 years. His great grandmother was over a hundred, his granny was 96, William can make it to 84 barring accident or assassination.

So on October 14th 2066, William the Last steps down a thousand years after William the First won the crown.

Nice, neat, and fair. William gets the crown he's been waiting forty years for already, but ten-year-old George grows up without expectation of it.

Have a nice big abdication ceremony, even.

32,115 notes - Posted September 20, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

According to the Irish Times, in the new Lord of Rings series on Amazon, the Hobbits are Irish charicatures and the Dwarfs are Scottish charicatures.

It also notes that the Men have Lancashire accents while the Elves are Upper Class British, commenting that "Somehow the Victorian caste system has been smuggled into a 21st-century American fantasy series."

38,133 notes - Posted September 1, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #still a ridiculous number of uncaptioned images this year #...rwby's not gonna be on next year's one huh #fucking hilarious my p5r tag made it when i only started playing midway through november

[1-800-c0sm1c]

꒰bad dracula !꒱

sumire is breaking the bias of vampires, one attractive fluffy haired boy at a time.

character x character ship

includes sumire & joker !

warnings : slight spoilers for p5r (kasumi // sumire) , might be a lil ooc (?)

word count : 1917

a/n : happy halloween ! ive been really busy this week so this is a bit rushed but i really wanted to get something out for spooky season !! definitely not my best work as i havent written char x char in a hot minute but i hope you still enjoy

the month of october is supposed to be the most important to those like sumire. but truthfully, shed rather it just didnt exist entirely. the holiday season was hardly a celebration, and the young vampire found herself leaving the castle much more often than usual.

it started out as just a distraction, albeit a bad one. staring longingly at the civilians below her, living her ideal life always filled with a sense of envy. it was unfair. why was she unable to be normal? 

she had begun to memorize the silhouettes of the people who would unsuspectingly walk past the mountain her family estate looked out from. however, one boy in particular would always catch her eye. shed only caught a few glances of his face, but that was more than enough to prove that she wanted to get closer to him, and not just his backside.

maybe october wasnt all bad, at the very least sumire was able to blend in with those around her, just as long as her mouth was covered. but not being able to talk would make her seem rude, wouldnt it? that meant approaching the handsome stranger was out of the question, especially because every solution she could come up with was a dead end. this hadnt been the first time shed try to forcibly remove her sharp fangs, and she felt like a bit of an idiot for even attempting again.

one night while walking through town, she came face to face with the stranger, literally. without looking where she was going, she bumped into his taller frame, being launched backwards onto the ground. you know, when she was pondering whether or not she should come talk to him tonight, this wasnt what she had in mind. “oh, my bad! are you okay?” sumire is brought back to reality and realizes that woah, he is very close to her face and is criminally attractive. she almost entirely forgets the one rule she had set for herself, not to speak to anyone, and grabs his extended hand with the most awkward head nod possible. 

“make sure you watch where youre going from now on, some people arent as nice when you bump into them.” he laughs, and there must be literal hearts in the young vampires eyes right now. she covers her mouth, muttering a small “youre right, ill be more careful.” before hes slowly getting closer again. “are you sure youre alright? is your mouth bleeding?” at this point, sumires nerves are on fire, and if this continues hes going to mistake the blush on her face for her running a fever. 

“uhm, yeah im totally fine!” the handsome stranger doesnt seem convinced. “i dont think ive ever seen you around before, but then again im not really from here. im ren by the way, a second year.” sumire is about ready to hit herself over how easy it was to actually get to start a conversation with him, but the fact that she cant be normal is enough of a reason for her to lock herself in the castle for another 100 years. 

“im uhm… sumire. sumire yoshizawa.” he laughed again, something sumires not sure her heart will ever get used to. “yeah, i know. this is yours by the way.” he holds out the id that fell out of her pocket when they bumped into each other. he looks at it once more before handing it to her. “didnt realize you were older than me, my apologies.” shes correcting him before she even realizes what shes doing. “oh! uhm, its actually a fake. im only a first year.” yeah, that sounded believable enough right? what difference is there really between being 15 and 1500? “is that so?  well you surely fooled me, i guess it works.” she scoffs. “oh please, i clearly look way younger than you!”

sumires guard is down, and ren manages a glimpse at what she was so desperately trying to hide in her mouth. “hey thats pretty cool! getting your halloween costume ready?” her heart sinks, but only slightly. how could she be so stupid? of course people wont question it during the holiday season. “well now that you mention it, yeah! pretty realistic right?” “definitely! hey, if youre free, you should come to my friends halloween party!” a party? nobodys ever invited sumire to one of those before. she hasnt even had someone to call a friend before. she cant help herself but excitedly say yes.

they quickly exchange numbers, ren sending both the address and time, before they go their separate ways. those around sumire dont miss her overwhelming excitement for the next week and a half.

its the day before rens friend, ryujis party. hes asked to meet with her before the party so they can arrive together, and sumires heart is on fire. they meet on the hill in front of her familys castle, and calling ren intimidated was an understatement. 

it was a silly idea really, he knew hed never be able to top how realistic sumires costume was, but he thought itd be fun to try anyways. he was not expecting sumire to appear in an extravagant dress, (hopefully) fake blood, and those same perfect fangs. “you really went all out, huh?” she nods. “oh, but dont worry, the red thing is just ketchup!” he smiles. “yeah i figured. whyd you choose a vampire?” 

sumire was afraid hed ask that question. especially since she didnt have a believable enough answer. “...well, my mom calls me a bad dracula. she tells me to be scarier, but im a bit different!” “i think its clever to take a popular costume and make it different!” oh cool, hes clueless. that surely isnt going to get her anywhere.

the walk to ryujis is horribly awkward, for reasons sumire cant quite put her finger on. shes searching for anything to talk about that hopefully wont scare ren away. “you know, ive never been to party before, but i just wanna have fun dancing! especially under the moon like this.” “well dont be scared, some of my friends are a bit much, but i promise that theyre nice people. and im sure youll crush it on the dance floor, youre already dancing in my heart, after all.” there he goes again with that dreamy smile, the one sumire struggles to find the right words around.

her face reddens, and she finds herself hiding herself in his chest. if she werent undead, sumire swears that ren would be the death of her. he wraps his arms around her, along with his long black coat. “you know, its not necessarily easy to walk with you on me like this, not that im complaining or anything.”

in typical ryuji fashion, his party is a tad bit boring, and further proves you cant leave him in charge of anything. after about two hours straight of dancing, ren had decided to ditch the party, in favor of watching the moon. sumire found him on top of the same hill he had met up with her at. “it looks a little bit like youre stalking me.” “thats bold coming from you, since this is basically right in front of my house.” “i guess you got me there. what do your parents do to be able to afford a creepy place like this, anyways?” “well ive already told you dummy. were vampires.” ren laughs. “its almost as amusing as it was the first time. no, but seriously, are they like, in the mafia or something?” sumire shakes her head. “dont you think even if they were i probably wouldnt tell you?”

ren rolls his eyes light heartedly. “fine then, keep your secrets.” she goes to sit down next to ren on the grass.“its not my fault if you dont believe me. i really shouldnt have even been down in the city that one night we bumped into each other anyways.” sumire shrugs. “and why is that? were you grounded or something up in the big spooky tower?” “i mean sort of. my dad always tells me to be colder to humans, but then ill get a stomachache.” she lays her head on rens shoulder.

“.... if youre really a vampire, why havent you bitten me yet?” sumire sighs. “how many times do i have to tell you? im a bad dracula for a reason! i wont ever hurt you, im a vegetarian after all.” her breath on his neck should have been the warning to run, but he found himself believing her words. “its just a little hard to believe, you know? does that mean other supernatural beings exist?” ren got over his doubts and fears surprising quick, and sumire couldnt help but smile at the way his face lit up.

“i can neither confirm nor deny that. but see? isnt it so much better when you ignore the backend talk thats reflected by the moon?” she pouts. “everybody always paints us out to be so bad. i mean sure, some of us are, but then it makes it just that much harder for vampires like me. like, why do i have to wait until cold october nights every year just to go out? fake id and everything?” ren grabs her hand. “well i guess ive just never really thought about it before. especially since i didnt even know you were being for real until about 2 minutes ago.”

“you can feel my fangs if you want to, for you know, more proof.” she blushes at her own words. did she really just say that? ren nods. sumire moves from laying her head on his shoulder to sitting on rens lap, facing him. his touch is gentle, not like hes afraid of her, but more so that he worries any more pressure and shell break like glass. nobodys ever treated sumire like that before, like she was something that needed to be protected.

 his hand rests on her cheek, thumb on her bottom lip. she slowly opens her mouth, attempting to put her fangs on full display. “be careful, theyre sharp.” she mutters. ren mouths an “okay”, before he places his thumb on one of the teeth. he strokes his thumb over it with stars practically in his eyes. “so cool!” he whispers, like anything louder would ruin the moment. sumires face reddens. ren rests his hand on her thigh.

“so.. hypothetically speaking, if you were to bite someone, does the blood go through the fangs like a straw and straight into your body? or do you still have to like… suck it yourself?” sumire blinks slowly. “that sure is… a first. no, theyre not straws…” ren snaps his fingers, a confident smirk on his face. “damn, looks like futaba owes me 20 dollars.” “did you seriously make a bet on that?” she giggles. “well duh, it was the only logical way to solve it.” sumire glares at him playfully. “okay, okay! my bad, dont bite me!”

she gasps, “i would never!” he pats her head. “i know, i know. im just messing with you.” sumire lets out a “hmph!” sound, turning her head away. “oh come on, dont be like that, im sorry.” he gently kisses her cheek, and as soon as its happened its over. ren cant help but smile at how quickly she whips her head back around, face bright red. he was about to apologize until sumire places a soft kiss on his lips.

“there… now were even.”

grrr why are endings so hard :sob: anyways fic is inspired by bad dracula by red velvet teehee im so tired ^^;;

#✧;;↬ my work.❞┊🍓 #persona #persona 5 #shin megami tensai persona #sumire yoshizawa #ren amamiya #sumire x ren #violet persona 5 #joker persona 5 #persona 5 royal #violet x joker #kasumi yoshizawa #kasumi x ren

[shuuenmei]

(inhales) Alright.

I’m currently on the third semester for my first Persona 5 Royal run and with much ideas for “tabula rasa”, I also got a crossover AU idea for black or white which I shall dub as “murder siblings au” where Goro is adopted into Yuu (Rei)’s family.

(Placed right under the cut for story spoilers for P5R and some future plans for black or white. Also this is going to be long.)

Pre- P5R timeline:

In this AU, Goro is adopted into Yuu (Rei)’s family all the way out at Hokkaido at age 10, 2 years after his mom passed away.

Yuu (Rei) is a 2004 baby which makes her 6 years younger than Goro.

Goro, who had already gone through a few foster homes already thought the Shiina couldn’t be any different from his previous ones.

It took a few months but Goro eventually warmed up to them because they had been so kind to him, even after he opened up to being an illegitimate kid. And he had changed his surname to Shiina out of respect for his adoptive family at this time.

He especially bonded with Yuu (Rei) the fastest because she actually helps Goro find some closer with his mother by pointing and talking to his biological mother’s ghost.

He didn’t learn about the fact that the Shiina family and its family tree are practically cursed to have supernatural abilities due to being descended from a Kamikakushi returnee (Yuu (Rei)’s grandmother)) until he is old enough to actually question why Yuu (Rei) and some of his adoptive family members are born with it.

At any rate, another family member that Goro is close to is his adoptive granny and he is especially fond of her because she is just so nice and loving.

