#PLAY P4G FOR THE CATS

[skittidyne]

things i SINCERELY want from the p3p/p4g ports:

a resurgence in souyo fics

(any fandom acknowledgment of the true ot3 of souyorise)

ONLY funny takes of ppl realizing how gay p4g is, no discourse allowed

more heartrending ryoji art

hiimdaisy/ggdg comics coming back for ppl to realize their roots

people playing the games for the first time

people blaming me while playing for the first time

[crescentfool]

his love for cats is very endearing to me 🥺💛

[symphonic-scream]

I'd like to hear about the inaba au

Right right sorry it took me so long I was a bit sick today

Anyways- yes! Since I'm finally actually playing P4G I've built up a little more to the au! Aka. Given it some actual P4 flair

This is to say, I have the order of them being on the TV. Joker starts out with his besties, Ryuji and Ann, they're the starting trio. Ryuji's shadow is like a little kid, crying and sniffling cause he just wants people to like him,,

He's the track star, and he's been taught that it's a one persona sport. That he doesn't have to worry about his teammates, but they've come to resent him a bit for being the golden boy, and. Especially after he got arrested at the end of the last season and cost them greatly. He had been sent to get a "delivery" for his bastard dad. Turns out it was drugs, and he was accused of doping and all

He wanted to start this year fresh, but they all still hate him. He's cleared to compete since his tests never showed any signs of drugs, but. Y'know.

And then there's Ann! Her shadow, it's about how she sees herself as two faced. She hears what her classmates say. She's visibly an outsider, the rich bitch from the city. All she cares about is herself. So, she let's them believe that. But,

She's been in Inaba since elementary school! She's so sick of being the outsider when she's been there the whole time! She was there when that one kid pissed himself at graduation. She was there when their teacher threw up during an assembly. How come they still don't see her as one of them? She just, wants to belong,

Plus she's super gay for Shiho. But that's a given

So once they've got that covered, they're teaming up with the weird Horny Cat in the TV to hunt for the missing third year student. "Burger Girl", Haru Okumura. The last two to go missing died, and. They're determined to save her

Haru's little TV set is themed like a fancy restaurant. She's also from the city, her parents used to own a 5 star elite restaurant. Then, her mother died, and her dad moved them back to her mother's hometown, opening up a food truck where he experimented on American style food. Burgers, mostly

Haru sees her dad stressing over the bills sometimes. Or, crying at the little shrine they have in their small home for her mother. Haru, sees a lot of it as her own fault. Talk on the town is she's going to take over Big Bang, but. She, doesn't want to. She feels trapped in this confusing legacy.

Her shadow has this big fake smile, in half of a formal waiter outfit, the other half the cutesy Burger Girl outfit she wears daily. Her shadow is loud about what she wants. Haru meekly argues back from the floor, tears in her eyes, as her shadow screams about wanting to be free from that dumb title. "Burger Girl."

Then, Haru, she just shouts. "YOU'RE NOT ME!" It's silent. The others watch in fear as her shadow transforms, the tears finally flowing down Haru's face

They rescue Haru, and her dad crushes her in a hug when she returns. In this, all he cares for is his daughter. She joins the group, and agrees to help them find who pushed her in

Next up would be Yusuke. TV victim 2.

He and his mother live in town, where she runs an art shop that is frequently filled with children attending lessons. His mother was left disabled after her former teacher attacked her to claim her art for his own, and to protect her son from a similar fate, she now refuses to produce art herself

Yusuke. Really cares for his mom. She's given so much, and he feels he has to be good, better, to repay her for all she's given him. He's a tortured artist. He barely knows who he is, but he expects himself to be great

His little TV set is, abstract. Colours everywhere, as if Yusuke himself flung the paint around in anger. It's a sensory nightmare, and when they reach the end, it's to a blank room

Yusuke kneels there in the centre, chained to the ground by chains of clay and paint. His shadow, dressed in a torn but colorful smock, scowls down at him, paint palette in hand. Hurling insults and colour at Yusuke, about how he's a fraud, he's not meant to be an artist, he's a disappointment and a disgrace

Yusuke is silent the whole time. When he looks up and sees his classmates and the third year in the room, he's filled with. Horror almost. "This, it isn't me, I swear-"

"DONT LISTEN TO THE LITTLE FRAUD, HE'S NOTHING! HE KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT THE WORLD, OR THE TRUE PAIN OF AN ARTIST!"

"stop it, please,"

"HA! IF MOM ONLY KNEW WHAT A SHELL OF A MAN SHE WAS RAISING... MAYBE SHE WOULDVE BEEN BETTER OFF GIVING US UP TO THAT MADARAME AFTER ALL!"

"YOU'RE NOT ME, SHUT UP!"

And queue the fight, the room slowly filling with colour as they fight and such. And they drag Yusuke back home, where his mom sobs as she holds her son, she was. So terrified while he was missing,

Oh also, he has pet lobsters. They're named after famous female artists, and he insists the lobsters are soulmates. The true lesbian icons of Inaba.

Anyways next up? Their Navi! Futaba!

This one. Is my favourite idea. So, y'know how Rise is an Idol? Futaba is. Behind one of the most famous vocaloids ever. She develops the vast majority of her songs, rigs, and is responsible for keeping this Internet sensation up with the times. She even poses as this idol for interviews and such

...she's Hatsune Miku.

"wah wah but Scream she should be Alibaba because-" NO. ITS MY AU I GET TO CHOOSE THE SILLY

Anyways. Ryuji is a huge Miku fan and is excited to see the face behind his favourite idol and. He sees Futaba and. Just stares. "Dude. Hatsune Miku is a Weeb."

