#(which is my first p3 playthrough in general)

[y-akkun]

Yukari Sketch

[senblades]

Who are your fav persona 3 people!!!

[cracks knuckles] I'm glad you asked

So! I don't actively /dislike/ anyone in the p3 cast, but some of them definitely speak to me more than others:

First things first: Ryoji. Love that guy. He's so silly. And so tragic. And he makes me sad. (Like holy SHIT I wasn't expecting a reprise of his song in the stage play on December 31st but it TOOK ME OUT) (also Ryomina my love)

The whole Shinji, Ken, and Akihiko trio ALSO lives in my head rent free... two idiots and their son. love them. I've been desperately scouring for Akishinji content and between that, Ryomina, and Shuake, I've come to realise that my shipping habits seem to boil down to "doomed yaoi" HAHA

More on Ken, I have a LOT of thoughts about how he and Akechi would interact and (likely) get along. Whether that be in the p5 era or a situation a la Throw Away Your Mask. (Or, something I've yet to find: Akechi with no time travel shenanigins getting in on the p3 plot. You can bet THAT'S a longfic idea I've got rattling around) (Also the half-brothers headcanon is super fun. Especially when combined with Futago siblings. Congratulations, Shido! All your kids are persona users, and they all hate you! :D)

Aigis! She's just. Infinitely charming. She'll say something that will absolutely take me out and then turn around and say something devestating HAHA. I also think that her and Ryoji's social link and linked episodes respectively do a LOT of thematic work in the story. Death himself and the girl that can't die, both trying to figure out how to live (y'all that shit's METAL)

Strega are so interesting to me... I don't think they're perfect villains- I think their motivation is underexplored and a bit choppy, but ASIDE from that, I really like all three of them as characters. Idk why Jin is so funny to me LMAO he's so in love with Takaya and Takaya's just like "k. met your quota yet?" (But, also, some of Takaya's lines definitely imply that he cares about Jin too, but doesn't let himself acknowledge that at all due to his whole "attachments are weakness" shtick, another thematic point to contest his ideology, as he is actively denying himself happiness in pursuit of some idea of salvation)

Chidori- I like her well enough. Some of her lines really did make me smile, but I think she's another case of "underdeveloped" (I actually read Throw Away Your Mask before I played p3r, so that fic did a lot of the heavy lifting for my like of Chidori (and, by extension, Jundori) i think)

Which leads nicely into: Junpei! He's da man. Nuff' said. HAHA if you can't tell, I love Junpei. Awkward dudebro stuff aside (though it's occasionally part of his charm), I really love his development and personality in general. I really love how all the "bro" characters across the modern three persona games, while fulfilling the same archetype, are all distinct in personality and motivation and I love them ALL

Mitsuru is quite interesting to me, but I think she might be a case of "I wish her social link was about something else". Personal preference of course, but I kind of wish that it focused more on this intense guilt she seems to have for things that a) weren't her fault, and b) happened when she was 7 or younger. THAT is a super interesting mindset to explore, imo, though I did find her social ineptitude charming haha

Yukari... I think that she might grow on me more later. I can feel it in my bones. I suppose I'll find out with The Answer dlc! I know broadly what happens in it, but I haven't actually seem a playthrough of it, nor do I really know what happens to all the characters. I think my opinion of Yukari might have been tainted slightly by everyone having such strong opinions HAHA- I definitely like her, but I don't think she's clicked just yet. (I did really like her social link, though!) (also Yukamitsu I love Yukamitsu. The lesbians aren't doomed! Good for them)

Okay this is going to upset some people probably but Koromaru isn't really much of a character and I keep forgetting about him LMAO. uh. he's a good boy?

Fuuka... I really think that she's just underdeveloped. Her social link didn't really do her any favours in my eyes (I'm SO glad that atlus cut the "girl learns to cook" social link in p5 HAHA i really didn't like it with Yukiko either) Her social link obviously isn't just the cooking shenanigins, but it overshadows the bits of character growth that happen intermittently. I think that her SL really would have benefitted from being more about her love of electronics, if anything, since that isn't explored AT ALL and is more a plot device than a character trait. (Plus, the root of all her self-esteem issues go unadressed, which I think would have been a good character beat otherwise) (In saying this I think Fuuka/Natsuki is very cute. The lesbians stay winning in p3)

Makoto/Minato! Honestly, I was pretty neutral towards him from the majority of the fics I had read before playing p3r. I really like his characterisation in Throw Away Your Mask and The Twilight Wants Him Back, but those had been outliers in my mind. I started liking him more and more after playing p3r, and NOW, after having watched 1/4 of the p3 movies- oh boy. boy oh boy. I really like him now HAHA. Having his apathy actually effect his realtionships with SEES early on is super interesting and I love when it's done. (plus, I think Yukari hating him at first really strengthens their friendship later on)

Uh this post is already super long so for all the other plot-relavant characters and confidants I'm just gonna say "it's a secret" and melt into a bush or something

(tysm for the ask! You can tell I was waiting for an excuse to talk about this HAHA)

(btw y'all shoud read the fics I mentioned in this- they're excellent)

[gio-cosmo]

I’ve finally finished P3R!

So now of course I must write paragraphs abt how much I loved it. Spoilers below the cut!

I can say without any hesitation or doubt that P3R is by far the best game I’ve ever played in my life.

They truly did such a wonderful job with remaking this game, so much so that it really makes me look forward to the possibility of more persona-remakes in the future. I’m so thankful that they stayed true to the original story, but improved where it was necessary. I’m blown away by every detail they put into this game, and how they managed to make even the menu screens absolutely beautiful.

I’ve always tended to get a bit sappy/emotional about games I really like, but I genuinely do believe that the persona franchise, specifically p3 and p4, have changed me as a person. They’ve effected me emotionally, and helped me navigate the meaning of my own life. I got invested within the persona franchise at a very young age (I think I was in the 5th grade lmfao 😭), and it was the first game series I really fell in love with — and that was only through watching playthroughs on YouTube at the time. Looking back on it, I think that it’s what really sparked my passion for video games, and also game development in general.

I started getting back into the persona franchise about 1 and a half, maybeeee 2 years ago, and being able to reconnect with the games and fall in love with them all over again has been such a crazy cool experience. Playing P3R after playing the original p3 was such a joy, and I can confidently say it emotionally impacted me just as much as the original did, if not more.

It’s not often I feel the urge to replay a game right after I finish it, usually I have to give it a break for a bit, but I’ve already started my New Game+ run of P3R and I’m not feeling even remotely burnt out, which I think is another example of how much I absolutely adore this game.

AAANYWAYS if you’ve read this far hi!! Rambling and getting overly emotional about video games is my one and only talent fr so thanks for listening 🫶

[erebus-the-answer]

Will Power shouldn't have been Akechi's final theme(+ how Maruki did it better)

Persona 5 was my first smt game, but even in my first playthrough it bothered me. While I do think that Persona 5 has a problem with reusing tracks (I'm looking at you, Rivers in the Desert), when comparing it to the other games + animes, Goro's fight theme being Will Power becomes unacceptable.

Underneath the cut I will compare the secondary/social link boss themes from Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5

Spoilers for all three games/animes/movies under the cut

Persona 3:

so in persona 3, I would say that the closest thing to a party member boss fight would be the meeting and little tiff that happens with Ryoji on the bridge with Aigis.

So, in the game this is an animated cutscene and the song that plays is a slightly~ different version of Unavoidable Battle. (Don't get me started on Unavoidable Battle being used for the ??? fight lol)

Persona 3, especially during The Answer has a real problem with beating Unavoidable Battle into the ground until it's deader than dead. But... I feel that they rectify this in the movies with Light In Starless Sky

This is one of my favorite tracks from the Persona 3 Lineup (P3, P3FES, P3P, and the P3 movies) Even though Ryoji doesn't technically have his own boss battle, I felt like he was deserving of his own theme for such a big moment and such a "betrayal" from a character that you grow to love and care about. In theory anyway, I don't very much like Ryoji.

Persona 4:

So obviously in Persona 4 the secret twist villain or whatever you'd like to call him is Adachi. I was one of the many people unfortunate enough to get into the game with this twist already spoiled. That being said, with the expectation that Adachi would be a final boss sort of deal (even if he is third to last), it was really disappointing to me that he and Namatame share the same boss theme. I understand that we are supposed to believe that Namatame is the killer (even though he really obviously isn't IMO), but to hear the same theme twice made it extremely underwhelming to me. Also Adachi was not a hard fight lol

Luckily, this gripe that I have with the game can easily be fixed with this mod, which adds Yin Yang from the Persona 4 Golden anime to the game in the place of New World Fool during Adachi's boss battle. This was perfect to me because honestly this is such a jaw-dropping song to me. It perfectly explains the type of dynamic that Yu and Adachi have with one another. love love love love Yin Yang, and even though Persona 4 is my least favorite game from the series and Adachi is then by default my least favorite villain, I think this track being in the game and just existing in general really helps with the music aspect of the game.

I fucking love The Almighty and The Fog though, even if I did feel that the amount of fakeout-twist villains was a little bit annoying. (Do not get my started on I'll Face My True Self -Marie version)

Persona 5:

So, as I mentioned at the beginning of the post, I feel like Persona 5 has a real problem with reusing tracks. Persona 5 was my introduction to the series, and when I said that it made me so excited that I felt my heart beating out of my chest and I was sick to my stomach (in a good way), I mean it.

In Persona 3, I feel like Master of Tartarus and Master of Shadows were fitting themes for the type of battles that we were having. The Full Moon shadows were just that. Shadows. They didn't really have any discernible personalities and they were just Shadows that needed to be killed for the sake of being shadows. I sort of wished that Strega had their own theme, but again whatever.

In Persona 4, even though we were fighting all sorts of different versions of different people, at the end of the day they all were facing their true selves, their shadow selves, so it makes sense for them to use the same battle theme when they are doing the same thing.

My issue with Akechi's theme being Will Power is that yeah, sure, his boss fight is technically an awakening, it's just been overused and beaten into the ground.

Now, I will say that it is better than his theme being Blooming Villain, the theme that EVERY SINGLE palace ruler uses, but it is still way too overplayed.