Unfortunately, granny died when Goro is 14 and Yuu (Rei) is 8.

Goro grieves, but Yuu (Rei) took the worst because grandma’s death is the first reminder for Yuu (Rei) about human mortality.

This time, it’s Goro’s turn to help Yuu (Rei) out and slowly, he helped her find some closure regarding her grandmother’s death.

Things are peaceful and nice. Goro wished that things stay that way.

And then he had awakened to Loki and Robin Hood due to Yaldabaoth, and then Shido found him with all the intentions of manipulating him but Goro saw through it and refused since he already had a family that he gave a damn about now.

Then Shido brought in the big guns and threatened Goro by putting his adoptive family, especially Yuu (Rei), as leverage and hostage for Goro to work for him or the lives of his adoptive family are forfeit.

So Goro is literally forced to work for Shido and had no choice in the matter lest his adoptive family gets killed.

Goro moves back to Tokyo under the guise of a Tokyo highschool scholarship (Under Shido’s name) but Yuu (Rei) thought something is a miss right from the start but couldn’t do much yet to act on it.

So a year after Goro moved to Tokyo, she saw him gaining fame as “Detective Prince” and took his old surname of Akechi that Yuu (Rei) went “I knew something is fishy!”

Yuu (Rei) called for her older cousins living in Tokyo and ask if the offer to have her stay with them and study in Tokyo is still up (They made the offer to help Yuu (Rei) out from her situation at school because she is shunned for her ability to see the dead and her cousins really wanted to help her.)

Yuu (Rei) moved to Tokyo, chaperoned by her older cousins with a goal of wanting to find her older adoptive brother for answers.

P5R timeline proper:

Due to transfer problems, Yuu (Rei) was only able to get enrolled to a school in Tokyo around 2016 which I set to be the year P5R took place, so Yuu (Rei) had to wait and endure another school year back in Hokkaido.

However, Goro is so busy with his “Idol” persona crafted by Shido in this AU, on top of his hitman job and metaverse explorations, that Yuu (Rei) never actually found him.

He also never got to see or knew about Yuu (Rei) moving to Tokyo because he tried to keep his contact with his adoptive family as little as possible lest Shido and his goons get ideas to bring them into the fold and endanger their safety even more than usual.

Yuu (Rei) did, however, meet the Phantom Thieves in their real life guises in separate occasions and spoke of her goal of wanting to find her brother. However, neither party connected that Akechi Goro is the “brother” that Yuu (Rei) is looking for and the fact that Yuu (Rei) somehow always missed seeing Goro.

So yes, Yuu (Rei) befriended the ghost parents of the Phantom Thieves and ask them for help instead, which includes Isshiki Wakaba and Yusuke’s mom.

Kobayakawa, after his death, kinda got directed to her because Yuu (Rei) had formed a network of ghost informants via Wakaba and Yusuke’s mom over the months of her stay in Tokyo and Yuu (Rei) learned the truth indirectly of her adoptive brother being under Shido’s employ but they don’t know why yet, especially since Wakaba didn’t tell Yuu (Rei) about Persona’s and Metaverse stuff yet since she feared Yuu (Rei) going reckless in her confrontation with her brother in her need for answers.

Then December 3, Akechi entered the Metaverse in his rush to stop the Phantom Thieves from getting a hit on Shido since he still wanted to be the one to personally put an end to the man and Yuu (Rei), who finally saw her brother for the first time, followed after him and entered Shido’s palace because she was close by when he activated the Metanav.

By the time Yuu (Rei) caught up to Goro... he just got beaten by the thieves and Shido’s cognitive Akechi showed up.

It’s a really bad, bad timing for him to show up and then hold her captive, gloating smugly about why Goro actually works for Shido.

Goro is pissed and also torn because of the fact that his adoptive sister is actually here in Tokyo and is looking for him and it took a lot of restraint for him to stay put lest Shido’s cognitive Akechi actually shoots her.

But instead, the unexpected happened.

Yuu (Rei), fed up with being left out of the loop, feeling helpless and refusing to die here, awakens to a Persona in response.

Yuu (Rei) awakens to Ibaraki-Douji as her first Persona.

None of the thieves are happy at the development. Though she was able to manage to fight back, her young age and smaller physique means that she gets easily hurt and it prompted the thieves to step in and help, Goro included.

Since Yuu (Rei) is younger, she literally passed out and had to be tended in a safe room with Goro and Futaba getting answers to why she is in the Palace in the first place.

Goro actually got time to talk and clarify how he actually got entangled with Shido while waiting for her to wake up.

It was a fucked up situation and conflict with no right or wrong answer in hindsight.

On one hand, Futaba and Haru both still had a right to be mad at Goro for killing their respective parents.

On the other hand, knowing that Goro literally got his hands forced because Shido threatened the well being of the one adoptive family who actually gave a damn about him changed their impressions of the detective prince.

When Yuu (Rei) wakes up, both brother and sister had a long talk, shouting matches and all, mostly out of worry for the other.

But at the end of it all, they come to an understanding and promise to not keep anymore secrets with each other.

That said, Yuu (Rei) is still banned from joining the thieves because she is too young for the Phantom thieves to consider getting a help from and they rather prefer that she stay away from Metaverse business as much as possible.

And then the third semester happened and Yuu (Rei) forces her way in because she can’t stand being left out.

Post P5R and Pre-Twst:

Goro tried to turn himself in to atone for his crimes and to pay back a debt to Akira (Joker’s real name in this AU).

Goro’s initial sentence was 5 years of juvenile prison.

However, this was later changed because Shido’s change of heart completely altered and cause complications to how Goro and Sae are going to prosecute and condemn Shido for his massive crimes because Shido claimed that he killed Akechi Goro, and the one that is brought to the police station is a Akechi Goro’s look alike, a Hokkaido boy named Shiina Goro.

Goro is not pleased because he still had crimes that he wanted to atone, since he values accountability among other things that he valued such as freedom of choice, but if he didn’t agree to this testimony, then Shido won’t stay in jail.

So Goro, Sae and the thieves begrudgingly agree to this narrative so Shido will rot in jail forever.

Even Goro admits that it left a bitter taste in his mouth to not be able to get to be able to atone for his crimes but he at least manage to accomplish getting payback at Shido for his threat and his adoptive family left safe.

Despite things being over, Yuu (Rei) decided that she’d like to stay in Tokyo with her cousins instead of heading back to Hokkaido because things were already bad back home because the area she lived in is still prejudiced against her for being “abnormal” but she actually now had people she care about in Tokyo.

Goro decided to head back to Hokkaido because he needs some time away from Tokyo to heal and he needs to talk with his adoptive parents and baby brothers again.

Not sure about whether or not I want to include Strikers in but things are relatively peaceful for the most part as Goro and Yuu (Rei) adjust to regular lives and getting along better with the Phantom Thieves.

And then comes April 2020.

On the day Yuu (Rei) and Goro went back to Hokkaido to visit their grandma’s grave, the ebony carriage appeared and Goro watches Yuu (Rei) being brought away right in front of his eyes.

Twst timeline Proper:

I admit there hasn’t been a lot of thought for this but Yuu (Rei) is literally brought to Twisted Wonderland and start her journey as the new Wild Card of Twisted Wonderland.

Goro had to strong arm and get the Velvet Room attendants to let him see her once he was told about this information.

However, Goro is on the condition that he is not allowed to interfere in Yuu (Rei)’s wild card journey unless necessary and prompted.

Goro begrudgingly agreed to the condition just so long that he can see his adoptive sister.

They reunited... post Heartslabyul where Yuu (Rei) already awakened as a wild card, forming a team with Riddle as the first Persona user to join her, and then he proceeds to judge the rest of the cast because of the knowledge that Yuu (Rei) got thrown into a magical all-boys school.

Cue Goro menacingly smiling with the hidden message of “Touch my sister and you’re fucking dead.”

Yeah, that’s about it but I honestly started writing and thinking the idea out because I thought it’ll be fun to write Yuu (Rei) and Akechi as adoptive siblings with the dynamic of “Looks like pleasant and polite people but are secretly bloodthirsty and feral in different ways”.

Hence, murder siblings.

Anyway that’s all for now!

#black or white (fanfic) #shuu's fics #shuu's talks #murder siblings au #of things to come #Shiina Yuu (black or white) #Yuu (Rei) #akechi goro #behind the fic

[dentwy]

number 8: persona 3 reload

originally, i did not intend to write much about this game. the more i played the more i got into debates and discussions about it. mixed with the varied degrees of reception you end up seeing on social media, it only felt right to fully articulate my thoughts into something bigger. it often seems like people online (on twitter specifically) can focus their thoughts on a single thing at a time. the new game came out, now it's my time to bash on the rest of the series! the remake is finally real, everyone else must acknowledge how i was always right! and so on and so forth. i'm glad i take part of a group of people that care more about our specific takes and opinions (even if we can end up taking the piss on each other for the sake of the bit). i only wish media discussions online didn't usually end up as such black and white concepts.

unfortunately due to the 30 image limt on tumblr i'm starting to come to the conclusion that this site isn't too ideal for what i'm doing. going forward, i'll have to figure out something else or shorten these things.

with that said, whatever your opinion is on this particular game, persona 3 reload, i hope more can come from reading these words. that is ultimately what my goal with writing these things is. first i must clarify a few things:

i have only played persona 3, 4 and 5. it essentially means "the persona series" to me. from my understanding persona 1 and 2 are more smt than what we know as persona, but i couldn't tell you much about them nor compare them to any of the others, so for any mention of other persona games these do not come into consideration.

i played persona in reverse order, be first 5, then 4 and finally 3. both p5 and p5r, only golden, only reload. i could only wish to have an opinion on these things in a vacuum, but alas it is not possible to do. p5r is also my favorite so take that as you will.

there are some general (important) plot points i already knew before jumping into reload, that may or may not affect the end experience. we can argue about the importance of going into something completely blind without getting spoiled vs simply experiencing the way the story is told, but that is a completely different discussion for another day.

without much further ado, this is persona 3 reload. spoilers will be discussed. otherwise, the tl;dr:

persona 3 reload is my excuse to play persona 3. even if it very clearly reports itself as an older game in the series, it is unlike anything its two subsequent entries in the franchise would end up offering. it's an important game, for atlus, and for videogames. instead of tying it forever to its roots, it brings itself to modern audiences, and does it as it was needed.

i never had much intent to play p3, or p3 fes, or p3p. in fact the more i heard about it the less interested i was. pick your poison: uncontrollable party members, or a top down view of the entire game akin more to a regular visual novel than the persona you know. i do understand the intent behind not controlling your party in the original game, i still don't really care for it, sorry. social links don't really do anything, you can't actually talk to the male party members, and every interaction with a woman is exclusively with the goal of you romancing her. you also need to make sure they don't get jealous with you since that will sever the link and waste your time. hadn't really heard people find tartarus fun either, but i see different takes on it now. add this to the fact there are different versions of persona 3 that add and take different aspects of the game, never really offering you the full package. at some point i decided that, effectively, the only way i would play persona 3 is if it got remade. i try to not go back on promises, so i did play it. they got me.

initially, expectations weren't too high, but as the date got closer i did start thinking "damn so by next week i'm actually gonna be playing persona 3 huh". i'd say the first couple of hours of the game were the most magical part. it did get me on that train of saying "this could just be persona 6 if they wanted it to be", but it is a 100 hour long jrpg so things can change quite easily over time.

