#last thing someone recommended smt to me was persona and it took over my life and killed me so

[lotus-pear]

hey lotus sorry if this is random but do you take anime recommendations ? I don 't have too big of an idea of what kind of anime you like but I have one that I feel like you 'd like

i do sure!! which one do u think i’d like 🤨

[solidandsound]

I finished Persona 5! It took me ~140 hours and I ended it at level 81, with about 70% compendium completion. I don’t know if I can say it beats P3 as my fave Persona just because P3 holds a special place in my heart, but it is probably a better game and I most certainly liked it more than P4. More in depth, spoilery discussion under the read more!

I beat the final boss primarily with Satan and Beelzebub, which felt really satisfying considering that I was using them to kill God. I also thought it was interesting that you literally use the seven deadly sins to defeat the final boss. I mean, it uses them to try and keep you down, but you in turn use them as your strength. I love the final boss for having battle mechanics that are ideologically significant, and everything taken together at the end, I think the game gives a very clear thesis. It reframes the seven deadly sins as seven core desires, and states that, even though they can lead to terrible things (ie the palace rulers who are all based on the sins themselves), we should be free to feel them, and that freedom is the most important thing. It’s a very American ideology, and for that reason I think P5 will probably resonate more strongly with a western audience than previous Persona games (the Bible belt notwithstanding, perhaps?). It’s also way cleaner and easier to play, which will help a lot.

I finished all but three confidants. The video game kid and Iwai I got to rank 9 and the fortune teller I got to rank 8. I probably could have finished them all if I focused on the fortune teller sooner since her abilities are so kickass, but she’s such a pain to get started. I also probably could have done Kawakami sooner to make the most of her abilities. The one I most regret not finishing is Iwai. I didn’t expect him to become such an awesome dad figure for the player. Oh yeah, and that’s one way P5 trumps P4: two cool dads instead of just one!

I ended up dating Hifumi. I liked her design, and I liked that she was willing to put herself at a disadvantage to do what’s right, which is something her and the protag have in common. Of course, my first choice was Ryuji, but alas, all teenage boys are straight I guess. I thought I would want to date Yusuke, but I ended up reading him as ace. Maybe I just wasn’t picking up on it, but nothing he said ever seemed like he was hitting on me. Protag and Akechi definitely had some tragic star-crossed lovers vibes, though. I thought about dating Futaba, but in the end she works better as a sister figure. In particular I didn’t want to interfere with her goal of being able to be okay on her own. I also see how Haru is a pretty good option, but I’m kind of turned off by how she’s the only one who has a strongly negative reaction to being turned down. Of course, I saw said reaction after already making the decision not to date her, and I can see how it could help someone’s argument that she is the best girl to date because she likes you more. Makoto was another girl I considered dating, mostly because I love a girl who can beat me up. I was not a big fan of how many adult women (four! four of them!) you are allowed to legitimately date. I don’t remember if there were any adults in P4 that were presented as date options the same way as the other characters. I only remember the nurse, who you can sleep with but not get romantically involved with, and IIRC she’s the devil arcana and the whole thing feels kind of intentionally shady. It seems like that was a gateway to just not caring at all about appropriate age differences. Thanks Persona! At least you can’t date Sae. When she comes up to you on Christmas I got really worried the game set that up for her to be a dating option, maybe just in case you hadn’t started dating anyone else yet by that point.

I like that the game is explicitly about social reform, and that it meaningfully discusses sexism and the Japanese justice system and how these things can be changed. At the same time, the game is shockingly tone deaf. Kamoshida treats Ann like a sexual object, and that’s bad, but somehow multiple anime shots panning over Ann’s boobs are fine? The maybe worst example is when they go to the beach (note: as soon as the beach was presented as a thing that exists I got ready to cringe. The beach is never fun in Persona) and the boys go off to get girls, because of course they do, and they approach and hit on a bunch of random girls, because who doesn’t want to be approached by a group of boys when you’re by yourself? And then when they fail they return to Makoto to see HER getting harassed by some dude, and when he finally leaves everyone agrees that he was a bad guy and what he was doing was shitty, with no self-awareness that that was what they were just doing to other girls. I can say, at least, that the sexism and fanservicey garbage seems to have been toned way down from the last two games. I can only hope this downward trend continues.

Of course, my biggest objection is to the two stereotypical gay dudes whose only traits are that they’re really into teenage boys and are really creepy about it. Nothing about their portrayal is okay, which should be really obvious to literally everyone.

The gameplay itself is really good this time around. I love the new dungeon designs, though I still love the randomly generated dungeon crawling as well and am glad the game has both. I also feel like I benefited a lot from having played not only P3 and P4 but also SMT Nocturne. I was really bad at P3 when I played it, and I thought I was pretty good at P4 but I’ve improved even more. I did not feel this powerful with this cool of a Persona set at the end of either of those games. Nocturne also made me appreciate how much more like SMT this game is compared to P3 and P4, particularly the last stretch of the game, as well as all the stuff around demon negotiation and whatnot. If you’re up for a more traditional RPG experience, I’d recommend playing Nocturne. You’ll appreciate P5 more for it.

