#maybe i would have a better opinion on the game if i came from p4. or maybe not! who knows !
Note
geniunely not trying to put words in ur mouth im geniunely asking: what do you actually like about persona 5? from all ur rants im just wondering why you didnt drop the game bc it seems (again, im not trying to put words in ur mouth) that it simply not for you? i geniunely have not felt any of the issues you bring up outside of the writing ones and i cannot tell if i'm just easily pleased and not good at discerning what a good game is or we simply have dif things we enjoy in a video game. i hate getting tone across text but im asking out of geniune curiosity im not trying to attack your opinion (;-;)
Nah, i dont feel like ur attacking me, and I hope u dont feel the same when u see my complaints! Lmao. In my defense, I am replaying the game for the first time after completing my first file back in 2020, so alot of the faults i kinda shrugged off in my first playthrough are now glaringly in my face now that I no longer have the confusion and interest in learning the main story to keep me occupied. The game is clunky all the way through, and at some times, even frustratingly so.
But despite that, i do like this game. Alot! Its probably one of my top games ever if im being honest!
This ended up way longer than I intended, so im putting it under a readmore to keep the post short on dashboards
If i had to describe what I liked about the game in the simplest way imaginable…I think I would say, I like how the game makes me feel :) I like the music. I like the vibe. I like the immersion from city to city, and I like the premise! I like the characters and I like the connections you make with these characters! As im replaying this game, i am most excited to see Akira and his comments about the world :) i like hearing everyones voices, I like their little interactions in Mementos, and I like seeing them fight!
P5 is the first game I played in the series; its the game that introduced me to SMT in the first place! And it (smt) is a series that my longtime best friend LOVES and never thought hed be able to share with me! It is a game i keep very near to my heart; it has influenced me in ways i did not think would happen in the short couple of years since i first finished it. It genuinely keeps me awake some nights thinking about the world this game has created, and I think that is a testament to the impact its had, be it good or bad.
The joke about wishing theyd make a persona game that was Good is that despite all of its numerous flaws, the games manage to snatch your attention and pull you in anyway. Imagine if they made a game that had all of those things that i mentioned I loved, but done Right and executed Properly?? Where I got to have a story that made sense and didnt need to be spoonfed to me (in like an HOUR of dialogue and scenes; an HOUR!), and characters that talked and bonded beyond the tiny snippets of interaction theyre allowed to have in mementos? Combat that let me use PERSONAS i liked instead of BUILDS that stop me from getting instakilled throughout the entirety of the endgame, and a Persona building mechanic that didnt feel like I was shooting in the dark looking for possible fusions that end up not even being useful in the endgame.
Ive mentioned it before, but I complain so much bc I have seen what a good p5 game looks like, and its Strikers almost to a T. Combat is still your typical warriors-esque style combat, but it is at least different from the turn based strategy of the main game. Characters talk to each other freely, they hang out and comfort each other in a way that feels more connected that the base game. Strikers implements the ability to see ALL possible fusions with ALL registered personas, not just the ones in your Stock, so you can fuse easily without having yo consult a guide. The story feels like it makes SENSE with antagonists that feel morally grey and sympathetic. Genuinely, alot of the complaints for p5 I had were almost immediately rectified in this game.
But please also know that the praises I sing for this game is only bc of the groundwork laid by p5 and the world it created. Thats what I like about this game, that it had such a captivating premise and cast of characters, that a DIFFERENT company was able to hit the ground running with them. P5 had alot happening in that game, but i think what it had most was potential. The effort put into this game is astronomical, and the possible connections you can outright MISS if u arent paying attention was worth the money and time to implement; even if it meant that it could be considered a waste of resources to higher ups.
Books and games and part time jobs???!! Silly little cutscenes that add nothing to the game PLOTwise, but define and flesh out the personality of your protagonist. There was alot of love put into this game, and its evident by the fact that we have NOT seen a new persona game released; they bank on existing titles bc they are unwilling to make a game like this from scratch again. They dont want to ‘waste’ resources on good voice acting and a complex, overarching story; they dont want to waste money on scenes a player may never see, on routes a player may never get to experience. Making a game that gives u even the slightest bit of freedom means more money in programming and detailing that freedom. This has been an issue for a WHILE, and its a miracle that the gaming landscape had space for a colossal title like p5!
I complain bc I want better, and I do not think that is inherently at odds with my love of this game. In b4 im told to get good; ive played on hard and tested out merciless (its NOT fun, im making godbuilds again and its boring 😞). Its not the most accessible turnbased rpg; theres no colorblind modes, and the affinity system is convoluted and overwhelming. Combo moves are hard to keep track of and it can be incredibly frustrating to see your turns being skipped or seeing characters take extreme technical damage without understanding WHY it happened. The fact that they KNEW the game was desperate for qol improvements by the time royal came out, and instead of updating the base game to have those improvements too, they just pushed the royal edition out for people to play instead. It sucks! Customers and fans deserve better than being forced to shell out money for a game they already played !
As the gaming climate gets more and more hostile and unbearable, I think it is good to look at your games critically, and understand why products come out subpar. Persona 5 is a fun game that has a nice cast and an interesting premise, but it is ultimately tied down by its refusal to build on existing building blocks regarding its combat, and it insists on having insulting and downright out of character dialogue and scenes to appease the audience its designed to be targeted to. It is easy to forget sometimes that queer ppl are infact NOT the prime target of these games, its cishet gamer bros from aged 16 to 40 who will laugh at homophobic comments, who drool over a 16 yr old girl with a 16 yr old mindset and a grown womans body, who need to be placated with constant sexual comments to deal with a convoluted story that will inevitably make zero sense until its laid out for you before the literal end of the game.
Its bad. Its good. Its so shallow and its unbelievable that they thought having the plot twist make ZERO sense until they showed CUTSCENES of YOUR character discussing Goro and his connections to the metaverse for endgame SHOCK VALUE was more important than just having your team be smart and piece it together over time. Its shit. Its literally amazing. It let you FUCK your teacher ??????????????what the FUCK. They also let me shoot a god in the face w the best looking ult persona in the world so i can ignore that shit. And ultimately that is how i got through the game. Lol.
#chattin#answered#i have mentioned it before but i did NOT romance anyone#u know why? bc i literally didnt know it existed#i maxed out ann and the game was like ‘hey. this next decision is important’#and i was like. huh. u know what. i have not looked up a guide until now. thats scary. i dont want to lose a confidant…#and learned that.#so uh. i really DID go through the game bot realizing i could date anyone. even the adults.#anyway. this was alot. and i tried to keep out alot of my other complaints#bc i have so many. but they are like. either nitpicky things or things that are issues in lots of games too#like the models suck in this game but i can look past that. graphics are always bottom on the list of complaints#and i do like the little animations!! i like akiras little tics#and i like seeing personas do their casting animations; shiki ouji and nekomata are my faves#i distinctly remember that being a thing i wished to see more of.#bc i liked thinking of what joker would look like fighting for Real#and then i remembered him being in smash so i was like COOL. ill look at those#and then i got STRIKERS and it was exactly what I wanted#i think#the game is like.#its bad. but in ways that i wouldnt call another game bad#like back 4 blood is BAD bad. its awful. the gameplay is bad. the story was shit. and the servers shut down within a year or two of launch#risk of rain 2 is bad in the way that it continuously obscures and withholds information to the player. its tedious and frustrating#but unlike b4b i LIKE ror2 and will continue to enjoy it.#bc the gameplay loop FEELS satisfying#and ultimately thats how i feel about p5#for all of its faults; its fun. it has a gameplay loop that is consistent and fun when u get the hang of it#im playing on hard again since merciless is just me making the right instakill builds while i pick up my team over and over again#and theres still a challenge in having the endgame weapons and armor#its satisfying! and i think its satisfying bc I was given the luck of having this be my introduction into the series#maybe i would have a better opinion on the game if i came from p4. or maybe not! who knows !
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Slow & Steady [P6] [Sabo x f!reader] (+18)
A/N : Hello ! I wanted to start by thanking you guys for the AMAZING responses on chapter 5. This makes me want to continue investing in this story !! I read all of your messages and I cherish them, they make me want to continue. I'd also like to thank my beta reader for her hard work. I hope that you will enjoy this chapter as much as the others.
Please always tell me your opinion as it’s my kryptonite ! Also feel free to ask to get tagged.
Synopsis : Isn’t love a matter of timing after all ?
That’s what Sabo has always thought. It was about finding the right tempo, making the right moves and hitting the right spot. Patience is a virtue after all, and he had a lot of it. It all started when your ex cheated on you. You were heartbroken, you needed someone and he was there. Was he always that hot ? You didn’t know. But after that night you have never seen him in the same way.
Chapter Warning : Smoking (cigarettes) - mention of ex relationships
AO3 : https://archiveofourown.org/works/31877203/chapters/81748033
P I - P2 - P3 - P4 - P5 - P6
I made a playlist for this chapter but I suggest you listen to it after !
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3posJHlUg1XFJzQbPkjF0J
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The crimson-haired man ceased to look at you, as if it hurt to do so. Your lack of response discouraged him. How could it be otherwise? You had created a narrative where he was a cheater, believed in it, ended the relationship - all of this without him knowing; without him even doubting it. It was ironic enough that he who saw so clearly in the future, he who knew how to read people’s moves so easily was totally blind when it came to love. Or maybe had he tried to blind himself? To overlook the fact that you weren’t answering your phone anymore? To find excuses upon excuses for you? He had always been that type of person after all. As a big brother, as a “responsible” person, it was second nature to him to bottle up his feelings and to never lose composure. And even in this moment, he couldn’t tell you how much your actions hurt him.
But for once, he accepted the fact that he saw a future that you weren’t a part of. Deep down, he knew that by overlooking the signs and hints, he has also played a role in the downfall of your relationship.
He saw it too clearly: you weren’t his anymore. Just like when you excluded him from the decision making, choosing to put an end to your relationship on your own - you didn’t even have the courage to tell him that yourself. He had to do the same: fill in the gaps and read between the lines. He remained silent for a moment. He got up from his seat when he gave up on you saying anything.
He moved towards the door, ready to leave all your shared memories behind his back.
People don’t always get the closure they need in order to move on, he knew that too well.
“Katakuri,” you called for his name weakly. He didn’t know if it was his imagination or if you had really pronounced his name. He turned his head towards you, unimpressed.
Your heart was pounding hard in your chest. You knew that if you let him go now you would regret it forever. You knew that you had to tell him about everything. He deserved it, after all. It was hard to be the bad guy of the story. But you had been a bitch and you had to face the consequences of your behavior. Wasn’t that what being an adult meant?
“There is something else that I think you need to know,” He seemed interested now. He was listening to you without turning your way.
“I apologize for everything that I have done and I know that you will probably not forgive me and honestly, if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't either.” You took a deep breath before going on. “What I am going to say might be hard to hear, but I feel like you need to know it.”
You don’t know exactly how the rest followed, nor how you found the courage to tell him about everything. You didn’t get to any details, it would have been too cruel, but you told him what he needed to know.
“I am really sorry, but I think that it’s best for us to split up. My feelings have changed, I have caused enough damage as it is. I think that it’s better for both of us. I am really sorry I hurt you.”
You looked down and from this angle you couldn’t see his smile. It was bitter, the smile of someone that had seen all of this coming. And yet, he was relieved that you confided in him. It was the closure he needed after all. At least now, he could move on.
* * *
The cigarette trembled between your index and middle finger. Your head was clouded. It took too much effort to try and empty your head, to try not to think of what was going to happen. You had lost so much already and what you were going to lose was beyond repair. With every breath you took, you felt your stomach contract and your legs get weaker. It was one of those days when you wished you hadn't woken up. Despite all of this, a feeling of peace submerged you. Peace? Maybe because you had been honest to your ex, maybe because you were trying to be honest to yourself. What got you into this situation was your indecision after all. You didn’t want to hide anymore.
If you can’t see it, then it doesn’t exist. This mentality of yours had to change and you were going to change it tonight. It was the best opportunity, it had to happen, you had to grow. Maybe to some extent, your “romantic” failures weren’t all to blame on others, maybe you also played a role, maybe you weren’t ready yet. Didn’t Sabo say the same thing?
“I thought that you stopped a long time ago.”
A firm voice broke your trance. His hand snitched the cigarette from your lips before putting it out with the sole of his shoe.
“Hey!” You whined in protest, features softening when you were met with his dark eyes.
“I did quit. But I was stressed,” you tried to justify yourself. “I needed it.” You mumbled.
“Bullshit. You always have the choice.” He shrugged and took place next to you on the sidewalk.
Choices, decisions, you were already done with all of this.
An awkward silence swallowed the atmosphere, but it seemed as if it was only awkward for you.
Now that you had nothing to do with your fingers and mouth, you started scratching at your wrist slightly - a nervous tic.
The ambience of the park offered you, however, a feeling of safety. The darkness hid your embarrassment. He was now sitting next to you and it was as if words deserted your mind. He didn’t want to pressure you, he didn’t say anything. Under the moonlight, his blond hair took on a silvery shade. He kept looking in front of him, hands in his pockets. Silence didn’t bother him, he knew that something was wrong, otherwise you wouldn’t have texted him to come to the park at around midnight.
Truth is, you couldn’t calm down, you felt like you had to come clear about this whole situation, you felt like you had to make a decision. You felt that if you let today pass, then you would find one hundred excuses and hide again.
It was now or never.
“Sabo,” you started.
“Y/N,” he mirrored your answer.
“I’m going to tell you something... But please don’t judge me, alright?”
“Have I ever judged you?” He arched an eyebrow, his eyes meeting yours, making you switch your gaze almost instantly.
“Well... You have... Like that time I used the microwave at your place…”
“Y/N, you microwaved a fork…” You fake pouted as you playfully punched his arm.
“Well, the fork was in the bowl and Ace was there and he didn’t say anything! Not my fault.”
“And you trusted Ace?” he smiled and held your wrist to stop you. “He’s a living disaster. You guys can’t do anything without me, huh?”
“Yeah, yeah. What would I do without my Mr. know-it-all of a best friend?” you laughed it off.
Best friend. That word reminded you of the reason why you contacted him so late. You coughed two times, trying to switch his attention to you. Laughing things off helped ease the atmosphere. You twirled a hair strand around your finger then started as if you were going to give a speech.
“Hey, I’m gonna try to... be decisive…”
“That’s some character development.”
“Sabo!”
“Sorry, couldn’t help myself,” he said with a sweet smile. You sighed and started bouncing your leg nervously.
“So If I called you tonight it’s not to have the pleasure of your company… and it’s not to rip you off your precious hours of sleep... It’s also not to... ”
Noticing that you were starting to diverge from the topic, he held your hand in his softly and gave you an encouraging look. Honestly speaking, he didn’t have much patience around others but he had loads of it with you.
“I called you for something else. And don’t you dare hang up on me next time! I want to have a serious conversation about…everything, about us, and most importantly about…” you sighed before continuing “About my ex situation.”
He took his hand off yours now that you seemed calmer. He was surprised by your willingness to talk about such matters. It was a pleasant surprise to him, it meant that you wanted to take things in hand, that you were growing.
“I’m listening to you.”
“I thought that it was only fair for you to know as well... that I fucked up pretty badly. I assumed that my ex cheated on me and as it turns out, he didn’t. I just learned it this evening so I feel very confused and bad. It’s a long story. It was just me, assuming things because I was scared and because I feared confrontation. Then everything happened so fast between you and me... I shouldn’t have... I feel very ashamed. For him, for you, for acting so immature.”
Your voice cracked and you couldn’t hold your tears any more. You looked down and started wiping your tears with both hands on your face. You didn’t want to cry in front of him because you had caused him pain as well. Sometimes not taking action is also an action and it has consequences.
You didn’t dare look at him, did he look disappointed? Did he stop loving you? After all, you didn’t even know the reason behind his love. Maybe he was “playing games” too as that anon suggested on Reddit. No, you couldn’t afford to assume things again now. You had to be honest, raw, vulnerable. You couldn’t see his reaction through your tears, but you felt his hand on the top of your head, gently bringing you towards him, resting your head on his shoulder.
“Wow, this really sucks.” You were surprised by his reaction, but the fact that it wasn’t one of disappointment as well as his easy-going demeanour released your stress. You started sobbing, shoulders shaking. He didn’t know how to react at first, but one thing he knew for sure: you came first, and he hated to see you cry.
“Shh... Here, here... It’s okay to cry... Let it all out...” He then continued “It’s going to turn out just fine. You can count on me, okay?”
“I was a really bad person. I should’ve acted differently. I should’ve at least told you... or Nami or someone... but I just... assumed things... I was so scared that you’d stop... that you’d stop being my... friend... And stop loving me…”
His grip tightened around your shoulder as he pressed you a bit closer to him. He offered you a warm smile as he spoke in the same light note.
“Well, whatever happened, happened. I don’t think that you are a bad person. You’re human and you made a mistake that you’re now aware of. I know that you had no ill intentions. At least you learned something, hm? And about me... Aren’t you underestimating me a bit?” He smiled in an attempt to lighten the mood. “Did you forget that I’m Luffy and Ace’s brother? I’m tough, you know.”
You were overwhelmed by his kindness, and this just made you realize that it wasn’t only about your feelings, you couldn’t count on everyone else to put up with you and clear up your mess.
“Sabo, you’re so kind.” Despite your mascara running under your eyes and you looking like a total mess, he found you incredibly beautiful. He felt proud, he knew how hard it was for you to go through all of this. He felt like it was worth it that he had loved you for this long, you were honest and strong, even if you weren’t aware of that strength, you had proven it in this moment.
“I’m not being kind.” He meant it; after all, his intentions weren’t all that innocent towards you, he had wanted you from the start. “I’m just being truthful, as your best friend.”
Maybe he wanted more, but he was content being your friend as well. Since for him everything needed time, he had no right to rush you.
Love is a matter of timing after all. Too fast and all of his subtle efforts would go to waste.
“About that... I mean... The “best friends” part...” He could easily see your chest heaving with your breath. Your heartbeat raising little by little until it was unbearable, your lower lip slightly trembling as you dreaded the weight of the words you were going to pronounce. He looked at you with genuine interest and curiosity; he laid off a bit, turning your way.
“I don’t think that we could act this way anymore...” You dug your nails into the palm of your hand nervously.
“I... told Katakuri about everything. I told him that I couldn’t be with him anymore because of how things have changed. I can’t be here and pretend that nothing happened when so much did…”
“Nothing has changed for me.” He said in a stable voice, trying to anticipate your reaction. Despite being sure of himself, of every step he had taken till now, he felt a hint of uncertainty, for this was a variable that he hadn’t taken into consideration.
“But everything changed for me, and I can’t ignore it. I can’t continue to play pretend... Of course it was convenient for me... And I didn’t wanna lose... Whatever it is that we have. But I didn’t realize that it had already changed. I can’t be your friend anymore, Sabo. Not like this. Not with these thoughts in mind. Not after…” Y our eyes flicked from his lips to his eyes and back. “After... everything we did.”
You didn’t give more reasons, but your eyes gave one hundred more.
We can’t be friends because I touched myself to the thought of you. Because I can’t help but think about being with you. Because I don’t stand the thought of you being with someone else. Because I love the way your arms fit around me. Because I love everything about you, from the way you say my name to these stupid blond eyelashes that reflect the light everytime you blink. And most importantly... because I love your way of loving me unconditionally.
As much as I want you...
As much as you want me back...
I can’t be with you, not now, because it would hurt me and hurt you even more, because I have to make a decision, because I can’t draw the line between love and lust and because I am afraid to wrong you in the way I was wronged.
But just for a moment, just for this time, you wanted to kiss him just one last time. You wanted to get intoxicated by that mint smell that you have grown addicted to. He looked at you as he drank your words, eyes reflecting the darkness of the sky. His piercing gaze seemed to understand your dilemma. Suddenly, the emptiness of the park felt too weighty and the air too heavy.
“Say something,” you pleaded, almost begging him to break the silence.
To words, he preferred actions. Before you even realized, he captured your lips into the kiss you were longing for. His hand was fast to encircle your back, pressing your upper body against his. Your fingers instinctively reached for the fabric of his shirt, tugging on it as to pull him closer. For him to kiss you so passionately, it only made you realize his burning desire for you. The more you kissed in an attempt to ease your craving, the hungrier you got for his lips, for his stupid minty taste. But it wasn’t nearly enough for you, the growing warmth and tingles created a desire that you were unable to appease yet. You pressed your legs together when his free hand gently rubbed your thigh. He kissed you deeply, almost willing you into giving up on your decision to give in to his embrace. He was indeed that good of a kisser, making you want to shift into his lap and have him inside of you. You whined at this thought growing more eager, tongue chasing his, teeth nibbling on his lips. But you eventually had to break the kiss, even when you prayed for the seconds to last for hours, it was bound to end. You took a moment to collect your breath again. His eyes were demanding, pupils dilated and greedy, yours were more modest, shifty.
