#miles persona 5 playthrough

[milesofstars]

just to add to the last post i wanna mention that these are the names i used for joker and the phantom thieves... its so stupid but it makes me laugh

[unlimitedhearts]

in an effort to combine my two hyperfixations rn, this is the Insomnia Spidey trio's favourite persona games:

Peter loves Persona 3 FES. It's just hard enough that he has to keep notes about how to effectively min max his party. He's not looking up guides, he's building the optimal guides. The man makes Makoto sick on purpose to max his social stats. He's on playthrough 5 bc he refuses to cheat on his girlfriends just to max their social links. The mans has built the guide on how to fill the Persona Compendium. He laughs every time he sees Elizabeth try and go up the down escalator. He stans Akihiko and Mitsuru. He's a little bit of a stealth goth bitch. He has no sense of time management in real life, but you can bet he's got every event planned out in his days in P3 FES. That's not even mentioning the story of a protagonist giving everything he has in service of the people he loves, up to and including his life. No no reason he's mega into that. No reason at all.

Harry Osborn loves Persona 4 Golden like Yuu loves Nanako. This is his baby, that he's nurtured since the day it came out. Sad? Play Persona 4. Happy? Play Persona 4. Anxious? Time for another Persona 4 playthrough! Marie being a melancholic romantic poet speaks to his soul, and you BET he's played this game so many times that he's got the schedule down PAT for maxing out all of his social links the first go around. He keeps saying that every time he plays he finds something new to love about the game, but this is a damn lie, he knows this game front to back to sideways. Marie and Yosuke are his favourite social links.

MJ lives for Persona 2 Innocent Sin + Eternal Punishment. IT'S THE PERFECT YIN AND YANG YOU GUYS. One story leads into another, the story is about futility of high school and how hopeless time feels to the young, and then the oppressive survivalist nature of early adulthood! Min maxing is not her thing, but the mystery that surrounds the story, the characters at the heart of the plot, the idea that capricious gods play with humanity like toys as a part of a bet. All of it speaks to her rebellious nature and anti-authoritarian bent. She also loves that Tatsuya and Maya have the chance to be canonically bisexual. These games harken back to when JRPGs had good story and didn't need schedules to 'min max' your 'friendships.'

BONUS ROUND!!!!

Miles is a fresh face. He's a simple guy with simple needs. Persona 5. He hasn't played P5Royal and he's probably not gonna any time soon. He's played it fully through casually a few times. He loves the characters, he loves the idea of getting back at corruption and hitting the adults that fuck kids over where it hurts. One day he will play Royal and he will get to the second trimester, and it's going to mess him up so bad he's going to gain a hyperfixation. And Peter will see himself in his young protoge all over again, and will ask, "Hey if you want a day-by-day schedule to max out all your confidants and do all the mementos missions I wrote one. I'll send it you." Secretly tho he likes the dancing games the best. These soundtracks hit hard.

[hobie-doh]

Update as I have now played more persona, I present the Awful names I have given my protagonists

Revelations:Persona: Miles Prower (technically he was only named miles but its thoughts that count.)

Persona 2: garbage Man

Persona 3: Yo Daddy

Persona 3 Portable: Dommy Mommy

Persona 4: Sugar Baby(unfinished playthrough, would prolly name if Yu if I played again)

Persona 5: Yo Mommy (Usually Ren Sakamoto on subsequent playthroughs)

[furryprovocateur]

i really am doing way too much lately like rn my to-do list with video games is

get the platinum in persona 3 portable (only trophy left is finishing a playthrough as a guy, which involves just going to sleep and doing full moon events until i can get the bad ending)

get the platinum in kh1.5 remix ps4 (only need speedster and unchanging armor, which require another playthrough)

spider-man miles morales (apparently i'm like 66% of the way done with it but i also have to do NG+ for the platinum)

100% devil survivor 1 overclocked (not as tall of an order as it sounds considering i've already done 2/5 endings but the remaining endings all are the ones with 8th days and in naoya's case that's going to require a second playthrough for both the killing and non-killing titles)

100% devil survivor 2 (this is literally just finish up a few things i left unfinished in that game, mostly bonus bosses and daichi's "bad" ending)

A rank every resident evil 2 scenario (already have done leon B but because i'm in the mood i was gonna do them all again. i'm already in the middle of leon A atm.)

remember fire emblem?

do the rng manip in both emerald and soul silver

professor layton vs. capcom

remember dragon age?

finish some of the errant shit i was doing for retroachievements

remember street fighter iv trials?

stop dancing

remember scarface?

stop dancing

remember scarface?

[eli-i-23porfolio]

My Top 10

This list is incredibly biased by my childhood preferences and how sentimental these things are to me. I don’t want anyone to think that I am an overgrown child. I hold things that have a sentimental value to me at a higher regard than what’s “objectively” better. Production quality, budget, date of release are things that never matter when you make something that means something to someone. 

However this list is not ordered in terms of what’s my favorite because I can never pick one favorite media out of everything that’s out there.

Number 10 - Tamako Love Story

This is one of my favorite animes I watched during quarantine. I was always drawn to love stories. This movie is beautifully animated and has a very nice story and conclusion to the story introduced in the show that came before Tamako Market. 

The Official Trailer That Aired in Japan

Number 9 - The Breakfast Club

I really love this movie even though it does have it’s questionable parts, some jokes that wouldn’t be considered okay today. Regardless this movie really does mean something to me because it was one of the movies I watched before I moved to the US that introduced me to how high school was going to be. Of course that was not the case for me at all but it did help me dream and hope for a better school experience than the one I had in Turkey. 

