#//Not to mention the fact that as opportunities like the Metaverse opening up to him he jumped at his chance.

[kingspuppet]

Something else I want to touch on in regards to chess symbolism is the pieces being black and white. In both the anime and in the image from the end of the false reality, Goro is playing the white pieces and Joker is playing the black. And awhile back I had seen someone ask if there was any meaning behind it. I didn't see what the response was, but I do have a theory of my own. Goro's thought process in itself is a very black and white mindset. That there can only be one or the other. It's how he views his plans against Shido and the Thieves themselves. There's a right and a wrong way in his mind, and you can see how he struggles with that concept when he's asked to join the Thieves after their fight in the engine room. Because there hasn't been a way for him to deviate from his plans and ideals before. He never thought that was a possibility for him so he never considers it. As for the pieces he uses, I think a similar concept follows. To Goro the white pieces are the heroes and in turn the black ones are the villains. It's a very cut and dry thought process that follows the one or the other thread. So in his games against Joker he plays the "heroes" because that's what he's always wanted to be. He needs to be that hero. He wants to be that hero. It's his justice, which he thinks is right, against Joker's, which he thinks is wrong. That's not to say that Goro actually thinks of Joker and the Thieves as villains. He knows that they're similar, to a painful degree. But it all falls back to the black and white thinking of there can only be one or the other, and that anything in between is useless.

[biscuitreviews]

Biscuit Reviews Third Anniversary Review: Persona 5 Royal

It’s been three years since the beginning of Biscuit Reviews and what better way to celebrate the third year than to review an enhanced version of the third game I reviewed for the blog, Persona 5 Royal.

Now for this I’ll mostly be pointing out the differences between the two versions and give a review of the new content and Royal’s main selling point, a new party member, a new Palace and a third playable semester. Now that I’ll be talking more about in the “Keep Reading” cut to shield full on spoilers, because I can’t talk about that portion of the game without spoiling Persona 5’s story itself.

Like before, you are an unnamed silent-ish protagonist. Now in regards to Persona 5, the main character has two canon names, his manga name and his anime-adaptation name. To make it easier, I’m just going to refer to him as Joker from now on, which is his Phantom Thief codename.

One night, going home, Joker hears a woman screaming. He investigates it to find a man trying to have his way with her. He attempts to stop the man only to find out that he’s a powerful politician that turns the situation around to where Joker assaulted him. This false charge brands Joker a criminal to which his parents decide to have him live with their friend Sojiro Sakura

Later, a mysterious app downloads on Joker’s phone that allows him to travel to a place called the Metaverse, a place where cognitive distortions are manifested. It is here the power of Persona is discovered and Joker and friends take up the mantle of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.

As a Phantom Thief, Joker will be attempting to steal the hearts from the Palaces of corrupted adults in positions of power to change their ways and admit the crimes which they have committed. These Palaces are all uniquely built with different paths, traps, and ambush points. Now in Royal, these Palaces have had a few changes. There are some shortcuts built to make going through the longer tedious areas less painful, there are new paths that lead to more treasure chests, and there additional areas to make use of the new grappling hook tool. 

However, the grappling hook is mostly used to access a new collectible in these Palaces known as “Will Seeds”. Collecting all three Will Seeds will make a new accessory to equip. Obtaining these Will Seeds aren’t an issue either as they are usually along the main path. The game also lets you know when a Will Seed is nearby and finding them is usually easy as the path to it is pretty obvious.

Even though the bosses are the same, all of their fights are different than in the original Persona 5. In fact, the new Okumura fight actually gave me a bit of a hard time, so much so I had to lower the difficulty of the game to have somewhat of a chance. It probably wouldn’t have been much of an issue if I had better Personas for the fight, but I was determined to push forward.

Mementos also comes back as your place to do side quests and comes with its own changes. There’s a new character called Jose who wanders Mementos looking for Flowers. You collect Flowers in exchange for powerful items. Mementos also has stamp collection stations. Collecting these stamps and giving them to Jose allows you to alter the rewards of Mementos. You can alter EXP received from fights, how much more money you can acquire, and have enemies drop better quality items within Mementos. It definitely makes going through weaker areas more bearable as you’ll still get decently rewarded no matter what level your party is.  Now remember the Will Seeds I mentioned earlier? If you have the Will Seed accessory, Jose will also upgrade it for you for no charge or special requirement.

After collecting every stamp, an extra boss fight against Jose will be unlocked. Going through this boss fight does contain what the internet has theorized as a possible tease for Persona 6, and possibly even the Shin Megami verse as a whole.

Now, the issue I had with Mementos in my previous review is still present. If you don’t keep up with Mementos, you’ll have a very long dungeon to do before you get to the “Final Main Dungeon.” So it is important that you at least go into Mementos once a month in game to keep pace.

Despite these new additions, Mementos does suffer a setback from the new additions. If you leave Mementos, you lose all the flowers you gained. You would think, “Oh that’s fine, Jose will probably be at the entrance so I have a chance to spend my flowers before leaving.” Nope, Jose will not be at the entrance, if you want to spend your flowers before leaving, you’ll have to find him within Mementos, spend your flowers and then return back to the entrance. For so many improvements to better streamline Mementos, it’s really odd that they did not streamline this part.