Futaba is, an orphan. She was living with a programmer for a while but, he got caught up in some. Allegations. And it was no longer safe for her to be around him. So, she was sent to Inaba where someone who worked with her mom owns a little coffee shop

(psst. That's Sojiro)

He doesn't have room for her and she. Is a shell of a person. Didn't go outside for years, doesn't know how to be a proper person, and. Fears no one would like her for her,

So her TV set? It's. Like diving into a computer. Wires and coding along the walls, electronica music. The further in they go, the clearer it becomes that the voice they hear singing isn't Miku, it's. Futaba. First floor sounds like Miku, last floor would just be Futaba

And her final room is a hate shrine. Torn posters of Miku, statues with the heads missing, even a computer with a bat through the screen. Shadow Futaba seethes about how she hates Miku, how she's taken everything from her, that. She'd be better off if she'd never created her. No one loves Futaba, they only love Miku.

She goes as far as to shout that, the world would be better off with just Miku, and that Futaba should just. End it. Futaba is shaking, and mumbles about how, no, no, that's not it,, that's not her-

When things simmer down, she ends up living with the Niijima's like Joker. She spends a lot of time at Sojiro's, learning about her mom, but really, he wasn't prepared for a kid at the time and. She wasn't ready for that either.

And then they'd have to do Morgana's, and. I'm glossing over that we can probably all guess how it would go

So the final TV set they have to venture into, is Makoto's. She's last. Her issues have been boiling over on the side the whole time, watching her "cousin" quickly becoming friends with people she's grown up with, and. Being left on the side once again

Her set is like an empty school. Papers on the floors, flights flickering, spray paint on the windows. But, they catch Makoto's shadow doing the spray painting somewhere inside, and it makes the team kinda. Question if, they really know her

Her shadow is like. In a science teacher getup, but. Way more punk. Black torn labcoat, wild hair, and. In her final room, faceless women dressed in very sexy getups all over her behind her desk. She openly flirts with the girls on the team too, leaving poor Makoto on the ground horrified

"no, no I'm a feminist- I'd never-"

"Ha! At night, we lie awake and Crave, we wanna pin em down and fu-"

"NO! THIS ISNT ME-"

Shadow Makoto is about how. She hates being the rule follower. She's always wanted nothing more than to break free and experience, life. Also, feeling bad about being gay. Shes got some internalized homophobia

They beat her up and take her home, and. Yeah

OKAY THIS WAS LONG WINDED BUT. INABA AU.

[gay-yosuke]

NO WAYYY i've been reading through your fics as i play through p4g and now i find out you're on the trans naoto zine too! love that for you

2 7 12 for yu narukami please!

hehehe thank you anon! i hope you enjoy what we're cooking up for that too!

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

THAT HES A DORK. i love that hes bad at social cues, i love that he sits around and pets cats at the riverbank, i love that he fishes!!! he's just the perfect guy.

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

i love it when people draw him as like, stupid jokes. for example, @catnatch drew him as the "this man ate my son" and is selling stickers and badges of it and its literally my favourite fucking thing.

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

i wont lie, i transgender them. most of the time i fuck with he/they nb yu, but transfem yu is absolutely on the table with me. in fact, im still trying to write some transfem sourise...

[arcplaysgames]

okay so I was kinda right about Medjed! is that another victory in my column or not? hm

After sleeping for I think 22 days, Futaba wakes up and gets to counterhacking the hackers.

Reverie and Morgana get bored and start cleaning up her room while she works.

Reverie got them skills. I still want an AU where he's a housespouse who moonlights as a cat burglar, if the fandom hasn't written a dozen of them, what the fuck have they been doing.

gurl, we need to get you some vitamin c and iron, holy shit. i hope you like edamame and oranges, it's all your eating for the next week.

Does anyone else think this voice actor does NOT fit this character, or is it just me? It's a constant distraction.

Aw he looks nice. What horrific creative crimes has he committed?

I finally belatedly noticed that the Palaces are all built around one of the deadly sins. "Arc, how could you not notice--" deadly sins are dumb, it's not in my authorial wheelhouse, blah blah. so anyway we did Lust, Vanity, Gluttony.... then the Thieves call out Futaba's sloth in the calling card, but she's actually associated with Wrath? Which is confusing. That means our options are.... uh. /googles.

Envy, Sloth, and Greed.

If the Final Boss is, like, the dude positioning to be the future Prime Minister, then I would say he should be Greed? Greed for power? But who even knooooows.

OKAY SO I WAS KINDA RIGHT! She was Medjed! But it's basically Anonymous, it's a placeholder name for anyone who wants to use it. Yeah 'cause that always goes well.

looks worriedly at Morgana

Beige Boy shows up to sass Sae some more and

squints at these dialogue boxes

You know what I'm interested in seeing? I figure Akechi is gonna join the Thieves in some capacity at some point, it's being set up pretty aggressively. What interests me is whether we will see his persona awakening or if he'll already have a persona when he joins.

'Cause like.... Okay I'm pretty sure Akechi knows the Thieves aren't behind the mental shutdowns. I'm 70% sure. Ergo:

There is a 70% chance that Akechi is the black masked guy in the Metaverse causing the mental shutdowns.

Or there is a 30% chance that Akechi is being played by someone he trusts, who is giving him bad information re: the mental shutdowns. Which... would dovetail nicely into him joining the crew, actually, if they uncovered the true culprit and Akechi (like his Detective Prince predecessor) swapped sides to the Thieves upon realizing they're the only people who can stop the true perpetrator.

Actually, that would be an incredibly tidy bit of writing, I'm gonna say its 50/50.

He's still sus as fuck 24/7/365 though.

hello i am here for the Futaba and Sojiro Show

Also Sojiro fucking drops the fact that his curry recipe was from Wakaba. He made her curry once and she was so intrigued, she asked for information on how to make it, then returned to Sojiro with a refined, scientifically reinforced recipe, and that's the one Sojiro still uses.

I love Sojiro, what the fuck.

BITCH JUST TELL ME WHO YOU PUSHED YOUR FUCKING MALWARE APK TO AND SAVE ME THE TIME, I KNOW IT WAS YOU.

