#Atlus is my favourite company

[peacefulmultishipper]

So according to IGN, P3R won’t have any content from P3P and P3F which in my opinion is an odd choice along with the fact that they claim to also be writing new events, voice lines, ect along IGN basically going “Meh, they’ll make a definite version of the remake with that FES/Portable content” so it leads me to wonder what the point of the remake is if you don’t include everything even if it’s just FES stuff outside of the reason of “We wanted to give the original Persona 3 experience” when both FES and Portable already did even with its added stuff for the former and limitations + a new experience in the form of the Femc for older players with the latter.

All this along with the other removed content (including the optional ones) will just lead to more discussion and arguments from fans all versions and new players wondering what the best version of P3 is the best “objectively” with barely anyone ever saying the original P3 was superior, no matter how many years has passed between the original and remastered versions - these discussions will never die down and relit eventually as seen in the Pokémon community in the 3Ds and Switch remakes due to similar reasons as what is going to happen with P3R.

For those who never had “The original Persona 3 experience”, so outside of the obvious “You couldn’t control your party besides the MC” and “You couldn’t change their equipment in the menu so you had to walk up and talk to them one at a time”, let me list off the content that we may not get in Reload:

No Social links for the male party members (Portable)

No Social link for Aigis (FES + Portable)

No Social link for Ryoji (Portable)

No Rio and Saori (Portable)

No Theodore (Portable)

No The Answer that includes a new party member that explains what happened to Makoto Yuki. (FES)

No Femc (Portable)

No Elizabeth dates (FES + Portable)

No Secret Videos (FES + Portable)

No Koromaru walks (FES + Portable)

No new costumes from FES but knowing Atlus they’ll be paid DLC or something. :/

Naganaki Shrine overhaul (FES)

The Desert of Doors (Portable)

No saving Chidori (FES + Portable)

No saving Shinjiro (Portable)

Those are the ones I can recall on the top of my head so unless the new content includes any of these things…well rip FES and Portable, this isn’t me hating on P3R as the game hasn’t been released yet and I’m still gonna buy the game on day 1 as Persona 3 with all its problems is one of my personal favourite games I’ve ever played for its story alone so it getting a remake, I’m all for it and hyped to play as Yuki again and I’m happy that more people will experience that without the horrors of AI party members.

I am just a little disappointed with the possibility of what may not in the game at all with my fingers crossed for DLC/Update instead of the company being greedy again to make a definitive edition of a remake which while tapping this out sounds ridiculous but that’s Atlus for you, it’s something they would do.

[faerociousbeast]

i see the parasocial aspect happen So Much in like discord servers people make to talk about their works i just think its shitty when people try to befriend someone just for the bragging rights or just bc of the project they made does that make sense. like "ohh haha im friends with the creator of my favourite series and youre not"

like i do get being excited but it feels different putting smaller creators on a pedestal like that?? or using them just as bragging rights?? bc again if youre bothering fckn. atlus bc they made the persona games they are a huge company they arent even gonna see that let alone be in a position where you can talk to the people directly. but seeing indie creators solely as the stuff they made and offering the same lack of respect just feels so shitty to me

[stardewpastel]

I’ve decided I’m taking the direction of this project into my own hands and analyze the main cast of Persona 5. I’ve decided to do this as Persona 5 has a track record of being extremely hit or miss with it’s characters. While this is a problem with the entire series, never has it been this even with well written and poorly written characters. So without further ado, let’s get started!

Akira Kurusu/Ren Amamiya/Joker

So, this isn’t the best lead we could have, honestly. It’s inherently difficult to discuss Akira’s character, because, well…

He’s not.

As true as he is to his fellow Persona protagonists, he doesn’t actually have a personality to discuss and dissect. We could go off the dialogue choices the player is given, yeah, but there’s just too many variables to be able to settle with one defining personality.

On the other hand, Akira’s personas are actually a nice little nugget of fridge brilliance. Considering that Akira has what the game calls the ability of the wild card, he can wield multiple personas, ranging to about 210 in total. In a way, this is genius. Because of the inherently customizable format of the personas through fusion, no two personas made by different players would be the exact same, reflecting how no two Joker’s will be the same.

I mean unless you’re the type to make an invincible Satanael but c’mon, you’re better than that. Ryuji Sakamoto

Ryuji establishes a trend present with a lot of characters in the early game seem to suffer from, which is backpedaling on their characters arcs not long after they’re established. Although, Ryuji himself works with said trend… strangely. He doesn’t exactly do said backpedaling because there wasn’t actually anything to backpedal from. He storms in, yells about how much he hates the first boss of the game and storms back out until he becomes a party member. The only actual ‘development’ he gets is to learn to stop giving a shit if the outside world views him as a delinquent.

Which just…Isn’t good enough?

That’s not to say Ryuji isn’t a good character, save for one arc, he serves as a good way to lighten the mood when necessary and serves well as the protagonists best friend, but other than that, there isn’t much to him. Ann Takamaki

Ann falls the worst for the pitfall I was talking about when going over Ryuji. The entire first arc of the game is about her and her detestment for just being seen as a sexual object, which would be a really good direction for her character to go, especially since the rejection on an older man’s advances resulted in the sexual assault and suicide attempt of her best friend, so clearly it’s not something she’d tolerate... but at the end of the day she serves as the game’s main source of fanservice, which….

Well, it sends mixed messages, no?

Not to mention, Ann’s Persona Carmen is often depicted as a femme fatale who would seduce men and then scrap them to the side when she had been bored with them. Again, mixed messages are all abound with Ann.

Yusuke Kitagawa

Oh, good, finally, someone I can say good things about. The best word that could be used to describe Yusuke is… Interesting. I feel like the best way to describe him as a person would always being about five steps out of step. Still, no matter how strange his outward behaviour is, he dedicates himself to his craft of art pretty much no matter what.

His entire in-game confidant is about his art being criticized by a professional critic and his journey to find out what exactly he needs for inspiration to improve it. This consists of mistaking a brother and sister for a romantic couple and demanding to draw them, and ordering the protagonist to strip in church, among other things. Of course, this isn’t even mentioning his place in the actual story of the game.

Y’know, like, the required stuff.