There’s also the addition of the Thieves’ Den. This mainly serves as an intractable gallery of events within the game where you view pictures, cutscenes, and listen to music. You can even customize it with various statues and wallpapers. Jose is also present here, but he serves more as a tour guide on what you can do in the Thieves’ Den.

There are additional improvements that have been included as well within the game. For one trying to convince a Persona to join you is easier as the game tells you that Persona’s personality type. Also Morgana and Futaba will actually tell you what kind of answers to give these specific Persona if you want them to join you. It certainly takes the guesswork out of everything and also makes Futaba feel more like an asset rather than just a character that is there because of the plot.In fact, Futaba actually does more in-game. She can sometimes takeover during the  all-out attack, and her Mementos and battle perks happen more frequently, at least, I felt it was that way.

The gun attack has also been greatly improved. In Persona 5, if you used up all of your ammo, that was it, you would have to leave the Palace and return the next day in-game to reload your ammo. Now, ammo is refilled after every encounter within the Palace. This to me, actually gave me a reason to care about buying and customizing new guns because they were now an actual effective tool.

There is also a new event that happens in the Velvet Room known as “Prison Alarm” This alarm allows you to do supercharged fusions that makes these fused Persona more powerful and also learn stronger spells. However, this is only guaranteed for the first fusion, the second fusion will have varied results. I do recommend still doing the second fusion as you’re more likely to have a normal fusion or a strong fusion than a weak fusion. Even if you do get a weak fusion, there is still a possibility that the weak fusion can know strong spells

All party members now know Baton Pass by default, you don’t have to have them learn it from their Confidant track. You can however make their Baton Pass stronger by playing darts with them, which is an actual mini-game in Persona 5 Royal. Not only will this increase the Baton Pass level, but also help deepen the bond with party members.

All Confidant events now have a phone call that occurs after the event that allows an opportunity to gain additional points towards Joker’s relationship with them. 

There are also 3 new confidants in Persona 5 Royal and maximizing their ranks are important to access the new semester and Palace. These new Confidants are Takuto Maruki, Goro Akechi, and Kasumi Yoshizawa. Even though Akechi was a Confidant in the original Persona 5, his track ranked up automatically and required no effort on the player’s part. Now, effort from the player is required.

Kasumi Yoshizawa will also act as your new “party member”. I use quotes around party member, because she’s only an active member for the new Palace, not for the overall story. She is used in a couple of battles during the main story, but that’s it outside the new Palace. I was really hoping she would be more of an active member, considering having a new party member was one of Royal’s main selling points.

As for Kasumi you’ll notice her Confidant rank is a bit different. She only has five ranks rather than the normal ten. She does have ten ranks, but to access the other five, you do have to access the new Palace as they are tied in to that Palace’s story.

Now, if you care more about the social aspect of Persona and not so much the dungeon aspect, you can still max out Maruki’s rank to access the new semester without worrying about the other two. But to get the full experience of Royal, you have to max out the three new Confidants and I encourage it to get access to everything. Also Maruki’s story and Kasumi’s story are both tied into the new Palace 

I will however state this though regarding the new semester. It’s only one additional in game month and that’s it. It’s a bit disappointing as I was hoping for two months akin to Persona 4 Golden, which opened up new events and scenes with the main cast. I am however curious about something regarding unlocking only the new semester and not the Palace. It’s something I haven’t quite found an answer for, it’s also a bit spoilery so I won’t go into details there, but I will in the cut.

Alright, I’m now going to be discussing the new Palace and its story. This will spoil the ending of the original Persona 5 as well as what happens in this new portion of the game. I’ll go ahead and give my score for the game as well as some of my overall thoughts.

If you haven’t played Persona 5 at all for any reason, definitely get Royal as it fixes a few issues that were present in the previous game and adds some new activities, cutscenes, and moments with the main cast. I highly recommend looking at this version rather than the regular Persona 5. If you played Persona 5 already and are debating on if you should get Persona 5 Royal, my suggestion would be to wait for a sale.

I will however add this as well. Persona 5 Royal is supposed to be the definitive edition. Normally when a definitive edition comes out, it includes all DLC. Now it does include all DLC from the original Persona 5, but Royal also comes with it’s own DLC. This DLC is in the form of costumes for Kasumi and additional extra boss fights with the protagonists from Persona 3 and Persona 4. Why are these not in Royal already to begin with? Royal already has a bunch of extra events and fights already, why weren’t these included?

So anyways, I’m going to give Royal two different scores as I feel that the experience will vary depending on if you’re a first time Persona 5 player, or a returning player for the new content.

If this is your first foray into Persona 5, it’s easily a 5 out of 5.

If you’re looking to go into this game for the new content, it’s easily a 4 out of 5.

So take it how you will and now I’ll be getting into the brand new content so again only click on “Keep Reading” if you have experienced the content, or just don’t much care for spoilers.

