#persona 5 endgame spoilers

[definedvines]

pegoryu game

[rindomness]

anyway now that i got the sentimental thing out of my system here's a wip wthursday phanshuffle snippet cause i didnt have writing for you yesterday

[ajdrawshq]

still thinking abt p5 endgame (minus the third semester) like. if i had a nickel. for every game ive played. where it comes down to the main guy being the main piece in a game involving higher beings and whose actions will ultimately determine the fate of the world all while they know little to nothing about it until its almost too late. id have two nickels. which is already kinda weird

but whats weirder is id have even More nickels for every game ive played where u have to fight against the manifestation of the entire worlds negativity turned into a literal god that plans to act upon the will of what created it. what happened in 2011-2016 for that to become a recurring theme i can name at least 4 that do this that were made within that timeframe. are we like. ok. are we good

[friendbreakfast]

PERSONA 5 ENDGAME SPOILERS

the people who think Persona 5 is all about blaming societal problems on individuals straight up closed their eyes after the Shido boss battle cuz how can someone miss the point on a game that, on most people's opinions (and it's the correct opinion), is as subtle as a sledgehammer

were you even looking at the screen where Mementos Depths and the battle against Yaldabaoth happened? the game couldn't have been more blatant on the fact that even after defeating all the individual evil-doers the biggest problem was the society that caused them to get distorted, and Yaldabaoth is literally not even an individual. he's literally an allegorical (and literal) representation of society which the characters fight against.

i get that by turning Yaldabaoth into a character they did make him "an individual" of sorts, but that was the only way for the Phantom Thieves to be able to fight the abstract idea of "society's distortion and wishes". or what, did you want the game ending with you filling a bunch of paperwork and enlisting as a politician so you could make the country better? a fight with a representation of society's issues in the image of a God is waay more thrilling and serves as a good allegory for what would otherwise be really boring if it was done in a more realistic way.

[soft-serve-soymilk]

Boss fights in RPGs that give me war flashbacks

Dolphin made a really insightful and meaningful post on her side blog that was really telling and vulnerable of her :) I’m going to do the same thing but in a completely different fashion :P

Ansem, Seeker of Darkness (KH1) Back in the day (2019), I didn’t own the PS4. I played the entirety of the Kingdom Hearts series in the living room after school before my dad came home, right on the big screen. Or sometimes I got a couple of hours on the weekend. This gave me limited time and not very much privacy (but awesome sound which probably contributed to my audiophile tendencies 😅). Anyways this was problematic when I became stuck at certain sections,, namely this bitch. Because I do NOT want to be made fun of for struggling, or berated for the repetitive soundtrack. I woke up at ✨ 4 am ✨ to have time to myself to beat this motherfucker. 4 am. That was the lengths I was willing to go. Obviously it meant the sound was really quiet (if non-existent) but I still finished the game like 6:15 😅

Roxas (KH2) It took a solid nine attempts here. Yup. Nine tries. This is still the record number of attempts on a single boss fight. I was so flooded with dopamine that I had to go laugh it out in the kitchen so I could feel sad for the following cutscene 😂😂😂 This was when I was in my era of feeling bad that I couldn’t cry/empathise with a lot of media (thanks dad), so I tried to force myself to feel sad for a lot of things. I thought if I made enough of a :( face, I could trick myself into feeling things 😂 Anyways Roxas is an iconic example of my infamous awfulness at 1 vs 1 fights.

[Redacted] (Xenoblade Chronicles 1) Censored for spoilers but it’s the final boss. Another one I got up at 4 am for, to do it on a docked switch on the big screen <3 Didn’t take nearly as many attempts as Ansem, but I was still punished for being underleveled <3

Heldalf (Tales of Zestiria) Speaking of being punished for being underleveled, here’s a great example! :D First phase was simply impossible to survive with my tragically low skill level (and level in general, I start skipping fights a lot at the end of games because I get bored 😐 My intentions for YHNN are to make an endgame where this doesn’t happen) I didn’t fight a SINGLE ENEMY outside of those four minibosses in the final area :P Holy potions are mistake for people like me. Here’s a secret: I actually lowered the difficulty to beat him

Tiamat (Tales of Zestiria) War flashbacks but in a good way. I’m still impressed I was able to concentrate on whittling its health down FOR 40 MINUTES STRAIGHT. Thank god Rising Up is a great song or I would’ve died from insanity 😂😅. I think the only time I spent more than 40 minutes on a single round of a boss fight was when I attempted Kuni-no-sagiri in Persona 4 for the first time. That took an hour. Yes, in both cases, that is the degree of underleveled we are talking about. I have a serious problem with motivating myself to fight, games where you can modify exp yield without sacrificing difficulty are such a boon to me 😭

Shadow Okumura (Persona 5 Royal) You know your game design is fucked when making the difficulty MERCILESS makes the fight easier. I was actually called in to beat this one by my dad. I spent 2 hours grinding up his levels first to attempt this even 😭 And then I went to the velvet room to fix his atrocious persona situation (he BARELY fused and it showed). Relying on the DLC personas felt bad but I did what needed to be done 🫡 (I REALLY needed that maeigaon) I actually scrawled all the weaknesses of each phase on my hand to make it easier on each subsequent attempt 😭 Fuck the arbitrary time limit fr

[knightofsuperior]

Betrayal Is a Street with Multiple Exits, But I Still Think We Got off on the Wrong One Somehow

Fandom: Persona 5

Summary:

Everyone's a traitor. Some have better reasons than others.

Read the fic here and check out an excerpt/my thoughts below!

Excerpt:

Next, he looked down at the... cat-thing? “What’s your name again? Mordred?” “My codename is Mona!” The creature snapped, stomping its little feet. “You should know this by now!” “Right, right.” He stared down for a moment, before sighing. “I don't even know where to start with you. To be honest, I just presumed you were some kind of evil mascot that granted the power of Persona, only to let it utterly and completely absorb the users.” Mona balked, utter mortification on his… face? Mascot mask? He wasn’t quite sure. “Where in the world would you get that idea?!” “Anime,” came the unprompted response from Ren. “Probably a Featherman episode,” Makoto added. Futaba, still sniffling, piped up. “Y-yeah, Featherman R, Episode Fourteen.” “It was fifteen, you little—”

Author's Note: Keeping this one brief to avoid spoilers for the few folks who might not be aware of endgame vanilla P5 plot beats--but this one was inspired by a pitch I gave for a zine app that ended up being rejected. No harm, no foul--I had a fun time on this one.