Makoto has this whole plan to basically give Futaba's interpersonal skills a workout until she's a little more able to handle Thief-y work, but of course Futaba latches onto Yusuke, because she has excellent taste and they are both kindred weirdos.

oh yeah you guys are gonna be besties, i can tell

She also keeps putting on a big costume head when she gets nervous, which is an interesting literalization of "masking" I guess.

I have no intelligent commentary, I just like that when Futaba whines at Sojiro here, he stops and assesses the situation, deems it harmless, and goes back to what he was doing. There's no doubt he'd jump in to help if needed, but also I think Futaba is just the time to simper and tug at his attention because both of them enjoy that. It's very good, I like it.

Also, again: Futaba's VA choice is so fucking good. Love it.

Next up is a beach trip and I cannot imagine it beating P4G's incredible beach vacation, but we shall enter it with open hearts and open eyes.

[fragileswift1313]

Fallout 4!

Kia ora, friendos!

So I finally finished the main storyline in Persona 3 Portable a few weeks ago, and I just wasn’t quite in the mood to jump right into Persona 4 Golden just yet, so I’ve been kinda just bouncing around between a few different games and trying to find something that would stick while I work up the energy to get into P4G. I’ve played a bunch of stuff, but nothing really clicked… until…

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition has been out for a while on PC, but it recently (finally) made it’s way to console and of course, because it’s a Xbox Game Studios game, it arrived day-one on Game Pass. I adored this game when I was a kid, and, don’t tell the cops this but, it was the very first game I ever pirated. I still remember the disc, it was so cool. It was this beautiful gold colour (the images below don’t really do it justice) and it felt really neat to have a game I liked so much on this rad gold CD.

So far I haven’t played a ton of the new remastered version, but I’ve played a few skirmish matches against the AI and it’s still a lot of fun - some of the best matches happen when you make the map as big as it can possibly be, set the population limit to maximum (500 vs the 200 in the original!) and then go off to build your empire, and next thing you know three hours have passed. I haven’t dared to venture into the online multiplayer matchmaking stuff yet, but I was looking at it the other day and I saw that you can play co-op with another human against the AI, and I thought that sounded really cool so I will probably give that a go sometime soon.

So that’s been one of my timesinks lately. Another is Cities: Skylines Remastered! This also recently came to Xbox Game Pass, supercedeing the Xbox One Edition version, which you can still play, but this one just looks and runs a bit better on the Series X|S consoles and on Cloud Gaming. And no, it does not include all of the DLC like the name kind of implies - that stuff is all still locked away in the Xbox Store. I don’t know for sure, but I would bet that it’s the same deal on PC, too.

If you’re into simulation games, I probably don’t need to tell you about this one - it’s basically the answer to the question ‘What if SimCity, but good?’ Cities has taken over that whole genre for me nowadays, I don’t know if I’ve even thought about SimCity at all until writing this and thinking about how to describe Cities. But I digress. This game is great, and it is one of the biggest timesinks out there for me personally, with its never-ending gameplay loop of expand, add infrastructure and zoning, make the people happy (or don’t 🤷🏻‍♀️), rinse, repeat. I can spend many hours in a row playing this game without noticing, pretty much the very definition of a timesink. This past week I turned on a bunch of “cheats” so I could just mess around and not have to worry about money (I do that enough in real-life lol) or space and build whatever I felt like, whenever I felt like. But that’s enough about that.

Now for the big one: about a week and a half ago, I was going through my (ridiculously large) library of digital Xbox games, looking ostensibly for something I had not played yet, but when my eyes tracked across the screen and spotted Fallout 4 my brain said “We haven’t played that (in several years)!” and so I said “Fine.” And the rest was history. I’ve since completed the main story route with the Brotherhood of Steel, blew up the Institute, built a number of small settlements, and killed a lot of raiders, robots, and feral ghouls. At the time of writing, it is currently 3:30am because I stayed up all night playing this game. My cat is now very mad at me and wants me to go to bed.

Fallout is great. But this one is my favourite, because of all the endless opportunities to scavenge in the Commonwealth for resources, and then go back to your bases to use said resources to build buildings or craft weapons, gear, or ammo. I can spend hours not even doing quests at all, just collecting garbage and turning it into something useful and cool. Plus there are so many great little easter eggs you can find around the world, which is why I decided to include two screenshots instead of just one.

If you’ve never played a Fallout game, I think this is probably the best one to start with. A lot of people will argue with me and say that Fallout New Vegas is the better game, but those people are wrong. It’s at its core an immersive sim. Think things like Deus Ex Mankind Divided, or the more classic examples from Arkane; Dishonored and Prey. Except this one is set in a post-apocalypse some 277 years in the future. I really can’t recommend this series enough, and if all you have available to you is 3 or New Vegas, those are still really great entries in this IP.

Okay folks, that’s gonna do it for this week. Thanks, as always, for reading. Y’all are the reason I keep doing this. Stay safe out there, and I’ll talk to you soon. Ka kite anō au i a koe. 💚

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[trikanoid]

My thoughts during the final palace and after finishing the final palace in Persona 5 Royal