The events of the new Palace begin immediately after your fight with the God of Control. The original ending of Persona 5 is altered. Rather than Joker turning himself over for questioning during Sae’s pursuit against Shido, Akechi comes to turn himself in rather than Joker, showing that he survived the events of Shido’s Palace. The next day, you learn that Makoto’s father is alive as well as Futaba’s mother. To everyone else, this is how it always was, but Joker suspects that something has changed. This would be confirmed by Akechi and Kasumi who also seem to be aware of the changes around them. This marks Kasumi as now joining you as a permanent party member as well as Akechi, which was a surprise to me.

It is then up to Joker to convince the Phantom Thieves that what they are experiencing is not the true reality. During the investigation Maruki reveals that Kasumi herself is also living in an altered cognition and is in fact Sumire, the once thought dead sister. and not Kasumi. It turns out it was actually Kasumi that died in the accident, and it was Sumire’s grief that wanted Kasumi to come back. So to have Kasumi return, Sumire’s cognition got altered to where she was Kasumi and Kasumi was Sumire. During this conflict of identity, Maruki has Sumire channel that anger towards Joker and Akechi in an attempt to kill them.

The final battle against Maruki was slightly disappointing. His battle has three phases, but only one of them requires any actual effort, that being his first battle. His first fight took me a couple of tries to figure out the best party makeup and to figure out an attack pattern. Also, hopefully you didn’t burn any of those Full HP and SP recovery items while fighting the God of Control, because you will need them during this fight. The second fight, all you have to do is keep the attack debuff on him and your defense buff up and stay healed as you fight him. The third fight, you don’t do anything. You just have to stay healed and guard. You don’t have to buff yourself, you don’t have to manage your resources, just stay alive and guard for your life. Which is a shame because I was looking forward to a grueling fight with the third phase, something akin to old RPGs when it came to final bosses having multiple forms, you were in for the fight of your life with multiple forms that truly tested you and your knowledge of the game. Maruki had that promise, but ended up not delivering.

The new Palace also provides three different endings, with one of the endings having three different variants on how to get it. You have the indecisive ending, where Maruki puts Joker to sleep, with Joker’s room showing that no one has gone to check on him for who knows how long. The bad ending being Joker accepting Maruki’s reality and everyone being happy, yet it’s implied that Joker and Akechi are aware that it’s fake and that they both accept it as the new true reality. Now I’m not fully ingrained into the Shin Megami Tensei series, but I do know that this overarching series has spinoffs upon spinoffs based on different endings from its various titles. I can see one of these endings giving birth to a new series within the Shin Megami Tensei line because there is some potential in what has been created here with these bad endings and I hope Atlus does revisit this in the future. I have to say despite being bad endings, they were given some thought and care. 

Personally, I think the bad ending could actually serve as a true ending especially seeing every member, minus Akechi, was having doubts about what they are doing and if fixing reality is truly the best thing to do. Seeing that inner conflict with the cast also had me feel that same conflict. Do I want these characters that I spent over 100+ hours with to have their happy ending, or do I bring them back to the true reality?

Finally, there’s the good ending where the Phantom Thieves defeat Maruki and restore reality to its proper form. This means that Akechi is dead and the events of Persona 5’s original ending continue with the Phantom Thieves being the only ones that remember the events of the altered reality. 

Or is reality back in its original state? 

There are definitely some threads it left that do have me curious. Is Akechi truly alive? Does the Metaverse still exist? As far as I know, this is the first Persona game to actually have unanswered questions at the end. From what I understand with Persona 5 Scramble, the Metaverse does still exist, however, there’s no answer regarding Akechi. I’ll guess we’ll have to wait for either another Persona 5 sequel or maybe even easter eggs within Persona 6 to learn the answers to those questions.

Which is also my question for what I had earlier. If you only maximize Maruki’s Confident, does that mean the bad ending happens by default? I haven’t been able to find an answer to this online and I am a bit too worn to go back and retread through Persona 5 for a small curiosity. If anyone knows this, let me know or link me to a Youtube video where I can see this, I would like to know.

Either way, it’s a bit of a mixed bag with the new content. I did love navigating through the new Palace, and some of the new Mementos requests were on the challenging side for sure, but the buildup to a big finale fight was a bit of a let down and not being able to play the full third semester was even more disappointing.

[crowsent]

Whumptober 2019 Tear-Stained

Yusuke Kitagawa, Persona 5, Tear-Stained

CW: mention of suicide but if you played the game, you know whats up

note: Akira’s an idiot and only told Futaba, Morgana, and Makoto of his plan and told them NOT to tell anyone else. or. you could interpret this as an AU where they don’t realise that they were betrayed

=

Everything happened too fast.

The enemy readings from Futaba. Being forced to separate. Watching Akira get swarmed. Watching Akira get arrested. Having to be dragged away by Ryuji to keep himself from leaping down and trying to do... something. They were still in the Metaverse, Yusuke could have summoned Goemon, cut through the police, freeze them. Something.

Yusuke could have done something.

Their return to the real world wasn’t as triumphant as they expected.

Makoto desperately tried to keep order. “Act normal. We’re going to figure things out but in the meantime, we have to act like everything’s okay. Like nothing is wrong. It’s going to throw suspicion off of us and give us a better chance at rescuing Akira. Okay?”

Everyone had agreed.

Yusuke had agreed.

Everything was going to be fine.

Yusuke was going to head straight to the hideout as soon as school finished. He would help plan with Makoto. He would storm in there if he had to and drag Akira out.