Like I said, P5 and ESPECIALLY P5R have some amazing tracks, but after the 4th time in a row hearing Rivers In The Desert, it starts to lose its spark.

In a stark contrast to the way that Akechi's battle solidified that they beat Will Power until it was dead, I'd like to take a moment to talk about Takuto Maruki, one of my favorite characters of all time.

I love Akechi as much as your average Persona 5 fan, but when it comes to how the music of the story drives home the point of their character, Akechi has nothing on Maruki.

I remember shaking in excitement when I first went on Spotify to look at the names of the songs from Maruki's palace and see what they were called (I am very particular about my music when it comes to persona games, my friends will let you know that I do not play when it comes to music spoilers).

The titles alone bring so much light into what Maruki was trying to accomplish. Gentle Madman, for example, is probably the most obvious one. It's who Maruki is. He's kind, sweet, he wants what's best for everyone, and yet he's on a complete wrong path. Something about the light piano mixed with the dark (???????????) sounding instrument really adds to it. It sounds clinical in a weird way, honestly, and it totally matches the aesthetic of the palace.

Out Of Kindness is one of the ones that makes me the most excited because it's such an awesome double entendre. He is doing it out of kindness, yet at the same time he has no kindness left to give! Beautifully, beautifully written! My God!!!!!!!

anyways, Keep Your Faith and Throw Your Mask Away. Need I say more? If you've played it then you know.

Of course I'm not saying that I expected Akechi to have an entire 5 hour long palace and half a soundtrack dedicated entirely to him. At the end of the day he isn't a final boss, he isn't the secondary boss, and he isn't the tertiary boss(at least in Royal anyway). Which I find to be... Disappointing. I mean he literally tries to kill the player character and thinks he succeeds! I know that Shido is the big bad, but I feel like Akechi deserved a bit more than what he got.

My idea would be perhaps Akechi got his own theme that he shared with the Holy Grail? I absolutely hated the fact that Shido and the Grail shared the same thing. It was so beautiful and amazing when we fought Shido and it transitioned between Rivers In The Desert instrumental and the vocal track. Almost threw up, so awesome.

They were kinda beating it already when it came to the Grail. I understand why, but to overuse such an awesome track really ruins it for me. and then when you fight the twins too? Jeez, give me a break.

Jaldaboath was an ok track, I'll probably talk about it in another post.

ANYWAY, my point is that I feel like Akechi deserved a better, more tailored theme, and it disappoints me that even in the anime he doesn't get it. The anime is even worse because he only gets Awakening? How annoying is that? There is a fanmade Akechi Palace theme, but that is a palace theme and not a boss battle. I guess we can only dream.

[todayimgonnaplay]

Today I'm Gonna Play: Persona 3 Reload

Phew, this took a pretty long time to complete! This was one of the many awaited games of this year that I've wanted to play, and I've finally completed it today! This isn't my first time playing P3, but since I only have experience with Portable, that's the only version I can compare it to when I talk about P3R.

I'm probably in the minority that liked Tartarus in the original versions. The randomly generated dungeons and amount of them didn't bother me at all. Each floor felt it had a short and even length to explore, and the shuffle cards encouraged me to fight every single enemy (or Shadow) that appeared. Reload definitely improves on a couple aspects in that the floors look more appealing in terms of design, and are also varied per set/block that you traverse through. In addition to that, there's even additional dungeons for more challenge or encounters that spice up climbing through these floors. Despite that, I kind of felt myself getting pretty bored about 20-30 hours in the game grinding through them. I'm not sure if it's because I've been playing Persona games the past 6+ months that I'm starting to hit a fatigue, or if there's something I don't like about this revamped design. In the end, I had to switch to playing Peaceful to just get through the game. One thing I do miss and wish were in more RPGs that do dungeon formats was being able to split your party to search the floors. This made clearing them much more faster, and also helped with leveling up too. Although I think leveling in Reload is a lot more lenient, and there's a new scouting feature instead where you send 1 party member to move up a floor in advance, which is probably why they removed splitting. But this occurs randomly rather than something you can do by choice, and is mostly for item collection.

In terms of non-combat or the social aspect, I definitely liked seeing familiar and new faces, yet also didn't like them at the same time. Seeing them fully voiced in a 3D environment compared to P3P is like night and day and makes it much more immersive! Being able to see their stories as these characters struggle and change really pays off well when you finish the game. Compared to Persona 4 where I loved how tight-knit the main cast was, I couldn't really get into the social links individually (but I loved the detail of many of them being acquainted with one another). With Reload's theme of Death, it beautifully illustrates how death can be both literal and metaphorical, and how people can overcome or accept it, while looking forward to a better tomorrow. That being said, some social links definitely felt infuriating to go through, which made it hard to sympathize with those characters. 4 on the other hand at least made them bearable at most (except two that I really disliked). One really neat aspect that Reload added were link episodes with male characters and even antagonists to flesh them out more, as well as activities with the main cast. Not only were they enjoyable and added more characterization, they still provide gameplay benefits just as much as the regular social links do, so they didn't feel like a waste of time.

This is probably a nitpick but one thing I'd REALLY like to see improved upon in future titles (or maybe I'll change my mind with 5 Royal) is to allow for more time to socialize. For a game about time management, they're really brutal with how often can you hang out considering the amount of holidays, exams, and even time skips that block your progress. It makes this one unique aspect of this series so stressful to go through if you want to max all social links, unless you use a guide and follow it strictly. Fortunately, multiple playthroughs do solve this apparently as these stats can carry over. But personally, to think about going through a second playthrough when I've technically played this entry 2 and a half times, it can get really exhausting.

Apart from gameplay, the best highlight for me is the UI. Portable's UI is one of my favourite (if not my most) in all video games. I love how minimalistic yet stylish it is. Reload completely revamps it by using a water motif as a reference to the sea of souls, while also propping the protagonist. It never gets tiring to look at!

A mixed opinion I have is about the music. The new music is always great, which I think only P3 has been able to pull off compared to the others regardless of version(for e.g. I'm not a fan of Shadow World and whatever 5 Royal's opening and battle theme are). But the old singer is definitely someone that is hard to replace. Although she performs amazingly in the new songs, and I have come to accept some of the remixes; She carries a sense of monotony compared to a relaxed yet somewhat carefree style that the old singer had. Maybe monotony fits with how the protagonist is, but this is just preference.

Overall, I think this remake was made with a lot of hard work and passion, trying to bring fresh ideas yet being faithful to the original version of 3. Although I felt tired of playing it at some point and started rushing, I'm still glad I had the opportunity to go through this journey one more time. I think it's going to take a lot longer now to check out Persona 5 Royal, but I will be looking forward to Episode Aigis this year!

[massacre-girlypop]

Things to know when getting into the Persona Series

Since the remaster of Persona 3, there’s been a lot of renewed interest in the series as well as a few people, not just from here, but in my real life, inquiring to me about what you should know before getting into the series, so here is a list of general tips you should know and to keep in mind:

Content Warnings. This is straight up just a point. As out there and as crazy as the Persona World can get, Persona is grounded in the struggles of people, of humans and the human condition. Things like suicide, abuse, loss, death, pain, emotional trauma. It’s not for the faint of heart, so I recommend bracing yourself.

Time Commitment. I know it doesn’t look like it, but most Persona games are a 200 hour commitment to one playthrough. Not even kidding. P5R takes me 130 and I know that game like the back of my hand and skip through a fair amount of dialogue because I know where the fluff is. Prepare yourself for that kind of time sink.

Stats vs Friends. The endless Persona debate. Which is more important? On a first playthrough, my recommendation. Focus on stats and the characters that intrigue you the most. Stats get you access to more people so you don’t feel like you’re running into walls everywhere. Also, be aware of their stories. Sometimes, if a character is important enough, their story takes a halt and is postponed until later. Learn to be flexible and managing your time properly will come with more experience.

Persona Preferences. I view Persona in the way that a lot of people view Pokemon. Sure, I could ramp all the way to the high level Personas if I really wanted to, but then I’d miss out on a lot of gems along the way. Nekomata is a level 2 Persona in P3R and I kept her viable the entire game AND used her in the final fight. So I cannot stress this enough: USE YOUR FAVORITES. Persona has the incredible perk of leaning into the myriad of mythos and legends the world has to offer, so explore them all. Also, every persona has the capacity to do most whatever you want it to, so as cool as Satan is, he can still do about the same thing that Nekomata can and Nekomata is available all game. Satan is not.

Where To Start. This is really the main question I get asked the most and with a series like Persona where every game tells a different story, it’s hard to decide where to begin. Here’s the answer I give everyone: P5R. I know, a lot of people will say “but what about regular P5?” Trust me, you get the same game in P5R just with more content. And why P5R? P5R puts you at the starting block in the best way. Great story, great graphics, and it gives you the simplest version of the story that pervades all Persona lore while helping you discover it yourself instead of always feeling like you’re behind other characters. Also, the combat, while incredibly varied, is much easier to succeed at than in P3 or P4 because there are so many skills and tools and it helps you grasp the concepts easier before stripping you of them in P3 or 4.

How to Decide when to Enter/Leave the Dark Hour/Palaces/Mementos/TV World. Time blindness is a lot of people’s worst enemy and that doesn’t change when you make it a video game mechanic. The best tip I can give you is this: limit yourself to one or two trips per story chunk. Especially if you want to dig into character stuff. Characters usually aren’t doing much at the beginning or end of the story chunks. Beginning is more viable because you’re not in crunch time at that point. The end gets more finicky because characters start to worry if you don’t complete your current main objective/palace before the due date. TLDR: Finish the main objective ASAP. Try to complete it in one day if you can. Then, you can spend more time romancing/team building/hanging out with people while waiting for the next due date and if you need to take another trip to complete Compendium stuff or Requests from the Velvet Room or Phan Site if you’re in P5R, wait until the last 2 days.