“Looked like you were dying for it.”
He broke the silence, finger tracing your neck before lifting up your chin, making you lose composure as you looked into his deep gaze. It was too late to deny it, you were indeed dying for it. But instead of satiating you, that kiss felt like the promise of something forbidden. You only groaned meekly as an answer, feeling too weak to actively protest. You indulged in his embrace, resting your head in the crease of his neck. You breathed in his scent, even his hair smelled fresh like mint. As you took in a bigger gulp of air, you could inhale the subtleties of a thyme or violet underlying smell. What shampoo did he use? Another diverging thought that you discarded.
You closed your eyes. “Can we stay like this for a little longer?” you asked, and who was he to deny you so little? He revelled in your desperate need for his touch. He felt needed, wanted, but he knew that he shouldn’t get carried away, he knew that it wasn’t the right timing yet. So he just let you sink into his warmth. For now.
You peeled yourself off of him reluctantly. Your eyes avoided his. Nice progress ,he thought, but there was still need for improvement.
“I can’t be selfish, not anymore. I have to make a decision. I am sorry I can’t make up my mind yet.” Your voice cut through the silence, firm, yet not devoid of sensitivity.
You needed time, it was clear, but he was nothing if not patient with you. He was ready to settle for your friendship for now while he worked for your love, but he liked your idea more. He wasn’t one to push his emotions onto you, he was there to lead the dance, to toss a bottle into the sea. If good news came then good for him, if nothing came out then he had gambled and lost. But he wasn’t as detached and passive as things might have seemed, as he took multiple variables into consideration to place his best bet.
“Take all the time you need.” Not an ounce of annoyance was to be detected in his voice. It was steady, a rock that couldn’t be moved. He had what it took, he knew what he wanted and he was ready to wait for it because he had the deep belief that you were worth the wait.
“Why are you so patient? Don’t you think you’re too confident? Aren’t you scared? ” It was genuine curiosity, but you bit your tongue realizing that your words might’ve seemed cocky or doubting. His lips stretched into a roguish smile, making him devastatingly handsome. And here he was, a Sabo that you had encountered a few times between two eyelash beats. It was so destabilizing, the way he morphed into a totally different person from one second to another, giving you a strange feeling. It was something that you couldn’t fully place yet. He kept escaping from your grip while being totally still. He was like sand between your fingers and you were fascinated by the prospect of catching him.
“I thought that it was obvious, doll.” Here he goes again, calling you sweet names and raising the rhythm of your heartbeats. How did he make everything sound good? You would’ve scoffed at anyone else calling you ‘doll’, but that voice of his made it sound oh so appealing. Or maybe it was the seed of desire that he had planted in your core, that was now growing and blossoming, vines intertwining with your lungs.
He got closer again, black eyes scrutinizing yours.
“You can have all the time you need. What I want is simple, non-negotiable, immutable.”
At first he was startled; your ex appearing out of nowhere seemed like an inconvenience, but after giving it some thought, he realized that he was in luck. He didn’t have to make you choose, the choice was there for you to make.
“And what is it that you want?”
“You. But all of you.” He looked you up and down as he said this then got up. He wasn’t the type to settle for less. He wanted no compromises, no half-open doors, no half assed answers. If he wanted something then it was all of it, out of respect for you and for himself. Another reason was probably that he knew: the longer the chase, the bigger the prize.
He got up since he considered that the conversation was over now and it was also getting late. You looked at him, eyes wide open, cheeks aflame. His voice trailed off, cutting through the silence.
“No rush, I think that it’s better for you to focus on your exams for now. Will you manage without my help?” Another charming smile, shifting back to that playful Sabo you have always known. The mood felt less serious now.
“I think I’ll do just fine this time…” you smiled gently, following his lead.
“Good, then. Good night.” He put his hand on your head, softly ruffling your hair before turning back. He seemed a bit more distant now, like he was plunged into some deep reverie. You instinctively got up, looking intensely at his back slowly fading into the darkness. Before his silhouette got completely enveloped, you shouted.
“Sabo!”
He turned back instantly and you threw something in the air towards him. He was quick to catch it.
“I don’t think I need these anymore. Take them!”
He opened his hands, looking at the packet of menthol cigarettes and a blue lighter. He put it into his back pocket prior to giving you a proud smile. He then continued his way back home, leaving you behind. You felt both relieved because things had gotten a bit clearer, yet apprehensive since your feelings were still very much unclear. But maybe what you felt above all was exhaustion. You looked for a moment at your empty hands. Did you make the right choice? Whether it was good or bad, you couldn’t care less. At least you had acted true to yourself.
tag list : @chloenanami @mwls-garden @soanywaysistartedsimping @portgaslari @lofi-coffee @donvampiro @fishandfuck @vemuabhi @gabrielasalazar18 @kiriechanx
#slow and steady#sabo x reader#sabo the revolutionary#one piece x reader#one piece sabo#sabo#one piece imagines#one piece scenario#one piece fanfiction#sabo x you#sabo imagines#revolutionary sabo#charlotte katakuri#katakuri x reader
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Okay. Killer Teddie AU time. Full spoiler warning ahead for P4 and even a bit of P5. Full timeline of all events in order up ahead. Smaller details and ideas at the very end of it. Some of this might not make sense or have an explanation because, at the time, I hadn’t finished base game Persona 4 and had no idea of stuff like Izanami, Sagiris, and so on and so forth. Even now, I haven’t yet finished P4G. The next time I work on this AU will be after I’ve finished P4G and have a good grasp on everything to change what doesn’t make sense and add stuff that does. For now take what I’ve worked on thus far. Sorry if some of my explanations are a little wonky. Extremely fucking long post ahead, I’m seriously not joking around this time.
And, before I start, I’m not the only one who worked on the AU! This is a team project between me and my gf! I know it’s not much to say, but I want to give half of the credit to her rather than taking all of it for myself, cuz while a lot of these ideas came from me, a lot came from her, too.
So, let me explain why Teddie’s a killer in the first place. It starts when he’s still just a mindless Shadow, and he comes face to face with a group of Persona users that existed long before the investigation team, consisting of Tohru Adachi, Mayumi Yamano, and a lot of miscellaneous unnamed characters who may or may not be made into proper characters in the futures. Why this first group existed and consists of those characters is one of those things that hasn’t been fully thought through yet. But, one thing’s for sure, they love going into the TV world and just beating up Shadows for fun every once in a while. At this point in the story, Shadows aren’t necessarily hostile yet, so basically, Teddie witnesses a bunch of his own kind get slaughtered for no reason and, probably because he’s starting to grow some kind of consciousness at this point, goes buck wild and kills the whole group save for Tohru Adachi, who manages to escape. This is how Mayumi Yamano meets her demise and also, how Teddie grows a proper body - it isn’t that bear suit of his though, it’s a human body, most likely the result of humans being the only thing he was exposed to aside from Shadows in that world. From that point forward, a fiery hatred for humans begins to develop within him.
Y’know how Teddie’s real crafty, making those glasses for the Investigation Team to use to see better in the TV world? Well, after a while, he decides he’s tired of walking around bear naked and makes himself some clothes to wear. Those fingers aren’t dexterous for nothing. Not too long after he makes these clothes, Saki ends up in the TV world - for another reason that wasn’t thought through well enough yet, but it’s something like she has a Persona too. This AU is very generous with who gets Personas, I know, please bear with it for now. She ends up bumping into Teddie, the two interact, and because Saki’s a little bitch she finds Teddie to be quite strange, what with the way he talks and how he apparently “comes from the TV world,” and is very verbal about it - very rude about it, too. This first impression with a new human + Teddie’s already intensifying hatred for humans = Saki’s gruesome demise. “Are all humans like this?” Is what Teddie thinks. “Are they all cruel? Are they all mean?” Teddie now has a stronger hate for Humanity that only grows stronger and stronger the more he’s forced to sit in that quiet TV world and think and think and think and think about it.
And along with that hate for humanity, comes a hate for his current human form. So he crafts himself that bear suit of his, and wears it all the time - I believe he also makes it so whatever he bumps into next doesn’t think he’s weird sounding or weird speaking or weird… looking, which, I’ll describe now rather than at the end of the post. Teddie doesn’t look all that different, but the main changes are that his eye colour is now a duller, greyer shade of blue, he is overall even paler, and he is also a lot skinnier. No real reason for these design choices aside from self indulgence without going too overboard. Moving on from that, not too long after he makes the suit is when Chie and Yu and Yosuke go in for the first time. Teddie keeps on a facade of innocence and happiness for a “good first impression,” and nothing changes from then up until the appearance of Yosuke’s Shadow. Since a Shadow is the side of oneself that they don’t want to acknowledge or see, it’s chock full of bad traits and negative emotions - further solidifying Teddie’s belief that all humans are just awful, sinful, nasty creatures.
One thing that Isn’t well thought out at all, and something that I have no clue where to put on the timeline, is this whole deal between Teddie and Namatame. Basically, Teddie communicates with Namatame through the TV (can’t remember if he just talks through it, or sticks his head through), and convinces Namatame to start pushing people in not to save them, but for something along the lines of how he “secretly wants them to die.” Maybe it was because Namatame shares Teddie’s beliefs of humanity being repulsing, but it’s too vague a memory to make heads or tails of it. Don’t know how things would work out without it, though, so it’s sticking around as is for now.
Also, as of right now in the AU, the IT is completely unaware of Teddie’s human form hiding right under his bear form/bear suit. Good lord, I am already tired of typing this all out, this post is so long. Still got a long way to go, kind of.
Here’s another loose idea that hasn’t been fully thought about, and it’s when Teddie encounters his Shadow in Rise’s dungeon. My memories are a bit foggy on this one, but I’ll try my best to remember. So, his encounter with his Shadow stays largely the same, with maybe a couple of his Shadow’s lines being changed to represent how not only is he hiding originally being a Shadow from his teammates, but also how he’s hiding the fact that he’s the killer they’re trying to find - all of it is too vague for the IT to piece together, though. But also a thing that’s changed is his reaction to his Shadow is a LOT more aggressive, a slip up to show a small glance of his true personality - but again, the IT doesn’t think anything of it because, Teddie’s facing his Shadow here, of COURSE he’s going to act different when he’s coming face to face with a part of himself he wants to ignore. Eventually, he manages to accept his Shadow, but for one way or another, a second Shadow starts to develop within him. Maybe it’s because he only partially accepted his Shadow, maybe it’s because of something else - like he didn’t accept his Shadow for the right reason, I can’t remember. But it starts to develop. I remember wanting to give him a second persona akin to what Akechi has in p5 - one for lies, and one for truths, but this is one of those things that will either need to be completely cut out or heavily modified in my opinion.
Teddie kills more frequently in this AU. In between when he’s helping the IT rescue people from the TV world, he’s throwing in people on the night that it fogs up so the IT doesn’t have time to see people appear on the TV/doesn’t have time to go in and save them, resulting in their deaths. Teddie so far has only thrown in people who have been assholes or scum in his eyes, and these are the only people that end up dying in the TV world even with the advent of the IT. Teddie gets away with this by sneaking out at night sometimes and either witnessing these people do disgusting things, or overhearing about it. Two candidates/victims are the two girls from Yosuke’s social link (hopefully you know who I mean) and the bully/bullies from Chie’s social link. Though, for the two girls, I like the idea of it being AFTER Teddie comes to the real world for real and shows off his human form, and starts working at Junes. He’s “working overtime,” late at night, calls up those two girls and asks them to come to Junes to “help him stock shelves” - “I’ll make sure you and your friend get payed extra for it. I’ll take it out of Yosuke’s paycheck.” Next thing you know, they’ve been knocked out and thrown into the TV because they’re heartless assholes in his eyes.
Only way Teddie would get away with a killing like that, though, is through having an outfit to disguise himself from Junes’ security cameras - so, at some point in the timeline, that’s what he does. Repurposes his old clothes from the TV world into an outfit to disguise his identity, to let him keep killing, and he keeps it tucked away either somewhere in the real world or in the TV world. He probably does this before he “becomes human,” so that his clothes are kept secret from the IT team, and that whole “I’m like a newborn in here” scene can happen.
Also, just for clarification, that hate Teddie felt for Yosuke’s Shadow? And how it solidified his hatred for humanity yet further, and his belief that they are all scummy beings? This keeps happening for every single Shadow he sees. Chie’s, Yukiko’s, Kanji’s, etc.
Mitsuo Kubo is the only one thrown in by Teddie who doesn’t die, so that the plot can progress normally, but also because it probably went something like this. Teddie sneaks out late at night to find more disgusting humans to kill, to “purge the earth of such horrendous beings,” and comes across Mitsuo killing Morooka. A human? Committing murder? A human being slaughtering another human being? How sinful. How disgusting. How treacherous. Teddie has to deal with this immediately. So he throws Mitsuo into the TV world without waiting for the fog to settle first (it’s too dire of a situation to ignore, after all). He’s kind of hypocritical, thinking Mitsuo is a terrible person for committing murder (he is, though) and then going right ahead and throwing him in the TV, aiming to kill. He’s just cleansing the world, though - that’s how he sees it.
Also, I believe for most nights when he decides to sneak out, he’s wearing his disguise outfit, so that he doesn’t get caught if he’s in a situation like that where he kills someone on a whim - or just to avoid being caught when he’s out so late snooping around for more victims. Random fun fact by the way: the idea for this whole AU started from the fact that Teddie could use his knowledge of the TV world and how it works to easily get away with using it to commit crimes. Moving on now.
Another thing that doesn’t yet have a place in the timeline is this small thing. I like to think Teddie has a tendency to stay up later into the night because of his occasional nightly outings, and he doesn’t really have enough time to fix his sleep schedule - or he actually just CAN’T. But anyways, he’s keeping himself busy at night while he can’t sleep, maybe playing on an old console in Yosuke’s room, when Yosuke wakes up and starts talking to him until he also gets tired enough to fall back asleep. He says to Teddie that he’s worried about him. “You’ve got bags under your eyes, and you’re basically made of flesh and bone.” He says. Maybe Teddie’s skinny enough his ribs show a little. “This isn’t the first time you’ve stayed up this late, either. Like you’re restless about something.” Sometimes Teddie just paces around the room until he gets tired enough to pass out. “And, what time is it, like, 2:00 AM? I’m really worried about you, Ted.” And that really gets to Teddie. He starts to cry. Here he is, devoting his time to hating humanity, to killing humans, to putting on a happy go lucky, innocent facade around his “friends” to hide his true nature and keep himself emotionally distant from them - and poor Yosuke over here is oblivious to it all, worrying for his dear friend and roommate like this is all unnatural when it’s what he truly is on the inside. And for just a moment, Teddie feels truly bad, and he just keeps crying and crying and crying, probably while Yosuke holds him and tries to comfort him, until he exhausts himself, goes to sleep, and pushes it all out of his head the next morning. But on that night, he had let his guard drop, and he had let himself be vulnerable, and he had allowed himself to get a little closer to Yosuke - a little more attached to him than before. It was only a little, but it was enough to be concerning… it was “just a little” too much for comfort. He can’t let himself get close to that thing.
Oh no, I’m starting to lose focus. We’re nearing the end now. So, you know how Teddie makes that promise to Nanako, right? That he’ll stay in their world to play with her and such? He probably makes the same promise in this AU.
I say probably, because depending on wether he did or not leads to two separate endings, and I can’t decide on which I like more.
So, if he DOES make the promise, HE’S the one who pushes Nanako in. The reason? He’s getting too attached. He’s letting his guard down around a human, and that scares him. He’s getting emotionally attached and invested, and that scares him. He’s starting to care about something that he hates with all of his heart, and that scares him. So he pushes her into the TV, because he’s not allowed to do that, because all humans are evil - no exceptions. This results in Teddie being outed because, when Nanako dies in the hospital (don’t know how that happens yet without Namatame, plothole), he can’t handle the guilt anymore. It’s overwhelming him, suffocating him, drowning him. He falls to the floor, completely breaking down, screaming and sobbing about how it’s all his fault. Then, he either runs out of the room and throws himself into a TV after realizing he’d outed himself, or Yosuke throws him into a TV in a fit of rage and because he feels like Teddie betrayed his trust by pretending to act all innocent when he was the killer.
If he DOESN’T make the promise, or at least, doesn’t get attached, Namatame throws her into the TV and things play out the exact same until they get to the top of Heaven, where Teddie completely loses his shit at Namatame. Maybe he goes to beat the fuck out of him, maybe he’s screaming and shouting at him, in any case, he’s showing his raw personality now. That isn’t what outs him, though - it’s Namatame. “I recognize you.” He says, either through his voice or his appearance. “Why are you so mad at me? I’m doing what you told me to. I’m doing what you want.” Something along those lines. “What?” The IT reacts. “Teddie, is this true? Have you been lying to us?” And the only thing Teddie can do is freeze up, and run away, out of the dungeon - probably not without beating up Namatame a little more for outing him. “Fuck you.” It’s like an endless stream of insults and vulgar language pour from his mouth. “You’ve gone ahead and exposed me, you bitch. You little shit. I hate you. It’s all your fault.”
Now on to Teddie’s dungeon. This part is, uh… Pretty dark. General content warning for death ahead.
So, to contrast Nanako’s dungeon Heaven, Teddie’s dungeon is Hell. There are two concepts for this dungeon though - one is that it’s just conventional catholic/christian Hell, and the other was that it’s based off of/is the frozen over Hel in norse mythology. Because, Teddie has ice attacks, you know? But they’re both largely the same, if not visually. In the earlier floors, there are some objects strewn around like burnt and torn up images of Teddie and the IT, Teddie and Nanako, his bear suit, and maybe one or two other objects of some importance to him. The voices that are heard at the beginning of all the early floors consist of Teddie sobbing and dealing with his inner turmoil of hating humans but getting attached to the likes of Yosuke, Nanako, the IT overall, and the like. “They’re humans.” He thinks. “They’re humans, and all humans are awful. I hate all of them. But I love them. They’re different… They’re nice to me. I don’t deserve it.” “Maybe humanity isn’t so bad after all…” “*sobbing* I’m sorry, Nana-Chan…”
You know how earlier dungeons like Yukiko’s and Kanji’s have that floor in the middle of the dungeon where you encounter the Shadows and that weird title card thing appears? That exists in Teddie’s dungeon, and on the floor right before it, the voice at the beginning of the floor is just Teddie screaming hysterically, maybe even crying. Why? Well, when you go to that next floor…
There’s Teddie. Standing in front of the hanging corpses of Nanako and Yosuke, hesitantly reaching out to them like he can’t process what he’s looking at. And when the IT calls out to him from behind him, the way he looks at them is estranging. He looks terrified, he has to do a double take because one second he was staring at Yosuke’s corpse, then the next moment, he was looking at him, perfectly alive, with the IT. They try and reach out to him, but he’s like a spooked wild animal, and he runs away to the next floor.
The later floors are now decorated with Nanako and Yosuke’s corpses, possibly even the rest of the IT, and the voices now are just Teddie arguing with himself and screaming hysterically, like he’s going insane being in such a horrible place, like he’s becoming more and more deranged with every passing moment. “This is how it should be! All those heartless monsters DESERVE to die! They deserve to hang lifelessly this! But they don’t! I don’t want them to die! I don’t think like that! But I do! But I don’t! These guys are horrendous- no, they’re my friends! THEY’RE SCUM OF THE EARTH! NO, I DON’T THINK LIKE THAT!” And so on and so forth.
When they finally reach the last floor, the deepest floor, the final circle of Hell, they find Teddie there, deranged to the point of practically being a different person. That second Shadow that was developing within him now is toying with him, messing with his head, whispering things to him that make him clutch his head and beg for it all to stop. The IT can’t get through to him now, and he either snaps, gets hostile at them for being “heartless, monstrous, evil humans,” and forces them into a fight, or that Shadow ends up possessing him (either fully, or to a certain extent), and they have no choice but to fight him and knock some sense into him. In either case, he gains his second Persona - something that will most likely be similar to Magatsu-Izanagi, not sure yet - and also, for the sake of self indulgence, it’s like he can control wether or not he is more or less like a Shadow. AKA, goopy black forearms fitted with deadly sharp claws instead of fingers.