The day passed by in a blur.

Yusuke was out of it.

Numerous teachers expressed concern over the blank, glassy look in his eyes. Several of his classmates took it as the perfect opportunity to approach him. Yusuke lost track of girls from his year trying to talk to him about the “haunted” look in his eyes.

What a ridiculous notion.

Yusuke was not “haunted” by anything. It’s not as if Akira was in jail, alone, without anyone to help him. It’s not as if Yusuke had to watch the most important person in his life get dragged away while he was powerless to stop it. It’s not as if Yusuke felt as though someone tore through his fucking chest and left him hollow inside.

It’s fine.

Akira will be fine.

He has to be.

Kosei’s art room would have been the perfect place to distract him until school ends. Yusuke had good fluorescent lights hanging over him, and good natural light from the windows letting sunlight stream through. The scent of paint, of ink, of oil permeated the air and Yusuke should have felt right at home.

But his canvas was empty.

There was a bird, near the edge of the canvas, a simple black shape on a horizon of nothingness. Yusuke had an idea somewhere in the back of his mind but…

After everything, after the Casino, he just...couldn’t bring himself to paint anything.

Every time he tried to think of something, every time he tried to pick up his brush, every time he hovered colour over his canvas, he thought of Akira. He thought of Akira patiently, summoning persona after persona in Mementos just so Yusuke could sketch them out. He thought of Akira who packed Yusuke homemade curry so Yusuke didn’t have to go without dinner. He thought of Akira smiling at him in the Ueno Museum, full of pride and joy when Yusuke won Kawanabe’s art competition.

Painting, Yusuke realised, had now become intrinsically linked to Akira. When Yusuke wanted to paint a landscape, he thought of Akira rowing them across the lake in Inokashira Park. When Yusuke wanted to paint something traditional, he remembered Akira showing bringing him to Book Town and pointing out interesting tomes with old Japanese art. When he wanted to paint entire galaxies, he thought of the Planetarium in Ikebukuro and how Yusuke ended up not paying attention to the stars at all.

Also the young man continues to remain silent, refusing to implicate any potential accomplices, however, considering the number of charges brought against him…

Yusuke listened attentively, brush held loosely in one hand, arms resting on his thighs and his entire being focused on the words coming from the newscaster. About Akira. About how he continued to protect them despite being under interrogation and threat of heavy punishment.

Yusuke felt numb. He felt like laughing, if only to take away the heavy tar-like feeling holding him down.

“You seem stumped for once…” His teacher approached, peering at his empty canvas, at his unmoving hand. Before, before Akira was taken, Yusuke’s hands moved like starlight twinkling in the sky, like a leaf bobbing on a lake, like the beat of Arsene’s wings. Yusuke painted hearts and worlds and raw emotion.

And he can’t even so much as lift his brush.

He couldn’t even listen to his teacher. Yusuke registered the noise. Yusuke registered his teacher’s mouth moving. Yusuke registered the words but he heard nothing. He can’t remember his teacher’s name. He can’t remember any of his classmate’s names. He can’t remember anything except the way Akira was knocked off that ladder and swarmed by police as though they were rabid sharks.

Normal. Right.

As if Yusuke could proceed as normal.

Still. He had to try. Akira would have wanted him to try. Yusuke picked up his palette and brush and stared once more at his sheet-white canvas.

Yusuke didn’t want to paint anything. But Akira always did love his paintings. Yusuke should finish one just so Akira could look at it when he gets out. When. When he gets out.

A deep breath. Yusuke was shaking. The urge to laugh was there, bubbling in the back of his throat. Yusuke laughed when Madarame was accused of plagiarism. Yusuke laughed when he learned of his mother’s tragic fate. Yusuke laughed because he didn’t want to cry.

And he refused to cry.

Because Akira will make it out.

Surely.

Yusuke wanted to laugh.

Instead, he dabbed the tip of his brush until it turned a navy blue. Like the night sky. Akira once told him that he missed the country if only for the stars, for the darkness of the heavens that allowed twinkling diamonds to shine. Yusuke would try to emulate that. He’d never been to the country, never been to a place where the sky wasn’t blotted out by the lights of a thousand different establishments fighting for control or the honking of speeding cars or glimmer of streetlights.

Yusuke painted over the bird, painted the top half of his canvas with that dark night sky blue. Then he added black around the edges, smudged in faint clouds, added glittering stars that couldn’t be found in Tokyo. The way Akira described them. Bright, blinding jewels hung in the sky that shone bright enough that he could navigate the streets without light.

Akira described a floodplain in his hometown, with a river where people often fished. Akira described rice fields that stretched past the horizon. Akira described cats lingering the streets with glowing eyes that he always ended up feeding.

Yusuke found himself smiling.

Miles away, locked in a cell and isolated, and somehow, someway, Akira still managed to make him smile.

We have breaking news.

The other students were at it again, clustered on their phones. Well, Yusuke didn’t expect anything less. Their teacher went to the bathroom so it was obvious that

The young man being held in custody has committed suicide.

Yusuke stopped breathing.