You encounter Yusuke when investigating the rumors of an artist who uses his artist’s work for his own gain, however he chooses to deny this whenever it’s brought up during the arc due to said artist raising him like his own son since his mother died when he was a baby, however his trust in his mentor and father figure becomes crushed when it’s revealed he simply stood by and watched Yusuke’s mother die due to a seizure. This has lead to many people speculating why Yusuke was taken in in the first place, considering he couldn’t validate his artistic talents to warrant staying around, but I personally feel better off not knowing. After all, the point was to make it so that Yusuke would have no reason to believe in the Phantom Thieves ideals until his psyche had pushed to form his Persona and join them himself. Makoto Niijima

To put things lightly, Makoto is… Complicated, and not in a good way. The biggest problem Makoto has is that it feels like they wanted to write like, two different characters, but the director couldn’t decide which one they wanted to do and just said ‘ehhhh… do ‘em both?’. 

She’s either a stuffy mom friend Student Council President, to badass biker chick strategist, but they didn’t blend it together in the way they wanted (at the very least, I hope it didn’t). On the other hand, people seem to deem her as Best Girl because she’s kinda smart and it’s implied she has an abusive homelife with her older sister; something that is touched on once and never again.

Of course, they could’ve fixed this with her confidant, maybe give more insight into her hobbies, or maybe her relationship with her sister, but uhh….But no, though.

Her confidant starts with her talking about her father who worked in the police force and then proceeded to die, because we needed less fathers in this game, clearly. But she also talked about how much of an inspiration her father was to her, which, is honestly really cool.

Except then it delays itself after rank one with Makoto’s first ever actual friend, because screw the Phantom Thieves, I guess, and it goes on about how she, who is genuinely just unpleasant, is dating a man from a host club, which Makoto believes is super shady, it is, but that isn’t the point, the point is this goes on for seven whole ranks. I can’t fathom why they thought this was a good idea, but ranks 1, 9 and 10 are the only ones where Makoto is the actual focus. She had the opportunity to be really good, but they just did not care. There’s more I could say about her incorporation into the plot, but I think I’ll detail it more in Akechi’s section. Futaba Sakura

Futaba actually gets to hold the position of the best written Phantom Thief we got, which is probably mostly because we get a good look inside her head. Unlike most dungeons, or rather, palaces, where you’re attempting to change the heart of some foul scum of society, you’re changing the heart of a girl so she won’t kill herself.

It’s established that for the past two years or so, Futaba had been struck deep to her core with guilt and regret after her mother had thrown herself into traffic, presumably in an act of suicide. She had been blamed from every adult that she was the reason that her mother, Wakaba, did what she did, so ever since she had locked herself up in her adoptive father’s basement, that is, until she learns that the suicide note she had been presented with way back when was a simple forgery, and her death was, as it turns out, a murder. This is what persuades her to join the Phantom Thieves, to find out about the people responsible for her mother’s death and get the revenge she deserves.

Not to mention, Futaba’s confidant is primarily about her trying to get her shit together, which is honestly far beyond her fellow Phantom Thieves. Her goal within her confidant is to try to get better about the outside world again, using a method that she used to do with her mother, promise lists. While she isn’t able to complete it, as part of her still feels uncomfortable out and about when Joker isn’t around, she still makes an honest effort to do everything else, even helping out an old friend of hers from an unhealthy situation with her family.

Overall, Futaba is just, real damn good. Haru Okumura

Haru can also be described as complicated, but not in the same way as Makoto was. The main problem that Haru has in the main story is that, well, she’s barely in it. She’s only introduced in September-October, and the last playable month in the game is December, so as a result, she barely has any required screentime with the player. The most we get is her desire to be seen as more as an object to be married off by her father, but other than that, not much.

In exchange, however, Haru has one of the best confidants in the game. After her father dies, she’s left in charge of an entire company, an entire company worth millions of dollars, so as is expected, many other higher ups attempt to be in good graces just to be able to essentially run the place themselves. Haru mentions repeatedly to the player that she doesn’t really want either outcome the situation could have, simply preferring to look after her own garden and open up a small cafe, not unlike her grandfather before her.

It’s nothing super deep or complicated, but it knows what it wants to do, it has focus. Not to mention Haru herself has a rather calming vibe about her.

Goro Akechi

Oh boy.

I could keep this short and brief by simply saying ‘Goro can’t Akechi a break’ but, we aren’t here for short and brief, are we?

While Goro only joins the party for one dungeon near the end of the game, he’s present most of the way through, behaving mostly as an opposing force to the Phantom Thieves, believing they should be imprisoned for their crimes, or, as it turns out, ‘killing’ their leader works too.

Although, as it turns out, Goro needed to shuffle his way into the trauma conga line somehow, and boy oh boy, does he take the crown for it. Being a bastard child in Japan is a big no-no, but however, this is what he just so happened to be, which is already a setback. This was only to be followed up with his mother killing herself when he was young, which resulted in him being passed around from foster home to foster home for just about the rest of his life until he could live on his own, eventually culminating in discovering the powers of his Persona far earlier than the rest of the cast. This leads to him being taken in by his scumbag of a biological father to serve as a pawn for his plans to become a political power, using his power to assassinate any… problematic people in the way, including but not limited to the previously mentioned Wakaba Isshiki. All the while, Goro simply doing his best to be the best he can be, impressing and surpassing all of his peers, until he is killed and presumably forgotten, considering that he’s never brought up again afterward.

To bring up what I was going to talk about in question of Makoto and Goro’s writing is that many people come to the consensus that they should have switched when they joined the party, as not only would the target at the time make more sense for either to be involved in, (An Ace Detective going after a mafia boss, a student council president worried about the state of her sister,) but it’s eventually revealed that Goro is, in fact, a traitor amongst your party. Having him join in the third dungeon, rather than the sixth, not only would this make the player less suspicious of him, but also make his claims of having a Persona for ‘a couple of months’ more believable.

Simply put, Goro Akechi is rather well written, but the fact that he has blood on his hands results in the fandom discarding him to the wayside so hard that even Akechi cosplayers had to suffer verbal abuse and harassment at conventions due to their cosplay choice.