[frauleinandry]

okay, so this is my promised extremely spoilery tactica review, where I'm going to focus more on the story/characters as opposed to pure gameplay! check my review tag for the spoiler-free gameplay post, and don't click on the read more if you don't want endgame spoilers.

in terms of story, i'd generally urge persona 5 fans who like tactics games to check it out, as it doesn't fall into a lot of the pitfalls people expected it to. maybe wait for a sale though, since uh... i have no idea what atlus was thinking slapping a pricetag like that on it.

as much as i love the artstyle and how much personality it portrays, visually basing tactica's visuals on the Q games meant people went into it with very certain expectations (or didn't go into it at all), which I think really, really hurt the overall reception of the game. it's a pity, since a) the art is fun, and b) like I said in my prior post, tactica is really, really fun, and pretty well written to boot. unfortunately, people assumed by default that p5t would have a cop-out ending where everything was forgotten, the phantom thieves would be reduced to caricatures of themselves, and there'd be no references to canon because atlus is allergic to spoilers in sequel games.

absolutely none of those things are true, however - in fact, unlike the Q games, tactica wouldn't have felt jarring if it used canon-typical visuals. while the Q games go to some dark places, on the whole, they're comedic in tone, while tactica is fairly sombre throughout, with most of the hijinks saved for the optional 'talk' segments.

there were also a lot of people who weren't interested in touching tactica since it wasn't a crossover, and let's be real - if it wasn't for that, the Q games... aren't super appealing. upon playing it, however, it's clear the gameplay wouldn't have worked if it was a 3/4/5 crossover - it's very heavily based on persona 5 exclusive elements such as stealth, cover, and guns.

moving away from the sad but necessary this-isn't-persona-Q-three-and-that's-a-good-thing discussion, and onto tactica itself, I was pleasantly surprised with how the P5 cast and canon in general was treated!

the vibes at the start of the game are surprisingly bleak - everyone's upset that joker is leaving soon, the pts are still shaking off maruki's reality, and the whole reason p5t happens is explicitly due to the fallout caused by shido's confession!! admittedly, i do think there should have been a few more main-game plot points specifically referenced as opposed to just alluded to, such as wakaba's death and haru's situation with sugimura, but on the whole, p5t fits into the general persona 5 narrative.

in terms of the thieves, while I'm a bit sad (if unsurprised) none of them get any real character development, I'm happy with how they were implemented. ryuji isn't reduced solely to being the butt of the joke - in fact, he's instrumental in turning toshiro's mindset around. futaba and morgana get some great moments too - like, morgana compliments ryuji during his stint as the navigator, something I wished happened in the main game!

while I do think ryuji, morgana, and futaba shine the most, haru and yusuke also have some great moments. ironically, this is the only p5 game where makoto is kinda sidelined, but given how much focus she gets in p5/strikers, i'm not too upset by that. i am a bit more upset by the fact that ann's pretty much a non-entity though.

in terms of tactica's specific story and not persona 5 stuff in general, it's good!! admittedly, most of the twists were fairly predictable, but the game is pretty frank from the get-go that the thieves are stuck in toshiro's cognitive world, which is a blessed relief. toshiro in general is just a fantastic character - his character development was so good, and as much as I love zenkichi, toshiro does the whole sad-pathetic-man to genuine-hero thing even better.

the kingdoms are an excellent dive into our favourite politician's psyche, and their use of metaphors to depict his life/relationships/trauma is really well done. i saw someone say p5t is an excellent persona 4 game, and they're right. i thought yoshiki and the second kingdom in particular were handled well - i think most people have unfortunately encountered parents/people like that.

I also think it's super fascinating how the game delves into the theme of how sentient cognitions are/can be. when I was thinking about what else atlus could do with persona 4/5 styled psyche worlds a while back, that was one of the ideas I conjured, and I'm glad to see that angle explored. like... erina doesn't feel like a fully fleshed-out human being ala toshiro, which is very fitting given she's essentially his persona, but her emotions are still treated as full and valid.

in terms of themes, I also like how tactica pretty bluntly states that standing up for the right thing can just absolutely screw you over and achieve nothing in general, but it's still worth doing regardless. it's a particularly resonant point to make given how the world has been over the last few years.

now, while this has primarily been a positive review, I do think tactica's story has some faults. the big thing is the pacing - while the first two kingdoms feel like they're roughly the right length, the third one feels pretty underdeveloped in general. like... the actual kingdom itself has no/little substance and is solely focused on toshiro flashbacks. i think it really could have been split into two kingdoms - one which was a tyrannical school led by nakabachi, and another which combines the station/hell aspects ruled by shadow toshiro.

i know some people have issues with the existence of salmael, but honestly, there needed to be some supernatural element to explain why the heck everyone ended up in toshiro's cognition. compared to some of the gods in the persona franchise, he's not the worst by a longshot.

anyway, i think that's all i've got to say right now - i'll post another one of these once i'm finished with the DLC!

[pr1ncesspopstar]

As of tonight I have watched/read/played every piece of media in relation to the base story of Persona 4 and here is just a random grab bag of thoughts from that experience. Spoilers abound, mostly for the animation and manga.

-the best way to experience the story outside of just playing the game, if you want to do what for some reason, is reading the manga then watching the Golden anime. The OG anime is a lot of mediocre to bad with pockmarks of good, not worth a full sit down.

-that said if you want to watch some of the OG anime go with all the episodes up to Yukiko being saved (1-4), mitsuo’s dungeon and the summer vacation duology right after (11-14), the justice and hierophant focused episode (18), and then all of endgame (21-26).

These episodes either do a really good job expanding on what was already there, introduce new ideas and scenarios definitely not possible within the constraints of a video game, do a super solid job covering and even improving upon iconic and memorable moments in ways only the medium of an animation retelling can provide, or just have fun or funny bits. My fave is def episode 13, where Nanako becomes a little detective trying to investigate Yu’s hectic life.

-I really appreciate how each version of Yu is wildly different in these medium’s. P4A Yu is kind of a dick and lame at many points, but has the capacity to be open hearted. Manga Yu starts as cold and distant but eventually becomes an emotional and expressive individual that fights for his feelings. And P4GA Yu feels the ‘manliest’ of the bunch with very strong convictions and a level-head with no fear to speak his mind or thoughts. A lot of tiny differences to enjoy.

-there is the consistent fear of abandonment and loss of friends in Yu’s character each series captures so differently but uses nonetheless. P4A Yu also abandons the truth because of his fear and even develops a shadow that represents that. Manga Yu goes between acting rashly and angrily or withdrawing and hiding his hurt when confronted with the possible loss. P4GA Yu gets emotional and trapped in the idea of what’s the point if he risks using everyone, feeling a burden of needing to protect those bonds at all costs.