He shot up from his seat, his palette and brush dropping to the ground. His vision swam, the entire room tilted, Yusuke’s entire world shattered. Distantly, he heard his chair fall to the ground, his canvas knocked down, falling paint-first onto the floor. Yusuke didn’t care. Yusuke couldn’t hear anything. The only thing that felt real in the world was the news reporter, slowly killing Yusuke’s soul bit by bit with every word.

The police have confirmed his death.

Yusuke refused to believe it. Not Akira. Not him. Why him.

To repeat, the suspect has committed suicide while in custody.

“Kitagawa-kun?” One of the girls asked. She wore glasses (not like his) had black hair (not as black as his) and kind eyes (not as kind as his) and Yusuke broke.

Before she could even take a step towards him, Kitagawa sped out of the room.

He threw open the door just as his teacher was coming in, nearly shoved him out of the way, shoved everyone out of his way as he sprinted down the hallway to the nearest bathroom.

The dazzling orange sunset lost its luster. The verdant leaves on every tree withered. The flamboyant flowers in the courtyard all wilted.

The stars, Yusuke was sure, the stars that he would have liked to see, the stars he was sure would have shone brightly, died.

One by one.

One for every tear that ran down Yusuke’s face.

One for every broken sob that tore out of his throat.

One for every smile he would never see again.

The bathroom was empty when Yusuke got in. He picked a stall, slammed it shut, locked the door, and wept.

Yusuke wanted to give him Desire and Hope. Wanted to make his life brighter in some way, any way that he can. Yusuke swore that he would be there should Akira stumble, should Akira ever need his help.

Yusuke wanted to show Akira the Meguro River so Akira could have a little taste of home. Yusuke wanted to take Akira to Yanesen, so he could interact with all the stray cats wandering there. Yusuke wanted to see the stars with him.

Yusuke wanted more time.

Yusuke wanted.

Yusuke wanted more than he’s ever wanted in his life. He finally had a chance to be happy. After everything. After Madarame. After being lost, adrift, a sheep with no pasture to come back to. A man wandering in the dark. Akira gave him light. Akira gave him hope. Akira gave him a place to belong.

It was only now that Yusuke was finally willing to accept the fact that he deserves to be happy. He didn’t need to suffer for his art. He didn’t need to bury himself in doubt and pain and starve himself like he was taught to do.

Akira taught him that Yusuke deserved to be happy.

Yusuke deserved to be fucking happy.

So why.

After everything he’s been through, after everything that he’s lost.

Why Akira?

Why take away the only FUCKING thing Yusuke cared about more than art?

Why.

Fucking WHY!?

Yusuke cried, curling himself into a tight ball, desperately wishing for things to change. For Akira to never have been caught. For Yusuke to never have gotten so close. For them to have never met at all.

Yusuke’s uniform was wet with tears. No matter how many times he tried to wipe them away, he can’t stop crying.

If Yusuke never met him. If Yusuke never met the one person he wanted to smile more than anything, the one person who taught him that it was alright for him to live, to love, to try and be happy, if Yusuke never fucking met the single most astonishing, compassionate, understanding human being then

Then he wouldn’t have a hole where his heart should be. He wouldn’t be howling in pain in a school bathroom, crying his eyes out, digging his nails into his arms hard enough to draw blood. The pain was nothing compared to the burning, hollow feeling inside of him; like Yusuke was set alight, like coals were stitched under his flesh, like the devastating echo of loss didn’t ring in his ears.

Yusuke should never have met him. Yusuke should have stayed with Madarame and languished forever. He should have worked himself to death instead. If the Phantom Thieves never targeted Madarame, if they never saved him, they would never have gained fame. They would never have gotten the attention of such dangerous people. Akira would never have been put into such a precarious situation.

He would have lived.

Yusuke would give a thousand lives so Akira could live. Yusuke would die over and over again. Yusuke would choose to rot in hell for all eternity. Yusuke would choose to stay by Madarame’s side, shackled, forced to paint and paint until his body gave out, if Akira could only live.

Yusuke would switch places with Akira in a heartbeat.

Akira should have lived.

Akira should have spent his days getting homeruns in the batting cages of Leblanc. He should have gone to the movies with a wide-eyed look on his face every time he saw explosions on screen. He should have lived to see the stars again.

Why him.

Why?

It isn’t fair.

Why wasn’t it me? It should have been me.

In every lifetime, Yusuke would always choose Akira’s life over his own.

He should have done something.

The young man being held in custody has committed suicide.

It should have been me.

Yusuke can’t stop crying.

[whatsthecraicwithvideogames]

My Definitive Ranking Of All 21 Confidants in Persona 5 (yep it’s a list you just gotta deal)

Persona 5 has some of the best characters in any game I've ever played. Over the 100 hours spent in the game, a lot of these characters are significantly fleshed out and you feel a genuine bond with them. Some not so much. So, because the world needed it so much, here is my official 100% accurate ranking of all those characters. No debate needed. This is the only ranking you will ever need. Enjoy.

21 Yuuki Mishima

Mishima seems to think that just because he figured out that you were a Phantom Thief that he is entitled a spot in your friend group.No. GET YOUR OWN FRIENDS MISHIMA. There are plenty of characters less interesting than Mishima, but none that annoyed me more. It may be completely unjustified, but I just need him out of my life. More specifically, I need him out of my hotel room in Hawaii. Go home, Mishima. No one wants you here.