[frauleinandry]

after many months (mostly caused by dropping it temporarily to play P3P before the remake came out), i’ve finally finished persona 4. for a detailed analysis, check under the cut (note: it’s NOT spoiler free), but my ultimate feelings are.... hm. not exactly positive for reasons that both are and are not the game’s fault. while it did some things well (looking right at the culprit here), my experience was heavily tainted by the fact that i simply didn’t like a lot of the characters and humour, which is Very Bad given it’s a character/”humour” driven game. ultimately, i’d have to give it a 4/10. 

okay, so, i’m gonna start off with the reason I didn’t enjoy P4 that much that wasn’t the game’s fault. as with persona 3 and 5 i didn’t go into it blind, and this is the only time that mattered. look, i love murder mysteries - in fact, it’s the only ‘realistic’ genre i consistently like. that, however, is because i enjoy the guessing game. so, knowing that adachi was the killer from the get-go sapped a lot of the fun out of it. 

while i’m on the topic of the genre, while P4 is a murder mystery game, it’s also a slice-of-life one to a far greater degree than 3 and 5. that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though I admit it’s a genre I find boring in of itself without other stuff included. slice-of-life is like romance to me - it spices up a pre-existing meal, but I’ve got no interest in eating a mouthful of raw cinnamon. still, i don’t mind slice-of-life moments... with characters i actually like. which, does not include the investigation team. i’ll talk about that last though, as the characters are definitely the thing I’ve got the most to say about.

instead, let’s move on to the gameplay. admittedly if i’d played FES instead of P3P my opinions here would probably be different, but… P3P was better, honestly. don’t get me wrong, being able to choose what skills are inherited in persona fusion is a godsend, but the quest system and the way social links are handled both suck ass. the fact that all the TV dungeon quests require backtracking is baffling to me. who the hell thought that was a good idea? i could barely tolerate doing the dungeons once, let alone crawling through them multiple times. suffice to say, i did not do many quests.

secondly, the social links. in royal and P3P i managed to complete all but one link on my first playthroughs, but by the time i’d finished golden, there were 4 links I hadn’t completed (despite the fact that the game goes until february), not including the two branching ones. the fact that there are no gifts to minimise hold-out ranks sucks, and the night hangouts are too random and limited to compensate for it. my least favourite thing though was how you can basically only level up one social link on a rainy day. In fact, rainy days were just awful in general. the fact that you can do nothing but fish and level up stats is one of the most baffling game design choices ever. like, gameplay limitations that increase atmosphere are fine, but there are far too many rainy days for them to feel anything but tedious.

speaking of atmosphere though, one positive thing about P4 was that the soundtrack slapped! while I think P5 has better dungeon/battle themes, the overworld ones in P4 are brilliant. probably my favourite in the series as a matter of fact - heartbeat heartbreak and backside of the TV were the highlights. also, i think the december fog easily did the pre-climax disturbing atmosphere thing the best. the nyx cult felt very shoehorned in and was ultimately irrelevant, and everyone giving up free will in P5 happened too quickly to have much effect. meanwhile, the whole thing with the gas masks and the illness and the changed overworld in P4... it was fantastic, honestly.

still, while the game’s atmosphere was good in parts, thematically speaking, it was a mess. while they could have taken in further, rebellion is a huge core tenant in P5, and P3′s theme of parting is so well executed it makes up for the game’s simple plot/threadbare lore. meanwhile, P4 was just kind of a mess. 

so, the two core themes are “it’s worth facing the truth even if it's painful”, and “having bonds and connections allows one to prosper”. already, the first problem should be obvious. there are two themes instead of one - neither of which are simple topics. as a result, both of them are underdeveloped and poorly executed. the truth theme is introduced first and is reflected in the TV dungeons/investigation team plot, but is pretty much absent from the social links. instead, the social links are all focused around the second theme - namely, connecting to others. the problem is that theme isn’t introduced into the main plot until the very endgame, so as a result, the social links feel very disconnected from the main story. 

eventually, the game tries to wrap both themes together in the izanami/hollow forest arc, but by then it’s too late and it just feels like izanami’s trying to do two things at once, instead of having one cohesive goal. ultimately, I think P4 would have been served far better if the central theme was “reaching out to others is hard/scary, but it’s only by human connection that we grow”, with the truth stuff minimized. after all, adachi’s refusal to integrate with people is a key component of his misanthropy, while namatame wouldn’t have done nearly so much damage if he’d had dialogue with people instead of making a wild assumption about how the TV world worked.

speaking of izanami, holy shit!! i owe an apology to yaldabaoth P5 now - i thought he was poorly integrated into the main story, but at least he actually was. unless you go out of your way to deliberately ignore the game’s prompts, you just... never encounter her, and honestly, that’s probably the better way to play the game - i’ve never experienced a final boss that felt so shoehorned in in my life. there are literally two lines of foreshadowing for her existence, and That’s It. 

generally speaking, the lore was pretty weak, but then again, it probably was a step up from P3, so yay, progress...? on the complimentary side though, I think the TV dungeons are a super interesting idea - i love the whole having to face yourself to unlock your persona thing. admittedly, I think palaces on the whole execute the same idea better, due to the presence of cognitions and the way continued exploration reveals more about the ruler, buuuuuut palaces wouldn’t exist if the TV dungeons didn’t. so yeah, they don’t lose that many points for that. 

this seems like a good time to segment into talking about the investigation team/characters in general. as individuals, I like most of the team. chie and kanji are funny, naoto and kanji (again) get interesting development, and yukiko’s neat, even if she’s woefully underdeveloped. rise admittedly does nothing much for me (I find her aggressive simping for the protagonist utterly tedious, and I don’t like the way her more withdrawn side was dropped post joining the team), but eh. that’s just me. 

speaking of yukiko/kanji/naoto, i know a lot of people are annoyed with the generally collectivist messages behind their arcs, but honestly? i don’t mind it. my opinions might have been different pre-covid, but in the wake of that, I think that sometimes people need to do shit they don’t necessarily want to for the sake of others (*cough* masking *cough*). i know yukiko staying at the inn pissed a lot of people off, but I don’t think that in of itself is problematic. it would have been better if the reporters were introduced at rank 5 of her social link, and the latter half was about her choosing to support her family because she wants to, but ultimately that’s a minor gripe.

moving on to naoto and kanji, or to be more specific, their queercoding/the controversy drummed up by that. given the game came out in 2008, there was no way in hell naoto was ever going to be trans. while I think their shadow confrontation is absolutely written that way, it clearly wasn’t intentional on the side of the writers - I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t even know what a trans person was back then. i understand why people are upset about it, but... it simply wasn’t a realistic expectation. i think their arc is less an example of intentional bigotry, and more of an example of a bunch of cishet writers accidentally stepping on a landmine.

if the game ever got a remake, I do think it’d be neat if naoto was portrayed as transmasc, or their shadow wasn’t about them feeling uncomfortable with their gender, and more about them being fine with being female, but feeling forced to hide it to fit in and get the respect of their male peers.

kanji, meanwhile? he’s fine. like i said before, P4 is not a recent game. korra simply holding asami’s hand was a humungous deal, and that was aired over seven years after P4′s release. it’s amazing they even got away with implying kanji might be same-sex attracted in the first place. not to mention, his character arc isn’t really about his sexuality? it’s about him learning not to use aggression to cover up his insecurities. which, again, isn’t a bad message?

at the same time though, there are major characters who i disliked the writing for in this game - namely teddie, and my most hated character of all, yosuke. christ on a bike, he’s the humanoid embodiment of everything i dislike about P4.

so, stepping away from yosuke and towards the game’s writing on the whole, you can absolutely tell this was released in the early 2000s, and I mean that in the most derogatory way possible. while P3 and P5 have a few jokes that hit the wrong way, they’re thankfully limited (and most of them feel OOC in P5 anyway). conversely, as a more slice-of-life focussed game, there are a lot more “comedic” scenes in P4, and dear god, they are all trash. sorry, but I don’t get what’s so funny about homophobic comments and constant goddamn sexual assault. it wasn’t funny back then, and it ain’t funny now. this isn’t even some trite accidental pervert shit - i cannot think of a single comedic scene that didn’t involve the male characters actively going out of their way to sexually harass the girls. like, flirting badly is fine. groping, peeping, and constantly leering is not. i cannot describe how deeply this shit is entrenched in the game’s DNA - over 60% of P4 is just... that.

stepping back to yosuke (and to a lesser degree teddie), one of his main roles is to be the instigator of these garbage excuses for jokes, which completely sours me on his entire character. this sucks, as a) his social link exploring his relationship with saki is genuinely really good, and b) he’s the deuteragonist and is therefore around all the bloody time. i know some people use the whole “he was initially designed as a romance option” thing to dismiss this, but nah. that content was cut. his actions don’t come off as an internalised homophobia thing, just him being a jerk. it doesn’t help that he never grows out of it too - if he was written like say, sokka, who starts off being gross but gets better over time, that’d be fine, but he’s not. yosuke starts the game as an awful sex pest, and finishes as one. pass.

the problem with yosuke being so hateable is that it completely ruins the investigation team’s dynamic on the whole. one of the crits I saw about P5 from older fans is that the phantom thieves didn’t feel like friends. if you’re comparing them to the investigation team though, i’ve got to ask what you’ve been smoking. chie and yukiko are friends. kanji and naoto are friends. all the girls tolerate each other, but beyond that... these people treat each other awfully, and not just in a joking banter way. 

moving away from the investigation team and on to the greater cast, most of them are... pretty mid, honestly (admittedly my experiences with P3P make me think that the non-plot social links were all pretty bad pre-P5). dojima isn’t dreadful I guess, but he’s blown out of the water by his successor sojiro in every way possible. nanako is good - i don’t care for kid characters on the whole, but she really contributes a lot to P4′s soul. her relationship with the MC is a huge part of the game’s backbone. marie on the flipside is just annoying - while the hollow forest is really touching, her base personality comes off as... unnatural, I guess? like, she feels like several anime tropes stuck together, not an actual human being. 

i’m gonna finish this off with a bang though, and talk about the one character I absolutely loved. surprise - it’s adachi! sympathetic villains are good and all that, but sometimes I just want to see a guy who’s genuinely just a bad dude. and adachi is a bad dude in very realistic way. the entitlement. the immaturity. the pettiness. his goals and motives suck, but they suck in a way that feels both in character and more importantly, like something someone would actually do. like, bad people irl don’t tend to be mass-murdering cultists or whatever. they tend to be entitled people who think their needs and comfort trump everyone else’s. 

it also helps that he’s just a fun character in general. compared to the other major non-sympathetic human persona villains, adachi blows them out of the water. strega and ikutsuki are woefully underdeveloped, and shido feels like an obstacle, not a human being. adachi on the other hand is both hateable and genuinely entertaining to watch. if P6′s villain takes after him, i’d be more than happy.

