#And we don’t know Sumire enough to really say but from her backstory and stuff I think she could also potentially fit that.

[ancient-day]

Every day I long for post-royal spin-offs for the opportunity to allow both Goro and Sumire to actually interact with the others without falsities or time-restricted threats preventing them from having much needed conversations and conflicts. I still wish we had at least gotten a second cafe scene with the Royal Trio where they could talk about how they actually feel about things like change and helping others. To see Goro try and brush it all off and maybe have Sumire call him out on it because his actions wouldn’t match his words, or even Sumire having to reevaluate her own answer since she was no longer under the influence of trying to be Kasumi and what it means if she still agrees with how she felt back then. Also I still love the potential humor with them ordering iced drinks in the winter this time while Akira has his hot beverage and him being able to call them both out for this. Love these funky little weirdos.

[patchesthegothictramp]

Part 3 of P5R review: Akechi

Next up, my favourite part: Akechi! Also mostly likely the last part since I don’t think I missed anything else. Feel free to hit me up though if you’re wondering about anything I haven’t mentioned

Akechi was undoubtedly, and still is, persona 5’s most hotly debated character. From what I’ve been seeing people who even loathed Akechi are starting to become fans of him, or at least don’t hate him anymore. Royal expands on his character in a way that fans of his love because it confirmed so many of their suspicions of what he’s really like but also just adds more depth to him. I could even understand why people who played vanilla only saw him as ‘boy takes things too far cos daddy issues’ cos, well, without deeper analysis that is what atlus was presenting. There was a lot more to his character in vanilla but I don’t blame people not looking into him because what they saw on the surface didn’t interest them enough... though that being said the abuse and torment given to his fans was super uncalled for.

Let’s start with his confidant and take it from there- it’s special, it’s fun, it’s emotional and it’s so layered I could watch it a million times and I’d probably still miss something from it. It’s special because it’s the only confidant where Ren just gets to hang out with someone, with nothing expected in return. All Akechi wants is a conversation and to play billiards with him. All of the other confidants want your help in something, want you to solve their issues without any regard for what they could do for you in return. Of course when Ren’s in jail they help him out then but it’s only when he’s facing the worst-case scenario. Interestingly enough, Akechi goes to jail for Ren at the first opportunity he gets and in that world none of your confidants ever return the favour of Ren changing their lives. To nail this point further, his confidant does have some requirements for social stats, but it’s the only instance where it’s made clear that it’s for Ren’s own comfort, not for someone else’s. Akechi says he needs someone charming and knowledgeable because he’s genuinely concerned for the abuse Ren might get if his fans didn’t consider him worthy of their idol’s presence.

It’s unexpectedly fun too, you’d think that an Akechi confidant would be just about rivalry or him talking to you about his Tragic Backstory but you get quite a few moments which are just… fun. The first one has them playing billiards and uncovering that he’s ambidextrous, and while it is a set up for their rivalry it’s still just them playing billiards like regular teenagers would. There’s the café date where silliness ensues and funnily enough you end up finding out more about Ren in that interaction than you do Akechi; about how Ren too hides from the public and has his own mask (glasses) that help him cover up who he really is.

But of course, it’s also emotional, like the bathhouse scene where you finally get to know more about Akechi’s past that’s not just a random info dump, there’s him clearly crying for help in the final billiards rank where he talks about the game as if it were his own life and even asks you if you’d help him (even though he doesn’t let you help regardless of what you say).

Term 3 Akechi… well he’s everything I hoped he would be. Sarcastic, sardonic and all around Done With This Shit. He never holds back anymore, both on the battlefield and real life and he doesn’t care what the Thieves or anyone else thinks of him anymore. He’s done with the detective mask and the charade and can finally be himself for once, and I absolutely love it. He’s gone from a character I can only theorise about being rude in my writing to one who’s everything I hoped for and so much more.

Now to the shuake stuff: Oh my god its so gay. 