Be warned, there are spoilers ahead

------------------------------------------

i cant believe the supposed “bad” or not true ending of persona 5 royal is not actually the correct ending

it seems so happy and perfect with how it looks, most games would consider that the true ending but ig coz the games theme is rebelling against an unjust society and the sorts, it wouldnt be right for marukis world to be real, they even voice acted it and put so much effort into an ending that would usually be avoided if u wanted to finish the game, god damn p5r is written pretty well

and once i beat the final palace, i pre much have 100% achievements and moving onto p3p 🤔 and then probs after playing thru p3p twice to get 100% achievements, ill be replaying p4g

even crazier is that jokers teammates dont actually notice anything about the world they were given, only joker and akechi notice or know about it but joker is just praying that the ending chosen was a good ending

and then i can kinda understand marukis ending coz like a world where no one gets hurt. in marukis palace theres a part where u answer a questionnaire or multiple and one question where it had something to do with ur goals with the answers being “continue trying to reach ur goal”, “do whatever it takes to reach ur goal” or “give up and move onto a new goal/dream” actually made me realise that i usually take the easy way out in most things 😢 its kinda sad, id go for the final option and usually give up and move onto another dream/goal, which also explains why i never get addicted to have anything im rly passionate about since ill just give up when i hit a slump or just cannot progress aaaaaaaa p5r is so good

but the biggest problem with marukis ending is that ur happiness is just given to u, u dont think at all, uve got one singular path laid out for u to follow and while i find that decent and nice, its also rly fun and nice to struggle and come out on top, tho for me i usually only do those things for simpler activities such as coding, im fine with struggling with figuring out how to code something coz at the end its just so satisfying to figure it out and make it work, but at the same time, i wouldnt mind a path laid out for me since im the type of person to go with the flow and follow alongside others, but im also pretty neutral so while idm it, id also not like it and would like a path that makes me want to struggle and want me to reach my goals/dreams 🤔 aaaaaa theres so much to think about

tbh never thought a game would make me wanna type this much about it but after reading the comments of the “bad” ending, it got me wanting to share my own opinions but didnt wanna do it in the yt comments

like no cap if marukis reality were real, it would be great coz it means ur friends who suicided would come back, cats and dogs would live longer, etc and then i could have my best friend who suicided come back to life and while thats great and all itll also mean the struggles of coping with his death would disappear, it would mean id spend less time trying to catch up with ppl, thanking ppl for talking with me, letting ppl know i cared and id go back to the person whod disappear every once in a while, never thanking anyone for games, never thanking anyone for anything and making people question whether i rly found it fun to hang out with them or whether i cared about them much, so much to think about 💀 but i can genuinely understand where maruki is coming from where he doesnt want anyone to be hurt since id like the same 😢

he truly is the goodest bad guy

[hopeymchope]

Initial Persona 5 (Royal) Thoughts

I got Persona 5 Royal for Switch on launch day and started it immediately. 

NOW, five fucking years after its release, I finally have Persona 5 in a format where I can experience it. It’s taken long enough that even the updated release (Royal) is three years old! And given how long these games are, there’s a good chance I’ll be playing it ‘til Christmas or something.

Game Status: I just completed the second of the “Palaces” and am working towards identifying my next target, with my Phantom Thief team now numbering five.

Quick info on my Persona background: I’ve explained this before, but so far I’ve played P3P and P4G already as well as P4DAN and the “Arena” spinoffs. I tried to play P2 Innocent Sin, but I bounced off it pretty hard, so I didn’t get too far. That pretty much scared me away from trying the first game or Eternal Punishment; I guess I understand now why everyone (including Atlus) seems to treat the third game as though it’s where the series began. :P

Initial thoughts on P5R from a newcomer:

When I started out, I strongly suspected that this whole “in media res” opening and the interrogation framing story weren’t present in the original P5. After all, they’re spoiling a bunch of stuff that is otherwise only implied or not yet known at all - showing you the characters that’ll make up your team (implied by the box art but not confirmed), spoiling every single target you’re going after WEEKS before the characters in the game even meet that person, etc. I was surprised to learn that they’ve always been there! I really feel it’d be much better if I wasn’t constantly being spoiled on what my next target’s gonna be all about and sometimes even shown pictures of them. I’m also a simple person who likes seeing narratives gradually escalate in intensity, but now we start out doing a RL heist in the rafters and then we have to step back to invading “mind palaces” where we can expose our identities willy-nilly and it will have zero effect in reality. So I’m like “Wow, this feels REALLY unimportant compared compared to where I need to catch up to.”

“You’re not wrong, Sae. You’re just an asshole.”

Why must every one of these games include a Good Boy who most of the squad treats like utter shit for no fucking reason?! Out of 3, 4, and 5, the guy who came the closest to maybe, kinda-sorta deserving his treatment as “the bitch” of the group was Junpei. But you better back the fuck off Ryuji right now, squad.

Speaking of those two... I both appreciate and resent Morgana in equal measure. He doesn’t seem like a bad person (cat?), and he’s obviously very helpful. He’s even kind of fun/cute at times. He’s the main resource of information for everybody, all the time. He’s also bossy and controlling in a way that made sense for like, Mitsuru in P3, but like... why must we dance to his every whim constantly? Why must our every action feel like it’s dictated by him? I understand that the answer is most likely “because somebody has to be an exposition dump and provide tutorials,” but you could do the tutorials JUST via the pop-up windows. Morgana feels like the the puppet master and true leader of the group. Protag/Ren is a figurehead who is dancing to his tune. They should’ve done like P3 and just said “Protag/Ren is the field leader for combat and exploration, but MORGANA is the actual leader who makes decisions and oversees plans.” But no, they had to put it all on Ren despite any evidence for that at this point. Which is irksome to me. ................ But hey, at least Morgana isn’t a repeat of Teddy or something, which I admit was my initial fear when I saw the “odd-looking mascot character who we first encounter in the other world and is somehow warped by it.”

He means Morgana, right?

Ann just... doesn’t really stand out to me. I guess this series already has a habit of repeating character traits and personalities, and there’s only so many tropes you can smoosh together (plus there are undoubtedly characters that I never even met), but Ann still feels like she’s not much of a unique person yet. There are elements of Yukiko (P4) and Lisa (P2) and Rise (P4) in there, but I’m still not feeling like I know her as herself yet, if that makes sense? This is the kind of thing where the individual bonding levels will probably fill in the gaps. At least she’s likable enough for the person she is right now. And hey, I found her efforts to deceive/avoid Yusuke during the second arc to be legit hilarious.