While people can claim what they want, overall, Goro was dealt a shitty lot in life, and he even lampshades this himself, by saying that if he and Joker had met just a few years earlier, things would have been different.

[daz4i]

for character ask game - haru

thank you friend!!!!!!!!!! 

What I like about them: oh my god she’s just. so pleasant????? like every moment she’s on screen is delightful fr

What I dislike about them: wasted potential 😭

Favourite moment: her awakening <3 also “we just despise the police” lmao queen

Least favourite moment: mona taking her chance to have a final showdown with her dad 😐 my girl got done so dirty.

A situation with this character that I want to see explored more: we’ve already talked abt this, but her suspicions of the thieves killing her father, and her grief, and honestly anything. give me anything atlus please.

An interesting AU for this character: you know how a lot of people theorized she’s the black mask before the goro reveal. Yeah. i think haru deserves to kill some people, as a treat

A crossover: well if i made goro besties with dimitri fire emblem i’m gonna offer a hot take and make haru’s bestie felix. i think they can initially bond over their relationships with their fathers and how it got cut short before they could actually forgive them, but also i think haru can put him in his place lol. and i think he’d genuinely like her or at least be patient with her AND respect her ability to fight

OTP: The Polycule, and also specifically shuharu!!

Other ships?: okujima, akeharu, ryuharu 

BROTP: mona!!!!!!!!!!

NOTP: i don’t think she’s actually shipped with her fiance whose name i forgot atm, but either way it’s that 

Extra headcanon: maybe it’s just to indulge myself but i like to think she loves animals. i think she should have a horse. and that she likes bunnies. and that this is why she followed mona into the metaverse when she thought he’s just a cat. i imagine she wasn’t allowed to keep a pet in her house growing up and that after things settle down a bit with the company, she gets one to ease the loneliness. i wanna say a lizard. i think she’s vibe with reptiles 

send some characters?

[gingermintpepper]

After thinking it over for a bit, I've decided that I might as well do a proper underrated 3DS game rec list. I'm a bit of an ATLUS junkie and that's gonna be pretty disgustingly apparent in this list, but it's not my fault that they released hit after hit and all of them were duly ignored.

Due to tumblr's 10 image limit (and my struggle to keep motivated to do one thing for more than three hours) I'm definitely gonna have to break this up into parts and I'm fairly certain one of these lists is just gonna be MegaTen games lmao but I'd like to let people know about these excellent titles and see if I can't at least get people interested in them so they can get more traction.

So, without further ado:

Some 3DS Games that were criminally slept on (part 1)

Monster Hunter Stories

God, where do I begin with this game. Well, the basics: It's a JRPG spinoff title of the now widely successful and popular Monster Hunter series featuring a different take on interacting with the varied and intricate monsters populating the world: Riders.

Yep, instead of hunting the beasties, you play as a young rider who's completed their intiation ritual and can now bond with 'Monsties' as they've cutely labelled the usually ferocious monsters of the wilds. The great thing is that you still fight Monsters--tons of them in fact but this isn't a paid review and in my humble opinion, the most impressive thing about this game is the visual style. The landscapes, the armour, the way they redesigned and 3DS-ified the classically hyper realistic and monstrous beasts to not only be absolutely adorable but still capable of being intimidating when the time calls for it, the stellar animation of special moves and combination attacks--it's delicious, nutritious, stupendous, I can and will consume it like it's part of my recommended caloric intake.

It's very akin to Pokemon in the way its basic gameplay premise is set up, however, instead of catching--or even indeed befriending--the Monsties in the game, you rummage through their nests and steal their eggs, later hatching them and getting yourself a brand new lightly kidnapped monster pal!

Other general things about the game:

Pros:

The armour and weapon sets for both male and female characters slap along with the general character customisation options. They're incredibly diverse (though limited in body type) and you can switch around traits and features whenever you want from your house.

The POGS--these porkers are everywhere and they serve as tiny little achievements for exploring every odd and end of the world. Also they have little outfits. They're so cute. 🥺🥺

You can actually ride the Monsties. All of em. Or, at least the ones that you have available to be your buddies. They all have exploration skills and traits that not only make exploring much more interesting but encourage you to swap out your active Monstie and play around with your options a bit.

Y'all breeding Monsties is complicated and I live for just how intense and ridiculous you can get with optimal builds for these things.

The story is really competently put together! The characters, character designs and even the internal conflict with your starting trio of characters is really compelling along with the mystery of the blight that's infecting Monsters across the world. It's not anything worth awards but it's compelling and it makes you care about the characters if that's what you're in the market for.

Amazing sound design, expansive world, everything about the presentation of this game oozes that Monster Hunter charm even if the art is cutesier than usual. You'll never get bored of its stellar visual presentation!

Available for around twenty quid on the Google Play store, so if you want, you could actually get the full game on your smartphone or tablet. Note though that it would be a battery nuker.

Cons:

If you're on a regular 3DS, frame rate drops are a given. This game kinda pushes the visual capabilities of the 3DS to its absolute limit--a lot like Okamiden did back on the DS.

One save file :( It's pretty much for the same reason as above but still.

If you're playing as the girl, you can't get male armour and vice versa. Since there's only one save file, you'll never be able to have all of the armour sets in a single playthrough and that's criminal because both of the sets for the genders are absolutely breath-taking, thank you.

I 👏can't 👏make👏my👏 own 👏Palico👏

Multi-player for this game is pretty dead seeing as it's almost five years old by now and never got much press or traction. Usually this wouldn't be an issue - this game is 99% singleplayer and you don't really need to fuss about with multi-player to have fun, but if you want to collect all the Monsties, you'll need it since the only way to get Glavenus is through pvp achievements. :/

Final thoughts: Play it if you find yourself getting tired or disappointed with 3DS Pokemon games but still want something that feels as fantastical as Pokemon. It outshines the 3DS Pokemon games at every turn and I will never be over just how thoughtfully put together and fully realised these games are. Of course, if you've ever played Monster Hunter, then you know just how intensive these games are with the lore, biology, cultures and world of their Monsters but seeing that translated into JRPG format was just very sobering and it's a game that, to this day, continues to awe me with just how much love and attention went into it.

