#Atlus made Persona 5

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

so. I just got to Maruki’s attempted persuasion of Ren before the deadline and. hey what the fuck. what. what.

Akechi is the sole bargaining chip? Akechi’s life and their continued connection is what Ren wished for?

[masteroffakesmiles]

Persona 5 Tactica spoilers (somewhat)

Plus I'm overanalyzing characters so if you don’t wanna read this then please skip. Don’t come to me saying “it’s just a video game, calm down”. LEAVE IF YOU DON’T WANNA HEAR THIS.

Okay, even though I’m not in the p5 fandom anymore, I’d like to point out that the Ryuji bullying has been toned down a LOT in this game, and now it just feels like friendly banter between him and his friends. I love it so much. And the fact that Ryuji talks back more to Morgana gives me serotonin. (More in the tags)

[nikkisticki]

I think I have to block Persona 3 so I don't have to hear more about Reload, not a fan of a bad company that hates queers and innovation now taking their best game and un-innovating it

[beautyxofxdestiny]

beautyxofxdestiny is a multimuse semi-canon divergent roleplay blog by medjed, featuring muses from the Persona series, as well as Catherine: Full Body. (Est. Nov 2021)

Muse List (Detailed/Simple) - Rules - Ship Bias - Verses & Headcanons/Canon Divergence - After Dark Blog (18+ Only) - Icon Credit

Please read rules before interacting. Sideblog, will follow back from medjedrphub.

[megaderping]

Another reason I'm an Akechi Lives truther: cognition, baby. Vanilla P5 reveals that Morgana only lived in the end due to the Thieves' cognition/bond with him. Persona 5 Royal made the conscious choice to give Akechi endure, which lets you survive a fatal hit at 1 HP if you max his confidant, and maxing his confidant is the only way he appears in the postcredits. If ever there was a place where power of love, bonds, or cognition could make a miracle happen, it's the Metaverse. So maybe we don't need a huge, complex explanation. Maybe the connection Joker and Akechi share is enough. Now if only Atlus would give us a followup...

[hauntingmiser]

Maruki when he finds out that he is still noticed in atlus eyes :

Takuto Maruki Character Pages from the "Persona 5 Royal official design works" artbook

[vashtijoy]

Hi, hello,I would like to know something for science. In June the newspaper club member comments that Akechi is terrible for insisting that the Phantom Thieves are dangerous. One of the answers Joker can give is "He's too pretty to be wrong." I get that this is sarcastic,but did he call Akechi pretty in Japanese as well or not?

Hello! Thanks for your ask!

イケメン無罪 ikemen muzai He's too pretty to be wrong. Cute guy, not guilty.

Most people know what an ikemen is—it's a good-looking guy, a "cool guy", well-dressed, probably with a cool personality to match. Akechi's Detective Prince mode is a good example. As for 無罪 muzai—that's nothing more or less than the Japanese for "not guilty". So Joker did call him pretty, right? Well...

what is ikemen muzai?

Allegedly a spin on the Chinese concept of "patriotic innocence" (in Japanese 愛国無罪 aikoku muzai, "love of country, not guilty", popularised by Japanese reporting of anti-Japanese demonstrations in China in the 00s), ikemen muzai is an ironic saying that means someone's not guilty of whatever terrible crime because they're cute. It seems to be a youth culture/fandom culture thing. Many in Persona fandom would say that Akechi is a good example.

Note that again. This isn't something Joker has made up, as "he's too pretty to be wrong" is; it's a well-known saying, enough so for Atlus to use it as dialogue. Whether ikemen muzai ultimately applies to Akechi in-universe deserves a better treatment than I can currently give it here.

so not gay, then?

We-ell. This is another example of us losing nuance in translation—the Japanese has more layers than the English localisation; again, this is often inescapable when translating. It's very common in P5.

Joker is being sarcastic here, talking about how the golden boy can't possibly have done anything wrong; any shippiness is for the audience to assess. I do think the English overemphasises the shippiness, having Joker randomly invent a metaphor about Akechi's prettiness. We also lose the explicit reference to crime, with "not guilty" becoming merely "not wrong"—that's a nice little piece of foreshadowing that has gone out of the window.

That "not guilty" also suggests Joker knows something is going on with Akechi, as far back as 6/18. Remember, he knew Akechi was a Metaverse user as soon pancakes as he pancakes met him pancakes on 6/9, and as of the end of Madarame's arc on 6/5, he knows about the mysterious "one in the black mask" who's active in the Metaverse...

It's tempting here to overemphasise the additional nuance. But double entendres exist in Japanese too. Joker really did call Akechi cute. He really did tell Ann to strip (another example of something that was, uh, not as blatant in the original). And so on, and so on.

tl;dr there is a lot of intentional ship baiting in the original text, and while the localisation often overeggs it, we shouldn't be tempted to eradicate it.

revision history

click here for the latest version.

v1.0 (2024/02/09)—first posted.

[generallemarc]

Both gaining and losing hope that Metaphor Refantazio will say something new/interesting about religion.