I can’t actually remember what EXACTLY happens after the battle, aside from Teddie Goes To Prison, but here’s another battle outcome I almost forgot about that I am DETERMINED to add into the final product. Remember at the beginning, when I specified that Adachi was the only member of the first group of Persona users to survive Teddie’s slaughter? Well, at some point, he overhears the IT talking about Teddie being the killer and the TV world’s existence and decides to butt in. “Can I come along too?” He asks. “I’m a Persona user, just like all of you. You’re talking about catching the culprit here, right? The same culprit who killed Mayumi in the beginning? The same culprit who probably almost got me, then?” Something along those lines. So, he goes in with them, and would you look at that - Teddie still hasn’t forgotten his face. So, in the case of “Teddie snapping and going all hostile on them,” it’s most likely because he sees Adachi mixed in with the IT and alllll of those emotions from so long ago come flooding back… combine that with his hysteria, and boom, you’ve got a raging Teddie hell bound on taking his revenge and getting some closure before he either goes to prison or dies trying not to.
And… I think that’s it. Only thing left to mention is that at some point, right before my hyperfixation ended, me and my gf were trying to figure out a way to implement an accomplice ending and a Teddie Arcana Change, but the end of my obsession came too early in the development of both of those, so there’s not much to say. Also, in this AU, I’m thinking of making Shadows hostile because of the first group of Persona users, like how Teddie hates all of humanity almost purely because of that group. Also, small detail, he’s wearing that disguise of his during the fight - dunno how he got it, but I do wanna add it in somehow, though. This post is also already long enough, so I should stop myself here.
Speaking of that, holy fuck, thanks to anyone who’s read this entire long ass messy post. Like that is just so awesome, I commend you for it. Seriously this post took actual hours just to write down, it’s way too long for any NORMAL person to read all the way through, heavy emphasis on normal (affectionate). Asks about this AU are welcomed and appreciated, if there are any. If not, seriously literally just the fact that anyone might be reading this message at all is enough to sustain me.
#persona 4#p4 teddie#how am i supposed to tag this as a persona alternate universe when arena ultimax exists ;-;#persona 4 au#let’s hope that tag works#p4 spoilers#yeesh almost forgot to add that
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Fixes to the Persona Series
Oh boy I hope you all are ready to talk about this for the hundredth time!
My recent tirade about the FES vs Portable discussion started to make me think about what I think could be done in the next coming installments of the series to make it either feel a bit more fresh or just as an overall improvement. Now, I know many of the things I’m about to say have been said time and time again, but...this is my post so I’m going to give my opinion on this :)
Enjoy and feel free to vent with me about your biggest gripes with the series, because I’m always ready for a salt-fest.
(This post will pretty much have any spoilers about Persona 3, 4, and 5 (including Royal) so beware if you haven’t finished those)
To clarify right off the bat, anything I don’t mention in here as something I would fix I either don’t think it is a problem or I just happened to forget it.
1. Player Gender Options
(Royal Spoilers)
Starting off with a great one, I think that an improvement to the series would be to allow an option between a male and a female MC. I don’t think this choice would affect the story in Persona 3 or 4 very much (and we’ve seen that with Persona 3), but I have imagined and seen so many fanfics about how it would actually be a really interesting twist for Persona 5. For most of the story it probably wouldn’t matter too much, but it could impact the first palace so much. The first palace/story arc is already one of the best arcs in the game, so imagine if the player could relate to Ann and Shiho on an even deeper level? To be clear, I’m not saying the player has to be sexually assaulted or something, but I imagine Kamoshida would at least treat the player more like Ann rather than just a delinquent nuisance.
Also, and this just came to mind, but picture this: in the third semester Maruki actualizes things that he thinks will make others happy. Obviously, Joker and Akechi are against this. In the game itself there are a lot of clues to point that Joker does care about Akechi, and does want to see him again, but in the end they both agree that they need to fight for the real world that they worked for, not for a fake reality. If Joker was a female, they could still go the route of doing this (especially if romancing Akechi was an option? Or they just hint at them having feelings but Akechi doesn’t want to commit because he’s a self-loathing boi who needs to work on himself first).
Alternatively...what about a badass narrative of a girl, in a powerful position as the leader of the Phantom Thieves, fighting against a man who believes he knows what’s best for her and tries to appease her by just bringing back Akechi? Kinda like a “Yeah fuck what you did, you just need Akechi/a man and he’ll make you happy” type of thing. Obviously this would all be subtle, because I do think Maruki has good intentions, but he also blames himself for all of the hard things Rumi has gone through and may internalize that as women needing a “strong man” to protect them. Of course this might seem too preachy for people, but I thought it was an interesting idea to run with and that some people could relate to the whole “Woman trying to think and do things for themselves? Nah just sit in your little fake world and be happy, thanks.”
(Sidenote, Sae would be such a good role model...after her change of heart of course. You crush it girl.)
However, I do understand that this could be a lot of extra work, especially when the game is so long and tedious. That’s why I would also be fine with the strategy of “switching off” per say. By that I mean if Persona 5 has a male MC, then Persona 6 would have a female MC, and if a 7th game was made (in 2040 or whatever) then it could go back to a male. This would eliminate the issue of having to record all the voice lines twice or any other extra work that would come with having to make both genders an option. Honestly I know this option doesn’t matter too much to people, they just want an MC who is either a self-insert or actually a character (more on that later), but I do think it would be a very nice inclusion especially for the female fans of the game. It kind of sucks that three of the most popular games in the series all have male protags, and the female protag who was introduced often gets shafted for very dumb reasons. (Oh no, you have the option to romance a kid that most people don’t even choose or like, that means she’s a p*do! :I I know this comment is normally a joke but seriously it’s not funny).
2. Setting of the game (not transfer but also maybe involve the other games?)
(Spoilers for the Arena games and Persona 5/Royal)
So there are two main points to this suggestion: where the game takes place and how it relates to the other games.
As we all know, the three latest entries in the mainline Persona series have all followed a certain trend. They are all high schoolers, who transfer to a town, and know basically no one there. This formula has been repeated for the last three games, and while they are still great games, I think this trend needs to change. Any amount of switching this up would be better than nothing in my opinion. For example, the MC could be a new college student who goes to a new place for college (if they wanted the MC to move somewhere), and there meets the party members who are a mix of people who also don’t know the area (new to the college) and those who do know the area/some people there. This would appease people who have been really wanting an MC to not be a high schooler, while also giving the feel of meeting new people and seeing a new place.
On the other hand, the next game could take place in the MC’s home town, where plot stuff happens and they connect more to the people they already knew (aka party members) to solve the plot stuff. They could be in high school or college, either I think would work, but it would appease people who don’t just want to be a transfer student each time and also have some connection to the characters prior to the game. However, this would be difficult to do given the current “flow” that the games have, that is that the MC doesn’t know anything and has to ask a million questions. It would be very strange to go up to someone you have known most of your life and ask them a basic question, which is why that style of storytelling(?) would not fit well with this and other methods would need to be used.
Now, for the second point, I understand that they don’t make strong connections to the other games because they want each game to be able to be played as a stand-alone, and not to hold people back by forcing them to play the other games to understand this. Makes sense, but usually what happens is that people play one game in the series and then try another game, if they really like the one they started with. After playing through the ones they want to, and if they like them, then there is an appreciation for the series as a whole. Of course Atlus sneaks in little references here and there, like having the P4 gang go to Iwatodai or some TV news announcements on P5 that allude to Adachi and other characters, but those cant always cut it. One of the biggest letdowns I would come to know is the fact that the Shadow Operatives are not mentioned at all, outside of those small references, in P5.
Persona 5 literally has the PT’s broadcasting all of their heists, and includes major government officials like Shido. There are also the mental shutdowns/psychotic breakdowns, which also have people confused, along with how the PT’s steal hearts in the first place. I don’t know about you all, but this seems like the perfect opportunity to get the Shadow Operatives involved. This is like...literally what they were made for? Investigating persona/shadow activity and such, and we already know that the PT’s deeds reached at least Hawaii so it would be strange for the SO’s to have not heard anything. There are headcanons that they were blocked by Shido or something, which is pretty interesting to think about/develop, but it was only thought up to make an excuse for why they aren’t there. Persona 5 introduced a lot of people to the story, so yeah some people would probably be very confused about who the SO’s are and stuff, but it could payoff in the long run for long-time fans and those who play the other games after.
Depending on the story of P6, I don’t think it would be a bad idea to start including casts from the other games into newer ones...especially when each game introduces 8-9 new characters per game, and those games usually get made into spin-offs that include the characters made in the previous games! Counting only the characters introduced in the previous games (3-5), Persona Q2 has 33 characters (11 P3, 10 P5, 10 P4, and 2 P3P, this includes the velvet room assistants for each respective game). That’s a ton! Sure, having new characters each time is part of the fun, but I believe there is definitely a way to split them up. I don’t think it would be too much of an issue to have a smaller party member group (you can only have 4 fight at a time anyway), that way there is still the enjoyment of seeing new characters, while also filling up some of those spots with preexisting ones.
3. Characterization
This kind of piggybacks off of the second point, but personally I think they need to stop with the self-insert protags. First, like I mentioned earlier, it kind of messes up the “flow” of the game since they have to pretend that the character doesn’t know anything because the player doesn’t know anything (yet). For example, how many times did the option to say “Probation?” or “Expelled?” or something like that come up as a dialogue choice in P5? Too often, in my opinion. I assume anyone over the age of 15 would probably know what those things mean, but in case anyone doesn’t they have to make it an option to say.
Adding onto this, it also seems like people start to like the characters a whole lot more when spinoffs or movies/animations come out that really expand on the character, because in those games/mediums the player is taken out of the self-insert role. I would say out of the three games, the Persona 3 protags have the most characterization in game through their dialogue. I haven’t watched the movies, but I heard it fleshes the MC out a lot more. In Persona 4...well, I see what they’re going for but I also feel like Yu has the personality of a cardboard box. The animations definitely helped out this one, as did Arena, and I’ve seen other people agree that they liked Yu a lot more after playing/watching those things.
As for Persona 5, I think they tried to give Joker some characterization (and oddly enough “Joker” has a lot more to him than Akira/Ren, but he still fell more on the side of self-insert. P5 the animation is...of questionable quality, but I think Xander did a good job in the Dub (which is the one I watched) in trying to make him feel more like a human being. I haven’t played Strikers, but I assume it goes more on the route of P5 because you’re still controlling Joker. Oddly enough, I feel like the dancing game gave him the most characterization? Call me crazy, but his dance moves and voice lines just ooze of his suave, friendly, and supportive attitude. I wish that they took whatever those voice lines embodied and just put them into the game, because I would like Joker a lot more than I already do (which, to be clear, I do still like him a lot).
Although this doesn’t have much to do with the characterization, it would also be nice if Atlus could just put the “canon name” in the game while also still having the option to choose your own name. Again, this might add a little more work but maybe if someone chose the “canon” option then their name could be spoken in voice lines, but if they don’t then the names would be left out (except for text) like usual. Honestly this is mostly up to personal preference because I like some of the “not canon” names more so I would want to use those if I could, but I also don’t like having the characters just randomly cut off in the end of sentences when they’re saying your name. Just kind of breaks immersion, which is probably why I really like Joker because at least they say “Joker” quite a bit.
(Little rant, but why do the PT’s get like two group names? At first Morgana defaults to “The Phantom Thieves of Hearts” but then when you get to choose the name of your team, that name is what shows up instead. However, everyone still calls you the “Phantom Thieves” and the gang refers to themselves as that too! I get naming the group is kind of cool, but I would have preferred if they were just called The Phantom Thieves (of Hearts) and that way their name could be spoken in dialogue too.)
4. Choices matter...please? (romance and regular dialogue)
This might be easy or difficult to implement, I’m not so sure because I’m not a game developer, but I really wish choices mattered more in this game. I feel like most of these suggestions (especially later on down the list) are just little things that could be added to the game that would really amp it up, and this is one of them.
When I talk about choices mattering, I do not mean that dialogue should be so open that there are branching paths and that your choices affect the story. What I mean is that you could choose two different options and not get the same exact answer. I get that this isn’t always the case, but when it is it feels very strange. In this same vein of things, please stop with the illusion of choice because everyone sees right through it. I didn’t really see this as much in P3, and I still need to finish P4, but it was definitely apparent with P5. I felt that so many times in the game there were two options that were just “Option A” or “Synonym for Option A” as the choices.
Along the same lines, I think it would be great if romance choices were actually acknowledged. Again, there is a little of this in P3 and P4 where some party members comment on your relation to the other party members (Ex. Junpei saying to take care of Fuuka if you date, Yukari stating that Akihiko probably wouldn’t want FeMC going on a group date if they’re dating, and Yosuke coming to assumptions about who Yu spends the summer festival with), but they are very few and far between. I also saw no evidence of this at all in P5, which was pretty disappointing. In fact, in Persona 5 Royal if you are dating Ann and go on the Christmas Date with her, she makes some comment about not wanting the others to find out about them. Like...girl, considering someone can finish Ann’s social link as early as June or so on NG+ I’m pretty sure your friend group would notice if you’ve been dating for 6 months?? I know that romance is definitely not the focus of the game, but if you’re going to include it why is it shoved into the farthest corner and never touched?
Don’t get me wrong, it is cute to see the romances in the game play out and such, but on the same hand I can see how much better it could be. In reality it kind of sucks to romance someone in the Persona games because no one acknowledges it, and you only get like 3-4 small scenes in each game to spend with them (beach in P5, festival in all, Christmas in all, valentines except for 3, White Day in P5R). Just imagine if you could take a walk in Kyoto with whoever you romanced, or were able to take your partner to the Jazz Jin in P5R and they would get like special date dialogue or something? Very very small additions, but it would go a long way in making the romances feel a bit more connected.
5. LGBT Romances
I went into this in some detail in Part 3 of my FES vs Portable debate post, so I to save your eyes from reading more I’ll just quickly say that Atlus definitely needs to add in more LGBT romance options because it’s ridiculous at this point. The fact that you can’t romance any guy (because all of the MC’s are male, this is not including the FeMC stuff because that’s not typical in the Persona series) but can have a whole harem (despite what they may do to you) is just ridiculous. They’d rather let you date a fully-fledged adult than someone of the same gender.
Also they’re cowards for scrapping the Yosuke romance and that’s that :)
6. Fixing Social Links
Link to the stand-alone post about this section.
I literally was going to include this in this post, but this section alone (which I knew was going to be the biggest) was almost as large (a few hundred words off) than everything prior to this point put together. I’ll make a separate post with just this section soon, but this criticism of mine can basically be boiled down into the fact that the main growth of a character should happen outside of their social link in order to avoid tonal whiplash in the story, and that this will fix the problem of some characters feeling “one-note” if you do not do their social links/confidants. Essentially, go back to the P3 method.
However, something that needs to be fixed for all of the games is that you shouldn’t only get social link points for saying what the person wants to hear. I get the train of thought that if you say what they want to hear they will like you more, but that’s not how real friendships work? Obviously you shouldn’t be saying something that offends them and think it will raise your points, but sometimes people just need to hear things?
I can think of three standout examples: Nozomi in P3 (Gourmet King), Mishima in P5, and Shinya in P5. Nozomi’s link is a hot mess in of itself, but it was very frustrating to at one point just be like “Hey can you chill?” when he’s trying to induct you into a scam/cult or whatever, and it reverses the social link. Like ok buddy fuck you too, I was just trying to say no and that you need to stop scamming people?? For Mishima in P5 (I’ll go more in depth on him in a later post), it’s just kind of strange that you can clearly see him starting to obsess about the PT’s but you can’t really tell him he needs to stop until the social link demands it. Even then, the only way to get points is pretty much to go “Wow Mishima, you’re the best! You’re the reason we exist! We love you!!!” and it just feels kind of wrong. Shinya’s is very much along the same line as that, except you basically have to do something even worse and encourage him to keep being a bully? Thankfully P5 doesn’t reverse confidants, but I probably would have done so with Shinya because I kept telling him he shouldn’t bully others until I realized how to get points with him. It just feels wrong to encourage such behavior until the character suddenly realizes they’ve been acting wrong. No shit, I’ve been trying to say that.
I think social links need quite the fix to them, but this is definitely one of them. Strong, real relationships are not just built upon telling the other person what they want to hear.
7. Have Characters Hang Out
This is mostly a suggestion based off of P5′s downfall in this aspect. I think that P3 and P4 did a good job at showing the characters hang out in other aspects, or hang out separately outside of the MC. P4 had a lot of good group hangouts, but not many scenes without the MC. P3 had the opposite where members kind of hung out together a bit, but also showed or mentioned them hanging out without the MC. However, P5 didn’t have much for the group hangouts and also I can’t really recall a single scene of the party members hanging out outside of the MC.
Along with all of the problems I mentioned earlier with the cardboard cut-out personalities, I feel that this contributed to P5′s group feeling a bit less cohesive. Obviously when they all hung out they acted like a real group of friends, but it’s hard to see it as legitimate when 95% of their hangouts are just meetings for the Phantom Thief stuff. The only times they hang out outside of the PT stuff is the TV station, the fireworks festival, helping Futaba + the beach trip, and the culture festival. Like I said, I can’t recall them hanging out together outside of being with the MC/PT business, although I could have missed some stray text message if one was mentioned.
In this aspect, P5 feels like a small step down from P3 and a huge step down from P4. I think some of the events in P4 are a bit unnecessarily long, but at least they go through the effort of showing that the group is also a real friend group, not just people trying to solve the murder. Strikers may be a step up from P5, but I haven’t played it yet so I can’t judge that.
Also bring back school trips to prior locations of Persona games. Imagine P5 group going to Inaba and it turns out this is the small country town that Joker came from? And they sprinkle in references to P4? *chefs kiss*.
8. Remove/Change Certain Tropes
(Spoilers for the babe hunts, stupid ass hot springs scenes, and Ryuji abuse after certain palace)
By that spoiler tag, you can probably tell that this is the category I’m most passionate about. I can deal with social links feeling a bit disconnected. I can deal with the MC being a self-insert. What I cant deal with anymore? These. Dumb. Ass. Scenes.
Let me explain (insert Sojiro voice here)
Every game has three main tropes. One, the babe hunt scenes. Two, the hot springs scenes. Three, one character being dunked on by everyone else. I’ll go through each, scream about my feelings about them, and why they need to change.
First, the babe hunt scenes. I don’t have much of a problem with this trope to be honest, I just think it could be done better in some games. I actually think the one in P3 was quite funny, because the group treated it like an “operation” which added a bit to humor. Truth be told, I was just a bit disappointed in P3P FeMC route when you didn’t have your own version of the “babe hunt” thing. I know Yukari and Mitsuru aren’t the types to go hunt for boys, but perhaps the MC could have suggested it as a fun idea. In P4, this scene happens in Okina and largely remains the same as the P3 formula, but I think it lacks just a bit of the humor that the P3 one had. Lastly, in P5 this scene happens during the beach trip but compared to the others it’s pretty...lackluster?
It shows a montage of Joker, Ryuji, and Yusuke talking to girls but no actual dialogue goes on. After talking to three or so, Yusuke disappears and this is when Joker and Ryuji meet the two “flamboyant” men again. This time, the men either chase them down or call after them (?) depending on if you’re playing Vanilla or Royal. I don’t like how they use these men in the first place, but on top of that it kind of takes the “babe hunt” out of “babe hunt” if you don’t actually...hunt for babes? Like no actual dialogue is spoken when trying to convince the girls, which was most of the fun in the other scenes. You don’t even have free reign to walk around at the beach, and the scene is formatted in a more cutscene type of way. It just makes P5′s babe hunt fall flat in many ways, and overall I finished the scene with a strong “meh.” The only good things about this was watching Makoto and Ann defend themselves and Yusuke with the lobsters.
Now for the hot springs scenes....hoo boy.
Simply put, in my opinion, these scenes suck ass in almost all of the games. P3 is the least egregious in my opinion, for a couple reasons. First is that it shows that Junpei and Ryoji were kind of trying to peep on the girls, and Akihiko and MC were just dragged into it. They have some funny dialogue, and in FES and Portable they even included the option to try and evade the girls. I found the little evade minigame to be really fun, even though every time I can’t help but fail because I want to say “It was a cat!” I find it interesting that there is the option for the men to get off scott-free, and that their dialogue after the trip is over changes slightly because of this.
On the FeMC side, I also find it fun that you have the reverse of the minigame and actually seek out the boys. My only letdown with this entire scene is if the boys are caught. I get it, it’s supposed to be funny with Mitsuru executing them and such, but as a reasonable person with a brain it seems really dumb to me that Mitsuru would just punish all of them when it’s just Ryoji and Junpei’s fault? This is nothing against Mitsuru, but her actions just seem so...exaggerated for some reason? Like Mitsuru is usually smart, and even if she is embarrassed I don’t get why she would punish innocent party members. A huge disappointment for me was that the FeMC isn’t able to stop Mitsuru from doing this either. Not even a choice to try and encourage Mitsuru or discourage her (so both options would be available). You just kinda sit there and watch, even after Akihiko say “It was a misunderstanding!” or something. For me it was especially strange because MC was dating Akihiko at that point, so why wouldn’t I try to hear him out? Just struck me as kind of dumb.