20 Toranosuke Yoshida

The main issue that afflicts the majority of the people at the bottom of the list is dullness and being underdeveloped. Yoshida happens to be the former. Maybe it's just because I'm young and ignorant, but when I'm trying to save the world from its inevitable ruin, I'm not really all that interested in a disgraced politician. Call me simple minded.

19 Chihaya Mifune

Now we come to the underdeveloped. Although it must be said that Chihaya could have had an amazing storyline that I just didn't see, as her character was so one note and uninteresting that I became equally uninterested in what was going on with her and I didn't pay a whole lot of attention. So I apologize if I've missed an amazing character, but she should have made a better impression sooner.

18 Shinya Oda

I have little feelings towards Shinya. He's a little higher on the list due to his storyline being a bit sympathetic but there isn't really much to his character other than the fact that he's a kid who's good at a video game. I was invested in making sure that he got fed, but that's about as far as it goes.

17 Munehisa Iwai

I am currently holding a bit of a grudge against Iwai at the minute, as he was the only confidant I didn't manage to max out on my new game plus run, basically meaning I wasted about an extra 70 hours BUT HEY. That's not his fault. He also suffers from side character dullness, but he gets bumped up the list a bit because we had a lot of weird dates together that I'll never forget. What other game allows you to go to the planetarium and an all you can eat buffet with a yakuza member? In Persona 5, even the boring characters have something to offer. Some more than others.

16 Igor

There isn't really much to say about Igor to be honest. Of all the people on this list, he’s the one you have the least opportunity to get to know, but there's just something about him. Maybe it's his nose? Or perhaps the eyebrows? Either way, I like his style and he managed to crawl up a few spaces.

15 Haru Okumura

We arrive at another character who took a little while to grow on me. Originally I thought she was just as boring as Makoto, but at least Haru has some semblance of a personality. She's awfully sweet and her storyline is very sympathetic. She struggles under the weight of her responsibility to run a company, and is conflicted by her arranged marriage to a man she has no interest in. I felt genuinely invested in making sure she was okay and safe, even if her metaverse outfit is a bit dumb. Nobody's perfect.

14 Ichiko Ohya

If you're not familiar with Ohya, just imagine a really incompetent Jessica Jones and you're pretty much there. Meaning, she's drunk all the time. She drinks away the guilt she harbours from losing her best friend on the job, but she still remains a fierce journalist who doesn't crack under pressure and is determined to find out the truth. She just happens to smell like gin while she's doing it.

13 Sae Niijima

Sae is cool in the most normal way that you'll find in Persona 5. She's a prosecutor, working against against all odds to become the top in her field. She may have been working slightly against us in the beginning, but she was a formidable foe; working with an open mind and a level head, she eventually began to believe our stories about our time with the Phantom Thieves. Sae is rad without needing a cool outfit (@Makoto) and we should all be more like her.

12 Makoto Niijima

I'm not even going to apologise. Makoto just barely made it above her much more impressive sister, and the only reason she did is because her whole deal in the metaverse is pretty badass. However, and let me say this loud for you Makoto, just because your persona is a motorcycle, DOES. NOT. MAKE. YOU. THE BOSS. Once she joins your team, every plan comes from her, even though I am the leader of the Phantom Thieves. I have tried really quite hard to understand why everybody loves Makoto so much. I even romanced her on my second playthrough so I could get a different perspective on her. It helped nothing. I really tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, but anywhere outside of the metaverse, she is dull and boring. Number 1 Waifu she is not, I'm afraid.

11 Hifumi Togo

Before Futaba came along, I was all set to romance Hifumi. To be fair I felt she was the best of a bad bunch, but let that not detract from her good qualities. She's a shogi master (or at least she thinks she is), and yet she still struggles with something that a lot of us can identify with: she is desperately trying to live up to her mother's unachievable high expectations. All Hifumi wants is to play shogi, and when she plays shogi, she plays shogi. She's a bit crazy but we love her anyway, and there's no one else I’d rather play shogi in a church with. Now just to figure out what shogi actually is…

10 Morgana

What would a JRPG be without a resident weird humanoid animal thing? Mediocre, that's what. Morgana is an integral part to the whole structure of the game, in more ways than one. Without him, our character would have no idea about how anything works in the Metaverse. Yes, he can be literally the most irritating presence on the planet whenever I'm trying to go out and Morgana is telling me to go to bed (YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME MORGANA), but deep down I know he's doing it out of love. Sometimes I wish Morgana loved me a little less but hey, you can't pick your family.

9 Goro Akechi

Okay, look. I know what you're thinking. Akechi is a little bit problematic. I know this. But he's just so adorable before all that! That's pretty much that only reason I have for having him so far up the list. His little face in his character profile is just so cute that you can't help but love him. Also the way he yells ‘PERSONAAAAAAGHHHH’ is badass and I can't hear it enough times. I forgive the Ace Detective of all crimes he has committed.