So far the official state religion, Sanctism, is the typical only-opinion-allowed-at-Atlus take on organized religion, where it's all the worst elements throughout history crammed together and that's the end of it. They even went as far as to make the prayer gesture covering one's eyes with both hands-gee, I wonder if that symbolizes blind faith? So far, so formulaic, right? Well, yes...but also not entirely. See, I randomly decided to do the activity that raises your Tolerance stat(it's just like persona where you have 5 characteristic stats, only they're called kingly virtues instead), and the NPC offering it was of a tribe that has it's own religion. It started off typical enough, with a description of how the Sanctist church denounced them as pagans, but then something interesting happened. The NPC stated that his tribe's faith was exclusive to them, while Sanctism could be followed by members of every tribe which was, in his words, "a problem". A religion being mutli-ethnic is... a problem? And then it hit me-I'm increasing my Tolerance stat. Tolerance-as in, tolerating other viewpoints that you don't immediately agree with. I'd expected just a simple overview of the tribe's culture followed by more lines about how awful all this discrimination is and wouldn't it be nice if that wasn't happening, but no, Atlus actually went the extra mile and made the dialogue fit.

I'm sure if I keep going with this guy I'll get to the inevitable "there are no right/easy answers" conclusion, but getting there by showing a viewpoint that your average joe would normally be adverse to both humanizes this nameless NPC(yes, I know that "human" means something else in Metaphor, I just can't think of a better term) by assigning him a somewhat intolerant viewpoint while simultaneously not denouncing him for it, because all tolerance has to start somewhere and in this world it's pretty much gotta start from absolute zero: with everyone hating everyone else, someone has to be the first to break the cycle and say "ok, you may be judging me by my tribe and faith, but I'm not going to judge you for the same things because that's always the wrong thing to do even if I've been a victim of it in the past". I'm still wary about this whole idea of the Elda tribe being condemned directly by Sanctist scripture(it really seems like there's no point to it beyond Atlus grinding its eternal axe against religion), but I'm not even past the first dungeon yet and we've already gotten deeper into morality and religion than almost any other Atlus game I can think of.

[ravelqueen]

Unsure what game this is from only sure that that's a WHORE

I don't know what atlus did to Joker or what they were cooking with when they made persona 5 to have a main character that serves so much cunt

[lyssafreyguy]

the real answer to these complaints is that no matter how much you think something sucks absolute ass 9/10 there's just as many great qualities about it that makes that thing mean a lot to the people who really like them. the other real answer to these complaints is that you just need to accept that you can dislike something without placing any sort of morality or measure of intelligence onto it and its fans.

but also it's just really funny to see someone go like "ughhhhhhhh i don't know why people like x game so much it sucks and they must not know what actually good games are like" and it's about a game that's not the first let alone alone entry in the series it comes from AND it's from like a generally well-respected triple A developer who've been kicking for decades.

one time when i was at my best friend's apartment i don't remember how it came up but his roommate was talking about music and when someone mentioned Guns n Roses he groaned something like "i don't know why ANYONE listens to them are they stupid?" and his friend who had been there to hang out very calmly went "they're a well-known American rock band, Brandon." and it's an interaction i think about whenever anyone on here has similar complaints about like. popular media. especially popular media that i personally like.

[adachimoe]

p4g's tv listing

with golden, atlus added the "tv listing" feature which has 9 channels. channel 5 was removed from the english release, and nowadays, channels 1 and 9 have also been removed as of the steam version:

all 9 of the original tv listing channels are based on 9 of the 12 basic cable channels, which would be what these 12 keys on a remote control are keyed to:

additionally, what plays on each channel in the tv listing is somewhat based on what plays on these channels irl.

channel 1 is "yhk" named after "nhk" (nippon hoso kyokai or the japanese broadcasting corp). so the abbreviation probably stands for "yasoinaba hoso kyokai".

the feature that plays on "yhk" on the tv listing is called "aoshi uta gassen", meaning "blue and purple song battle". this a parody of kohaku ("red and white song battle"), a new years eve music program that airs on nhk.

channel 2 is "yhk educational", named after "nhk educational", and it has edogawa's educational lectures. ez.

channel 3 is "inaba city public tv". in some areas, 3 is another nhk channel, but in other areas, it is a local or prefecture tv station, making it plausible that channel 3 would actually be inaba's local tv station.

the feature that the player unlocks for channel 3 is called the "mayonaka ohdan miracle quiz" in japanese. this is named after a tv show called the "america ohdan ultra quiz", or "trans america ultra quiz" (i think thats the official name). the game show had contestants fly around the world with the goal being to end up in america, specifically new york.

teddie references the japanese game show. he wears a hat similar to the one worn by the contestants. and when he introduces himself, he says he's "'just meet' teddie". one of the hosts of ultra quiz, fukuzawa, had the catch phrase, "'just meet' towards new york!" as the goal of the show was to end up in new york. (i am awful at anything sports, but my understanding is that "just meet" is a term for "hitting a baseball with the middle of a baseball bat." i don't think there's an english term for that. maybe something like, "hitting the sweet spot"?)

the quiz show didn't air on nhk, so it's one of the few cases where the tv listing feature doesn't really "match" with its channel.