In the end, I’d probably give P5 a 9/10. I think the series is (mostly) moving in the right direction, and I’m excited for P6, though I guess we won’t see it until they’re done milking the P5 cash cow. I wouldn’t mind a sequel starring Morgana, though. With the hints at the end about how if Morgana became a human he’d be a lot like protag, I can see Morgana achieving that dream and becoming a resident of the velvet room himself ala Aigis in The Answer.

Now that I’m done this long, long adventure I should take some time to do actual life stuff, but there are still more games on the horizon. I’m still not done Persona Q, though I am trucking along slowly but surely. I also have Tokyo Mirage Sessions waiting for me, and I can get SMT 1 on my phone, so I’d like to play that at some point, too.

[dlamp-dictator]

Allen Rambles About Persona 5

AKA Allen’s Ramblings XVI, but... well, you guys know by now how I do things when tagging fandoms and everything. Anyway, I’ve played about 30 hours of Persona 5 and wanted to give my thoughts so far.

Now, I have been waiting to get my hands on Persona 5 for years. This game was suppose to come out years ago and we in the States finally have it. I gotta’ say, I was salivating when my preorder came in on time for once. The artbook, the CD, the Morgana Plushie, it just felt so unreal to have it all in my hands... but enough gushing and onto my thoughts. I’ll try to keep spoilers vague, but keep in might I’m at the third main dungeon by now. I know the Persona series is really big on not spoiling story-related matters, so I’ll be polite and tried my best to keep things general. Like when I talked about Tales of Berseria I’ll be breaking this down into the good points and not so good points, but first I need to talk about...

The Aesthetics

Oh Lord the aesthetics of this game. The cell-shaping, the red motif, the slickness of movement, the music. Everything just feels so smooth. Hell, this is gonna’ be a new tag for the blog now these are aesthetics are so good. I can’t just stick this one category and call it done, I need give this its own header to break down all I love about how this game looks and feels.

Relateable Topics

I have to say, I’m surprise how much I connected with a lot of the events happening in the game. This isn’t a story about accepting death, this isn’t a story about solving a murder, this is a story about kids trying to fix what they believe is a broken, corrupt world, and dammit you can just relate to that. Before you even begin the game it tells you none of the events in it are related to real life or real people, but Atlus is lying through their goddamn teeth if they think I couldn’t see this stuff happening for real if it hasn’t already. I won’t say what exactly happens, but every scandal that’s uncovered, every problem that’s seen, every case that’s been discussed in this game you can actually see happening in real life. Hell, I’m sure you could look online and see some articles talking about this stuff even here in the US. I won’t spoil anything yet, but... just trust me on this on.

Character Designs

The character designs look fantastic. I love everyone so far in both casual and Phantom Thief attire, with Ryuji and Morgana having my favorite designs. And I have to say, I’m rather surprised how much I like these two specifically, but I’ll get more into that later. Despite having a large amount of black for most characters, the designs really pop out. I’d say that’s due to a lot of the backgrounds being brightly colored, but still. I can’t wait to see other party members and how they look in game. The art book only does so much.

The Artbook

Not much to say here save for making a pun. The Aesthetics art book is... just a really good artbook with a lot of sketches, concept designs, and references in it. It’ll totally help for if I want to do fan art of these characters. And unlike SOME GAMES *cough*trailsofsteel*cough* this game doesn’t have blatant spoilers in their artbook and interviews. So yeah, points for the artbook, real nice.

THE MUSIC

I. Love. This. Soundtrack. I’m not music elitist, but the one thing that just makes me go nuts for any song is solid, audible bass, jazz, and brass. It’s why Persona has always had good music to me, and this entire soundtrack just hits every note in just the right way. This soundtrack is so good I could just... just... [RETRACTED] all over these songs. My favorites so far as Last Surprise, Layer Cake, and Rivers in the Desert... not that I’m far enough in the game to hear that last one, but... y’know.

Okay, so that’s it for the aesthetic, now onto the good points about the game as a whole.

The Good

The Intro

Thankfully, the intro of this game is not hours of hand-holding like in Persona 4. You are right into the action, and even after the intro stuff you still get a bit of freedom to move a little. I think only after a second play-through will tell how long your hand is held and how much freedom you truly have in the beginning, but for now I say this is leagues better than P4.

The Voice Cast

I haven’t heard the Japanese dub since I’ve always been dubs-over-subs, but the voice cast in English sounds great so far. My favorite so far has actually been Morgana and Ryuji, characters I didn’t think I’d like as much as I do right now. Ryuji is just the right mix punk kid and emotional softy that makes me really warm up to him, and Morgana’s cute, but confident sounding voice goes well with her personality. Major props to Cassandra Morris for voicing her. Wait a second... didn’t she do Asahina in Dangan Ronpa? No wonder I like her performance. And special shout out to Jamieson Price as Sojiro. I may not have gotten to hear him as Tager in BBCF, but at least I have hear him in this game. And while I’m talking about the voice cast I must admit that I have mixed feelings about Igor’s voice actor, I know why his voice was changed, but... I still prefer Dan Woren. Hopefully I’ll just get use to it.