-also the fact Yu is 100% ride or die for any wild scheme, even the ones he knows won’t work is a trait I’m glad exists in every version of him. He’s just happy to be involved.

-Also Adachi, the supplementary material really made me finally appreciate Adachi as a character. After interacting with him in the game I was never too sure how to feel about him, but the anime(s)/manga finally helped me grasp his character and how I feel about him. As well as why I see the various interpretations of him that I do.

-Marie being included in more things in the Golden animation was sorely needed and a welcomed addition. When the Investigation Team was saying how Marie is also their friend I could not help but think how the team as a whole had only met Marie around 5-6 times at most through her social link. By putting her in more major scenes this actually made her feel like an unofficial member of the group and I believed they were friends.

-I very much enjoyed the way P4GA handled the unification of Izanami’s two halves. I’m probably just a sap but I very much love concepts of accepting the rage and hate-filled parts of yourself and that binging them joy and peace, quelling that fury. Izanami can be quite the tragic character from interpretation to interpretation, so to see them take a stance where it’s not a fight but a comforting hug given by Marie to Izanami that defeats her, I’m a sucker for it.

-Yu needing to free Marie from a bamboo forest and the ultimate Persona associated with Marie being Kaguya is Good Symbolism and Foreshadowing™.

-while it was definitely only done for cool factor in the manga/anime, but within the context of game mechanics Adachi being able to control and get aid from multiple Reapers in his dungeon is mortifying.

-I have come to the conclusion Yukiko and Rise are mini-gremlins in two different fonts. Yukiko will do and say the silliest to the wildest things because it brings her joy. Rise is attention seeking in a pampered cat kind of way. I cannot expand on this sadly but I hope the vibes can be expressed.

-Naoto being very perceptive but socially oblivious and one track minded is actually quite funny and charming. This is best illustrated in the Christmas episode of which I will say no more, it’s a fun little experience.

-the ‘ame-no-sagiri’ in shadow Teddie’s head’ contributed nothing to the plot/story though. Kinda actually takes away from shadow Teddie tbh but that’s more a nitpick than anything.

-the anime shadow fights are good, but they are GREAT in the manga. They feel so much more personal and productive than ‘beat the thing so it goes back to normal so you can accept it,’ while also carrying they same wonderful flow and dynamics you can see in the animation.

I might post more thoughts if I have any later. I could do an analysis but tbh I would just be repeating what a lot of people have already gone over. I’d rather focus on my own projects because this means now my research is done and I can start writing my fanfiction! I’ll talk about that more later. Can’t wait to share it~

[mycomicbox]

Random Thoughts on Persona 5 Royal - Part 1

[Progress: May 2nd, 1st Palace conquered]

First, I want to explain my history with Persona 5. I tried playing the vanilla version the summer of 2019 on a PS3 emulator. It was mildly enjoyable, but the emulator had issues (lag spikes, graphical glitches, etc.). I didn't even make it halfway through the first Palace. So, I shelved it... until Persona 5 Royal got ported to Nintendo Switch in 2022. I bought it as soon as possible, but I was busy with other long-form RPGs, and I kept putting it off later and later. I played through Bravely Default II, Pokémon Violet, Final Fantasy VII, Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and more. Now, that all changes.

I would also like to confess that I have been exposed to a few endgame spoilers in the last few years. Luckily, not too much, and I don't know jack shit about Royal's exclusive content (other than the important Confidants).

I've seen the opening to the vanilla game, but not Royal. It's pretty cool, though I do kind of miss Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There.

EVERYTHING IS RED.

I like how the game starts off with a media literacy check. "If you don't understand that this is fictional, then you're not allowed to play."

Flash-forward sequences, huh? That's a first for the series.

It's a bit jarring to go from PS2-era models to this.

Persona 4 Golden was a bit easy for my tastes, so I'll be playing on Hard mode, at least for bosses.

I'm liking Ryuji so far. Then again, I guess that was kind of expected, since he fills a similar "best bro" role to Yosuke and Junpei.

I want Ann's hoodie. I would wear that hoodie.

As I found out, Morgana has the same English VA as Edea from Bravely Default, so I can't help but hear Edea when Morgana speaks.

I do feel a bit of kinship with the small town of Inaba from Persona 4, but I've always been a sucker for that big city aesthetic.

Speaking of aesthetic, this game has been praised up and down for it, and it's easy to see why. Is there a name for this kind of style?

I like the chatter that you hear while walking around. It helps breathe some life into the overworld.

The controller vibrating when receiving messages is a really nice touch.

I don't remember buying any DLC... but I won't say no to extra stuff.

The gameplay is so much more fun than in the last two games. Palaces are super fun to sneak around in, and combat offers some new toys to play with (guns, Baton Passes, Hold Ups, new damage types, Technicals, etc.)

GUNS REFILL AFTER EVERY BATTLE. I don't remember much from my first try with the vanilla game, but I do remember being frustrated with how quickly you run out of ammo. This is such a nice change.

I'm gonna say it: Take Over > Last Surprise. Both slap though, as does the rest of the OST (as expected from a Persona game).

The contrast between Persona 4's introduction and Persona 5's is kind of hilarious? Like, Dojima is all friendly with Yu, and the Yasogami students talk about his good looks. Sojiro threatens to toss out Ren multiple times, and the Shujin students keep talking shit.

In this series, we've had themes of death, truth, and now rebellion. This game makes me want to buy a leather jacket and shove a boot up someone's ass.

Ann was the MVP in that boss fight. I would've been in a tight spot if not for her Tarunda.

Goddamn, the ending to the first arc was SO satisfying, and even a little bit therapeutic. In grade school, I've had some bad blood with awful teachers (granted, nowhere near as awful as Kamoshida, but still awful). Little me could've only dreamed of stealing hearts.

Mementos is coming soon, right? It's basically this game's equivalent to Persona 3's Tartarus.

[dream--writing]

Bayo 3/Persona 5 AU Pt. 2

So one of the biggest things I've been struggling with for this entry is what to do with Goro and Sumire. If you recall, I have them in the roles of Jeanne and Luka respectively

You would think that I would just keep them like that but...

My stubborn ass really, really wants endgame Shuake

As you can imagine this creates some complications

Like if I have Goro running around filling Luka's role in this, then who's going to go after Dr. Sigurd?

If Sumire, then does that mean she's a witch in this one? But that would also mean... you know...

I'm not really feeling that one, I'm gonna be honest

There's also the matter of Lukaon or whatever I decide to name the character, as well as the prequel lore

If it's Goro and Joker, then can I dub them Arch Eve/Adam or do I need another name?

