glimpseofamemory

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Hello again!

Both routes of Persona 3 Portable still end with Burn My Dread -Last Battle- in the, er, last battle. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I always thought Soul Phrase felt more like FeMC's main theme, especially with how it's woven into so many of her other songs. So I decided to do a "last battle" rendition of Soul Phrase as well.

(I also think it syncs up in a cool way if you play it alongside the last fight itself. Give it a try!)

Original songs by Shoji Meguro/ATLUS from Persona 3 and Persona 3 Portable. Vocals by Shuhei Kita and Lotus Juice. Arrangement, production, and guitars by me.

FLAC download

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I know what you're thinking. Hang on! Didn't you cover Danger Zone years ago? And yes, I did! But this version is intended to be a more faithful rendition - 'what if Danger Zone was rerecorded for Persona 3 Reload' - while that one was more my own take on it. It had heavier guitars than the original, a piano intro that wouldn't really work in a battle in-game, and so on. Plus, it was years ago, so there were a few things I thought I could improve on (especially the drums). In other words, this version isn't necessarily meant as a replacement or redo of that one.

Original song by Shoji Meguro/ATLUS from Persona 3 Portable. Guitar, bass, arrangement and production by me.

Download: FLAC

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Persona 3 Reload of course introduced a new 'player advantage' battle theme for the male protagonist. I had the idea to do a 'P3R' style arrangement of Pull the Trigger from Persona Q2, since FeMC deserves two battle themes too. The problem is, the original version of Pull the Trigger doesn't sound much like a Persona 3 song! It's a very different style of music. So I wondered, is it possible to make a new arrangement of Pull the Trigger that was more fitting as a Persona 3 battle theme?

Original song by Atsushi Kitajoh/Atlus from Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth. Guitar/bass/arrangement/production by me.

FLAC: (download)

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I have arisen. In general, the Persona 3 Reload soundtrack is actually very faithful to the original game's. There's some embellishments here and there, and obviously everything was rerecorded and produced to more modern sensibilities, but where possible the soundtrack clearly tries to recreate the original vibe of each song without significantly rewriting parts. This is the approach I tried to take in covering "Wiping All Out" from Persona 3 Portable. I hope you enjoy it. Vocals ripped from the original song and the 2009 Persona Super Live performance. Guitar/bass/arrangement/production by me.

YouTube

SoundCloud

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the problem with persona 5 royal, or: maruki was right

oh hey! this blog has been very dead for a long time. but i’ve got a fire hot take imma drop, and where better to do it than tumblr dot internet. so without further ado:

the third semester arc in persona 5 royal sucks ass.

but the problem is not just that it’s horribly written. it’s not just that it’s centered around a middle school-tier philosophy dilemma that falls flat on its own face. it’s not just that it relies on character assassination and sidestepping obvious conflicts and plotholes so that it can even happen at all. no, the main problem is that it fundamentally undermines the entire fucking point of the original game, and actively detracts from the game for being there. they made a definitive edition of persona 5 and then shat all over it and made that the headlining new addition.

yeah. i’m hella pissed! so let’s get into it.

on paper, the premise of the third semester story seems fairly straightforward. maruki, with good intentions, wants to use his power of actualization to make the world a better place by effectively rewriting the state of reality itself to undo the world’s wrongs and bring everyone happiness. but the phantom thieves reject this. it’s not real, they say. it’s just running from the problem. it’s the easy way out. unfortunately, there’s a giant glaring fucking problem with this approach.

there are many, many ways you could write this story to make a coherent argument against maruki. after all, letting one man decide the fate of humanity does indeed go against persona 5′s core themes of the corrupting influence of power. you could show how maruki himself is flawed and may not always make the right decisions, or how it’s inevitably impossible to satisfy everyone when people will always have competing and incompatible desires. you could take an angle of how ultimately, making humanity dependent on maruki for solutions to their problems is in many ways no different than yaldabaoth and shido’s fascist ideals of keeping the masses oppressed and indolent so as to let those in power control everything.

but persona 5 royal fails to do any of that. the best we get, instead, is the thieves arguing repeatedly that “it’s not real!” and “that’s not what happened!”. except that, for all intents and purposes, it’s absolutely fucking real.

maruki’s reality is explicitly stated not to merely be a dream world. he can actually change the state of reality. futaba is not imagining her mother being back - she is literally there. there is absolutely nothing “not real” about her. she is, in every way that matters, alive. once maruki is done, his reality will entirely subsume the prior reality.

persona 5 royal literally shows us a world where shiho was never raped and never attempted suicide. it shows us how happy she and ann are together, unburdened by the trauma of what they went through. and then it shows joker lying in bed, wondering if this is really how things should be.

and then it expects us to say “no.”