If I thought that was dumb, P4 and P5 were out to really make me roll my eyes and sigh in disappointment. Unlike P3, which has most of the scene being pretty good besides the very end where Mitsuru punishes the boys, the P4 and P5 scenes are all bad. This is not the first time anyone has said it, and won’t be the last, but they aren’t funny scenes in the slightest.
In P4, it’s actually the girl’s fault that they’re in the hot springs when the boys walk in. They stayed over their allotted time and into the time when boys are supposed to be in there. So what do they do? Get flustered, yell at them, and throw buckets at the group. Oh, and they don’t listen to the boy’s protests at all. Really.
Who thought this was a good idea?? The girls even realize after that they were in the wrong, say they should apologize, but I don’t think they ever show a scene of them apologizing after. This whole scene, like the hot springs ones in general, are just exaggerated (ie. throwing masses of buckets) to be funny, but they really fail in my opinion. It just serves to make the player kinda angry (since they’re usually on the receiving end) and make the girls look wildly unrealistic and dumb. I have never really thought that needless physical abuse is funny, so these scenes are just the bane of my existence apparently.
There actually isn’t a hot springs scene in P5, but they did add one in Strikers.
If they wanted to still do these scenes, maybe they could switch from making it “just beat up the boys” into something else. For example, the girls could try to peep, or walk in on the boys. Equality y’all, sometimes girls can do those things too (but still don’t beat them up. Just don’t beat anyone up). If none of that happens, or maybe that’s how the scene ends, the rest of the scene could just be a chill, relaxing scene between those involved. Essentially, how the scenes go before the whole “lets beat up the boys” thing comes in.
Lastly, on basically the same vein as why I don’t like the hot springs scenes, I’m starting to get real sick of the “let’s shit on this one character” trope. In Persona 3, I don’t think it’s that bad because they kind of do it with Junpei but they also give him a lot of character development, and eventually the sort of hostile shitting on him turns into just gentle teasing.
For P4 I still don’t think it is too bad, because Yosuke is kind of the one being shit on but he also does the same to the other people in the group? I suppose the only thing that really sticks out to me is how Teddie abuses Yosuke’s wallet (making him buy/pay for a lot of stuff with his hard earned cash), but I also don’t like Teddie at all in the first place so I may be biased about him. Oh well, he still shouldn’t do those things and I don’t really find it funny but to each their own.
However...this problem walks and rocks the fucking runway in Persona 5. Namely, this happens with Ryuji. The most obvious aggressor in this is Morgana, because him and Ryuji butt heads so often, but the other thieves kind of do it as well. Obviously they don’t do this all the time, but it’s extremely frustrating when they do. Morgana getting into arguments with Ryuji at the drop of a hat get old very quick, and the other thieves poking a bit of fun about how dumb Ryuji can be is also not that riveting. Despite all of that, the scene that highlights all of this is the scene after Shido’s palace collapse.
You all knew this was coming, but I couldn’t resist talking about it. The scene is so tone deaf in so many ways that it takes away all of the emotional impact that they were trying to build. Even the first time I watched this scene, in which I didn’t think they would kill off Ryuji, I could still sympathize with the group being concerned about him. Then when he shows up they...just beat him up and leave him unconscious next to a pole while they walk away? Wow.
On all subsequent playthroughs I just skip this scene, but I truly cannot understand why that was the angle they went for. Were they trying to insert some humor right after an emotional scene? That can be done in certain cases, but....why??? It’s so unbelievable it’s almost laughable. It’s not even like the bath scene where the the girls think the guys are trying to peep on them. It’s simply because he survived which I assume is what they wanted!
“Oh no you made us thought you were dead (even though he didn’t because he couldn’t control any of this), we’re going to beat you up!” Now you just make the characters look like irrational idiots.
Seriously Atlus, stop doing this. In most cases it just serves to make the player kind of frustrated, and in this case it it literally takes all of the emotional weight out of the scene and makes me think worse of the entire female cast. Please. Stop.
Well that’s the end of that. I don’t think I said anything too revolutionary, although my opinions about the social links and characterization might get me some flak. I just want the characters to be more than one personality trait... This was a really long post again, so kudos to whoever made it to this point!
Next time, on Dragon Ball Z Casual’s pointless posts: something Persona related :)
#long post#persona 3#persona 3 portable#persona series#persona 4#persona 5#persona 5 royal#p3#p3p#p4#p5#that's a lot of p's#ready to get shit on for my opinions#but maybe just ask me first before doing so#who's ready to play persona 6 when it comes out and be slightly disappointed#I am!#but I'll still like it because it's persona
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Who are your Top 5 fave Phantom Thieves of Hearts?
It could be just one or two, but sometimes you can't help it, but to love all of them. But there's always a fave or two and sadly a dislike. But let's focus on the top faves. Honestly for me... it's hard to chose. I mean I have my two faves, but do I have my top 5 faves? 🤔 Hmm... well, most do share the same spots... And please don't be mad at choices! 🙏 We all can't like the same the thing or person after all. Anyway! I will expose my top 5 and be warn, there are spoilers, so I advise you not to look at the list until you played the games or seen the walk through. If you like to spoil yourself, go ahead....
5. Sophia/Sophie. Why her? Well, she's adorable and an AI who has a Persona. She's not the first technology thing to have one, of course. But I like her plot and how she's trying to learn what a heart is. She has YoYo as her weapon which is cool and despite many let downs, she had learn from her teammates and understand what it means to be a Phantom Thief of Hearts. As the story goes, she was slowly losing her robot like voice and to find out how she was created! I like it! I'm gonna miss her...
4. Futaba Sakura/Oracle (Navi in Japan). Why? I just like her personalities and how she's a great hacker while trying to be outgoing. (You can do it, Futaba!). She's funny and I love her siblings relationship with Ren/MC and Yusuke. Her past was so sad and I just wanna hug her. I am glad she has an adopted dad like Sojiro and how she was willing to change her heart to save him. I'm really glad in Royal she has her victory pose after the all out attack. I just wish she'd had one in Strikers when things are looking bad, she actives her showtime to fully heal the HP and SP. PS, I love her UFO like Persona!!
3. Yusuke Kitagawa/Fox. I love this dork! He is beautiful, such a soul of an artist and kinda gullible in most things. He's a sweetie and never miss an opportunity to art. What happened to him in the past and in P5, I wanna protect him. I'm glad the Phantom Thieves came in to help and he becomes one. His relationship with Futaba is funny. They're like siblings to each other (Sorry to those who shipped them!). And he's sort of the first for Futaba to interact with. I do worry about his money situation, but he seems to be doing okay. I really wish Atlus added that you could date guys, I mean they made you date older women, but not a guy at close age to? O.o Anyway, Yusuke is a funny and sweet guy, kinda naive but a good guy. Kudos to the voice actors, both English and Japanese.
2. Morgana/Mona & Ryuji Sakamoto/Skull. Eh? Two?! Hey, it's hard to chose, okay? =3= Now why? Let's start with Morgana... He's a talking cat and he's adorable! (Morgana: I'm NOT a cat) Hehe... Anyway! He's like a mascot yet he's strong and wise in most situations. Despite being a cat in the real world, he still hangouts with the team to join in the fun. I love how he's smitten over Ann yet acts like a gentleman (sometimes) towards her and the fact he can become a bus (and helicopter in Royal) is awesome! I feel bad about when Morgana started to feel useless to the team and no one notice it until Haru appears as a thief. But I am glad he'd came back and to learn his past, wow! I nearly cried at the end of P5. I kinda wish he a human form like Teddie, but at least he kinda did in Royal. And I really wish his cat sprite has more reactions and stuff. The fact his Persona is Zorro... pfft X3c It's like Puss in Boots in Shrek! Now, Ryuji... He's such a good boy with a temper, but he has reasons why. Despite that, he's a good friend and never abandons his friends. Thanks to the MC, he slowly becomes who he should be and I'd a funny guy. I feel bad that his track team treated badly because of what happened and I kinda get it, but still... Anyway! He's like the loyal friend who got your back and is willing to stand up for his friends, even his life to save them. He even didn't judge the MC and becomes his first friend of Shujin Academy. Now, why both on the top fave 2? Well, they always bicker at each other yet they kinda get along sometimes. They both are close to the MC and they're funny like Yosuke and Teddie in P4. Glad their relationship had grew in Strikers and the fact that they are not afraid to blunt insults to each other. At least they're good friends.
Now, the top most fave(s), drum roll please........................
1. Ren Amamiya/Akira Kurusu/Joker & Zenkichi Hasegawa/Wolf. Again another spot is share! And before Strikers, Joker is still my top fave then Zenkichi came in, it's a tied. Let's start with Ren. Ren is handsome! He's cool and mysterious! The plot for him is perfect and how his Persona is Arsene is even more perfect. The background of his shows how hard life is, despite doing something good, he get punish in the end? That's bull crap and everyone treated him like he's a bad boy when he's not. Thankfully, he made friends and people around soon learns he's not a bad boy at all. Ren is charmer and he's still the guy who is willing to help those in need, of course that's up to the player. I do wish in Strikers that it kinda shown his distrust and trauma of the police. I would protect him and make any cops stay a safe distance from him. (Sorry Zenkichi) At least he kinda got his life back thanks to his friends and allies. Did I mention I like him? Seriously I do! 🥰 He's handsome and his smile... Sorry! Now, Zenkichi... This guy is a goof ball, the only adult of Phantom Thieves of Hearts and is a cop! Well, PubSec. He's like Dojima and Sojiro in one, sort of. At first, I did distrust due to he's a cop and all, plus you know in P4 and with Goro. I wasn't sure about him until I had watch the walk through and when first seeing him and when he'd laughed, I thought 'I might like this guy, but let's wait and see'. Now, I thought he would be a comic relief which he sort of is while still not trusting him until we learn he's a dad and how he'd lost his wife which 'Wait! He's a dad and had a wife who was killed in hit and run? Dojima 2?!' OwO I was surprised. Of course, not exactly the same, but similar plot. We get to learn about his past, his relationship with his daughter and why he was using the Phantom Thieves for such case. I start to feel bad for him and his daughter, heck even the Phantom Thieves felt bad. At some point, I did started to like him and Zenkichi was starting to bond with them and they even started to think as him part of the team. Once Zenkichi reveals why he'd hadn't caught the killer, I truly feel bad and understand why he let the killer go. Then boom! He has a Persona that fits him perfectly and such a cool Phantom Thief attire! 😳 That's when I fallen for him 'Dang it! First Joker now him!' He became like a dad of the team, always reminded them that despite what happened to the Monarch, it's still wrong what they're doing now. Despite how old he is (He's in his 40s) he can still fight and is cool! Still a goof ball good looking guy. Now, why both on the same spot? .....I love both them equally! 😍 They're both cool, good looking and those smirks... How dare Atlus did this to me?! I love their Personas. I wish we could see them having bonding moments though. *clears throat* Anyway. Because how I like them, as always I had created OCs to be with them. Hehe 😅
Now, for the rest of Phantom Thieves of Hearts. I do love them all, truly. Makoto is cool and she's the mom of the group. Ann is good friend to hangout, plus she's caring about others who had suffered. Haru is a sweetie who has scary side to her (Do not let her drive). Goro is someone that you wish he had saved sooner and yes I did hate him but I feel bad for what happened to him. Sumire, I wasn't sure about we had learn her background and wow! What a twist. I did call her a hypocrite while I can see why she thought that the people don't help themselves when reality the thieves gives courage and they done something to move on with some help, unlike what she did but I get it and I do like her persona.
Who would I want to be part of the team? Hmm... Hifumi since she was gonna be part of the team, but sadly that was cut off. She would've been better as a thief. Maybe Mishima, maybe! Sojiro... What?! It would've been cool, although he isn't young as he use to be, still. Lastly Maruki. I am surprised he doesn't count to be part of the team, but I guess it's because his Persona was kinda controlling him (I can't remember 😅) and didn't join the team. He would've been a neat addition to team, being a dad/uncle of the group. I feel bad for the guy and I get why did all that yet what about him? Doesn't he deserve to be happy to? Also... what happened to his girlfriend after the Metaverse vanishes in Royal? Anyway, he still like a sweet guy to me and I kinda wish Royal was mentioned in Strikers, but Strikers is technically a sequel/spin off to P5 since Strikers was part of P5, but it was too long and got cut. Hence of no mentioning of Royal.
Whew! Anyway! No hate on this, not everyone agrees with my choices and it's different from everyone opinions. But what about you guys? Got top faves and wish who would've been part of the team??
#persona 5#persona 5 scramble#p5s#p5s spoilers#persona 5: strikers#p5#sophia (persona 5)#futaba sakura#zenkichi hasegawa#yusuke kitagawa#morgana#ryuji sakamoto#ren amamiya#akira kurusu#phantom thieves#p5r#persona 5 royal#p5r spoilers
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Games I played in 2020
Just felt like getting my thoughts out on all the games I played this year. I’ve been wanting to do something like this for years but I always let it pass me by. Well not this year! Fuck you laziness!
I played the first half in 2019 but finished it in 2020 so I guess I'll count it. DQ11 was my intro to Dragon Quest and what a good starting point. I'm not exaggerating when I say this is one of the best traditional JRPGs on the market. Characters, story, combat, it all clicks in just the right way to make a flawless game... until the end credits roll that is.
I have no idea what happened with the post game but by god does it dive off a cliff. It undermines everything you worked to do in the main plot. The characters act brain dead and it shamelessly reuses events from the main game. Please pick up and play DQ11 but for the love of god just stop when the credits roll.
Doom is a game I knew I'd like. The heavy metal ascetic and soundtrack were right up my alley, but I just never found the time. With Eternal on the way though and having found it on the cheap at a pawn shop I figured there was no time like the present. Needless to say but I was right. I loved everything about this game. The thrill of combat, the screech of the guitars, and the silent take no shit attitude of Doomguy. Make no mistake though, I SUCK at this game. I played on easy but still got my ass handed to me on the regular. But I don't care, I was having way to much fun.
I flipped my shit when this game got leaked at the tail end of 2019. Zero 3 is my all time favourite game. To celebrate this getting announced I went and 100% Zero 3 as I hadn't done it on my current cart, and Zero 3 was still the first thing I played when I got this collection! I love that game to death and I’m glad to have it on modern consoles again. As I was under a bit of time crunch with other games releasing soon I only played 2 other games in the collection Zero 4 and ZX Advent. Until the DS collection those and 3 were the only Zero/ZX games I had so I have a lot of nostalgia for them.
Zero 4 hold ups better then I remember. Not as good as 3 but a damn solid game with tweaks I honestly wish hit the series before its end. I remember having issues with the stage design and ya it’s not perfect, but it’s far from as bad as I thought. For ZXA this was the first time I beat the game on normal difficulty. For some reason the ZX games have always given me more trouble than the Zero games, so finally beating one on normal was very exciting. Maybe I can now finally go and beat ZX for the first time...
The Mystery Dungeon series rising from the depth to punch all those unexpecting in the face was a very welcome surprise. I had a lot of hype going into this one as I have very fond memories of my time with Red Rescue Team and even more with Explorers of Darkness. And the game lived up to it! The remastered music is great and crazy nostalgic, the 3D models are well used and don't feel as stiff as they do in the core series, and the QOL changes are near perfect... So why did I drop this game like a rock once I finished the main quest?
Anyone familiar with Mystery Dungeon will know that the post game is the real meat of it. The story is short and all the really cool shit comes in after it's done. But I just couldn't bring myself to put more time in after I finished said story mode. I'm definitely chocking that up to me just not being in the mood then an issue with the game. Here's hoping we get an Explorers DX sometime soon. That will fucking hook me for all it's got.
Second verse same as the first. I loved this game and sucked at it horribly. Out of all the games I've played this year Doom Eternal is the one I want to go back to the most. I was not the hugest fan of some of the changes made and retained a stance that I liked 2016 better. First person platforming has never been a fun experience in my opinion and Eternal did little to change that. And I know this a lukewarm take at best but fuck Marauders!. They are so unfun to fight and ruin the pace. The Marauder in the last mook wave took me so long I was worried I wouldn’t be able to finish the game. But the more I've seen of Eternal after my playthrough makes me think I was being far to harsh. I haven't played the DLC yet either. Mostly cuss I haven't heard great things about it. Gonna wait for the rest of it to come out to see if it's worth getting. Might just replay to whole game at that point to see if it clicks with me better.
This was my second favourite game of the year, and was going to take the top slot until a certain other game came out. Addressing the elephant in room right away, I hated the ending. But I was expecting something like that, I think we all were. I won't let the ending ruin the rest of the game though. Not gonna let 1 segment colour everything that came before it. We have to see how the later parts play out to truly see if this ending was trash or not anyway.
It took Square over a decade but they finally got an action RPG battle system that works and feels good to play. This may be my favourite battle system in an RPG period honestly. All four characters are a blast and it only gets better the more time you spend with it. Figuring out the nuances of each character’s skills and how to combine them not only with the skills of the others but how to enhance them with the right Materia set. This makes fights thrilling and satisfying when you finally best whatever was giving you trouble. Tis was the best way to bring 7′s mechanics into the modern landscape while also fixing the BIGGEST issue the OG had. The fact every character feels the same aside from Limit Breaks.
All this on top of graphics that just look fucking stunning, a few glitched out doors aside. Fuck I still feel blown away looking at the characters models (mostly Tifa) and see how god damn pretty everyone is. Also Tifa’s Chinese dress is gift from the Gods and I still haven’t picked my jaw up from the floor after I first saw it.
In my circle of the internet there was a lot of hype for this game. So much so that I ended up buying it to see what all the hubbub was about. I had never played a Streets of Rage game before and my only experience with beat'em ups was playing a LOT of Scott Pilgrim and last year's River City Girls. Turns out Streets of Rage plays quite a bit different and it kicked my ass! So sadly I had to switch to easy to make it through but I still had a fun time with it.
I started playing mostly as Blaze but once Adam hit the scene oooooh fucking boy. I didn’t play anyone else. There's a deceptive amount of content in this game. You can unlock almost every character from the previous games and all of them rocking their original sprites and moves. If I had more of a connection with this series I'm sure I would have gone nuts on unlocking everything. I stopped after my one playthrough and I was happy with that. Always glad to support a long overdue franchise revival.
To properly talk about P5R I think I need to air a lot of my feelings on the original game and the importance it has to me. You see, prior to 2017 I barely played games, only sticking to specific franchises. AKA Pokemon and Mega Man/Mega Man like games. Until 2016 though I still bought a lot of games. Eating up Steam sales and deals I found at pawn shops. This lead to a Steam library and shelf filled with games I've never touched outside of maybe an hour or 2. So in 2016 when I took interest in the newly released Kirby Planet Robobot I made a deal with myself. I could get the game but I HAD to beat it. And I did just that, gaining not just a new fav Kirby game but a new rule for game purchases. If I knew I wouldn't beat a game I was not aloud to buy it. Now what does ANY of this have to do with P5 you may ask? Well... almost everything.
I was immediately interested in P5 when it hit the west in 2017. I loved the 20 or so hours I but into P3 years ago and really liked the P4 anime I had watched around the same time. So of course with all the hype around it I wanted to dive into the series full force with P5. But I knew myself. Putting over 100 hours into a game was beyond me and I had a weird relationship with home console games as I was predominately a handheld gamer. Add in the fact I didn't even have a PS4 and I was convinced P5 would be something I always wanted to play, but never would. So when I went to the mall with a few friends and they showed me that P5 had a PS3 version, I had a dilemma on my hands. I knew I wanted to play it and I now had a way to do so. But doing that would require me to change 2 HUGE hang ups I had with games. Would I being willing to waste 60 bucks with so much working against me? Apparently I was. I immediately started going to town on this game. Making sure I spent no less then 2 hours a day playing NO MATTER WHAT. Which may not seem like a lot but it was to me... at the time.. I also had just moved to my current house, so coming home from my still relatively new job and going straight into P5 was the first real routine I formed during this heavily transitional part of my life.
I of course ended up loving P5 and put 200 hours into it. As such my outlook on gaming was forever changed. Console games were no longer out of reach and I knew I could handle playing monster length game. I started playing way more games then I ever did before and trying out generas I never thought I would play. P5 is the main reason for this and why I'm able to make a post like this. To actually touch on Royal though? It's unarguably the better version of the game and Atlus learned all the right lessons from P4G. The new characters are great and the added section at the end is possibly the best shit Atlus has ever written. I only wish Yoshizawa joined the party sooner so I could play as her more.
