#first playthrough valentine with ryuji

[neon-lights-stardust-nights]

Tell me about your first playthrough (or watch through) of persona 5

Oh god, Persona 5 was weird.

I played it maybe up until Futaba's palace. I grappled with the idea of health as a currency to perform attacks, and then got really good at the battle system way quicker than I expected. So, I abandoned the game to binge what came before!

I played Nocturne, I played a fan translation of the first SMT, I started a play through of P2 fan translated on the PS1... And then I remembered somewhere while playing Persona 3!

I never beat Persona 5.

I struggled an awful lot on Kamoshida my first play through. 3 days of on again, off again attempts. I came back though with even more experience and honed skills than I came in, and honestly? It felt too easy. I started a second play through on the hardest difficulty: I still couldn't really cut my teeth on it. It felt like (by quitting for a while to find out about all this stuff everyone else said was harder) I had sharpened my claws a little too much.

It didn't help I am not easily invested in social sims. I will only really talk to characters that strike a chord with me, and disregard basically everyone else. You can't date guys in Persona 5, so I just spent Valentine's with Ryuji. I maxed out Yusuke, I maxed out Ryuji, I talked to a few of the adults like Sojiro... I came around a little on Haru, but she's like a daughter to me. So I never pursued the romance route.

I guess that's being aplatonic though. I am disinterested in all but the relationships I have a better frame of reference for, with few exceptions. Higurashi actually kind of sold me on the idea friendship isn't just something alloplatonic people made up, and that frame of reference has been helpful to my DND character (since he is, demonstrably, alloplatonic.)

Oh and I fucking hate Morgana. Congratulations Persona 5: you made me hate a cat. No other media managed before. Hats off to you, only Persona has managed to make characters annoying enough that they even grate my nerves. (Chie and Teddy also go up there from Persona 4. Do not ask me about Persona 4 unless you want to hear how much I hate it, please and thank.)

First playthrough, I'm in Kamoshida's palace, I was like... Awww, he's not that bad! By fucking Futaba's palace I was just like ON GOD SHUT UP OR I WILL TURN YOU INTO A LARGELY UNETHICAL COAT.

Oh and Maruki wasn't a thing yet, because Royal didn't exist.

I don't talk about it much, but my main F/O and dream date was Yusuke. Still... Def would date him if the game let me, and I wasn't playing Royal (thus, Maruki isn't an option.)

Oh and the game lets you fuck your teacher, so while I didn't do it, my step dad and I giggled like middle schoolers over it on his first play through instead.

I also really hated Akechi for like 80% of my play through. And then somewhere in that last 20%, he became a kismesis to fill my Persona 5 black quadrant. I really ought to give him a tag and write some of him and Maruki soon...

Also don't ask me what separates bad hate from sexy hate, I am not even 110% on it myself. All I know is that Akechi and Varre fill me with the most gleeful malice, but Morgana makes me want to commit atrocities out of like. Bad rage.

[relxion-kunp]

“ Valentine with Ryuji is the best.”

[jelly-mix]

In honor of the birthday floof Haru Okumura here’s a funny story.

On my first playthrough of the game i tried to romance her, but cause of my poor time management i needed extra few days to max out my proficiency. Because of this, when i did rank 9 of her Confidant where the love confession happens it was the last possible day to hang out with her before the plot finale kicked in.

And becuse on valentines day only people whom confidants you have already completed visit you, Ryuji came in to Leblanc instead.

To say I was mad is a too little.

[it-will-not-last-the-night]

Blegh

In terms of Persona 5 I’d been riding high mostly since P5D. I’d been positive mostly over it because P5D and fan-generated content had been lovely overall and really engaging and enjoyable. It had helped me forget that the main game itself seriously does upset me at times and I have a less than ideal opinion of it.

*Sigh*

Now I’m starting to feel like that again. Both announcements of today have left brought back to mind some of my biggest problems with Persona 5 and the way Atlus writes in general. What are they? A bit of a lesson then in me;

For myself there are three events in Persona 5 that I really REALLY just consider outright despicable. In no order they are; 1) Two homosexual adult males being negatively stereotyped as child molesters targeting Ryuji 2) Ryuji’s friends responding to one of the greatest acts of selflessness in the entire story by physically abusing Ryuji and 3) The Valentine’s Day event making Canon that Akira/Ren is horrible, Sojiro is horrible and that Atlus thinks all the girls are vapid idiots. 