later on, in ann’s third awakening scene, she does ponder whether she’s making the right decision. the game knows it is dealing with a major moral conundrum, even as it utterly lacks the thoughtfulness required to tackle it in any meaningful way. once again, her core argument about why maruki’s world is wrong remains: “it’s not real. it’s taking the easy way out!”

it is, quite frankly, difficult for me to express how insultingly stupid this scene is to me in words. imagine ann going to shiho, and explaining that a man existed with the power to completely undo her sexual assault and let her live a happy life. but don’t worry, ann assures her. ann stopped him.

i’m sure shiho would be very proud of her.

but beyond that, there’s another line in ann’s third awakening scene that gnaws at me, only shown with a specific dialogue option:

“is it right for someone to unilaterally change the state of reality, even if it’s for the better?” is certainly an interesting moral question to ask. one could even, for instance, write an entire 100 hour jrpg centered around this question.

ah, right. that’s exactly what atlus did. the game was called “persona 5″, and the answer it provided was a resounding “yes”.

forcibly changing reality for the better, even against others’ wishes, even if other’s questioned the justice of it, because they wholeheartedly believed it was the right thing to do, is literally the entire fucking premise of persona 5. from the beginning, the thieves ask themselves if forcibly changing the hearts of people like kamoshida or madarame is morally correct. and they all agree that, yes, ultimately, it’s for the best. it has to be done to stop their abuses because the system we have can’t be trusted to do it, and they stand by this no matter who disagrees.

and it fucking owned. vanilla persona 5 was a game about how the world’s power structures have collectively failed us. it was a game about how those in power abuse it, and happily eat us alive for their own benefit. it was a game that told us to stand up for ourselves, to fight back, to change the world for the better no matter what stands against us.

most damningly, vanilla persona 5′s ending included a crucial and important final speech from morgana:

The whole world is a product of cognition... not just the Metaverse. It can be freely re-made... the same goes for you, and everyone else. Remember... There’s no such thing as the “real” world. What each person sees and feels - Those are what shape reality. This is what gives the world infinite potential.

(unless you’re takuto maruki. then the ways that you change reality aren’t real lol fuck you)

it’s such an obvious contradiction in messaging that it makes my head spin. it makes me feel like the writers on p5r did not understand what made persona 5 good at all, or even what it was fundamentally fucking about. persona 5 is a game that tells you to use all means necessary to change the world for the better no matter who thinks it’s unjust, and then p5r turns the phantom thieves into the defenders of the status quo who side with a serial killer (who literally murdered two of the thieves’ parents!!!!) against the man who wants to save people from rape and murder.

and yet somehow, repeatedly, i see people praise how much better p5r’s writing is than the base game. how much more interesting and compelling the new story is. and i feel like i’m going insane, like everyone else experienced a completely different story from me. it’s utterly baffling to me.

and this is just, like, the tip of the fucking iceberg when it comes to garbage writing in p5r’s new content. i could go on for ages about how much sticking kasumi into the game’s opening sequence sucks, hurts the pacing, makes no narrative sense and serves no purpose other than to show off New Girl. how the entire story of maruki using his powers to make sumire think she’s kasumi immediately makes no fucking sense once the man literally acquires the power to raise the dead. how absurd it is that futaba and haru just go along with working with akechi with no real issues, the guy who literally murdered their parents.

anyway. the moral of the story is. fuck persona 5 royal skip the third semester everyone who says otherwise is wrong. thank u for reading

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small update

oh hello!

you might have noticed this blog’s been kind of... deadish. i’ve had a lot going on and haven’t had much time or interest in persona-y things lately, sadly! if you want to keep up with me with not-persona-y things you can follow my personal tumblr over at @major-arcana. (i had a different personal tumblr but i decided it was time to start over for various reasons.) i’m already following a few mutuals over there~

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drew my two fav pairs instead of doing work

anyway, a cat is telling me to go to bed now. maybe i should listen to him

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Me: What do you want? Everyone: Makoto with long hair Me: Say no more fam

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In which Akira is very good oniichan friend and agrees to cosplay with Futaba

also one day i will do a proper drawing of Futaba cosplaying 

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Base on this.

Why did I spent hours on this.

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Morgana in a cute cat sweater!!

I’m not sorry at all

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I’d like to do a clinical trial today Tae <3 The beautiful doctor Tae Takemi from Persona 5 has stolen my heart! Aaaaaa I love this lady and her deals! Some warm ups for the day, I have a very soft spot for her!

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i dont know if this has been done yet before but

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ENTERING THE MEAT DIMENSION!

i made this because my friend kept telling me not to enter the meat dimension. I’m going there

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more warm p5

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Yoooo your arrangement is sick!!! Did I catch a wiff of face myself in there or am I just hearing things

Thank you, and you’re not hearing things! The flute part during the bridge is playing the I’ll Face Myself -Battle- melody. Given what Futaba’s dungeon in P5 is about, I thought it’d be a thematically appropriate little nod.