how would they not get you excited when you're just starting? the game is fabulous to look at. atlus can't miss with their presentation, as usual. actually playing it isn't much different either. the quality of life improvements are very much welcome here. thank you for adding the shift to the game, i was in need of my dear baton pass. all the animations are stunning, the music is punchy as usual, in addition to what could go up as my favorite (if not second favorite) persona battle theme. not mass destruction, it's going down now. first one would be axe to grind from scramble. only thing is that the game maybe looks a bit too much like Made In Unreal with the motion blur turned on so i chose to turn it off through the game files.

even if the places around iwatodai and tatsumi port island aren't the most visually stunning, they serve their purpose so i can't complain much. their simplicity has a charm to it as well. tartarus itself is the key point in visuals, with every floor having its own style and architecture.

general gripes? i don't really find tartarus that fun to go through after 50 hours of videogame. randomly generated hallways are not my thing there isn't much more i can argue; having 250 floors of that gets tedious after a while. tartarus also can simply end up feeling secondary depending on the way you do things. you don't really have to go as high as it lets you before the next full moon, as far as i understand. you do it because it's your end goal, and also because people go missing and you need to get them before they die. i can commend it for making it a player decision instead of forcing it onto you, i guess. puts you in the shoes of the characters and all that. it just turns out that going there once a month for 4 hours straight until i reach the top isn't the most invigorating activity, personally. the game focusing on tartarus exclusively at night also makes it so most other days are completely devoid of activity. even if this isn't an issue for the entirety of the game, there are some long sections where it becomes very evident that maybe you should space out your tartarus visits throughout the month. my schedule management still wasn't the best anyway, so that's on me.

the game is also seriously easy. playing on merciless could've been a better option, but who knows. i started on normal because if a game says the normal mode is "for experienced players. moderately challenging combat" then i'll take your word. maybe i'm just too much of a grind freak. i just try to defeat as many enemies as possible and if i have too much sp left by the time i'm done, i'll do another go at it to not waste it. otherwise, normal gameplay for someone who has already played a couple of jrpgs.

most "challenging fights" are solved with a single theurgy move, if not two. it got so stupid i decided to change the game to hard halfway through it, but not much changed. i do really like the theurgies, i rather they stayed than have them removed. they're just a bit broken in my opinion. i pretty much fused a black frost as soon as you could and used him for most of my playthrough. seems to have worked.

one of my biggest struggles personally is trying to find a reason to ever change party members. i think a lot of the blame can be put on me, sure. i don't recall one jrpg where i'm actually swapping around members a lot. if you find a party that works, stick with it. then there's also the part i can blame the game for. if i have to go back down and change around my party then i kind of won't ever feel like doing it. huge props to them for adding the level up clock, even if it's limited to 13 levels at once.

you might say "a lot of jrpgs are like that" and you'd be right. the issue to me comes with the way persona works. since you have a limited amount of time in a year, can only rely on the sp your party members have, and they don't really level up when they're not in your party, i'm simply gonna focus on the party i'm already using. p5 maybe solved this by letting them all get xp if you got mishima at a higher level, and you could swap them out whenever you wanted if one of them ran low on stamina (doesn't mean i did, though). then again, i also am the type of guy to hoard all the best items i can "in case i need it" and never use any. you do also have the fragments you can use to get everyone back to full and you find a bunch of those as you keep going. then again, you need them to open chests, if you open chests you get the clock to level them up, so maybe it's better to keep them. feels weird, i can't really ever get to decide on what i want to do. the fact party members also get special characteristics like cost reductions for healing magic and passive 10 sp gain every turn makes it a bit hard to swap them out (because, yeah, my party was yukari, ken and koromaru). either way, it is a fun game to play. maybe repetitive, but i can't entirely say i play jrpgs exclusively for turn based combat. "i hate jrpgs" says the guy playing jrpgs, we keep going.

what i'm mostly interested in is story and characters. things persona has a lot of! i'll go into those in the opposite order as how i listed them, because i like to talk about characters.

i am so sorry for the persona 3 fans because a solid 80% of the social links blow, real bad. the rewards for social links in 4 and 5 are definitely nice. initially, i wondered if the fact you don't get much through them besides a persona would give you another reason to max them out. the train of thought was "well, it should speak for itself if just talking to people is rewarding enough", turns out that for most of them the only goal is the persona at the end. if i didn't like someone, i simply wouldn't talk to them ever again. the ones i wasn't crazy into i simply maxed out because i had nothing else to do, otherwise the list of people i maxed would've been lower. i also don't really like how both p3 and p4 make a bunch of your links part of different clubs inside the school. the times end up messing up each other, it feels weird for you to be hanging out with 5 different clubs while never actually going to most of them for more than a month at a time, and everyone ends up being unavailable anyway when you get close to exams or on holidays. the fact that some of these are exclusively connected to one another, meaning you can't even start them if you haven't gotten another one to a certain level doesn't really make things easier. i want to go through each one of them one by one to get across my feelings in regard to social links.

also, i know i said "rewards for social links in 4" but to be quite frank with you i kind of did not do a single social link in golden that was not in the main gang - besides adachi, marie, nanako and dojima. as far as i'm concerned, the rest of the links could be just as bad as the ones in 3, i simply do not know. what it definitely wins over though, is giving everyone in the team their own social link, apart from the usual rewards for leveling them up. i do like the way they tried to fix this in reload, however.

here is where each social link would get their own banner image. images which i stole entirely from rpgsite.net but made it look slick and easier to follow. my apologies if they all blend together but i hope you remember what each social link looks like.

the magician arcana is occupied by tomochika kenji. what is so magical about him is how quick and easy it is to hate this guy. since he's the first obligatory social link, i did, unfortunately, get him to rank 2. in those two ranks all he could do was talk about miss takeba, pester you constantly on whether the two of you are dating, if you ever get too peep at her since you live in the same dorm, and if you've done anything with her yet. he's also really down bad for his teacher. i don't like him, he's annoying, a creep and keeps insisting he's your friend throughout the entire game even though i never talked to him. he's one of the couple i had to end up watching the full link on youtube because i would never have done it out of my own volition. apparently when you tell him you're into "girls of all ages" he says how "interesting" and "impressive" it is (maybe more on that later). his whole link is him trying to bang his teacher, even though she never really thinks of him that way. he only deludes himself through the entirety of it. he ruins said teachers status since everyone starts thinking she's dating a highschooler, then starts crying when she leaves to kyushu with her husband. nothing of interest happens here.

something i saw someone say is that "everyone knows a guy like kenji". maybe i did? it sure isn't someone i'd ever be friends with though. i don't even particularly think the idea of a highschool kid being into his teacher is terrible, those things happen. it's mostly the fact he is absolutely convinced it's a good idea and wants to dedicate his life to her completely even if he doesn't know the first thing about her or can't really say anything about her that's not the fact that she's extremely hot. she is hot though, so he gets a pass on that. mostly found him insufferable and wanted to bash his head with a rock whenever he started talking to me.

odagiri hidetoshi is part of the emperor arcana, maybe a bit ironic. i initially didn't quite like this guy since he started as a bit of a prick as these people usually do. extremely conceited and aggressive. i respect the dedication but your options end up being "yeah! fuck them all!" or "uh, i think you're going a bit far with this". guess which one he likes to hear you say. a bit further into his link he does realize that there's more important things he could be worrying about, as no one will hear what you have to say if you're this much of an asshole. my problem with his link stems from the fact that he decides to change after trying to defend you, since he trusts you wholly. this would be fair if it wasn't for the fact that you are one of the main people that have been fueling his horrible tendencies up to this point, unless you didn't pick the good dialogue options and instead took longer to do his link. if so, then why does he even like you then? unsure. i believe a better option would be for both of you to get in trouble. then, have you face the actions of your consequences in whatever way imaginable. that way you both grow as people, see the failures of your actions and manage to grow. what if you actually found the student that was smoking and he got expelled? at the start of the link it was only to avoid any further trouble, then it gets more serious. you both understand that kicking him out wasn't the way to do things, and you're directly responsible for it. somehow convince the teachers to give him a second chance, track down the guy and understand where he's coming from. maybe then he can consider his own future as a teacher himself. odagiri is strange because he becomes a lot more genuine towards the end of his link, i can only wish it was done in a different way. he's generally more chill when you get to know him better, so actually being friends with this guy kind of makes sense. maybe he's not the most evocative image of friendship or comradery, but it's something he is trying to figure out himself.

"hierophant" is similar to "elephant" and i think elephants live for long. bunkichi and mitsuko are the first social link i maxed out. they're easy to talk to since they're available all days of the week except for sundays. maybe i should've left them for later into the game but they were the only people i liked talking to so i focused on them at the start of the game. there isn't much deep reflection that comes with their link, but it's nice enough. you're a random kid and they're a random old couple, but you feel for them and they feel for you. what i find strange with them is how little action you actually take into helping them. you're usually just saying "everything will be fine" and "i'll make sure of it" in regards to the tree at the school getting taken down, but, as a member of the student council, you never take any actions regarding the tree. they thank you for helping them out and can say you didn't do anything but they won't believe you. maybe it would be a little bit annoying to actually go out of your way to get people to sign or do stuff outside of the link, but i think it would add a lot to it. you could also just make it part of the link and show a little cutscene of your character doing stuff, who knows. besides, for stuff like elizabeth requests you have to go around the city doing things that don't take your time anyway. they've done it already. imagine if you had to go to a couple of your social links, or talk to the people at sees to sign. all of that for the tree to get taken down anyway, but it's the thought that matters. it's a bittersweet end and i like it for that. it's nice, i only wish you actually had more to do with it than just listening to them progress through it.

miyamoto kazushi is supposed to be the chariot of the track team. instead, he's just the chariot arcana. i only maxed this guy because i had nothing else to do. i don't think i hate him? i simply don't see him as a friend. it strikes me that most of the guys in this game want to hang out with you so bad because they don't actually have any friends. they allude to the fact they do, but clearly they do not. miyamoto is just stupid. he's supposed to be the star of the track team yet you show up one day and sweep all over the guy like it's nothing. he may be the best in your school (before you showed up) but he's not that good in general. the guy is convinced that he has to train as much as he can to win, so he injures his knee. instead of doing what any sane person would do and rest for a month or so, he simply decides to continue to run, further injuring himself. he concludes that the best course of action is to tell you his knee is about to snap and that you NEED to keep it a secret. even if this is bad for you, for him and for everyone involved, he asked you to keep it a secret so there is clearly nothing else can you do. SURELY he has a good reason to keep injuring himself? oh, of course he does! his cousin got into an accident and broke his legs. if he wants to move again, he will need to go to rehab. except he won't go to rehab unless our guy miyamoto becomes the fastest fucking runner in the entirety of japan. it's that simple. so, the only way to do this is to get better now instead of waiting. i don't really think i need to explain how insane this is.

besides the fact that ruining his knee will only make it so he can never run again, thus making his goal impossible, he's not even fucking good at running in the first place? the worst part is that by the end of the game after 3 months of him resting, his knee is completely recovered. so what was even the point of hurting it so much throughout the entire year? as usual the other problem with it is how the best dialogue options you get are "keep going! don't give up!" and "if you stop running you're a pussy!" because it's the short term goals that matter i suppose. i don't even know how you'd improve this link. i think i would scratch most of it completely. what i would like is for him to be in the track team because he likes yuko, and maybe he gets hurt because he's training so hard to impress her. then, he keeps training only because he doesn't have any other excuse to be around her. now, you obviously have to keep it a secret because he doesn't want her to know he likes her. this scenario would consider them being less close than they already are, and would make it kind of high-key fucked up if you ended up dating yuko at the end. i can take that though, it would make for interesting conflict. ideally she would never fall in love with your regardless, as within the canon of the game she seemingly starts a relationship with him if you don't romance her. considering atlus still cannot fathom the idea of a same gender romantic partner, can't imagine they would do that. they did technically do it the other way around with junpei rejecting you in portable, but still.