‘Magical Valentine’ raises an issue I’ve always had but makes it even more forceful. You see in the game the Valentine’s Event is only ‘optionally’ canon. You can play a canonical run-through and not have it occur. So you can, legitimately, without needing headcanon or fanon, just have your own canon playthrough in which the girls are not vapid idiots. The anime however, now, makes it that, for the Animation, it is canon that Akira/Ren is an awful person and that the girls are vapid idiots. Oh and that Sojiro is just literally the worst like...like he is scum in this event. As bas as Akira/Ren is (and he’s bad in this version!) the bigger problem I think a LOT of people forget about the Valentine’s Harem Route is that it literally casts Sojiro as a Guardian of Futaba who would lie to conceal her boyfriend’s infidelities...even when said infidelities LITERALLY CAUSE FUTABA TO CRY! 

So the animation is now making it canon that; 1) Akira/Ren sees no reason he has to be honest or forthright with any females in his life 2) Sojiro holds such low regard for his daughter he will aide Akira/Ren in an ongoing deception and emotional manipulation of her RIGHT AFTER SHE OVERCAME A SUICIDAL PHASE OF HER LIFE and 3) That Ann, Makoto, Futaba, Haru, Takemi, Kawakami, Ohya, Hifumi and Chihaya all fall in love with the exact same person and are literally when confronted with incontervertible evidence of his infedilities not only tricked into instantly accepting that them all bringing him chocolate on Valentine’s Day was a ‘misunderstanding’ but, in the case of the Phantom Thieves members, this has so little impact on them that mere days later they have no reaction.

AKA the ending Valentine’s Harem Route basically says: “Akira/Ren successfully cheated on all the girls in his life, and is free to continue to do so since they are so stupid that they could be convinced to assume it was a ‘misunderstanding’ even under the most blatantly false of pretext,” the ending basically gives carte blanche to say that Akira/Ren will probably keep cheating on the women in his life because, well, they’re so stupid that even if they all end up right in front of him, confessing their love for him to each other’s faces...they somehow think this was a ‘misunderstanding’?

That’s gonna be canon now for the animation. Not ‘optional’ canon, just...just outright canon. Literally everything in the Canon is soured now. Did you like Ren’s bond with Ann in the foregoing episodes? Well bad news; Ren literally is willing to commit to an intimate relationship with her and then emotionally cheat on her with several different women at once. Did you like how Ren played a pivotal role in building Futaba’s character and helping her grow out of her emotional turmoil? Well sucks for you cause Ren is literally willing to lie to this girl’s face and tell her he loves her whilst carrying on behind her back with numerous other women.

It sort of goes without saying that this kinda wrecks P5A completely since, canonically, Akira/Ren is now just an irredeemable asshole and the female characters are reduced to stock harem-style idiot love interests with basically 0 individuality because everyone has to love the Protagonist (self-insert!).

But when you think about it even in the original game...this was a problem. Sure you could choose not to do it...but you could also choose to do it. This means, technically, as far as Atlus’ writing is concerned, canonically Akira/Ren has it in him to be a complete asshole with no respect for women or his friends...and the females in the game are all vapid idiots. That’s technically canon since that’s required for the Valentine’s Route to work.

Oh, also, that Sojiro is the worst. The worst.

The Valentine’s Harem Event, like the Ryuji abusing event post Shido’s Palace. does irrevocable damage to the characters and the content itself, kinda ruining it since for it to be canon...well it means the characters are terrible people or stupid. Why I sort of have to choose to ignore them to actually like the story.

Of course what does all this writing have in common? It’s a JOKE! Haha! Ryuji’s being abused, isn’t this funny? Haha! The girls are all vapid idiots and Joker’s such a chick magnet they have no varying tastes in partner at all! Haha! Gay men want to force Ryuji to undress for them! 

Isn’t this funny? I mean, no, of course not. In almost all these cases the ‘humour’ is...someone suffering. A common retort I then see is; it’s not canon, its just for a joke.

But the problem is it is, all, strictly canon. I could definitely understand if these things were packaged as clear ‘not canon’ events. 