[alternis-dim]

If someone wanted to get into persona, what is the best game to start with?

to be honest, Persona is kind of nice in that it doesn’t matter a whole lot where you start, since each game is a relatively self-contained story which only has brief mentions or cameos of previous entries! some elements of the lore make more sense if you play certain games before others, but it isn’t anything drastic enough to impact your enjoyment. Hell, I started with Persona 5 and was just fine. So I guess I can just sorta talk about the pros and cons of each game as an entry point to the series! I can also briefly describe their premises in case a particular one seems more interesting, which could help someone with deciding where to start.

this is gonna be long, so I’ll put it under a read more.

Persona 1/Revelations: Persona is the only game I wouldn’t recommend playing first. Its mechanics are pretty outdated and not reflective of the rest of the series, and it’s relatively short compared to the others as well. Not to say that it’s not worth ever playing! In fact, from my understanding it has wonderful characterization, an engaging plot, and lays important groundwork for the franchise’s worldbuilding. I just wouldn’t recommend it for getting a taste of what the series is like.

Persona 2: Innocent Sin is the first of the dual entries for the Persona 2 duology. It has some of the same cons I mentioned for the first game; it’s relatively old, so its mechanics are a little outdated, and it plays more similarly to an SMT game than the future Persona entries do (for example, the story is fairly linear and occurs over the course of a few days, whereas later entries are strung out over a year). It is a little more refined, though, and the formula is starting to get there. It also has, in my opinion, some of the best character writing in the series.

P2IS is a story about how strange occurrences are brewing in the city of Sumaru because of a phenomenon where rumors actually influence and/or become reality. A group of high schoolers get tangled up with a mysterious man named Joker, who can supposedly grant wishes and, for some reason, seems to hold a very personal grudge against them. They discover their ability to call upon Personas to defend themselves from the demons at his command, and soon end up teaming up with journalist Maya Amano to get to the bottom of Joker’s identity and the source of the rumors which are warping the city. Over the course of their journey, they slowly start to piece together their past in order to figure out why Joker seems so invested in them.

Pros: - Stellar character writing- An intriguing, interconnected plot which is a bit of a rollercoaster but a lot of fun- Lays the groundwork for lore in the Persona series (most importantly the existence of Philemon and Nyarlathotep, as well as the origin of the Velvet Room)- Incredibly mature takes on the impact of trauma and familial abuse (TW for both of those things though)- Canonically bisexual protagonist with a potential same sex dating optionCons:- Unavoidable random encounters and really grind-heavy, as most 90′s jrpgs go- Outdated mechanics that aren’t really reflective of future Persona entries- One of those wiki-heavy games: it’s damn near impossible to unlock certain character interactions or personas without use of a guide- The second game in the Duology, Eternal Punishment, isn’t nearly as accessible to English audiences

Persona 3 is where a lot of the series formula originates from! It’s also my personal favorite, but I’ll try my best to be unbiased describing it. Small note: I recommend playing Persona 3 FES specifically, since it refines a lot of the things that were clunky in the vanilla version, adds more character content, and features a post-game which answers a lot of questions.

P3 takes place in a coastal city called Iwatodai at the beginning of the school year, where the protagonist moves in as a transfer student after being bounced around in foster care for ten years following an accident which killed his parents. Upon arrival, he experiences the strange phenomenon of the Dark Hour: an extra 25th hour in the day where people are transformed into coffins and monsters roam free. Technology doesn’t work during this hour, and anyone not protected by a coffin is violently attacked and seems soulless the next day, a condition local news dubs Apathy Syndrome. A select few people have the potential to stay conscious during the Dark Hour and protect themselves by use of a Persona, and these people make up a unit called the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (S.E.E.S.). The protagonist joins, and the game follows their investigation of the phenomenon. It’s considered the darkest entry in the series, and for good reason: “memento mori” is right in its introduction. The game focuses heavily on themes of death, what it means to be mortal, how people deal with being confronted with their mortality, what the point of life is, and much more. 

Pros:- Introduction of the Persona formula: school life and dungeon exploration which requires time management on a linear calendar, the knockdown/1-more feature in combat, all-out-attacks, social links. Starting with this game may actually be the best way to go gameplay-wise, since coming back to this game after playing later entries makes it seem clunky.- Dungeon-crawl style of gameplay, which is a lot nicer than random encounters. You explore randomly generated floors and choose when and where to ambush enemies.- Excellent character arcs which enrich the game’s narrative- A dark, mature, and interesting story which explores human natureCons:- Still an older game, so some controls are clunky. One game mechanic in particular that many are frustrated with is the inability to directly choose what moves your teammates will use, instead requiring you to use Tactics to direct how the AI should behave.- Probably has the worst pacing issues out of any game in the series. There’s an entire calendar month where you do basically nothing.- The post-game is grind-heavy and long for the amount of story it offers. Some people just recommend watching a playthrough.- Features an uncomfortable transphobic skit towards the middle of the game.

Persona 4 is a refinement of many of the features of Persona 3. The best version to play is Persona 4 Golden, since it has a lot of extra content, but it’s vita exclusive and I’m stuck with vanilla :( Vanilla’s still fine in my experience, at least!

P4 takes place in the small town of Inaba, where the protagonist has transferred for a year to live with his uncle and cousin due to his parents leaving the country for work. Shortly after his arrival, a bizarre series of serial murderers start to occur where the bodies are found strung up on telephone lines. There’s also a rumor that looking into a turned off television screen on a rainy midnight will reveal your soulmate; this rumor is referred to as the Midnight Channel. The protagonists and friends inadvertently discover a parallel world which exists alongside Inaba, which can be entered through televisions but which can’t be exited without the help of a mysterious denizen named Teddie. They discover that these worlds are linked; people who show up on the Midnight Channel turn up dead in the real world shortly after, and the weather is inverse to Inaba’s. They discover that this is because someone is throwing people into this world, who are then unable to escape, and that the Shadows living in it become violent when the fog lifts (inverse to when the fog settles in the real world). This world also has an interesting quirk: people who enter it end up confronting their own shadow, which is a manifestation of the parts of themselves they repress or deny. Denying your shadow leads to it attempting to kill you, and this is likely what caused the deaths of the first victims. The protagonist and team discover that confronting and accepting your own Shadow, however, turns it into a Persona which you can then use to combat the monsters in the world. Equipped with their unique knowledge, the team sets out to save victims, solve the murder mystery, and learn how to accept themselves.

Pros:- A powerful message about the importance of seeking the truth and accepting all facets of yourself- An absolutely incredible murder mystery with clever plot twists and high stakes: getting the true ending is actually difficult if you don’t know who the murderer is, and you’re expected to understand the themes of the game and the characters in order to get it.- A nice in-between for the mechanics of P3 and P5: it’s pretty easy to transfer to either one after playing this one. (also introduces the ability to control party members directly, thank god)- A TON of spinoff content if you find you enjoy the characters and setting- Probably one of the best games in terms of understanding the overarching lore of the series, since it explains how Personas and Shadows work in much more depth than other entriesCons:- Has sort of a wonky difficulty curve. The first couple dungeons are honestly kind of a pain in the ass because of how level scaling works, and it takes a little while to level out.- The character arcs aren’t quite as well-written as previous games, due to the ultimate personas being associated with social link completion rather than events in the plot.- Oh god, such clumsy handling of LGBT topics. Plays around the idea of a gay narrative for one character (Kanji) and a trans narrative for another (Naoto) but ultimately just ends up playing up stereotypes and then backing out before doing anything “risky.” Another character in the party is pretty homophobic to Kanji for a while too, which sucks.

Persona 5 is the most popular in the series for sure, and for good reason. It’s the complete culmination of the Persona formula, and it adds all sorts of stuff to the gameplay and lore. It has a pretty lovable cast, to boot. Not that it doesn’t also have its problems, imo.

P5 features a protagonist who was falsely convicted of assault after attempting to defend a woman from a drunk man harassing her. His criminal record and probation result in his expulsion from his home school, so he moves in with a family friend in Tokyo where a school will accept him until his time’s up. Tokyo’s been strange for a little while now. Mysterious incidents have been causing disruptions for a while. There’s been a surge of “psychotic breakdown incidents” in which people act out unpredictably for seemingly no reason, and on rarer occasions “mental shutdowns” where people seem to completely break and die shortly after. The protagonist and friends get tied up in nonsense pretty quickly when a mysterious app on his phone transports him to a parallel world in which real locations of Tokyo are warped beyond recognition. The protagonist discovers the power of persona pretty early on, which he uses to fight the enemies there. With the help of a strange creature named Morgana, they learn that this is the “Metaverse”, a space in which the twisted desires and perceptions of people are made manifest. It’s a space where a person’s Shadow lords over a “Palace”, an altered version of real-world locations which reflects how that person views the world around them. They also learn that personas are the result of having a strong, rebellious will, allowing you to control your Shadow in combat. By breaking into a Palace, defeating the Shadow, and stealing the “Treasure” at its core, the Palace will crumble and the person in real life will come to grips with the morality of their actions, effectively outing themselves. This is referred to as stealing hearts, and the Phantom Thieves are born; they quickly become infamous in Tokyo, though their reputation attracts unwanted attention, as well as blame… could those breakdown incidents be related to the Metaverse, too? This game focuses heavily on the corruption of society, the abuse and manipulation of people in power, the ways in which our circumstances force us to hide parts of ourselves, ideas of justice, and all sorts of fun ideas of “rebellion”.