channel 4 is "o tv". the program that plays on it is called "daily persaniland" which plays the unlocked animated cutscenes from the game. following the "the program on the tv listing is usually related to the channel", then "daily persaniland" is named after the show "weekly storyland". since "weekly storyland" aired on "nippon tv", then "o tv" must be a reference to "nippon tv". this made no sense to me until i realized what the logo for nippon tv was:

during the development of p4 and p4g, the "ni" character was stylized similarly to an "o". (tbqh i thought it was like, "osaka tv" or smth at first.)

channel 5 is "tv per" (from "per"sona). this was never released in the english version of p4g, but in the jp game, the program on it was called "mariko's room", and it featured was marie (as mariko kusumi) interviewing the main voice actors. each one appeared as the VA's image on a TV on top of their respective character's head lol. and each unlocked after you finished their slinks. (adachi's va's interview is funny - madono says something about wanting to bully the shit out of adachi since he is so dang bullyable, but he knows that would get him thrown in a tv lmao.)

"tv per" is named after "tv asahi", which is also channel 5. "mariko's room" is named after "tetsuko's room", a very famous long running interview show which airs on "tv asahi".

channel 6 is pbs (i assume the p is just short for persona). this is named after tbs, which is also channel 6. tbs is one of the channels that persona 4 the anime aired on. this channel just gets you back into the game or the epilogue.

channel 7 is tv tatsu, named after tv tokyo which is also channel 7. based on the kanji used (辰), the "tatsu" is probably for tatsumi port island (cause iwatodai is like some combo of tokyo and kobe). channel 7 on the tv listing hosts the "giants of p" art gallery. this is named after "giants of beauty" which airs on tv tokyo.

channel 8 is yaso tv, named after fuji tv which is of course also channel 8. yaso tv has the p4g jukebox feature called "hey hey hoo music king". this is named after the show "hey hey hey music champ" which also aired on fuji tv.

lastly, channel 9 is called MOMOM. this is a flipped upside down version of the channel WOWOW, also channel 9. MOMOM has a collection of trailers for the anime and arena. unlike the others, there doesn't seem...? to be a connection between WOWOW and the contents of this channel.

random ass trivia, but in an interview about golden, hashino talks about a dropped idea for the tv listing called, "moya moya inaba~s". this featured mitsuru and aigis walking around inaba going, "wtf theres nothing to do here". it was ultimately dropped because it wasn't fun even tho they sank time into it.

this show was named after "moya moya summer~s 2". the concept of the real show is that 2 comedians from the group called "summers" and a tv announcer go to small, rural areas of japan and interview the locals.

i thiiiink the reason why atlus wanted to do this / tried to make it work lies within the meaning of "moya moya". there are many ways you could render this in english, but notably, one of them is "foggy". like ha ha yes, a feature called "foggy inabas" based on a show about small town locals??? (in english, the show's official title is, apparently, "complicated summers 2" which sadly does not include the word "fog".)

[oakdll]

things i desperately want for persona 6

- Femc

I know this is not an unpopular opinion, but I don’t even need a full femc route. It would be nice, but I think it would probably take up too much budget. All I want is a girl model of the protagonist that you can choose and some pronoun changes. It would be so easy to do, I’m begging for this

- Let people be gay

If they are doing a femc route like that, there will probably be romance options for male social links, so just keep that for the boy protagonist route. You literally don’t have to change anything except maybe a few voice lines, but you could also have the VA’s only use gender neutral pronouns. Just let you date every social link (as long as they aren’t like your dad or teacher or something) regardless of their gender.

- Keep the rewind feature from Reload

This is self explanatory, it’s maybe the single best quality of life feature in any Persona game, I NEED it for P6.

- Keep the palace system for the dungeons

The order of Persona games was me playing P5R, then P4G, then P3R. Going from P5’s palaces to the mediocre dungeons in P4 was super jarring. Tartarus in P3R is definitely an improvement, and I might even like it more than Mementos, but palaces are by far the best addition to the Persona series ever. Having unique levels for each arc was a stroke of genius, and if they don’t carry it over to P6 it will almost certainly be underwhelming compared to P5. I do like the randomly generated dungeons, but I think they work best as accompaniment to palaces. Something like Mementos would be great for P6 in accompaniment to Palaces.

- Have a better spawning method for The Reaper

I like to farm The Reaper a lot, and especially in P4, it was TORTURE. Having to open 21 chests and then requiring the 22nd to randomly spawn an enemy just to fight The Reaper was awful. Even the time based ones in P5 and P3 are not perfect. Literally just anything but the tedium of P4. Requiring RNG was awful, you could spend 20 minutes opening chests just to not get an enemy chest on the 22nd and have to restart.

- Have a post game

Sometimes I want to play Persona but I don’t want to have to start a 100 hour new playthrough. Persona genuinely has a great combat system, and I would love to be able to explore Mementos or rematch bosses after beating the game. Maybe bring back the Thieves Den (or something similar) but allow you to re-enter palaces and Mementos after getting the true ending. Something like being able to rematch bosses in the Mushroom Kingdom from Super Mario Odyssey. Maybe also bring the album thing on the couch in Persona 4 back. If you don’t remember, if you went to sit on your reading couch, you could view all of your maxed social links and replay each rank. You could even go to the social links you didn’t romance and see what their romance path was like, or vice versa. It was super cool!

