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cake-apostate · 7 months ago

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Years ago, I had a fanfic idea where the SMT protagonists replace the heroes of the Persona games. The joke was that they're all these badass fighters who could easily sweep the dungeons with their skill and experience, but they're also hilariously bad at the real life segments.

The fic didn't really work out, probably because I was trying to use too many games and too many characters, but I still like the idea.

So, let's say that one week after the end of their games, the heroes of SMT were put in the role of Joker from Persona 5 (the Persona game I played most recently).

The Outsiders

Aleph, Flynn, and Nanashi aren't from modern Japan, and they'd have a hell of a time trying to adapt.

Aleph would be an absolute disaster. He's a toddler in a man's body raised by a gladiator coach who thought he was rehabilitating an amnesiac. It's a miracle the lad can read.

That's not to say that Aleph is dumb; he couldn't go through his game if he couldn't make informed decisions for himself. He just lacks formal education, social awareness, and casual life experience.

At the very least, when something's going on that he doesn't understand, Aleph has learned to stay quiet and go with the flow. He'd probably be fine socially, especially as a silent protagonist who needs to listen more than he speaks.

On the other hand, Aleph is missing a ton of common knowledge, even more than the average resident of Tokyo Millennium. Everyone assumes he knows more than he does, especially since he doesn't always say when he doesn't know something.

If there's any nonstandard ending, it would be "Aleph fails all his quizzes, exams, and homework, and is expelled."

Nanashi is the opposite. Like Aleph, he doesn't know societal conventions, but unlike Aleph, he doesn't care about breaking them. Aleph came from the gutter and was told he could strive higher; Nanashi came from the gutter and he knows he can survive there.

My favored Nanashi is "Anarchy but made all the friendship choices." He's gotten to a point where he likes people but knows he doesn't need them. All social limits are artificial; why conform?

He's someone who sees a straight line between himself and his goals, and doesn't need to care about what other people think of him. He would not play along with any of the targets' threats, especially because he doesn't have the same kind of social context. Ooh, Kamoshida's going to get him expelled; do I even need school? Sure, Madarame, send the police after me; have you seen what I did to the last people who came after me? Medjed threatens to crash the Japanese economy; what does that even mean? He'd only see Kaneshiro as a problem, since Makoto is in immediate danger when they meet.

(He would at least try to make sure that the others wouldn't go down with him. If he gets expelled, he'll do his best not to drag Ryuji and Mishima down with him.)

Nonstandard ending: before Morgana mentions the change of heart, Nanashi straight up murders Kamoshida and spends the rest of the game evading justice.

Flynn is in a state of constant stress. This isn't his first time as a fish out of water, but at least his Tokyo had a high tolerance for weirdness. He's more socially aware than Aleph or Nanashi, but he knows little about modern Japanese culture and manners, and he knows that.

Flynn's personality took me the longest, but since SMT4 has no room for error in alignments, I think of him as an anxious perfectionist. He doesn't know why, but he's keenly aware that if he says or does just one thing wrong, it will all end in disaster.

Strangers see Flynn as cool, calm, and collected, but that's because he's afraid to let on that he doesn't know as much as they do. Of all the Phantom Thieves, he'd relate the most to Futaba, who also feels like a stranger to this city.

I feel like he'd have to pull the, "I'm a foreign exchange student" card a lot, and leaves other people to assume which country he's from. The only other countries he knows are France (from Isabeau's manga), Russia, China (Infernal Akira can ask if Mikado is in Russia or China), and maybe America.

Nonstandard ending: Flynn has no idea what a train is. Flynn gets lost on the way to school and never finds his way back. The end.

The High School Students

Kazuya, Naoki, and V-kun were high school students when their games began, so they wouldn't be too bad at modern times or school life. It's everything else that's the problem.

The way I see Kazuya, he had to grow and adapt to the postapocalypse more than anyone else. He's a fragile human with no special enhancements or any real support net. To survive, he had to be tough, he had to be stubborn, he had to assert his dominance and take no shit from anyone. He stayed alive by shutting down his feelings and only showing weakness to the people he trusted. That's how he became the best demon summoner.

That also makes him the worst Wild Card. He's terrible at making friends; other people would have to put in the effort to break his armor. His comrades might easily write him off as a bossy control freak, and they'd only associate with him when they need help.

Persona 5's Confidants do usually begin with Joker wanting someone's help (Tae's medicine, Iwai's guns, etc.), so he might have a bit of an easier time starting the Social Link than in other games, but he'd probably screw it up somehow.

He's a good person, but he's terrible at expressing it because demons would see it as a weakness.

Since the mask he wears is so thick, he'd probably have a powerful starting Persona. At the same time, he wouldn't really experience an identity crisis; he knows who he is under the mask, and has no trouble being himself around the people he loves.

