#but like... it's not on theme with zenkichi's character!!!

[feldsparite]

i've been contemplating nemesis as a second awakening of zenkichi's, but there's just something so suitable about valjean i can't bear part with him. it's the just some guy of it all. Wait actually i lied there's more to it

like yeah the everyman aspect is indeed important, because a huge part of zenkichi is his supposed normalcy. he's lived ordinarily all his life, and he's been content to be prescribed the ordinary lifestyle, not rising to change the status quo even when it actively harms him. rebellion is something that's seemingly unnatural to who he is, and it's only because he appears so benignly normal that makes it so satisfying when he finally snaps

but it's also the fact that lesmis and the whole valjean/javert thing fits him so well. it's how his arc borrows valjean's guilt and valjean's love for his daughter, but javert's conflict- his loss of faith in the law. i've said it before, and i'll say it again: zenkichi's arc is like javert became besties with the barricade boys instead of drowning in the seine. and in the overt choice of valjean, the criminal, instead of javert, the character who shares zenkichi's title of inspector, as zenkichi's persona, there's the implication that the character traits belonging to valjean- most notedly his devotion to his daughter- are what defines him, over anything else. and no other persona can imply this much! it just says so much!!!!

[eccentricinari]

i finished Strikers!!!

perfect game, perfect sequel, perfect ending...

the game-play style was like a dream come true, i had an absolute blast i wish it was 300 hours

[gavalaa]

Sketches of all my redone designs for my Phantom Thieves from my AU, Icarus! Lots of info down below on the cut, so if you want to know more about the details and inspiration, feel free to keep reading!

This includes Akechi’s design for his Princely/Robin Hood attire, BEFORE his Icarus attire you might have seen from my other posts! Check out the Icarus AU tag for more info! Icarus has a main focus on Akechi and his relationship to the thieves, but the AU is actually an entire rewrite with new designs, 3rd semester and epilogue/strikers/tactica stories, hence Zenkichi and Sophia’s inclusion.

Read below for individual info:

I decided to include more motifs towards their persona’s and general vibes; and also just my own personal touches haha.

AKIRA - Not much has changed, I really like his design overall. I raised his boots to be like Arsene’s and changed his neck area.

MORGANA - I hate the OG pill shaped head, his new design is based heavily on the shape of Palico’s from Monster Hunter. Added a little more nod to Zorro/His persona motifs and also just made him cuter! Little hamburger headed cat.

RYUJI - I made him a little bulkier and gave some more weight to his outfit overall. I gave him heavier boots and a slightly buffer build to relate back more to his sporty style.

ANN - honestly was never too big on her latex outfit, I wanted to call back to a personal favorite female lead; Christine Daae, and used one of the versions of her Don Juan costume as inspiration. I remember seeing Phantom live and in many stage versions of her character, the Don Juan scene was a pure moment of female control, and she was truly working the Phantom and controlling every movement on the stage. Her presence is commanding, and I thought it was a very fitting tribute to Ann’s character as feminine strength. (I’m absolutely not referring to the movie iteration of Daae btw.)

YUSUKE - I referred to some historical art and legend of Goemon to add more elements of design to his outfit. When I color them, I want to add some really strong pops of color to his clothing to really drive the aesthetics and artistry home.

MAKOTO - Another totally redid outfit, I opted to give her a design which relates back to Popess Joan, and also Anat. I gave her a clawed hand on her right side and an uncovered hand on her left as both a nod to Anat’s hand raised in iconography of her from art history, but also to show the duality of Anat’s title as both a goddess of war, and of love. It also relates to the mythology of Joan and her nature as both a leader and a martyr. I changed her mask to a Venetian Commedia mask as well.

FUTABA - ok. I’ll be honest. I never liked her skin-tight outfit, it just doesn’t match her personality at all. Also, the high tech Egyptian feel never really sold me. I totally understand the tomb thing, but I truthfully think a dungeon/palace which was more like… tech/nerd themed would have been much more “futaba” the inspiration for this new outfit relates back to her persona, the Necromomicon, as well as her nerdy personality, and her affiliation as Alibaba (Ali Baba.) I wanted to go more lovecraftian, long sleeves and patterning designed to look more like lovecraftian tendrils, and big baggy pants and her classic shoes to match. The patterning on her undershirt will resemble a rib cage, both as a reference to her deathly “tomb” iconography, but also to Lovecraftian and Necronomicon lore. I think she matches the description of a nerdy, techie DND dungeon master more than the initial outfit, so that’s the route I took personally.

HARU - relating back to some fashions from 17th c France, where Milady’s story (the three musketeers) takes place, I kept her design relatively similar. I just gave her a little more iconography relating to the three musketeers and that general timeframe.

AKECHI - in his pre-Icarus outfit, I’ve given him a princely sort of outfit befitting of his two faced nature, and edited it to relate to Robin Hood a little more. I tried to keep it sleek and just generally very concealing and layered.

SUMIRE - i gave her some iconography relating back to one of her personas, who is an inference to Freya. I also included some more nods to classic Cinderella, with fantasy gown elements. Overall, relatively similar.

ZENKICHI - again, relatively similar, I really like his outfit. I just opened up the face some to show more personality and spiced up the outfit generally to keep it matching. honestly, les mis/Valjean was a hard one, but I also think his character could be heavily related back to Edmond Dante (Monte Cristo.) so I gave some nods to that as well.

SOPHIA - I turned her into a FINGIE!!!! I made her whole dress as a nod to her persona/to pandora’s tiles around her/the pillars. I wanted to make her small and almost unnatural since she’s an AI, and I thought having a little guy on the team would add some more variation.