Yusuke? Him, I like. He seems distinctive from any characters I’ve met before in this series. Of course, I might just be ignorant of someone similar from P2EP or P1, but my limited experience finds him to be unique and generally likable.

The fact that it took MONTHS for anyone to ask Ren why he has a criminal record and what his side of the story is feels pretty insensitive to him. But the way Sojiro never cares ONCE to hear what happened, just shits all over you constantly and treats you like a little piece of crap and distrusts you non-stop and only softens at all when you start working for him for free? Yeah, FUCK Sojiro. I said it.

[hyliareborn]

Since I started playing p4g I’ve really been loving the headcanon of Inaba being Ren’s hometown. Particularly the idea of him vaguely knowing most of the investigation team because Inaba is so small and making casual conversation with one of them when Morgana pokes his head out of the bag just a little so he can whisper to Ren, making whichever IT member he’s talking to freak out because the kid has a talking cat while Ren is freaking out because they can hear his talking cat

[mediioxumate]

💙 - Are there any muses you’ve been considering trying out? // 💖 - What’s something you like about your muse? // 💔 - What’s something you dislike about your muse? // 🎼 - What’s your favorite song? + Kanji and Souji!

more munday questions!! || @vaciiviity || accepting!

💙 - Are there any muses you’ve been considering trying out? 

i’ve gone back and forth on sumire, actually!! also solas dragon age tbh haha and with playing p4g again... eyes rise thoughtfully. 

💖 - What’s something you like about your muse? 

kanji: he just goes HAM on accepting himself and i love that and love that for him. like that’s radical self love right there babey. 

souji: does his magical cat acquiring ability count? no? then i have to say i really love his relationship with nanako, and that he steps into the big brother role readily. it’s very sweet. 

💔 - What’s something you dislike about your muse? 

kanji: whatever the fresh fuck they did to his appearance at the end of golden. but i honestly can’t think of anything major, mostly bc i love him and the fact that he is a flawed character? idk. love this boy.

souji: holds atlus at gunpoint. stop with the blank protags. stop it. let chad mcfrat heart of gold be exactly who he is. 

🎼 - What’s your favorite song? 

as is tradition, let me give you a few: 

this december || ricky montgomery

freak like me || caroline rose

devil town || cavetown

no children || the mountain goats

my type || saint motel

[nonsensical-rants]

Expectations for Persona 5 Royal

Well, its been a while. I've been busy with schoolwork and my birthday recently passing so I apologize for that but it has also given me the opportunity to think about a lot of things. Such as the re-release of Persona 5 that was announced not to long ago. Honestly it's one of the biggest titles that I am looking forward to in recent memory. Borderlands 3 is also up there but that is neither here or there. Either way, I wanted to talk about what I want personally for this re-release and the expectations I am placing on it. So, with that said. Lets get started I guess.

Before you ask, no. I have no problems with the design of Kasumi’s Phantom Thief outfit. It fits with the theme of what someone with her mindset and hobbies would see as "rebellion". If you wanna talk about risque, why wasn't anyone talking about the literal dominatrix and whip combo from Ann? It's fine. Nothing else to really say. Though I saw on Twitter that her code name should be Ace, to contrast with "Joker" which I thought was a fun idea.

As one of my favorite JRPG's that I have put three hundred plus hours in, I can say that I am pretty well versed in both the story and game play elements of Persona 5. Am I an expert? Of course not. I have no say in what is actually going to change but a man can hope and dream. So to get started, I am happy with what has been shown in the trailers thus far. Game play seems to be getting even more sleek and has the group attacks that I loved from P4G (Persona 4 Golden). In addition to this, there is the new character! To put it simply, I think shes great based on what we know. Though I am concerned about what elemental type she'll be using against demons. As I have not heard anything concrete about it thus far. My guess would be here Light or Dark? But that's already taken up by Akechi.

Last thing I've seen in terms of game play is that (presumably) all party members will be getting a third persona just like in P4G! This is amazing for me because I felt that some of the designs were lacking when compared to the originals (Captain Kidd looks better than Seiten Teisei in my opinion). Other than that, we are gonna be able to play during the winter months instead of having it end abruptly which is fantastic. I want some kind of confirmation on new events, Haru Okumura getting more development, and maybe even being able to rank up Akechi, and Morgana's Confidant's on our own time. Leaving Morgana's second form Persona until the LAST Dungeon was a huge mistake in my eyes. It made me never want to use the poor cat as the rest of the party was already past their Second Awakening's and beyond powerful in comparison. He was more so left as an out of combat heal-bot. Which no character should have to be designated too.

As for my reason for mentioning Akechi's confidant. It was just.... So obvious that he was the traitor. At least for me, maybe you were surprised. But I immediately noticed the infamous pancake line which got my gears turning. Even before then though it was just suspicious that you couldn't rank up his and ONLY his confidant (besides Morgana like I mentioned, but he was with you from the beginning and hes the mascot. No way would ATLUS make the mascot character be the traitor). I am expecting to see another P4G idea converted to this game, in which Akechi's social link can progress naturally. But it will stop at rank 5/6 until you learn more about him via story beats. And if you reach that point before the story gets there, you can maybe save him?

Lets move onto the story then. I want a proper build up to the confrontation between Ryuji and Morgana, or to just have it removed entirely. It ate up way too much time and it annoys me how much shit Ryuji gets from everyone when he's trying his damnedest. Like yeah a few jokes is fine (especially because hes comic relief I guess?) but having to hear from Palace One: "Oh Skull, you're pathetic" from Morgana over and over, and how the whole team beats him up for saving them, but getting exploded out of the Metaverse? How is that his fault; he was knocked unconscious after Shido's palace and they blame him for not telling them when he physically couldn't! That's not even mentioning how his trauma is kind of underplayed after the Kamoshida arc. But that can be said about all characters after their arc is over. Ryuji deserves better all around.