fushimi chihiro is the face of the justice aracana, perhaps because some justice is needed for this poor girl. i do like chihiro. she's obviously not the most boisterous personality, and she doesn't really need to be for you to like her. at the end of the day, everyone has their type. chihiro is one of the links i do like, or most of it anyway. her insecurities and anxieties towards men come from a very real place, and having the protagonist help her get through it is really nice to see. i didn't actually end up finishing her link because i wasted my time doing other things, but i got halfway through it. the crux of her link had just started when everyone starts blaming her for stealing the club funds and she can't stand for herself. i ended up watching the rest of it on youtube. it's fine. she grows for the better and that's the main thing you need after all. she manages to gather up the words she's been trying to say, thanks to you believing in and helping her out, which is more than most other social links are willing to do. what mostly strikes me as weird is the fact they never address how she actually got the money to buy the manga she wanted. i may have misconstrued the situation, but around rank 6 or so she gets excited to go back to the bookstore and see if anyone bought the manga collection she wanted. i suppose she doesn't explicitly say "i hope no one got it so i can buy it", but i assume that's the reasoning. the thing is that a rank earlier she explicitly says how she'd have to save up an entire year worth of her allowance to get it. so where is this money coming from? i take this as purposely making her seem suspicious so the player has to decide between their intuition and the trust they have over her, which is good. i only say it's weird because she isn't guilty, nor ever was. did she actually get to buy it? how so? this is beyond me, but it's mostly a cool social link all things considered.

maya… maya…. maya…. you should've stayed as a hermit! i genuinely believe maya could be a really great social link if it didn't completely send itself down the drain halfway through it. i find the idea of our main protagonist staying on his dorm all day to play a dead mmorpg really funny. he's playing that thing for like 8 hours straight and then goes back down and someone says "oh, didn't even know you were here". besides that, maya as "maya" herself is a really fun character. the online lingo might've changed since 2008 but it doesn't really come off as unrealistic. most unrealistic part is the fact of all kinds of people in this niche dead game you would find a middle aged woman playing it every day off. there's a lot that the link tries to say in regards to the online spaces, teachers, the school system, social expectations and such. it would come together nicely in the end to have this woman meet someone online that helps her get through her troubles, to then find it was one of her students all along and get really embarrassed about it. the big issue is, clearly, that she goes and says how she's really into you. so, she's not embarrassed about the stuff she said but rather the stuff she said about you, to you. even as the game is about to shut down and she goes "we should tell the developers", it's pretty stupid. besides the fact no group of developers would give a damn about 1 person online telling them this, sending your message logs about how you came out to a guy online as a groomer is kind of insane. she backs down on it not because of that, but because it's pointless to try to do anything about the game. i understand that atlus tries to appeal to different audiences and age groups with these games, but it is a weird thing to have her say. at least she doesn't ask you out at the end of it, maybe persona 5 could learn a thing from that.

fortune is a bit of what hiraga keisuke has. can't really hate the guy for that. i do like hiraga's social link overall, it's pretty nice and round even if it doesn't do any major things. he's a nice kid. most believable of them all to actually be your friend. he's talented and the people around him have expectations on him. his concerns are understandable and being unsure of what you want to do in highschool (or even after) is a regular worry to have. he genuinely enjoys drawing, but he cares for others and wants to help however is possible. i suppose you don't "do" a whole lot for the guy besides being there for him, but you can't really be figuring out his life out as a favor either. you help him when he needs it and chip in when asked about, and that is enough for both of you. he's mostly one of the good ones in my eyes, and the final social link event is also one of the funniest in the entire game. i don't find him trying to run away from home as a good part of the link, but the fact that he keeps bumping into old people that are all about to die and he has to help them out in the moment is absolutely hilarious. at least it's better than maiko in that sense, if only just a little bit.

train those legs! gain some strength! nishiwaki yuko can help you with that! she's fine. i don't really hate her or anything, i just find her a little bit strange. her link surrounds her and some kids she wants to help with training. they're constantly pushing the idea that you're her boyfriend and that's fine, kids can assume those things. you can take the hint and roll with it, or ignore it and stay as friends. neither particularly seems like you actually getting to know her that well, and that's where it ends for me. there isn't much going on with both of you or her entire social link. the kids ask for her help, you aid her, they win against the older kids, you're done. it concludes with her wondering what she wants to do with her future and that's perfectly fine, a bit like hiraga too. she doesn't really decide on what she wants to focus on though. for the most part my thing with yuko was the fact that i always saw her as "the girl miyamoto likes" even if neither of them ever allude to anything of the sort - but she does, canonically, end up with him if you don't. they've known each other for a while and it's clear that the idea is both of them ending up together. unless you interfere, of course. as such, i never felt like getting closer to her had much meaning and i didn't finish her link. i watched it on youtube, though. again, fair enough. don't really have an alternative scenario for her link, sorry. she's fun, i understand why people like her. not that interesting to me.

the hanged man is what i become once i finish maiko's social link, because god. the start of her link is you hearing some girls at school say "hey, did you see that kid at the shrine" and of course the first thought any teenage boy would have in that scenario is "curious. i should go see what that's all about." who the hell is this guy? the kindest soul in iwatodai, i hope. i don't mind the idea of you bumping into a kid that's having trouble at home. he can play with her and waste time to stop her worries. maybe even help her deal with her that and have her learn a thing or two about life. i did laugh my ass off when she started crying about how her parents are getting divorced, but maybe i'm also just evil. maiko is the perfect example of how little input you ever get into these links. i'll go into detail about makoto's character later on, but he is such a brick here. it's either "everything is gonna be fine" or "yeah kid, your parents hate you". she says how her dad just hits her like its nothing and you also have to suggest her staying with her dad when she's given the choice. she tells you to your face how she's running away from home (reminder she's 8 years old) and there is nothing you can do. she simply runs away. right in front of you too. then her parents appear and you're like, "idk, i think i know where she might be though". i don't think i need to explain how bad it is that she promises to marry you when she gets older and there's absolutely no way you can choose to deny it. a lot of missed potential with this one. if it was tuned right it could come out really nicely, but that's not how persona 3 rolls.

tanaka may as well be the incarnation of the devil. a devil i'm a bit iffy about. i think tanaka is a piece of shit, not much to discuss here. he's an asshole, he takes advantage of you and anyone he can. he suffers a bit of odagiri syndrome where everything you say has to be to confirm his own shitty values. the main difference here is that he loves explaining how you are wrong and he is right so most of the time it's actually better to tell the opposite of what he wants to hear, and i find that somewhat more enjoyable. i hate how he got like 40 thousand yen from me and never gave it back, how he doesn't particularly teach you anything at all but pretends he does (and the does game too), and how he seemingly "grows" by talking to you but only because he deludes himself into doing it. it is another odagiri, but less charismatic. it's fine that he hides his true feelings (or at least that's the idea) but nothing about him makes me want to care for the guy. sure, he donated money to charity for one reason or another, but that doesn't wipe the fact that he still casually scams, bullies and mistreats others. the asshole supreme, is what he is. don't think they were going for much more than that. thank you tanaka's amazing commodities, i will continue to buy your products.

temperance is what i need to not kick bebe right on his nuts. hon hon hon how sugoi! french-kun is a weeaboo. he likes japan. he LOVES japan! he can't think about not being in japan. i find his voice and way of speaking extremely jarring and annoying with his japanese voice. in english it's a lot more bearable. his japanese comes off as a racist caricature of what a foreigner would sound like while his voice in english is just a heavy french accent with random japanese words sprinkled around. that's how i see it, at least. i also just find his japanese voice annoying to listen to. i hope for a day where the Weeb Foreigner In Japan character actually has perfect japanese fluency instead of the joke being that he's annoying to understand. now that would be funny. if it was only that then maybe i could put up with it, but he's a really boring character too. it's literally ONLY about him loving japan. his aunt dies and he gets sad because his uncle will get him back to piece of shit france instead of letting him live in beautiful nihon. you talk to him a bunch and he decides to make a kimono to convince his uncle how beautiful japan is. too bad his kimono is horrendous! i don't actually know what he tells to you if you have him maxed by march, or if he's even still around by then. i do not care either. my time was spent on more important people, the french guy was never in my priority. a much more interesting take would be doing the opposite, and having him learn about japan while he misses home. maybe his family moved to japan because they had it rough in france or something. home is where family is, and japan can also be a beautiful place if you know where to look, or something. you could be the one that shows him around and gets him to learn the meaning of home. he can do that ugly ass kimono at the end for all i care, as a token of gratitude to you. i dont know, man, just change the way he talks and maybe he'd be more bearable.

mutatsu has the tower arcana, i'm running out of ideas. he's a sad old drunk man that goes at night and tells teenagers to go pick up girls (fair). i don't really find this man endearing at all considering he's always under the influence but i get his deal. he fucked up and wants to get his wife and son back. the only way he realizes that he should be the one to take the first step is by talking to you. that's kind of it. i respect the advice to use your time wisely, even if the way he does it is hardly what i would consider wise.

the star of the local racing scene is called hayase mamoru, and that he is. i really like this guy. i really like his link. hayase is what i was looking for! thank you hayase! you meet this guy at the track competition when he rolls up to you and goes "hey, nice moves. we should hang out". it definitely comes off as a little weird but hey, he's a sportsman, he knows how to spot a friendly challenger. as opposed to that fraud miyamoto, hayase has his real reasons to run (and is actually good at it!). he does absolutely love it, but, over anything, he doesn't want to be a burden on his family. he is similar to akihiko, losing someone and focusing on himself to take care of his loved ones in whatever way it is possible. since he lost his father, he needs to get a scholarship, as his mother wouldn't be able to pay it. he's a really nice, caring and responsible guy. since he doesn't have many other people he can talk to from the track team, he relies on you to hear him out as well as to train with him. after a while, once his mother collapses from exhaustion, he figures out that he needs to put his family over everything and moves away to work at a factory far away. it's not any big revelation to anyone, but it's simply what was needed from him. he never feels bad about it or gets angry at anyone, he knows what he has to do because it's what he cares about that is at risk. you eventually find out that at the factory he's working the people he hangs out with end up getting into running just like he does, which makes him excited for the future and keeps his passion alive. it's really nice to see. a social link where our protagonist has more than just a passive role, even if not by much, with solid reasons for the link to grow and the character to change.

alone, fat and sad, which the moon watches upon, a constant pain he will be. suemitsu nozomi everyone, the gourmet king. the gourmet king is one of the reasons i'm convinced i don't need to trust persona fans on twitter. i'm pretty sure you have to level up tomochika first before getting to talk to this dude, hence the reason i never even started him. that, and the fact that everyone said he was the worst social link in all of persona. i ended up watching it on youtube and came to the conclusion that the worst social link in persona is still tomochika. maybe not, i just hate the guy. it's probably ohya in p5. either way, the gourmet king surely deserves some criticism, but i'm not sure if it's the social link that's to fault. i do believe that there's a high chance i would've ignored the guy anyway if i had the option to talk to him. he's crass, aggressive and generally unpleasant. all he does is go around giving you orders and pretend that he's better than everyone, to only then try to scam you in the end. however, i find it as one of the most interesting links in the game. the "cult" he starts talking about is heavily relevant to the events that take place by the end of the game. someone as weak as him can be tricked into major delusions. someone that is persecuted by his traumas and the actions of others. he can't face himself nor his problems, so all he does is eat. eat his problems away, puke when he can't take any more and continue eating. no need to worry about your problems, just eat. of course a guy like that wouldn't be the most inviting to talk to. it's uncomfortable, but he needs some help. the fact that his link purposely reverses itself once you go against his own beliefs is excellent. you are the one that makes him realize what his problems are and that he's doing things the wrong way. even if it feels weird to still hang out with the guy after all he's done to you, maybe it shows your belief in others (or the protagonist's). people can grow and change. maybe he is too ugly for you to be interested, maybe it takes a bit for the link to get interesting as well. it's fair, i didn't want to talk to him in the first place either. i wish i could've given him a fair chance as he deserved, instead of treating him the same way everyone else did for a long time. he reminds me a little bit of the drunk man in the little prince; "i drink in order to forget. forget that i am ashamed of drinking".