[pickles4nickles]

Pickles Played Persona 5 Tactica and Has Some Words

I finally finished Tactica and its DLC sans some challenge stuff and I do wanna do some cleanup, but I thought I'd write a review for it.

It's long (like, 3k words long) and there's spoilers and overall... it's an Okay(tm) game, but... here, just lemme talk about it a bunch:

Alright, I'm not gonna mince words.

Persona 5 Tactica is not a game I can reccomend to anyone.

But is it a bad game?

Well, no.

But I have no idea who it's for.

Maybe it's for people who want more of the P5 characters? Not exactly? Both stories' focal points are on new characters and the Phantom Thieves just kinda happen to be there. There are some nice interactions, but this isn't a story about the PTs like Strikers.

Is it for people who like tactics but aren't really into P5? Well... it might be the other way around, actually? It's an okay tactics game with persona elements, but both parts of that are watered down when compared to base game persona and other tactics games like XCOM.

With that being said, lemme just ramble about what I thought about the story and gameplay.

THE STORY

The best way I can sum up my feelings about Tactica are "the story was told well, but I'm not sure if I liked it." This is a game that's less about the Phantom Thieves and more about Toshiro and Erina and focuses around the internal conflict of rebellion versus self-preservation.

Toshiro is probably why I'm neutral towards the game At Best. Erina grew on me but Toshiro...

Ehh.

At the beginning of the game, he's a big wimp and he's constantly telling the PTs and Erina that they have to be careful. From a theming standpoint, Toshiro's behavior makes perfect sense.

But from the petty bitch inside of me, this is infuriating because not only do YOU know that this is the Phantom Thieves that have taken down Shido (and also Yaldaboth), but TOSHIRO knows it as well and he's being Like This.

Like, he kinda sucks in the beginning and does so for the first two acts, understandably, but by the third act, when The Big Persona Moments happen, my opinion of him just kinda stayed the same. They swayed in a different direction, but... still on the negative side of the spectrum.

The reveal of Erina as Toshiro's Persona... makes sense. She's Toshiro's spirit(?) of rebellion and is based off of his classmate that once inspired him to stand up for himself and others.

Did I like this revelation?

Hell no, I was punching my thigh and screaming in voice call "No fucking way, Toshiro's so lame, though" as loud as I could without upsetting my parents in the other rooms.

From this point on, Toshiro now has the resolve to do what's right, even if it's scary... but he comes off as a little too strong in my opinion. I kinda have the same feelings about Zenkichi once he gets his persona in Strikers. In the beginning they feel like a new character meant to balance out the insanity that is how the metaverse is, but once they get their persona, they're full on inundated in the anime stand battles and they're a little too extra about it.

Having two full acts of "hey guys maybe we shouldn't help the hat people out of hat people slavery," pivoting into "WITNESS OUR POWER AS ONE" has the same vibes as a relative who's not really an asshole, but one that you've been trying to convince for years that economic inflation is the reason why our generation can't live comfortably, and once they finally understand, they come off a little bit too strong and righteous about it that you're not sure they're genuine or if this is a "he's a little confused, but he's got the spirit" situation.

And then god happens.

In persona games, I usually don't fully understand how or why the god-being is doing all of this, but I especially can't wrap my head around how they work in Tactica. It's mostly because Toshiro's metaverse is kind of a Silent Hill kinda deal where it's a mental torture labyrinth for him personally, as opposed to Mementos, which is naturally the collective unconscious, connecting everyone's minds and hearts together.

The jump from "I'm going to bully this one guy in particular" to "now EVERYONE will be as lame as Toshiro" is lost on me. Maybe politics?

It's... it's fine, there's no reason to lose sleep over it.

The ending of the story is nice and reasonable, though. It sorta redeems Toshiro for me. It's one thing to yell in your own metaverse hellscape how you're going to do the right thing, but once he's back in the real world, he actually stands up to his dad and fiancé and steps down from his political position to build it back up from scratch, but better.

And, yeah! I respect that.

That being said, though, the game isn't devoid of new Phantom Thief interactions. There's some good ones like Futaba "I don't kinkshame" Sakura, casually bi Joker as seen in that one "who would you marry" bit, and a guys only sidequest in which they think they're looking for Toshiro's porn stash (yeah, I know) (it's not). I wouldn't say it's crumbs, but you're not getting the whole loaf that you'd get from, say, Mementos Mission or Strikers.

The story also does this thing where the Phantom Thieves can relate with Toshiro's issues, but something about it feels... off.

Toshiro's in an arranged marriage with Marie for political reasons! Just like Haru! His fiancé sees him as a pushover! Kinda like Makoto! His mom died when he was young and he blames himself for it! Wow, Yusuke and DEFINITELY Futaba can relate to that!! Eri, the real person that Erina is based on, had to transfer schools because she was accused of a crime! Gee, that SURE sounds familiar-

Part of me thinks I'm being a little too unfair on the game for creating parallels like this because Strikers also kinda did this. But in Strikers, the PTs being able to connect with the jail rulers was integral to the plot. Here, it's just kind of a wink wink nudge nudge kinda thing.

And my knee-jerk reaction to that is a small "I get it, shut uuuup."

Again, and overall because I think that rounds out what I have to say about the story, P5 Tactica's main story isn't bad. It's told well, but I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of it.

GAMEPLAY

I've only played Strikers and I don't think I've played a true tactics game, so I don't know how much weight my opinions hold.

So um.

I dunno, the gameplay was fine.

The pacing is weird because it's kind of a visual novel first, and a tactics game in-between, but I got used to that after a bit.