Here’s an example; the Blazblue game series has ‘joke’ endings which are explicitly not canon but usually feature bizarre or ‘funny’ scenes. One of said scenes is a reoccuring bit in which the protagonist Ragna is made to wear glasses that causes the female cast to all fall in love with him. Putting aside the fact for the moment that, to me, this still isn’t funny since its treating the Mind Rape of the entire female cast as a ‘joke’ the fact remains that it is, however, not canon. The creators make sure that nothing that happens here technically infringes on or diminished the canon character content by making it explicitly non-canon.

Persona 5, both the game and now the Animation, take no such efforts. There are no efforts to make clear that Ryuji being beaten up is a ‘comedic non-canon overreaction’ or that Akira/Ren being a womanizing prick and Sojiro being the WORST are just ‘comedic non-canon skits’ all these are played as explicitly, irrefutably, canon. That is how the characters are, as far as Atlus is concerned. That is their opinions, their beliefs etc.

Is it weird that P5 Dancing has the best, most wholesome, most healthy characterization of the entire Persona 5 Franchise? I suppose maybe the mangas are good to, I must admit I’ve never read any of them since from what I can tell Ryuji is basically ignored in all of them in favour of focus on the girls.

Atlus has a writing problem and that problem is centered I fear on a simple fact; the protagonist is a self-insert who is assumed to be a self-insert for a very specific formula; a young male who sees female characters as things he wishes to collect for himself and wants to feel adored by. Almost all of the major writing problems stem from this; Girls seem exploited or turned into vapid haremettes? Well, obviously, gotta appeal to that ‘chick magnet’ fantasy. Homosexuality is cast as negative or frightning? Well, obviously, the fantasy being appealed to is explicitly heterosexual in nature, everything else is ‘icky’. Other males seem to constantly be the butt of a joke or consistently shown up compared to the protagonist? Naturally since the fantasy is about making the player feel like ‘the man’ and all other men are simply lame by comparison so that the girls will only love the protagonist (the self-insert).

What really bums me out about all of this is that Atlus can write such amazing scenes as Ryuji’s ‘the place I belong is next to you,’ but then in that same game or anime have the Valentine’s Event and the Ship scene. I imagine in part this is due to it being a game first, story second, so they feel there are ‘beats’ that need to be there (the loser must be made fun of, the protagonist must get all the girls) even if, from a storyboarding point of view...it just makes the characters look A) Very inconsistent in personality and attitude (Ren’s infamous standing up for a stranger being assaulted but then instantly refusing to step in to help Ryuji in Shinjuku) or B) Like massive asshats (The entire Valentine’s Event from Ren and Sojiro’s perspectives.

It is just...its sad. I want to like this story because there is legitimately good characters and writing but...in the name of appealing to the lowest common denominator it gets weighted down by stuff which is explicitly canon and makes the characters awful. 

It really makes it tough to like it at times.

*Sigh*

At the end of the day I don’t know how to handle this. Accepting its canon makes a lot of people awful or stupid. Headcanoning it away is fine but...then I gotta accept I don’t like Persona 5 per say, I like what I, or other fans, create from Persona 5.

Also can we please just be able to date Ryuji. Please Atlus. We don’t need another female character to be another fangirl for Joker, to be another vapid idiot who can be duped by the WORST Sojiro, please Atlus, please. Please. There are ENOUGH love interests Atlus, please try perhaps instead stop treating women like little toys for a protagonist to effortlessly collect and dupe. 

Watching all the Persona 5 Girls (sans Sae) in the Valentine’s Event is painful. They are characters I like, many of them have good writing...and then they are reduced to props to make a player feel “Oh yeah! Such a chick magnet! They all want me! Women are simply a commodity by which I inflate my own sense of self-worth since having multiple of them attracted to me and betrayed by me makes me feel as if this is a positive development and not a negative one!”

And I do mean that seriously. Look at most content or statements around the Valentine’s Event. They frame it positively. The ‘harem’ ending, Joker is such a ‘chick magnet’ and so ‘alpha’ etc. etc. 

Terrible emotional betrayal? Deep seated trust issues? Sojiro treating his own daughter like garbage? Ignored because ‘Joker is a PLAYER! WOOO!” And this is overall seen as a positive development. 