The Original 1985 Trailer

Number 8 - Jujutsu Kaisen

This anime is also one of my favorites because i watched it during quarantine. But it means more to me because I was in an online community that talked about the show every week a new episode came out. I would be waiting for a new episode to air so I could go online and talk about it. I made a lot of friends that way, people my age, and I really liked hearing other people’s opinions. It made the show more meaningful and real to me. 

Jujutsu Kaisen Opening Theme Song 

Number 7 - Carry On

This is one of my favorite books. I loved reading it, it was tense, full of lore, and had great characters and one of the best and worst endings I’ve ever seen. I think it’s one of the only books I finished in one sitting. It was 530 pages long. 

A Really Cool Fanmade Trailer That’s Sadly In Spanish

Number 6 - 10 Things I Hate About You 

Again this is one of the movies that I watched and believed the US to be like. I idolized this movie, thinking the exact same thing would happen to me. It didn’t but watching this movie always makes me feel better, no matter how much I’ve memorized it up until now. I also love the actors in it, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Julia Stiles.

The Original 1999 Trailer

Number 5 - Markiplier

Unlike the other things on this list, Markiplier is a real person, who’s my favorite Youtuber ever. I watched him alongside Jacksepticeye when I was small, from age 9 and so on. I never stopped watching him, even after seeing how he changed throughout the last 9 years, I still enjoy his content a lot. And if I ever do stop watching him, I will have so much respect for him for being such a great person and content creator.

His Latest Theatrical Movie Trailer

Number 4 - Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse

This movie is one of my favorite animated movies of all time. The animation is incredible, after watching videos about the process of making this movie I was so impressed. The artstyle and the color palette makes it so fun to watch. The voice acting is so good. Not to mention I have always been a Spider-Man fan, more specifically Miles Morales fan after having read the book about him. 

Official 2018 Trailer

Number 3 - Persona 5 

Persona 5 is a Japanese RPG game that is about a group of Japanese high schoolers who fight demons at night. It’s very anime-like. The game itself takes about 100 hours to complete. It took a very very long time to come out, because of Atlus’ perfectionism. Because it had mature themes I couldn’t play it when I wanted to, in seventh grade. Therefore I watched a youtube playthrough. That whole year I would watch it whenever I could. I loved the characters and the story. And I loved going online and seeing art that was made by fans about the game.

Official Trailer

Number 2 - Life Is Strange

Life Is Strange is my favorite game of all time. If I wasn’t so sentimental about it, it wouldn’t even be on this list. This game came out a day before my 10th birthday. I begged my parents to let me buy it after seeing the trailer. And I played the first part of the game a million times. The art style, music, voice acting, and the heart of this game is so amazing. Especially the music and the visuals, it’s basically a visual dessert. It has gotten its criticisms over the years and I understand and agree with them completely but it still makes me so so happy that I can never imagine ever forgetting it.

Official Trailer

Number 1 - 6Teen

6teen is number one on this list because unlike everything else on here, I have been actively watching this show in the last few weeks. It helped a lot as background noise when I did homework but still is so fun to watch. I first watched this show in my junior year and I have loved and rewtached it so many times since then. The show has so much heart and has such realistic characters that it’s scary. It makes me sad now how I never experienced being sixteen the same way they did but at least watching the show helped me feel that. 

6Teen Theme Song

[loreweaver-universe]

And that’s where I was told to split the episode.

This should be interesting.  I can’t imagine Luz gets accepted into the school, of course, so this is likely a short visit, but the three witch kids seem like they’ll be important recurring characters, so they’re going to have adventures outside the school with her.  I wonder if Amity will remain an antagonist or not.

I’m going to take a break for a few minutes and then dive right in to the second half of the episode.  See you in a few!

IN OTHER NEWS:

I recently completed my blind playthrough of Persona 5 Royal!  You can see the full playlist of those streams by clicking here!

I recently completed my blind playthrough of Metroid Dread!  You can see the full playlist of those streams by clicking here!

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OTHER PEOPLE YOU MAY ENJOY:

I may have been one of the earlier Steven Universe liveblogs, but a whole community of livebloggers has sprung up over the last six years!   I linked to a bunch individually for a few wrap-ups, but honestly, this end-slate is already eight billion miles long, so I’m just gonna link to my links page.  Click here if you want recommendations of other livebloggers, or other neat people, or webcomics and podcasts that I recommend.

[mejomonster]

Gonna be honest with you, I'm picky about who I watch any letsplay from so I just watched a silent letsplay. I looked around for non-silent letsplays before but they all personally annoyed me lol. :/ If you prefer to have people saying the dialogue and joking around, Press Buttons 'n Talk's letsplay is pretty well known in the fandom. I've never watched them before but I've heard some voice clips so give them a try if you want.

For a silent letsplay, there are many, but Noire Blue is the one I watched! The videos aren't hours long and are usually under 30 minutes so it's not overwhelming and they let the dialogue go slow enough for me to read.

Also I remembered there are a lot of side games in the series that aren't related to the main plot so if you'd like I can point out which games go in order and which ones are just side games (without giving spoilers of course lol). It's fine if it's not necessary. :)

thank you for this!!

Thank you for the Noire Blue channel recommendation I will go find them and bookmark them!

I sometimes like commentary when its either you know delving into themes a bit, or in this game's case doing voices, so I've been checking out Press Buttons n' Talk's playthrough so far. There's appeal to both kinds of lets plays though!