It's a really simple tactics game and... yeah things don't get too complex outside of sometimes there are buttons that'll open doors or raise and lower platforms, sometimes height matters, but the mechanics don't get too crazy outside of certain boss battles.

The game revolves around downing enemies to get Once More's so you can either encase the enemy in a triangle formed by your units to initiate an All-out Attack or you can chain together Once More's to extend your unit's range and move them across the map. This mechanic took a bit for me to understand fully, but I never really got tired of doing it.

Boss battles were kind of hit or miss in this game. The fights with Toshiro's Dad and Salmael I enjoyed as they were kinda formatted as "here's a weird stage, go figure out what to do." However, Marie and *checks notes* "the scary Eri Natsuhara that Shadow Toshiro made" I didn't care for as much since they changed the game from "your decisions on where to move your units are key for this" to "you need to do exactly as we say." Which always kinda sucks, y'know?

Character selection is also kind of a weird thing in this, too. It doesn't seem like it matters who you take with you into missions, which... feels weird to me considering past Persona games. The elements have all been kinda smooshed down into less of a weakness thing, but just a special move that can hinder movement, do damage over time, or change enemy placement entirely, but which type of special you bring along doesn't seem to be as crucial as other Persona games. Each character has a slightly different attack, gun spread, and movement limit, but it wasn't anything drastic that I noticed apart from Haru (she is very slow but apparently hits like a truck) and possibly Morgana (his attack was very weak for me, but I'm not sure if that's because I didn't have him kitted out properly or that's intended).

I played the game almost entirely with Joker and Ann, while swapping between Erina and Ryuji for the last slot and I didn't run into any problems.

The last stretch of the game is... a strange one gameplay wise. Toshiro becomes a party member except... he's Different(tm). He doesn't get a skill tree, is a permanent fourth party member, and can initiate All-Out Attacks, but isn't a part of the triangle that forms it. He does have a gun, but it's in the form of a 0SP attack that Ernesto/Erina can use... that also happens to ignore walls entirely. And he also gets Almighty attacks, which kinda just do big number damage for way more SP.

It's hard to say if the game did a good job scaling the level difficulties to incorporate a fourth party member as staying on top of your persona fusing, weapons, and the skill tree can kind of make the game a breeze. I also played on the normal difficulty, so maybe in harder difficulties, Toshiro becomes more of a necessity than a party member that breaks the game.

My only big gripe with the game is just... the weirdness of the undo button. I don't know how it is in regular tactics games, but the undo in this game doesn't work on a "clear the last action this unit did" basis, but on a turn basis. If you happen to screw up on turn one, unit one, you have to back out COMPLETELY to the mission start screen, which is hella annoying especially if you're playing on the Switch because of the load times.

"But Pickles, what about the DLC? Surely you have just as many thoughts about it?"

Y'know?

I actually don't.

I liked Repaint Your Heart a lot. Again, it's less a story about the Royal Trio and more about Guernica, but it's closer to the traditional Persona 5 story format where they're changing someone's heart. This story also had much higher emotional... fidelity? I guess you could put it?

Guernica needed to remember her main inspirations for creating art - being abandoned and homeless and her big sister dying because of it and she embraces that anger against society into art that inspires hope in people less fortunate. While being groomed into a political pawn from basically birth and then, later in life, being thrown into your own mental hellscape sucks, in terms of emotional weight, Toshiro's story feels like a feather compared to Guernica's.

Also her design is just cool and the paint aesthetic is definitely more my speed.

In terms of Royal Trio content, I think this was the best case scenario we could expect from Atlus.

Emphasis on "from Atlus."

Yeah, we didn't get Black Mask Akechi, but there are MORE THAN ENOUGH moments where he lets the facade slip. His default spell is Megidola, but his skill tree lets him have both Light AND Dark spells. He'll cuss at you if you hit an enemy into him. I don't know what he's doing viscerally screaming half the time he summons Robin Hood.

Sumi. Is also there.

She is fine.

Guernica's connection to the thieves is also written in the same way as Toshiro is, in that it's a little shoehorned in and doesn't add to the story beyond that. After finding out that Luca is Guernica's sister that died, Sumi definitely feels motivated and inspired to help her out, but Akechi also being an abandoned child, scorned by society, and angry at the world because of it is never touched upon. This is probably for spoiler reasons, but... still.

Because this is a story that takes place during Sae's Palace in the main game, they all have to have amnesia about it in the end. Which, understandable, and at least no one in the trio had extensive character development but...

*clenches fist*

Man,

Having tackled this after the main game, I enjoyed the gameplay a lot! It's basically P5 Tactica but with Splatoon mixed in. When a unit is on a tile painted the opposite color for them, they can be instantly knocked down and combo'd on, which adds a whole extra layer of complexity to the game. I wish there were a few more levels to play, but the length of the DLC never overstays its welcome.

Hokay.

If you made it this far, congrats! You reached the end. And my tl;dr section.

I think that's just about it on what I cohesively have to say about P5 Tactica. This isn't a terrible game by any means, but I don't know if the audience it's intended for actually exists. It has a just okay story and just okay mechanics, but the DLC has a more than okay story and the core mechanics are given a fresh coat of paint (yeah, boo, I know) that makes the game more interesting. I would not go paying $80 USD to experience the DLC alone, though.

Thank you for reading my review if you made it all the way to the end! P5 stuff (well, mostly Akeshu) has been my muse these past few years and playing a game that was "just okay but why did they..." got into my brain real bad, so I wanted to write some stuff out.