I fully realize that the solution for this is simple, but again, I want to be stubborn and make this complicated

As for Wonder, well I don't know how big a spoiler this is, but I'm gonna hide the rest of this post under the cut just in case. Proceed with caution!

So I do intend on making Wonder Joker and Goro's kid

The simplest solution for how that is possible is adoption, but I plan on leaving it up to the reader. The how doesn't really matter, just know that he's their son from another universe

I don't know what Wonder's personality is like in canon, but I would imagine him being a bit of a mix of his parents

He can be a bit of a charmer(or at least tries to) like Joker, but he can also be pretty aggressive and prone to cussing like Goro. He's also a big nerd

Luffy was the name of Akira's childhood stuffed toy, which doesn't go unnoticed by Joker

Joker fights Singularity Chaos and Singularity Balance on his own

He also opposes the first phase of Singularity Definition on his own, with Wonder and the other Phantom Thieves arriving when it seems too late

So you know how the Bayonettas from the first two games come in at the last minute, which is really cool but also kinda breaks down when you think about it too hard? Well, I thought of an alternative to that. This is just an idea, no one has to like it, but consider:

This was it. Singularity summoned forth a spear, ready to erase Arch Adam Origin from his world. Joker's vision swam. He could barely see Singularity pull back his arm. He could hear his friends cry out to him, their voices muffled as if underwater. Wonder's voice was the clearest: "DADDY!!" The spear flew through the air, but right before it could reach its target, gunfire shattered the air, exploding the spear and hitting Singularity. "What?!" The rubble fell off Joker's body and he dropped to the ground. Someone grabbed him by the back of his collar and he lifted his head. A young man with blue hair covering one eye met his gaze. "You didn't cry while I was gone, did you?" His eyes seemed sad, and yet he smiled. The man let go of Joker's collar and walked towards Singularity, holding up his gun. "You all seem to be having a good time. Awfully rude of you not to invite me, don't you think?" Singularity chuckled. This was easily fixed. He summoned forth a Pannus, but it never reached its target. A demon had sliced clean through it with his weapon. With the sound of shattered glass, he transformed into Izanagi-no-Okami, the Great Deity. The remaining Pannus were soon obliterated. Another man landed next to the first, his hair and eyes gray. "Men of our caliber don't need invitations, darling," he said, pushing his glasses to the top of his head. "Right?" "What are you doing here? I destroyed you and your worlds long ago!" Singularity demanded. "It is not possible! Are phenomena once affirmed... now changing?" The Phantom Thieves were confused as well. "Who the heck are those guys?" Ryuji asked. "Are they variants of Joker?" wondered Makoto. "I'm... not sure. They're like Joker I think, but I don't think they are him..." said Futaba. The gray-haired man lowered his sword from his shoulder. "It looks like only the three of us made it this far... oh, and your friends, of course." He flashed a smile at the Phantom Thieves. "Narukami Yu." "That's enough, yes?" questioned the blue-haired man. "To prove 'phenomenal affirmation' isn't absolute after all." He gave a nod to the others. "Arisato Minato." They both turned back to Singularity. "All right, man-eater. Just try to predict what the lot of us will do next!"

[peemanne]

Protagonist's POV: Looking at the perspectives of some of Yakuza's Dynamic Intros

So SnowiestAngeman put out a new video recently (best RGG content creator out there by the way go drop a sub if you somehow haven't already) and in it is this cute little segment where he talks about dynamic intros and jokes about how the titles on them are handled. He brings up a proposal that it might be based on what the playable character thinks of the person they're fighting against. And that part actually immediately got me thinking about some instances of that happening, and I think he might actually be right on this one! Some dynamic intros, be it by revoking someone's title or replacing it with a new one, can tell you how they see who they're fighting! A few instances began to pop up in my head and now I just wanna make a short little write-up to highlight some of them, because I really do think they're pretty cool when they do happen.

also here's the video if you wanna check it out. if you haven't already then you should because it's by snowiestangeman

ALSO SPOILER WARNING!!!!!! OOOOOOOOOOOHHH!!!!!

This post will contain spoilers for the following games:

Yakuza 4 (briefly touched on, mild spoilers for around the mid-game)

Yakuza 5 (Major spoilers for the endgame)

Yakuza 6 (Mild spoilers for a late-game fight)

Yakuza 7 / Like a Dragon (Major spoilers for the endgame)

If you haven't played those games yet and don't wanna get spoiled, then I'm afraid you might wanna avoid that keep reading button and skip this post for now. If you still want to do so then go do that I dunno I'm not your dad

Let's start with where I think it's the most obvious with some of Yakuza 5's intros. Here's Shinada's tussle with Daigo himself... and it's just Daigo to him. None of that Sixth Chairman of the Tojo Clan business, it's just Daigo Dojima that shows up to Shinada.

You gotta remember he just knows Daigo as his classmate from way back when, and only finds him again later when he presents himself in a mask and sunglasses to kickstart what Shinada's been doing for his whole chapter. When Daigo reintroduces himself proper, he's shocked about the whole yakuza big shot thing, sure, but when Daigo's about to push him and his dreams aside, none of what came out of his mouth really registered to him. He punches him out the door, (and sends him FLYING too like DAMN dude that was visceral) and he wants to make it clear to Daigo that he's the one with the pen to write his story. And to prove it, Shinada has to come face to face not with a big shot yakuza, the sixth chairman no less, but with an old friend.

With your daily reminder to listen to the Y5 Daigo theme again out of the way, let's move on to the next intro.

In Yakuza 4, when Saejima fights Majima, it's the first time he's seen him in years, and he's spent all of them wondering where the hell his brother was during the hit. As he arrives at Kamurocho he's been given bits and pieces of what he's been up to, but only really realizes how big he's become when he has to fight through waves of the Majima Family and Minami, only to be escorted by Majima himself to the batting cages, with countless Majima Family men still outside, still waiting for their boss. Before he can give out any of the answers Saejima's been waiting for, they have to go through the inevitable procedure of a fight. And as Saejima finally finds his brother, still left wondering who he's truly become and what really happened back in '85, he sees Majima, now a patriarch of his own family.

But when the two reunite in the finale of 5, after spending the whole game led to believe Majima's been killed, Saejima's forced to face down his brother yet again. And Majima's as transparent as can be in this ill-fated brawl. No mad dog persona to hide behind, no grudges to be settled. It's just the two on what could be the last fight of their lives, and you better believe the two of 'em are gonna do it the right way. Once again it strips the characters of their titles so that they can be faced as true as can be.

Next are some from Yakuza 6. Let's start with one that was actually mentioned in the video that started this whole thing, that being Akiyama's intro.