at last, kamiki akinari, the sun of your sunday mornings. i'd have to agree that akinari is probably the best link in the game, as long as we're ignoring aigis. i found it extremely bizarre when this guy of all people won that one poll months ago for who was the best social link in the series. i still think it's crazy, but at least he's pretty good. he is definitely someone that needs you by his side, and i'm glad for that. he's lonely and he's dying. it runs well with the themes of the game, and you can give it a lot of benefit for that alone. what initially seemed a mindless waste of time to him, only waiting for his demise, turned into a beautiful moment he can enjoy for what little time he has left. the only thing i find extremely weird is the creative liberties with which they took the end of his link, where he randomly disappears in front of you. the wiki says "it implies he already died some time ago and this final meeting was his spirit" which i'm sorry that's just dumb. is there any need to make him a spirit and not just a normal dying guy? what does this add to his character? i forget about this fact anyway so it doesn't really matter to me. i like him a lot. his story is also really cool, inspires me to write more things myself.

you will see people usually default to the "persona 3 has the best story, persona 4 has the best cast, persona 5 has the best gameplay". when we're talking about best and worst there's a lot of factors that can come into play. subjective vs objective analysis and what you generally prioritize in a story or a game or any kind of piece of media. throughout my playthrough there are many things i could've gone on about how one game or the other does better or worse, but i struggle to see the point of this exercise. i absolutely cannot look at persona 3 reload without thinking of the other two games, but i rather focus on the game itself than how i would compare it to the rest. ironically enough, i believe i ended up liking this one more to persona 4.

a lot of my issues stem from our main character. canonically, yuki makoto. it may or may not have been me playing the game around the time i started watching the monogatari series again, while also reading no longer human, but the same idea of an actor trying to fit into society struck me as i thought about the way he acts. whoever thinks that persona protagonists don't have a personality are simply wrong. at times they can do things that may be off character if the player decides to do so. others it can shift slightly depending on dialogue options. for the most part, though, there is a certain kind of person you can draw from their actions and their train of thought.

besides makoto always having a dialogue option that can make him simply go "i don't give a damn", for the most part he is the most neutral kind of guy you can find. for better, or for worse. he is sociable and likeable, but only because he's put in situations where others talk to him and he always puts the other person before himself. a good trait perhaps, but it feels as if it comes from a lack of empathy rather than coming from a place of compassion. it's a game of gaslighting and convincing others. miyamoto should continue doing what he wants, it's his leg. odagiri is doing everything right, he knows what he wants. tanaka is making a living off of this, he probably knows what he's doing. maiko hates her parents, she can run away if she wants to. the only reason it's different with the people on sees is because they are important to the story, so they need him to be there to do things.

you can be best friends with junpei from the very start, always have him in your party and gas him up whenever he's down. he will still get angry at you for being the leader instead of him. yukari can get pissed off at mitsuru for keeping secrets from her and the only reason you will go help her out is because mitsuru suggested you do so. mitsuru does the same with shinjiro and ken when they need some attention. not once is it makoto that thinks he needs to take action for his own teammates.

i'm not asking for multiple diverging paths that depend on what actions you take. it's still a linear story. stuff needs to happen. it simply often clashes directly with the actions you take, or want to take, as a player. ludonarrative dissonance plays a big role in persona 3 reload.

i do find the cast of persona 3 really enjoyable. they aren't the strongest group of people. they have their problems and they obviously don't get along quickly as soon as they meet. the dorm setting confuses me a bit in this scenario, as it's not quite clear to me what the requirements are to be part of the dorm or how this even works at all. in fact, is it even normal to have both boys and girls living in the same place like this? it's more of an apartment complex than a dorm from the looks of it, but persona characters kind of end up being more young adults than teenagers anyway.

yukari is the one i ended up going for the romance route. while i do like her a lot, she's also a really weird character. she's dependable, selfless and caring. she can have quite the short fuse, but it doesn't try to come from a place of genuine malice. try being the key word. the start of her social link has her getting assaulted by a group of men and her reaction is to get pissed at you for helping her out. i fully understand she doesn't want to be treated as if she's weak and unreliable, but we're talking about completely different things here. throughout the entire game she keeps throwing shade at junpei for every single thing he does. even if he does deserve it at times, he also has his stuff going on. the guy had the girl he loved die right in front of her and on christmas eve she goes "i can't imagine that guy going out with a girl". seriously what is her deal? again, story doesn't match with the things we are doing. i understand her complains with mitsuru most of the time, even if she doesn't trust her at the start for reasons that are beyond me. she knows how she is, and she knows that she's trying her best. it is her family that brings most of the problems. while i get that she would get pissed for learning what happened with her father, putting the blame on mitsuru without understanding her own situation is a little bit ignorant. if anything, it helps for later on when they learn they've been getting duped and she learns to open up with the people around her. i do really like yukari, i simply can't say she's fabulously executed in the context of the game.

junpei did come as a big surprise. at the start, he's a bit of a weird guy. he's the bro, the one that wants to pick up chicks and go out and play. even if not the type of guy i'd go out of my way to become friends with, there's a lot to him that you will only learn once you know him well enough. he comes off as a little bit strange at the beginning. he's really adamant on trying to hang out with you, but you have nothing better to do i suppose. he really forces himself into you. maybe yukari is a bit too quick into dumping all her trauma to you as soon as you meet each other, but her reasoning is fair. junpei looks more like he's desperate for friends. can't blame him though, he can be a little bit annoying at times. he's weird, in a charismatic way. i think i often find myself talking the same way he does a lot of times, randomly emphasizing some words just because it's funny, or changing his intonation.

junpei is a bit of an idiot, we all know that, but he never means any wrong. he will be there to help out. he wants to stand out, sure. he wants to be the center of attention, sure. he will complain about it, but he's not your enemy. he starts off as extremely selfish, wanting to feel like the hero, but comes to understand that there are more important things to care about. what i was hoping to be further explored with junpei, is this deeply rooted self esteem issues that aren't completely delved into. it happens multiple times throughout the story where junpei starts getting angry at you or blames you for everything going wrong. he knows this is not right, he understands and apologizes. then, it happens again. i seem to understand that at some point, either in the answer, some other spin off or the femc route in portable, we learn that his father is an alcoholic. unless i missed something along these lines in reload, i don't really think they expand upon it which is a bit of a missed opportunity. more content is good, but i don't think getting precise characterizations and key moments of his past outside of the main story makes things better.

his arc with chidori, though, is probably my favorite in the game. this is when he manages to meet someone he can take care of. someone that makes his life a little bit more interesting. when he's at his lowest, feeling useless and easily replaceable, he has someone by his side he can share time with. at first, she doesn't seem interested in him, but junpei is the reason why chidori opens up and learns what it means to live. to want to live for longer. they both deeply care for each other by the end of november, and sacrificing herself to save his life is all she could ever wish to do for him. on it's own, it's a really strong moment for the story and junpei himself, but by getting some flowers for him to give chidori right before she dies, she can survive and come back later on. now, i feel a little bit weird with the game wanting you to do things you can easily miss to get an extra event that completely changes the story development and junpei's character, but either result can work out in some way. if she doesn't survive, junpei has that moment he will always look back on to make sure it never happens again. live for her sake. if she does survive, that memory is still just as painful, but it comes with a bright light of hope for the future. chidori is back, the pain and suffering wasn't for nothing as he still grew and learned what has to be done, but now it's accompanied by a different future to push towards. her memories are gone, so all they went through is lost for her. at the same time, all the pain she suffered is missing as well. trying to overcome those hardships and staying there by her side is another reason to live and continue, for both of them. it may as well be poignant enough to kill her off and leave it there, but since it's not something the game retcons out of nowhere and does lead you into it way before it actually happens, it feels proper. i also cannot complain about having some nice and happy event in the list of tragedies that keep happening towards the end.

mitsuru seems like a nice lady. extremely responsible and intelligent. she can be cold, but she means well. there's a certain charm to her that stem both from her personality and big sister energy, as well as the ways she often misunderstands others due to her lack of experience with the world and her upbringing. even if not my favorite, mitsuru is someone they all need to have around. her social link in particular comes off as a little weird to me. at the point in the story where you can start talking to her, it doesn't really fit at all. she trusts you wholly so having you around in a moment where she needs it most makes sense. you know, with the whole dead father thing. you go around the town with her as she learns more about what Normal People do. turns out she's getting married off to a guy for the sake of the company. it would be nice and all if you helped her figure out what she wants to do, as the general idea seems to be that the kirijo group is tying her future down. what we're overlooking here is that the world is seemingly going to end in the next month. girl, you don't have a future unless we do something about it. it doesn't matter what you decide now with your fiancé if you don't decide if you even want to remember all of this. it won't matter if you have no plan for how to survive. no one in sees ever looks at this whole deal as a barrier to break through. obviously, it's scary. no one is sure what will happen or how to deal with it. is it better to forget and die in peace? or try your best and fail? on daylight, mitsuru talks to you about takoyaki and how getting married may not be a terrible idea. at night, she wonders if you're all gonna get killed. she even talks to you with the idea of "only having so much time left together" but until graduation, not the end of the world.

specifically with my playthrough, there is a specific dialogue where she says something along the lines of "if i was in love with someone but i knew i can't be with him, would that be wrong?". here you can either tell her that if it's not meant to be then that's it, or that it's up to her. i don't really know about individual opinions but i think that being in love with someone you can't be with isn't quite something you control. i understand the question is probably more suited as a "should i still try or do i give up?" but that's not what she's saying. is it wrong? no? should you do something about it? whatever you think is right. obviously in the context of the game this either means "be with me" or "i'm not interested", so telling her that she should decide for herself indirectly tells her that you like her back. unfortunately, that is not my case! she proceeds to confess to you in front of her annoying fiancé, makes both of you really uncomfortable and she runs away. interpretations may vary but i can't see mitsuru as the type to be into you. just like akihiko, she's close to him as a dear friend. not much more than that. she can absolutely defend your honor and you may mean a lot to her as a friend, but not as a potential lover. though, at the same time, she gets riled up in the moment and isn't quite sure about her own words so it could be fair to say she simply spouts out something that could be taken differently - but she does say "i want to be with him forever" and then confesses to you, so not a lot to misinterpret from that. maybe just a me thing. even then, it still doesn't fit in the slightest with the point we're at in the story, so whatever.

akihiko is definitely the bigger bro. he's always there, he's got your back, you got his, the respect is mutual all the time. akihiko is also autistic as all hell and we love him for that. most of the time he genuinely doesn't know how he's supposed to talk to others, but, over anything, he has one thing he focuses on and devotes his entire life to. to train, to become stronger and to become the best he can be. he sure trains because he genuinely enjoys it, but it also comes from a place of tragedy. a loss he cannot forgive himself for. he doesn't want that to ever happen again, so he knows he needs to improve himself. i absolutely adore the fact he was adopted by a caring family on what i assume was around his early teens. he becomes stronger by the people around him and it takes him a bit to realize it, but he will always have someone taking care of his back. be it family or friends. a guy that knows what he wants and will do anything to achieve it. "but even if that's how i feel, i can't back down now. i'll carry that responsibility, and pay for it the rest of my life if i have to."