The release of this really came out of nowhere huh? Wayforward announced it was being made mid way through 2019, then there was its weird half release on the Apple store... and then suddenly it was out! Very little fanfare for this one. Is that indicative of the games quality? Luckily no. Seven Sirens is a solid addition to the series and follows up Half Genies Hero nicely. The game goes back to Shantae's Metroidvania roots and makes a TON of improvements.
Transformations are now instant instead of having to dance for them (don't worry dancing is still in the game) making the game feel more like Pirates Curse in its fast flow. They also added the Monster Cards which take heavy inspiration from Aria of Sorrow's Soul system. A feature I'm happy to see in any Metroidvania since Aria is one of my all time favourite games. Sadly though the game does not take the best advantage of these improvements.
Over all the game feels kinda empty. The dungeons aren't super exciting to explore nor are they challenging in any way. And the plot is very repetitive, with each dungeon repeating the same beats. Really this game feels more like set up for a better game down the line. The mechanics are all here and Wayforward has a solid art style with the sprites from Half Genie Hero. Hopefully they capitalizes on this for Shantae 6 and we get the best game in the series.
While it may not have been the most thrilling game, Seven Sirens really put me into a Shantae mood. So much so that I went back to play the 2 games in the series I had never touched. This being the first game and Risky's Revenge. Shantae 1 really is a hidden gem in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, it's the definition of jank, but there's a lot of heart to this game. The sprites are great, the soundtrack is good, and the characters are funny... but it's still on the OG Gameboy and that's a massive hindrance for any game. I'm hard pressed to recommend this with how poorly its aged but I think it's better then it looks.
Risky's Revenge on the other hand was a game that shocked me by how little it had to offer. I know this game went through a hellish development and what we got was far from what Wayforward planned to make, but it's hard to imagine a world where this was the technical BEST Shantae game. It's not a bad game by any stretch... just a boring one.
For the record my ranking of the games goes Pirates Curse>Half Genie Hero>Seven Sirens>Original>Risky’s Revenge
Sword and Shield are mediocre games at best. I know, real steaming hot take there. I managed to make my Sword playthrough a lot more fun by not spoiling myself on the new Pokemon designs for the first time since Gen 3. Either way, I enjoyed myself enough that I didn't mind playing more of it with these DLC campaigns. Plus I love the idea of Game Freak switching over to this method as apposed to making a third version, so I wanted to support it.
Klara is a fucking top tier Poke Girl both in design and personality and is probably the highlight of Isle of Armour. GF actually went out of their way to give her multiple expressions to sell her toxic bitch personality and I love every minute of it. She sadly drifts into the background for the second half of the DLC’s story which hurts an already rough section even more. Not more then having to grind Kubfuu all the way to fucking level 70 though! That put a serious hamper on my motivation to finish the story but I pushed through anyway. Having to solo the tower with Kubfuu was at least a fun challenge though, as was the final fight with Mustard. Fuck the Diglett hunt though. Ain’t no one got time for that.
Crown Tundra may be my fav of the 2 though even if there isn't a character as good as Klara in it. The hunt for the legendaries was just pure adventure and I had a fucking blast doing it. The joy I felt when I figured out Registeel’s puzzle put a smile on my face unlike any Pokemon game since I was a kid. The whole Regi stuff was honestly a nice Nostalgia trip to my times with Emerald. The story around Calyrex was enjoyable, even if I still hate its design. Not revealing the horses before release was a good call to as it gave an honest surprise. Having to chase down the Galar forme Birds in the overworld is a great way to evolve the roaming legendaries idea and I hope GF sticks to this. Plus the Galar forme birds are some of the best legendary designs since Gen 5 and I love Chocodos way to fucking much.
Here we are folks, my GotY. I love Panzer Paladin so fucking much. A combination of mechanics from Mega Man, Castlevania, and Blaster Master? Sign me the fuck up! This game is tailored made for me and I knew I had to play it once it started making the rounds on social media. I'll admit though, I was a bit worried when the the first full trailer dropped and showed the weapon mechanics. Breakable weapons that you have to sacrifice for checkpoints and power ups? I'm not sure about that.... Luckily I was being a complete moron and those mechanics are near perfect.
I love the set up of each boss being a mythological creature from different cultures. They didn’t just pull the easy ones either. A lot of these things I learned of for the first time here. I love how Grit controls. Using the upward stab as a double jump and being able to pogo off enemies Shovel Knight style just felt great and satisfying. Flame was limited but it made her sections feel tense. She does more damage then you think she could at first glance. Also the only way to heal Grit being to use pods that only Flame could access was a cool idea.
I am begging you Tribute Games, you have to make more Panzer Paladin games. Slap some new upgrades on Grit and expand what Flame can do and you have an even better sequel on your hands. Also maybe not have so many 'gotcha' moments with enemy placement. That's really my only complaint about the game. Great music, great sprites, giant robots, unique premise, and a reference to Canadian legends. The ultimate self indulgent game for me.
It felt super out of left field for Curse of the Moon to be getting a sequel. The games fucking amazing but it was really just a tie in for the main Bloodstained product. Not something I expect to get a continuation. Either way I was pumped. If this was even half as good as the original then I was in for a great time. Which held true... cuss this legitimately is only half as good as Curse of the Moon. I still like the game, quite a lot actually. I mean how could I not with a fucking Corgi piloting a Death Train Mech.
Something was just missing here that never made this click like the first game. Maybe it was the stage design, maybe the bosses, maybe the fact that it's a bit to long. I'm not sure. All I know is I couldn't bring myself to play all the modes like I did in the original. . Stopping part way in to the one where you can get the first games characters. I want to go back some day... I just don’t know when someday is.
This was an announcement I never saw coming. A Gundam Verses game coming to the west? That hasn't happened in the entire time I've been a Gundam fan. I had played a bit of Full Boost on my old roommates PS3 thanks to him having a Japanese account and I played Force on the Vita a few years ago. But to have the latest version fully translated with open servers? Holy hell that's a dream come true.
Having the open betas every weekend leading up to launch was some much needed fun during this shit hole year. I had a lot of fun just fucking around with different suits and seeing what I could do with 'em. Absolutely trashing two Bael players as the Kapool is a memory I'll keep with me for a long time. Fucking danced on their graves. This gave me some new appreciation for suits like the Baund Doc and Hambrabi, the later becoming a lowkey fav as it was my main.
I've fallen off with the game in the last few months but I definitely want to go back. I hope to start learning the game and take parts in tourneys when cons aren’t death sentences anymore.
It felt like everything in my life was SCREAMING at me to start the Yakuza series. From 2 of my friends playing 0 recently, a youtuber I following live tweeting as he played through the WHOLE series back-to-back, and Yakuza 2 having a run at AGDQ 2020. Plus the constant pleas to play this series you get from following Little Kuriboh on Twitter. I finally broke and picked up 0 in the middle of August. Boooooooooy howdy did I not know what I was getting in to. And no I don't mean the content. I knew Yakuza was a series of wildly conflicting tones between the main story and side quests. What I mean is the length. I legit thought this was gonna be a 20-30 hour game. When i reached hour 30 of my playthrough and realized I wasn't even close to a conclusion, I think I knew I had bitten off more then I was planning. That misstep aside I ended up loving this game and want to play the rest of the series.... I just need to rest up first before I dive into Kiwami 1.
Let's actually talk about the game for a moment here. Kiryu and Majima quickly clicked as likeable characters to me and I cared about their stories. Combat is fun and the multiple styles are all great.... though both the default styles take a while to get there. The mad rush I felt at the end was fantastic and the last bosses are a joy to fight. Only real complaint is the pacing of the side stories. I loved being able to just stumble into various different events while on route to the next plot objective. But this became less common as the game went on and side stories started getting more tucked away. Also hot take here, the host club mingame is more tedious then fun and I like Kiryu’s business stuff as I could do that in the background. I’m excited to dive into Kiwami and probably Kiwami 2 this year... Though I’m not sure when just yet.
Just gonna say it flat out, I think this is better the the 2018 game. The smaller scale helps in this style of game and Miles just naturally has a better move set then Peter. I'm not sure if they actually tightened up the combat system or if they just threw less bullshit enemies at you but fighting feels so much better in this one. Traversal is better too, simply because they changed the button for tricks. In the original you have to hold down 2 face buttons to enter trick mode??? In hindsight that was such a bad call.
Having both the heal and venom powers run off the same meter was a good idea. Making the choice between keeping yourself alive guaranteed or potentially ending a fight quicker/disposing of a problem enemy is super fun. The player having to make small choices like this during combat is what helps it not be brainless. I love all the different venom skills you get. While they all achieve the same thing in stunning opponents, how you achieve that goal is up to you. Do you want to just slug the bastard, throw 'em up in the air, tackle the shit out of them? The choice is yours.
Only real big complaint is certain upgrades being NG+ locked. I know you want to encourage replays, but this is a shitty way to do it I feel. Also can we retire Rhino for the next game. Man has had 2 shitty boss fights now and I need a break. Between this and Spider-Verse, I'm honestly starting to like Miles as Spider-Man more then Peter.
I got this game more on a whim then anything. I was definitely interested when it was first announced for the west. Vanillaware's beautiful art style in a story about giant robots beating the shit out of Kaijus? Sign me the fuck uuuuuu-oh wait it's an RTS? I had never played an RTS's before, mainly due to the sheer concept stressing me out. So I let it fall to the wayside. The game started coming up again though towards the end of the year with GotY on everyone's minds. This revived my interest, especially as what I HAD planned to be playing around that time was... well. Cyberpunk. Don't think I need to say much more. Also I had worried for nothing as the Real Time Strategy was not that Real Time.
This game really lays on the analysis paralysis once you're out of the tutorial. Do you want to fight, do you want to do story, who's story do you want to do, what branch should you follow, how much should you play with this one character? It's very overwhelming at first. I decided to not go ham on just one character and swap around all the time. The twists in this game are equal parts exciting and infuriating. Learning something new always came with the caveat of more questions, or something you knew 'for sure' being disproven. Like when I learned 1 characters was actually 4 separate ones! Anyone that's played knows exactly what I'm talking about.
Natsuno ended up being my fav and not just because of.... obvious reasons. BJ was cute if unfortunately named and her relationship with Mirua was my favourite in the game. Not that there was much competition except for maybe Ogata and Tomi. I ended up really liking the combat but I can see why RTS fans say it's the weakest part. It's far from complex and I had a winning strat by the third or so real fight. Aka spam turrets and have the Gen 1′s gank all the bosses.
One quick thing I want to share was how I beat the boss at the end of Area 2. The one where Inaba is singing. I had Hijiyama use the limit break skill to bum rush the boss right off the hop. I took out half its health in one hit but Hijiyama’s Sentinel was on death’s door. Only thing that saved him was sending in Amaguchi to blow up a bunch of missiles. Hijiyama took it out on his next attack but lost his Sentinel at the same time. It was a real clutch victory and crazy fucking anime.
The best way to really describe Carrion is that it's a fantastic proof of concept. Can you make a game where you play as The Thing? Why yes, yes you can. Carrion just needed a bit more tweaking to really bring this concept home and be the A+ game I know it can be. As it is now the game is a bit empty. The level design is super samey and the lack of a map is fucking brutal at points. I know it would make no sense for a blob monster to have a map but somethings you just have to gameify for convenience. The level design must have done something right as even though I was completely lost I still moved from area to area properly. Hell by the time I actually looked up a map I had 1 more item to get and I learned I was one door away from beating the game.
I love the idea of losing mass as you take damage and gaining more by eating people, but having abilities tied to size was a terrible idea. It just leads to tedium as I have to go and shed myself to the right size, do the puzzle, then of course I'm going to go back and rebuild myself to see if I can do the next segment at full power. Just make it so you can swap between abilities using the d-pad or something. I hope this game gets a sequel just so this sick ass concept can be fully realized.
#games#goty#Final Fantasy#pokemon#spiderman#yakuza#gundam#bloodstained#panzer paladin#shantae#persona#streets of rage#doom#mega man#dragon quest#13 sentinels: aegis rim#carrion
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THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Meme.
Mun
&
Muse
fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.
tagged by: Stolen from: @niflheimqueen
tagging: @pinkheartedfool, @divinesilverlove @delusorydetective @rock-you-like-a-hurricxne @foolishwinds @chibitantei @apocalypsxmaidxn @mcmcntomorii and everyone else who hasn’t yet! You have been tagged!
MY MUSE IS: canon / oc / au / slightly canon-divergent / fandomless / complicated.
IS YOUR CHARACTER POPULAR IN THE FANDOM? YES? / NO.
IS YOUR CHARACTER CONSIDERED HOT™ IN THE FANDOM? YES / NO / IDK. (Have you seen his charm!! PLUS HE’S A RANDOM FOODAHOLIC DORK X3 and be weirdly cute in his own way :3 If you don’t believe me. wait until he Reveals His Right Eye)
IS YOUR CHARACTER CONSIDERED STRONG IN THE FANDOM? YES / NO / IDK. (Here’s the thing with that. It really depends if someone likes him as an MC. I’m sure their are probably others out there who may prefer Yu Narukami as a better Protag, or Akira the new P5 protag. So it depends on the person. But for the most part, I’d like to think he’s pretty well widely enough known in the fandom as the P3 Blue-Emo-Jesus who saved the world x3)
ARE THEY UNDERRATED? YES / NO / IDK. (In terms of having his own personality, maybe a little bit? Since he’s only been able to express his own personality in the few spin off games we got for P3. Yu has been able too more, but for a while he wasn’t able to until Persona Q(P4 Side) and until the movie and now Dancing In Moonlight as well as Persona Q 2. But his personality in the P3 Manga if definitely underrated in my opinion, not too many people talk about the Manga)
WERE THEY RELEVANT FOR THE MAIN STORY? YES / NO
WERE THEY RELEVANT FOR THE MAIN CHARACTER? YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG./
ARE THEY WIDELY KNOWN IN THEIR WORLD? YES / NO. (In my AU Main verse, he’s a famous Paranormal Investigator with his own show, so yes in my AU verse. Tho popularity level depends on verse, Main verse its his first season and he only just blew up. In my P5 Verse its 5 years after P4AU so he would be in his 4th season by then and only then be widely known)
HOW’S THEIR REPUTATION? GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. (As a Paranormal Investigator, all his successful cases have gave him a very good rep within the Ghost Hunting community, it was thanks to his credibility how he was able ro get a
tv contract deal. In P3 he has a great rep with his friends as their reliable leader and friend, but a not so good rep at school too many dates.. xD nice one Minato )
HOW STRICTLY DO YOU FOLLOW CANON? — (Because I started to RP Minato when there’s wasn’t much games where he didn’t have his personality shown yet(2015) I based him off more from the Manga’s interpretation of him, But now canon wise in terms of Personality, I still tend to use mostly his Manga personality, but now I’ve added a few small tidd-bits of how he is in the movie and how he is depicted in both PQ’s as well as Dancing In Moonlight.)
SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting
in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals. — (Oh boy here we go. Minato is a food loving and very random dork who tends to be quiet and stoic 88% of the time, but he’s very kind, he always puts his friends before himself, he tries his very best to be the best leader he can possibly be and he is an all around easy person to get along with, just expect him to zone out here and there, to sometimes be very weird, VERY random. And expect him to randomly start snacking a lot x3 )
Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?). (He can sometimes have a tendency to overthink things waaayyyy too much and if it’s really eating at him a lot, it will permanently plague the back of his mind. He can sometimes be lazy, but its a habit he’s trying to break. If he’s really super hungry, he will gorge and when he gorges, his tables manners are absolutely terrible XD )
WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO RP YOUR MUSE? — (I guess it was how I saw him when I read the Manga. I played P3 FES first, then after beating it, I wanted to read the manga as soon as I found out about it. I also think it was the fact he dies and seeing how his friends grew up without him, it made me really want to see what it would be like if he survived, I guess I felt his death at the end of the game was just a real shame, I suppose I thought he would have been a great character to bring back in future Persona games, I understand the reason for his death and I have nothing against it. It was just that thought I had of “Man Minato could have been so much more if he survived” that drove me to pick him up )
WHAT KEEPS YOUR INSPIRATION GOING? — (Well, I’ve been in the Persona fandom for 5 years now. Before when I came back, I wasn’t getting many rp’s. But ever since I came back and found an active Fuuka(MinaFuu is a ship I rarely got to rp) so that started it back up, and then it was seeing all these familiar faces(Or blogs in this case xD) come back, my motivation has been through the roof. So I guess the revival of the fandom and the wonderful people of the Persona community has fueled my fire and it keeps on burning for more!)
Some more personal questions for the mun.
Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.
DO YOU THINK YOU GIVE YOUR CHARACTER JUSTICE? YES / NO / I SINCERELY HOPE I DO? (I think so, I’ve Rp’d him for 5 years now, I’d like to think I know him inside and out?)
DO YOU FREQUENTLY WRITE HEADCANONS? YES / NO / SORT OF? (When the motivation or idea’s are there then yeah I totally do)
DO YOU SOMETIMES WRITE DRABBLES? YES / NO (I definitely do, not as many as I’d like to tho, but when the idea comes to mind that you just can’t express in an rp with someone else, then its best in drabble form.)
DO YOU THINK A LOT ABOUT YOUR MUSE DURING THE DAY? YES / NO (I’m a very musical person myself just like Minato so every time I jam I do and I’m always jammin ;3)
ARE YOU CONFIDENT IN YOUR PORTRAYAL? YES / NO / SORT OF?
ARE YOU CONFIDENT IN YOUR WRITING? YES / NO / A LITTLE BIT. (In the beginning I wasn’t, but I kept at it and eventually I built up enough confidence to really make him soar. The thing with Minato is since Persona protags are silent and the game lets you make up his personality. But since I incorporate him more from the Manga I try to really channel that version of him. I’ve had a few people tell me they like my portrayal. So I must be doing something right?)
ARE YOU A SENSITIVE PERSON? YES / NO. / SORTA. (tbh I’m more sensitive when it comes to my friends or family. Most times I’m pretty level headed when it comes to myself, nowadyas anyway.)
DO YOU ACCEPT CRITICISM WELL ABOUT YOUR PORTRAYAL? — (For the most part yes and I don’t usually let any negativity get to me. But if someone doesn’t like my portrayal for some reason then you’re welcome to unfollow me. Maybe I’m not the Minato for you then?)
DO YOU LIKE QUESTIONS, WHICH HELP YOU TO EXPLORE YOUR CHARACTER? — (DEF I love any questions I get so please def ask me stuff if you are curious.)
IF SOMEONE DISAGREES TO A HEADCANON OF YOURS, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY? — (Yes, just so I can get a better idea of the flaws it may have, then I can better construct it if I see it as a valid reason for possibly not working. If I don’t see any problem with it then it’s still staying )
IF SOMEONE DISAGREES WITH YOUR PORTRAYAL, HOW WOULD YOU TAKE IT? — (If my portrayal doesn’t fit your idea of Minato then perhaps I’m not the Minato for you and the unfollow button is always there. No harm done really. )
IF SOMEONE REALLY HATES YOUR CHARACTER, HOW DO YOU TAKE IT? — (Hey man, just don’t try and kill my vibe by cutting down my muse right in front of me and we’re good. Of course there is always the unfollow button. )
ARE YOU OKAY WITH PEOPLE POINTING OUT YOUR GRAMMATICAL ERRORS? — (Totally, I make quite a few sometimes, if it ever bothers you, please let me know kindly and I’ll have no problem fixing it, But if it doesn’t bug ya the we good. )
DO YOU THINK YOU ARE EASY GOING AS A MUN? — (I like to think so, I used to be pretty shy on here, but after 5 years on here I’m chill with pretty much everything. )
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Unorganised thoughts on Silver Snow:
When I finished Golden Deer, I said that it had felt like a more traditional Fire Emblem story than Blue Lions. Silver Snow is that but even more so (though GD is still the most trad-FE cast, IMO)
Having already played those two routes, it felt very much like a whirlwind tour of them both, plus another battle thrown in at the end - a battle that probably should have been harder, but I (completely accidentally) built the bulkiest Byleth imaginable, especially resistance wise, plus high magic - and so, by pairing high defensive stats with Nosferatu, I tanked every attack that came my way
Gaming, for me, is just doing whatever the hell I feel like, stumbling into good results, and then pretending that I did it on purpose
I spent the whole battle with the Dragon Tales theme song stuck in my head. Kind of killed the mood
I really enjoyed that after wrapping up both the Edelgard and TWSITD plots, they basically Persona 4 you by trying to convince you that the whole game’s done now and all that’s left is to chat with everyone - though unlike in P4, there’s very obviously something left to do because they give you a whole month of prep time, rather than just one day
I felt the same way about this on Golden Deer - none of the characters are appropriately shocked by Rhea’s highly questionable actions
Also - she says she’s going to explain the whole truth! And she doesn’t! Only the Byleth creation stuff! The other revelations from Golden Deer are missing! Rhea! Why! Are! You! Like! This!