8 Futaba Sakura

A couple of months ago, Futaba would most likely have topped my list. She was the first girl I romanced in Persona 5. I had spent the whole game waiting for someone to come along and sweep me off my (digital) feet. It was beginning to look like I was going to have to settle with Hifumi- and then Futaba came along. She was a hacker and a gamer: my perfect waifu. Her romancing scenes are very sweet and I remained enamoured with her throughout my whole playthrough. After playing new game plus that changed. I went in with the intention of romancing someone different, and boy is Futaba different without those rose tinted glasses on. Her inability to do anything on her own is, while understandable, it's frustrating at best. She's still pretty high on the list though, as I'll never forget our time together, and also she's saved me countless times during combat that she will forever be elevated to God tier in the Metaverse. I owe her a debt I can never repay.

7 Tae Takemi

I won't lie to you. A lot of Takemi’s charm and appeal lies in her character design. The idea of a cool, punk rock doctor who supplies us with our own extreme healing products is great. Even better is that she's got the attitude to match. Confident in her skills but still dating enough to go rogue and have you be her guinea pig for new medicines she's developing, Takemi is a doctor you would want as a friend, but DEFINITELY not treating you. Unless you enjoy drinking mysterious liquids and passing out for hours on end. In which case be my guest.

6 Sadayo Kawakami

Ah, Kawakami. She sure does have it rough. Teacher by day, maid by night, she's a very sympathetic character, although she may not start out that way. At first glance she just seems like your typical extremely incompetent teacher- which she is. However the deeper into her storyline you go, the more you start to understand why she is the way she is. She ends up being quite a sweet person, not to mention her skills enable you to have more of the most important resource in Persona 5: time. Coincidentally, that's the one thing it takes for her to grow on you. Just give her a couple of days, and you'll learn to love her for who she is. A hot mess.

5 Sojiro Sakura

I don't think it’s an overstatement to say that the entire plot of the game would not have happened if not for Sojiro. For some unexplained reason, he agrees take in our main character who has just been put on parole, and it's that act that eventually brings our whole crew together. Even when he discovers that he has a phantom thief right under his roof, he sticks by you and even lets you hold meetings right there in his café. He goes from standoffish jerk to ‘dad we never had’ in a beautiful transformation that is one of the best progressions of a relationship in the game. If it wasn’t for his curious combination of coffee and curry for breakfast every morning, there's no way we could have completed our rehabilitation and saved the world from ruin. Sojiro literally saved the entire world (don't question it he totally did).

4 Ann Takamaki

Of all the characters on this list, Ann is the one that surprised me the most. She's pretty, blonde and a model. In video games, TV, movies; these things tend to be a placeholder for a personality, so really I expected nothing more from Ann: and boy did she prove me wrong. She is kind, loyal and is extremely strong willed. She suffered through sexual harassment at the hands of her teacher, her best friend's attempted suicide, and the her career as a model being sabotaged by a spiteful competitor. Through it all, however, she remains a positive force on the team and one of your characters closest friends from beginning to end. We all deserve someone like Ann in our lives.

3 Yusuke Kitagawa

Yusuke is another character that I love purely because every conversation with him is golden, particularly when leveling up your relationship with him. Throughout his journey to find himself as an artist, I joined him at an art exhibit, a romantic boat ride on a lake, and I posed as our Lord and Savior himself Jesus Christ on the crucifix as a way to inspire the creativity within Yusuke. Some may say that Yusuke’s best quality is his voice, but those people simply can't appreciate what he brings to the table and I simply have no time for them. He is a rare flower and I will defend him at every given opportunity.

2 Caroline and Justine (The Wardens)

Before starting my new game plus playthrough, these girls wouldn't have even been on this list, because I had no idea that they were even confidants until my second time around. The way you level up your confidant ranking with them is by fusing personas with a certain ability, per their request. The only thing I dislike about that is that you don't get to spend as much time with them as I'd like. They are both as entertaining as they are enigmatic, and though it may seem strange to have them so high up, everytime I brought them a new persona, they stole a little bit more of my heart. By force. They demanded I give it to them. But it still counts all the same.

1 Ryuji Sakamoto

I don't care what anyone says, this game would not be half as interesting or funny without Ryuji in it. There are a lot of people who would probably put Ryuji last on this list, due to his loud nature and penchant for yelling in public about how you and all your friends are the Phantom Thieves. But that's all part of his charm! Ryuji owes a lot of his likeability to his voice actor, Max Mittelman, as he somehow manages to be comically over the top while still remaining believable for his character. There are multiple times during the game where you'll have to pick who to hang out with at certain story moments, with the intention really being that you hang out with the girl you're romancing, but every single time I chose Ryuji. Every situation with him is comedy gold. Ryuji will forever be my number 1, and nobody will ever change my mind on that.

[tohrua-a]

*  CASE  FILE  :    V.  PERSONA  FIVE . 

it’s funny what happens when you leave a small town to  ROT .  evidence slips ,  inaba suffers ,  and adachi transfers out after namatame has been convicted and sentenced for the string of murders and kidnappings that had gone on over the year .   SHIBUYA  becomes his new home ,  and with that comes new opportunity  set post accomplice ending ,   what could possibly go wrong ?      (   warning :  this is long   ) 

adachi starts off as  another detective ,   but he doesn’t make his appearance until halfway between madarame’s palace ,  and the start date for kaneshiro .  with an impromtu break at leblanc ,  he claims he’s tying up loose ends if asked about it ,  following some open questions in the file   ——  about the original calling card ,  and about shujin students starting this mess .     