before playing the game i was ready to become a devoted fuuka fan. i was a little bit surprised to find out i didn't go that hard, but i sure understand the hype. fuuka seems to be concocted to be the girl your average fan would adore. she's cute, shy, really nice, caring, good with computers, a bit of a nerd, curious about trying new stuff, and is always in need of your help. i do like her a lot. she's a really nice friend, i'm safe to assume most people would be glad to have a friend like fuuka. it's just that.. damn.. i find her social link pretty weak. the majority of it is solely her trying to get better at cooking and you trying out her food. at first, god awful. then, she learns she can make onigiri and it's good. only onigiri, though. it's fine if she wants to get better at a single thing for the sake of everyone, akihiko does do the same after all. akihiko, however, has many reasons to try and get stronger. fuuka wants to get closer to others, i suppose, except she's not particularly closed off from everyone in the group either. if you didn't do anything with her here, she would still improve on her own and grow as a person through normal story means. so at the end of the day she goes through the same arc twice in the game. she has that one moment where she mentions she doesn't like bookstores because she couldn't stand up for herself back when someone accused her of stealing a book or something. a fine example of why she wants to change, but it insists on focusing about cooking instead of having her do anything more active. slowly, she naturally starts wondering why is it that she relies on you so much and you get the option to tell her that she loves you or, actually, you're only really good friends. my guy yuki back at it again gaslighting women. she learns that it's not always about having a list of traits that are useful for others to use, and tones down all the negativity that's been burning her away. there's nothing inherently wrong with the link, she gains confidence in herself and opens up to people. whether through cooking or talking about her problems with her friends, she comes to understand herself. as always, i would wish you had a more active role in these things rather than let everyone passively grow by debating about what they should and shouldn't do against a wall (you). the counter argument is that i do really like fuuka so it gets a pass.

i want to talk about ken and shinjiro at the same time because they end up being intrinsically linked together by the time their arcs peak. for starters, i find ken extremely charming. he's a nice kid, maybe too grown up for his own good but that's what makes him responsible and easy to talk to no matter the age difference. he also tries to act more grown up than he is, insisting that he likes his coffee black, that tokusatsu is actually lame and generally trying to hide what he's thinking or feeling. not entirely dissimilar to shinjiro, the stern looking buff guy with a heart of gold hidden within the trench coat he wears all day every day for the entirety of the year. seriously, it's so hot outside what is your issue.

now i did know that shinjiro died, because, once again, persona 3 fans cannot keep a secret. i saw someone casually mention he dies, then i talked to someone else and explained how "i read about a character dying but i'm not too sure about it". then, they proceeded to say "oh yeah, i know who you're talking about. worst part is that he was the strongest party member so all the levels and armor i put into him were worthless". way to be subtle! regardless, a little bit before the events of october 4th, shinjiro himself reveals to you that he doesn't have much time left in this world. both him and ken have been living in pain for the past 2 years, and this day is where they want to put that to rest. before ken comes out and says he wants to kill shinjiro with his own hands, he does show clear signs of something going on in his head so it doesn't entirely come out of nowhere. same for shinjiro being responsible for the death of his mother as there must have been some reason he quit school and has been loitering for the past year. what i'm not entirely sure i can buy, even now, is the fact that ken, a 10 year old boy, has been actively planning to kill this guy for the past 2 years. not only that, but also planning on killing himself after the fact.

take this as my interpretation of the character, i've discussed this entire thing with someone else at length and couldn't really come to a proper conclusion. ken explicitly says to shinjiro: "i've even though about killing myself", "i vowed to live until i found her killer", and, literally, "i'm gonna kill you". i, personally, take the slightly goofy, responsible type kid that amada is as the type to not conclude that the entire meaning of his life from age 8 onwards, to be the fact that he has to kill a guy and end it all. perhaps the idea was that he initially thought about suicide, later figured that it wasn't the way to go and revenge was the better option - and not, killing shinjiro and then killing himself. unsure. either way, i'm not here to talk about the mental stability of an 8 year old child and child suicide rates. i'm here to talk about ken amada.

the way he throws around "i even thought about killing myself" rings pretty hollow to me. as if killing himself was a phase he had. i fully understand that his mother was the only one he had. she meant the world for him, obviously it would destroy him. is he really that kind of kid though? i always took him as the strong, independent kind. did yukari go "i thought of killing myself" when her father died? did anyone else at sees think of "killing themselves" when they lost someone close to them when they were younger? now don't take me wrong, these are all serious topics and it's evident that different people will take such loss in different ways. i'm only trying to understand how ken would react to it. he's not "weak" for thinking about such dark outcome for himself because he lost someone close to him, it definitely affected him severely and that's all it is. for 2 entire years though? you're telling me he was exclusively thinking about this for 2 years? that as a 10 year old, this was his only goal in life. i just feel like i have to suspend my disbelief a little bit too much for ken amada of all people to say such things.

shinjiro, as valiant as he is, ends up sacrificing himself to save ken. he tells him that he's welcome to kill him, but warns him that it will haunt him for the rest of his life, just like it did for him. definitely where shinjiro's character shines the most. for a moment, ken himself thinks that his revenge is now worthless if he dies through other means, but it's clear that it would be hard to process such an event. the guy that killed your mom just saved your life. how would you feel about this? it's a lot of mixed signals and of course he's confused. so confused to leave sees for like half a week. who knows where to, he is still just a kid. it's beyond me whatever the hell he did on his own for those days, but i digress. at the same time, everyone does kind of forget the fact that ken literally tried to kill shinjiro by his own hands. whether he was successful or not doesn't entirely matter, his plan was to kill.

now this, as i take it, is probably a lapse in judgement from ken. sure, he may have pumped himself for a while to think he had to kill shinjiro. i don't think 2 years makes sense. i think as soon as he found out shinjiro was the one that killed his mom, he started thinking about it and it got to him. when time came to it, i don't believe he would actually be able to kill shinjiro. again, he's not that kind of kid. maybe my own head canon, but words like "i don't have anything else to live for" is a thing he would just say in the moment and not mean with further thought. in my head, it simply works out better as ken living in pain for that long, not being able to move past it entirely, hating the guy and blaming all on him. only then, he finds out who shinjiro is and thinks that killing him is the way to go. this, instead of living for 2 years with the sole goal of killing a guy. once it gets to it, shinjiro saves his life and he realizes how even though his reasons for hating him are fully justified. there's more to the story, more to shinjiro and more things that are worth living for.

shinjiro's death doesn't particularly hit me as hard as something like chidori's, most likely because i already knew it would happen. plus, the fact he does mention he will die regardless, but it's very resonant in it's own way. not because you're gonna die anyway it means your life means any less. i didn't really talk to him much before he passed and never even added him to my party, but you only realize how important the people around you are once they're gone. his death incites hope for the future. he leaves off with a smile and finally atoning for his sins for the last time. death isn't happy, but he makes the most of it by doing what he couldn't do last time. save a life.

koromaru is a dog. he's a good boy.

aigis may have ended up as my favorite character in the game. she's a special one. what was initially a pretty hollow, although goofy robot girl, whose only purpose was to defeat shadows and protect you for reasons neither of you understood, turned into a deeply caring, worrisome character who bears no resemblance to that of a machine. besides looks, that is. i have to commend sakamoto maaya of all people, for the excellent performance behind aigis. sakamoto has always been good at her job, but it was only recently that i've taken notice of how precise her performance can be. how the slight changes in the way she speaks sell a different version of the character, through age, personality, or growth along a span of time. aigis does look like a human and does sound like one, but doesn't talk like one. there's a lot she doesn't understand and a lot she doesn't know. evidently, as you grow and get to understand the world around you, you will clearly become "more human". if it were only in writing you would surely understand how much she learns through time. sakamoto just makes it incredibly grounded. even after aigis is gone for a while and everyone starts mentioning how she seems different, you feel that as well as a player. i can't say anything about the english va, i watched her play the game for a bit and she seems fun. i simply didn't play the game with english voices.

beyond that, aigis becomes an extremely fun character. she grows so much but you grow alongside her. i mean, we're all human (i hope) but how often do you actively think about what it means to be a person? what truly makes you human? she has all the characteristics of a human being, but she comes to the realization that she will never really become one. she's a machine, she can be repaired and come back to life. she will outlive everyone around her and there is nothing she can do about it. what she can do, however, is to keep the memories of everyone important to her. if she will outlive them, the memories of them will do as well. even if it's not for long that you've known her for, she means a lot to you and to everyone. you mean a lot to her, too. caring for others is what makes her human. so even with the body of a machine, one that can be repaired, she cannot be replaced.

with these freaks, you get the cast of persona 3. they're a special bunch. they have their issues, as any group does. as any person does, really. they have an enjoyable chemistry that doesn't explode from nowhere but does bloom as time goes on. not much is forced here, but even if a bit slow it manages to hold itself together nicely. even the casual group events that happen on every game with the beach, ryokan and banquet celebrations are, honestly, better than usual. the beach episode doesn't feel out of character. junpei is always the guy that will try to hit on girls even if he's really bad at it, and he gets made fun of for it instead of making it awkward for everyone involved. akihiko only does it because of a bet, as he would, so it's also fitting enough. with the ryokan they do sort of get into trouble "by accident" and do just want to leave quietly before anything happens. even if it's more because mitsuru would get angry and take their lives if she found out, but still. ryoji is more to blame about this than the rest of the guys, which i haven't talked to about yet.

ryoji is unabashedly himself. he gets little time to do much for him to become, like, a relevant character in my head. i find him really fun, though. he's charming and goofy. he's so clueless about everything that it becomes funny. more than a creep he's curious about others in every shape and form which leads to misunderstandings and questionable behavior, but generally funny nonetheless. i would like for him and his time on earth to have a bigger impact on the protagonist as he's supposed to be part of him after living "inside his body" for the past decade, but that leads into the ending itself.

the big thing goes last. i talk way too much about the characters when compared to the story. i like to think that i'm better at that, hence the priority, but this has been taking so long to write that my thoughts get all scrambled around and i forget half of the things i wanted to say. i started writing these things just so i could set my thoughts on paper before forgetting them! only 8 of these and the length has gone up 10 times, so, there's that. in between beating the game, starting this, adding one more year to my life counter and the moment of writing this sentence, they've announced the answer as the dlc to come out later in the year. i cannot talk about the answer since i haven't played it, obviously, but there are some things i know about it. as far as i'm concerned, the ending of the game is the only thing that matters right now. the answer may as well be the fanfiction epilogue written by someone at atlus, i don't care. i'm sticking to what i've played and what i know.

i've been insisting on how the game often employs the ludonarrative dissonance card throughout it's runtime and characters. this is what strikes me as particularly truthful towards the end.

in december, everyone is told the world will end. there is nothing they can do to stop it. if you decide to forget, everyone dies happy. otherwise, you can try your best and see what happens. january, the background music changes and the entire screen gets a saturation shift for every color to be slightly muted. persona loves to make things clear at times, but this one seems a little bit too on the nose even for persona standards. you know what would be cool? making small changes throughout the month until the fated day. only then, the music would slowly change for all to sound more somber and the entire city to look dead. it comes off as extremely weird because the dorm theme is still the same one, as well as the song that plays for jobs and social link events. i say you either go one way or the other, not both. make it so everything is purposely dark, somber and sad. go all the way with it and have everyone around you react to it. i don't really see the point in doing this change so out of nowhere myself. it feels dumb. it doesn't really fit either. add the fact that half of the month is wasted on nothing because you can't talk to any school related social link until vacations are over, and it feels like a pretty stupid month leading up to the grand finale.