Yet again, no title to be found. No "CEO of Sky Finance" or anything, it's just Akiyama. I can interpret this in two ways:

Kiryu's acting really, REALLY stubborn at this moment. He wants nothing more than to be with his family, and with Haruka in a coma, Haruto might just be the only thing Kiryu can latch onto at this point. He's willing to break the law just to justify it to himself, and when Akiyama tries to stop him, it comes to blows. And just as the little pop-up on the top right will tell you, "Not even you can stand in my way." It doesn't matter who Akiyama is to Kiryu, it just matters that he's stopping him from taking Haruto, and that just means he has to plow right through him.

Since Akiyama had to close Sky Finance down temporarily, Kiryu immediately disassociates it from him and just sees Akiyama as unemployed again lmao

Anyways, moving on to a pretty big highlight of Y6's cast to me, here are Joon-Gi Han's intros.

You'll have to excuse the fact that his intros are mostly super lame-o intros for a bit. All the Joon-Gi-related budget went to giving him some of the coolest qte sequences in the Kiryu Saga so

When Joon-Gi is first introduced, it's very much as a flashy host. The scene with him in Kanrai shows you he's still a force to be reckoned with, sure, but that doesn't stop him from still keeping the class act on, from his charismatic demeanor to his flashy look. Obviously, Kiryu himself would still associate him with owning Stardust, a place that's offered him asylum and care when he needed it the most. Even after Joon-Gi reveals himself as Jingweon proper, a name that Kiryu's had a more than rocky history with, the intro has the title under the silver-haired boxer be "Owner of Club Stardust".

But when Kiryu and the Hirose boys later find themselves surrounded by multiple masked assailants looking to take Haruto, who else but Joon-Gi shows up for another fight with the dragon. It's clear as day for Kiryu now. He's still got his sportsmanship as he shoos his men away, but make no mistake: Han's with the Jingweon, and they sure as hell haven't forgotten what Kiryu's done to them.

And finally, let's cover Yakuza: Like a Dragon's intros with the final boss.

With the first group fight after taking down Tendo, Ichiban's probably ecstatic at this point. His plan's gone off perfectly, and the truth's now broadcast to the rest of the country. Here's one last victory lap: a frustrated Aoki and a bunch of his goons, not even bothering to mask the fact that they're yakuza anymore. The camera circles around Ichi and his party members, his imagination still running wild, as Aoki readies himself, complete with his "Governor of Tokyo" plaque.

Then Ichiban gets to confront Aoki alone. His imagination's starting to fade. He's not carrying a flashy flaming bat anymore, or wearing his bulky, golden armor. It's not an extravagant, epic RPG final clash that finishes up Ichiban's journey, but a quiet, confrontational fistfight as he finally gets the chance to face his brother alone. And it sure as hell isn't Aoki that shows up in his eyes.

To wrap this up, I just really like how something as simple as the titles shown in a dynamic intro can tell a little story by itself. It's a really small thing, but when done right, it's a really neat touch that can add a lot to the fights they're attached to. I know it's not really like this 100% of the time (Kiryu's dynamic intro in Yakuza 7 having the ex-fourth chairman title for example even when Ichiban realistically has no idea who he is yet), but dammit they're amazing and I hope they keep doing stuff like this. Hell, I might have missed a cool example, I don't know. Either way, it's just another common win for dynamic intros, also known as the coolest and bestest thing ever.

Thanks for reading.

[bayalexison]

Bay Plays Persona 5 Royal [Third Semester Arc!] Part 1

Alright, soooo there seems to be some antics going on Twitter (for the hundredth time *sighs*). Because of that, I decided to also document my playthrough of Persona 5 Royal here like I did back when I was playing Pokemon Scarlet. Trying to retrieve all of my Persona 5 Royal screenshots will be a bit time consuming, so I’m gonna start with what happened in my playthrough earlier today (or yesterday if you’re reading this next morning lol). Also there will be spoilers for Persona 5′s original endgame storyline and beginning of third semester arc!

So a few days ago I defeated Shido and then shortly after the Phantom Thieves had to go through the big Mementos dungeon. Today that took much longer than I thought because loads of cutscenes and miniboss battles. Also I grinded a little bit to have my Personas gain some skills lol. But yeah, got through Holy Grail/Yaldabaoth and boy what a crazy battle it was!

After that, did my Christmas Eve with Haru (I chose her as my romance partner) and it was cute! After that had a headstart with the third semester arc and, well, let’s just say it’s off to a very wild start. Morgana human?! Those scenes with human!Morgana were hilarious. 

Alright, some screenshots I’m pulling from Tumblr:

Can't help but chuckle at the semi-meta reference here

Yoooooo! (Joker’s 2nd form Persona Santanel!)

Christmas Eve date with Haru!

So for some reason I can’t do screenshots from my switch atm, so here’s one I took of the Royal trio. Tomorrow third semester in full force!

[ivarismaybecrazy]

Ivaris comeback era

We're so back. Making a dedicated effort to post teehee

Fandoms to expect: genshin (still), vtubers, blue lock, a hint of mcyt (new life series PLEASE)

ADDITIONAL HELLO PERSONA 5 FANS!!! I've been playing for over a year but progress has been slow and ive only just know really locked in. I have... Some. Spoilers for endgame and i am. Coping. (I like akechi more than a little bit... It really seems my type is detectives *coughs heizou coughs* )

Anyways yeah expect some rants on that and other things in the future! Yippee!

[p5x-theories]

I wonder if we're going to see the evil God that's obviously f-ing everything up around the same time that we see true Yaldabaoth in P5 or if they're going to draw the story out? If they draw the story out it might get stale but I'm also not sure how having the game being so short would affect its longevity. I suppose they could do a second campaign too... but I can't imagine piling Palaces into the game wouldn't greatly affect the file size

Well, at least in terms of file size, I can confirm that Version 2.0 was a big update download, but mostly because they actually rearranged/condensed a lot of files, which ultimately meant the game wasn't actually much bigger once the update was complete! So I don't think we have to worry about that too much right now.

As for your wondering about- essentially- game pacing, I'm honestly surprised the collab's been progressing through the story this fast, but I really wonder whether it'll go past Sae's Palace. Sae's Palace is relevant on some level to P5X's story, so it makes sense to go that far, and is also the last Palace where a new teammate is added (in the original game). Shido's Palace might make sense as well, depending on how quickly they go through the five poisons; we've seen 2/5 with the first three chapters of the collab, but that could just mean Futaba's will be one, Okumura's will be another, and then Sae's will be the last, unless they double up again. I could see them having a chapter after Sae's Palace where the Phantom Thieves all finally find out what was actually causing these Metaverse pockets to form (and presumably defeat it), and maybe that could even be set in Shido's Palace? But I'd be genuinely surprised if they went past Shido, and put the Depths of Mementos and Yaldabaoth in the collab, to be honest! ... Partially just because of how protective Atlus seems to be about spoilers, heh. If the idea of a Persona Gacha Game was to help draw in new players, why would they give away part of their big endgame twist?