Yes a lot of it is regular friendship stuff but also if you can’t be friends with your boyfriend then that’s just casual sex, not a relationship. And I’m not talking about the bathhouse scene. Actually, what’s interesting is what happens after which is when Akechi specifically says that no ones ever seen that part of him, Ren’s the only person who he’s been able to open up to like that. There’s the jazz club, which you find out later is a special place for Akechi to the point that the owner says he’s never brought anyone else there. Ren is clearly special in Akechi’s eyes, he’s the one person he can be around and be his true self.

You even see it in term 3 when he’s sarcastic and sardonic around Ren but still continues to put up a façade around human Morgana, Futaba, Sojiro Wakaba and later Kasumi, at least until they see him for who he really is inside the palace and he’s forced to show his true self. The writers make that so obvious that Akechi’s face visibly changes when he’s talking to Ren and when he’s talking to everyone else.

And Akechi is equally special to Ren. Ren doesn’t wish for his criminal record to disappear or to be a Phantom Thief again, he wishes to keep the promise he made to Akechi even with the knowledge that the other was going to kill him. We’ve seen him mourn Akechi’s death in p5a proof of justice- the OVA that was so clearly meant to set up royal considering how many similarities it had with that more so than the original game. For a silent protagonist and a self-insert Ren shows more feelings towards Akechi than he does any other character. 

Even down to their showtime, everyone else has these elaborate plans that they have to explain to each other then to Ren and hope that the wishing star will make their wish come true and yet Akechi and Ren are just able to improvise it completely on the spot, staying completely in sync. Interestingly enough if you compare it to Joker’s only other one- Sumire’s, she’s leading him into the showtime, she’s the one who has to have him follow her, but with Akechi, he’s equal, they’re in sync, all it takes is Ren shouting ‘Crow!’ for him to jump at the enemy without further instruction. Just as their showtime says, they’re two sides of the same coin.

There’s a reason that somehow, despite never having spoken about Akechi to him, Maruki knows that’s what Ren’s biggest wish would be, he knows that it’s the only way he might be able to stop Ren and the Thieves from infiltrating the palace, and in one alternative, the dream ending, it is enough for him to dangle Akechi’s life in front of him for Ren to fold. He insists Akechi’s life isn’t just something small that he can sacrifice once again.

Our Light is even further proof of it, it’s a love song, not to Kasumi, or not from her, it could clearly not be more obvious that’s it’s from Ren to Akechi. The song describes missing someone who’s gone in such a romantic way that seeing it as Sumire to Kasumi is borderline incestuous, and seeing it as Ren to Sumire or vice versa makes no sense either since they’re just a train ride away and even speak about seeing each other soon. It’s unlikely to be about anyone else either since yeah, Ren can just go and visit them any time and for that to be the ending song of a remake where the only character who’s made more important than he was previously is Akechi. It wouldn’t make sense for the song to be about that one girl out of 10 that you can romance but doesn’t really change the plot as significantly as he does.

In this way, P5R does a great job of showing, not telling. There are frequent comparisons of Maruki and Rumi’s situation to Ren’s and Akechi’s (not direct ones but it’s obvious the two are similar) and if they were a het couple that romance would be unquestionable. At the end of the day, persona is and always will be a game about choice where the protagonist is mostly a self-insert which is why they’ve never been able to outright say ‘this is the canon romance route’ but honestly, if it were to be anyone, it’s so painfully clear it’s Akechi.

Especially when you remember the director’s words of this being a love triangle. We know Sumire has a crush on Ren but doesn’t seem to have an interest in Akechi and outside of being a possible conversation partner, Akechi clearly isn’t interested in Sumire. So then if they’re a love triangle the only logical conclusion is that they’re both vying for Ren’s affection. From Ren’s perspective, the player can choose if he will romance Sumire but regardless of what Ren says to Sumire, he always ends up having Akechi’s life dangled before his eyes and can always choose to have him by his side.

TL;DR Goro Feral, Shuake Canon

[twilightknight17]

The final Palace really is just made of a million things that I like and one thing I don’t.

Chromatic stairs puzzle is excellent. Flowers, colored lights, crystal stairs, who designed this place and how did they know how much I like things?