must say, the takaya fight was harder than nyx. not sure why that guy has more health. he also just drains your entire sp like it's nothing - he's crazy. nyx you can kind of beat in 1 or 2 moves for every phase. it's not that interesting of a fight, but i like the design. once you're done with nyx, you get a call from igor about how friendship gives you infinite power to seal nyx forever. "the power of friendship surges within you", since you've supposedly made the necessary bonds to garner a power unlike anything else. strong enough to sustain the heavy blows by this godlike entity, and strong enough to use your final ability "great seal". now, supposedly, since this skill uses up all of your hp no matter your level or items, the idea is that you're effectively using all your life force. had i not looked it up after beating the game i really do not think i would've ever thought about this connection on my own. maybe i'm stupid? i sure didn't read what the skill even did when using it, less so how much hp was necessary to use it. i cannot say with confidence anyone else checks that before hitting the final blow on the last boss of the game. if i understand right, what people infer from this and the events in march is quite simple. guy has no more hp (so literally, his life) -> waits until he could fulfill his promise -> dies. is this what has been getting hyped up since 2006?

genuinely, what are we working with here? i fully support the idea of killing your protagonist. i think that is fabulous. i only struggle to find it appealing in the way it's done here. first off: really? he uses all his hp in battle and dies? we know for a fact battles as shown in game aren't applicable to a real scenario. is the implication that your party members legitimately die and are brought back to life mid battle with a simple item? i do not find the idea of a skill you forcefully have to use to finish the game as a cool "got you". do we, as players, actively decide to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of those we love? does the protagonist do this on his own? if we're talking about a skill used to seal a god you just unlock in this particular scenario, of which you have no further info of, with the supposed strongest persona imaginable, with the help of the bonds you've crafted along the way, i don't buy it one bit. what i see as the weirdest thing in all of this is the fact that he doesn't even die right then and there. he's back up and kicking as soon as the fight is over. it takes a whole month for the guy to die, even though he's supposed to have been completely drained.

everyone forgot about what happened, except for you and aigis. i'm not sure why our main character remembers, but at least the player will obviously do. just when you're supposed to all meet up in the roof as you promised, they finally end up remembering and come running to you. you get this really nice cutscene with everyone running full of joy knowing what they've accomplished and what the future promises for them. you're dead, though. dead corpse in the roof. not that any of this is shown as a tragedy since it's presented as more of a happy moment than anything. the game ends. was this the promise he had to keep? what about ken and fighting him again when he gets stronger? what about whoever you romanced and promising to be by their side? what about aigis saying she wants to be alongside you forever? what about literally anyone you ever talked to expecting you to be by their side lending them a hand when they most need it? i'm really sorry, i just cannot think that this the only thing that mattered before passing away.

as i get it, the argument seems to be how it lines up with the theme of the game and the idea of death. not that death isn't a prominent idea in the game, but i would argue the only reason you are facing death is because you literally are facing Death, not because you get what death is. death isn't nice, it's a tragedy. "facing death" is about accepting that people can pass on and leave things behind, not literally dying and being okay with it. jesus christ, we're talking about a 17 year old highschool student. it doesn't matter if he gets what death means, he hasn't been alive for even half of what the average human lifespan would be. persona 3 is about loneliness. that's the theme. loneliness always comes along with death. the death of our loves ones making us feel alone. loneliness, and finding the people you live to fight that loneliness. the people by our side that will help us get out of our worst moments. the ones that will help us grief and bright our days back up. please, kill the main character - but make it meaningful, not a plot device.

you know how i take this as? making friends kills you. i played the game, i talked to people, i made friends, i made lovers. all of this for them to give me the power to defeat god and for it to kill me. this is the ultimate power you have cultivated. my actions as a player ultimately don't matter because you are there to die at the end of it all. you used a skill in battle and it killed you. sorry!

now, let me backtrack a bit. i knew the main character died at the end of the game way before i played the thing. it's another one of those things people cannot keep to themselves. no matter how slick you think you are by posting the same screenshot every march, i can imagine what is going on here. i had my own theories of how this would happen. clearly, Death had been living inside of you for this long. you are intrinsically tied to the fate of the world. surely, if you kill Death, you kill a part of yourself. maybe nyx had its fate tied to you. maybe it's as easy as a noble sacrifice for the sake of others. it's none of the above, apparently. you finish the fight, a month goes by and you go to the roof. it might've been clear already but i need to be frank, i had to look up what the ending was supposed to mean. rather, what people interpret it as. great seal skill and all.

now, see, had i not read about him dying or other theories, i'm not completely sure if that's what i would've concluded it as. after looking at it in retrospect, yeah, dies. he's extremely tired by march, he needs to close his eyes and rest. rest for how long? you decide. the problem to me is how unclear the reason for all of this seems to be. okay, so he died. let's track down the reason. why did he die? he beat nyx and kept living for another month, so why now? they never said anything about his life being tied to nyx either, so that can't be it. absolutely no idea. okay - so it's because of the stupid skill at the end of the fight. whatever, sure. why didn't he die back then? why did it take an entire month for anything to happen to him? does he just toughen out death for that long? i couldn't tell you. turns out, it's because that's the day they promised to meet up no matter happened. yeah, sure, that makes sense. what about literally every other promise he made the month before and months before that? was that the only thing that ever mattered? to meet up at the roof on graduation day? you know what fucks me up: he doesn't even fucking meet them! he takes his beauty sleep before they even get there! so you couldn't even fucking keep that promise anyway!

you know what doesn't kill you? sleep. actually, that's a lie, you can die on your sleep pretty easily. the way this entire scene is written and shot (or animated, i suppose) does not strike me as anything close to a death. i understand that it is, because aigis is crying, because you don't want to "sleep" but it will happen anyway, because you're literally fading to black, and because the guy just taking a nap may be a little bit boring. i say he could be taking a nap. who gives a damn! the ending is open ended enough for you to bring whatever the hell you want into it. does he wake up shortly after and they celebrate? why not? it makes as much sense as him breaking all those other promises and amassing the power of friendship to kill himself. you'll have a bit of trouble defending your head canon once the answer rolls up, unfortunately. guess he really is dead!

i will sustain that it's left open ended on purpose. it may be a little bit self explanatory, yes, but as long as it's not spelling out anything directly at you, you can take it as you will. the idea of coming up with an epilogue that blatantly details what happened seems off the mark to me, but at the same time i can't criticize a piece of story content i haven't seen, so that's all i can say.

i liked persona 3 reload. it's a fun game. it has great music, generally fun gameplay and enjoyable characters. it's not my favorite persona game by far, but it has many redeeming qualities to it that make it a really interesting entry. i deeply enjoy the dichotomies between themes, settings and aspects for persona 3, 4 and 5 a whole lot, which makes each one of them stand out in their own right. the more i played and as time passed, i started wondering how much i actually care about persona 4. i'm not too sure about it by now. i should probably replay it at some point, but this has taken way too long to write so here goes nothing. it's been one year and one day since i created this account. thank you for reading.

#review #game review #media analysis #persona 3 reload #video games

[finleymorris04-blog]

Blog entry 3; Looking at inspirations

With the announcement that the project deadline is pushed back, making my own assets for the project is potentially back on the table.

In this post I want to look a little more at the media texts that are inspiring my project (In themes and plot). I will be discussing major spoilers for Honkai Star Rail, Persona 3 and Persona 5 Royal in this post and I strongly recommend all these games though both Persona games are over 100 hours long.

My story is primarily concerned with happiness and how important it is to life, looking at how it can be obtained and the consequences; comfortable lies or harsh truths. This theme seems to be a somewhat popular one as there are many stories with at least adjacent ideas produced within the last 30 years. For example, I’m aware of a Futurama episode titled “The Sting” which is about the death of a character pushing another character into a happy fantasy world where they never died. I’ve never actually watched Futurama so I can’t comment further on this episode, but its ultimate thematic conclusion is that the fantasy is unhealthy and self destructive.

The Matrix also very very briefly touches upon this idea when Morpheus offers Neo the red and blue pills; this moral/philosophical dilemma is sidelined immediately after Neo chooses the truth to instead focus on the machines enslaving humanity.

Recently, Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail (major spoilers warning) released story quests which address dreams. In Genshin Impact’s Xianyun story quest, the protagonist dreams of reuniting with their long lost sibling again and upon waking says they “weren’t ready to wake up”, emphasising the longing for the impossibility of these fantasies. In Honkai Star Rail’s Penacony story quest (Which has yet to be fully released) the main cast visits a space station hotel where the guests immerse themselves into a shared dream where they can visit a glorious night-life world. Over time, it’s revealed that the dream is much more dangerous than believed and there are many schemers interfering with the world. In this story, a character named Firefly is introduced and spends a long time with the player before they are (seemingly) murdered by a monster that emerges in the dream. In the time the player spends with Firefly, they learn that her real body is physically impaired, she has no other friends and she herself spends most of her time in the dream as she says “Why do people choose to sleep? I think… it is because they’re afraid to awaken from the dream.” This shows that her only reprieve from a horrible reality was a fantasy world, yet the underlying truths of the fantasy world end up killing her; this story doesn’t provide any clear answers to this dilemma through Firefly, only showing a brutal tragedy on both sides - it does not seem like there is any version of events where things turn out well for this character.

Persona 3 & Persona 5 Royal’s adjacent ideas are the primary inspirations for my story, particularly the final section of Persona 5 Royal (Major spoilers for both games ahead). Both P3 and P5R’s final arcs begin with the reveal of a new villain character giving the main cast the choice between a dark reality and a bright reality.

In Persona 3 it is revealed that your actions throughout the game have doomed humanity to be exterminated by Nyx on March 5th and Nyx’s Appriser, Ryoji, gives the cast a choice; kill him and lose all awareness of the events of the game and the impending doom (Thusly ensuring it will happen) or let him live and spend their last months of their lives trying to prepare for a fight that should not be possible to win. This is interesting because neither of the options have “good” outcomes; letting everyone humanity go extinct within a moment without anyone knowing it is simultaneously horrific and merciful whilst fighting Nyx leads to an hour long boss fight that is futile until the protagonist sacrifices themselves to seal Nyx away. Persona 3’s story is about accepting death and not allowing it to control you and its handling of this theme (through the detailed arc) was so compelling that many Persona fans release posts talking about the game every March 5th and the game received a remake which completely preserved this arc (Though in my opinion the original was better). There are some significant plot similarities between this and my story - my story will lead to a choice between the player character re-entering the Dream whilst a natural disaster wipes out the facility and likely wiping out the remaining humans, or they can choose to leave the facility (It is important that they cannot choose to help anyone else, only the player character will be saved as the overseeing AI will not allow them to interfere with others). Persona 3 made this story compelling by developing a cast of characters and showing how each of them resolve to fight against death whilst allowing the player to think about it themselves and come to their own decision based on their worldview . The game makes an effort to emphasise that neither of the choices are “good” or “bad”. It’s important to note that killing Ryoji is not an issue at all - he is completely okay with it and is asking the cast to do it and it doesn’t matter as he will reform into the Nyx Avatar regardless of your choice; the only reason choosing blissful ignorance is considered the “bad” ending is because to do it the protagonist has to go against the rest of the cast’s wishes. Similarly, I don’t want to favour one choice over the other. Unfortunately I think Persona 3 suffers from some ludonarrative dissonance in that the “good” ending is also the better ending because it is significantly longer than the “bad” path; killing Ryoji will make the game instantly fade to March 5th and show 3 brief scenes of the main cast before a cut to credits whereas choosing to let him live allows the player to play through the whole of January as well as the final dungeon and hour-long boss battle against Nyx, plus chances to have final conversations with all the friends made throughout the game in early March before the protagonist dies on March 5th. My project won’t have this ludonarrative dissonance as both choices lead immediately to the end of the game.