- Keep confidant perks

Having the ranks of non-party member social links grant perks is one of my favorite additions to P5. It can really help incentivize you to prioritize them and go for all max social links. I think the main flaw with Persona 5 was that Atlus underestimates how powerful the perks would be. That’s why the game was so easy, not because of the gameplay, but because Atlus couldn’t balance some players having unlocked broken confidant perks and others having not. It would be difficult, but they need to be able to balance the perks more. Definitely keep them, but don’t let people just blitz through palaces if they have Ryuji’s confidant at rank 7.

- Bring over a rebalanced version of Ryuji’s instakill

Speaking of Ryuji’s rank 7 confidant ability, I want it to come back. It is by far the most broken ability in P5, but it also made grinding SO much more bearable. That said, it needs a rebalance. Make it so it doesn’t work in palaces, only P6’s version of mementos. Make it much harder to get than rank 7, maybe a late game social link’s rank 10 ability. It would still be a broken ability, but it is an ingenious solution to fixing tedious late game grinding. More games should have versions of this ability.

- Keep the completionist difficulty of P5R

I think Persona 5 Royal has the best balance in terms of how difficult it should be to max out all of your social links on a first playthrough. I got all achievements on my first playthrough, but not 100% on social links. I was rank 5 in Strength and rank 9 in Lovers. It was very close, but it had just the right amount of generosity. I think if someone tries hard, they should be able to 100% it on a first playthrough.

- Make it so hanging out with Velvet Room attendants doesn’t take up time

Unless it’s a social link like Marie, I think having it take up time just prevents people from actually doing it. With how valuable time is in Persona, wasting time slots on hanging out with a non-social link character isn’t super viable. In P5R, I almost never hung out with The Twins because it took up a time slot when it didn’t need to. In P3R, I always hang out with Elizabeth because you don’t need to take up a precious time slot to do it. Please keep this!!

- Keep the story based character progression

In P5, most of the character progression happens through confidants. Obviously confidants should have character progression, but it also means that without doing those confidants, the characters are super stagnant. In P3R, almost all of the characters develop over the course of the game without requiring you to do their social link. Junpei develops a bond with Chidori, Yukari has personal drama with Mitsuru, etc. In P5, the only time this happened was Morgana leaving the Phantom Thieves, which is by far the worst part of the game. If they can write the story to be more similar to P3, I think it would be an improvement.

- Battle mechanics

I think Theurgy (or something similar) should be brought over to Persona 6. Theurgy in Reload was very unbalanced, being able to charge Theurgy's before big battles and end it in 1 turn was way too broken. I think Theurgy's should only be able to be charged and used in the span of one battle. You wouldn't be able to pre-charge your Theurgy and Armageddon all the bosses away, as all of your charge would go away after finishing a battle. This way it can only really be used if the battle goes on for a while, making it feel more like an ultimate attack and less like a win condition.

I also want Baton Passes and Technicals to be brought over as well. It can have different names and slightly different functions, but I think they are great mechanics, they just need some balance. Baton Passes and Technicals are also super broken in P5R, especially with merciless difficulty making them do 1.5x damage. Baton Passes were absolutely overpowered. I think this might be a pretty severe nerf, but I think the best solution might be limiting Baton Passes to only work once in a row. Having Baton Pass chains where you hit a weakness, Baton Pass to an ally to hit another weakness, and keep chaining it to shred every battle was unreasonable.

- Have a good challenge difficulty

Persona games (Mostly P5R and P3R) are far too easy. I actually like having the option to make them easy, safe difficulty is a genuinely good addition to the game, however merciless leaves a lot to be desired. I think P4G's option to freely change difficulty settings was pretty perfect, but even then I think having an even more challenging difficulty would be nice for veterans. Give the option to have a TRUELY merciless difficulty, something like Terraria's for the worthy seed, or CHIMPS difficulty in Bloons TD6. I always view those modes as some of the best challenge difficulties in gaming history. They have a perfect amount of challenge for veterans, and having something of similar difficulty in P6 would be amazing. I’m thinking like super boss level difficulty for every boss fight, obviously scaled to the player level though. I want to have to prepare in advance instead of just grinding slightly and shredding every boss.

- STOP ADDING FUCKING PEDOPHILES TO THESE GAMES

KAMOSHIDA WAS GOOD BECAUSE HE WAS ACTUALLY A VILLAIN, YOU DIDN'T NEED TO MAKE KAWAKAMI, UEHARA, AND MS. TORIUMI PEDOPHILES TOO PLEASE STOP LETTING THE MC DATE THEIR TEACHER

[newsonashipopinionpoll]

Closing thoughts

Now that the ~final big post~ (for now) has dropped, I thought I'd write a not-so-brief denouement about the observations I've made while running these polls, along with the plans for the future of this blog.