Also, something I see in him more than any other protagonist is that he's willing to cut ties with the party members if he disagrees with their methods, even if he doesn't have a solution. All of the heroes fight their friends, but for some reason it struck me the most that Kazuya didn't have a plan to fix Tokyo when he fought the Messians and Gaians (who for all their faults, did). If he disagrees with the other Phantom Thieves, he's leaving.

And on a lighter note, Kazuya might know exactly where in Tokyo to find real guns: the antique shop in Kichijoji.

Ryuji: "Check out what I got!" *takes out fake gun*

Kazuya: "Look at what I have." *takes out real gun*

Ryuji: "Hey, cool, you found that store that sells fake guns!"

Kazuya: "...Yes. I found the store that sells fake guns."

Nonstandard ending: Kazuya refuses to use the change of heart because he saw with his own eyes how messing with minds destroyed Aoi (the heroine) from the inside. Kazuya leaves the Phantom Thieves and brings the targets to justice his own way, probably by use of demons.

Naoki is the opposite. He had to toughen up, but he never had to put on a mask. Unlike Kazuya, demons don't see him as prey by default, and now he's strong enough to beat any other demon to death with his bare hands. Demons won't think any less of him if he gets weepy and emotional. (Although admittedly, this was because I think it's funny for the strongest being in the universe to be shy and awkward.)

I see Naoki as traumatized. He wants to be left alone and isn't fully comfortable returning to ordinary student life. At the same time, he's 'just' going to be quiet and antisocial; if he does end up talking to people, he wouldn't shoot himself in the foot like Kazuya. He'd get along fine with his teammates... if he had any.

Nocturne is the only game where you have no human battle companions (vanilla SMT V barely passes with Tao, and Yuzuru and Ichiro are still fighting on your side, just elsewhere). The only competent human helping the Demi-Fiend is Hijiri, who is strictly a noncombatant. In other words, Naoki's not used to fighting alongside humans.

It wouldn't occur to Naoki to bring Ryuji to the Metaverse. Morgana, yes, because he already has a Persona, but Ryuji can't defend himself. So maybe he'd confide in Ryuji and ask for his help in the real world, but he wouldn't become a party member.

Most of the subsequent party members join because of the others. Yusuke follows Ann, Makoto figures out they're the Phantom Thieves because of how they hang around each other, etc.

Nonstandard ending: that ending gambit required a bunch of people working together.

With V-kun, it's a different story. The question is no longer, "how would his experiences make him a bad Persona user;" it's now, "how does the plot work if he's literally God?" I think there's a fun crack fic where he tries to juggle being the rebellious leader of the Phantom Thieves while he's also doing God stuff. And since Law is the only ending that leaves the status quo setting intact, he's not also running Bethel, he seeks to control the world through faith like Yaldabaoth. The irony is staggering.

There also needs to be an excuse for why he doesn't use his God powers to instantly solve all the Confidants' problems. Sure, human problems must be solved with human means, but there's "reconnect with your mother and discuss what is truly important to you," and then there's "get out of this predatory cult that blackmails tons of people," and "I need help developing this lifesaving medicine but I'm being blocked by the establishment." If he's trying to be a benevolent god, he'd want to solve those problems anyways.

And, of course, there's the obligatory climax where the Phantom Thieves discover that their leader is God, feel betrayed, but then remember that their friendships were genuine.

Nonstandard ending: "Hey, Igor, Aogami tells me that you're not what you seem. Care to explain?"

Misc.

The Confidants with these guys would be hilarious.

Aleph needs Ryuji and Mishima to explain the concept of a maid fetish to him. When he does end up hiring Ms. Kawakami, he has no idea why anyone would be interesting in anything but cleaning. Not because he doesn't know what sex is, but because he knows that you can hire actual prostitutes.

I think it's cool that Chiyaha has actual psychic powers unrelated to Personas. So her readings turn up the actual pasts of the heroes, but most are so outlandish that she doesn't believe what she sees. "...It says that you're God."

In a separate fic, I wrote (but have not yet published) a bit where Kazuya buys three Holy Stones from Chihaya because he bought that kind of shady stuff from the Messians and Gaians all the time.

Nanashi is unimpressed with Kaneshiro and his threats. The Ashura-Kai did so much worse to everyone in Tokyo, and both of the bosses he knew could do things like throw lightning and fire at people who pissed them off. Kaneshiro is just a man with money. His thugs don't even have guns! Nanashi is going to murder everyone in that room.

#shin megami tensei #persona #persona 5 #shin megami tensei i #shin megami tensei ii #shin megami tensei iii nocturne #shin megami tensei iv #shin megami tensei iv apocalypse #shin megami tensei v #v-kun #smt1 #smt2 #smt3 #smt4 #smt4a #smt5

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