(Very slimly related but if anyone happens to be into the Shin Megami Tensei games, and/or knows/is learning japanese, there's a bunch of wonderful playthroughs on youtube of the games in japanese where the player just reads the dialogue but no additional commentary - which is nice if you're reading skill isn't quite to listening, or if you wanted to hear what audio with those games might be like since they don't have voiced lines in the original... a lot of the older SMT games are on youtube in this format. Search name and 実況プレ. Update, there's some lets plays like this in english. AgentShades has uploaded a voice-over Persona 2 Innocent Sin lets play with the grinding cut out which is quite cool).

From Wikipedia:

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is the first entry in the series. It was originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2001 in Japan;[1] it has also been released for the Nintendo DS in 2005,[18] Microsoft Windows in 2008,[19] and the Wii and iOS in 2009.[20][21]

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All was originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2002 in Japan;[22] it has also been released for the Nintendo DS in 2006,[23] Microsoft Windows in 2008,[19] the Wii in 2010,[24] and iOS in 2012.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations was originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2004 in Japan;[25] it has also been released for Microsoft Windows in 2006,[26] the Nintendo DS in 2007,[27] and the Wii in 2010.[28]

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney was released for the Nintendo DS in 2007 in Japan[29] and in 2008 in the West,[30][31] for iOS and Android in 2016,[32][33] and for Nintendo 3DS in 2017.[34]

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies was originally released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013 in Japan, North America and Europe; outside of Japan, it was given a digital-only release.[35][36] It has also been released for iOS in 2014,[37][38] and Android in 2017.[39][40]

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2016 in Japan, North America and Europe. Like Dual Destinies, it was given a digital-only release outside Japan.[5][10] It was released for iOS and Android in 2017.[41]

I am guessing, main series wise, I can just look these up in order if I'd like to watch the lets plays? Alternatively I am excited to see some of these say for Android which I'm assuming means I may be able to play them on my phone... (but with games like the old Final Fantasy's its not generally recommended to play them on phone its a nightmare)

This is what I got from wikipedia for Side Games:

Spin-offs[edit]Ace Attorney Investigations series[edit]

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is the first entry in the Investigations spin-off series. It was released for the Nintendo DS in 2009 in Japan[7] and in 2010 in the West;[42] it has also been released for Android and iOS in 2017.[43][44]

Ace Attorney Investigations 2 is the second entry in the Investigations series. It was released for the Nintendo DS in 2011 in Japan;[8] it has also been released for Android and iOS in 2017.[45] It has not been released in the West and is the only game in the series that has not had an official English language translation.[46]

The Great Ace Attorney series[edit]

The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures is the first entry in The Great Ace Attorney series.[47] It was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2015 in Japan;[6] it has also been released for Android and iOS in 2017 in Japan.[48][49]

The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve is the second entry in The Great Ace Attorney series.[50] It was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2017 in Japan;[11] it has also been released for Android and iOS in 2018 in Japan.[51]The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is a compilation of both Adventures and Resolve released in July 2021 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Microsoft Windows. This was the first time both games were made officially available outside of Japan.[52]

Professor Layton crossover[edit]

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is a crossover between Ace Attorney and the Professor Layton series. It was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2012 in Japan[9] and in 2014 in the West.[53]

I am. Mildly confused because I only own playstation (my computer is too weak to play games, have no nintendo stuff etc), and it appears a Side Game is all I could play on ps4 but I thought there was a main-game compilation on ps4 mm.

If I may ask, do you have any favorite Ace Attorney games I may want to check out first? (I am guessing the main series? and maybe your favorite spin offs... I will probably go for the main series first just in order)

Unrelated, but if you have ever played Kingdom Hearts you know how complicated trying to figure out the order games go in plot wise versus play-wise can be adkdjfdjfj, I am making the guess that like KH its better to just try to play/check out Ace Attorney in Release Order main story wise.

Also. I heard there's an anime??? I know there's a musical as well.

[blurred-inventory]

game fandoms that I’ve watched

yes I do mean “watched” and not “played”. i jump from fandom to fandom quickly and haven’t invested time into actually acquiring and playing these games (...yet). so i watch let’s plays, YouTube links below. i’m a sucker for story so these all have visual novel aspects. SungWon’s (ProZD) voice acting is awesome and really elevates some of the dialogue.

*** mild spoilers for Ace Attorney, Danganronpa ***

*** major spoilers for The World Ends With You, Persona 5 Royal ***

Ace Attorney - Press Buttons ‘n Talk playthrough

look at Phoenix and Miles adopting all these children. it’s heartwarming heartwrenching drama mystery. also i’m a sucker for a good “redemption” arc, in that “i know i’ve done bad things and now i try to do good things” way.

Danganronpa - ProZD Plays Games w/Jay playthrough

hoo this is intense psychological mystery. locked into a school death game with a “set” amount of peers and betrayal lurking around every corner. the trauma of murder and trials with your peers. the overarching theme of despairing and finding hope anyways. 

The World Ends With You - fanfiction

the youth in late 2000s urban aesthetic and pop soundtrack. still new to the fandom but Neku and Joshua’s dynamic looks interestingggg. Joshua is so annoying and the fact that Neku actually shows that annoyance. idk it’s funny. plus imagine ascending to be a god. like what.

Persona 5 Royal - CrystAAHL’s playthrough

the slick aesthetics caught my eye (the art style! the colors! the symbolism! *swoons*)! and then the storyline whacked me with Akechi Goro, teenage hitman and detective. *makes grabby hands* plus the soundtrack is groovyyy.