Throughout all the games, certain things became veeeeeery clear. The first big one (perhaps unsurprisingly) is that m/f ships are generally unpopular unless they're explicitly canon. Non-explicitly canon m/f ships popular amongst the Persona fandom at large (shuyuka, yurise, and shumako to name a handful off the top of my head) are particularly controversial.

In regards to the Persona 3 polls, my most interesting observation was that in a reversal of what you'd expect from tumblr, m/m ships generally performed poorly compared to the f/f ships (both canon and non-canon) and the m/f ship juggernauts, jundori and bunkichitsuko. On the incredibly unlikely off-chance some atlus executive somehow stumbles onto an english tumblr post, make more canon romance!!! people eat it up!!!

In terms of Persona 4, wow. You guys do not multiship. Compared to the other games, people were also hugely apathetic about most of the extended cast with one or two exceptions.

Persona 5 had the opposite problem, namely every big ship with the exception of shihoann had at least some backlash. Ironically, it was the shuake fans reblogging the poll one too many times that led to its loss against pegoryu, which was one of the most surprising results of this tournament to me.

With that all said, what comes next? For the immediate future, nothing. I need a break - I've got a few more obligations irl than I had since I started this blog, so I don't have as much time to run this as I used to. Don't unfollow yet though - I intend to resurrect this blog once Persona 6 has dropped and has had some time to marinate, and I might post a few bonus polls in the interim if the mood strikes me.

For now, you can find me on my main, and thank you for engaging with these silly little polls!

[blissfullyapillow]

‧₊˚ ┊When the Stars Embrace the Moon 

♡⸝⸝ Makoto Yuki x gn reader 

♡⸝⸝ wc: 2,413~

𝄞 ‧₊˚ ☽ ⋅ Song inspiration: Tek It I End of Beginning I Ghost I When the Moon’s Reaching Out Stars I 

♡⸝⸝ Warnings: Angst with a happy ending & depictions/implications of intense feelings of grief. Major Persona 3 Reload, Persona 3 FES, and Persona 3 FES: The Answer ending spoilers. Also mildly spoils some character stories regarding Persona 4 Arena and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. I wrote this with Persona 3 FES in mind as I have no intention of playing Persona 3 Reload.

♡⸝⸝ Pillow Talks: This is what happens when you get too emotionally attached to a fictional character lol. The way this ends is not only my way to cope (lol) but because it’s heavily implied in Persona 4 Arena, as well as Persona 4 Ultimax, that Elizabeth is doing something that will result in a change. In PersonaQ (I have yet to finish it), even Margaret knows something will occur regarding Elizabeth but she must refrain from speaking of it. It is unknown whether this will result in Minato coming back, and of course many have mixed feelings on if he did come back and how that would impact the meaning behind his death. I’m interested to see what Atlus has planned regarding Elizabeth (after they make their 10th Persona 5 spin-off). Personally, Minato is my favorite fictional character of all time so I want him to come back. Anyway, I digress; I hope you enjoy. <3

♡⸝⸝ P.S: I have to clarify I made a magnificent reference to my fav song from Persona 3 FES, “When the Moon’s Reaching Out Stars” with the line, “It soars to the sky, to cast its adoring gaze to the moon as it rests amongst the stars. 

Masterlist

A warm hand intertwined with mine.

The blazing sun bathes his figure in an ethereal glow as beautiful pink petals fall from the trees above.

Yet the ephemeral scene fails to capture my attention; I fear my hands are sweaty and it’ll only be a moment before he takes notice.

A subtle glance his way is all it takes for me to capture his attention. Albeit one eye is obscured by his bangs, the tender emotion that lies dormant within his irises comes alive as they meet mine.

He’s silent, an action that isn’t unusual for him. Despite this, the vibrant sounds of life swarm around us and fill my ears with an everlasting ethereal tune. His hand squeezes mine, so softly it’s almost imperceptible.

My lips betray my trust as they curl upwards, and my voice divulges my secrets as an elated giggle escapes its confines.

His voice follows suit; our voices intermingle to create a melodious harmony that turns the heads of passerby. 

The air smells of cherry blossoms and hope. Hope that we carry together, kept safe between our pressed palms.

The air around us stirs with a subtle whoosh.

♪ ♫ 

This is a fond memory of mine.

୭ ˚.⁺⊹ ☽ ๋࣭ ⭑❀˖°

He rolls his eyes.

I pinch his nose.

He frowns.

I smile.

“Will you two get a room already?” A familiar voice rebounds off the walls of the dorm, and our companion voices his agreement.

“Yeah, you two can be pretty insufferable when you act like this.” My eyes turn to glare at said companion to find his lips wearing a mischievous grin. “Just like you and Chidorita?” My smug comment alights his face in a burning flame, and Yukari fails to stifle her amused laughter.

“Yeah yeah, laugh while you can now!” Junpei’s voice echoes around the room. “Your face is as red as Chidori’s hair, Junpei-san. Do you need medical attention?” Aegis monotone voice drifts into our ears.

Obnoxious laughter follows from everyone in the room.

Excluding Junpei, who huffs in annoyance before storming upstairs. There’s no doubt that he’s sulking in his room.

I finally return my gaze to my favorite portrait, to resume admiring its beauty.

However, the painting now stares back at me, a  tender (find synonym) expression etched onto its features.