By now I’ve rambled on ridiculously long but if I must have a conclusion it is thus; Please give us a Female Protagonist who can date the other boys and stop selling this sexist approach where non-protagonist males and all females serve the same purpose; inflating the ego of the player character. 

[khytal]

gonna ramble a little bit about the Phantom Thieves

yesterday marks the day I got sucked into Persona hell one year ago, so-

If you couldn’t already tell or didn’t know, I love Ryuji. A lot. I won’t get into reasons why bc I kinda already dedicated a whole text post to him last month, but yeah. I hope you don’t mind. If anyone says he’s a bad character in the tags of my posts I will...not fight you, but I’ll be mildly disappointed. He’s such a good kid, how could you hate someone with only the best of intentions where it really counts?

Makoto...I think a lot of people relate to her, in terms of the “always doing what they’re told” aspect. At least, I do. Actually, I went through her romance route on my first playthrough (and then hung out with Ryuji on Valentine’s Day, ha-). She’s cool. If it weren’t for Yusuke, she’d be best gi-

And Yusuke, the starving artist himself, is also someone I can relate to. Weird manner of speech, short hair that nearly covers the left eye (or in my case, actually does), art, needing to be taken care of in the way of food...yeah.

I’m still in the middle of my second playthrough, but I intend to pay more attention to Haru because I...kinda neglected her after she became a party member. So my perception of her is essentially the fanbase’s Haru.

Also, I consider Futaba to be like Akira/Ren’s younger sister. She’s adorable?? A precious kid. And...I guess I lowkey ship Yutaba, but mostly I enjoy scenarios where they get along.

I, uh, don’t have much to say about Ann. She’s all right. Definitely an excellent...wingwoman? Wingman? Whichever you prefer. Yeah.

Lately I’ve found that I appreciate Akechi’s character a lot more? Or maybe not appreciate, but become more...aware of the reasons behind his motives. So now I have this “he didn’t deserve anything that caused him to go down this dark path” feeling towards him. Whether he should’ve gotten a redemption arc is an entirely different discussion, one that I’m not willing to engage in.

Honestly Morgana’s okay. I mean he’s kind of an ass half the time, but if I could have a talking feline companion IRL to yell at me, maybe I wouldn’t procrastinate as much. ...Just saying. .....And I’d probably get more sleep.

Akira/Ren’s kind of tricky. Yeah, I do gush over him (like so many people) because goddamn if he isn’t the most badass teenage thief in any video game ever, but going strictly by the game’s canon and dialogue choices, he’s...hm. For all the things he doesn’t do, like lending Ryuji a hand in that ONE PART, he’s still seen as “dependable”. But that’s kinda how he parallels with Akechi--

-Stating the obvious here: Akechi is intended to be seen as a “good guy” with the whole detective-aiding-the-police thing, but is revealed to be a murderer.

-And as a “criminal”, Akira/Ren is the “bad guy” with a caring personality (if the player so wishes). He’s the “hero”, the “protagonist”, and yet he too is guilty of terrible things. Not as bad as murder, but they might as well be nearly as awful.

Uh, the point I’m attempting to reach is that both of them have a “supposed to be good, but does this to contradict that” sort of thing going on.

....Which is why the fanbase’s general interpretation of Akira is so much more likable. We focus on the dorky, charming aspects of his vaguely outlined canon personality, and rewrite his “irresponsible” actions. I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing, since his personality (and subsequently his actions) are mostly defined by the player anyway.

So yeah. I love Akira/Ren, but specifically the fan interpretation for turning him into a snarky, criminal memelord.

And...........AkiRyu is my favorite ship. While I’m not someone who’ll judge you for preferring a different ship (because...fighting over that is pretty pointless), there are some I don’t like for personal reasons.

[icecreambat]

Story time: Dating everyone in P5 turned Joker into a sociopath

The first time I ended up dating more than one girl in a Persona game, it was an honest accident. I’d already imprinted on Chie in Persona 4, and had no idea comforting Yukiko during her social link would turn me into a two-timing douche. A quick save-state reload rectified this mistake, but it taught me an important lesson: in Persona games, monogamy is not the limit of your teenage life.