Last note: If you're still unsure about it, there's a demo available on the e-shop of the 3DS that allows you to play through the entire initial area of the game. Your data does carry through to the full release and to give you an idea of how much I've been able to squeeze out of it - my playtime for that demo is currently sitting at 22 hours. Make sure to get a hold of that Cyan-Kut-Ku!

7th Dragon III Code: VFD

The title may sound intimidating but the premise is not! A mysterious disease called Dragon Sickness spread by the Dragonsbane flowers that have cropped up all around the world. You and your team are recruited by the Nodens game company after you display extraordinary prowess in their hit virtual reality game 7th Encount. As you go through the adventure, you are tasked with finding out the truth behind the Dragon Sickness and asked to stop both it and the Dragons that are destroying the world.

This game is fun. It's another turn-based JRPG however, in this game you create all of your characters yourself from the myriad of classes available to you from the jump. Different classes of course have very different specialisations - Samurai focus on high powered cutting damage with their swords, Duelists are summoners who can influence the element of the battlefield as well as summon monsters from each element, Agents can hack into your enemies and inflict a barrage of nasty ailments, just to name a few - and you are given three teams of three characters each to experiment with different team comps and find the balance that works for you. There's also a wide variety of Dragons to hunt and kill in the game, which directly affects how infected your world is with the Dragon Sickness causing Dragonsbane. Along the way you will also come into contact with many interesting characters, concepts and confrontations that will make the task of saving the world all the more imperative.

Pros

1. The character creator and differing classes give way for tons of experimenting and playing around with your own unique approach to combat and carrying out your missions. Granted, 'character creation' is generous, it's little more than palatte swaps but the classes are really where VFD shines. Eight main classes may not sound like a lot, but the expaniveness of the character skills, their synergy with their fellow classes and the uniqueness of some of the classes in and of itself allows for so much flexibility and creativity in approaches to even tougher bosses. It also encourages the switching about of your party members to really finagle with the options available to you.

2. God this game is pretty. The locations, the character art, the creature design - all of it is gorgeous and this game capitalises on every bit of the 3DS's presentation limitations as it can.

3. You can romance anything and everyone - yes, you can even be gay/lesbian/poly in this game. In fact, one of the main characters - Julietta - is gnc and he's a constant source of joy as well one of my personal favourite characters, right behind Yuma.

4. Exploration is very very forgiving as the game has healing spots and teleport nodes all over the world to allow for quick, seamless travel between quest points without feeling like anything is too much of a hassle. There are also special enemies that allow for quick grinding as well as quick farming of money. In general, the game does a really good job of making sure that the grind is never unbearable or inconsiderate of your time.

Cons:

1. This is the fourth game in a series the West has never seen any other title for, and from the looks of it, will probably never see any other titles for. Because of that, there are some elements that may seem confusing or revelations in the plot that may seem to come out of nowhere.

2. While the visuals are great, the OST of this one is pretty short making for a lot of reused soundtracks that can get really annoying if you're like me and need your audio to be interesting or consistent so it doesn't distract you too much.

3. This one isn't really a con but it is divisive: This game gets pretty difficult at times. A few of the main dragon enemies including and especially the final boss can give you a serious run for your money in the annoy-o-meter in terms of the kind of absolute JRPG fuckery they can pull out of their magic bag of bullshit movesets and while I generally enjoy that kind of thing, I know it's not for everyone. Most regular combat shouldn't be too tricky once you have a team comp that works well together but you also need to pay attention since the same team that carries you to victory one time might be worth beans against another dragon.

Final thoughts: This is... a really good game. Interesting story, really interesting characters, pretty world and a battle system that really makes you sit down and think. There's also a demo for this available in the e-shop and while your data doesn't carry over - you do receive multiple perks for carrying over your demo data including some exclusive items that, while not game breaking, do help a ton in the early stages of the game.

This isn't a final list by any stretch of the word; I only have the energy to do these two right now, but the next games up for coverage are Ever Oasis and Stella Glow! If you're interested in my full plan of games I want to cover here then my current lineup includes: Theatrhythm: Curtain Call, Project Mirai: Deluxe, Culdecept Revolt, Alliance Alive, Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, Etrian Odyssey V, Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker and Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse.

Finally, if anyone has played any of the games I mention, cover or plan to cover PLEASE REACH OUT TO ME, I AM SO LONELY IN MY FORTRESS OF SAND. On a serious note, I'd love to hear what other people who've played these games think!

Thanks for reading,

-Ginger

PS: @feralpeacock Because a million years ago, on my first underrated games post, you asked that I remember you. :D

[mxredred]

Why I Can't Call Persona 3 My Favourite Game - A Case Study About Atlus And LGBTQ+

TW: transphobia, homophobia

Okay so here's the gist: you might know the game Persona 5, I have praised it a lot in the past to my friends. I think it's a good game. I also think the the games that come before it in the Persona series, Persona 4 and Persona 3 are great games, I even used to call Persona 3 my favourite game of all time, but I can't do that in good conscience anymore. The company that makes all these games, Atlus, has a long history of homophobia and transphobia.

Let's start with their most famous game in the west, Persona 5. Apart from the only canon gay characters being very problematic, both in the original game and in the remake, we have the problem of the dating routes. As JelloApocalipse puts it in his amazing video about Persona 5: "Can I date... A boy? No! That's weird! Feel free to date this alcoholic adult though!" Not to mention you can date your surrogate little sister as well, but God forbid we let a silent protagonist that Im supposed to project to date a boy!

Now let's go back to the previous game, Persona 4, which is the game with the most LGBTQ+ representation Atlus made, with arguably two LGBTQ+ characters in the main cast. Now before we get into them, you should know that the main theme of Persona 4 is accepting yourself, and that it's most praised part is its character development and characters in general.

The first character I'm going to talk about is Kanji. Kanji is very obviously gay. We explore his hidden desires in the game and I can basically summeries them as being MEN. Kanji is supposed to be this tough, manly man with a more feminine soft spot inside, but he's ashamed of that feminine side of him, and also of being gay. The thing is, in this game about accepting yourself, Kanji NEVER actually accepts being gay. It's the butt of numerous jokes, but not once, even in the culmination of his character development, does he really accept being gay. This one can be argued to not actually be homophobic, but I find it quite problematic that this game about self acceptence doesn't seriously touch in being gay.