We need to see more of Shiho! And not just in Ann's confidant. She's officially part of the story and Ann's best friend. Kind of an important character who went through. Just an awful experience. Player's should be getting the occasional update after Kamoshida's palace that she is okay! She attempted suicide and it is rarely mentioned after that point in the game. On my first play though it was all over my mind even after Madarame's confession. Maybe make her a confidant, but with no romance? I feel like it would be in bad taste to try and romance her after what shes been through. She needs more friends and more exposure to help her get back into the society of P5. She wasn't even in the finale where everyone decides to put faith in the Phantom Thieves!

Then there's Akechi, which. Like I said earlier. I think it would be fine if they took another page from P4G but modified it slightly. Similar to Adachi we could hang out with Akechi on our own time, and if we rank up enough before Shido's palace we can try to convince him to rejoin the Phantom Thieves? Or maybe during the end of Shido's palace some "Power of Friendship" shenanigans happen and he's able to defeat his Shadow and continue moving forward. Changing him from Justice to... Something beyond it. I dunno but it would be an interesting concept to see a semi-deranged party member fighting with Loki.

Oh! I almost forgot. For DLC. PLEASE let us be able to choose what music we want to hear for combat. There are some songs that play for combat that I LOVE with all my heart but the outfits associated with them just don't mesh with the style I want to use. Like I wanna hear Mass Destruction while wearing the outfits from Catherine. Or listen to the Persona 1 theme with the Casual summer/winter outfits. And this last one might be a bit much but. Could the ending cards (shown below) match the outfit the characters are currently wearing? In terms of design and style, P5 exceeds in every way but it's always disappointing me that I couldn’t see my band of thieves posing in their Winter suits or P4A outfits.

There are a lot of expectations for this game in my eyes and I hope it can live up to even half of them. Akechi doesn't have to be entirely redeemable. But he shouldn't be batshit crazy. Everyone has problems and he might just need help to work through it. Thats one of the lessons I took away from Persona 3. And it could work well here. With all that said, this game will be an instant buy for me, and I look forward to dumping another 300+ hours and 4 play through's.

It's also a huge shame we still have boring robotic Makoto as a party member instead of actual Queen Hifumi Togo, fight me. Haru is best, followed by Hifumi. There's my controversial take. Have a nice day.

Art from:

 https://www.reddit.com/r/Persona5/comments/7dbm8f/all_out_attack_pt_hifumi/

[lokiarsene]

Hi, new follower here--I'm about to beat the game, and your blog was such a great find for me. I couldn't put the game down until the Akechi reveal, and then I had a hard time getting back into it. I spoiled the entire rest of it just so I wouldn't get burned so badly again. I really wished the game hadn't kept so much of Akechi's character a secret until so late--I felt like the reveal wanted me to throw out everything I knew and loved about him and acted like I was dumb for trusting him.[1/2]

Reading your replay now has helped confirm to me that my interpretation of him wasn’t wrong, but good lord. The game basically introduces you to a boy, throws him out the window and replaces him with an unfamiliar character, then gives that character only a couple of scenes. The narrative doesn’t help you connect the two at all, and it feels like the twist was just attempting to replicate the whodunit of P4… Anyway, I’m looking forward to the rewrite! Best of luck!  [2/2]            

You’ve pinpointed one of the major reasons why I’ve currently shelved my replay of the game: so much of Akechi’s build up feels like a ‘trick’ on Nov. 20th, and yet the conversation he has with Shido a day later shows that he actually has more up his sleeve than the game literally just presented to you. He lies to Shido about both the PT’s threat and Morgana being a ‘normal cat,’ so even though the game just had Futaba flat out say Goro Akechi is evil, it then gives us evidence that hey, no, he’s not evil–he’s just on his own side. No one else’s. And while we as the players/viewers can appreciate this dramatic irony, it’s also absolutely infuriating that no one in the PT even considers it until he’s breaking down hysterical in front of them.

His lies to Shido are easy to overlook, because the game has just cast him in the traitor’s light, so I honestly didn’t even notice he said this when I first played the game. But seeing it in the replay… and seeing just how much of an emotional dissonance I felt from the Akechi build up crashing up against the twist, then being further complicated by Akechi himself being a complicated character, and… well, like you said, anon: I felt burned. I felt like the game wanted to both discard everything I knew about Akechi, and yet still try to tug at my heartstrings about him with all the information that he gave to us before the betrayal. And it just didn’t work. I cared about Akechi, yeah, but then I hated the game for what it did.

I’m not a fan of getting jerked around by stories. This is why I don’t watch GoT or The Walking Dead. I don’t bother with books or TV shows or movies that don’t have happy endings or aren’t in some way positive and upbeat. I just don’t see the point in wasting my time on such emotional maelstroms, and I don’t think they’re good stories.

That’s what Akechi’s story feels like to me in P5′s current form: cheap, lazy, a way for Atlus to give us a compellingly complicated, sad, messy abuse/neglect survivor and then throw him out like pure trash.

I also agree with you in that it feels like a lazy way to repeat P4′s twist, while also failing to realize that the whole reason why the true culprit in P4 was so surprising was because the proof was in front of you all along, and he was never trying to hide anything about himself, he just kept himself at a safe enough distance that you couldn’t notice anything was wrong unless you really looked.

This is also why his Social Link in P4G was so fascinating: your relationship with him wouldn’t change what he did or how he felt. You never failed Adachi–he failed himself, long before you arrived. The S-Link would just give you further insight into the man behind those actions, and your reward for that is the same as the ‘true ending’ in the base game: a letter explaining himself, and offering you just a little more information to help you stop the true mastermind. The only thing you really take from his S-Link is more details about his character and the pit of apathy and bitterness he’d fallen into.