I'll close this out with some bullet points of thoughts that I couldn't really cohesively fit into my review:

I really really liked how they got little costumes for the old timey Japan kingdom and I was hoping we'd get more of that and every kingdom was based on a new theme... but we only got three kingdoms and the last one before "Smithy's Forge from Super Mario RPG" was............ School.

SATANAEL'S BACK IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS (BUT ONLY POST-GAME)

Erina also being Ernesto thing is mostly weird to me because she's still her own entity but also not???? The possible genderfluid connotations are cool though.

There's a quest where Haru asks Yusuke how to be fast. Yusuke tells her she has to "Become a Black Hole." I do not know what this means.

After the quest, Haru says that even though the axe slows her down, she's very partial to it as her father didn't like her chopping wood as a kid, but she'd sneak out and do it anyway. She later found out that her dad knew she was doing this, but decided not to scold her for it. She took this as a sign of kindness from her father and that's why the axe is so special to her. I do not know what this means as Haru's father was a horrible capitalist who basically tried to marry her off in pursuit of power.

The weapon designs in this game are generally kind of silly, but I appreciate that they exist in the game. There's a chompy gun with teeth that Joker gets and I really like it :)

God the Lyn tracks from the DLC FUCK

...what

Futaba says "sus" at one point in the end

[xrd]

yknow what let's just go with everything. Go crazy go stupid. Have funsies <33

Getting a little silly?

Under the cut major spoilers for P4/P5/P5T

🎭 favorite Phantom Thief?

I used to flip flop round alot more but I think strikers (haven't finished it yet) has probably confirmed it's Makoto for me. I'm kind of sad I know she ends up sticking to her plan to become a cop because I think the way Zenkichi challenges her on it is really interesting.

Also he's not a Phantom Thief technically but shout out to Toshiro Kasukabe my goat!!!!

👓 favorite Investigation Team member?

Kanji by a landslide but we'll get to him soon enough.

Other then that I really like Yukiko. She's consistently very funny and charming to me and I like how her character flaw of passivity influences parts of her character outside of her home life. Really memorable part of my Golden playthrough was her beating me at the Trivia game several times

🔫 favorite S.E.E.S member?

Probably Yukari. I just think her character progression is really well handled, and I like seeing her grow out of her shell and grow closer with the group. I also think her dynamic with Mitsuru is really interesting, and I love the way it progresses. She was really good in The Answer too.

🎁 favorite character?

Kanji is among, if not my favourite character of all time and I find answering why I like him very difficult because of this. He's a surprisingly multifaceted character who has really unique inner struggles. I agree that the writers often go too far with alot of jokes surrounding him but I feel like there's still an earnestness to his portrayal as a teenager struggling with his newly questioned sexuality, as well as trying to find approval among his parents and peers. I like him he means alot to me.

🔗 favorite social link?

I really struggle with narrowing this down. Here's a few favourites from each game.

P3: Aigis, P3P Junpei, Akinari, Tanaka

P4: Teddie, Kanji, Nanako, Dojima, Naoto (platonic), Marie

P5: Takemi, Hifumi, Yoshida

🎶 favorite Persona song?

Extremely hard question to answer, but hearing Heartful Cry for the first time in the Answer was extremely memorable, so I want to say that. I also really like Naoto's dungeon theme

😈 best antagonist?

Adachi is like one of my favourite villians ever I think he's a genius foil to a protagonist of a game like this considering that a large part of how her functions as a villain is how mundane he is. I'll get around to actually making a dedicated post about my thoughts on him eventually.

⚔️ best boss fight?

Definitely the shadow Toshiro confrontation/cognitive Eri fight. Incredibly memorable moment in terms of story and I love how the addition of Toshiro as a party member changes up the gameplay from then on.

😶‍🌫️ favorite dungeon

I really really like Shido's palace I think the ship theming is really evocative and I think the outside is just visually very stunning, especially in game where it looks like it's atop an ocean of blood.

👾 have you played persona 1 or 2?

Played a fair bit of the sebec route but I have not finished it. I'll get back to it eventually. People drastically play up P1's flaws and it makes me sad that it seems to diswade so many people. If you meet it where it's at and make sure to buy items to lower the encounter rate it's a fun enough time if you like first person dungeon crawling.

I've played a little of IS ages ago but I lost my save file a few dungons in and never picked it back up. I'll get to it when I finish P1

❤️ favorite ship(s)?

Teddie/Labrys sweeps everything else for me they're incredibly sweet and charming. Labrys feels like the first person Teddie's ever taken an earnest interest in romantically which is a really fun change of pace for his character. (And it's metal surprisingly?!) I really like the similarities in their struggles. Teddie's arena story mode is sooooo good everyone please read it.

💛 favorite dynamic(s)?

I've been thinking about Akihiko and Mitsuru alot. I think they're really interesting because they have an incredible amount of trust in each other and I feel alot of their relationship is formed from the fact that they were defending each-others lives before they were even really friends.

🔥 character you would bully for eternity?

We all need to make fun of Adachi for being incredibly jealous of that 17 year old and also for saying this

👀 character that you hated but now love?

Keep bringing him up, but I used to really dislike Teddie during my initial play through of the game but I ended up doing almost a complete 180 of his character and now he's probably one of my favourites.

🤓 any spinoffs/remakes you want to see?

I really really want them to make a persona 5 arena in the same vein as the persona 4 one with returning 3/4 characters.

I think a P1 remake would also be welcome but I don't want them to try and make it like

🥺 a character you will defend at all costs?

I was talking about this the other day but the was people talk about Marie sometimes is absurd. I'm not huge on some of the implementation of her storyline, mainly that it gives away the stuff with Izanami but I like what she adds thematically a lot. People really over-exaggerate any faults in her plotline as well as writing her off because she's rude to the main character.