This is actually a problem I have with this game as a whole - they want to keep certain lore and secrets exclusive to certain routes, but it results in every story feeling in some way incomplete. Like, Fates gets a lot of crap, but at least you did get a full story from your half (third? never played Revelation) a game for the price of a whole one. Blue Lions gets the worst of it, I think
Plus, when you know some of said secrets, it makes characters who refuse to share them in other routes seem weirdly (and sometimes, contrivedly) cagey about things they really do not need to be cagey about. See: Claude refusing to tell Dimitri and Byleth in Azure Moon that he wants to End Racism, and instead vagueing about ‘achieving his dream’. This is not Edelgard wanting to conquer Fodlan and dismantle the entire social structure, Claude, your ideals really are not so controversial that you need to be this coy. Dimitri and I are cool, we getcha
My one sentence review of the whole game is basically: Great characters, great world building, great gameplay - but really, really frustrating plot structure
I’m also really upset that Seteth does not have a dragon form
Speaking of Seteth, I married him this time around. I mostly decided to do it for laughs, but while Byleth/Dedue is still my number one Byleth pairing, I came to really, genuinely like them together. Seteth is one of my favs, now more than ever
It helps that romancing Seteth feels a lot less... creepy than romancing most of the students. I like Linhardt, but romancing him felt very weird to me because I couldn’t get over Byleth having first known him as a 16 year old under their care. Dedue, for the record, doesn’t elicit this response because he doesn’t really feel as much like a student to me? Role-wise he feels a lot closer to the knights, and it’s just that he's been enrolled as a student for convenience’s sake, which makes him and Byleth feel more equal than they do with most of the other kids. Helps that he’s also on the older end
Anyway, Seteth and Byleth would be the nerdiest couple ever, is the impression I got from their ending. The confession scene made me laugh in how ‘oh we’ve got a lot of work to do - btw wanna get married? - sweet, now let’s get back to work’ it was. Mark Whitten is a gem
It’s also the the first time I felt like the game was actually shipping me with a main lord (Seteth taking that role in the absence of the box lords on this route). Haven’t done Crimson Flower yet, so no opinion on the Edelgard/Byleth relationship yet, but regarding Claude and Dimitri my (pretty damn controversial, possibly a bad idea to put out there) opinions on them with Byleth are that
Claude and Byleth are platonic bros, regardless of Byleth’s gender. I just don’t get any feeling of romance from their relationship at all, and so pairing them off feels weird (to me, personally - I don’t hate the ship or anything, though)
Meanwhile Dimitri 100% had a crush on his teacher at school, but after more than five years of enduring trauma after trauma, and then half a year of beginning to heal (whilst fighting a war culminating in the execution of his step-sister), Dimitri is nowhere near ready for a romantic relationship. And when he is, I wouldn’t want him with any of the main cast, Dimitri x Village Girl OTP. I guess if it has to be anyone, I’d be okay with Mercedes, maybe Marianne - hell, maybe even Claude - but really, I just want him to get a fresh start. I think that’s the healthiest option for him, in the end
I do think it’s a pairing that could work in an AU where Dimitri doesn’t have any of the experiences he has in canon, though
And again, this is just my personal reading
I’ll also admit that I may be influenced by the fact that his two most popular pairings are with Byleth and Dedue, who I greatly prefer with each other. Mostly because I love Dedue with all my soul and his ending with Byleth is by far his happiest, in my eyes at least. It’s the only one where he puts some distance between himself and Dimitri and evens out the power balance in their relationship, which makes me happy because oh boy, the Dimitri/Dedue relationship is super interesting and compelling, but also (again, by my reading) all kinds of unhealthy as it’s presented for most of the game - power balance issues like I say, the fact that they tend to indulge, even encourage, each other’s worst instincts and behaviours, mutual guilt complexes - like I say, it’s fascinating, but damn screwed up. IMO, they’re one of the best examples I’ve seen of how unhealthy relationships aren’t always the result of one bad person, and how two good people can end up being very bad for each other
Though it is, again, a pairing I can see working (and actually being incredibly cute) in an AU where they’ve lived less horrible lives
And it’s not like I don’t want them to be friends, I just want them to also develop healthier boundaries and equal levels of respect
oh my god none of this has anything to do with silver snow what am I doing
But hey, speaking of Dimitri - I flip flopped on whether I thought his death was handled better or worse here than Golden Deer. It was given, I felt, more appropriate gravitas, but again suffered from ‘Dimitri’s dead! No, Dimitri’s alive! Oh wait, now he’s dead again’ in like, three successive scenes. And then you see his... ghost? I guess?
Dimitri really seems to get the short end of the stick on routes outside his own. Claude’s non-Deer roles were, in both cases I’ve played, much stronger and more fitting, and Edelgard is Edelgard
Maybe he’ll be good in Crimson Flower. Please. I miss Dimitri mattering. He’s probably my favourite of the three
There’s a point - obviously I don’t fully know Edelgard yet, but from what I got from the White Clouds section, above anything else she strikes me as an incredibly realistic depiction of a slightly edgy, extremely idealistic, but also highly naive and short-sighted teenager
Her whole goal, it seems, is meritocracy. She hates the crest system and the nobility, and she wants to create a system of equal opportunity. I can get behind that, but I really hope she’s prepared to accept the fact that true equal opportunity is basically impossible without recreating The Giver, as inequality is always more complex than one single factor being to blame for everything. Has Edelgard considered other limitations that make true meritocracy difficult to achieve? Has she been working on, say, a comprehensive benefits system? Or is she more of a libertarian type, and so primarily all about negative freedom and removing direct oppression? I hope Crimson Flower goes into detail on this, I’d be genuinely interested to know
I also find it interesting that she gets very angry about the fact that people hurt her and her family as a means to their own ends, so she decides that her own ends are to eliminate the system that lead to that happening - and she doesn’t care who she has to hurt in the process
This isn’t a CinemaSins *ding* plot hole observation, I genuinely think it’s interesting, and not actually that unrealistic
I also suppose her goal is no less naive than End All Racism By Being Nice To People, but Claude isn’t killing and persecuting people in attempt to achieve that, so it invites less scrutiny
I do wonder if I would have felt more strongly positively about her if she’d been my first playthrough. I do believe she’s a person that sincerely means well, and she’s certainly sympathetic, but - hmm. I’ll make my mind up when I finish CF
Anyway, paired endings. A few that I got include Raphael and Bernadetta (by far my favourite Bernie ending so far, seriously, what is that Caspar ending), Shamir and Leonie, which was cute and goofy (as Leonie’s endings tend to be, I notice, I do like that girl), Felix and Dorothea (not my favourite for either, but cute), Sylvain and Mercedes (the same but even cuter), Cyril and Petra (which felt wrong, partly because I love Cysithea a hell of a lot, and also because despite knowing there’s only about a year between them, Petra looks so much older pre-time skip), Ferdie and Marianne (super wholesome and sweet), and Linhardt and Caspar (my boyyyyssss that I refuse to ever separate again)
Not sure what I’m going to aim for on CF aside from keeping those boys together and also Ferdie/Hubert, as I’ve Heard Things
Flayn and Manuela have an A support so I figured they had a paired ending and it turns out they do not, which means Manuela was alone forever and Flayn ran away because apparently she hated having Byleth for a step mother I guess, rude
My Byleth (Myleth?) was prepared to be the best step mother in the history of the world, so offended
I realised ‘Javelins of Light’ is one of my absolute favourite tracks in the whole game. Mostly because it sounds like something out of Danganronpa, which made me nostalgic
I also like ‘Guardian of Starlight’ for somehow managing to sound like a Danganronpa/PMD: Explorers crossover track
I love how out of nowhere the Immaculate One fight is. It really does just feel like they needed something to distinguish the route from Verdant Wind outside of Claude not being around, so they just had a map that was less cool in every way except for the dragon
Is there an explanation for why Nemesis doesn’t show up on this route?
Also - I didn’t mention this in Golden Deer thoughts but I also found that final battle way, way easier than it was probably meant to be because I’d made everyone into a flier and so the floor damage hazard was meaningless
Which I totally did on purpose and not so I could make a stupid joke post about my all-wyvern team
Anyway, in conclusion, Silver Snow was a good route, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would (I’d kind of thought it was just going to be GD without Claude, which isn’t... totally wrong, but it’s got some other stuff going on too), I liked Seteth getting to have a bigger role, I thought it had the best final boss (if not the best final boss map), and I liked that I got some more Dragon Lore (never a bad thing)
please don’t yell at me for my controversial shipping opinions
#fire emblem#fe3h#silver snow#silver snow spoilers#golden deer spoilers#verdant wind spoilers#blue lions spoilers#azure moon spoilers#long post
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Some notes on my characterisation of Teddie
retreading some old ground from previous blogs but hopefully it’s better than before because i’m always getting better grasps on my muses as time goes on so pwease read with an open mind .✫*ﾟ･ﾟ
So while my characterisation is mostly based on the english localisation of the games and anime because that’s what i’m most familiar with, i feel like teddie comes across differently than may have been intended due to dub changes. i kind of viewed him the way i do when i first played, learning about the dub changes mostly just confirmed some things about my interpretation. like of course i changed my mind about some things but so you know where I’m coming from
So something that didn’t translate very well was Teddie’s humor. He’s constantly making bad jokes that the rest of the Investigation Team doesn’t respond to. This isn’t because they’re uncomfortable with his jokes, even when they’re a bit perverted. He’s not a jerk who keeps making bad jokes that make people uncomfortable, and the Investigation Team aren’t jerks for not explaining to Teddie that it’s not okay or anything, since he’s new to human customs. It’s because he’s looking to bring others into his comedy routine with any kind of reaction, positive or negative, and the only way to discourage him is to not respond. When someone makes a bad pun, groaning and complaining about it is part of the humor they’re going for. It’s like that.
The reason this was translated poorly is because Teddie was specifically mimicking a Japanese comedy style. I kinda always saw it as dad jokes kind of humor, but learning about the original intentions made it click.
This isn’t to say Teddie never does anything perverted. Almost, honestly maybe every, Persona male acts like a pervert, contrives scenarios to provide fanservice to the player/viewer, sexually harrasses female characters for comedy or just because the writers think it’s normal. What I’m saying is, this isn’t a Teddie problem. It’s a Persona problem. I’m not excusing his actions but I don’t think he should be held to a different standard than other characters who do the exact same things. I also really hate when people call Chie (and/or the other girls) an abuser because she physically hurts the boys, because again that’s not a Chie (or other girl) problem, it’s a Persona problem with how the comedy tries to be this slapstick thing on occasion. Like I hope where I’m coming from makes sense when I say that??
No I’m not say it’s okay for Teddie to try to grope Rise, or for Chie to kick Yosuke, and similar moments. I’m acknowledging that these moments are part of the game’s humor, they’re anime characters engaging in anime nonsense in an 11 year old game. It’s bad faith criticism to judge a single piece of media or a single character by ignoring the tone of the work they’re in, holding them to the standards of the real world and also ignoring the same problems exist within similar works (for example w/ persona 4 you need to consider it within the context of other anime, other video games, all forms of media that may have directly influenced it, the state of the world (politically & pop culture wise) at the time (2008), etc., persona 4 does not exist in a vaccumn) and that exist in other characters within the same work. It’s not helpful in explaining why their behaviour and/or why making light of it/normalising it can be harmful because you aren’t examining why it’s written the way it is.
Oof this bullet point got long sorry
Teddie’s character arc is not linear. He doesn’t consistently get better, and he is in fact at his most obnoxious in my opinion during the Yasogami High Culture Festival. Since his arc is about maturity, this is like his ‘rebellious stage’ where he’s a brat before growing up more, after having grown up a lot in the months before the festival. However, I can’t accept his characterisation in Persona Q. He’s pushed too far and ‘flanderized’ ike a lot of the Persona characters are in spinoffs. I adore his group date marriage event (&accept him believing he fell for the protag at first sight as a headcanon (it’s just a crush, not ‘true love’/’destiny’, though)), think the love potion quest where he downs some love potion believing it will make girls love him only to fall for Akihiko is hilarious, but that’s about it. I haven’t finished Persona Q2, but his characterization in that game is a lot better from what I’ve seen.
I believe that Teddie went through the events of Persona 4 believing that when the investigation was over, he was ‘supposed’ to go live in the midnight channel permenantly and say goodbye to his friends. A lot of his antics during the year are him pushing for some cliche high school fun experiences in order to make some memories to hold onto (he’s kind of like a player avatar in that way ?? this kind of thing is why the latest 3 Persona games are set during high school over just one year, right??). His perverted antics can be explained with the idea that he doesn’t actually expect any of these girls to fall in love with him, if he wants anything he wants a movie-style ‘summer romance’ so he doesn’t really take them / flirting with them seriously (I’m not justifying it, only providing a possible explanation). He may have just gotten lonely and came back to visit anyway, but his intention really was to leave the human world for good at the end of the game. It’s only when the IT laugh off the suggestion that he realises he was the only one who believed this, that they really think of him as part of the team and weren’t just humoring him this whole time.
I headcanon that his perception of his friends changes and he starts to respect them (+Yosuke’s wallet) better over time after this. It’s gradual (old habits die hard!) but noticable if you pay attention. Naoto notices his maturing during the game, she’d probably be the first to catch on.
He’s bisexual and nonbinary. Though, his feelings on gender maybe can’t be compared to a normal human, he takes on an androgynous male body because he wants to be loved rather than because he feels like a man, dresses as a girl because again he wants to feel pretty and loved rather than because he feels like a woman... In Persona Q2 he volunteers himself and Chie for the power team despite struggling to lift the weights that team needs to, because Chie is insecure about being the only girl on the team and he wants to comfort her. So he’s not exactly bigender or gender fluid, he’s nonbinary and presents whichever way feels right at the time, and what feels right is based less on his own feelings and more what will hopefully make him loved or sometimes help/comfort his friends? He did not grow up like a human in a society of binary gender, it honestly doesn’t mean much to him.
He believes Kanji is attracted to him (which I see as untrue aha I sort of ship it but if he’s got a crush it’s not in the way Teddie thinks), &mimics Yosuke’s attitude about it, not seriously scared of him being predatory or anything (not realising the problem w/ Yosuke’s homophobic comments, which Yosuke quietly gets over later &is probably embarrassed about his own behaviour so he’s not gonna explain), just thinking it’s a funny way of teasing him, seeing Kanji denying him (or not knowing what the fuck Tedd’s talking about) as being tsundere. I feel like this would die down as he gets older
His one-sided rivalry with Akihiko in the Q games (ahh I know they have a hostile relationship in the Arena games but I haven’t played them so don’t know if I wanna make that canon to my Tedd, it seems like they’re too hostile) is because Akihiko is hot, has lots of fangirls, but it’s not just jealousy, he’s swooning too
I think he flirts with Goro in PQ2 because he’s told Goro is a detective prince like Naoto, it’s kinda similar to Akihiko, he follows the crowd and fangirls too. But also, Goro is a Wildcard, he doesn’t know it at this point but he may subconsciously sense it? I’ve always headcanoned him having an attraction to Wildcards, of course the P4 protag is his #1 but he’s pretty flirty with the others in the Q games
that’s it for now because this has gotten SO long, if you made it this far I love you. if you didn’t i still love you because i love humanity as a whole but i’m a little disappointed because i crave attention not gonna lie.
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Chapter two, this time with the P4 cast!
The Cognitive net; a Persona 4 and Persona 5 cross over fanfic with OCs.
Summary:
When a string of missing persons cases all seem to be linked by a far too familiar rumor, detective shirogane tries to enlist the help of her old investigation team. Unfortunately, not all of the original members are able to make it to shibuya-the sight of the latest case- but she finds help from an unexpected hacker and her friends. Elsewhere, a small team of brand new persona users have already figured out the “cognitive web” and it’s strange search engine. Will detective Shirogane and the hacker Alibaba discover the new group of heroes in time to realize this case is not city wide, but WORLD wide?
Chapter 2: one new message/a run down for the newbie
1/2/3/4/5
If the walls of Detective Shirogane’s office could speak, they would have very little to say but those words would be astonishing. 45 cases- murders, kidnappings, petty crimes and robberies- in the two years she returned to the force alone. The bluenette was diligently looking over the latest case files; missing persons cases that were handed to her not because they were another case to solve, but because SHE could possibly be the only one to solve them.
“5 people have gone missing in the past three weeks. The first went missing at 8am while in their own home. His mother reported him missing after she came to check on him. He had been playing video games…” she flipped to the other file. “This one went missing in the middle of school, the only thing the police were able to find was her cell phone…” Naoto stared at the file and made a note to make a request to look at the phone. She shifted though the other files and saw a pattern with those who went missing and leaving their phones behind. The 3 phones that were not locked led to a website and all apps aside from the web browser were locked.
There was something about these cases she couldn’t shake. They felt familiar and it sent a rock like weight down to her stomach.
“I need a second opinion… maybe a third.” She fiddled with the brim of her hat and reached for her cell phone. It has been a long time, least to her.
Opening the phone, she found the old text chat she had been added to the day it seemed everyone became adults and parted ways.
<Thisll b how we stay in toch!
<Yosuke please type like a normal person.
<yu, plz stp txtin lk a old man.
She laughed at the interaction between the two partners. Scrolling though the old chat she felt a wave of nostalgia. It was bitter sweet- she missed the old times and the silly things they would do, but all that changed a year and a few months ago. That was the last she talked to any of her old friends from Inaba.
>Hello Everyone. It Has Been A Long Time. I Wish I Was Contacting You All With Happy News Or Questions About Your Lives But I Have Been Given A Case And I Request Your Opinions On It.
She stared at her phone for a few moments. She did not expect the almost instant “many people are typing” notification and gasped when her phone buzzed with text messages.
<Naoto kun! I will be happy to help you! I’m taking a break from performing, so I’m all ears!
<Holy shit shes not texting in all caps!
>My Word Yosuke, You’re Texting In Full Words!
The chat grew abuzz with laughter and the nostalgia was fading. The truth was she didn’t have to stay in the past; her friends were right here, even if they were miles away.
<Naoto, I’m happy you remembered this chat but out of all the cases “The Returning Prince of justice” has solved, what makes this one special enough to ask for our assistance?
Senpai. Even in text form she was able to hear that suspicious tone he had when he knew she was avoiding something.
<oh man I’m not dreaming! This chat IS active again!
<whoa, Kanji! You’re not getting long distance charges are you?
<oh my that’s right! you’re in America!
<nah, don’t worry yukiko, i get free texts from japan since ma checks in with me. wait, Yosuke how did you know I would have been getting long distance charges?? What about you? Weren’t you in America as well?
The detective blinked down at her phone with shock. So much has happened she was almost floored. She made a note to speak with her friends more often.
<haha yeah. About that…
<guys! I love you all but I don’t have long for my break! Naoto still needs to explain why she is coming to us for this case!
>Yes, My Apologies. It Would Seem There Has Been A String Of Missing Persons Cases, Three Of Which I Have Noticed A Trend That My Gut Is Telling Me The Other Two Cases Will Also Exhibit Once I Investigate The Crime Scene Of One Case.
<I heard of this. Nanako mentioned it to me the other day. one of her class mates’s older siblings knew the 3rd victim.
<How is nana-chan, Yu san?
<focus yukiko! I heard about these too. My teacher at the training camp is working on the case with you Naoto!
>Does That Mean You Are In Shibuya, Chie?
The detective sat up strait in her chair. She reached for a note pad and pen when her phone buzzed, Chie confirming her location and adding she would be visiting the district her office is in with said teacher (he had planned to surprise her she guessed, but the cat is out of the bag now).
<hey I know! Lets all meet up!
<yukiko, what about the Inn? And Kanji is in America. Plus Rise is on tour!
<my Tour is ending soon Yosuke kun!
<WHAT? But I didn’t get to see you on stage yet!
<I’m sorry, the last 3 stops had to cancel due to
>Rise?
<I just realized! The last 3 stops had to cancel because the kids of the venue owners went missing! oh no Naoto kun I think I know why you want our opinions! Is it because they went missing like people from the midnight channel went missing?
Naoto smiled grimly at her phone. Rise may have been a bubbly idol but she wasn’t dumb like morooka had implied she was (least that’s what one of Yoskue’s stories about the former home room teacher suggested).
>Yes. I Am Afraid There Seems To Be A Connection To The Victims That Feels Far Too Familiar To That Of The Midnight Channle.