[mello-may]

🔥 Persona 5 or 3 or both

Hmm. Can't decide. Here's a list of hot takes.Persona 3 is my second least favorite. I love the characters, and the story is good, but the pacing is awful for the middle part of the game, the dungeon crawling can be boring, and combat can be frustrating, though not as bad as everyone says. P3P some stuff but I don't like some of it tweaks and presentation. Wish there was a best of both worlds.That being said the game is good. Great even. It's just Ive never really done a second playthrough because its inferior in many ways to 3 and 4, and doesn't have the amazing story telling of 2. But hey, what does?---The Answer is good. Fight me.---Fuuka's english voice acting is horrendous but she's still one of the best characters. ---While P5 does retread a lot of P4's story beats, it does it all a lot better and seems to go the full mile. Without spoiling much, the Dojima interrogation in P4 pails(?) in comparison to Akira's interrogation and an earlier confrontation with Sojiro. So the recycled story isn't a problem imo.---Haru is great in every aspect. She also breaks my heart when I break her heart.---Akechi felt a little rushed. I feel like there could have been a lot of value in elaborating on his wild card power and leaving the potential for him to rejoin. In the end i think they did a good job, but it was a waste to just drop him after the big reveals in The Ark.

[askagamedev]

Some Thoughts on Mass Effect: Andromeda

I’m finished with Mass Effect Andromeda and did a reasonably complete playthrough of it. I know that some folks like to read my thoughts on things, and the game’s reception has been mixed. This is not a comprehensive review, but it is a few observations that stood out while I was playing the game. I’ve been meaning to write this for some time, but then Persona 5 claimed my soul and I’ve only recently managed to extricate myself from that particular rabbit hole. I do plan on, eventually, writing some thoughts on P5 as well, but today you get MEA.

#1. Open-ish World is the new normal

Dragon Age Inquisition won Bioware a huge amount of faith from EA, and Mass Effect Andromeda was clearly designed to capitalize on DAI’s success. Exploration of new worlds is the core of the game. MMOG-ish quests continue to draw the player through new environments and encourage the exploration of large world maps. A variety of subsystems such as alien sudoku, scanning environmental objects for information, and driving a space car up mountainsides provide different things to do in between shooting and using various powers to kill bad guys. The new jump jet feature is a fantastic addition to the gameplay, especially in multiplayer. Locomotion just feels better due to this additional degree of freedom. There are a few issues with the jumping granularity on small ledges, of course, but the better handling of verticality in the environments adds a sense of satisfaction in the field distinctly lacking from DAI and previous Mass Effect games.

Pacing in the open world environments is also improved. The environments were designed with a sense of enormous scale in mind, similar to the planets of Star Wars: The Old Republic, and it helps reinforce the feeling of exploration. The ancient ruins are cavernous, building interiors are often large enough to drive a car through, and everything feels huge and open to the point of being able to see a landmark in the distance and head towards it from what feels like miles away. In that respect, MEA follows many of the classic environmental design patterns found in theme parks. Wherever the players are on the map, they can usually see at least one or two landmarks or points of interest to draw them towards it. This way, they never feel lost.

Generally, I found the world design better than DAI. The explorable planets felt mostly distinct from each other (aside from the two desert planets), I always had something interesting nearby that I could spot and visit, and they didn’t feel like the too-dense content trap of the Hinterlands, or extraordinarily sparse like the Hissing Wastes. I think the best part was that there were things to do on each planet after the initial visit, encouraging players to return later for additional gameplay. It was a good way to leverage content for further reuse.

#2. Growing Pains and Rough Edges

Obviously, creating large amounts of modular, disposable content to populate open worlds isn’t without its issues. Because there’s so much content that needs to be built and placed for an open world game, quality of each individual piece of content will suffer. That was clear in DAI, it’s clear in Bethesda’s open world games, and it’s certainly on full display with MEA. There are a large number of small bugs and issues, and the overall effect is the feeling of an unpolished game experience overall. 

These aren’t limited to any one particular field either; there’s plenty of issues with animation, scripting, texturing and lighting, visual effects, cinematics, enemy spawning, AI, UI, and so on. I’m purposely not using the term “bug” here, because some of these issues are clearly intentional. There were problems with dangling plot threads that were simply ignored, such as the Jien Garson/Eidetic Memory Trigger story bits. There were issues with social things like the introduction of the trans character on Eos. None of the squadmates feel particularly distinct in combat - I never felt a reason to bring Cora over Drack or encouraged to pair Vetra with Jaal outside of narrative reasons, and I feel like that’s a real lost opportunity because the squadmates have no distinct roles in gameplay other than “primer of combos” and “detonator of combos”. Overall, the game shows a general lack of polish.

#3. Trying hard is not a bad thing

For all of the negative reactions to aspects of the initial game, I think that the team has done some really good things to improve on the open world experience and formula since Dragon Age Inquisition, and I am looking forward to what they do next. I do think that the general quality issues show that there were some problems with scoping, and I do hope that the production team at Bioware scopes more aggressively in the future. But I do think that they’ve been improving their work as time has passed, and the general issues with MEA were much smaller in terms of scope (but not quantity) compared to DAI. Many of the issues I had with DAI were structural, like the distribution of content or the problems with the tactical camera. These are not small problems that could easily be solved, and would require planning and foresight earlier on in development. MEA’s problems are generally more superficial than DAI’s; it’s just that there are just so many of them. 