Akechi’s Confidant is one you can’t control, indicating that it’s a necessary bond to Ren’s story. Necessary bonds are often plot-significant (which it is), and are also reserved for characters that are as important to the plot as the protagonist (which Akechi is, but he’s also treated like garbage). It’s also the only bond that doesn’t seem to reverse despite having all the proper build ups for a reversal. Basically, it has lots of promising potential, and I can’t pretend that I wasn’t sitting through that ending, half expecting him to put in a surprise appearance. When the credits rolled, and nothing happened, I closed out the game and promptly deleted it from my PS4 (I had to re-install it for the replay lol).

Anyyyyyyyway…. all that aside–welcome to the blog! I’m sorry that your experience with the game was exactly how the game probably intended it to be, but I do hope that this blog and everyone’s contributions of asks / theories / fix-it suggestions, etc. can give you some kind of solace. And if nothing else, there’s the anime to pin our hopes to!

[maiamaiden]

tagged by @danamercers​ for a 10 question game (thank <33)

1. How does the song you’re listening to rn make you feel?

scrum debate theme....it makes me feel happy and PUMPED UP

2. Do you like plushies?

yes!!! i have a wind waker link and a black mokona (from tsubasa reservoir chronicles) but i feel bad bc i don’t have anywhere to put them rn so they’re just sitting on a shelf in my closet...

3. What’s the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?

my cat when she’s sleepy she stuffs her face into the blanket and sometimes she’ll like roll so that she’s upside down and she’s always really cuddly when she’s like that it’s really cute

4. Did you ever buy something only to regret it the moment after?

idk about the moment after but i really wish i hadn’t spent $60 on fire emblem fates seeing as it’s so boring i can never get myself to finish it

5. What’s the first vidya game you’ve ever played?

harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban for gba when i was 6. i wasn’t really a viddy game kid all the games i played until like middle school were just games based on tv shows/movies that i liked. the first Real Viddy Games i played were pokemon sapphire and pokemon diamond when i was 11 (i got both of them for my birthday)

6. Your biggest interest rn?

danganronpa for sure lol sorry to all y’all who followed me for Not That

7. Do you like horror stories?

yeah i love them! i’m a weenie tho so i can’t hear them at night bc then i won’t be able to sleep. but i love like Real horror stories and creepypastas and i even kinda like horror games but i can only play like rpg maker ones (like mad father) other ones i have to watch lps for

8. Did you ever write a full story?

yes actually i wrote a couple short stories in middle school for language arts classes and one for my creative writing class in my 2nd semester of college. they’re not good tho lol i’m not really a good writer

9. What are your favorite lyrics from a song?

i don’t really have any? it’s hard for me to think of a set of lyrics separately from the whole song if that makes sense?

10. What is your favorite line from a book or movie or game?

hmmmmm i guess teddie’s speech from the very ending of p4g (the scene where yu is riding the train)

ok here’s my questions for the people i’m tagging:

1. What's your favorite type of weather? 2. What’s the best present you ever got? 3. What’s you’re favorite genre of fiction? 4. Have you done anything you’re really proud of? 5. What’s something you’d say to your past self? 6. What’s something good that’s happened to you in 2018? 7. What piece of fiction (game, movie, etc.) is the one that feels like “home” for you? 8. If you could be an rpg class what would you want to be? 9. If you could pick one fictional world to go to (for any amount of time) which one would you pick? 10. If you could change one thing about your favorite game, movie, etc. what would you change?

and i tag @kawaiiboushi, @p2hdremake, @shihoanne, @gadflysuite, @fujiquacki, @makoto-niijima, @megidoremi, and @kamil-a

[ask-the-phan-site]

Phan Cam: To the Core of it.

>It was morning in Westward City. A certain evil butler was there in disguise for some food shopping when he notices a bulletin board being swarmed by people.

Curious Woman: The Phantom what? Who are they?

Woman’s Friend: Maybe it’s some kind of promotion.

Working Man: It could just be a prank. These things are red.

Trendy Young Man: It’s probably Eklipse trying to psych Team Core-Tech out.

Curious Woman: But it seems to targeting a member of Eklipse.

>Hargrave manages to get past the people and saw what was on the board.

This can’t be good.

>Hargrave takes one of the calling cards and leaves.

>Eklipse HQ. Dr. Klipse and Six were waiting for their morning tea and biscuits when Hargrave arrived with them along with the calling card.

Hargrave, what is this with our breakfast? I know it’s a lovely color, but still...

Hargrave: I found these posted in Westward City as I was shopping. It’s addressed to Six.

>Dr. Klipse and Six read the calling card.

Father, what does this mean? Am I in danger?

Dr. Klipse: ... Of course not. This is obviously another one of Chase Suno’s tricks.

Hargrave: I’m not so sure, sir. I have a really bad feeling about this. I don’t know if it’s because of the Monsuno Sight or butler’s intuition, but even so, I can’t bring myself to relax about this.

Dr. Klipse: You’re just worried for nothing, Hargrave.

Hargrave: But it could be true. Besides... I learned that Dax of Team Core-Tech was just in Westward City.

Dr. Klipse: Are you serious?

Hargrave: And he was with the other people who I didn’t recognized. I think they might be these Phantom Thieves who sent these cards.

Dr. Klipse: (shocked) What!?

Six: (also shocked) This is bad. And what do they mean by...

Dr. Klipse: Six, you will not be going on any missions today. You will be returning to your tube. Now.

Six: But I just got out.

Dr. Klipse: It’s for your own good. Trust your father.

Six: ... Yes. Father. (he gets up) (speaking to himself) Father worked so hard to to bring me back after what happened. This cannot be the end.

FLASH!

Those thieves will not succeed. They will fail. My father’s great work will not be undone. I will make sure of that.

???: You’re wrong.

Shadow Six: !

They will succeed. I can tell, they’re very powerful. And they have Rei and my friends with them. Whatever you do, they will do better.

Shadow Six: Hmph! We shall see.

FLASH!

????: We have ignition.

Hargrave: ?

Dr. Klipse: What is it, Hargrave?