My heart skips a beat, similar to the way children skip as they play hopscotch.

His smile reflects the warmth in my heart; it’s an outward reflection of the love that fills my soul, only to pour from my fingertips with every gentle caress against his skin.

This memory moves me to tears.

These tears stain his used pillowcase, the one I have yet to wash since his scent desperately clings to the fabric.

I miss him.

୭ ˚.⁺⊹ ☽ ๋࣭ ⭑❀˖°

Koromaru barks as he runs ahead. I glance at him beside me, his hands stuffed faithfully in his pockets.

It’s a chilly night, but the cool wind makes me feel alive. It roots me to the present moment, and for that I’m grateful.

“Yuki…”

Leisurely, he lifts his head, and his eyes meet mine.

I hold his gaze, and he makes no effort to break away.

“I love you.”

The words escape my lips in a borderline inaudible whisper, my voice oozing with the love I carry for him deep in my soul.

His eyes widen a fraction, clearly taken aback.

We’ve spent many nights together like this, whether it’s walking koromaru, singing our hearts out at karaoke, or even spending quiet nights studying in the dorm together; my heart has grown to yearn for his presence beside me.

Despite this, I’ve grown fearful of becoming too attached. Makoto isn’t someone familiar with emotions like these, not from what I’ve gathered from the time we’ve spent together.

Although.. These past few months I’ve seen a change within him. A slow one, like two friends who yearn to confess to each other but remain paralyzed with fear of rejection.

It’s a change that presents itself in his smile, the laughter he fails to hold back at our antics, the concern that’s etched in his furrowed brow when one of our teammates gets knocked down in Tartarus.

It’s a beautiful change. It’s grown to be something I want to protect.

Yet, my mouth has a mind of its own, and it’s spilled my most precious secret to him.

I wait with bated breath for his response.

Could this be the end of our friendship? Have I just ruined the bond we’ve formed, the bond that has brought color back into my dull world? Will he reject me? Will-

“Close your eyes.” My feet stop moving. I hear Koromaru up ahead, his happy barks indicating he's found something he wants to show us. Yet, my feet remain rooted to the ground.

My body acts on my internalized feelings as my eyes swiftly close shut at his command.

It’s silent.

Time continues to march forward despite my wishes.

As it always does.

This time, it’s in my favor, as I feel a soft pair of lips delicately brush against mine; lonely and yearning.

My hand rests upon his cheek as my heart flutters from my chest.

It soars to the sky, to cast its adoring gaze to the moon as it rests amongst the stars.

My heart is finally home.

just as my physical body feels at home in his arms.

He pulls away, and I open my eyes.

My heart is reflected within his gaze, and the change that I’ve grown fond of presents itself once more; He leans in for another kiss.

Koromaru barks.

The universe embraces me, and it gives me the happiness I’ve always yearned for.

This memory reflects the meaning of eternity; my feelings regarding the term ‘forever.’

This memory will remain.

It will always bring me happiness.

Despite this, he is not here in my arms, as he’s now bound to a door.

To watch over us all, forever; for eternity.

…Will I ever see you again? Why can I no longer press a kiss that furrowed brow? Am I doomed to forget the smile that lights up your features when I walk into a room?

Did I miss the opportunity? To show you how my heart reflects the love you’ve grown to harbor for others?

…The love you’ve grown to harbor for me?

୭ ˚.⁺��� ☽ ๋࣭ ⭑❀˖°

I reach out to grasp for his familiar hand, the hand that’s always the first to search for mine when trouble inevitably catches us off guard.

The only thing my hand grasps is air; the other side of my bed is empty.

His scent is fading from the pillow case.

୭ ˚.⁺⊹ ☽ ๋࣭ ⭑❀˖°

My cheeks remain wet as memories of him fill me with yearning.

Love and heartbreak wraps me in their firm embrace; I feel their arms squeeze me as they hold me close, my friends’ sobs almost drown out the ringing in my ears.

Memories of school and a radiant blue sky, watching over the rooftop of Gekkoukan High School, refuse to leave my mind.

I’ve never felt such a deep feeling of loss and sorrow before.

That’s not something I can say lightly.

Despite my unique experiences that may deviate from his own, Makoto has been my mirror. My window.

I’ve seen myself reflected in him, time and time again. Yes, I am my own person, but I’ve grown to form a connection with Yuki that I’ve never formed with another in my short lifetime.

Call me crazy, but when I was with Yuki I felt as if our souls intertwined, as if we'd finally found a home together after wandering a desert full of failed commitments and broken promises. All in search of an oasis… in search of trust.

Trust that we found within each other.

I roll over and curl into a tight ball as my emotions threaten to consume me.

A soft knock fails to bring me out of my sorrow.

My ears pick up on the audible click the door makes as it opens, but I refuse to acknowledge whomever is there.

A gentle, cold hand rests on my shoulder.

My body shivers since the cool metal contrasts with my flushed skin.

“I knew I would find you here.” She doesn’t sound concerned. Just knowing.

I can’t respond.

She doesn’t mind.

Her cool hand runs through my hair. They uncurl my body to wipe my tears away.