Pros:- ABSOLUTELY the best gameplay in the series. The controls are smooth, the battles and UI are streamlined, the visuals are absolutely stunning. This is the one that’s most fun to actually PLAY, bar none.- More of a stealth/heist game than a dungeon crawler, which is a fun spin on the series.- Excellent social commentary on the injustices young people face in a system stacked against them.- A really lovable cast of characters, and social links which actually grant you access to helpful gameplay features as incentive. Cons:- Sort of a small thing, but one of the game’s twists is a lot more fun to figure out if you’ve already played at least one other entry in the series.- Has some serious writing issues. The game has a very strong first half, but then starts to feel rushed the further along you get after a certain point. You can tell that the developers wanted to fit in a lot, but didn’t quite have the time to refine the ideas they implemented.- On that note, some of the character writing starts to regress or even becomes contradictory.- Has a couple instances of homophobia surrounding the Red Light District.

This got long, sorry, but I hope it’s helpful! like I said, you really can start anywhere, and you don’t have to play them in a particular order. Just pick the ones that seem the most interesting and have fun!

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Hello After the release of the PQ2 trailers, I would like to know why you like Minako / Hamuko so much?I do not understand why a lot of people like it and I do not say that in a way that bothered me, I just do not understand.

Before I can get to her, I need to give a backstory on my relationship with P3. And really just a summary of how I got into Persona in general. But yeah, in this literal essay I will (attempt to muddily, and kinda all over the place) explain how I fell in love with a character I was 100% neutral on, on a game I had a rocky relationship to begin with, and how she actually made me appreciate both that said game AND the MaleMC (who I also had a rocky relationship on) more and more as the years went by. 

I should note I played the Persona games in this order: P4 (PS2, newly released), then P3FES, then Persona 1 PSP (didn’t finish tho), then P3P (and basically from the P1PSP on I roughly played them in order of release as we got them, so yeah....the thing to note is I played P4 first, then the original male P3 then years later I played the FeMC, so I did not experience her first).

Now I REALLY loved P4 when I played it, colorful cast, really loved their hijinx and chemistry, and the shadow Selves were just so much fun and dark. I thought the plot was fine, not god’s gift to this earth but it was fun. I found the characters and setting to be the biggest draw (I mean P4 is character focused not plot/story focused so that makes sense). I researched the series and found P3FES. People said it was a lot better than P4, I wanted to try and get P1/2 but.....yeah the only versions were PS1 and they were expensive, and I am but a freshman in high school with no job (too busy being an athlete and studying) and am lucky if I can beg my parents to let me get these games. And there was no way in hell I was getting P1/2EP which were both like $100 (I had to beg for P3/4 which were like $30 each).

Anyway I got my hands on P3 and......I....really didn’t like it. I liked the music, the setting, the style, and I was fine with the slightly harder combat cause of the AI (I accidentally played through all of Kanji’s dungeon with AI on not knowing I could change). But.....I didn’t like the characters. I got to Fuuka’s full moon before I had to put it down. I thought Junpei and Yukari were too mean, I hated I couldn’t SL with anyone on my team yet, Mitsuru/Akihiko were too distant, and the SLs i could SL were.....not really that great, and the MC was....really dull....like he was mostly neutral or silent (as opposed to Souji being funny, rude, neutral, silent, caring and a lot of interesting things with his dialogue options), sometimes he’d have a harsh but funny line but of course if I chose that I’d get a reverse link so that sucks. I decided to replay P4 again, trying to find what it was that really drew me to the series. By the end of that second playthrough I decided to pick up P3 again, give it a second chance (even tho Junpei and Yukari almost killed it for me). 

I powered through, got into a rhythm, opened up more interesting links (such as the bookstore people and Maiko). It still wasn’t as good as P4 imo, the feel was different, but it was more I felt the cast was too distant and ridged to the plot. It wasn’t that they were there own people with their own arcs, but that I ironically didn’t find them as fleshed out as P4′s (which was more character focused so maybe that explains it). But then I got to Aigis, and the plot really picked up (years later I find that’s where some people felt like P3 started getting good). And I ended up liking it! I didn’t love it as much as P4 (and I had a lot of issues with the way they handled how the P3 kids got closer, aka I feel like they it could’ve been better), but I did like it and appreciated it despite my rocky start. I should also note I did like Shinji, like “Oh neat design” and then when he died I was like “Oh welp that sucks” but I never blamed Ken, and I wasn’t a rabbid fan shipping girl for him (I did jump on the FeMCxShinji train for a ship tho, just cause I saw other people like it and I prefered it the most out of the other options at the time, but actually FeMCxTheo was my first ship for her XD)

Then P3P was announced. Me who had a PSP for P1 and KHBBS was like “Oh ok cool.” Then I saw there was a femaleMC and I saw the opening (cause iirc they announced it with an opening) and I was like “OH no this is horrible, I can’t believe they’re making Yukari an MC!” but then I looked at it again and realized it was some new character and was like “oh phew thank god, huh I wonder how you’re gonna be handled” (which is funny, because Soejima accidentally mistook the Concept!Heroine of P3 for Yukari, like he didn’t realize those were two separate characters in like the really early days of P3, so they have very similar concept designs. I think they even share one design XD). So yeah my first impression was a false negative turned into a “Ok cool I’ll try it out.” 

So months later it comes out, and I get it. And I start playing....and I don’t stop. Not like with FES. Like it had been awhile since I had played FES, and I knew if I “powered through it” to get to Aigis it get better but.....I...didn’t need to. Junpei and Yukari were a lot more tolerable, and I think that’s thanks to the SLs we got. And like WE GET TO START THEIR SLs EARLY! AND THE BOYS GET THEM TOO???? Like hot dang! Like Yukari, she’s available right at the beginning! You don’t have to wait! No like even if you are NG+ max charm, I had to wait till like Aigis joined before her SL would actually start (there’s a date restriction on top of it for the male, at least in FES I realized 2 years ago when I played it with some college friends). And Junpei, Ken, Ryoji, Koro, Shinji, and Aki (all characters that really needed a link to expand on them more) get more development! And Rio and Saori are great, Rio’s link is 1000% times better than Kazushi’s link (I hated how the only positive options is letting the guy just crumble, I felt like a horrible friend a lot of the times with the MaleMC, which is weird cause every non-main game iteration acts like he’s a great friend). Saori replacing Maya, well that and Akihiko replacing Minato’s Star guy was saddening, cause I liked them. But thankfully it was an even trade. The rest were a trade up from the MaleMC (Junpei was a lot better than Kenji, wasn’t a fan of P3!Chihiro, very creepy, and remember I saw her in P4 first and thought she was fine, I was sad about Yuko but I kinda like Koro more so...*shrugs* more or less a fair trade, Shinji was obvie a trade up, and I think Ryoji was a trade up from Mr. Fortune guy whom Yukiko would pretty much rip off his SL beat by beat but somehow do it a liiiiitle better). I also liked how Fuuka’s SL was changed....only cause I tend to remember a liiiiiiitle bit more of her FeMC link than I do the Male one (sadly I just....can never remember her whole link....). So I would say she had the “better links” because it helped expand more on the MC’s relationship with the guys and Ryoji (which I found was really lacking on the male side, esp when Junpei tries to claim us as even...normal friends). Not that the Male’s were (all) horrible, but the FeMC does replace a lot of the worst ones (namely, imo, Moon, Magician, and Chariot) with a lot better ones, and the good ones she also replaces are met with a pretty even/fair trade. Also again, Male SEES+Ryoji SLs. I mean Shinji/Ryoji’s links you need to “bust your balls” for those two, but...not really. XD I’m pretty sure (at least with Shinji, need to double check with Ryoji) as long as you say the right stuff, you get a rank up. The real ball buster was the Male’s side because you 100% need a guide to get every SL on his side, FeMC has a bit more freedom (not THAT much but a bit more).

She also had a larger range of personality options (aka it’s not her only personality, she could be a lot of different things) than the MaleMC (so she was similar to Souji in this regard). I could make her be a bitch, maker her peppy, nice, angry, conservative, a lot of things. I felt like there was a lot more to do with her (have her be emo? Sure! Have her be nice? Sure! and so on and so on). I felt like she was more than just being “there,” more than being along for the ride. I loved her anger issues and violent tendencies, the fact she was dark enough to be willing to kill someone, the fact she’s probably a stepford smiler and is actually really hurting underneath it all. I liked how she had personality you could trace and piece together and mess around with to make a different combo of FeMC, as opposed to MaleMC who is just....kinda there....his options are...there most of the time (sometimes some personality leaks out but not a whole lot)...and you have to come up with a personality all on your own instead of piecing together traces of one (they at least adapted this well into the movies by making him numb and depressed and then recovering as a means to explain this odd detachment in the game, but you probably don’t see it when you are first playing without that context). She could be more vocal at times (not all the time but times where the MC wouldn’t talk she would sometimes have an option to say something), she could also make a change as well (Shinji’s link). So yeah I liked how her side had some impact and could change some things. (I mean, in retrospect, I wouldn’t have minded if she had changed more, but I also gotta remember this is a PSP era game). But most importantly, I felt closer to the team. The SLs helped sooooooo much, I felt like the core of SEES, I connected everyone, we were all a unit. The extra events, even if they were the same as the male’s, felt deeper cause I felt like I was hanging out with an actual coworker turned friend rather than a ‘coworker who says I’m their friend but I don’t feel like we got there yet” type of feeling. When anyone was like “dang we friends” I was like “hell yeah we are.” 

I also like how, while she’s a bit more upbeat and friendly, it fits with the game. The game does start off light guys, it doesn’t really get dark-dark till Oct. If anything, her being friendly (if you player her that way) and getting along with people, and the just how it feels like genuine friends really feels more impactful when the dark stuff starts to come around....since she gets more shook and has to face the harshness and overcome it. It feels like it impacts her. MaleMC it....it can feel like it doesn’t as much (again the game, not the side content, the side content it does impact him). I feel like the MaleMC had a similar detachment as I did when I first played on FES. “Oh that sucks Shinji died, pretty sad, wonder what’s gonna happen next.” So like...THAT is just...there.....