🤩 how did you get into persona?

A friend lent me Persona 5 on the PS3 and my and my brother ended up playing it. He liked it so much he bought all the avaliable persona games on the ps3 and I ended up just continuing as I finished 5. I ended up emulated p3p instead of playing fes on the ps3 though because I really wanted to play as the girl.

🥳 do you have any blogs/artists/writers/creators in the fandom you love? Drop recs.

Off the top of my head here some oomfs and other creators I like on here. (Sorry for the pings) @mustdie @parasitoidism @mangocandies @nyanfish @owainigo @akolnoix @retrokinetics @hoshizoralone @fizzily @evilresidentz Probably missing some obvious inclusions. Sorry

🤔 favorite headcanon(s)?

Yosuke making really bad music is like integral to my perception of him now.

[definedvines]

HUGE TACTICA SPOILERS!! mention some strikers ones too:

toshiro's awakening was SOOOOOO HYPE, literally the entire sequence leading up to this is amazing and this just peaked it off wonderfully, i just, think it's such a HUUUUGEEE missed opportunity to have not used the original awakening theme.

like it's cool they have their own for this game but, nothing truly beats those moments in strikers where those violins play for the beginning of both zenkichi's and sophia's awakenings. if they had used it here i would have fallen off my couch.

that's my one gripe with the whole thing. everything else is fucking spectacular and i did not expect at all to be so Feelings for these characters

also he deserves a cool outfit

[shadowtarot]

Toshiro has had his character reveal trailer relased! Watch it here

I'm gonna go over things I noted in a quick bullet point.

- Toshiro hates the Phantom Theives, no shock there as most politicians are warry of the Phantom Theives though there's definitely going to be a more solid reason for that.

- He's become a new Punching Bag for the group just like how Zenkichi was at the start of Strikers. I'm certain this will change as the game goes on.

- Toshiro seems to be very prideful, or at the very least he attempts to keep the facade of pride. With Persona 5's whole theme of The Masks You Wear, who knows how this will be tackled.

- So far he seems like a non combatant, or at the very least a person without a Persona like our other new character. Will Toshiro get a Persona? Guess we'll see.

[thepuff09]

Alright I’m gonna try not to make this a rant, but I think I genuinely enjoyed Persona 5 Strikers more than Royal.

MILD-MAJOR SPOILERS

If you haven’t played it yet, do it. Just… just do it.

First, I’m not even going to pretend like Sophia isn’t my favorite character from the P5 games, next to Ryuji and Akechi. Shes wonderfully written, and has some of the best voice lines in the game.

Second, Wolf. Zenkichi was an instant favorite, so his awakening was so awesome to watch. And his design is incredible, since it’s a more old-fashioned thieve outfit, compared to his younger compatriots.

Also, Strikers had some GENIUS ideas, like having the battle theme be independent of your outfit, and the ability to revisit Jails/Palaces.

And while the story was a bit clunky, it was still a blast to watch unfold. The personality on display was amazing.

Another great addition was how the game incentivizes you to try all the characters. In the final boss, you have to make 3 teams of 3/4 characters each, so you would be wise to level them all up equally. I also loved the skill tree.

If we ever get a sequel to Strikers, maybe with Akechi and Sumire, I think it could be the best game in the series. They definitely took a risk with the battle style, but it more than payed off.

[stuff-of-legends]

PERSONA 5 STRIKERS- EARLY THOUGHTS

Despite the genre hop, it feels like a good take on what a potential Persona sequel should be. It feels like a good progession of that game's themes and characters.

I like the new support character Sophia and Zenkichi but they do feel like echoes of Aigis and Dojima. They aren't one to one copies but the comparison is unavoidable.

The request system is decent. Those are optional missions you can complete and they allow you the opportunity to grind levels and revisit old locations.

There isn't a social link system but you do have one off events that pop up in the game with certain characters. Occasionally you'd have an event where you can choose a companion so shippers go wild...;)

Combat is fun and adequately challenging.

I wouldn't have mind a crossover with P4 or 3 as the game journeys around Japan but I'm fine it being a pure P5 adventure. Maybe Tactica will scratch that itch?

The Velvet Room returns but it might've been better just limiting the MC to just having Arsene. You switch between the main cast more freely so I don't feel the need for the main character to have multiple personas. Plus Lavenza is pretty low energy and kinda there. I wish she had a role in the story as Caroline and Justine felt like more of a presence.

[yusuke-of-valla]

Listen I could bear the hot spring scenes in persona if neither parties were fucking idiots but I guess if I had to rank them Persona 4's would be the worst simply because the girls realize they're in the wrong and laugh it off. Even though they just physically harmed half their group.

Scramble's was just forced and stupid. And everyone in that scene acted out of character.

P3's at the very least was the least obnoxious but it was still embarrassing

Makoto’s is worst to me just because we’re supposed to believe it’s a good thing that she’s gonna be a cop and then she beats the dudes up without giving them a chance to explain themselves while yelling “fists of Justice!” Over what is a genuine mistake and it’s like. Followed by the police beating up Zenkichi, which is bad.

But I’ll also accept that the whole thing is OOC because it’s really just a persona 3 reference and if it weren’t for that the scene probably wouldn’t have happened, I just think it’s so like bad for Makoto as a character and the themes as a whole it’s very jarring

Persona 4 it is DEFINITELY bullshit that the girls, including the one who owns the damn hotel, are wrong and don’t like. Apologize? Maybe realize they’re fucking over the guys?