As Persona 5 rolled around, I grew fond of Makoto on my first playthrough. With her on my side I experienced the Phantom Thief thrill ride, maxing my social links while gently turning other girls down. It wasn’t until the NewGame+ that I wondered: wouldn’t it be interesting to try the multi-dating thing? That way I could fast-forward all romance scenarios and not watch them on Youtube later like a loser, duh. If this game was intentionally giving me the opportunity to be Tokyo’s biggest Don Juan, then by Mona, I’d do it!

Little did I know, though, that as I embarked on a quest to bag all the single ladies* the whole atmosphere of the game changed. What had been a more or less generic adventure about truth and justice took on some… rather disturbing undertones, ones that went beyond the actual dating scenarios. In fact, the game turned out to be such an interesting social experiment that I wanted to write about it, so here I am. So, this is a recap of how dating multiple people in Persona 5 turned my Joker into a sociopath.

* except for Makoto, because a) I already romanced her before and b)…. it didn’t feel right, her being my first and all. SO SUE ME I’M A LOSER AFTER ALL

So. Here we are again, moving to Tokyo, whoop de doo. NewGame+ means not having to waste days on working out the ropes, so you can focus on the stuff that matters: getting as overpowered as you can in the least amount of time possible. For me, this meant maxing out Kawakami’s social link as fast as I could, because her bonuses are pretty swank – I really could have used the post-Mementos or post-palace massages during my first playthrough too, but kinda forgot about her right after Operation Maidwatch. Well, no more! I was bringing that teacher home left and right at every possible instance, so obviously I ended up maxing her link first. Ergo, we entered a relationship. 

I’m not gonna lie: the Kawakami romance is some weird (and arguably illegal) shit. Maybe that kinda set the tone of this adventure from the start, giving me an mc who was 100% ok with romancing his homeroom teacher slash part time maid. Uh… huh. Given that my suspension of disbelief went out of the window right about there, it was easy to pick the “omg i totally like, care about you and stuff” dialogue options that went with it; I mean, I was doing this for science and stuff, no big deal.

That’s why it surprised me that when it was time to romance the next (un)lucky girl, I felt like shit about it. Not because of Kawakami, but because Ann wasn’t some ludicrous dating option pulled out of the “lol what if we let the players date everyone!!” shitpost book. Instead, Ann and the mc had already been through Some Shit together, best friend suicide attempts and sexually abusive PE teachers included, and she was a teenage girl looking for her place in the world. So when Ann confided in me about her feelings and told the mc she loved him, “returning” her feelings –while knowing I was already dating my…. uhh, homeroom teacher slash part time maid– genuinely made me feel like the absolute scum of the earth.

“I can’t do this,” I thought at this point, “Even if these are fictional characters in a fictional game, I feel like shit lying to these girls that I care about them, because obviously that’s not true if I’m so callously dating someone else behind their back. How can people do that in real life if I can’t even do it in a video game? Oh, naïve me! Because my lesson in the callousness of man had only just begun.

Anyway, so. Here I am, dating Kawakami and Ann. I think I figured that lying to my teammates didn’t Feel Very Good so headlining for randos seemed like the better choice to make next: Ohya the reporter ended up being the third girl I romanced, and it was relieving she seemed to understand the unlikely nature of our relationship. “I get that we probably won’t stay together forever,” she was telling me, almost like she knew she was only the third wheel in my extended trailer truck, headed to nowhere fast; the same kinda goes for Tae, the punk rock doctor, whose reservedness somehow made it easier to ignore the serial cheater vibes in the dynamic.

Chihaya, on the other hand, was different. Seemingly a little younger than the other grown-ups, she was already a lot more straightforward about her interest in the mc, and harbored all sorts of weird fantasies about them staying together forever. Which is exactly what I told her would happen. Not! Funny that for a fortune teller she couldn’t see I was also spouting this same shit to four other girls, huh? Chihaya reminded me of Ann, in a way, which is why the Bad Feels actually started to resurface here – it’s one thing to lie boldly in the face of girls (women) who aren’t really that invested in you to begin with, but when it’s people who actually believe said lies… well.