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent questions: The FAQ

[milesofstars]

Im just a little bit ahead of u in Persona 5 Royal (im on the palace after the casino) but still very happy to find someone also playing thru this for the first time 😂

Now I did get a spoiler on a couple things but I won't share them. But I did wanna ask u: who r u romancing?? (Since akechi isn't an option) And so far who's ur favorite persona??

Also there's hidden content after the palace I'm on rn only available if u max out the councilor and faith confidants (also get akechis as far as u can). I won't say anything else tho

ty for the ask!! its also super cool for me to find others still playing it since it feels like most ppl who are fans have already completed the game!

im not really that bothered about romancing anyone (if only we could romance men...) so im just kinda deciding as i go, but if i was to romance anyone it would probably be makoto just cuz i love her sososo much and im on a pretty high rank with her anyways.. it may be because i relate to her a lot but thats not important...

as for the personas i dont actually pay a lot of attention to them since they only appear in battle and im mostly focused on using the right moves, but i like arsène a lot since hes a reference to arsène lupin (a while ago i read a bunch of arsène lupin stories compiled in a book and the amount of references to him in this game make me super happy, i lent the book to my friend but im hoping to get it back and reread it soon)

if you mean to use in battle, i change them up quite a bit so im not sure..

ive been using guides for the confidant sections since i wanna try get the most out of my playthrough and i only realised councillor had to be level 9 by 11/18 when it was already like 11/08 and i panicked but i think i might be able to clutch it... possibly...! akechi is already at 8 since i spent every chance i could with him LMAO

[oumakokichi]

i saw your ask explaining the 'duality' motif running throughout ndrv3's cast, and its honestly super fascinating! would you mind explaining why harumaki, momota, kaede, shinguuji, kirumi, and hoshi follow that kind of theme? (i know it's a lot, but i am SUPER curious about it.)

No problem! That ask was a really fun one to answer and it’sone of my favorite ongoing themes with ndrv3! I absolutely love that the whole “liar”and “duality” aspect of each character was something so prominent that theyeven decided to emphasize it by giving each character’s shadow the whole “ominouspurple eyes” thing in the opening.

Also, here’s the first question for anyone who might’vemissed it! It ties in with what I’ll be talking about in this one quite a lot.

Maki is a fairly easy one to start with. Although she seemsstraightforward, cold and emotionless and off-putting at first glance, there’sso much going on under the surface with her. Where most people guessed that shewould be the Kirigiri-like figure of the story due to the sprite similaritiesbetween them and her “main girl” vibe, she actually lacks the cool composureKirigiri has, and is hardly the thinking or rational type.

Where Maki seems composed and emotionless at first glance,she’s actually highly emotional. She’s one of, if not the most temperamentalcharacters in the entire ndrv3 cast—and unlike Momota, whose temper tends toboth flare and recover quickly, Maki’s tends to flare bright and then stayburning for a while. Her anger has very real and dangerous consequences to it,because it’s a very cold, committed anger: she knows how to kill, and she’s notafraid to do so.

It’s easy to see where the duality lies with her whenlooking at her talent especially. She’s also one of the many characters inndrv3 with two talents, or rather, who lies about her first talent. The juxtaposedimages of Maki’s lie about herself as the SHSL Caretaker, as well as her realtalent as the SHSL Assassin, are interesting—because the first title isn’t entirely a lie. She does enjoy takingcare of children, and it’s true that she values and misses the orphanage morethan anything else about her life before becoming a trained killer.

There’s a very real side to Maki that is lost and insecureand unsure of where she’s heading, because she’s never been allowed to decideor want things for herself. And that aspect of her is almost childlike in howunaware of things she is, unfamiliar even with what the feeling of falling inlove is like, or what it’s like to actually have friends. This uncertain,hesitant Maki is just as real a part of her as the brutal, well-trained killeris, causing a very noticeable streak of duality which becomes apparentespecially in Chapter 5 when we see her break down and confess her feelings toMomota just before he dies.

With Momota, most of his duality lies between the role hesets himself up to be in the group vs. the lengths he’s actually willing to go inorder to back up the things he’s said. He very much acts the part of theshounen protagonist, especially at first. He wants nothing more than to serveas a very Kamina-like figure, an inspiration to other people in the group likeSaihara and Maki who can help bring them out of their shells and get them to “believein the him that believes in them,” etc. But as ndrv3 shows (much better thandr3 ever did), it’s one thing to say something hopeful and inspirational, andit’s another thing entirely to mean it.

Momota has a very real streak of jealousy to him, which I’vediscussed a little bit before, something which still very much reminds me ofsimilar character arcs for Junpei and Yosuke in Persona 3 and 4 respectively.It’s true that Momota wants the best for Saihara and wants him to become abetter detective and a stronger person overall. But it’s also true that it’shard to accept that that’s exactly what Saihara is doing when it means havingto doubt and suspect the others around them. Momota wants to believe in everyone, and that’s just not somethinga detective can afford to do—something Momota didn’t actually consider prior toChapter 4, where it was made painfully clear with Gonta’s case.

There’s also the matter of his illness. Despite his claimsthat they should all talk openly and honestly 100% of the time, and his outspokenhatred for Ouma’s lies as “messing around like a brat,” Momota isn’t nearly ashonest as he wishes he could be. His illness is something which would threatento unbalance the group if they knew about it, particularly after having triedso hard to become a leader and an inspiration to them all. And so Momota,despite his outward honesty, is much more secretive than he would initiallyseem. But this secretive streak is also something that serves to counter hisusual hot-headedness, and is one of the biggest reasons in my opinion that hewas actually willing to rethink his previous opinions and cooperate with Oumain Chapter 5.