I’m thankful, yet I’m angry.

I almost don’t want to see her.

She hums; almost as if she’d read my thoughts and she doesn’t care.

I fall asleep to the feeling of cool metal pressed against warm skin.

୭ ˚.⁺⊹ ☽ ๋࣭ ⭑❀˖°

My voice sounds like a stranger’s to my ears. I feel awful, horrible for how I’m lashing out at another innocent person whose suffering just as much as I am.

Even so, the words pour viciously from my mouth as she stands across from me.

She doesn’t speak.

Akihiko raises his voice. He sounds just as angry, but for a different reason. My heart squeezes painfully in my chest, but I have to get the words out.

“Why was it you!? We all share a special bond with him, as well as with each other, but you…” A lone tear slides down her robotic features.

It makes me pause. I’m surprised.

But..

I knew all too well that my anger was misdirected.

Aigis doesn’t refute anything I have to say. She silently stands before me, crying.

Aigis, who used to struggle telling apart a joke from a genuine statement. Aigis, who couldn’t comprehend human emotions as a motivating factor behind certain actions and words.

Aigis, who now stands before me experiencing emotions of her own.

Emotions that have led her to tears.. because of my misguided anger towards her.

I swallow down the lump in my throat as I push past Junpei. Akihiko calls for me to return, and I hear Ken make a comment about how awkward and tense the situation is.

I lock myself in his room.

…

No one knocks on the door this time.

୭ ˚.⁺⊹ ☽ ๋࣭ ⭑❀˖°

It’s silent.

Everyone’s gathered around. We need to determine what our next course of action is, but there’s an elephant in the room that longs to be addressed.

We’re searching for the answer, and it’s right in front of us; it’s been here all along. The only obstacle in obtaining it lies within our warped perception of the situation.

“You need to apologize-”

“Akihiko-san.”

He visibly falters before awkwardly coughing into his fist. Mitsuru clearly has her own thoughts on the situation, but she’s chosen to remain silent at the moment.

I glance in Ken’s direction, and he gives me an encouraging nod accompanied by a sympathetic smile.

“Aigis, I apologize for my behavior earlier. My anger towards you was misguided and fueled by my… well, it’s more accurate to say our sorrow.. with Yuki’s passing..”

The resulting silence is suffocatingly loud.

It’s presence is overbearing. So much so that I fear we’ll never talk things through.

That is, until Aigis walks over to me.

As her arms wrap around me, a new feeling blossoms in my chest. It swallows the creeping fear inside of me whole, and it fuels an unyielding strength within me.

Hope.

“We will figure this out together. The bonds we have forged amongst each other will not be broken so easily. Don’t you agree…?” Aigis’s words are as soothing as they are motivating.

A quick glance around the room reveals relieved faces and fond smiles.

Unshed tears blur my vision, but these tears do not originate from the sadness that once permeated my very being.

“..Yes.”

It still hurts.

But it feels a bit better now.

୭ ˚.⁺⊹ ☽ ๋࣭ ⭑❀˖°

It’s been years now.

I’ve seen Ken grow into a respectable young man. Akihiko is finally pursuing college, with the supervision of Aigis, and Mitsuru continues to be successful in her endeavors. The same can be said of Yukari and Junpei, albeit it’s clear the latter still misses the one who made his heart sing.

Fuuka is doing well too. It makes me happy to see everyone pursuing their individual passions. Including myself.

☀︎❀

Spring has returned.

It’s hot today.

The heat from the burning sun above threatens to lull me to sleep.

My heavy eyelids fall shut as I feel myself drift off to sleep.

His face, encapsulated in stone, drifts to the forefront of my mind.

A heavy sigh leaves me.

My eyes remain dry as I allow the memory to come and go, holding strong all the while.

I miss him, I truly do.

But, through the bonds I’ve made with the former members of S.E.E.S, I’ve cultivated the strength of will to move onward and forward, towards a future I can be proud of.

I open my eyes when I hear footsteps approaching.

The figure standing before me is familiar, yet surely a figment of my imagination.

I close my eyes again, in hopes of fully waking up this time.

I open them once more when I feel the person moving closer to me. I sit up, only to bump heads with them.

“Ouch!” I yelp. My hands cradle the spot where we bumped heads. That’s when I realize, the pain I just felt is real, and the person standing in front of me is…

Is..

My eyes widen dramatically, and my mouth parts to say all the words my soul longs to poetically convey.

He simply smiles.

He opens his arms.

My thoughts spiral out of control. Is this an illusion? How could this be remotely possible? Is this… really true?

When our eyes meet, my questions receive a silent answer. My eyes take notice of the wavering emotions within his gaze; I can see the soul of the man I love, a soul which was once bound to a door, is now standing here before me. 

Whatever miracle performed this action, I am forever grateful to its benevolence. 

I dare not waste another moment in idle contemplation.

I throw myself into his arms. 

He catches me. 

He laughs.

My soul joins in on his joyous laughter, as tears full of love slowly cascade down my cheeks.

Our laughter intermingles to create a melodious harmony that turns the heads of passerby, once more. 

[altocat]

I just realized that the PS4 can technically play Metaphor.