Now, I know, I know. There’s no actual reason to feel guilty, because these choices don’t affect the gameplay in any way. Whether or not the mc is an asshole in some ways will still result in everyone loving the shit out of him, and being sad when he leaves. Sure, there’s the scene after Valentine’s Day where you get beat up for being a cheater and the girls kind of call him out on it, but that’s about it; this isn’t Mass Effect, you can’t go full renegade, etc. etc. But even if the game barely acknowledges the clear disparity in the mc’s words and actions, it’s really hard to overlook as the player, and as I said, it kinda changes the tone of the whole game.

You see, during the course of the story the mc ends up establishing a whole bunch of social links: Ryuji, Yusuke, Mishima and even Sojiro are but few of the guys you end up making heartfelt bonds with too. Only problem is, once you go the Lie Route with the girls, the mc hardly comes across as any more honest with the guys – and this is what really puts a spin on his reliability. Everyone’s always going on about what a great guy he is, but none of them know what a quadruple-timing, lying asshole he is at the same time. And why would they? All he does is tell people what they want to hear!

Apparently the devs of Dream Daddy wanted to challenge the notion that this kind of behaviour automatically leads to “good endings” in visual novels, because it only makes the mc seem a little sociopathic. Sure enough, that’s exactly the word I would use to describe how my mc started to come across in all his social interactions in P5. Well, not all, actually; there was one character whose exchanges with the mc came across as genuine even when virtually nothing else did. Yeah, you guessed it: Akechi.

I’m taking a brief interlude here to talk about Akechi, because my social experiment with the mc’s romances actually ended up underlining how similar he and Akechi are as people. It’s what the game hints at continuously with the whole ~two sides of the same coin stuff anyway, but the point really gets hammered home when you repeatedly watch the mc fake his way through life just like Akechi puts on his own double persona (pun not intended). In that sense, it’s only natural that the two would recognize each other as equals, and that their interactions ring more sincere than any other discussion they have in the game.

But back to serial dating, if you will. After Chihaya, I started dating Hifumi the shogi girl, but to be completely honest I sort of mentally fazed her out; with every new girl I tricked into dating me, the initial unease seemed to diminish until I couldn’t remember what had made me feel so disgusted in the first place. I mean, I was already lying to so many people, what did it matter if I lied to one more, right? It’s not like I actually hung out with anyone ever again after I “entered a relationship” with them, and it’s not like my actions carried over to pre-scripted cutscenes, so who cares, right? Nobody (well, apart from a physical game engine) was forcing these girls to believe my bullshit, so really, the fault was theirs for being so gullible, right!!11

…Well, I might have been able to go along with that type of douchebag logic if I’d only kept dating randos. Since I skipped Makoto, the next girl I got cozy with was Futaba… and this is where the skeezy-ville started to nag on my consciousness again, because like with Ann, you know that Futaba’s been through A Lot: she basically spent the past couple of years as a hikikomori, convinced that her mother committed suicide because of her. Trust is a really big thing for her, so throwing a cheating mc into that equation gets really ugly when you think about how he gains that trust just to betray it. When you add in Sojiro, you’re essentially screwing both of them over while pretending to be a happy little family. If you take these events at face value, it kinda makes you wonder: seriously dude, what on earth is your damage?!

If that wasn’t disturbing enough, we finish with Haru. She is also running from one abuser but, if dating a cheating mc, kind of ends up in the arms of another. Although she enters the story fairly late in the game, it’s no less shitty to listen to her be so grateful for your “support”, knowing you’ve sat through variations of this scene with half a dozen other girls already. I just kind of kept staring at the mc’s poker face (pun not intended, again) while wondering how much worse it seems that none of these choices affect anything tangible in the game, even when the whole theme is helping other people (and shitty authority figures, sure, but mainly helping people).

And you know, it’s really that endless poker face that gives the whole thing such a weird ass vibe: this is a 17-year-old kid who’s moved to Tokyo for a year, and ends up constructing a meticulously crafted fake personality that has everyone treating him like the greatest guy on earth. If you perceive this as the intended story (as opposed to the mismatch of a fixed script and optional gameplay choices that it actually is), Persona 5 suddenly becomes a story much darker than its original premise. Who is the real mc, and why is he doing any of this? What is his actual sense of truth and justice, if he spins it so grotesquely to suit his given situation? How troubled does he have to be for this kind of behaviour to emerge, and what caused it?