So yeah, basically....I had issues with P3, and I felt like she fixed a lot, not all but a lot. Sure she has her own slew of problems (my issues are more that she might not change enough, like she changed enough to justify her, but I feel like they could do more. Also, connecting to that point, them repeating a lot of the same dialogue....I felt like some could/needed to be changed....Like Junpei’s jealousy works really well with the MaleMC but him suddenly being friends at the end doesn’t, while the FeMC they are friends....but he still has the same jealous out spurts and like......he can have that, but I feel like they should’ve changed it a bit and added more complexity to them since they are already friends).

Do I think FeMC is the better MC of the two? (Main) Game wise....yes. Her bonds are what I feel like is what Atlus wanted to do with the MC but messed up (evident with how they handle him with the manga, movie, dramacd, and PQ/P3D). Manga/Movie/DramaCD (and PQ/P3D) vs her? They are the same tbh, the FeMC is just the stronger game equivalent (bond execution wise, which was the male’s side’ issue and one that’s fixed in side stuff) to the other iterations of Minato than his actual equivalent imo. 

Anyway, as the years went on I got more attached, esp when I compared and contrast the two MCs (btw as the years went on I grew to like P3 even more as well as Minato, so all of the above is just my first impressions), wished there could be a version of P3 where they are together, later wishing for a spinoff where there together, or a spinoff where she meets P4 kids cause I feel like it’d be interesting how she’d interact with them (cause it’d be different to Minato’s). Her clashing ideals with Male cast and P4 cast, her working together, working off each other. Her dynamic was just interesting, I saw potential and what she could bring to the table and it sucked she basically wasn’t allowed (mostly cause, as it was recently revealed, they didn’t know how to do it). I saw potential, and still do see potential, in the other MCs in all of the games, it’s just as each new entry came about....the need to see the FeMC’s utilized grew more and more (cause again, they were already utilizing P3/4MC’s potentials, and P1/2 were locked behind some possible legal tape, and PTS was retconned out with the only hope of it ever coming back being for it to be retconned again to fit into the story, so she was literally the only one of this group that could be used and had yet to be used). I also really wanna see a duo of FeMC/Minato and Tatsuya/Maya, I just....I really wanna....cause P2 had a lot of duality themes, and then P3 kicked it up to 20 notches, and I’d love to see P2/3 meld together! ;w;

(oh I should note I do like P1 and P2 a lot, I really love P1′s manga tbh, just in case anyone was wondering where I stood on them. So yeah it’s not like I only love P3P and P4. I actually like P2 a lot. It’s tied with P4 as my fav, tho FemC might be my fav MC, tho possibly tied with Maya and Souji. I do think they should come back, but I’m also aware they have....a stickier situation than the FeMC or even PTS.....and we all know where I stand with P5 so ahuhuhu 8U)

So uhhhhh yeah, that’s my story....on how I kinda slowly fell in love with this character, one of which I had a neutral stance (I didn’t automatically think “Female MC? Ok I LOVE her!” or think she was gonna change the game for me, it all just kinda happened). And how she made me appreciate P3 (and the MaleMC) more. And then by the time I realized it I realized I was in drought hell with pretty much nothing. :’D

[allovertheplace-writing]

ROSIE <3 how have you been?

so i noticed that you wanted to talk about persona!! hmm, who are your top three favorite characters from 3 and 5 and why?

in any case, take care!!

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EVE!! I'm doing good, but I'm even BETTER now since you're here \^°^/ how about you though? I hope life is treating you well <3

Man.. my favorite characters... can I just say all of them CSKDJDJ I love them all so much that it's hard to discern my top favs, but I know they exist XD

For Persona 5 I absolutely, positively, adore Ryuji, Futaba, and Sojiro. Akiren and Maruki might be crying in the corner but don't mind them /lh

1. Ryuji

Ryuji has been my favorite since the original release of p5 and he has held that spot through royal! Reasonings.. he's precious and is bestie material 😌 also I feel like I can trust him with anything-

2. Futaba

Futaba is a character I heavily relate to, but she also never fails to bring a smile to my face. I see her as a little sister and will protect her with my life :3

3. Sojiro

BEST DAD- cough- he's seriously the best though and a comfort character if I've ever seen one. At this point if the parental figure in persona games aren't a comfort character for me, then something is terribly wrong and you should call the police /j I also view Dojima in persona 4 as a comfort character and I blame Sojiro for this trend! Not that I mind- I actually have a "Characters I want as a Dad" list and those two are on there.

Persona 3! Gosh, this game is my everything.. p5 might've introduced me to this series, but p3 is the one that truly captured my heart(even though it was the second to last persona game I played). It was the first persona game to make me full on sob MULTIPLE TIMES, like I swear 🙄 /lh

My favorites for it though... hm, I'd have to say Makoto(our doorkun), Shinjiro, and Bebe. Although Fuuka, Hitoshi, and Ryoji are extremely close to throwing everyone out of the top positions XD

1. Makoto

I deeply admire him. For his efforts and what he stood for. In a way he brings me comfort, but not like a comfort character. Tbh it's hard to explain, but he makes it feel like everything's okay- somehow differently than a comfort character. I suppose like the hushing of a mother to her crying baby? But also he does some really funny things LMAO

2. Shinjiro

Comfort character. That's all /j

Shinji is a character that wiggled his way into my heart with no problem, which could be seen as painful. If you know, you know. He makes me feel safe in general and man his character.. the way they wrote him and his story is amazing! I wish he was on our team longer, but I don't regret spending a large portion of my yen on him. My strongest teammate... I'll see you again on my second playthrough! [Read: tenth playthrough]

3. Bebe

The French transfer student who adores Japan's culture. HE ALSO CAPTURED MY HEART IN RECORD TIME- he's my everything and I max his social link without fail everytime. I saw him in the hallway on the first day of school and listened to his conversation with the history teacher and.. I knew from that moment onward that I was going to TALK TO HIM SO DAMN HARD *desk slam* UGH- seeing him is a serotonin boost istg!

Thank you for sending me an ask, Eve! I had a lot of fun answering and am looking forward to writing your request \^°^/ Take care ♡

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[neni-has-ascended]

Since everyone else has been bombarding you with questions about what you dislike about Persona 5 in comparison to Persona 4 and past games, now, is there anything you LOVE about Persona 5? You claimed that you like Persona 5 in one of your responses on your asks, but it seems to me that isn't really the case.

FINALLY. 

By god, yes! Yes, I DO love Persona 5! It’s a brilliant game, the best in the series objectively seen, even! I could never dislike it!

Let me explain!

The hands down best Dungeon Design in the series, not even a contest. This has previously been my biggest complaint with the series, and I am SO GLAD they addressed it finally! Dungeons were always supposed to have some psychological symbolism behind them, but due to them all looking like they’d been created of a tileset of 5 individual pieces, this never really came out before. Up to Persona4, all story dungeons were bland, boring, and a slog to get through. Now, I said that back when I played Persona Q, but I also praised the dungeon in that game and said that I hoped this game has been used as a training exercise for Persona 5 and BOOOY HAVE I EVER BEEN RIGHT! Persona 5′s dungeons are beautiful, interesting, a joy to play. Every item placed is there for a reason, the dungeons are like characters in their own right, sparking with personality and truly seeming like an extension of the Shadows who rule over them. The puzzles are fitting and smart, they are paced perfectly, and story bits are handed out naturally during them, rather than just in randomly appearing textboxes. These dungeons really DO live up to the series’ psychological themes, and I ADORE IT.

The battle system is streamlined to its logical excellence. Oh gosh, is the battle system beautiful! It’s fast paced, versatile, perfectly mapped to the controller in a way that seems natural and all its most annoying aspects have finally been dealt with; Swapping between Personas is a lot less frustrating now and the “Baton Touch” Mechanic not only fits the game’s style, but actually makes One Mores a JOY like never before. I actually went briefly back to P4 and played some of Yukiko’s dungeon during my playthrough of P5. You have NO idea how tedious P4′s battle system felt in direct comparison! The inability to baton touch over to Yosuke after downing a Hablerie made me feel awful.

Best. Social Links. EVER. I am not kidding. This is the first time the Social Links (Confidants, whatever) did NOT make me feel bored or like I am wasting my time at ANY POINT during them! There were no characters I didn’t wanna link with after trying Rank 1, I loved all of them! Everyone was so powerful and full of personality, and I wanted to be with all of them constantly. Nothing like the Tower SL in P3, which just depressed me or the Temperance SL in P4, which made me want to smack Eri Minami in the face. I was actually looking forward to the longer stretches of nothing but Linking between story parts and I am genuinely upset for every single link I didn’t complete! Not to mention that the Confidant Abilities make it all even more worthwhile! Fusion bonuses were always a neat thing at best, but stuff like cheaper weapons and baton touch and more time to read REALLY make the whole system fit so much better into the game proper! Plus, the ability to see all your SL possibilities for the day right on the map. It is marvelous.

The organization of the main cast. This is an advantage especially towards P4. In P4, the entire IT felt incredibly incompetent at what they were doing, to the point it was laughable. Even Naoto’s competence was questionable at best. Compare Naoto’s actions before she joins to Makoto’s actions before she joins and tell me, in all seriousness, and Makoto is not the more competent investigator. The Phantom Thieves always feel like they have at least a semblance of a plan, with the except of Ryuji, they think their actions through, they scheme, they gamble, they aim for flawless victory. Compare that to the IT, who usually seemed to be LUCKY if they ended up achieving anything. Any and all attempts to plan ahead on their part were doomed from the start, which is nowhere as evident as in--- Actually, strike that, it’s evident EVERYWHERE, from how they dealt with Kanji, to randomly attacking a fanboy to “safe” Rise, to just believing the bullshit about Mitsuo being the culprit, right down to Naoto pretty much throwing herself into a TV, risking to get herself killed, just because her ego had been bruised. The PT feel a LOT more competent and it is VERY refreshing.

The scope of the game. There’s always something to do. The game world NEVER feels “empty” or “dead”, as it often would on rainy days in P4 or on random days in P3. The possibilities for what you can do or how to raise your stats are endless, and it actually *does* feel like you have a choice in how to spend your time, rather than there being one single true “walkthrough path” that will get you everything in one go. Despite how the individual areas are cut off, it really does feel like you’re exploring Tokyo, and that’s just a great feeling, especially if you’ve been there before.

