#and Naoto/Kanji/Rise finally score

[siderealscribblings]

The Thieves Den Mementos, the Metaverse

“What happened?” 

“Based on a thorough examination of our systems…everything blew up.” 

“Everything being-” 

“Ev. Er. Y. Thing,” Futaba said, shaking a burnt out old computer next to her ear before chucking it out the window in disgust. “Every wire and board I had hooked up to a magatsuhi battery discharged so fast the copper melted. Thank God, I haven't hooked the vehicles up yet…" 

"What has God done for us lately that deserves our thanks?" Ren sighed, rubbing his eyes. "Ryuji, how much juice do we have left?" 

"Well somehow we lost half the fuckin' pool!'" Ryuji growled, carrying bottles of magatsuhi in his arms as he emerged from the pool room. "The weird spinny machine thing that makes magatsuhi out of internet rumors is still working, but that stockpile we were sitting on is looking a little dry." 

"So not a total wash," Makoto said, biting off the last of her fingernails. "We can eat at least; the rest of the city doesn't look so lucky." 

Outside the window, Mementos was only barely coming back on. Magatsuhi flowed back into light fixtures here and there but huge swathes of the city were dark, making the twisting spires and shadowy caverns between buildings seem all the more sinister. 

"Keep the outer lights off; don't let anyone know we still have magatsuhi," Ren said, watching Futaba stick her hand into a monitor and wiggle her fingers around the insides a bit. Makoto and Ann could heal bodies; Futaba had an uncanny knack of making (or breaking) machines with a simple touch. Sure enough, the monitor fizzled on after a moment, bringing up a feed of social media links and news broadcasts from around Tokyo. 

"You think this is S.E.E.S' doing?" Makoto asked, scanning the screen thoughtfully. "Yoshizawa said they declared war on us; maybe this is an opening salvo?" 

"If they had some kind of magatsuhi draining weapon, wouldn't they have used it before now?" Yusuke mused. "Seems to be a powerful tool that could have saved their agents' lives." 

"You're asking why S.E.E.S. isn't doing more to save human lives?" Futaba sniffed, scanning the monitors with a glare. "Wait…what's that?" 

Futaba snapped her fingers, enlarging the smaller screen to fill the monitor. A tired newswoman was standing outside what appeared to be a jail, the words "KANESHIRO & SEVEN OTHERS ESCAPED" flashing on the screen as rescue workers carried people on stretchers out of the shattered remnants of the front door. 

"That's…bad," Ann said, leaning over Ren's shoulder to get a better look. "You're telling me that little bug is scurrying around Tokyo somewhere?" 

"All the better for us to squash ," Makoto said, glaring at the picture of Kaneshiro on screen. "We might not get a better chance; you know S.E.E.S. is going to be after him. It's the middle of the night ; we might be able to take care of this before even Goro or Yoshizawa know what happened." 

"Of course, that brings us right back to being thought of as monsters," Haru chimed in. 

"They're going to think that if they catch Kaneshiro anyway…" Ren growled, tugging at the back of his hair. "Do we have enough juice to jump?" 

"We're going now ?" Yusuke asked. 

"Why, are you washing your tail or something?" 

"Is it wise to leave our base unguarded when half the city wants what little magatsuhi we have?" Yusuke asked. 

"Not really, but when have we ever made a choice that has zero downsides?" Ren countered. "Yes, leaving the base unguarded is a risk, but so is letting Kaneshiro scurry around where he might be caught and forced to squawk about us. And I'll be more damned than I already am if S.E.E.S. isn't already in pursuit, ready to bring him in." 

Yusuke's lips twisted, but he said nothing as Ren turned back to Futaba. "Well? Can we make a jump?" 

"Probably," Futaba said, tapping some buttons and flicking off the overhead lights. "...maybe. Guess there's one way to find out. We might be able to trigger the earring and buy us some time to keep S.E.E.S off our backs too." 

"I thought you said that was a risk," Ren said. 

"Well, yeah, but-" Futaba shrugged. "Isn't everything these days? I could maybe get into S.E.E.S.' comms systems; figure out where Kaneshiro's gonna be. Maybe cause some havoc before bailing and cleaning up after myself?" 

Ren seemed to weigh this. "...how long can you stay connected to their system before you have to escape?" 

"Fifteen minutes, but by then it'll be too late," Futaba said, her usual confidence slightly shaky, but otherwise intact. "Can't promise they won't kick my gremlins out but-" 

"Nothing is without risk," Makoto muttered, nodding at Ren. "Time to roll the dice, I guess." 

"So we drop in, find Kaneshiro, and take him out before S.E.E.S. can mobilize enough to stop us," Ren said, clapping his hands together. "Agreed?" 

A murmur of assent rippled through the group. "Good…let's suit up and be ready to go in ten. Bring ammo, guns…anything you think Kaneshiro might not like." 

Ren snapped his fingers, heart skipping a beat as it always did when he donned Joker's mask and coat. Feeling his hands clench in infernal leather gloves made them feel stronger, if only because his fingers no longer shook. And from behind Joker's mask, the prospect of harming a fellow human wasn't quite so daunting. 

Ann lingered behind even as Makoto ran off to make her final preparations, disconcertingly waiting until they were alone before speaking. "What happens if we run into Goro?" 

Ren said as casually as he could. "...hope he makes the right choice, I guess." 