I know getting busted on Valentine’s Day is played mainly for laughs, but when you put all this together it’s obvious just getting dumped doesn’t even begin to cover the actual consequences of the mc’s actions should have. For the 100% fake personality he’s clearly constructed up until this point, how anyone can still follow him into the depths of Mementos is beyond me. But hey, I know we’re not operating on earth logic here.

Still, as I mentioned, this levels the mc with Akechi a lot – suddenly it’s very hard to condemn Akechi, even in theory, for the route he ended up taking in life, because isn’t the mc basically doing the same thing? Taking advantage of as many people he can to advance his own ends, with the only difference that he ended up on the winning side? Not only that, but it makes it harder to root for the “good guys”, knowing that you’re not a good guy – you’re just some guy with a big enough charm stat to make people follow your fake ideals, whatever those might in reality be.

Personally, I was also surprised at how easy it was to go from “this is horrible I hate this I can’t lie to these girls” to the “eh whatever, I’ve done this long enough that I’ve distanced myself from giving a shit”, then back to “oh shit oh shit this is so wrong” over the course of a single game. I know this sounds like a hyperbole, but in that sense I’m… actually not that surprised at how people find themselves ignoring those same patterns in real life. Which is why it’s so disheartening there’s only one scene dedicated to the consequences; it would be so interesting if there was something more tangible to remind the player that yeah, you’re entitled to picking these options, but it does turn the mc into someone pretty damn messed up.

I mean, damn – by December I’d maxed out all my social links, and suddenly had shit all to do, and because I couldn’t sit through a single fake date with one of my fake ass girlfriends again, I ended up making my mc train every day and night just so I had something to occupy my time between going out and murdering things in Mementos and/or a palace. Watching him do shirtless pull-ups in his room I sorta realized: Oh my god, I turned my mc into a high school version of Patrick Bateman. This game sure took a turn.

So I suppose the point of this story time is that while dating anyone in P5 (and most Persona games, I’d assume) is ultimately only a gameplay element meant for the player’s extra entertainment, sometimes those seemingly superfluous gameplay elements can turn into unintentional story elements – in this case, an experiment of how easily lying to one person turns into lying to everyone, and how sometimes it’s not that easy to tell at what point you stop being genuine at all. Wow, them video games, huh? Always a source of profound inspiration.... or something.

[dbzebra]

Finally finished Persona 5! 100/10 would buy again

Anyway my god, this game was amazing. Prolly one of the best 135 hours and not one point did I feel bored. For my first Persona game ever, I got 11/21 confidants maxed, and while not great, I did get the true ending on my first try. I think it was a decent job considering I had no idea what options to pick at first. I got to rank 6 with Ryuji outta luck before I starting using a guide for them lolol

I knew it was a fantastic game from the very first time I heard Life Will Change in that opening scene (one of my favorite songs now) but they blew away time and time again, especially with those final three dungeons.

It’s not a perfect game, no game is, but fuck this comes pretty damn close. My biggest complaint is that the romance aspect was really limited. (I wanted more time with best waifu Makoto dammit!! The dates on Christmas and Valentines are beyond adorable and there should’ve been more lol)

Story was amazing.  To be honest, in terms of story itself, next to the final guy, my favorite was the first palace. They really set the bar high with that. He was just a fucking scumbag, like out of everyone besides the main culprit i believe he was the biggest piece of shit. Which is a good thing for a villain. 

Those fucking plot twists had me yelling at my screen. I knew it from the beginning, but they threw me off for a while but when everything came out I was shocked lol. I kinda got spoiled for the true final boss, but I ended up figuring things out for myself anyway after I made myself forget what I accidentally saw when looking up the right dialogue options for confidants lol. Oh well, still not at all how I expected it to go so no harm no foul. 

Characters. What else can I say? The team of Akira/Joker, Morgana, Ryuji, Ann, Yusuke, Futaba, best waifu Makoto and Haru are prolly the best cast of characters I’ve seen in a game in a while. (my first full exposure to a JRPG, so I’m biased, idc). If it’s not Ann and Ryuji teasing each other, Morgana being a smartass, or Futaba messing with Yusuke aka Inari lmao. And so much more. I wish we could’ve seen more of Haru earlier though besides cameos. She’s too precious and adorable 

It’s funny I was totally on Team Ann in the beginning and didn’t like Makoto at first until joined the team and her awakening scene i was like oh shit best girl right there. 