As for "drawing the story out", we know there are seven Palaces in P5X's story. It took almost two months for them to add the third Palace's story arc, and we were warned before that story updates may need to be spaced out more (or maybe broken into smaller pieces?) in the future, as time goes on and more work is needed. I don't think they're "drawing out" anything so much as being practical about their workload, but I also cannot image the main story getting completed anytime soon. Even if they are able to keep up roughly the same pace and size for story updates, the collab's going way faster! We got three collab chapters in the time it took them to add two story chapters. At the speed they're going now, we'd get Futaba, Okumura, and Sae's Palaces before chapter 4 of P5X's story, haha.

So... in other words, I don't think the game file size is a concern, but what is a concern is how quickly they can put things together and the rate at which it gets added to the game, not to mention Atlus' overzealous spoiler policy. I don't expect to see Yaldabaoth in the collab, though maybe they'll give us something else to fight, but I do expect the current collab to end long before P5X's story does.

... Wait, I just reread your ask, and realized that by "in P5" you may have meant relative to P5 itself's pacing, rather than in the collab, heh? In that case, I mean, again, I don't think that's nearly as short a period of time as you're selling it here. If we got a full story chapter added every two months, we still wouldn't get through the seven Palaces until March (nearly a year after the open beta launched), and presumably there will be at least one more area to run through in order to fight the Yaldabaoth equivalent, so the game's main story would hypothetically end in May. And that's not even factoring in the slowdowns they warned us will probably happen! I suspect once we do finally get to the end, there will probably be a break in story updates, and then they'll start on some new plot that we'd normally expect from a spinoff game, like a hypothetical Strikers equivalent, rather than padding out their original story plan.

That is to say, I'm not too worried about the plot getting intentionally drawn out just to keep the game going? They've got a lot to get through, and a lot of work to do to even get there, heh.

[webbedphantom]

The Last Stand

Okay, so I wasn't planning to explain this for a while, since it's kinda the finale to my entire AU, or at least the main story, but since I mentioned it in a recent thread, I figured I should probably just get it out there.

To be honest, I've been wanting to talk about it for a while, because it is probably the coolest thing I've ever come up with. But it's tough to explain because it builds off a lot of concepts that would be set up over the course of the story.

So, because of that, I'm gonna put this whole thing under a read more, just in case anyone wants to avoid spoilers for a story I've yet to actually write-

Also BIG spoilers for Persona 5's endgame, but that probably goes without saying.

So, first let's set a bit of the groundwork. In this AU, the Metaverse is completely inaccessible. But the stuff inside it, Yaldabaoth especially, wanna get out, and they're willing to do damn near anything to do it.

Luckily for them, Masayoshi Shido is obsessed with the cognitive world, and dedicates a lot of his company, the Shido Corporation, to figuring out how to tap into the power of the Metaverse. And while most of that research hits a dead end, one doesn't. The Metaverse Serum, which is a whole other can of worms, connects people to the cognitive world and allows them to tap into its power irl. (Though it's also extremely deadly to 99% of the population, which again, whole can of worms, but yeah)

But that connection is a two way street. So when someone actually manages to survive exposure, aka Aaron, the inhabitants of the Metaverse finally have a way into our world. Though it starts off small.

At first, the shadows are only able to manifest in the minds of others, able to control their bodies while they sleep. But they know all they have to do is expose more people to the serum, making more Persona users, giving their world and ours a stronger connection to let bigger and badder things come through, and in far more physical forms, with the end goal of letting the God of Control out of his cage, to fuse the two worlds together.

To make a long story slightly shorter, Aaron and his teammates manage to stop their attempts... for the most part. Each time, one or more of them get exposed to the serum for one reason or another, making the team larger, but also making the shadows that come through much stronger.

Then there's Shido. He's been trying to figure out how to harness the Metaverse for his own ends, often creating a lot of the messes the team needs to clean up, but eventually he finds a solution.

He kidnaps the Phantom Spider, since he was the first to survive the process, and runs countless experiments on him to figure out how he did it, finding out his secret identity in the process. This goes on for days, before his teammates finally track him down and free him... but not before Shido got what he wanted.

Almost immediately after figuring out the process, he tests it on himself, turning into a hulking beast of a man, inspired by Ultimate Green Goblin and Shido's own Shadow.

He isn't quite in his right mind when he first transforms, he hears voices of his own inner demons that urge him to be more like his shadow. And one of those urges was to destroy those who had dared to defile him, which of course, included Aaron and the team.

He attacks them at Leblanc, completely demolishing the front of the cafe and the alley surrounding it. Aaron was still in a rough state, so his teammates had to juggle dealing with this new foe, while also protecting him. But one by one, they fall, until its just Aaron left.

It's a hard fought battle, but thanks to some help from Akechi (because yeah, he doesn't die in this universe), they manage to finally take him down. Shido is arrested and locked up in a maximum security cell, the whole world knowing everything he'd done. The day was saved.

... except Shido's transformation had strengthened the connection to the Metaverse. Enough so that, while he couldn't cross over on his own, Yaldabaoth could enter the minds of others, just as his shadows had done at the beginning of our story. Except, instead of trying to forcibly control someone, something which could be interrupted if the subject were woken up, he decides to make a deal.

A deal with Shido. All the power he could ever want, another chance to crush the pests who'd taken everything from him, and all he'd have to do is let Yaldabaoth possess his body. Shido happily agrees to this, sealing the fate... of Yaldabaoth.

Yeah, the God of Control can't actually control Shido. His will and desires are far too strong (something that's actually kinda backed up by the game. The reason Yaldabaoth did his whole rehabilitation schtick was to get the Phantom Thieves to take down the Palace Rulers, because they were the only people he couldn't control). So in a major twist, the Eldritch horror is the one who's used as a puppet. Literally. Shido rides around on his head pulling on chains to make him do what he wants.

And Shido, being the pettiest man alive, immediately goes to get even with the team, using his new godlike power to wipe them from existence. But much like the game, they're saved by Lavenza (because yeah, since Yaldy can't get out of the Metaverse, he never splits her in two, because he never begins his game with Igor. He has no reason to)

Lavenza had appeared a few times during the second half of the year, providing guidance and attempting to warn Aaron of the coming threat. He isn't a wild card, nor is he a guest of the Velvet Room, but she'd managed to get her master's permission to provide them some aid, hoping to avoid this situation alltogether.