Kaede’s streak of duality is really fun because it becomesso much more apparent on a reread. Very much like Momota, we’re initiallyinclined to take Kaede as she seems at first glance: a gung-ho, take-chargeprotagonist who is optimistic and inspiring and generally willing to believethe best of others in order to get them to work together. There was thisfeeling with Kaede, both in the demo and the early parts of Chapter 1, thateven if she was sly and willing to lie in order to do what it took in thetrials, she would still be honest with her feelings and with us, the players.

But all of that gets blown out the window by the twist inChapter 1, not to mention the later reveals in Chapter 6 that Kaede wasn’tnearly the optimist or the group leader that she wished she could be. Kaede’sskepticism and inability to fully trust people around her was something verymuch inherent to her personality—not even the remember lights could fullybrainwash it out of her, and it’s exactly why she’s so incredibly secretivewith her plan to try and kill the ringleader.

Despite her claims of wanting everyone to work together,Kaede couldn’t work together with anyone. This is something lampshaded, as Oumacalls her out on it, but of course, Ouma seems so needlessly antagonistic on afirst playthrough—but in hindsight, it’s easier to see that he’s actuallyright. She couldn’t work together with anyone, not even Saihara. Kaede wasfully unable to trust anyone or let anyone in because of the horrible paranoiacaused by the killing game itself, quite similar to characters like Oumahimself, and Amami as well. It wasn’t until she was actually about to die inthe Chapter 1 trial that she came to terms with the way things were andentrusted her will to confront the truth and leave the school to Saihara,trusting him fully to make it happen.

Korekiyo is an interesting one because on the one hand, italmost seems like there’s not much duality with him because everything abouthim is so obviously sketchy. He’s pretty straightforwardly evil in terms ofmotivations; he cares nothing about anyone who isn’t his sister, takes pleasurein cruelty, and isn’t portrayed sympathetically by the narrative even once. Butagain, by scratching the surface a little, certain elements of duality arise.

Korekiyo strikes me as what I would call perhaps one of themost rational and seemingly composed characters in the game most of the time. Whenhe’s not actively planning to murder anyone himself, he’s quite intelligent,actually—he’s one of the only characters who actually suggested that theringleader themselves was responsible for Amami’s death in Chapter 1. Becausehe’s quick to doubt others, he’s not one to fall into the “hope vs. despair”pitfalls that the others do. His doubtful nature actually makes him fairlyperceptive, and if he hadn’t been set on murdering for unrelated reasons toMonokuma’s motives, I don’t doubt he might have made it much further into thegame than he did.

But the thing with him is, despite his rationality, hisdubious nature, and his obvious intellect, he’s willing to be extremelyreckless on exactly one front: his sister. His composure and self-preservationinstincts melt away entirely in the face of his completely delusional andself-imposed motive of killing 100 young women in order to resurrect hissister. And he knows that this is a huge risk to take within a killing gamewhere getting caught means being executed, and he continues to do so anyway. It’sa fact that most of the clues for Angie’s murder actually come from Tenko’scase later on, and that he would’ve stood a much better chance at getting awaywith things had he limited himself to killing only one person.

But this uncharacteristic reckless abandon pretty muchdefines him when you bring his sister into the picture. Just as he becomes ashaking, incomprehensible mess when cornered, and retreats into terrifyingdelusions of being possessed by his sister’s ghost when taking off his mask, he’sincredibly reckless, dangerous, and willing to kill for reasons that havenothing to do with the killing game itself—an interesting twist in a way, sinceI don’t think something like that has really been done in any previous DRgames. Syo never killed anyone, after all, and she was our other big serialkiller character.

Kirumi’s duality is most easily seen right at the end ofChapter 2. I think a lot of the split reactions many fans have had on how totake her explanation of her motives summarizes it best. With Kirumi, there isvery much this selfless streak a mile wide willing to throw away her ownemotions and thoughts and preferences if it’s “for everyone else’s sake.” It’strue that she believes selfless devotion is the best creed for a maid, and thatshe works hard to accomplish this goal, even if it means sacrificing a fewlives for the sake of many.

It’s also true, however, that people don’t alwaysnecessarily live up to their creeds. Just as Kirumi was (for her in-gamebackstory anyway) a selfless maid who worked as the shadow prime minister ofJapan and for the good of the country, she was also a high schooler, a teenagedgirl. Kirumi’s outward loyalty gives her an aura of seeming honesty, which iswhy it’s so hard for the rest of the group to believe that she could possiblybe the culprit at first, even when all the evidence stacks that way. She’s sogood at emotional manipulation and lying her ass off, and telling them how of course she would never do something likethat, she cares about them so much, can’t they see that?

This willingness to do absolutely anything that it takes is,I believe, as much for survival’s sake as it is for “the good of the country.”After all, she wholeheartedly believes that she can’t do anything for anyone ifshe herself is dead, and that’s why she has to survive at all costs. But thereare so many lingering questions, intentionally I think, of where the line isdrawn between living for the sake of selfless duty, and living because youdesperately want to live and you’re terrified of death.

Kirumi was willing to kill Ryouma brutally, taking advantageof him when his back was turned—what’s more, she was willing to lie to everyoneelse about it. She was willing to keep lying even after the trial was over, shevoted for Saihara out of spite at having been caught in the act, and she kepttrying to manipulate everyone into laying down their lives for her so that sheherself could get away and survive. All of these things create an interestingjuxtaposition of Kirumi’s very real, very well-meant urge to take care ofpeople and sacrifice herself for people, as well as her cutthroat, cold,calculating willingness to do anything and lie about it in ways very much meantto appeal to people’s emotions, rather than their rationality.