❝ don’t you go to shujin ?  i hear that school’s pretty rough .  i mean ,  not because of what’s happened recently or anything -- the police have a solid grasp on the case and who did it  ...  i think ...  sorry ,  i’m detective adachi ;  i’m a transfer workin’ on the kamoshida case .  don’t worry , i’m not here to ask questions . ❞

but he is ,  kind of ,  though not much this time around .  he  might  ask a couple about any sort of suspicious people you might have seen ,  just like he might let it drop that they think the   calling card   might have some prints left on it .  that it’s been sent to forensics .  that maybe ,  if you think of anything ,  you might call him .  he leaves you his number ,  and you won’t see him again for a while . 

the next time he  does  show ,  is after kaneshiro’s palace .  it’s when the social link can officially start  outside of running into him main storyline   ——   he turns into someone who likes to   “give you hints”   as to where the police are with their investigation. little things that sit more as a slip of the tongue ,  often followed by a  crap ,  forget you heard that !    he seems like a terrible addition to law enforcement .  but motives are ulterior :  he’ll piece together bits here and there and figure you out . 

he knows of  a   metaverse ,   after all .  the tv world could be in connection with things floating around .  he just needs to press and pry and figure out specifics .  along the way ,  it  turns into being shifted onto the main case ,  and a more constant presence in your life .  at leblanc ,  at shinjuku ,  in shibuya .  more often than not he’s hanging around in the heart of the city .   once he confronts you on what he’s figured out ,  he thinks his own way regardless of what you say . 

(  hey !  he’s on your side ,  after all .  if you’re going to be making a big name for yourself ,  then you’re going to need all the help you can get .  don’t worry ,  he supports your sense of justice .  so he’s going to help you out .  that’s how it works . )

in reality ,  his  MOTIVES  generally follow the same thing :   keep him out of being bored ,  keep him with an upper hand .  as the story goes on ,  and in learning  who  the thieves might be ,  he switches to the idea that if he can sway them ,   if he can do what he did before ,  he can make what happened in inaba happen again   ——  on a bigger scale .  something  fit  for himself .   unfortunate for you ,  that means he’s your new best friend .   (  too bad it’s inevitably going to backfire in his face  ) 

IMPORTANT  !!  : 

*  as the thieves gain popularity ,  he gets switched over to working on their case as well .  it ties him up a bit more , switching social link opportunities to night ,  but he’s still there .  you can often find him in  shinjuku  outside of the crossroads ,  or in the  underground mall  during the day and night .   

*  the further into his link you get ,  the more comfortable he does get around you  ——  to an extent that he might even slip a bit more .  bitter comments , shifts in his tone ,  a hardened edge to his expression .  there and then gone in an instant . 

*  he offers a  passive trait  that  boosts your sneaking in palaces and mementos .  shadows take longer to detect you ,  as if they’re trying to see through the  FOG .    max link gives you an  aggressive  boost :  sneaking up on a shadow deals damage to them at the start of battle . 

*  his  ultimate endgame  might be to help you through to the end but ,  much like relation to p4 it’s a ruse .  you’re offering him  entertainment  and the opportunity to turn you in at any time .  be careful around him ;  he might remind you of that fact a good number of times .   if things start to get boring ,  he will . 

*  most  social link interactions  are similar to that of p4  ——  hanging out with him means he gets a break from work ,  and a chance to pick your brain .  there’s a lot of  personal views  shared between lies and half - truths .  he talks about the thieves as much as he does how awful the city is .   (  how sae - san is scary .  how that detective kid makes him uneasy .  he doesn’t like either of them much .  ) 

TRIVIA  !! : 

*  if you talk to him  beginning october ,   after kobayakawa’s death ,  he’ll make a small   HINT   to inaba and the murders that take place there .  it’s one piece to a bigger puzzle .  if you talk to him on a  rainy evening  inside of leblanc ,  or in the underground mall ,  he’ll talk about a  rumor  that sounds similar to one of his own .  have you heard about the midnight channel ?   an evening that he and akechi are both there paves way to a mention of another detective prince after akechi has left   ——   there’s five specific slips of information in total ,  as well as slips in his personality ,  that open up his  PALACE  by the end .   you might even be able to find out about what happened to narukami ,  and adachi’s ploy in that .

*  he’ll make comments regarding the p4 kids after you’ve watched the tv ,  or seen a poster around town .  often enough it’s a minor bridge to conversation .  he openly admits to knowing rise ,  as well as chie and yukiko .  

*  he  requests  a souvenir from your trip to hawaii.  bring him back a keychain and he’s fine with that.  bring him back some food, and he’s more than grateful.   (  it’s one of the few things that he’ll accept to eat !  ) 

*  gaps in his social link   —   hanging out with him   —   often lead to night excursions to the diner .  his favorite places to go are to  monjayaki  and  sky tower .   least favorite is  akihabara  and  harajuku .   (  though he makes fun comments on both . )    no gifts  ——  he denies them outright . 

*  spending time with him has a chance to boost your  knowledge .