Persona 3 at the very least gives you a genuine chance to avoid the whole mess if you do the surprise stealth mini game right, and it does in turn make it more suspicious that they were trying to sneak out, but also those are 16-17 year old boys and they are, frankly, gonna be stupid sometimes

[epitomees]

Please repost do not reblog

CHARACTER SHEET ―

FULL NAME: Sae Nijima 

NICKNAME: Sis (only by Makoto), Miss Manager (only by Morgana) 

ALIASES: Leviathan (if you count Shadow Sae) 

HEIGHT: 5′6″

ZODIAC: Libra 

SPOKEN LANGUAGES: Japanese, English, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, and a bit of Vietnamese. She’s still learning and teaching herself. 

𝐏𝐇𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐒 ―

HAIR: Long, stark grey that curls near the ends. It’s well-maintained and very silky to the touch. 

FACIAL HAIR: None

EYES: Dark, brownish-red 

SKIN TONE: Pale and very fair 

BODY TYPE: An hourglass figure, but very slim and athletically toned. She doesn’t show signs of too much muscular build but she always stays in shape. 

VOICE: Confident, and very present. You can tell when she’s in a room by the way she firmly greets herself, making everyone turn their attention towards her. It’s not too high-pitched, but it can be classified as a strong, rich, feminine voice.  

DOMINANT HAND: Right 

POSTURE: She always stands at her height. Perhaps a little higher since she wears heels a lot. Squared shoulders, chest forward and out, head held upward, and her arms swing by her side, unless she’s carrying her purse. 

SCARS: There’s one on her back when she had a confrontation with a gang group, and a bit of bruise marks around her left wrist from a very, very bad date. 

BIRTHMARKS: None 

MOST NOTABLE FEATURES: She comes off as very cold and calculating. People are usually turned off by her presence since she exudes a very bitter, very unfriendly air in general. 

𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐃 ―

PLACE OF BIRTH: Yokohama, Asahi Ward 

HOMETOWN:  Yokohama, Asahi Ward but then moved to Shibuya at a younger age 

SIBLINGS: Younger sister, Makoto Nijima 

PARENTS: Deceased mother and deceased father 

𝐀𝐃𝐔𝐋𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 ―

OCCUPATION: Formerly a prosecutor, now a defense lawyer 

CURRENT RESIDENCE: A two-person apartment in Aoyama-Itchome

CLOSE FRIENDS: ...no one, actually....unless you consider Sojiro and Zenkichi, but they’re more acquaintances at best. 

FINANCIAL STATUS: Stable, making just enough to pay for necessary expenses, bills, and Makoto’s future college curriculum. 

DRIVER’S LICENSE: Yes 

CRIMINAL RECORD: None 

VICES: Stubborn and resilient to the very end. A lot of times she believes her words and actions to all be justified, refusing to see another’s point of view or outside reasoning even though she works in law. She hates losing, and hates surrendering when the odds are stacked against her. She has cheated her way out of situations to get a quick win, but she’s learning to be better than that. 

𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 ―

LOVE LANGUAGE: Words of affirmation, gift giving, and acts of service. She’s not much of showing her emotions through touch or by any physical means. 

RELATIONSHIP TENDENCIES: It’s...difficult for Sae to even think about romantic relationships. She’s moreso focused on her own work, furthering her career, and making sure Makoto has enough to become an independent woman once she graduates from college. Many of her co-workers tease her about still being single, or finding someone to go on a date with her. That way she’s not acting like such a bitch around them and she can have a more positive attitude. She doesn’t want someone to ‘correct’ her personality, but someone who does truly love all of her. Even the harsher parts. 

𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐄𝐎𝐔𝐒 ―

CHARACTER’S THEME TUNE: Exploring the World of Fables - The Wolf Among Us OST 

HOBBIES TO PASS THE TIME: Kickboxing, reading short story novels, the occasional origami, yoga, sudoku puzzles 

LEFT OR RIGHT BRAINED: Left brained 

SELF-CONFIDENCE LEVEL: It’s quite average, but she’s not really all there under the surface. While she does feel comfortable with herself, both in a physical way and emotional way, there’s times where that confidence wavers because of how others perceive her. She wants to be independent, she wants to be trustworthy, but she’s also built herself a social wall when it comes to interacting with others. If they don’t like what they see concerning her, then she won’t bother to be around those people. But...it does affect her, little by little. 

Tagged by: @phantomuheist​ Tagging: STEAL IT FROM ME!! TELL ME ABOUT YOUR BLORBOS!!

[tokiro07]

Top matchups I want to include in my Shonen Jump crossover (which I'm tentatively naming Jump Over)

Andy (Undead Unluck) vs. Medaka (Medaka Box) [my favorites]

Fuuko (UU) vs. Zenkichi (MB) [Unluck vs. Fate denial]

Yusuke (Yu Yu Hakusho) vs. Ichigo (Bleach) [Supernatural caseworkers]

Asta (Black Clover) vs. Mash (Mashle) [Unloved by magic]

Tanjiro (Demon Slayer) vs. Chihiro (Kagurabachi) [water-themed swordsmen]

Seiya (Saint Seiya) vs. Kenshiro (Fist of the North Star) [constellation-themed rapid-punchers]

Neuro (Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro) vs. Emma (Promised Neverland) ["brain-eating" demon vs. escapee from brain-eating demons]

Tsuna (Reborn!) vs. Rikuo (Nurarihyon no Mago) [multi-personalitied reluctant heirs to underworld organizations]

Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin) vs. Gintoki (Gintama) [reformed samurai]

Arale (Dr. Slump) vs. Roboco (Me & Roboco) [gag-comedy robots]