Smoother/Faster Combat

The combat has definitely improved in both animations and overall feel. On the fly Persona swapping, lightning-fast menus, flashy as hell attack animations, this game has really improved in terms of quality with it’s combat. As someone playing this game since P3, the combat in that game was fine for turn based, but with this game I’m going to have some higher exceptions for future Turn Based RPG games, and the next SMT game especially in terms how combat feels.

Improved Social Links

The Confidant system is sooo much better than the other two games. Non-Party member social links finally have a higher purpose than just giving you better Personas during fusions. It feels so good to know that my allies don’t just help me with my fusions, but in the actual story as well. From selling you health items and weapons, increasing non-active party members EXP growth, improving the Phantom Thieves PR (and making dungeons easier to traverse through), and so on. It really feels like every person gives me an edge as a rebel of society. And the stories they’re telling so far have me interested. Again, spoilers, so I won’t go into detail, but just trust me on this one.

The Not So Good

Like with my Tales of Beresia Rambling, there are still some issues/critiques I have of this game as a fan. Again, I’ve played Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 4 Arena, Ultimax, and small handful of SMT games outside of the Persona series so these might just be nitpicks, but I still think they’re worth saying. And for the folks that have seen my Berseria rambling, these points are going to be much longer and more in depth by comparison. So... let’s get started with that.

Demon conversations are still hit-or-miss with me. I like the idea of convince my enemies to my side, when it comes to fusing and hunting for the right Persona in those dungeons it can be a huge pain.

Money management is still balls hard in this game. I’d recommend demanding money every chance it comes along if you already have that particular persona and you don’t need the extra EXP. Trust me, it’ll disappear in a flash.

The early game is brutal. Story dungeon take longer that in past games, and with the small SP pool you have it’s gonna’ take several days to beat it. If you’re struggling through the first non-scripted major boss and even the boss of the dungeon, that’s normal as far as I’m concerned.

Social stats are back and they’re as annoying as ever. It was fine in P3 because their were just three and only effect you near mid/late-game. It was annoying in Persona 4 because they controlled not only social links, but better paying jobs as well (and again, money management is balls hard), as well as prevent certain dialogue options (which SUCKED). And again in this game certain dialogue options can’t be chosen if you don’t have the right stat level. This starts happening in the early game when all your stats are low, practically taunting you about your low level. That’s drives me up a goddamn wall. It doesn’t help that it took me until the second dungeon fully grasp which places upped which state and how. It took 15 hours to realize this shit... goddamn...

After playing Devil Survivor 2, seeing physical attacks that cast from HP for you not apply to your opponent annoys me to no end. This makes physical enemies very unfair and it’s part of what makes the early game so hellish. Those guys take out half your health and are still good to spam that crap.

The dungeons are a daytime option only, and that’s something that’s annoyed me since playing Persona 4. Persona 3 had this done best by having the dungeons at nighttime access, making balancing social life, grinding social stats, and grinding levels so much easier. I was hoping that’d be the case in P5 since “student by day, thief by night” was the tagline, but apparent it should be changed to “student by day, thief by the afternoon, too tired to grind social stats by night.”

As of the third dungeon, I feel like the game is really pushing me to clear the Palaces when I’m not prepared to. All my party members keep pushing me to hurry and clear them, and while that makes since in the story, it makes doing the actual prep work really hard. Also, the third dungeon/arc feels really hand-holding until the dungeon unlocked, which annoyed me a little.

Though not directly effecting the game, the whole Atlus-Streaming thing just... leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It’s a shame that those without access to the right system can’t enjoy the game with their favorite streamers/let’s players.

Yusuke’s inclusion and joining the party could had been written better, and that’s all I’ll say on the matter since I’m trying not to spoil the game past the first dungeon. Message me if you want the details.

The localization is... not good. I’m seeing a lot of “Mr., Mrs., and Miss” thrown in along with Japanese honorifics and it’s a bit emersion-breaking. A lot of the pronunciations could had been done better too. I still stand by the voice acting being good, but the directing and instructions feel a little... off. Maybe that’s because the game is based in Tokyo, which might be a little more culturally mixed, but compared to the other two games this feels messy.

A real minor nitpick, but I still have mixed feelings about the dungeon lair/prison theme of the new Velvet Room. I mean I get it, but it feels a little forced and heavy-handed to me.

So yeah, a few nitpicks aside, I’ve really been enjoying this game. If anyone has any advice for getting through the rest of the game or just some tips in general that don’t spoil the game too much please reblog and add them here. Personally, I’d wait for a guide to social linking and stat grinding before getting this game, but as a Persona fan, I say this game is good so far. Hopefully it gets better as I continue to play it.