Sadly, she failed. And because Aaron doesn't possess the wild card, he doesn't have the power needed to take Yaldabaoth out. It seems hopeless.

But while they can't take down the God, they can take out the guy controlling him! See, Shido didn't get a Persona like Aaron did. He just tapped into the Metaverse's power. So he still has a palace, he still has a treasure, and because he is fusing the two worlds together just by bringing Yaldy here, they can change his heart. And if they do that, the resulting change in Shido's cognition would force him and the God apart.

Course, Shido studied cognitive psi-ence. He knows his weakness, and he is guarding it with everything he has. There's absolutely no way they can take him on in a fight. It'd take all of them to even slow him down.

But they don't have to beat him. They just have to take his treasure and get it out of range of his Palace. And because Shido is, again, the pettiest man alive, if there was someone there to distract him, someone he hated greatly, and that person could survive long enough to give the others time to escape, they could pull it off.

Of course, the only person who could do that, is Aaron Amamiya.

But that's ridiculous, right? No way Aaron could survive taking on Shido alone, not while he has the powers of a god.

Well, that's where the symbiotes come in.

See, in a previous adventure, Makoto lent Aaron her symbiote so he could fight Akechi (It's an adaptation of the Red Goblin arc, story for another time), and since symbiotes bond to the Persona of their host as well as the host themselves, he got access to Anat and Johanna as well as all the other tricks a symbiote has up their metaphorical sleeves, albeit temporarily.

Normally, a symbiote can only bond to one Persona at a time. But with the aid of the Velvet Room, the team will be able to lend their powers, their Personas, to aid Aaron in his fight, though it will leave them powerless.

Thankfully, powerless doesn't mean helpless. After all, in between all the Metaverse shenanigans, they fought plenty of tech based villains. Tech which is stored in a secure facility, that Sae Niijima has access to.

None of them like this plan, but it's the only one they got.

So we have a war on two fronts. Aaron wielding the powers of all his teammates, Futaba's Ironheart Armor, Makoto's symbiote, Haru's telekinesis, Yusuke's ice, Ann's flames, ect. in a big climactic battle against a God powered Shido above the clouds, taking heavy inspiration from Super Sonic fights, especially the ones from Sonic Frontiers. (I just imagine Aaron shouting out the names of his friends as he switches between their Personas, finally allowing him to feel like a wild card, it's such a cool idea that makes me smile) But even with all that power, he still can't win this. All he can do is stall for time, grab the attention of Shido and every shadow in his palace.

ALL as a distraction for the rest of the team, wielding the tech of various supervillains they've fought over the year. Haru and Futaba pilot Rhino's armor, Makoto gets Shocker's gantlets and rides up to the Palace in shocking Big Wheel (a visual that I adore btw), and... I honestly don't know what the others would use yet, but it would AWESOME.

Everyone gives it their all, managing to retrieve the treasure and nearly make it all the way to the edge of the Palace. But Shido notices, and having beaten Aaron severely by this point, he's in no condition to stop him. Yes, it's "The All is Lost Moment" time.

But of course, just like in the game, the people of Tokyo cheer him on, and Aaron uses that power to give it one last shot, intercepting Shido and slowing him down just enough to let the team cross the threshold with the treasure. Shido writhes around in pain, Yaldabaoth fades back into the Metaverse, and Aaron returns the powers of his teammates for one final ALL OUT ATTACK!!!

And... yeah, that's how it ends. Aaron doesn't get arrested, since the whole world saw Shido do what he did, though that also means his record never goes away. Unfortunately, due to his heart being bound to Yaldabaoth, his change of heart didn't stick. Shido is still Shido even after all this. And while I don't have those stories worked out yet, Shido will spend the rest of his days trying to either get revenge on the team, or attempt to regain the power he lost.

It's not perfect, like I really want to work Akechi into it more, and there's probably some other stuff I could've done, but I think the core concept is solid. I always wondered what would happen if they stole a treasure without fighting the Palace Ruler, if they just grabbed the thing and booked it to the end, so having that be their only option, because Aaron isn't a wild card, so he can't wield Satanael, is just really cool to me. And I ESPECIALLY love the idea of the big Dragon Ball-esk Shonen anime fight be used as just a distraction, because the fight is just unwinnable.

If you read all this nonsense, thank you. Seriously. It means the world to me that you found the idea interesting enough to read this novel of a post. But please please PLEASE let me know what you think of all this! Shoot me a message, reply to this post, whatever you're comfortable with, because if I ever get around to finishing the fanfic this was all for, I want it to be the best that it can be, so the more feedback the better.

I promise I don't bite. I might take a bit to respond, due to social anxiety, but I really do want feedback on this.

Or if you're not comfortable with any of that for whatever reason, completely understandable, again I have severe social anxiety, just leave a like if you enjoyed my ramblings here. It'd really mean a lot.

Okie, that's it. Bye bye

[todayimgonnaplay]

Today I'm gonna play: Persona 3 Portable (PSP)

Just going to note that it's been 4 years since I last played this game so I have to incorporate my thoughts back then and now, as I've just finished the game. I know I said I have an RPG burnout previously, but I've been playing this one in between my other games. Anyways, long anecdote incoming!!

Knowing about this series' existence is a long story. When I was a kid, I remember browsing the RPG page of Wikipedia because I was a fan of Cloud from Final Fantasy 7, so I got to learn the genre that brought out all these fantastic characters with deep stories. I strongly remember this picture, where the protagonist is sitting on a desk and using the computer ''all day''. I didn't think much of it back then, but the picture was pretty prominent to me. And although there's a running joke that Persona players don't know or play their origin series, it was the opposite for me. I knew Shin Megami Tensei (SMT) first before Persona, through their MMORPG SMT: Imagine. I never got far with the game but I also loved MMORPGs too at the time. Fast forward years later where I'm studying for my final exams in high school, I often listened to music while writing my notes and doing past papers. Lo-Fi, City Pop and wave genres were growing at the time and they were useful for my studies. But I kept seeing this "Emotional Persona Music Mix (Study/Work)" playlist pop up in my recommendations, and I thought ''Ugh, fine. I'll play this so I can get rid of it.''. (Un)surprising to say, the soundtrack of this series slaps. Lots of good melodies to study to, but what caught my attention the most was the rainy version of Beneath The Mask. I loved the song SO much, that this was what convinced me to try the series. I wanted to try Persona 5, but I didn't have a PS3. My only option was to play Persona 3 Portable (P3P) on the PSP. With all of this occurring during exam season, I thought ''Hm, I'll just try this game out for a bit, and then I'll play after my exams.''. I was wrong. So. So. Wrong.