Goro, I just spent 2 weeks watching a friend let’s play Virtue’s Last Reward, I’ve got my light puzzle colors ready to go.

Of course the final stairs are white light. <3

No wonder Shido had Wakaba killed, if anyone with any familiarity with cognitive psience can pin down the methods. Of course, this is a flashback to the day of reckoning, so he’s already eked the rest of the information out of Akira by now and seen Shido confess.

This makes sense, but I don’t know how I feel about it yet.

You can interpret this as Maruki and Wakaba both working on different aspects of cognitive psience and both getting ultimately screwed by Shido.

You could also interpret this as Wakaba being given Maruki’s research afterwards and taking it in a different direction, not realizing that she was indirectly working for Shido and that he would interpret that direction in a way that would hurt people.

You could also interpret this as Wakaba working for Shido and knowing what he was going to do. I’d have to go back and really dig into what everyone says about Wakaba, because it’s hard to picture, but I don’t think there’s canon evidence that makes it completely out of the question. That’s a topic for another time, though.

Either way, I’m assuming that Wakaba was assassinated because her findings were the closest to what Shido wanted to use it for, but you’d think he’d be smart enough to assassinate the other stubbornly persistent cognitive psientist that he stole from, too. Maruki had enough information to make a guess that a change of cognition was involved long before the day of reckoning.

...oh hell.

Anyway, Wakaba theorizing aside, I dunno if I like the idea that Shido is literally the greater-scope villain of everything. It feels like...too much? Especially when ultimately Shido was just a person in comparison to Yald and Maruki’s power. Yes, narratively it makes sense that he’d have fucked over another cognitive psience researcher. But on top of most of the Palace rulers being involved in his bullshit, and already screwing over Goro, Futaba, Futaba’s mom, Akira, and being part of the cogs to get the general public to submit to the god of control, having yet another person step up whose backstory partially involves being screwed by Shido feels like so much.

...thank you, Haru, that’s exactly it.

Anyway, we are off to “psientific model Eden”, which is apparently where the Treasure is, so here we go.

.....oh. We’re...being literal. Okay. Wow. Holy shit.

This isn’t fair at all, this place is gorgeous.

If the Treasure is a giant apple I am going to Scream.

That is my final throw at the dartboard, Jade. The top of this Palace is a giant apple.

Anyway, shoutout to Goro for being the best teammate here.

1. Says you, Makoto. I kind of want to beat him up.

2. Further evidence that Goro’s sense of humor is just...like this. Especially when comparing it to him joking about “taking you out” during the Gun About date. XD

Welp, time to spend 2 weeks trying to burn time, and also running over shadows in Mementos to hoard money for NG+. I’ve got seven million yen. I can do better. ;) Also, weird urge to turn Arsene into an unholy powerhouse for next time, so I’m probably going to level him up a ton and put some cool skill cards on him. I have the money for it. XDDDDD

I might actually max all my confidants at this rate. I’ve only got...six rank-ups left? I maxed Haru; all that’s left is Sumire and Shinya. And I’ve decided to romance Sumire this time and Haru in NG+. Sumire for the novelty of a new character and Haru because she’s my favorite.

Bonus:

Do we have to change Ushimaru back?

I went back to Kichijoji to investigate the Fancy Sofa, and you can sit on it! If you continue to sit on it, ignoring Morgana’s pleas to get up, you get a point of Guts, apparently for being so bold as to just keep sitting on the sofa in public.

Sitting back down afterwards yields this:

Can I not just obtain the fancy sofa now? We’ve already established that I have a ridiculous amount of money for a sixteen-year-old, and it would be much better than that extra booth seat I’m currently using as a sofa.

.......oh dear god.

Much better.

Goro is the only one of your friends that will not be pacified by the “It’s fine, I know there’s stuff to do but we can still hang out instead” dialogue choices. There are no dialogue choices. He refuses to go hang out with you.

Joke’s on you, motherfucker, we’re going to play darts to rank up your baton pass again, because all of my evenings are free. :P