Hargrave: Forgive me, sir, but... I could have sworn I just heard a cat just now.

>At our camper, we were waiting for the result of the calling card. Then, something walks up to us.

Well? Did they read it?

They read it alright.

(changing to human form) We’re good to go.

Then let go save Zen san.

Zen, here we come!

You wanna call it, mate?

I will... But first, Yu, Yosuke, congratulations on your game coming to Steam.

It’s just P4G (Persona 4 Golden). I’m sure they’re plenty of people who still have it on the PlayStation VITA and still play on this.

I wonder if Steam will ever have any of our Persona 3 games.

Or any of the Arena games.

Skull: I actually like the Dancing games.

Joker: Alright, everyone...

It’s showtime!

Everyone: RIGHT!

>To be continued...

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Anne’s Birthday Decoded....sorta

Ok more like fun parallel I found. Anyway, so obvs her Birthday is Nov 12, and fun fact it was my first guess on my first list on what her birthday might be, aka cause of....Anne Hathaway... Anyway for people who don’t know, Anne seems to be a mystery...as in we don’t know who she’s based off of.....  Now this doesn’t mean whom she’s connected with is born/died on this day, it could be an event that is related to said person. For Goro, it was the day the person he was based off of killed someone close to him. Ryuji it was when a close friend of his (the person he was based off of) died. Makoto’s...can’t seem to find anything tbh (birthday, death day, or event wise). So it’s possible Anne’s might be like Makoto’s where it’s not related to whom she was based off of.

BUT! I did find one thing interesting (well two, but I find the first one more interesting). It’s Anne Hathaway. Same birthday. Same first name, also same spelling (taking how the Japanese originally wrote her name in English). Hathaway is an actress, Takamaki did state she did want to be an (action) actress (the goal changed but nonetheless). Hathaway’s last name originates from England, Takamaki impersonated someone from the royal court in-game. 8U Hathaway also voices Haru from the Cat Returns (where apparently Haru turns into a cat at some point), Takamaki....well....look at her outfit.... AND SPEAKING OF TAKAMAKI’S OUTFIT! The whole reason for me making this post. Who did Hathaway play as in the Batman Movie???? That’s right! CATWOMAN! One of the most famous cat burglars there is, and who Anne is probably based on/shout out too (if not it’s also the Cat’s Eye girls, and let’s be honest, they were probably influenced by Selina too). Hathaway will also appear in Ocean’s 8 (something that P5 tried to emulate in some of it’s dungeons). Also remember the action actress thing? Hathaway is kinda also an action actress now. (also Hathaway has appeared in a few stage plays, but sadly she wasn’t in Carmen, but hey Carmen’s a stage play kinda sorta so there’s a small connection there... XP)

The other person connection (and not as interesting as Hathaway but still gonna include it) is Anne, Duke of Montmorency. The main points is that, Nov 12 is his death day, Anne seems to run in the family, french seems to be a theme in P5, and there’s a Catherine and P4G Marie reference in here. The Duke and Takamaki had the same name. The Duke’s mother’s first name was also “Anne,” same for the Duke’s daughter and great granddaughter (Anne Geneviève de Lévis). And he had a daughter named Catherine (this one later gave birth to the great granddaughter Anne) and a daughter named Marie. XP 

[gogoakechi]

I really wanna play the persona games. Do I have to start all the way back at the shin megami tensei games? And if not where should I start?

ive honestly never even played an smt game, so i cant give you advice there, but i HAVE played P3P, P4G, PQ, and P5, so i can help you from a persona standpoint!

while each persona game kind of follows the same kind of storyline ie a bunch of outcast kids come together with weird powers (personas) and essentially become a type of crime-solving team and try to figure out who the Big Baddy is, it doesnt follow a CONTINUOUS storyline. each game can be played without playing the ones before it.

so in the end the persona game youre gonna want to start with is the one that appeals to you the most. i havent played P1 or P2 (actually split into two different games), but i can give you the jist of P3, P4, and P5! (PQ is a weird offshoot of P3 and P4 so if you wanna play that youll have to play both P3 AND P4)

Persona 3 is about a group of high schoolers trying to defeat a cult and keep the boss shadows from destroying the city every full moon at midnight (and also try to uncover super top secret mysteries?????). you can have a robot and a dog in your party and you summon personas with guns. in persona 3 portable, you can play as a girl! but it alters the storyline so i suggest playing as the boy first if you get P3P. P3 is actually darker than P5, in my opinion. it made me cry so many fuckin times on my god, so if you get it i hope youre ready for Emotion.

Persona 4 (my first and favourite persona game) is about a group of kids living in a rural town that’s being haunted by a mysterious serial killer, and they suspect it MIGHT have something to do with the paranormal tv show that comes on at midnight when it rains, so they gotta use their persona powers to find out Who Done It. has a canon bisexual party member and also a party member thats a weird bear. can be a very funny and happy game but will still rip your heart out. has the BEST soundtrack in the series fuck what p5 fans say

Persona 5 is about a bunch of outcast kids that have been fucked over by society, and by chance find a way to change the hearts of their oppressors, thus forming an outlaw group known as “The Phantom Thieves”. eventually theyre mission becomes something more, and attempt to hunt down the culprit behind the mysterious deaths of the citizens of japan. a lot of “fuck the police AND the government” vibes. you get a cat but hes the reason you have to go to bed at 8:30 sharp. absolutely gorgeous game everything about it is Pretty. also the sun social link changed my life i love him...... (tw for pedophilia and a suicide attempt thought (the girl that attempted it gets better though dont worry))

so yeah, which game you play first is honestly just a matter of taste. and the remakes are mainly just added in content, so you could even play a remake if you wanted! but if i had to pick?? id go with Persona 4 (Golden). its actually my favourite game of all time. it basically changed my life, as extreme as that sounds.

(if anybody has anything they want to say regarding the topic of which persona to play first, please do!)