<Holy shit.
<Naoto you said you were in Shibuya?
>Yes, That Is Where My Office Has Been For Two Years Now, Yu San.
<I can be there in a few days to discuss things face to face.
<I will not be joining. Yosuke kun is right, I can not leave the Inn. Not yet at least. If the case hasn’t been solved in a month I will be joining you! But I certainly hope you will be able to solve this soon. Those poor parents must me worried sick.
<I can swing by in two weeks, Naoto kun! And my break is over, love you everyone! Tty real soon!
<Count me out. Unfortunately I’m in America for the next year. I havn’t told you guys this, but I got invited to do a run way show a few months back and one of the companies loved my designs so much they offered me an internship.
<Kanji that’s amazing! You HAVE to make me an outfit some time!
<Rise go, you’re going to be late. As for me you know I will be there!
<sorry, I can’t swing the train ticket or plane ticket or… anything like that right now.
>Do You Need Me To Send You The Money? This Counts As Case Related So I Can Use The Funds The Department Has Granted Me.
<its not just that Naoto. I actually have to get going anyway, customer needs me. I Will explain another time.
<wow. Since when has yosuke been responsible?
<Chie have you never noticed his dedication?
<OF COURSE I HAVE! Its just. I don’t remember him putting anything before us. Shoot, he even let me buy teddie’s outfit with his money!
<hes an adult now. As we all have noticed we can’t put our friends first all the time anymore. As sad as that is, I am proud to see he is still dedicated to his work.
Naoto nodded at Yu’s words. She felt better about not speaking to anyone in such a long time and decided to make the notes she was beginning to make. First, to make arrangements for three of her friends to be a part of the case, and second… to visit the first victim’s home and investigate his computer.
“I certainly believe you are right Yukiko. Lets both hope we are able to solve this case before the Calvary is needed.”
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meanwhile, in the world wide cognitive web, The Admins stood around, waiting on their leader.
With a wave of her hand a blue room appeared. It was a box and it fit with the other random structures in the cognitive web. A door appeared with the number 5 on it. as everyone filed in Alpha paused and looked out at the ninja that was watching them a moment ago. Sure enough, he was still there, still watching, however now he looked ready to spring away into the artificial night the web was simulating.
“Alpha? [what are you doing?]” the rabbit poked its head out of the litteral chat room to become it’s partner inside.
She didn’t respond, she simply walked inside. Once the door was closed the 5 glowed for a moment before shifting to a 6. On the inside two couches and a coffee table appeared. J4k3 and Skitty took the one to the left while Click sat at the one at the back of the table. Alpha stood at the front and opened a text chat.
“whats with that? Were all here.” Skitty leaned forward and clawed at the table, testing the cutesy paws that appeared when she wasn’t thinking.
“that sillouete we all saw is Hero. He is a unofficial member of the Admins.” The toy rabbit leaped onto Alpha’s sholder as she moved the chat box to be at her right. “Alpha is allowing him to listen in if he wishes.”
“we figure hes mute since he doesn’t talk to us, but he has messaged us once. Is that what the chat is for? Incase he has something to say?” J4k3 gently took Skitty’s…paw? Hand? Into his to keep her from clawing the table any further.
With a nod their leader presented the group with the IP address she was able to trace.
“okay everyone! Since this is Skitty’s first meeting lets give a run down!” the rabbit hopped down onto the table and pulled up various floating documents. “our first rescue was ClickClickBoom, Alpha’s right hand man! He was support until I entered the web!” the star arcana explained as they puffed out their chest. “now I am support. I scan shadows and tell you their weaknesses.”
“shadows, Nyan?” Skitty tilted her head and click rolled his eyes.
“I’ll explain what shadows are if you agree to stop with the nyan stuff.”
“aww you’re no fun… but fine.” She purred as she leaned back in her seat and gave the youngest her full attention.
“Shadows are the manifestations of human hearts. There like personas, but bad. Your shadow can be your suppressed emotions, your over inflated ego, or even your inner darkness. They are always exaggerated tho.”
Skitty nodded “you explained that when I got Leomund. So all shadows are like that? Not just the ones that drag their other halves here?” the Magician turned from The Lovers and regarded the Fool, who simply nodded.
“Yup! They all have weaknesses, which means you also have weaknesses! We’ll figure those out later. Anyway, back to the meeting!” the rabbit sprang up and landed on a floating document.
“we have discovered that we have about a week to rescue someone. When you are dragged here you become data. Your shadow however starts to corrupt your data; if you become corrupted, your body can’t return to reality.” The air became somber as J4k3 leaned back.
“but even then we don’t know why some people can return and others can’t.” the Emperor reached out and tapped a floating file. The image of a chibi girl appeared. She smiled at the Admins and waved.
“This is Hallie. She was the team’s first rescue after me-“
“Rescue mission five!”
“-but like Gerade she became a data card instead of returning to reality.”
Hallie frowned and bowed her head. The robot reached out and hesitantly gave her a pat on the head. it wasn’t anyone’s fault she was like this.
“wait, so even if we save people they just become those cute tamagchi things? then whats the point!”
“its better then them becoming corrupted data.” Side Kick jumped up and flipped Hallie’s data card. “see? All of Hallie is right here. She is healthy and stable. She can return to reality once we figure out how to open her data card!”
The room felt warmer as click stood. “that’s our second job as Admins. We HAVE to figure out how to open the data cards and safely return the victims to reality.”
Alpha nodded and glanced at the text chat. there was a notification that a 6th persona had joined the chat room. She turned to the rest of her team. “Normally we have to trace the IP address that was used to access Cogntive.net, and then find a entry point. This takes a few days. At most 3. After that we track down the dungeon.” Alpha reached out and a map appeared. “These are the 9 dungeons we have found.” she grew silent to let Skitty look over the map when a block of pixels shifted to reveal a 11th dungeon. There was a ping and the Admins looked to the text chat to find a message.
Hero> I found a dungeon while you all were out. It was the “false alarm” you dismissed. I did not know dealing with the situation myself would affect the algorithm.
“Dude… you found a dungeon, took down a shadow, AND rescued someone in the span of a few minutes? That’s crazy!” J4k3 stood up to get a better view of the map.
“Hero, was the person… are they a data card?” Skitty also stood to look at the map better. There was another ping.
Hero> no, they will be assisting me. They insisted on it. You have two people on your side now.
Alpha nodded and went back to the map. “Any dungeon we encounter will become part of this map. However this is not a map of the cognitive web. The web is constantly changing. But when a new dungeon appears it rarely takes a day to travel to.”
Skitty blinked and her cat ears twitched. “you said “normally”. Does that mean this case is different? Is it going to be easier to find the dungeon?”
“yup!” click stood up and slammed his foot on the table, a wall of binary coming up. “since the victim used a public wi-fi we can just enter the IP address into the search engine and we’ll be teleported there! Public wi-fi isn’t password protected, that’s why you always gatta be careful when you’re using it, ya dig?” the motioned at the binary as it formed the cognitive net search engine, the IP already in the search bar.
“If we are ready, we can head out right now to save yuki mishima!” Side kick stated as the other gave their own affirmatives.
“one more thing!” Alpha stated as the chat room became barren again. “time is different here, Skitty. Don’t worry about things taking a week. Once we are in the dungeon it will feel like we’ve been in there for days, but in reality it had only been a few minutes.” She placed a hand on the cat themed idol’s shoulder. “are you ready to put your talents to good use?”
With a chestier grin she gave her leader a firm nod and The Admins were teleported away.
#Cognitive Net#persona 4#persona 5#cross over#fanfic#fanfiction#original characters#i spelt so many names wrong i know it
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OH RIGHT YEAH I FINISHED PERSONA 5 ON SUNDAY
first i’m gonna say stuff that isn’t spoilers, and then after i’m done with that i’ll put spoilers under a cut. (at least, plot spoilers- there’s going to be details on the game in general, so if you haven’t played it yet and want to go in blind, hurry and scroll past this)
It’s good. It’s really very very good and improves on previous Persona games in... I think every possible dimension, except for how in this one every single female social link is romanceable, including the adults, including your teacher, um, hey??? Don’t???
Using personas as shadows was a really good move- the masked shadow designs from Persona 3 really fit that game’s aesthetic and had a whole unified design language, but they were sort of out of place in Persona 4 and would have been very out of place in P5. It was a savvy move both from a saving-on-art perspective, and from an aesthetic perspective- they were free to pick and choose from their huge library of persona designs to populate the palaces with thematically appropriate bad dudes. And, of course, as a fan of the series, it was fun going up against personas I’d used in previous games as enemies, and applying that knowledge to get an edge in combat.
The social stats system, where you have to grind up smarts and courage and charm and stuff in order to unlock things? Still terrible. Still a huge drag on the pacing and the game would have been way better without it. Hated it. But, it was slightly better than in P4, because social link activities often give you points in your social stats in addition to s.link points, so you don’t always have to choose between one or the other. Not that having the system at all wasn’t still bullshit, but it was ameliorated by some smart design decisions.
Speaking of social links- every single link, this time around, provides mechanical bonuses as you rank up. It’s not just a matter of, okay, I get an extra level on personas of this arcana- investing in social links provides a huge array of quality-of-life improvements. Getting extra time in the day, unlocking special moves in combat, letting you rearrange your party on the fly, improving your stealth in dungeons... it’s not just your immediate party members who are empowered by s.links.
Your crew is constantly having conversations in a group chat on your phone, and it really does a lot to make you feel connected to them- you have whole-group interactions on a daily basis, without having to meet up in person or have plot contrivances to justify it. That little touch (I say “little”, but it’s a big undertaking in terms of volume of writing) did a lot to make me care about the team as a whole.
EVERY PART OF THE GAME IS STYLISH AS FUCK AND THE MUSIC IS GREAT AND IT LOOKS AMAZING AND I WAS CONSTANTLY SUPER PSYCHED ALL THE TIME, THE HYPE IN THAT AREA WAS NOT A LIE, THAT’S ALL I NEED TO SAY ON THE MATTER
In general, it kind of made a show of departing from previous Personas, while really sticking pretty close to the formula overall. The main improvements were in the dungeon-crawling stuff- fixed-layout palaces with loads of cool setpieces and puzzles, stealth mechanics that made sneaking up on enemies engaging (except when the dang hiding spots restricted your camera for absolutely no good reason, dammit, i can literally reach out and touch this shadow’s toe and i can’t lock onto it from here??? fuck off), and cool faux-platforming sections.
anyway, PLOT SPOILERS (spoilers: the plot is good):
So, dang. The big thing that bugged me about Persona 4′s plot was “hey, so, you could at any time just go to the police, show them that you can go into TVs, and explain using the easily demonstrated evidence that the killer is using the magic TV world to do murders”. It made zero sense- particularly because the protagonist was living with a senior police detective. The usual “oh, they’ll never believe us” angle is nonsense in the face of how you can totally prove it no problem.
Persona 5 neatly sidesteps this by putting the protagonist on probation, and making the core group a bunch of Phantom Thieves, and oh shit yeah actually making the cops the bad guys- so of course you keep all this stuff secret and don’t just let the authorities sort it out. YOU WOULD GO TO JAIL. (In fact, you do go to jail, as the flashback framing device points out early on.)
And speaking of this framing device: holy shit the clever plan for how you get out of that situation is genius. When the protagonist gets shot directly in the head and the bad guy checks the head wound to confirm that he is in fact dead? That looks pretty damn final until you remember that hey, realistic fake people are totally a thing and have been substantially involved in the plot this whole time, and of course if the police believe you’re in a cell then there’ll be a cognitive duplicate of you in the police’s cognition. There were so many layers to that plan that, in retrospect, didn’t seem like unrealistically risky gambits. No shit, it worked perfectly! It was a really fucking clever plan!
I’ll be honest: I didn’t exactly see Akechi coming. At first I saw him coming- like, okay, who’s going to be the traitor? We know there’s a traitor- I wonder if it’s the guy who we know works for the police, and has been trying to capture us? It was way too obvious, and so- while I kept him as my first guess, in acknowledgment of that obviousness, I was ready to pounce on any alternative explanation. (My secondary hypothesis was that I hadn’t been betrayed at all, and that the cell was in the Metaverse and the whole thing was a fiendishly elaborate setup. So, in a way, I was double right? While being, in fact, completely wrong.)
I caught the pancakes thing, but I didn’t put two and two together with his explanation- I knew he had to already be a persona user because of it, but when he confessed “I’m actually already a persona user”, I didn’t think too closely about the timeframe he presented- his claim that it had been recently, during our Okumura Foods heist. Or- well, I sort of considered that, but wrote it off as “maybe he misheard “cakes” as “pancakes” the same way Ann originally misheard “pancakes” as “cakes”. His thing on TV where everyone was blaming the Phantom Thieves, but he was like “actually, I think it might be someone else” threw me off the scent entirely.
(i also suspected Mishima, at least until i got further into his social link and he became less of a disaster area)
The Igor twist fucking ruled super hard. I thought it was kind of eerie that they introduced “Shadows are Personas, and they talk like people do, and are alive” at the same time as “hey, let’s do fusion with GRUESOME EXECUTIONS”, and I did think “wow, this doesn’t sound like how Igor should sound at ALL, but I guess I’m going to have to get used to it.” That said- I get that it would have taxed the art budget, but they really should have phased out the guillotines and gone back to the tarot card stuff once Lavenza and real!Igor came back into play. It was weird that they had the open door, but put an invisible wall in front of it, too- like, I guess they planned to revamp the Velvet room after that twist, but ran out of time?
The final fight was kind of eh. Big marathon against a god with multiple limbs and a lot of health, and then he kills you but your social links give you strength and your persona turns into a bigger cooler persona (although and you win the fight good. Kinda boilerplate Persona final boss there- but not as disappointing as I assumed the final boss was going to be, because with Igor I ♪ never saw it comiiiiiing ♪ and thought Shido was the big bad, which would’ve been kind of anticlimactic. The whole bone bridges full of angels situation in the leadup, though, was pretty damn rad.
Let’s see what else. Sojiro Sakura is best dad, Hifumi Togo is best girl, Morgana is best cat, Akechi’s little foot dance thingy after all-out attacks is more adorable than he deserves to be, and Becky Kawakami deserves a god damn vacation.
I’ll probs have more P5 opinions to say later?? It was a VERY VERY good game that I liked a lot, tenouttaten.
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aa:p4 weaponry
I was thinking about it and maybe Pearls is the weaponsdealer this time round. Ok, to expand on this - I was thinking of giving them an item that would allow them to see clearly in the shadow world. A personal object that would, through spiritual energy, allows them to see clearly through the fogs in the shadow world like teddy’s glasses do for the p4 cast. Something like that.
I mostly got the idea from when Pearl imbued the magatama with spiritual energy, which allowed him to see Psyche Locks. I was wondering how to translate Pearl’s role here, since she’s an adorable little kid and I don’t want to leave her out, and this - spiritual sight clearing device! Which helps them channel certain powers, like Apollo’s Sight, Athena’s Hearing, Phoenix’s Psyche Locks, Miles Logic Chess etc., or help summon their personas. Or both.
My original thoughts were for Pearls to transform the Weapons into the form of their Personal Object, but small innocent Pearls getting access to weapons didn’t really sit right with me, so I changed it to Sight Clearing Object. I think it works better that way tbh.
Weapon dealers could be the detectives (at least for the first part - see this cool post by onyourwings for more details! Although nothing is set in stone yet haha :’D), but idk. hmm. I was kind of hoping to see them as support charas who have to go through their time in the tv world, but I think they could be the Real World Investigation Party Supporters or something. Again, not sure.
I wonder if I could get the Judge to be the Weapon dealer… but in terms of storyline he’s like Igor so… nggh I’ll just leave the slot open for now I guess.
Below lies their personal sight-clearing items and possible weapons Possible (not sure but here just in case) Spoilers for AA1-5.
DEFENCE ATTORNEYS
- Phoenix Wright -
Sight Clearing Object: Magatama | Weapon: Shield (mb with sword)
Magatama because that’s how he’s able to see all those psyche locks (like the fog!), which get him close to the truth. Plus, it is canon he gets his powers from the Magatama, leaving it out would be a gigantic travesty in my opinion haha.
Shield since I vision Phoenix as a very defence-based fighter, due to his ridiculous luck at escaping accidents. Seriously, coming out of a car crash with only a sprained ankle? A raging devil riverfall with only a cold? This guy’s stamina’s and defence is ridiculously high. Also, he just, I dunno, seems like someone who’s a really defensive fighter? Not the type to go all out attack straight off the bat, unlike some prosecutors we know. Not sure why I think that way tbh. So I gave him a shield.
But since he’s the original character, giving him a sword also works, since its unique in that he’s the only one who can switch into another stance, and gives him the chance to go more on the offensive. His defences would go down, but the boost in attack power should help cover for that. So his primary weapon is a shield, while his secondary weapon (which is admittedly not used much) is the sword. Preferably a guan dao or a sabre, since both can be used effectively in one hand and with a shield.
Darkness more than light, fire, ice, electricity, wind, the Wild card has all and protects them and humanity with his shield, sword hidden near his hip for the few cases when a defensive approach is no longer needed, when the time to attack is right.
- Apollo Justice -
Sight Clearing Object: Bracelet | Weapon: Bow
Bracelet! Because his bracelet is actually what he uses to concentrate his focusing power so eyy, too good to pass up. Also, its clearly very important to him. And aa5 proves that he’s unable to really turn it off so in this au I can just pass it off as a side effect that just revealed what was already there or something haha. So much plots I can use it for mwahahaha.
As for why the bow - Originally, it was gauntlets, but it didn’t feel right, and he has pretty much average strength. @onyourwings and @worldbeyondtheworld agreed and provided the perfect alternative - the Bow! Which fits ridiculously well considering that the God Apollo uses a bow. It’d put his sharp eyesight to good use too, and we definitely need more far-ranged members on this team. Pfft imagine him using his Chord of Steel to tell others to get out of the way while he shoots from a distance - it’d be both cute and badass!
Wind that carries his shouts to afar, that caresses his cheeks and ruffles his hair and guides his arrows directly to home, blowing back the enemies in a gale that is as determined as the hurricane of determination in his soul.
- Athena Cykes -
Sight Clearing Object: Widget | Weapon: Gauntlets
Ok, I chose Widget as the SCO because she often uses it to figure out the emotions she hears, which in turn helped her find the truth - and it’s important to her, as well, due to it being a memento from her mom. Plus, Widget is an emotional-measuring device, which can come in pretty handy to detecting emotional distress and helping people accept their shadow selves without another freakout. So Widget it is!
As for why she’s given gauntlets, well, canon states she’s got self defence training, and I still remember that scene where she body throws Apollo over her shoulder in AA5 (lol rip Apollo). She’s strong, pretty aggressive when angered and she’s also got a reaction gif of her smacking her fists together, like she’s preparing to punch someone, so. Gauntlets.
Bright, like fire and energetic, like the electricity that crackles around her body, sparking out of her fists as she slams them together in anticipation, thrumming and humming a tune so fine that only her ears can hear.
- Raymond shields -
Sight Clearing Object: Pink Notebook | Weapon: Hammer?
Ok, I know he only appears in AAI2. But he’s still kinda important (definitely more important than the Payne Brothers even though they appear nearly every game) and he’s a good guy. He’s definitely a key player, much like Sebastian and Kay. Plus, the defence team needs more people and I like him (I like all the charas in this game actually). And so here he is.
I chose the Pink Notebook as his SCO because its the only thing he had with him during the past and the present.
As for the hammer, well. We kind of needed one, and I couldn’t think of what would suit him well enough. So I just went with the hammer.
PROSECUTORS
- Miles Edgeworth -
Sight Clearing Object: White King Chess Piece | Weapon: Spear
Ok, the reason for the White King Chess Piece is because of the Logic Chess Sequences. In it, Edgeworth takes the white part of the chessboard, which is why his piece is White. And the King represents absolute authority and is the most important part of the game - without him you lose - So I figured that a King Chess Piece would work due to the symbolism. As the head Prosecutor and leader of Good on the Prosecuting Side, Miles more than deserves the White King Piece.
As for a Spear, well, I admittedly got the idea from aa1 case 5, the really long one that first introduced Emma Skye. The prosecuting award had the Spear so I thought ‘eyy, why not’ and thus, Spear. Plus it also serves as a good parallel to the Shield of Phoenix Wright - unbeatable Spear vs unbreakable Shield, which is alluded to in the awards in AA1 C5. Also! I forgot to add but World came up with the idea for Spear first - didn't include that bit because I was tired and forgot, sorry!
light and dark, intertwining with each other like yin and yang, centering around his spear and placing his soul to rest, driving him towards the truth.
