#my buddy who got me into series says ill like p3 story a lot more so ill see~

[happiighost]

Collecting my thoughts on Persona 5

Warning this gonna be a ramble/rant/a mess, whatever you wish to call it! I beat P5 a while ago (on June 9th) and I needed to stew on it. On one hand, it was super fun and I blitzed through a big chunk of it in two weeks in late December 2023. On the other hand, a couple arcs made me stop cold for a week due to how much things annoyed me. Came back months later to start and finish the 3rd semester in 3 days.

A part does wonder if I should've spaced out playing it more but I had the free time to keep going. I ended up with 120 hours of playtime when I completed it. I do wanna go back and replay it one day. There was so much I missed because I went in blind. The one guide I did have was how to unlock the 3rd semester (AND IT STILL GOT STUFF WRONG).

So here's my weird tier list thing read more for nonsense if you want below~

Okay, I'm sure my putting Morgana as my favorite will jar many people. I started the game assuming I'd hate him, ended with him just being a little guy. Honestly, I didn't expect him to be a party member. I thought he was a mascot guy who hangs out like in magical girl shows. Ended up adoring the little dude. He is a mouthy little kid at times sure. But he's excited to show everyone the ropes. Plus his puppy crush on Ann is adorable.

Futaba is another character I only saw memes about before playing. And this girl broke my heart. She did end up reminding me a lot of myself at that age (minus the kid genius, I'm a moron). From the goofy way of talking and her awkward mannerisms. Some of it hit a too-close home, especially with her being stuck at home all day. Plus the arc of everyone taking turns to help her out of shell was super sweet. Especially her just rambling her heart out about games to Joker. The amount times I do this to my older brother about whatever I'm into atm. I do wish we got ahold of her mom's research for her at some point.

Slight tangent from the tier list but p5 felt like a very weird time capsule to me. I'm very late to this party, but the year the game came out is the year it takes place. Which means I would've been the same age as Joker. The game does date itself several times and weird looking back on it.

Now Sumi and Akechi are just in separate tiers even though they should probably be in the top tier. I started the game not caring to much but grew to really adore them! I think a replay will make me pay attention to both of them more. because I noticed more stuff was off with Sumi very early (lack of blood first awakening, her school ID having a brown hair/a mole). It just bunch clues that don't get pay off till veryyyyy late in the game.

It's pretty apparent they crowbarred Sumi in the first part of the game. I think execution wise it could adjusted a bit to work better. I still think there is more to explore like her relationship with her sister and parents. Also would've killed to go to one of her meets/competitions. I wanna be her #1 cheerleader! Would love to cosplay her thief design, Violet, one day!

Speaking of her thief design sense so much of her character is emulating others and confirmed her violet design is based off Joker as her idea of "rebellion" I really wish she got a new design to further show her coming into her own. Unless it is confirmed somewhere she really was scrapped femc at one point. There's really little reason why her outfit has nods to jokers. At least change the color scheme to be more in line with Ella and her gymnast outfit. And her persona. being based on Cinderella is an odd choice for me. I feel the better choice to keep with the trickster theme is Odette/Odile. Last I wish I had few more scenes with Maruki post her 2nd awakening.

For Akechi... One of my old coworkers compared him to Dimitri from fe3h. I love Dimitri, he's a favorite character for me. But all I knew of Akechi was that he got shipped with the Joker a lot and he's "mean/tsudere". Other than that, nothing! I didn't know he was a murder going in. So to spite said coworker I kinda went in determined to dislike Akechi for poor Dimitri comparison (said co-worker kinda like bashing me for fe3h characters I liked and overall was not the most fun talk to about games I played.).

As a result, I didn't pay much attention to him at all in early support. Further into game, i noticed more Lupin the 3rd references so i kinda wondered if he was gonna be Inspector Zenigata (who is my favorite from The Little I've Seenof Lupin the 3rd.). But he kinda off put me off because I called him forcing the prince persona from when you met him. As the game went on I figured out he was black mask and just got more and more worried about the guy. It becomes pretty obvious by Futaba Palace he's gotten himself into something he not gonna easily get out of. It's pretty clear holding back what wants to say. Even when he joins I recall very long text messages about the "motivations" of the black mask killer. It's just him spiraling into an indirect makeshift confession of his crimes.

And the third semester where he little more honest in how he acts. He is not at all what I expected, his navigator lines are indeed hilarious to me (the delivery is similar to Hubert from fe3h they share eng voice actor) for the most part he gets the ball rolling and helps spearhead the 3rd-semester palace heist. He's very blunt but I wouldn't call him "tsundere" or "crazy" at all. He has trust issues for sure but The navigator lines seem to exception, as he comes off pretty level-headed outside of combat. He is very upset at the fact he got left off easy, he wants to face the consequences of his actions and works to make sure it happens. I really ended up adoring him sumi by the end of the game Though I still don't think Dimitri's comparison is apt. Besides the hair?

I have so much to say about akechi and sumi but I'll stop here!

This is more of an issue I have with the player/writing but you really can't reach out properly to any of the cast. Joker kinda feels like he's stuck as a rule of cool protag. So it seems a lot of the cast is talking at him. It's like the devs were a little torn on what direction to go with him. He's more like the smug scheming Lupin the 3rd vs gentlemen thief angle of the OG Arsene (and Miyazaki's Lupin 3rd run as well). So they kinda don't wanna make the player feel bad at any point if that makes sense. It's nice to see the original director did see this issue and fixed in his newest game metaphor (voice acting does wonders yall)

Even if you as the player get to point out stuff like where you need to go next. The game has to stop you until another character (generally Makoto) gives you the green light. The game seems to have a bad habit post Makoto joining, of having her and Futaba just info dump on the player which extenuates the issue. The only time they kinda dump an explanation I didn't see coming was how the whole interrogation room stunt worked. I'm honestly very surprised there wasn't more emotional fallout from said stunt. I know it's based on an actual Arsene Lupin story but one of the moments in the game post the reveal I was taken aback by.

I think my biggest issues with the game are the emotional tone and whiplash it can have from arc to arc. The support lines feel separate from the characters in the main story (even though they continue to lose ends from their initial arcs). I get there are a lot of characters to balance and some do end up fading in the background if they aren't stuck expositing the next plan at you. But it feels certain comedy moments really shouldn't have happened due to what occurred in the previous arc and in character support links.

There is also the issue of the game being very... aimed at the male audience. The first arc has the main antagonist a predatory adult sexually assaulting students. But you playing as a student can romance all the older adult women. Almost every female support you have, you can also romance. There are also several points in the game where you can pick a girl and go on a date or go with ryuji to hit on women who don't wanna be bothered. Even near the end of the game on Valentine's Day/Christmas the game hammers in how "sad or bad" it is if you choose to not romance anyone ( which I choose to do purpose). Even the way your support links with how the teacher starts to feel very invasive to her life outside of school. Ann at the start of Yusukes arc just makes me feel terrible for her.

I know I'm biased due to being a lady but it's just not cute nor funny to me guys just walk up and don't go away. I really would've been fine just sitting on the beach with Morgana or getting ice cream rather than getting forced into dates.

Well that's all for my word barf, if you read this I'm sorry. I'm not very eloquent as you can tell. Despite my complaints, i did enjoy the game i just think it has a very shakey execution on its themes for what ever plot currently demands in the moment.