The next character is MUCH more controversial: Naoto. Naoto is a female(?) character. When s/he is first introduced, the main cast think that s/he's a guy, because s/he wears masculine clothing and doesn't have a noticeable chest. Later in the story, we get to explore Naoto's mind, and we find out that s/he's in fact... Female! Now you can watch the full scene of Naoto's awakening on YouTube, but I can see two ways of interpretating it, neither of them looking very good for Atlus: The first being that Naoto wanted to transition just to escape being a women, and the second being that Naoto's wish to be a man is childish. The first option is a famous TERF narrative: trans men are just women that wanted to escape womenhood. The second is also bad because it shows us that being trans is childish. As someone that recently came out as gay and started to explore their gender identity around the time I first played Persona 4, both Naoto and Kanji really rubbed me the wrong way.

And finally, we Catherine and Catherine: Full Body. Now I never played these two games, and I've first heard of them while researching on this topic, but it's so problematic I couldn't not include it.

In Catherine, we have an actual, canon trans character! Hurray, right? Nope. Just like Kanji, she's the butt of many jokes, and the fact that she's trans never seems to be taken seriously. Not only that, but she's deadnamed not only in the game's manual, but also in its credits.

When the remake of Catherine, Catherine: Full Body, was announced, fans begged Atlus to fix the original's transphobia. But Atlus did them one better, by making it worse! Now, you can date a trans women, and in the trailer announcing this, the main character can be seen looking at her chroch in horror. In the trailers, she's portrayed as what's called a "trap" in anime terms: a man pretender to be a women to trick men. Now if I understood correctly, these clips were actually taken out of context, and her true identity is way out there, but whether it was for publicity or something else, they intentionally made it look like this character was a "trap" in the trailers.

Now, you might be asking yourself if you happened to read this entire essay: why have I made this? What's the end goal? Well, I said in the beginning that I used to call Persona 3 my favourite game of all time. After playing Persona 4 and further researching about Atlus's past, I just can't bring myself to say that anymore. Now does that mean that I think that you're a homophobe or a transphobe for liking Atlus's games? Of course not! I still play those games, and I still think they're really good. However, I think that their past and present with LGBTQ+ representation should be wildly known, especially because so many new fans are coming in from Persona 5. I think people need to know know that Atlus has some really harmful games under their belt, but people can do whatever they want with that information.

I intentionally tried to keep this more factual and less opinionated for this exact reason. People need to know about this, but they decide what to do with this information.

[primsycoldbottles]

p5 :) give me your thots!!!

OHHHOHOHOHOO HERE COMES THE BIG THOUGHTZ favourite character: its a big tie between haru and ryuji!! i love them for separate reasons but like.. maybe ryuji comes out on top?? mostly cuz he was my first fav and haru came to be a fav afterwards second favourite character: futaba!! little gremlin gal i adore her least favourite character: morgana... incel cat :// or the redhead bitch from p5r shes so fuckin annoying lol the character I’m most like: futaba! being a shut in w trauma lol,, also dyed hair gang :] i also relate to her on having anxiety in big spaces and needing to be around a trusted person in any new space,, n also i like screwing around and being a nuisance to my friends favourite pairing: akiryu!! atlus was so fucking cowardice making ryuji so intensely “i want to be by youre side forever, akira” while not giving us a romance route for him smh least favourite pairing: uh. a lot of them? i dont like p much any of the f/m ships between the phantom thieves cuz of the dynamics in it (also wished ppl stopped shipping futaba w yusuke its fucking weird) but honestly........................ any akira x adults :/ i hate that atlus allowed a minor to have romance routes w adults favourite moment: theres a bunch of moments i like but i think the scene where haru explains her name and outfit and how she looked up to noir film femme fatales because they made her feel powerful in her femininity was sweet <3 rating out of 10: tbh 4/10 :| the characters and the actual main storyline are cool and likeable but theres sooo much shit in it i nitpick and find problems with. like how i think haru, ryuji, and ann got mischaracterized by the company that created by them is a genuine tragedy n ive already brought up how akira can date adults which is just gross... its also a 100+ hour game and yet akechi only got good development in p5r instead of the og p5 so its hella annoying even if i adore the main chars w my whole heart

[yvocaro]

Why hello my friend, come on in! Time again to look at this weeks Handheld Gaming News. A busy time of year when time for playing video games is often at a premium. At least, it is for me. the Christmas tree has been up for some time, luckily, but there is still a lot to do in decorating the house. And making the menu for our guests on First Christmas Day. And finishing my projects at work, as everyone tends to get antsy. As if there will be no time to finish things after the Holidays. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that!

On the other hand, the Christmas Holidays will give us ample time for gaming, right? So let’s check out what news stood out to me this week, leading up to the celebrations.

Smartphone cases from My Nintendo

Wow, those Japanese are lucky again! JapaneseNintendo.com alerted me once again to some Japan only goodies. Look at these lovely smartphone cases from My Nintendo. They will cost 50 Gold points each.

There’s a Limited Pochi Bag envelope with a 8bit Mario design that they can get for free, you just need to pay the postage.

The Smartphone Cases have a 30% discount with four Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp designs on offer. There is also a tempting Splatoon Grizzco Industries case along with a The Legend of Zelda design available.

We can only hope they come to our western My Nintendo too!

Super long Japanese trailer for Hacker’s Memory

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth was my first Digimon game that I enjoyed immensely. Hacker’s Memory, the follow-up, is looking just as good and is also coming west.

This time around, though, the game focuses on hacker prodigy Keisuke Amazawa, who must use his skills and join up with hacker group Hudie to prove himself innocent of a crime he didn’t commit.

Check out this super long trailer!

Mario themed plushies at Build-a-Bear

Build-a-Bear has featured more then once in this Handheld Gaming News because of the Pokémon plushies. Now, the company has announced a partnership with Nintendo to bring us Mario plushies as well, along with lots of accessories and pre-stuffed buddies.

Theres 16 inch Mario Bear with his sewn-on overalls, iconic mustache and a Super Mario logo on his paw pad. A Super Mario Bros. Theme Song sound chip is also available.