Finally, with Ryouma, we have an interesting character witha lot of duality. There’s so much to talk about with him in particular, thoughI know this particular meta is getting long already. First off, there’s thefact that he was clearly meant to resemble an “obvious joke character” with hisdesign. Similarly to Yamada and Teruteru, I feared prior to the game’s release thathe wouldn’t be given much more purpose than to make gross jokes and behave obscenelytowards the other characters. And yet, he’s one of the most down-to-earth,level-headed, and well-intentioned characters in the entire group.

His entire character arc deals with very serious themesabout wanting to die and what it means to find a purpose in life. He has ahorrible, tragic backstory which really isn’t funny no matter how you look atit, and it’s left him miserable and depressed and suicidal. And this is a veryserious character arc which ties in quite well with ndrv3’s larger overarchingthemes of “meaningless lives” and children who are willing to throw their livesaway entirely for the sake of participating in the killing game show in thefirst place.

There’s also the matter of Ryouma’s dual talents. Neithertalent is a lie—he really does just have two, since his SHSL Tennis Player talentis something he “discarded” willingly when he left his life of playing tennisbehind in order to go hunt down the mafia that killed his family. His SHSLPrisoner talent is never really openly talked about by the rest of the group,but it’s very fun to see it alluded to all throughout Chapter 2, especiallywith the actual reveal of his SHSL Prisoner Lab after his death. Much of Ryouma’sdesign reflects both tennis player and the prisoner imagery (the symbol on hishat can be either two tennis rackets or two handcuff keys), showing that hehimself is someone torn between two lives and unable to move forward or find areason to keep living, really.

And yet, despite having so many reasons to want to die andso little incentive to keep going in life, Ryouma is one of the characters whofights the most furiously to live anyway when push comes to shove. He wanted tosee his own motive video in Chapter 2 not in order to give in to Monokuma’smotive, but simply to see with his own two eyes whether there was anyoneimportant out there waiting for him at all. And even after seeing “proof” thatthere was “no one,” the fact that I find the most interesting is that he didfight back against Kirumi when she tried to kill him.

When she says he died willingly, it’s an outright lie.Ryouma fought back so much that he had to be handcuffed at his prisoner lab,and even when she was holding his head down in the sink to drown him, hescratched at the sides of the sink so furiously that it left scratch marks in the stone (which iskind of terrifying, really, to think about how long it must’ve taken him todie). Despite Kirumi’s claims that he had “given up” when he turned his back toher, he was a character who had not given up, despite everything. And that’sincredibly inspiring, really, and definitely proves that there was a lot moreto him than meets the eye.

In any case, this response has gotten really long so I’llleave it here for now. But thank you for letting me talk about these othercharacters! I really like getting to discuss the whole ndrv3 cast like this,and these kinds of questions are so much fun! Thanks for asking!

[artikgato]

107 hours later and I finally completed my (first) playthrough of Persona 5! I went in COMPLETELY blind, which made for a really awesome experience, let me tell you. The only knowledge I had about the plot or characters was from trailers and other promotional materials - I was, miraculously, unspoiled for just about everything going in to this game. I looked up exactly one thing during my playthrough - how to do all the fusions for the Strength arcana, because I really, really suck at figuring out fusions, lol. I only had my previous knowledge of Persona games and my own intuition to go off of. 

Without mentioning any obvious spoilers, I have to say this game is utterly fantastic and it deserves literally all of the awards, ever. The only complaints I had with it are my usual complaints about Atlus games (you can’t date the guys, they missed some obvious opportunities for character development, etc. etc.). As a GAME P5 is pretty much flawless, IMO. They took an already great UI and battle system from P4G and made it even better, to the point that going back to P4G is probably going to make it feel slow and un-intuitive in comparison. For example, I got so used to not being able to switch party members mid-dungeon, so it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that I COULD. Never mind being able to switch party members MID-BATTLE, which made my jaw drop when I unlocked that particular ability.

I was a little worried, going in, that I wasn’t going to like P5 as much as P4 because I am too attached to the cast of P4. And while I am still way too attached to the P4 cast, I really love everyone from P5 now too. Atlus did really well at giving them all very distinct personalities and making me love all of them. 

As for the story, I am SO GLAD I was able to avoid spoilers, and I will never forgive myself or anyone else if they give anyone else spoilers for this story, because it was such a rewarding experience going in blind. There were plot twists I saw coming from miles away, and it was rewarding to see those through. There were plot twists that I, well, NEVER SAW COMIIIIIIIIIING that were really great, too. I’ll probably post about one of those in particular in a separate post under a cut, because it was ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT.

This is definitely my favorite game of the year BY FAR. It’s up there as one of my favorite games of all time, though I don’t quite know if I’m willing to name it my absolute favorite just yet. I’m looking forward to the 50 spinoffs Atlus is going to give this game because it deserves it. And, even though P4 already got its spinoffs I am REALLY excited to see these kids interact with the Shadow Operatives and the Investigation Team.