The general aesthetic of the game. It’s breathtakingly detailed and awesome. Every inch of the scream exudes the love the designers put into it. A far cry from the dead-eyed models and lazy animations in the PS2-era games and uselessly clunky menus in the PS1-era games. This game has a personality and a flair from the moment you boot it up, and that’s definitely worth for something.

Forshadowing. This game is GREAT at setting up all the pieces in the plot so that they’ll fall into pieces perfectly and it will make flawless sense, but without making the workings of some things too obvious. There were a couple “AHA!” moments when it really felt like I had a lightbulb lighting up in my head. In P4, it still often felt like stuff was pulled out of nowhere. That’s no longer the case and I love it. 

The overall themes of the game. Without saying anything specific and giving away spoilers, the social critique in this game is probably the strongest and most biting to come out of the series in a while, and it actually makes you feel guilty and reflect on your life as you play, which I find really powerful. By the time you’re fighting the final boss, you’re actually wondering if you, as the player (NOT the protagonist) aren’t just as bad as the NPCs in this game, which is something none of the other Persona Games ever managed to make me feel. It was pretty great. 

So? What can I say? I LOVE this game. No amount of gripes I have with it is ever gonna change that!

[futuresoon]

so, persona 5

regardless of story/character stuff, the design is fantastic--i’m no game reviewer and i’m more of a hopeless casual in general, but i can tell when gameplay is flowing smoothly, and the hide-hide-ambush tactic is always intensely satisfying. the climbing and jumping may be too contextual for some people, but hell, i liked it. it added a lot more interaction with the environment than persona games usually have. and like i said, it’s intensely satisfying when it goes well.

the visuals are great, the music is great--there’s one dungeon where i was kind of frustrated but my frustration was amplified by the music being so ridiculously my jam that i couldn’t be that mad for being stuck in it--and the level design is much more varied than P4 and P3′s randomly-generated rooms and hallways. like i said, there’s a sense of environment.

i like that the confidants actually give you bonuses besides fusion, even if “confidant” is kind of awkward to say instead of “social link”. it’s not hard to max them, either; by the end i was only missing yusuke (9), haru (4), yoshida (8), and sojiro (whatever rank it is where you have to go to mementos to move on). demon negotiation is much easier than it is in P1 and P2, for which i am profoundly thankful. the return of everyone also having guns for some reason is just as inexplicable as it used to be but the visual of everyone aiming them at the demons in a HOLD UP! is cool enough that i don’t really care.

i liked most of the characters, and the ones i didn’t really like (besides the villains) i didn’t hate. the overall plot was, well, about what you’d expect from a persona game, barring the first villain being surprisingly dark and a plot twist making me genuinely unsettled. all in all, i had a great time.

this is the point at which most game reviewers give it an A+ and move on.

i’m not a game reviewer, but i am a queer woman who always makes use of the fast-forward function whenever i replay P3 or P4 and get to the hot springs and beach sections. actually P3 doesn’t have a fast-forward function i think? but blessedly, P4 and P5 do. i will very much use it on my next playthrough, because atlus doesn’t seem to have gotten any better at beaches. at least there’s no hot spring this time. there is the rampant sexualization and agency-removal from a 16-year-old girl, though, which is not really better? and poor ryuji, who started out so well, kinda devolves into the usual perverted teenage boy type that is so horribly prevalent in anime and video games. also you can date your teacher. but not any dudes, because that would be wrong. it’s totally okay to show a pair of nails-on-chalkboard gay dudes for comic relief, though! that’s a hilarious joke that everyone loves, right?

when it comes to female and queer characters, P5 is a step down from its predecessors, and it’s not like those were fantastic to begin with. it’s just. it’s a problem, guys.

but barring ann’s chest window catsuit, it’s an ignorable problem, and the rest of the game is great enough that i, personally, managed to grit my teeth and focus elsewhere. as i said above, all in all, i had a great time.

basically, if you like persona games, you’ll almost definitely like this one. i don’t want to say the gameplay is objectively better than P3 and P4, but, well, it does stuff they don’t and it does it really well. if you’ve never played a persona game before but you generally like anime and video games, you’ll probably like it too. if you like persona games you are probably used to ignoring problems anyway. if you are not, parts of this game might drive you crazy.

but there’s a reason i played 104.5 hours in 15 days, and it’s not just because i have nothing better to do.

also, you can take your cat to the movies.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

U R entitled to your own opinion. but still what could've been so messed up for you to hate it? I remember you fangirling about Anne back when only the Japanese version was released back in 2016.

Summary (and incomplete list) of my problems. 

Yeah as I played the Japanese ver the first time I was focusing on the positives.....after I finished I...it felt off......tbh it felt off while playing it but I didn’t notice/refused to listen to it cause I was waiting to see things unfold. And while I understood what was going on, there was some crucial information (at least crucial for me to process it correctly) I knew I was missing cause of the language barrier. 

After a 2nd time through I saw it..... I saw how all the antagonists were.....not well written besides Kamoshida and Sae (and even Sae could’ve used some tweaks to her motive, tho not as much tweaks as the rest of the game I think needs). I saw how there was a lot of similarities between P4....and not the good time......it felt pretty copy paste....and tbh if it was going to copy and paste one of the past game’s formula.....it should’ve been P3′s.....But hey...that would’ve mean that Atlus would’ve had to write more overarching arcs in P5 like they did with P3, and we can’t have that kind of effort...... The lack of overarching arcs really hurts Anne, Ryu, and Yusuke (who, even in my first playthrough, I felt he literally dropped off the face of the earth after I finished the dungeon, not his arc where we see Madarame’s confession, I literally forgot Yusuke was there right after I finished the dungeon with like a month to go before the confession). Haru and Goro get screwed in their own way. I felt like the game relied too much on Makoto and Futaba to do stuff (it felt like they were doing everything, barring the MC of course). It didn’t feel much like a Phantom Thief game (tho it takes a bunch of the story cliches without any of the fun). I never felt like I had freedom.....which is a problem when the game’s theme is freedom. Not with the MC’s dialogue, he has like one personality to choose from (which for the most part feels like it’s mostly “jerk, sassy-jerk, funny-jerk” like it’s worse than the PQ options). The endings suck in terms of freedom of choice, it’s like 5 steps backwards from P4 which is wrong since they should’ve at least taken a step forward from P4 considering P5 is next gen and P4 was made on a shoe-string budget. The dungeons...oh my gawd..... Give me P3/4′s any day. Yes I like the randomly generated one’s cause it gave me more choice than P5′s. P5′s were good the first time through, but they are such a slog after that. It’s not that P5′s are big, but it’s that they aren’t bigger! Give me an option on how I want to approach the treasure! Give me a short route, a fast route, an easy route, a hard route, a long route, a medium route, and make it so I can back track and go through all the routes if I want. Give me incentive to take the longer/harder route (better weapons, loot, items but of course it’s harder, higher risk means higher reward), give me the short/fast route so when I’m replaying for the 53rd time I can just skate through that without having to spend an hour going through a dungeon I’m destroying (it says something when the dungeon is so long that it’ll take someone an hour to run through the dungeon on NG+ on safety, while it takes maybe 10-30 min to speed through P3/4 on NG+ regardless of difficulty. Like...god....thinking about playing P5 NG+ on the hardest difficulty must take them like 2 hours a dungeon or more @.@). But yeah I never felt free in the game, the characters never felt free in the dungeon setting (AND THAT’S WHAT ATLUS WOULD SAY IN THEIR INTERVIEWS! The characters are suppose to feel more free in the Metaverse! WHY IS IT THEY DON’T FEEL LIKE THAT WHEN I PLAY?????)

Actually bouncing off that, I hate the characterization inconsistencies. Anne and Ryu get the worst of it, but this also applies to comments on Anne/Mako’s thief outfits too. I love Anne I do, but Atlus screw her and everyone over so bad. She’s suppose to speak out against sexualization but then gets sexualized in her own game. And not even in a “I’m being confident and am being sexy cause I want to” fanservice it’s always “someone is looking at me and I’m uncomfortable and don’t want to be looked at” fanservice...... And the former seems to be what they might’ve wanted to do, the artbook stating her short skirt as a reason.....but then the rest of the game is just her hating her outfit and it’s like “WHAT?!” And it doesn’t help the Devs were like “oh yeah we thought that’d be cute.” NO! NO IT’S NOT ATLUS! I’d give you a pass with her wearing it the first few times and then getting used to it and owning it (cause that’d be growth), but no.....not for 98% of the game......  And then Ryuji, he’s all “protect women’s honor” when it comes to Anne being creeped on by random guys, but as soon as he gets the chance to be a creep he takes it. And it really just messes with his values, or how we see his values in that regard....all cause Atlus wants a cheap laugh. Same goes for the MC, the whole reason he was in that mess was cause he was protecting a woman, and he also creeps on Anne a little (tho not as enthusiastically as Ryu, and you could actually be dating her by those times so you could say that Anne’s actually fine with him doing it). And then Makoto.....her’s is minor but it also deals with her outfit, tho iirc it’s only really during the Mementos convos (and Anne’s does too, but it also happens outside in that and her arc’s theme in dungeon one is also a big factor in why it’s bad), but it’s still there. Anne and Makoto’s views on their own outfits muddles how the game address why they are dressed that way. We get “it’s your will of rebellion” but we have a variety of reactions. Ryuji’s was what I expected everyone to be like aka “mine’s pretty cool, but your’s is strange” kinda thing....cause they seem like it’s tailored for them......And yeah you can say “oh the big bad had some influence in it” but.......that’s just.....weird and it really muddies something that could be easy to grasp.....I mean the outfits kinda do a good job at reflecting their Personas! And, at least with Hashino, everyone seems to like their Personas.....WHICH MAKES SENSE! SO WHY NOT MAKE THE COSTUMES MAKE SENSE EVEN THO THEY ARE ALIGNED TO MAKE SENSE AND lkfelnfsd;aknfal;f AHHHHHHHHHh!!!!