Train (Black Cat) vs. Sakamoto (Sakamoto Days) [former assassins]

Saiki (Saiki Kusuo no PSInan) vs. Ageha (Psyren) [espers]

Goku (Dragon Ball) vs. Taikoubou (Houshin Engi) [ancient Chinese literary characters]

Luffy (One Piece) vs. Toriko (Toriko) [big eaters, bigger adventures]

Kinnikuman (Kinnikuman) vs. Hinomaru (Hinomaru Zumou) [wrestling vs. sumo]

Allen (D.Gray-Man) vs. Kazuki (Buso Renkin) [monster slayers with weapons that are part of their bodies]

Yugi (Yu-Gi-Oh!) vs. Muhyo (Muhyo & Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation) [summoners]

Hinata/Kageyama (Haikyuu) vs. Kuroko/Kagami (Kuroko no Basket) [sportball duos]

When I run out of thematically interesting ideas, I'm going to start just spinning a wheel or something, but can y'all think of any matchups you'd like to see specifically? I don't plan to limit anyone to only getting one fight, but I also want to make sure everyone I include gets at least one

Any Jump protagonist will do, they just have to actually be from Jump and be the actual lead (ex: Andy and Fuuko are deuteragonists, but Vegeta is not equivalent to Goku as a main character)

[biohazard2017]

top 5 persona games

obligatory take list w a grain of salt bc idk anyth abt p1 and 2, im playing 3 fes, and my only exposure to p4g and p5 vanilla has been through streams

1. p4g. it means so much to me. i love the feeling of inaba so much, im a sucker for small town stories. yu is my fav protag solely bc of the heavy lifting done by the anime. it has adachi in it. everything about it is so meticulously laid out from character backstories to personas to mythos. i even dont mind teddie

2. p3 fes. yeah yeah is good. ive only gotten to july when ken joins, but i rly do enjoy the dungeon crawling. i love when i havent saved in an hour and die 🙃 bur srsly i do genuinely enjoy tartarus grinding?? yeah idk. i love the overall msg of the game and it kinda runs parallel to that of p4's so ofc theyre honestly grouped together in my head

3. p5s. OK I KNOW it is kind of a hot take to put STRIKERS over royal but as i said before i havent seen any content about royal other than story spoilers so i can do this. strikers is like The spin-off. it takes the time to focus on charas who got shafted in the main story + develops 2 very good new charas. obv i like zenkichi ok but yeah i tgink the game is really solid and cute so i like it:) and im sorry but i adore the music of strikers SO much more than i do vanillas ost. COUNTERSTRIKE IS SO GOOD?

4. p4au. yeah idk idc abt fighting games but the lore is so :) i love that they actually decided to outline the lives of the p3 cast post-p3. and i desperately Desperately want them to commit with p4 as well. im SO mad p5a never became a thing. but yeah just seeing p3 cast + "woah a white guy!" + everything about adachi (again sorry) + the narukami cover art (sorry as well)

5. p5 vanilla. yeah p5 is still Good, but after p3 and p4 where everything about every character is so inherently connected to the themes of the game, p5 does fall short for me. there are just so many little discrepancies that are like :// this can be improved you know!! so yeah, while i do enjoy the phantom thieves and the overall story of p5, all my nitpicks add up.

honorable mention to p4d bc the dancing game did not have to go that hard! it did NOT have to have an actual story focused on rise (its really evident that the p4 team's fav member is rise huh) nor deliver so flawlessly on the ending. i genuinely GENUINELY watch the reach out to the truth music video every now and then for fun!! and when im stressed i literally watch narukami's dance! dance. also simply they didnt havebto go that hard for dance! its actually my fav persona song. other honorable mention is p3d i know it is a soulless cash grab like p5d but unlike p5d it actually takes the time to put as much storytelling into its broader range of songs. every makoto fever time ☹️

[gligoo]

Do you have any rules for requests you want to cover, like any other characters or subjects you will or won't write for? Is there any limit on character we can ask about? Will we get less content if we ask for more characters? Will you write for confidants or only the main cast of the games? What about characters from sidegames? Sorry about all the questions, just want to be sure. Thanks and best of luck!

(ANON!!! thank you, you have saved me from a world of pain. i had completely forgotten about these types of rules)

additional rules/information for making requests

*last updated 15-08-2023 (d-m-y)

characters i will write for

all of the phantom thieves

akechi

the scramble/strikers duo (sophia and zenkichi)

sae

maruki

characters i will not write for

palace owners

jail owners

most confidants

side characters (such as in confidants, like mika who was in ann's confidant, or like hikari from pq2)

kasumi (i'm not a fan of her so i'm going not to be able to portray her correctly)

for now i'll limit it to main cast, and later in the future i might (keyword: might) open it up to other characters

*** NOTE: if you make a request with joker or futaba that involves sojiro, that's perfectly fine! this ruleset is just because i don't think i'll be able to portray the characters properly if the character is the main focus of the fic

multiple character requests

the limit for each request is 3 characters (who are the focus of the fic)

i'm starting off slow because i don't want to overwhelm myself. also, limiting it to 3 characters will let me write more for each of them ^^

general fic length

my oneshots usually end up around 1k words

shorter oneshots are around 500 - 700

oneshots take longer to write, though, so they'll take longer to dish out

for headcanons the length will depend on how much i can write for the prompt

specifications on what i will and won't write

i mentioned in the first rule post that i won't write 'darker themes', so here is the specifics on that as well as other topics i will and won't write

what i WILL write

fluff

angst

mild violence (eg. beating up Shadows, getting bruises, getting cuts)

platonic relationships

romantic relationships

familial relationships

what i WON'T write

fem reader inserts

smut and/or nsfw content

extreme violence (eg. dismembering)

fics with a heavy focus on sexual assault (i will allow 'implied', though)

extremely unhealthy relationships (eg. abuse, yandere characters)

EDs

[kaibutsushidousha]

I remember reading Medaka Box's infamous Chapter 140. I remember the reveal of the whole Ajimu was actually suffers from a"simulated reality". I also remember how in the arc how Ajimu constantly broke the fourth wall. In hindsight, it was obvious but I am still very confused. I know that most of the characters live in a "simulated reality" but what does that mean for the meta aspects of the series?