[blackwaterbbq]

Highlights from my brother's persona 5 playthrough thus far: - a long, protracted discussion over rather Kamoshida's indiscretions would be so thoroughly covered up in an American high school. I argued that the only thing that would change would be that he would be a football coach. -- subtly nudging Jason to Dr Takemi's social link so I had the excuse to play SuperButterBuns 'shots' remix. -- Jason naming his super Japanese character after himself. Must be an exchange student. -- Jason raging over minor setbacks in the first dungeon on easy mode, as he does with everything he's not guaranteed to win by a mile.

[loreweaver-universe]

And that’s the episode.

Man, I am really liking this show!  It’s got great characters, great voice acting, great art, great humor...it’s just so good.

Which is why, going forward, it’s going to be a main-slate show!

Now that I’ve caught up on the Patron Picks that I owe, I’m going to spend some time focusing on The Owl House, because I like it and people want to see more of it from me.  This probably won’t be the very next liveblog I do, I plan to do March’s Patron Picks first, but once I do those?  Owl House time!  I really look forward to seeing more of Eda and Luz as I go through the show, and I am REALLY looking forward to seeing Luz learn Actual Magic.

That’ll be all the liveblogs for tonight, though.  I’ll see you guys next time for the start of Kino’s Journey episode 5, but for tonight, goodnight, and thank you to all my fans for tuning in!

IN OTHER NEWS:

I recently completed my blind playthrough of Persona 5 Royal!  You can see the full playlist of those streams by clicking here!

I recently completed my blind playthrough of Metroid Dread!  You can see the full playlist of those streams by clicking here!

If you’d like to help me pay my rent, buy me some food, or help with my bills and medicine, please use my direct donation link!  If you’d like to support me per liveblog completed every month, please pledge to my Patreon!

You should also go pledge to Gio’s Patreon, or his Sponsus–our Discord server maintenance tech and creator of Rubybot deserves far more than I can afford to pledge to him by myself.

If you’d like more of me and my content:

My Episode Lists master page, where you can find every show and liveblog I’ve done!

My Discord server, where you can come hang out with me and other fans, check out member liveblogs, and join community gaming guilds!

My Twitch channel, where I stream variety games every so often!

My Youtube channel, where you can check out past streams!

My ask blog, where you can send me questions and comments!

My Twitter, where I make announcements about liveblogs and streams!

My merch store, where you can get shirts, mugs, stickers, and more!

It’s your kindness and support that lets me do this stuff, and I wouldn’t be where I am without all of you to do it for.  Thank you all so much for your support, and for tuning in every episode!

OTHER PEOPLE YOU MAY ENJOY:

I may have been one of the earlier Steven Universe liveblogs, but a whole community of livebloggers has sprung up over the last six years!   I linked to a bunch individually for a few wrap-ups, but honestly, this end-slate is already eight billion miles long, so I’m just gonna link to my links page.  Click here if you want recommendations of other livebloggers, or other neat people, or webcomics and podcasts that I recommend.

[loreweaver-universe]

And that’s where I was told to split the episode.

Well!  This is...oof.  I got SO much secondhand embarrassment from Luz challenging Amity to a duel.  That was a rough patch that lasted MUCH longer for me because of the way I watch these episodes.

Oh, man.  All Luz can do is cast light spells, and not very quickly at that.  How is she going to overcome Amity?  I guess she could firebomb her with a giant one like she did with Eda, but how would she go about setting that up?

I wonder if there are any rules about decking your opponent in the schnoz.

That’s going to be all for tonight--I’m rapidly approaching the post limit anyways, and I want to get a good night’s sleep for tomorrow’s liveblogging.   Before I go to bed, though, a request: One of my bigger patrons ended their patronage, so I’m going to be out a fair bit of money this month. If any of you would be willing to pledge a few dollars to my Patreon, I would be endlessly grateful.  If you’re willing to shoot me a few dollars directly, that would be wonderful too!  This isn’t a super emergency or anything, but I don’t know how much less money than I was expecting I’m going to wind up getting, so please help if you can.

Thank you all for tuning in, and thank you to my 53 patrons who make it so I can do this for a living!  I’ll see you tomorrow!

IN OTHER NEWS:

I recently completed my blind playthrough of Persona 5 Royal!  You can see the full playlist of those streams by clicking here!

I’m currently in the middle of playing through Persona 4 Golden!  You can see the ongoing playlist of those streams by clicking here!

If you’d like to help me pay my rent, buy me some food, or help with my bills and medicine, please use my direct donation link!  If you’d like to support me per liveblog completed every month, please pledge to my Patreon!

You should also go pledge to Gio’s Patreon, or his Sponsus–our Discord server maintenance tech and creator of Rubybot deserves far more than I can afford to pledge to him by myself.

If you’d like more of me and my content:

My Episode Lists master page, where you can find every show and liveblog I’ve done!

My Discord server, where you can come hang out with me and other fans, check out member liveblogs, and join community gaming guilds!

My Twitch channel, where I stream variety games every so often!

My Youtube channel, where you can check out past streams!

My ask blog, where you can send me questions and comments!

My Twitter, where I make announcements about liveblogs and streams!

My merch store, where you can get shirts, mugs, stickers, and more!

It’s your kindness and support that lets me do this stuff, and I wouldn’t be where I am without all of you to do it for.  Thank you all so much for your support, and for tuning in every episode!

OTHER PEOPLE YOU MAY ENJOY:

I may have been one of the earlier Steven Universe liveblogs, but a whole community of livebloggers has sprung up over the last six years!   I linked to a bunch individually for a few wrap-ups, but honestly, this end-slate is already eight billion miles long, so I’m just gonna link to my links page.  Click here if you want recommendations of other livebloggers, or other neat people, or webcomics and podcasts that I recommend.