Persona 5 Royal’s final arc reveals that Takuto Maruki, the therapist at the protagonist’s school, has gained the power to alter reality and people’s minds and create an idealistic world where everyone is satisfied with their lives - and he has started to spread his reality affecting at least thousands of people including almost the entire main cast excluding the protagonist. He brings back the cast’s dead relatives, fixes most of their problems and makes them much happier; however he did this without their consent (because Maruki truly believes he is helping people and knows what is best for them) and when the protagonist makes them aware of what happened they decide to fight Maruki to change reality back to what it was before, accepting suffering as a part of life that makes us who we are and suffering can give meaning. However, towards the end of the final battle Maruki asserts that though some people can work through problems there are also many problems in life which are clearly meaningless and should be prevented, such as any extreme violent crime like murder or a random natural death. Maruki does even accept that suffering is necessary to a degree as his reality doesn’t completely remove trials from people’s lives or make them simply constantly feel happy, he just ensures everyone ends up achieving what makes them happy in life (For example, Ryuji becomes a successful and popular track runner). It is also important that Maruki’s reality would solve problems that are simply impossible to actually solve - there would be no more world hunger and no crime. The game gives you a very similar choice to Persona 3, allowing you to choose to allow Maruki to spread his power over the earth, or stop him, and to me this choice is even harder to make than Persona 3’s because it is highly dependent on your perspective of happiness and if suffering is necessary; the “bad” ending simply shows the entire cast being happy together - including party members that were dead and hated each other in the previous reality - and Maruki accepting his role as a kind of saviour. This is a significant contrast to Persona 3’s bad ending where literally everyone dies; P5R’s “bad” ending is ‘objectively’ better for everyone. The game convinces you to choose to take down Maruki by reminding you of how the party has developed by suffering throughout the game and by using the character of Sumire Yoshizawa. Sumire was a past patient of Maruki whom he “saved” by controlling her mind into thinking she was actually her sister Kasumi Yoshizawa, who died to save Sumire from being run over following her emotional breakdown in the street. After finding out what Maruki did to her, Sumire fights the protagonist and begs them to allow Maruki to win. After falling unconscious in the fight and being taken home by the protagonist, Sumire has an arc where she relearns who she is and grows to appreciate simple things about life and accepts her past as it fuels her resolve. This is a solid refutation of Maruki’s perspective as it shows how both emotional scars and greater problems (Kasumi’s death) can have meaning; though we can’t know what Kasumi would say as she is long dead, in her final moments she wanted her sister to be happy. Furthermore, Maruki is similarly motivated by the loss of a loved one; Maruki discovered his powers by healing his girlfriend’s catatonic PTSD over the loss of her parents in a home invasion, at the cost of her remembering who he is - he seems to accept this and distances himself from her to prevent any harm, resolving to use his powers to fix reality which he refers to as a “nightmare”. Ultimately, the game suggests Maruki’s reality allows people to run away from their problems and this isn’t healthy. Maruki’s arc presents a philosophical and ethical issue rather than a political one; overwriting reality and bringing back the dead is far too fantastical for that, but it still challenges the worldviews of the player and characters - for this, Maruki is widely seen as the Persona series’ best villain (and I agree).

The Dream in my story is functionally similar to Maruki’s reality in that it completely shields people (emotionally) from all the world’s problems but it is achieved in a more grounded way, being a collective creation that everyone agreed to use. I simply do not have the time to develop a character anywhere near as great as Sumire in my project nor a plot as elaborate as any Persona game so instead I will create a dilemma for the player by making them think about what they would do in the situation and establish the reality of the world. The AI will have both positive and negative things to say about both decisions at the end; the AI sees staying in the Dream as logical however it views it as pathetic that humanity got themselves into such a state, whereas leaving would’ve been the right thing to do if it weren’t futile. I also hope that making it so that the Dream is somewhat more grounded than the comparison pieces I’ve referred to in this post will make the player engage with the idea more as it is more possible that such a situation could actually happen in the future. The player will also be able to express themselves with dialogue choices; rather than the choices just being alternate options from the mind of the protagonist that are consistent with each other, the options in choices that express a view will often express a different view to each other so that the player can make up a character for the protagonist as they go along, hopefully making the protagonist like themselves as they choose what they would in reality. I’m not sure how many layers of choices Id be able to make with a 500 word count though.

I gotta be honest, when I was first writing down this story idea the only thing I knew was actually influencing me was P5R, it was only upon having to think more about inspirations on my project when I realised how it’s clear other things also worked their way in.

I had previously stated that P5R kept away from the “darkest” aspects of the concept and I hoped not to - by this I meant that the unfairness of reality was not fully explored. Maruki only talks about how some problems like murder are completely useless after you’ve already defeated him in the final boss battle and all that is left of the game is the nightmarish sequence of Morgana becoming a helicopter, Maruki’s final emotional breakdown in a fistfight and saying goodbye to the cast. This is why in my story, the world as we know it has ended and humanity is set to be wiped out by a natural disaster (That is really their own fault) - something clearly meaningless as no one (Or, a single person) knows it happens.

[monasatlantis]

Review of Persona 5 Strikers

“Its finally over...” is not a sentence, you should here from me, after I have finished a game and yet, here we are, once again... In any case, my journey with Persona 5 Strikers is finally over and I am happy that with this review, I can bring that boring journey to a closure. A fast one.

Spoilers obviously ahead (also possible for the original P5 and P5R) so you have been warned. Here we go...

The things that come first to mind, when I should describe my feelings while I was playing this game are: “Its boring” and “Its too different from what makes a Persona-Game a Persona-Game” as well as “The nostalgia is just not enough to make this game enjoyable.” and those 3 things pretty much sum up this game.

When you start the game, you will be happy to see Joker and the Phantom thieves again, that you can visit the velvet-room once more, that you sit in Leblanc and everything is just pure, happy nostalgia and it feels really good.

Sadly, this is where the good feelings mostly end.

Relatively soon, our team of thieves leaves Leblanc behind for a journey in a freaking Camper around Japan. So you literally leave all the nostalgia behind for what could be a new exiting journey, but the seemingly refreshing idea behind switching places, totally misses its mark.

Honestly your first disappointment will probably be that almost NOTHING in this game is like an actual Persona game. And no, I am in fact not talking about the fighting style. Hack and slash is personally not what I prefer, but it isn’t like that is actually the problem of the game. It takes some getting used to and it makes the difficulty be a bit higher, especially since your team members can’t remember anymore what conserving SP means, but all in all it isn’t too much of a bother, after some getting used to it. So, once again, no, this is not a problem at all.

What is a problem that the time-managment, getting jobs for money, getting skills and making them better, finding confidants and learning for school as well as all the other slice of life stuff that is usually happening between the plot and the dungeons and is also usually helpful for battles on the long run in one way or another, is completely missing.

You don’t have access to a full city anymore in your free time, and aside from doing stupid requests, like finding some mysterious cake, so Mona can impress Ann, the only thing you actually do on your free time is shop for groceries and stuff and talk to people. And all that in small towns that offer you nothing but new things to cook and that above mentioned things. In other words: Whatever small freetime Joker has between Dungeons and the Plot is boring as hell.

And, while we are at it, so is the plot. I can’t remember the last time a plot was that boring and lame. When you are stuck in one of the overly long, never ending dungeons of this game, you have no motivation whatsoever to force yourself through them, because the only motivation you could have, would be an interesting plot and sadly, there is nothing interesting about the plot at all.

The two new characters are interesting, but they totally fucked it up to make Sophias plot fascinating and interesting and motivating until the actual true final dungeon. Sophias Plot starts strong and ends strong but the very long in between face is like she is just there... to be there... nothing interesting about her. And as we barely find any hints about her or who she is, it is actually a moment of “Oh... right... we wanted to find something out about this. Totally forgot about that” as it gets finally mentioned again in a later dungeon and basically gets dropped again for a while immediately after. What a waste of a good plot-motivation. Now Zenkichi was the real star of this game most of the time. He was the only motivation to play this game and even tho one was routing for him until the very end, as soon as he joined our thieves of hearts as another persona-user, the way he was interesting was mostly gone. He was still a great character, but he didn’t do anything anymore to motivate you to get through the boring plot. Furthermore, he joins the team relatively late in the game, so it would be fine if there would be anything else interesting about the plot of this game at this time.

The rules, of what once were palaces and now are jails, usually have some sort of Trauma in their lives, that is the cause of them becoming cruel, coldhearted assholes which often makes our group shorty forget about what terrible things those people did, as if a traumatic past is an excuse for everything.

Early on we have someone who had been bullied through her school years and that really hit home for me. So that person actually became a pop-star and started bullying other people for fun, just because she could. People who got bullied in their schoolyears and think it will EVER be okay to bully other, are just as much assholes as the people who bullied them in my eyes and so any kind of mercy or forgiveness was totally out of place for me here. On the other hand, later we have a mayor whos employees got bribed to hire a cheap company for a festival and that cheap company made a mistake and a little girl died because of this. She was blackmailed to keep quite about it and as she was so frustrated about her helplessness, she became the so called “monarch” of her jail, and started to work everyone to death, to make sure they fear her that much that they would never ever betray her. Which is a totally different story. This woman was desperate because of the guild she felt, because indirectly her own action have caused that little girl to die and she couldn’t even stand up for it because of the blackmail. There was no real system behind the madness of becomes the ruler of a palace and why - we later on find out why there wasn’t a system behind it, but that doesn’t make it any more interesting.

Aside from some nice scenes between our Team (and their new members) there was basically nothing nice about the game at all.

The music was nice I guess, but it was a lot of reused music from the original P5 - which was a blessing and a curse, as the reaction of the Lets player who finally freed me from having to finish this game myself, and my own reaction, to “Rivers in the desert” was clearly a positive one. But a few more badass new songs would have been nice.

Graphics were as usual for a Persona game. Nothing bad to say about it.

The pacing was so-so. The plot was boring, but it was moving forward mostly at a normal pace, if you don’t count in how long one can be stuck in those never ending dungeons.

Speaking of which, the first dungeon was already a never ending nightmare of going back and forth, being forced out of of the dungeon, going back into the dungeon, walking back and forth again, getting kicked out of the dungeon once more and so on and so forth. When you have FINALLY reached the palace, you can not enter it, until you leave it, to face the monarchs trauma, fight a big shadow there and only then you can FINALLY fight that damn boss. And if the first dungeon already started like this, you can imagine how cruel the dungeons were, going deeper into the game, where they add puzzles and mazes and shit like that to it. I am not a big fan of dungeons so I usually refrain from saying too much about them, but I can tell you that it is NOT very inviting if the freaking first dungeon is already that overly long.

Once again, the plot got finally better and more interesting when you reach the true final, but at this point, its far too late to redeem this game.

I give it gracious 6 out of 10 points. But that isn’t really good.

#Monas Spiele reviews #Mona spielte Persona 5 Strikers #Mona hat am Ende nur noch ein Lets Playgeguckt #Kein Geld der Welt wäre es wert gewesen das Spiel selbst zu beenden.