- Franziska Von Karma -
Sight Clearing Object: Brooch |Weapon: Whip
I had trouble thinking this one up, but while I was looking over her character pictures I noticed a similarity - that blue brooch she wears at her neck. It appears in every single one of her sprites. Not even joking - official art, AA2, AA3, even AAI2 she has that same brooch at her neck. Clearly its an important part of her daily attire, so it serves pretty well as her SCO, I think.
She uses the whip in game as a tool of subjugation, so its pretty much canon for her already. Nine-O-Cat tails is probably the ultimate whip for her to unleash her wrath on the foolishly foolish shadows, although I don’t think she’d unleash that wrath onto people while holding the Nine-O-Cat tail whip. That thing was used as a torture weapon during the middle ages - its pretty brutal. I pity anyone who earns her wrath while she’s holding her normal whip, though.
Ice, so cold that it burns deep inside her heart like true fire, causing frostbite and ice to form wherever her whip struck.
- Sebastian Debeste -
Sight Clearing Object: Baton | Weapon: Knives
Sebestian uses the Baton in his animations, which is good enough for me. It’s probably pretty important to him, and somewhat iconic for him.
As for the knife, well. Originally I thought sword, to rival Edgeworth, but we’ve already got Simon as the Swordmaster. So I tried thinking about something similar to a baton in terms of length and maneuverability, and I came upon Knives. Around the same length as the baton, and serves as a good close-range weapon- although Sebastian with a knife is.... well, he’ll have to go straight up to fight them close range. And he seems a pretty scaredy guy. I dunno. But hey - he ran straight to the dumpster to dig up evidence! And stood up to his douchebag of a dad! So kid’s got guts.
Or alternatively chakra sticks! They’re like sticks, but held in both hands and used for attacking. That could work.
Fire spreading across the blade, heating it into the bright red that comes from the forge, held out determinedly in front of him with one hand like his baton, flames flaring out like the swell of a crescendoing orchestra, like his dad’s lighter, and spreading up and around him like a protective blanket before going for the kill. Alternatively ice, frost freezing onto the sticks and burning everything cold, freezing spots into ice that shatter at the next blow he delivers.
- Klavier Gavin -
Sight Clearing Object: G-shaped necklace | Weapon: String wires
Klavier has a lot of love for music, and since he’s associated with guitar - dude even plays a riff on air guitar when its epic enough in court - it should probably be something related to music. But I also wanted it to be associated with something he wears or is able to carry around easily, like the others, and a guitar is not easy to carry around. Especially when fighting. So I grabbed a look at his appearance, thought for a bit, and chose the necklace around his neck. It’s noticeable and what he wears, and I’m fairly sure its merchandise for his band The Gavinners (nice self promotion Klavier haha), which means its related to music, and so G-shaped necklace it is! An alternative was the chain he’s wearing around the belt, but since I can’t see if its still there in AA5, eh. I’ll stick with the necklace.
As for why not the rings he wears on his fingers, well, its a part of his weapon. Since it is no longer two am in the morning (its 1am in the morning! Good enough!) I’m awake enough to come up with a different weapon for this guy that still fits what I wanted to include - usage of music and range, really. Wire strings are ranged weapons that slice through opponents or trap them, and require strategic and creative thinking - something Klavier has in spades. Ranged, because he seems non-confrontational physically, preferring to hang back and smile it away instead, which would translate into fighting as attacking from afar. They also require deft hands - again, something Klavier has due to years of experience playing guitar for his band - and strings are often used to produce music with the sound of the string’s vibrations. Related to music, requires intelligence and deft hands, ranged - Suits Klavier pretty well, I think.
Heat emininating from deep within him,umming a couple of tunes from the Guitar Serenade as he lifts his hands as if he were thanking a crowd, twitching his fingers as if they were on guitar strings, smiling beautifully as flames pour down the strings like a spiderweb on fire, charring anyone in its snares into ashes.
- Simon Blackquill -
Sight Clearing Object: Taka Feather | Weapon: Katana
FINALLY CAME UP WITH SOMETHING! Granted, it was actually really obvious once I figured it out but eh. So, Taka’s feather, because Taka is important to him.
I do know that he used the same sword to intimidate people. Which totally works, you japanephobile. I mean, he probably attacks with Taka too, but I think he loves the Hawk a little too much to let her lose on dangerous Shadows... but I could be wrong. So he attacks with both? But uses the sword most of the time because he doesn’t want to rely on Taka too much and continue to seem intimidating.
Imagine a katana, intricate designs of darkness curling delicately around the surface of the blade, shadows weaving a delicate pattern and bringing everything dark. Alternatively, imagine that same sword crackling with electricity, the energy jolting up and down the blade like a live thing desperate to be unleashed, thrumming with the desire to electrocute the shadows into oblivion.
-Sahdmhadi-
Sight Clearing Object: *shrug* | Weapon: Rosary
I’m not even sure I’ll ever include him due to how new the game is and that I haven’t even watched SoJ finished yet, but leaving him out would be pretty crappy to those who’ve watched SoJ. So. Here he is!
TBC
#AA:P4 fusion#So tired#screw staying up late#Finally completed this tho#Sorry for making you guys wait so long#Shoulda done this when I was more awake.#Let there be light
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thanks! and na i aint angry. opinions are opinions after all. but i am intrigued by how you worded it, since it sounded a bit like 'i love the start of P5 but it goes downhill from there'. is that true or am I misinterpreting it? (i say i'm intrigued because of how much praise and popularity P5 has already; its like that meme 'friendship ended with P4 P5 is my new bud' or however it goes, and I know how much ya love P4)
Np!
Ahhhhh yeah………. you aren’t misinterpreting anything….. anyways under the cut cause it gets long. 8U And also negative (but no spoilers promise)
Ok so…..first off this isn’t because I’m “blinded by my love for P4,” I actually thought I’d love this even more than P4 (tbh it’s like tied right now, but because I like it for different reasons), it’s something I noticed while playing the game. Ok so some of you may know that sometime when P5 first came out and I finished it….I felt like there was something off about it. And at the time all I could come up with is that it….just didn’t “flow well,” and that it had “three distinct arcs and the middle one doesn’t really match the first and third.” I just……I didn’t know how to describe it. Someone tried to point out to me “Maybe it’s cause of the Omnibus format” and haha let me tell you, I forgot this was suppose to be “omnibus” when I was playing it. Tbh it’s as omnibus and P3 and P4. I can see where each mini arc begins in P3/4/5 and when it ends and the next one begins, if that’s what they are calling “omnibus” (maybe that’s why Atlus described as “kinda like omnibus” but not completely, would’ve been hard considering the format, I think Sly Cooper and it’s chapters in each game are more like an omnibus format if you need something to compare). Anyways, yeah so it wasn’t that, it was the actual substance in the story. Of course I still couldn’t put my freaking finger on it so like a dork I’m just kept describing it as “flow” 8U And then I found someone who pointed out the flaws they saw in P5 and oh my god that was it, they put into words that I couldn’t describe. And it was actually after reading a few Japanese reviews (which they agreed with since they couldn’t put into words what they were thinking either, and decided to go to Japanese review websites to see if they could find someone who thought the same thing), they finally figured out what was bothering them.
Summarizing (well the beginning middle, I’ll just post the ending to their argument after the summary) in the most non-spoiler way possible (things in parentheses are my comments btw): “P5 peaked after the first two dungeons, and then crashed and burned in the latter half of the game (basically 3rd arc). All the antagonists after the 2nd boss are cartoon caricatures (I wouldn’t say all but yeah most of them). A very important and very thought provoking ethical question is raised after the 2nd dungeon and NOTHING IS DONE WITH IT (actually there are a few ethical questions raised and nothing is done with them, but this specific one takes the cake). Lastly, by the time you get to the last chapter I (the writer) had lost whatever grasp he had on an actual theme or message of the game (they describe P3’s theme, and even P4’s multiple themes and man P4 really juggled a lot of themes).”
Actually here’s what more they have to say on the P5 theme thing, I’ll edit out the spoilers but really I can’t summarize it: “When I look at the the ending of P5, what is it really trying ot say? The guiding idea is "Push back against the status quo, the corruptions and the powers that be, don’t give up”. *something spoilerish in game happens that kind of supports this buuuuut* But unlike P3/P4 there was no real soul searching to get there. At one point in the story, they were merely acting, or reacting as the stakes got higher and higher. By the time they got to *insert this antagonist*, it’s clear that they put their personal interest ahead of justice and the justification for going after them (the antagonist) was iffy at best. Without really exploring the ethical ramification consequence of what they did, all I could get out of it was basically “all’s well that ends well”.And this is the problem I also saw in Social links, because the fact that the thieves can just make everyone’s problems go away just trivialized the struggles of each characters. They were entertaining but lacked the emotional weight of something like the Sun Arcana in P3, where the characters had to deal with actual consequences of his action and his life with no easy answers for them.So I guess in summary, the plot of P5 was top notch as light hearted, feel good story. It was entertaining and kept me on my toes in a way that movies like Star Wars did. But when it comes to substance and themes I found it lacking compared to P3/P4. It’s not that it needed to have tragic ending, and I think triumphant heroic ending would have worked, if it treaded deeper waters to get there.“
Wow sorry for my mess of copying that over (I put it in italics to make it easier to read but yeah sorry ;w;), but I wanted to keep it spoiler-free as possible but here’s the link if you wanna read it in all it’s endgame spoilerishness. But yeah…..what they said. The whole "peaks after first two dungeons” might account for why I don’t really like anyone beyond the 2nd dungeon (bar Haru, but tbh they didn’t do anything with her, and also bar Yusuke cause I know while he’s on my list for characters I don’t like but slkfndsl;afs;a I would never remove him from the game so that’s saying something). In arc 3’s defense I think it could’ve delivered better if arc 2 was actually up to snuff but it’s just screws the plot/story/theme/message so much that you’re wondering if you’re still playing the same game you did in the first two dungeons. A lot of people who hate P4’s plot might actually get a headache over how convoluted P5’s is, it’s almost like they wanted to take P3’s plot but make it bigger but they didn’t know how and were juggling too many things. Also after reading this review I actually started drawing story parallels between P5 and Ultimax (and I know how much y'all hate Ultimax’s writing so haha that’s not a good sign when I find parallels between the two). The difference between P5 and Ultimax is that while Ultimax got screwed in the writing department, I could still see what the plot was actually going for. I knew what they were trying to convey, but with P5? I think I did, I think we all have a grasp of what they were going for, but by the time I got to the end it felt really muddled and lost that…..it turns out I don’t know what they were trying to say. I woke up, I got up, and I got out there but now….I’m kind of lost tbh.
#persona 5#p5#anon#silly asks#silly answers#please no hate my anxiety levels are already threw the roof for publishing this already
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Oh! I wanna hear your hyper critical opinions towards p3 (and p4 if youre up to it). I am genuinely curious as to what it is!
pDSOAPFADFJIOA;FJIA;JF;DA Ahhhhhhh if only I wrote down everything I said (I did this over a year ago). under the cut cause long:
It was easier cause I was ripping it as we played and I had some nitpicks in the dialogue (more so with like “WAIT THAT MAKES NO SENSE!” or “WHY ARE YOU JUMPING TO THAT CONCLUSION?!” kinda thing rather than a translation error). But I can’t really specify what it was cause it was so long ago. The only one that comes to mind is when they’re jerks to Naoto, it must be how she’s talking in Japan cause like.......they’re really, REALLY rude to her. Like, they do realize she has a right to be suspicious of them right? Like, don’t get me wrong, I loooooooove the animosity in some way (great foe-yay/rival shipping yay fodder for me to ship her with the MC ahuhuhu 8U) but dang I wish they made more tension (and made it even). That’s actually the one thing I thought the P4 anime did right (and trust me I don’t think that anime did a lot of things right, esp concerning Naoto...ironically XD), they really built the tension between her and the group very well. Anyway I want to go into more detail some other time, maybe when I replay the two games, but for now I’ll give you a general overview).
Ok so all and all I think P3 and P4 are fine the way they are. They did a good job with them. P3 for being Hashino’s first hoorah into the series (also didn’t have enough time or money to include everything and had to cut stuff, LIKE THE FEMC! ;W;), and P4 for.....having such....a small.....budget....and....not a lot of time....and.....the company was struggling.....Like dang man I’m surprised we got P4. So like, compared to P5, I’m a lot easier on these two cause in one case Hashino was trying to find his style, and the other he was struggling with working with almost nothing (P5, however, didn’t have any of these issues).
Ok so like.....My biggest issue with P3 is mostly it’s characters and character relationships. P4.....I wish we could’ve hung out with Naoto earlier (even before she joined the team, that would’ve been interesting if the MC and her met up and attempted to draw more info out of each other about the case), and I wouldn’t have minded if they added more to the murder plot.
P3....ngl the first act until Aigis show’s up is.....so....slow.....and boring....and no one is really likeable imo. I hated Yukari, I hated Junpei. Mitsuru seemed interesting but she wouldn’t hang out. Akihiko....didn’t really care for him, but I couldn’t hang out with him. I couldn’t hang out with Yukari or Junpei if I wanted to (Yukari won’t hang out till around Aigis joins anyway, I remember from my last playthrough we tried, it was an NG+ and she snubbed us). Kenji is a moron (don’t hate him, feel bad for him, but god so boring), Kaz is a moron, didn’t do Yuko the first time (should’ve I did like her, hate I only got the first rank the first time I ever played through P3), I didn’t like Chihiro (she started off fine but was kinda creepy later on), can’t hang with Fuuka unless you have maxed courage cause eff me (not like I can ever remember her gd link anyways that’s how forgettable it is, I don’t even like Yukari but at least I remember her’s). Basically......the SL sucked balls. Major balls (I liked Maiko, the Star dude, the old couple, the Hermit, and the Devil......I guess the Tower too he was ok, and....that’s it....for outside teammate links aka Aigis and Mitsuru). Silly was not a happy camper when she popped P3 in after having fun with P4 (and esp after being told P3 was a GAZZILLION TIMES BETTER!!!!1!), tbh I took like a 4 month break from P3 and replayed P4 before I picked P3 back up (after Aigis showed up I def enjoyed it a heck of a lot more after that). Now, P3′s plot is really good and very solid, it’s P3′s strong point. My issue is that.....everything P3 does is for the sake of the plot. It does it well, don’t get me wrong, but everything about the characters is only happening cause “plot demands it.” They never felt super fleshed out, and it’s probably why they feel a little odd (maybe even flat-ish) in the spinoff games (even more so than the P4 team), cause the spinoff games aren’t relying on their (P3′s) plot. I also don’t buy a lot of their friendships (esp the males teammates with the Male MC), Yukari and Mitsuru’s is....ok (I don’t like how the game makes it feel like “oh you have a dead dad? me too! let’s be friends” as a thing, I know she’s just trying to relate and sympathize but.....I’ve seen that as a complaint come up by a lot of people, for someone so popular Yukari isn’t much of a people person in this regard, from how the game frames it that is). Also the fact you can’t friend girls. There’s not a lot of bonding moments in the game, there’s more than P5, but I still don’t feel as close to the team as I should even by the end. And gawd, Ryoji? Wut I’m friends with him now? How? When? I like the guy but I don’t think he likes me. You’d think he’d want to hang out with me cause.....PHAROS! ;W;
There’s more but I don’t want to leave you hanging, but anyway it’s just....I have a lot of issues with how the characters are handled. They’re good characters, I wish there just....more to them. But the thing is.....THIS IS AN EASY FIX! You’ve probably heard me say about the P5 manga/anime “a change in medium can do wonders” or something like that. That’s cause I have P3 to look at. The manga and movies do wonders for P3 my problems with P3. There’s more bonding, character relationships are improved yadda yadda. Yes there are issues within the manga and movies themselves...... but they do a lot of good things too. One of the things the movies did was actually......influenced by it’s P3P remake (aka establish a relationship with Ryoji, yay!). Oh man, P3P/the FeMC fixed sooooooooooooo many problems (it also added some even more awesome duality to a game that already had a lot of duality going on with it), I can talk to Yukari and Junpei from the get go (and they treat me different, and more pleasantly than when I played as the dude), I can actually hang out with the guys (and I DON’T automatically have to date them, in fact I have to work to date them, every single one), the stats for character requirements are laid out more fairly like in P4 so by the time someone is available I can probably talk to them (without having to kill myself trying to manage my social stats).But man, the first act just flows so much better when you’re able to bond with your teammates (also Rio and Saori are great SLs!). Even tho they don’t change the female SLs pretty much at all (making it veeeery gay XD), it does feel like it is at least a friendship by the end (even tho I’m literally dating everyone and you can’t tell me otherwise! 8U). I also love her personality comes across more clearing (and varied) than the males, there’s a more clear progression of her psyche than her male counterpart (it’s still there, just not as obvious, and I love how they’re inverted to each other~! :D). It’s just, with P3, the really minor changes go a LOOOOOOOOOOONG way. The only thing I would change with P3 is the minor stuff. Just add more scenes (that don’t take up time) to the game, on both sides. Gameplay wise add more SLs, alternative SLs even. Heck, if they remade the game, I think being able to go to new places would be cool (and it’d be where you’d meet your new SLs) cause man you’re in a city, you deserve to do more stuff! It’s just the little things man, the little things can make a big impact! It says something that probably my fav Persona fanfic and fav Strain42 Persona parody comicis the P3(P) ones, even tho P4 is my fav game. You change a few things around, even the medium, and it makes a difference.
Ok onto P4. Now P4 is the opposite of P3, with P4 it’s strong point is it’s characters. The characters drive P4. P4 is character based, P3 is plot based. P4 the plot takes a back seat. This is fine, it works in P4′s favor, like how the plot worked in P3′s favor. P4′s plot is ok, it does a great job with supporting the characters. Sadly I understand if you wanted more murder mystery (or just mystery) in a murder mystery game. And in P4′s defense, again, it had a barebones budget and not a lot of time and the company was doing pretty bad and P4 still came out pretty great (was the most popular before P5 came out, lord knows if it may even come out on top again if it gets an updated graphics/gameplay remake). And it’s also really hard to keep a murder mystery going for about 70-100ish hours (and only finally solving it in the last 1/5 of the game). Also P4, like P3 (forgot to mention that above), sticks to it’s theme really well. Even making it solving it/obtaining the good ending routes semi-difficult. Sure you can deduce Adachi, but tbh it’s also difficult. They do a pretty decent job building the guy up as a friend (even more so in P4G due to the SL). Izanami is also well hidden. The game makes you work and it rewards you.
Now if I were to change stuff.....it’d range from minor to major depending on what we’re talking about. Minor would be adding more scenes of Naoto bonding (she needs it cause the late game doesn’t do her justice), and like I mentioned above, I think have a deduction off would be interesting (Naoto’s SL was one of my favs cause of how we solved a gd mystery, god I’m so mad that never made it into the anime, even as an ova, it could’ve been a great team-building filler one too). Another thing I’d add would maybe be.....something similar to quests, but instead you have to solve a mystery (which means talking to people, and investigating areas), it can range from finding a cat in a tree or finding a bully or whatever. Just something minor that can give the mystery lovers something fun to do. I’d also have Izanami/gas station attendant be an SL (she originally was the Empress before giving that to Margret). Oh I’d also like to take Margret out on “dates” (c’mon gimme dem fun shenanigans). And.....now this can be minor or major (depending on what they do, but it’s probably more major), add another red herring. I don’t care how.....but....it would help draw attention away from Adachi. Maybe they’re added from some of the mini mysteries you solved, maybe they squeeze an extra dungeon into the game some how-some way (doubt it for the later, that’d be a major change), but another red herring would be good.
For a Major change it’d be restructuring the plot a looooooot, adding more dungeons for more red herrings. I would actually make Dojima a red herring. He originally was suppose to be the killer (but they thought that was too dark, understandable), with Adachi as the red herring instead. Other than that I’m not exactly sure how they’d overhaul that. I mean, if they made a P4 game based off of P3P’s route (aka different route/game, different killer), I’d like to see their prototype stuff play out. Short-haired ice queen Yukiko, delinquent/bully Rise, Pretty boy Naoto (actual boy this time, also make him dateable.....what? I like Naoto 8U), 1st year MC, Female Teddie, Adult(?) Kanji, Dojima as the killer, Adachi as the red herring (Chie and Yosuke are actually pretty much the same). I’d really like to see that.
But tbh, I don’t really know where to start in giving P4 a major overhaul (except to go with the prototype set up), possibly cause it’d mean introducing/creating new characters. But P5? I do, oh man I know where I would start (P5 is where I’d make my major changes left and right, no minor changes here...except maybe dungeon 1), I’d make soooooo many changes to P5. But that’s for another time (not now, it’d take too long). 8U
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