King of the Koopas Bowser in furry form…who would have thought! With his awesome back shell and a cool Super Mario graphic on the paw pad, 15-inch Bowser is a great addition to the collection, especially with his 5-in-1 Sounds.

And last but not least, there’s Yoshi too!

New Etrian Odyssey game in the make for the 3DS

There’s a brand new Etrian Odyssey game in development for the Nintendo 3DS that is expected Spring 2018. There’s not much known yet about the game, bit we do know that it won’t be Etrian Odyssey 3 [Untold]. It is said to be a “true culmination” of the series, with a lot of map drawing and it will have surprising content. Curious!

Nintendo wants to boost their mobile presence

It’s no secret Nintendo has been successful in their mobile efforts so far. Consumers are happy, and it’s been very lucrative for the Kyoto-based company too. Maybe no surprise that the company is looking to expand tie-ups with software developers to strengthen its smartphone game lineup.

In addition to DeNA they want to collaborate with other software developers to raise the pace of new titles. They don’t plan to take ownership stakes in its new partners this time. Rumor has it that Nintendo has talked with GungHo Online Entertainment Inc., but a GungHo spokeswoman denied these talks. Analysts believe Nintendo will team with Tencent Holdings Ltd. on mobile games in China.

Release date in the West for Alliance Alive

Atlus has announced that The Alliance Alive, originally launched on the 3DS in Japan back in June this year, will be making its way to the West on 27th March, 2018.

On its release in the West next year, North America will be getting a launch edition which will contain a copy of the game, a collector’s box, art book, CD soundtrack, and keychain. For now at least, it looks as though Europe will be getting a digital download version of the title.

Update Xenoblade Chronicles 2

The massive JRPG Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch) is getting an update on December 20. Some bug-fixing going on, but the most important one might be the improvements they made to the mini-map overlay, improving the visibility of your surroundings. Now I’m awful at finding my way around in a game, and the current map is no use whatsoever.

Those who have purchased the downloadable content will get the following update with bonus items:

Driver’s Essentials Set: Rare Core Crystal (x10), Legendary Core Crystal (x1), Overdrive (x3)

Materials for Poppy: Ether Crystals (x30 000)

Pyra’s Favourite Pouch Item: Jenerossi Tea (x5)

Nia’s Favourite Pouch Item: Ardainian Bear Carving (x5)

Winter Isabelle nendoroid is being released again

For the second time an Isabelle Nendoroid has received a re-release. This original winter-Isabelle Nendoroid appeared in November 2013, then received an April 2016 rerelease. This version of the Isabelle Nendoroid comes with an entirely new outfit and new faceplates. She has a smiling face, a proud expression, special effects, and additional arm parts for the original Isabelle Nendoroid. (thanks for the tip, Japanesenintendo.com)

Polls voting for your favourite Handheld Game of 2017 are up

In case you missed it, the polls to vote for your favourites in the categories 3DS, Vita, Mobile and Switch are up. In the last week of the year the results will be published here on LadiesGamers.com. So join in, and vote for your perfect game of 2017!

Find the four polls through these links:

Best Mobile game of 2017

Best Vita game of 2017

Best 3DS game of 2017

Best Switch game of 2017

Thanks once again for reading. And if you manage to find the game between decorating the tree and wrapping the presents, then Happy Gaming!

Handheld Gaming News week 50 Why hello my friend, come on in! Time again to look at this weeks Handheld Gaming News.

[tumblunni]

Various ideas for Igor social links that could have been more fun than just it automatically levelling up with story progression, having no interaction except tutorials for new persona fusions. Cos seriously when they advertised an Igor confidant route I got way too excited all for nothing!! * Similar to Theo/Elizabeth visiting the real world in p3, maybe we could see Igor leave the velvet room? Would he be just as awkward and confused, or has he already been to our world before? So many mysteries, so much potential! * oh, or maybe Igor has some sort of disguise in the human world and his social link just starts off like 'holy shit is that him working at the supermarket or am I just FUCKIN stoned'. The protagonist being an 'inmate' could have been a good excuse for Igor to keep closer tabs on him compared to previous heroes. And just any circumstance of Igor appearing in the real world would be interantly comedic gold, no matter what the excuse is! * Maybe you could do like a part time job for him? The velvet room attendants are all busy so he hires you to replace them for a day, and you get to see what its like. (For extra comedic value maybe after all your work the first 'customer' turns out to be Elizabeth in a bad cosplay of you) * something about you getting dragged into the mysteries of Just Who Is Igor Anyway and What In Earth Are These Magic White Haired People and Where Is Philemon, etc. Get some questions answered for once, get to know these fan favourite recurring characters a bit more closely than usual. Igor, do you have any sort of back story? Cmkn man someday they've gotta answer that! * Or just.. Yknow... An Igor friendship route. A slightly less distant and professional version of the usual partnership. What if Igor actually started to enjoy your company! What if you could kinda adopt this inteedimensional doom grandpa?? LET ME DO IT, ATLUS! But whatever either way I'm still gonna headcanon that Igor genuinely respects every protagonist he meets, and has a bit of 'so proud of u' feels when you have to say goodbye in the end. His assistants are just more able to express these emotions, Mr mysterious ominous nose monster TOTALLY feels the same way yo! No amount of it never being mentioned in canon will kill my steadfast belief in this terrifying Halloween man's pure grandfatherly goodness! ALSO THE VELVET ROOM ATTENDANTS ARE TOTALLY LIKE A BIG FAMILY AND YOU WILL NEVER TAKE THIS AWAY FROM ME Igor is everyone's gramps ...I mean knowing him he probably created these kids from thin air and spiderwebs or something. Lol maybe his appeal is that he'll forever remain an unexplained mystery?

[seganerds]

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]ince SEGA acquired Atlus’ parent company Index Holdings back in 2013, SEGA Nerds have had an additional boost of titles to enjoy under the SEGA umbrella, not least the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei franchises.

This extension of franchises now includes the likes of Rock of Ages. Developed by ACE Team, the first game was released on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and Windows back in 2011, and while Rock of Ages wasn’t perhaps a game that set the world on fire, it was very well received and left fans craving for more.