Somehow, I ended up spending my mornings until 10AM (my study time) just grinding and exploring what this game had to offer WHILE I had exams that literally played a role in what universities I could apply to. Needless to say, I aced those exams. So, playing Persona/listening to their OSTs = good grades?? However, at some point I reached near the endgame (where a certain male character joins the school), and the Persona 3 and 5 Dancing games were being revealed. I saw comments about ''Door-kun'' and ''Blue Jesus'' jokes and I thought ''Huh? Did I miss a joke in the game? Let me search them up.''. To this day I regret ever doing that. Little did I know that those jokes were actually gigantic spoilers... and that completely broke my interest in continuing forward. Life just felt meaningless (joking). To those who intend to play the any of the Persona 3 versions or the remake, PLEASE don't google what those terms are. I kept trying to force myself to play, but it didn't work. Until very recently when I started listening to the OST again, but this time the ones from the female protagonist (FemC), whom I never played. Somehow her tracks have this really weird sense of nostalgia of simpler, younger days... and that yet again, has convinced me to give the game another chance, but through the female route this time to catch up on the story, cause I forgot.

Ok! Anecdote done.

To this day, I'm not sure what exactly has captured my heart when it comes to Persona 3. I have recently tried Persona 5 Royal (P5R) and 4 Golden (P4G). But I couldn't stick with them after two bosses, because those two games definitely have better gameplay (especially 5), and admittedly character dynamics (in regards to 4). I deduced that Shuffle Time acts as a gambling mechanic that hooked me into constantly wanting EXP, weapons and money, as well as the urge to get to the top asap. I did feel the latter with 5 in a way when it came to exploring the palaces in 1-2 days. But if Persona was just about combat, I don't think I'd play this game as much as I actually am, especially in endgame as I grinded to get everything in preparation for the final boss. But rather, it's this unique feature of being able to live a proper double life as a regular person during the day (or high school student to be exact), and fighting creatures at night. It's the stuff you'd see as premises in cartoons, except you actually get to immerse yourself in this kind of life, which turns out to be very fun, and quite emotional too! You get to meet characters from all walks of life, hearing out their stories and problems, and creating potentially unbreakable bonds with them. And these aren't just filler like what other games typically do with NPCs, they actually influence your EXP bonus when you create new personas. Everything you do in the game has to be carefully planned, yet nothing feels like it's a waste of time. For a game that's really long, I feel it actually respects my time.

But, there is a disconnect that I've felt after catching up to the story via FemC and then moving to my original save file with the protagonist (will refer as MC). FemC's dialogue choices and relationships feel so much more natural than MC. I do recall liking Junpei, Ken, and Yukari when I first played, but that's because they generally have more screentime with MC as they're classmates. I even find NPCs like Maiko and Kenji memorable (but I don't remember the latter's story). But with FemC on the other hand, I started to love everyone I met! It felt like there were genuine bonds being made with the FemC. Going back to MC's save was a mental shock to be honest. His responses are more deadpan, which fits him. But the one thing that annoyed me the most was the forced romances in the game, which I completely forgot about. Focusing on social links ended up feeling like a harem that I never asked for. Generally speaking for both routes I find that the game's narrative tends to suffer with typical anime tropes that can be considered very weird to non-anime fans. Stuff like peeping on girls or thirsting for them, sticking to just one interest and making it their whole personality, odd romances involving age differences, constantly bullying the guy that has the ''dumb'' trope, and so on. Although I do understand this boils down to having a target audience as well as cultural differences. Luckily the game deals the serious parts quite well, and handles its recurring theme quite beautifully. To write about death is hard, because generally for people it is a hard thing to accept, and for a number of people, they see it as an answer to an end. Somehow this game has tackled both sides of fearing and wanting death, and yet coming to a beautiful conclusion that life is worth living, whether you feel it has a meaning or not. Because one's life will always mean something to someone, or something, in some way.

Combat-wise, I hear that Persona 3 is the most hated. At least when it comes to 3-5. People aren't really wrong about that, it is a very dated system that I would not like to see in a modern game. But I didn't find it as bad as what people said, probably because most of the changes occurred in this version, such as controlling party members. It is definitely grindy and repetitive, as you go through more than 200 randomly generated dungeon floors that look quite alike or not too striking, with only the endgame floors getting my attention. But like I said above, the game does reward you handsomely with items, EXP, and money through the use of Shuffle Time, so that made my entire experience bearable for me. I have heard that P3 (original and FES aka enhanced version) also has the worst shuffle time compared to 4 and I took a look at the footage, and I think I agree. Having cards shuffled very randomly while hiding them, to the extent that the player loses agency can cause a great deal of frustration. But it's good to see that Atlus takes feedback into consideration with their future titles.

In terms of music, it's great. Pretty much every track in the game is at least enjoyable, although I can't really gel with Deep Breath (but I like the remixes), it's just not my type. But it fits well as a boss theme, as well as the whole setting, so I give it credit for that. But they feel somewhat timeless, and I see myself reminiscing to these tracks for years to come (as I have been for the past 4 years). Another thing I really liked is the UI design. Although I was drawn to P5 for looking so stylish, Atlus really managed to make minimalism do the same. It's probably my favourite type of design in all of video games. Even though much of the presentation (and cutscenes) have been stripped down for this version, I still enjoyed seeing all the transitions and elements packed into a portable device.

The character designs does have that feel from the 2000s, especially with the emo cut the protagonist has. There's a nice use of contrasting colours with most of the female main cast that are potential love interests, while the male main cast stick a little closer to the blueness of the MC. It could be my bias for this being an old game, as I don't see these designs being as accommodating to everyone at this age in comparison to the series' latest entry. But I do hope that people will enjoy them anyways with the remake.

Phew, this was a long one! This game has really touched me overall and I think it's a game that I'll think about from time to time, even with the gripes I have. I did try 4 and 5 in between my 4 year gap, but the one I ended up gravitating to was this, and I'm glad it's the first I played and the first I finished. If this is how 4 and 5 also handle their respective themes, I may give them another try in the future! I will be checking FES' extended epilogue in the meantime.

Terms used exclusively in the game: Shuffle Time - An RNG mechanic involving the use of shuffling cards that can grant equipment, money, EXP, and other things. Social Links - A relationship system that acts as side stories for characters in the game, granting you an additional EXP bonus related to combat.