Well, from our real-life perspective, it's obvious it's Anshin'in who is right. We know Medaka Box is in fact a manga because we read it as a manga. And in-universe, the narrative is also a genuine phenomenon that exists. Medaka is fated to win at everything and Kumagawa is fated to lose. Zenkichi's functional power to disable the narrative is the greatest proof that it exists. There are two other big proofs in the last arc but you're not there yet.

So, if it's so unquestionable that the narrative exists in-story as an inescapable force of fate, what does it mean for Medaka to conclude Anshin'in's story by telling her she's delusional? Like every other villain (except one you haven't met yet), Anshin'in couldn't defeat Medaka. However, in Anshin'in's case, that was a completely self-fulfilling prophecy. She is clearly more powerful than Medaka but she didn't even get to fight her because she knew she would somehow lose if she did. Really, she was defeated by her own worldview before the conflict even started.

Medaka Box proposes the right answer to "fate is inescapable" is "so what?". Anshin'in only fell victim to the trappings of predestination because she put too much thought into it instead of living her life. It's not a new idea to Isin. If anything, it's a far less extreme example of what we have in Zaregoto. I only read 2 volumes of Zaregoto, so I can't give any details on where Ii's story ends, but the recurring theme in Isin's works is that people can't change the fates they were born with, but can achieve happiness by learning how to live with their fates.

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Rpg Anon: 1. Well. Personally I have no idea what persona to give to Hajime. For absolute bias, I was thinking of giving him Shiva, head god of the Hindu Pantheon, just cuz I thought a perfect persona for Mahiru would be Parvati, Shiva's wife(I am also Hinazumi Anon after all). But as much as I like this idea, I can't back it up too much. 2. Like I said before, I already made a bit of persona format for lots of dr characters (mostly dr2 cast) which I personally feel fits them the best. But yeah, if I treat these as alternate DLC P5 Phantom Thieves versions of the protagonist characters, I guess that could work. The builds might still be a bit similar to their originals but I guess I can tweak them around a bit.

//See, here's the thing. That would be good under the condition that I didn't have the constraint of fittng with Persona 5's theme as far as the party's initial Persona's go.

//If this was a Persona in general AU, i.e. it also incorporated the logic of Persona's 1 to 4, then I wouldn't have the problem, since throughout most of the series, the shadows and Persona's are based on gods and other fictional creatures.

//However, the common theme of Persona 5's party members and their Persona's, is that they are all based on history's most famous outlaws, including thieves, societal rebels, and people who shake the Foundation of the law.

//In the cases of the original cast:

Joker's initial Persona, Arsene, is based on Arsene Lupin, one of the most famous gentlemen thieves in media.

Morgana's Persona, Zorro, is a Spanish rogue who defends commoners and the indigenous people of the land against tyrannical officials and other villains.

Ryuji's Persona, Captain Kidd, is a pirate. That's literally all you need to know.

Ann's Persona, Carmen, is based on the character from the novella, and is a gypsy femme fatale.

Yusuke's Persona, Goemon, is literally just Japanese Robin Hood.

Makoto's Persona, Johanna, is based on a woman who became head priest in a society where only men could fill that role. She did so by disguising herself as a man and infiltrating the system.

Futaba's Persona is Necronomicon. It's not based off a person, but the tome that it is based on is notable for possessing forbidden knowledge from the ancient ones, and those who read it risk losing their minds.

Haru's Persona, Milady, a gentlelady criminal who serves as one of the main antagonists of The Three Muskateers.

Akechi's two Persona's both represent the will or rebellion. Everyone knows the story of both Robin Hood and Loki, and how both of them were known for rebelling against their respective society's.

Yoshizawa's Persona is Cendrillon or Cinderella, another character who famously disguised herself and broke her house's rules to go to the Prince's ball.

Sophia's Persona Pandora is based on Pandora's Box, a box containing all the evil's of the world that Pandora and her husband Epimetheus released.

Lastly, Zenkichi's Persona Valjean is based on the character from Les Misarables, who commits crimes but with the intention of providing for his family.

//Now, I have already gone over it in each individual post, but this is the theme for each character in the Persona 5 AU for Danganronpa:

Makoto's Persona, Mickey, is based on Michael Spillane, the "last of the gentleman gangsters" from Hell's Kitchen.

Black Rose, Kuripa's Persona, is based on a Phantom Thief by the same name from the anime Ashita no Nadja.

Hajime's Persona, Mephisto, as you probably know, is based on the demon, who was a familiar of the devil who defected from God.

Shuichi's Persona is based on Giacomo Casanova, a famous Italian adventurer and spy.

Kaede's Persona is based on Irene Adler, a character from Sherlock Holmes and one of his most fierce competitors.

Komaru and Toko's Persona's are a duo, being based on Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Elizabeth Parker, of Bonnie and Clyde fame.

//Personally speaking, I think I can get a pass on Hajime's Persona being Mephisto simply because I don't think it's any different from how Akechi's true Persona is Loki.

-Mod