So, it’s great to see, some six years later, that ACE Team and Atlus are at it again with Rock of Ages 2: Bigger and Boulder.

Take Super Monkey Ball, remove the monkey…

The world map kind of reminds me a little of Super Mario World… though not in appearance.

For those who the original passed them by, the best analogy for Rock of Ages is to take a tower defense game and mix it with Super Monkey Ball. The objective of the game is to defend your castle, using a variety of weapons, barriers and traps, while attacking your enemy’s castle and being the first to break down the door and squash the occupant (your enemy) inside.

The franchise features two main gameplay components, firstly you place your series of weapons and traps along the level – a downhill obstacle course – in the best way to either damage your enemy’s boulder or destroy it completely. That’s the tower defense side of things.

The second part of the gameplay involves you taking direct control of your giant boulder, where you need to navigate the course, avoiding enemy projectiles and traps, to smash down the door of their castle. The more damage your boulder receives, the weaker the impact damage will be on their castle and should your boulder lose all its health, it will be destroyed. This is the Super Monkey Ball part of the game, although, unlike Monkey Ball you control the ball/boulder directly, you don’t move the ground… oh, and there are no monkeys in the game either (shame).

If you enjoyed the gameplay in the original Rock of Ages, then you’ll be happy to hear that Rock of Ages 2 is very much more of the same, just bigger and boulder… err bolder.

One of my first attempts at wall building… it was not very successful.

Its ACE Team’s Flying Circus

Believe it or not, the game has a story to it, which lends itself in alignment with its name.

In Bigger and Boulder, you follow Atlas, the Titan from Greek mythology who was forced to hold the sky upon his back. Though Bigger and Boulder has taken the modern misconception here and adopted the idea that Atlas was holding the Earth on his back – but this common error is forgivable, as it works well with the story.

Anyway, Atlas is doing his thing, holding up the Earth, when God comes along and distracts him. Atlas accidentally drops the Earth and it falls to the heavens below. Panicking, he replaces the Earth with a large boulder. When God notices the Earth looks different he goes to put on his glasses to inspect it. As God is looking away, Atlas jumps from his plinth, still holding his boulder, and as he falls through space, he lands on Earth.

That bit is a little weird, as he was a giant holding the Earth, but is suddenly smaller, more human sized, and can now walk around on the planet, along with the boulder he brought down with him.

Now on Earth, Atlas is walking through notable periods of time, meeting various historical and mythological figures, all of whom have been depicted (in real life) in paintings and other works of art, such as statues or books – from the likes of Henry VIII, to Medusa, to William Wallace and a demon that blew up Mount Vesuvius. Each historical/fictional character you meet, you end up fighting against.

One of the great things about Rock of Ages is the fun art style and sense of humour, which has returned for Bigger and Boulder. The most accurate and best likeness for the art and humour is Monty Python’s Flying Circus – ACE Team has taken samples of works of art and animated them in a similar way to Monty Python’s animated scenes, right down to the absolute insanity, silliness and audio style, with mumbles and odd noises.

For those not familiar with Monty Python’s animation, think South Park, Salad Fingers or Apollo Gauntlet, where you have flat, paper-like, cut-out 2D images – taking figures from old paintings and animating them.

Granted, humour is always a matter of taste and if you really hated Monty Python’s animated scenes, there’s a chance you’ll hate these, but I loved them. While they are not entirely original in design or concept, this style is uncommon enough to give Rock of Ages a unique feeling and one that I really enjoyed throughout the game.

A brief lesson in history and mythology

Starry Night by Van Gogh is one my favourite level designs

In the story campaign, you roll around a map of Europe (and a small segment of north Africa) with each country containing at least one moment in history for you to visit. The map kind of reminded me a bit of Super Mario World, as you can make your way along, tackling the levels in almost any order, as defeating some enemies opens up multiple paths around the continent.

The art style goes much further than in the story animations, as the game’s levels feature a brilliant variety of interpretations of artwork from across time. You find yourself rolling down incredibly well-designed courses, each appropriately matching the historical era or the artistic style of the enemy you are fighting.

In England you fight against Henry VIII, against a medieval backdrop of rolling hills, while in Egypt you face Rameses with the stereotypical pyramids and giant statues surround by a sandy desert. But things change dramatically when you face against mythological enemies such as Baba Yaga and Medusa, as the artistic styles of the levels become something otherworldly and, on occasion, merge a different artistic style into the mythology.

For example, when you face Baba Yaga (a witch-like being from Slavic folklore), you are transported to the Van Gogh painting, Starry Night. It’s brilliant, you wouldn’t think to merge these two ideas, but it works really well and this ended up being one of my favorite levels in the game, because it felt so magical and, frankly, was beautiful to look at.

The great thing is that each course feels unique. While you are essentially rolling down hills getting from point A to point B, ACE Team has done a fantastic job in bringing the world and its history to life through their level designs and no two are alike.

I should also note the music in the game is brilliant. ACE Team has taken classical compositions that are associated either with the country you are fighting in or with the time-period. While I’m not so hot on classical music, I did recognise most of the songs and think it’s great, as it works well to complement the art styles and the world around you.

Great balls of fire!

No moss on these stones

While it’s a joy to look at, the game is also very fun to play. The controls are simple enough to pick up from the short (and very well designed) tutorial level, but you have the skill factor in learning what each weapon/trap does and knowing exactly where to place them for maximum effectiveness.

As you progress and defeat more and more enemies, you unlock new defenses and new boulders. While understanding the weapons is one thing, learning the strengths and weaknesses of the boulders is another.

There are no boulders that are perfect in every situation, but there will no doubt be ones that you prefer, due to your play style. Boulders have different statistics based on: Strength, Speed, Acceleration, Damage and Weight. Each of them affect how well they handle across different types of courses and against different types of weapons.

Each boulder looks unique and many of them have additional bonuses/advantages – such as the Angel Boulder being able to double jump, whereas the Globe Boulder has a moon spinning around it, so it can damage nearby obstacles without receiving any damage.

I think most gamers will enjoy the Monkey Ball aspect of the game – it’s really fun rolling over enemy structures and satisfying destroying the castle door first – but the tower defense side of things is equally enjoyable.