Sorry that’s all I can go into for now. You don’t have to agree with it of course but......it’s just......a lot of things....piled on......and....why....why is it like this..... @.@ ;w;

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Oh! I wanna hear your hyper critical opinions towards p3 (and p4 if youre up to it). I am genuinely curious as to what it is!

pDSOAPFADFJIOA;FJIA;JF;DA Ahhhhhhh if only I wrote down everything I said (I did this over a year ago). under the cut cause long:

It was easier cause I was ripping it as we played and I had some nitpicks in the dialogue (more so with like “WAIT THAT MAKES NO SENSE!” or “WHY ARE YOU JUMPING TO THAT CONCLUSION?!” kinda thing rather than a translation error). But I can’t really specify what it was cause it was so long ago. The only one that comes to mind is when they’re jerks to Naoto, it must be how she’s talking in Japan cause like.......they’re really, REALLY rude to her. Like, they do realize she has a right to be suspicious of them right? Like, don’t get me wrong, I loooooooove the animosity in some way (great foe-yay/rival shipping yay fodder for me to ship her with the MC ahuhuhu 8U) but dang I wish they made more tension (and made it even). That’s actually the one thing I thought the P4 anime did right (and trust me I don’t think that anime did a lot of things right, esp concerning Naoto...ironically XD), they really built the tension between her and the group very well. Anyway I want to go into more detail some other time, maybe when I replay the two games, but for now I’ll give you a general overview). 

Ok so all and all I think P3 and P4 are fine the way they are. They did a good job with them. P3 for being Hashino’s first hoorah into the series (also didn’t have enough time or money to include everything and had to cut stuff, LIKE THE FEMC! ;W;), and P4 for.....having such....a small.....budget....and....not a lot of time....and.....the company was struggling.....Like dang man I’m surprised we got P4. So like, compared to P5, I’m a lot easier on these two cause in one case Hashino was trying to find his style, and the other he was struggling with working with almost nothing (P5, however, didn’t have any of these issues).

Ok so like.....My biggest issue with P3 is mostly it’s characters and character relationships. P4.....I wish we could’ve hung out with Naoto earlier (even before she joined the team, that would’ve been interesting if the MC and her met up and attempted to draw more info out of each other about the case), and I wouldn’t have minded if they added more to the murder plot. 

P3....ngl the first act until Aigis show’s up is.....so....slow.....and boring....and no one is really likeable imo. I hated Yukari, I hated Junpei. Mitsuru seemed interesting but she wouldn’t hang out. Akihiko....didn’t really care for him, but I couldn’t  hang out with him. I couldn’t hang out with Yukari or Junpei if I wanted to (Yukari won’t hang out till around Aigis joins anyway, I remember from my last playthrough we tried, it was an NG+ and she snubbed us). Kenji is a moron (don’t hate him, feel bad for him, but god so boring), Kaz is a moron, didn’t do Yuko the first time (should’ve I did like her, hate I only got the first rank the first time I ever played through P3), I didn’t like Chihiro (she started off fine but was kinda creepy later on), can’t hang with Fuuka unless you have maxed courage cause eff me (not like I can ever remember her gd link anyways that’s how forgettable it is, I don’t even like Yukari but at least I remember her’s). Basically......the SL sucked balls. Major balls (I liked Maiko, the Star dude, the old couple, the Hermit, and the Devil......I guess the Tower too he was ok, and....that’s it....for outside teammate links aka Aigis and Mitsuru). Silly was not a happy camper when she popped P3 in after having fun with P4 (and esp after being told P3 was a GAZZILLION TIMES BETTER!!!!1!), tbh I took like a 4 month break from P3 and replayed P4 before I picked P3 back up (after Aigis showed up I def enjoyed it a heck of a lot more after that). Now, P3′s plot is really good and very solid, it’s P3′s strong point. My issue is that.....everything P3 does is for the sake of the plot. It does it well, don’t get me wrong, but everything about the characters is only happening cause “plot demands it.” They never felt super fleshed out, and it’s probably why they feel a little odd (maybe even flat-ish) in the spinoff games (even more so than the P4 team), cause the spinoff games aren’t relying on their (P3′s) plot. I also don’t buy a lot of their friendships (esp the males teammates with the Male MC), Yukari and Mitsuru’s is....ok (I don’t like how the game makes it feel like “oh you have a dead dad? me too! let’s be friends” as a thing, I know she’s just trying to relate and sympathize but.....I’ve seen that as a complaint come up by a lot of people, for someone so popular Yukari isn’t much of a people person in this regard, from how the game frames it that is). Also the fact you can’t friend girls. There’s not a lot of bonding moments in the game, there’s more than P5, but I still don’t feel as close to the team as I should even by the end. And gawd, Ryoji? Wut I’m friends with him now? How? When? I like the guy but I don’t think he likes me. You’d think he’d want to hang out with me cause.....PHAROS! ;W;

There’s more but I don’t want to leave you hanging, but anyway it’s just....I have a lot of issues with how the characters are handled. They’re good characters, I wish there just....more to them. But the thing is.....THIS IS AN EASY FIX! You’ve probably heard me say about the P5 manga/anime “a change in medium can do wonders” or something like that. That’s cause I have P3 to look at. The manga and movies do wonders for P3 my problems with P3. There’s more bonding, character relationships are improved yadda yadda. Yes there are issues within the manga and movies themselves...... but they do a lot of good things too. One of the things the movies did was actually......influenced by it’s P3P remake (aka establish a relationship with Ryoji, yay!). Oh man, P3P/the FeMC fixed sooooooooooooo many problems (it also added some even more awesome duality to a game that already had a lot of duality going on with it), I can talk to Yukari and Junpei from the get go (and they treat me different, and more pleasantly than when I played as the dude), I can actually hang out with the guys (and I DON’T automatically have to date them, in fact I have to work to date them, every single one), the stats for character requirements are laid out more fairly like in P4 so by the time someone is available I can probably talk to them (without having to kill myself trying to manage my social stats).But man, the first act just flows so much better when you’re able to bond with your teammates (also Rio and Saori are great SLs!). Even tho they don’t change the female SLs pretty much at all (making it veeeery gay XD), it does feel like it is at least a friendship by the end (even tho I’m literally dating everyone and you can’t tell me otherwise! 8U). I also love her personality comes across more clearing (and varied) than the males, there’s a more clear progression of her psyche than her male counterpart (it’s still there, just not as obvious, and I love how they’re inverted to each other~! :D). It’s just, with P3, the really minor changes go a LOOOOOOOOOOONG way. The only thing I would change with P3 is the minor stuff. Just add more scenes (that don’t take up time) to the game, on both sides. Gameplay wise add more SLs, alternative SLs even. Heck, if they remade the game, I think being able to go to new places would be cool (and it’d be where you’d meet your new SLs) cause man you’re in a city, you deserve to do more stuff! It’s just the little things man, the little things can make a big impact! It says something that probably my fav Persona fanfic and fav Strain42 Persona parody comicis the P3(P) ones, even tho P4 is my fav game. You change a few things around, even the medium, and it makes a difference. 

Ok onto P4. Now P4 is the opposite of P3, with P4 it’s strong point is it’s characters. The characters drive P4. P4 is character based, P3 is plot based. P4 the plot takes a back seat. This is fine, it works in P4′s favor, like how the plot worked in P3′s favor. P4′s plot is ok, it does a great job with supporting the characters. Sadly I understand if you wanted more murder mystery (or just mystery) in a murder mystery game. And in P4′s defense, again, it had a barebones budget and not a lot of time and the company was doing pretty bad and P4 still came out pretty great (was the most popular before P5 came out, lord knows if it may even come out on top again if it gets an updated graphics/gameplay remake). And it’s also really hard to keep a murder mystery going for about 70-100ish hours (and only finally solving it in the last 1/5 of the game). Also P4, like P3 (forgot to mention that above), sticks to it’s theme really well. Even making it solving it/obtaining the good ending routes semi-difficult. Sure you can deduce Adachi, but tbh it’s also difficult. They do a pretty decent job building the guy up as a friend (even more so in P4G due to the SL). Izanami is also well hidden. The game makes you work and it rewards you.

Now if I were to change stuff.....it’d range from minor to major depending on what we’re talking about. Minor would be adding more scenes of Naoto bonding (she needs it cause the late game doesn’t do her justice), and like I mentioned above, I think have a deduction off would be interesting (Naoto’s SL was one of my favs cause of how we solved a gd mystery, god I’m so mad that never made it into the anime, even as an ova, it could’ve been a great team-building filler one too). Another thing I’d add would maybe be.....something similar to quests, but instead you have to solve a mystery (which means talking to people, and investigating areas), it can range from finding a cat in a tree or finding a bully or whatever. Just something minor that can give the mystery lovers something fun to do. I’d also have Izanami/gas station attendant be an SL (she originally was the Empress before giving that to Margret). Oh I’d also like to take Margret out on “dates” (c’mon gimme dem fun shenanigans).  And.....now this can be minor or major (depending on what they do, but it’s probably more major), add another red herring. I don’t care how.....but....it would help draw attention away from Adachi. Maybe they’re added from some of the mini mysteries you solved, maybe they squeeze an extra dungeon into the game some how-some way (doubt it for the later, that’d be a major change), but another red herring would be good. 

For a Major change it’d be restructuring the plot a looooooot, adding more dungeons for more red herrings. I would actually make Dojima a red herring. He originally was suppose to be the killer (but they thought that was too dark, understandable), with Adachi as the red herring instead. Other than that I’m not exactly sure how they’d overhaul that. I mean, if they made a P4 game based off of P3P’s route (aka different route/game, different killer), I’d like to see their prototype stuff play out. Short-haired ice queen Yukiko, delinquent/bully Rise, Pretty boy Naoto (actual boy this time, also make him dateable.....what? I like Naoto 8U), 1st year MC, Female Teddie, Adult(?) Kanji, Dojima as the killer, Adachi as the red herring (Chie and Yosuke are actually pretty much the same). I’d really like to see that. 

But tbh, I don’t really know where to start in giving P4 a major overhaul (except to go with the prototype set up), possibly cause it’d mean introducing/creating new characters. But P5? I do, oh man I know where I would start (P5 is where I’d make my major changes left and right, no minor changes here...except maybe dungeon 1), I’d make soooooo many changes to P5. But that’s for another time (not now, it’d take too long). 8U