"Is that why you were talking to him when I came to find you?" Ann asked, sharp feline eyes scouring his face. "You had Futaba's phone upstairs…who else would you be talking to if not-" 

"Yeah, okay, it was him," Joker said, his voice tight and strained as he avoided her gaze. "Just…trying to give him an out before something bad happens. I figure…I figure we owe him that, don't we?" 

"Sure," Ann said, her warm hand tilting his jaw towards her so she could properly look at him. "As long as you make the right choice as well." 

Her warm lips pressed against his cheek, a tangible reminder of what Ren already had with the Phantom Thieves. He should have been happy; most people in their position would have died a million times over and if Ren had survived, it would be as something heinous without his lovers keeping him human. Most people would have counted their wins and walked away from the table; most people weren't as greedy as a master thief though. And to Ren, any win less than a jackpot was just leaving money on the table. 

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Start from the beginning

[sometipsygnostalgic]

Nearly done with Persona 4!

All the scenes in the hospital were outstanding.

Some of the fanservice is really getting on my nerves... girls NEVER compare boob sizes. Not any girls I’ve met at least. Perhaps things are different in Japan but I can’t expect a bunch of straight male hornyposting writers to know!!!

All the girls are ALSO really good though (apart from Rise who is 50% great and 50% kind of terrible... never a dull moment).

A discussion on the cast below the cut and why I think they feel different from P5:

[[MORE]]

I had Yu romance Yukiko because I thought it’d be nice, even though we all know Yukiko is married to Chie... my logic was Yukiko’s kind of bland and shy and she has a bad experience with boys, so pairing her with the shy bland protagonist would be positive for them both. Also I find her laughing adorable and hilarious. Reminds me of the squad days in high school. So she’s like a normal teenager.

Chie and Naoto are my fave in the cast. Chie has no brain cells, god bless, but she has a heart and is ready to throw down with anyone who hurts her friends or even that random jerk middle school ex friend. I liked her confidant and she was only removed from my team for two post dungeon bosses; her endgame moves are consistently doing more damage than my protagonist, even on foes that resist physical.

Sadly I only got halfway through Naoto’s social link before I had my free will removed (and I started after the new year event!) She’s the only one in the party I didn’t max out with (...a massive improvement on how i only maxed 2 optional links in p5). The bar is too high and I was already invested in completing some other lonks by the time i got that Courage stat up. However even though we only know her for a bit, as a character Naoto is way cooler than Akechi, and I found it unique that her shadow acted like a child with interests in goofy stuff. Then what little I saw of her confidant had her grandad playing a detective game with her using childhood mementos. It was fun. Anyway, Naoto has been a party stable due to that diverse moveset and those super effective insta kill moves.

Rise is nice when she’s being a navigator. She’s OP but not as broken as Futaba was (getting ambushed and immediately turning it into a Hold Up is too much power). She sometimes acts mature for her age, but she can be judgemental and childish. A good example is at the end of Kanji’s route where he says Rise thought him making dolls was creepy and he had to take time to get her to understand that it wasn’t. Rise made me laugh many times, even in her unlikable moments, so I was happy to max her out. I got her to max JUST in time for her to be able to get the Third persona. I liked her route, better than Ann’s in the next game, but other fans are mixed on it.

The boys are, in fact, alright in this game. Yosuke has the same problem as Rise where sometimes he acts like a turd, but despite his loserness and rampant homophobia (why atlus?) i find him a good friend character who thinks about the situation thoroughly, is usually borrowing the one brain cell Naoto hasn’t hoarded, and who has well written emotions in a lot of cutscenes. I think he is better written than Ryuji in p5, who - while being great at first - ultimately had less chemistry with the other characters and probably deserved to be booted from the team once or twice.

Kanji is best boy! He does nothing wrong, except for calling his mother names, which is pretty wrong. Kanji, stop that. I used him alongside Chie for that sexy physical damage at first, but sadly he became redundant as soon as Chie got more OP and I added Naoto to the team. Kanji’s constantly bullied by his teammates over his shadow self’s bicurious appearance, which is a major negative on the game actually. I maxed out his confidant JUST before free will was removed, but it was too late for him to have the 3rd persona conversation (at least a week later). Not that he’ll see any use.

And at last Teddie. Many people loathe him. In fact, he goes way too far in his newfound goal of “scoring with girls”. I found him adorable though, especially after he turned into a boy. I’m a sucker for those characters who know nothing about the world but are super enthusiastic to explore it. Despite being what Morgana (my avatar) would be based on, Teddie feels more likable, probably because he never picks fights with the other members and he doesn’t have a cocky attitude, but he still has plenty of flaws. I enjoyed how Teddie was accepted and embraced by Inaga as this weird but adorable kid.

On the other social links: Compared to P5 they are useless. I didnt max out anything in P5 apart from Ann and Ryuji’s, so I’m not sure if they all got great at the end. However the non-party SLs are useful in P5 for added perks like massages, dungeon alertness, sp adhesives... Unfortunately the side effect is the game throws sidequest roadblocks at you.

P5 has a formulaic progression where most confidants will have a problem caused by someone else, or occasionally themselves, and a change of heart is needed. I tired of this formula quickly. But it was more involved witg the core gameplay, whereas p4’s confidants - while each unique - only has fusion benefits.

I need to complete Marie’s dungeon and the final area. Wish me luck!