Even the side characters who weren’t apart of the main team were fascinating. Notably Sojiro and Sae. 

Comedy is great. Not gonna spoil anything because stuff like that it’s better to just experience yourself. 

The anime cutscenes were fucking beautiful, every single one of them. Please make an anime out of P5 Atlus, I’d pay anything to see such a brilliant story fully animated; sure they’ll have to go fast at times but I really don’t care it’ll be worth it. Also idgaf if I get hate for this, I prefer their English voices. They all did incredible jobs; I wish more scenes got voice but I can’t complain. All of them sounded so awesome. Though winner goes to Makoto because damn her actress made sound so mature/sexy/cute all at once. Cherami Leigh ily. lolol

Music is top tier as well. All the regular instrumental themes are awesome. But where this game really shines is the lyrical themes. Life Will Change, River in the Desert, Last Surprise and Beneath the Mask are all amazing songs. 

Though Life Will Change is my favorite. Seriously, I’ve had that on loop like all day the past three days. like not even gonna lie. That song is fuckin lit. I wished the lyrical version played on every palace instead only the last few. I love it. 

 Anyways now the empty feeling sets in. I felt so connected to the story and all it’s characters so much and now it’s over. :(

Thank you Persona 5 for the best game experience I’ve had in years. If not ever in my 17 years of gaming. Now I can finally have my life back.... for now. Before I start my NG+ playthrough and experience it all over again with better knowledge of everything :D

Ok sorry for my rambling im done now

[alphasobek]

It’s certainly something peculiar now that I think about it. The ONLY personal posts I’ve made really (or at least in the past like year or two Christ) have been about Persona 5.

Anyway. Finished my second playthrough finally. Forgot how long the ending sequence was. Started partway into the final dungeon like 3 or 4 hours ago. Not to mention I was lvl 99 and had Ryuji (and everyone else) confidant maxed so I got that both annoying and good bonus of not having to actually fight anything since they all just pop thanks to his rank 7 skill. That skill is a curse and a blessing all at the same time.

But of course seeing these dumb crime kids being their dumb crime selves has once again pushed me over my emotional edge and now OF COURSE I’m going to play it again because like frick man just look at ‘em. Happy little bastards.

Maybe it has something to do with (somehow) having more time as an adult then I did when I was younger but this is the first persona game I’ve done this with. P3 when I first played it I didn’t even finish it actually. I enjoyed it don’t get me wrong but it was taking me absolutely forever. I remember thinking I was SO close to finishing it when I was talking to someone about it and they just go “oh you’re like halfway done!” and I don’t think I touched it again after that, ha. Eventually ended up playing through all of it a long while after that with a s.link guide and really enjoying it. It wasn’t something I felt needed to be repeated for whatever reason though. Got like an hour into.. what is that called? The answer? The second story thing - before I stopped. I think I might have just burned out on it tbh since I played it all in one big sitting that, while it probably spanned a few weeks, was all I really did. P4 I really enjoyed but didn’t use a guide for and because of that and my terrible time management skills didn’t ace it at all. I did get the true ending though and I actually had plans to replay 4 with a guide before P5 came out and even got a few hours in but ended up putting it off after that and never got back to it before I got swept up with the crime time team.

Well either way I’m back to a little level 1 delinquent with a varying cast of lvl 99 persona (thank the reaper his exploit, like seriously) I guess. Now if I can just convince myself that now that I’ve got each farewell gift x2 and two of the same Christmas/valentine gifts stuck in my inventory to actually do things besides power level confidants and actually play the in-game games to get the last trophy before I totally burn myself out.

Maybe my new goal this playthrough (besides the games of course) should be all the unique weapons. I mean that’s more of a side goal seeing as how I’ve got the compendium at 100% and all but hey a goals a goal. That and maybe a harder difficulty. The fighting might not be why I’m here but heck if it doesn’t take up time I guess.

Maybe one of these days I’ll write down some Akira headcanons or something. I have several actually. I’ve mentioned one I think in that post about the after-interrogation but it was vague as all hell. Ah well. If anyone reads this and wants to swap those sorta things hit me up. With almost 200+ hours in P5 it should be relatively obvious just about how MUCH free time I have.