...........Should I play it? I know it beat Rebirth for best RPG but after my fun experience with Persona 5, I'm eager to see what else Atlus has made.

[soleilnmity]

Doujinshi - [U.S.O (Tankinu Nagase/Shinshu Ueda)] Megami Ibunroku Persona/ Persona 2 dj assortment [RAW]

Titles: (Megami Ibunroku Persona) 阿頼耶DEGO (Alaya de Go), リバース (Reverse) , ゴーバッド (Go Bad) (Persona 2) BIG BAD BINGO, CARRY THAT WEIGHT!

Artist: タンキーヌ・ナガセ (Tankinu Nagase) [Shinshu Ueda's penname for doujinshi) Circle: U.S.O (For Megami Ibunroku doujinshi) ESTMA (For P2EP doujinshi) Google Drive link

Personal Notes: I always wanted to upload these doujinshi, but I usually refrain from posting pure raws because I want the translations too…Unfortunately, I cannot defeat my archenemesis </3 japanese handwriting, and Nagase/Shinshu's handwriting is very……..messy x_x. For some of these, I still want to try my hand at translating eventually, but it'll definitely take a while. I love translating little artist notes and there's a lot of those in every doujinshi so if I can't translate something absolutely fully I end up giving up orz. In any case, yes. These are doujinshi made by Shinshu Ueda under the name of Tankinu Nagase in their doujin circle U.S.O. There are 5 doujinshi attached, 3 for Megami Ibunroku Persona and 2 for Persona 2.

270823 Edit: リバース has now been fully translated! The gdrive has been updated to reflect that. Please thank @falsekaiba for the typesetting and translation! Really well made 🙏 it will also be found in Mangadex as well.

Under the cut are some small explanations for the others, but I'll go straight for the P2EP doujin for introduction, as I actually translated bits of that one.

Title: CARRY THAT WEIGHT! - Eternal Punishment focus (PG, small bits of Kandori mixed in with a Post-EP story) Original printing date: 2000/08/12

This is the only doujinshi of Tankinu that was published under a different circle than their usual "U.S.O.", called "ESTMA". I have never found any other doujinshi of them under this label, and if there were any, they might be lost to time. The first page warns about the book containing spoilers for the ending of EP, so it's advised to proceed with caution. After that, all the way up to page 7 there's small gag bits with Kandori, and an obligatory Naoya illustration (they really seems to like him so much ww). From page 8 to 23 is the actual story of the doujin, "Phantom Pain". FORTUNATELY, it was all written in computer text (not handwritten) and I thought it was such a good story, that I took the time to actually translate it at least. The pictures attached to this post are the translation of those pages. There might be some errors in some of the handwritten parts, but I hope I did well.

TL Notes: アンプ (Amplifier / Ampli), The change in fonts is supposed to represent that Eikichi is talking in english there in the original japanese (but that's hard to showcase to an english translation duh), I keep honorifics like Senpai and Aniki as-is.

I was surprised to know that these doujinshi were never talked about (nor were they ever scanned), but now they exist for all to see.

Now, for the rest of the doujinshi.

Title: Reverse/リバース - Naoya and Kandori (+misc) (PG, a bit of a general all-genre doujinshi mixing doodles for other games and a second half focusing on BAROQUE) Original printing date: 1997/12/28. 2nd reprint 1999/12/24. Has a small gag story called "Dead man's questions" about Kandori in a strange flashy outfit.

English Translated (Google Drive)

Title: Alaya de Go/ 阿頼耶DEGO - Shadow Naoya/Naoya (BL, not explicit but Naoya has (implied) sex with his shadow) Original printing date: 1997/12/28. 2nd reprint 1998/08/14. 3rd reprint 1999/05/03 Naoya is called "Isurugi Tatsuya" (岩動 達弥) in this doujinshi.

Title: Go bad/ゴーバッド - Naoya/Hidehiko (BL, Naoya kisses Hidehiko. Seems to have crossover bits from BAROQUE, another ATLUS game Ueda/Nagase did doujinshi for) Original printing date: 1998/12/29. 2nd reprint 1999/05/03. Despite the cover being Naoya with a skirt, there's no crossdressing involved.

Title: BIG BAD BINGO - Innocent Sin focus (PG, done with collaboration with another artist which is Superunknown Corp's sho太郎/沢田翔) Original printing date: 1999/08/??

This doujin physically has Superunknown's side be printed downwards, so you have to flip the doujinshi to read their part which is pretty nice. Unfortunately this is the only one of U.S.O. doujinshi without an specific day of printing, just vague August 1999.

And that's pretty much what I can say for now, at least until when I get to translating some of these (and the folder will be updated accordingly when so)

Sorry, but I don't allow reposts of these scans unless it's with permission (specially not twitter gimmick accounts that are 'daily character accs', etc). However, if you want to translate these you can do that anytime even without my permission! As long as you credit me for the raws (and @ me while you're at it because I want to know...). You can also edit, crop, use them for avatars and whatnot, whatever you want, just that I specifically don't want the whole doujinshi reposted itself without my credit. Just that, sorry for what inconveniences it causes www