While this side of the game does slow things down, it can be brilliant fun to watch your tactics play out well. Essentially, after you have smashed your boulder into the opposing castle, you need to wait for your new boulder to be built, and this is the time to ready your defenses.

When I first played, I just dropped defenses anywhere on the course, not really caring or bothering to observe how well they worked. But after losing one early level three times in a row, I decided to take notice, and that’s when things clicked for me.

It’s really satisfying when your defences destory the enemy boulder

Rather than dropping defenses all over the map, the best solution is to pick defenses that complement each other and put them in close proximity (I often put them near my castle, because that tended to have the best space for lots of defenses). Once I worked out a good strategy, the tower defense bits became a real joy for me, as I tried to ready them in time before my enemy was able to roll.

If everything works out well, and you continuously destroy the enemy boulder before it can reach your castle, you can unlock a ‘rare’ achievement for destroying the enemy without taking any damage. I’m happy to say I was able to do this, and it’s a really satisfying feeling seeing your defenses work perfectly.

Chip off the old block

In Obstacle Course mode, you race against the opponent to the finish line, avoiding defences

There’s not just a single player to Bigger and Boulder, there’s also some decent offline and online multiplayer modes, including 2-player co-op across the whole single-player campaign – where you both are able to create your defenses at the same time, on the same course and roll your boulders into the enemy structures. But be warned, the AI also has two boulders in this mode, so you will need those extra defenses to fend them both off.

There’s also additional game modes, for both single and multiplayer, which extend the gameplay further, plus plenty of boulders, defenses and customization options to unlock during the main campaign.

Offline, you can only ever have two human players, which is a bit of a shame. Though online you can have up to four players in game modes, two players per console.

The single-player campaign also mixes things up slightly with four boss battles, which take you away from the downhill slopes of normal levels and to battle-type arenas. I’m not sure if everyone will enjoy these, though I did find them a good break from the norm in the campaign.

Geez! Would you look at the buns on that guy! He must work out…

You missed a spot

While I found the majority of my time with Bigger and Boulder to be really enjoyable, there are some things that hindered it.

Firstly, I came across some bugs in the game, one of which ruined the game for my girlfriend. See, she’s not a gamer, and Bigger and Boulder seemed like the perfect game for us both to play – as it is very easy to pick up.

Two player was really fun, when the camera behaved itself

After showing her the tutorial and playing a practice match against her, she picked things up, and we were ready to fight together against the AI. But something kept going wrong with her camera – every time she fell or was pushed off the course, her camera kept swinging around, so it was facing the wrong way. This led to her going backwards up the course and getting frustrated with the game. At first, I thought she was holding down the stick to change the camera angle, but I paid close attention the next time it happened, and sure enough, when she was placed back on the course, her camera was backwards.

The game does try to give you subtle indications on the direction you need to go, but it’s not always clear, especially for someone trying to get used to the controls.

Unfortunately, she became so annoyed with the game she gave up. It’s a shame because she thought it looked really fun when I was playing it, but I don’t blame her for quitting. Strangely, this camera situation never occurred for me in single player, but it was definitely happening to her.

Honey, I broke the cat!

Another annoyance is that to play two-player co-op offline, you need to create a separate Xbox Live account for the second player. There’s no option, like in other games, to just have a guest account. Frankly, this is ridiculous.

I also encountered a game-breaking bug against the Sphinx boss (see image to the left) and accidentally hit the “restart level” button once or twice. Couldn’t they have added a confirmation option?

Even if those annoyances didn’t exist, the biggest downside for Bigger and Boulder is that the game does feel rather repetitive during long gameplay stints. Even with the different boulders, new weapons and varied courses, you’re essentially doing to the same thing over and over again. But it’s great fun for short blasts of gaming!

Another point to note is that the campaign mode isn’t very long (it can be done in about 4-6 hours). But don’t let that put you off as the game is only £11.99/$14.99, and the amount of gameplay across the modes is well worth the entry fee.

Prepare to be squished!

Summary

Rock of Ages 2: Bigger and Boulder is a really enjoyable game and unique enough to warrant a purchase. While it has some flaws, some of which I’m hoping can be ironed out with an update, it is let down solely on its repetition during long gameplay stints.

But the game has enough variety in its level designs and content there for single and multiplayers, that it will keep bringing you back, even after you complete the main campaign.

While the visual aspects of the game don’t push modern hardware, the quirky art styles and imagination put into each level really draws players in, with a cracking soundtrack to roll your way to victory to. The odd humour may not be for everyone, but the gameplay should be enough to draw people in and keep them there.

Pros: + Really fun mix of gameplay styles + Great visuals bring historical & mythological characters/settings to life + Excellent soundtrack complements aesthetics + Good selection of game modes and unlockables

Cons: – Can feel repetitive in long play sessions – You need a second Xbox Live account to play multiplayer offline – WTF? – Bug! Camera kept twisting round in two player co-op

My favourite ‘boulder’ is a giant cube. Hard to control, but very powerful

It’s really satisfying when your defences destory the enemy boulder

Not all boulders are spherical

Starry Night by Van Gogh is one my favourite level designs

We danced on the crsuhed bodies of our fallen enemies

Geez! Would you look at the buns on that guy! He must work out…

In Obstacle Course mode, you race against the opponent to the finish line, avoiding defences

My favourite ‘boulder’ is a giant cube. Hard to control, but very powerful

Two player was really fun, when the camera behaved itself

Once you break down the enemy door, you squish them and claim victory!

Angel Boulder has wings to double jump

Honey, I broke the cat!

Two player was really fun, when the camera behaved itself

Just chilling on the back of a Sphinx…

Cat is still broken…

The world map kind of reminds me a little of Super Mario World… though not in appearance.

Prepare to be squished!

You have plenty of customisation features to unlock

One of my first attempts at wall building… it was not very successful.

Placing defences stragetically helps ensure victory

Great balls of fire!

Time to get the ball rolling again with our #review of #RockofAges2 #Bigger&Boulder! @theACETeam @AtlusUSA #SEGA Since SEGA acquired Atlus’ parent company Index Holdings back in 2013, SEGA Nerds have had an additional boost of titles to enjoy under the SEGA umbrella, not least the…