#and it's the same with chie and yukiko? but idk man. with yosuke. guys. with yosuke i always feel like kanji wants to break that hierarchy

[arcplaysgames]

(I don't actually know if Strikers does anything with tarot but anyway) Which game, as a whole, do you think uses the tarot theming the best? Whether it be individual arcana assignments or links to the plot or just vibes - I know you've spoken of inidividual S-Link meanings but I don't think a big-picture comparison was ever done.

hmmm okay lets do a basic round up

I am going to... give points

+ 2 (GREAT job) + 1 (They tried!) + 0 (phoned it in/makes no sense) - 1 (ACTIVELY BAD CHOICE)

Fool: SEES (P3) vs Investigation Team (P4) vs Notigor (P5) Gonna give P3 and P4 0 points bc these do nothing, but P5 gets -1 bc what the fuck

Magician: Junpei Iori (P3) vs Yosuke Hanamura (P4) vs Morgana (P5) Both P3 and P5 get +2 for AMAZING Magicians. P4 gets a 0.

High Priestess: Fuuka (P3) vs Yukiko (P4) vs Makoto (P5) P3 gets the +2 here. P4 gets a -1, Yukiko is a terrible choice. No opinion on Makoto but she doesn't seem like the right pick imo.

Empress: Mitsuru (P3) vs Margaret (P4) vs Haru (P5) I'll give P4 one point and P5 two points. Mits shoulda been Emperor.

Emperor: StuCo Guy (P3) vs Kanji (P4) vs Yusuke (P5) P4 gets +2 for a shockingly good Emperor. P5 gets a -1 for a shockingly bad Emperor.

Hierophant: Old Couple (P3) vs Dojima (P4) vs Sojiro (P5) P3 gets -1 and should feel lucky its only minus one. P4 and P5 get zero points.

Lovers: Yukari (P3) vs Rise (P4) vs Ann (P5) P3 gets the +2, P4 gets +1, P5 gets zero.

Chariot: Rio (P3) vs Chie (P4) vs Ryuji (P5) Everyone gets +1.

Strength: Koromaru (P3) vs Athletes (P4) vs Twin Wardens (P5) P3 gets +1, P4 gets fucking nothing, and P5 gets +2.

Hermit: Saori (P3) vs The Fox (P4) vs Futaba (P5) P3 gets +1, P4 gets -1 bc no that's not what Hermit is, and P5 gets +2 for nailing it.

Fortune: Ryoji (P3) vs Naoto (P4) vs Chihaya (P5) No points, everyone see me after class. Actually, no. P4 and P5 get -1.

Justice: Ken (P3) vs Nanako (P4) vs Akechi (P5) I AM GOING TO GIVE P5 +3 FOR AKECHI, FOR THE FIRST TIME PERSONA FUCKING DID ANYTHING WITH THE JUSTICE ARCANA. AND BOY THEY DID STUFF.

Hanged Man: Maiko (P3) vs Naoki??? (P4) vs Iwai (P5) P3 you get a -1, see me after class. Zero for the others.

Death: Pharos (P3) vs I HAVE NO IDEA (P4) vs Tae (P5) I refuse to give Pharos points, so fucking basic. P5 can have a point.

Temperance: UGH NO (P3) vs uh whoops (P4) vs Kawakami (P5) P3 what the fuck -1, +1 to P4 bc its boring but it fits, and Kawakami gets +2 for fucking nailing it.

Devil: Pres Tanaka (P3) vs that nurse??? (P4) vs Ohya (P5) I'm gonna skip this one bc I don't think I know enough about P4 and P5's to rate. And Tanaka fits but is just Fine. +0 to all.

Tower: Cool Monk (P3) vs uuuuh idk (P4) vs whoops x 2 (P5) Honestly, same as Devil. No points.

Star: Akihiko (P3) vs Teddie (P4) vs Hifumi (P5) FUCKING PLUS 3 TO TEDDIE FOR BEING A TREMENDOUS STAR. +1 to P3 for Akihiko. 0 to P5 bc I don't get the angle.

Moon: Shinjiro (P3) vs that one girl (P4) vs Mishima (P5) Fuck Mishimia. He's an amazing Moon. +2 to P5, zero to the others.

Sun: Akinari (P3) vs Yumi (P4) vs Yoshida (P5) -1 to P4 bc the Sun link sucks. +2 to P3 and P5 for AMAZING Sun links. Yoshida may be the most nuanced take on any NPC's Arcana.

Judgement: Nyx Squad (P3) vs Truth Dudes (P4) vs Sae (P5) P5 gets +1 bc at least they fucking tried, P3 and P4 were just tagged on and superfluous.

World/Universe: Reverie III vs Reverie IV vs Reverie V Reverie The Fourth loses HARD here bc the point of the World is coming to the end of a journey and being changed for it and he doesn't have enough personality to be changed. -1 to P4 Reverie the Third is a decent one who went through a lot and has enough personal stakes that I buy it. +1 to P3 I hate to say it but Reverie the Fifth gets +2. He feels the most complete of them all, so for the Arcana of Completion, or the Whole, it has to be him.

Okay I have no idea what that tallies up to, lemme see.

Persona 3: 10 points Persona 4: 4 points (OUCH) Persona 5: 19 FUCKING POINTS WOW THAT ISN'T EVEN CLOSE

My math might be wrong bc I suck at math (yay, dyscalculia) but that is a huge margin for error.

Honestly, makes sense. Like I said in the post-mortem, P5 succeeds in a lot of ways just for having actual adults available for the arcanas. P4 and P3 are so strongly limited to your classmates, there is only so many ways to make a high school student wacky and weird in a way congruent to their Arcana.

P5 has the worst Emperor in the series by far but it has the best Justice easily and possibly the best Sun and honestly a lot of the NPC SLinks are Just Really Good.

So yeah, P5 wins at something at last.

[brokenhardies]

alright so i started thinking of the shadows for tbe investigation team (minus naoto bc protagonist) so uh here we go;

shadow!rise (magician) - so rise works at junes even though her grandmother has a tofu place mostly so she can keep her family's lights on. her shadow berates her for 'betraying' her family and going against their wishes for the sake of her own pocket, and insults her for trying to save the first victim (probably the canon hanged man arcana?). basically a lot of self-loathing and guilt manifested in anger and frustration lol

shadow!teddie (chariot) - teddie was adopted by the hanamura family at a young age and while yosuke is seen as basically like the 'good son', the one who will bring junes prosperity, teddie feels as though he's seen as the spare, the second best, the one who's not viewed as good enough because he's not part of the family. his shadow represents this feeling of being out of place - how he's always gonna be seen as the replacement for yosuke if anything happens to him

shadow!yosuke (priestess) - yosuke's the heir to junes and feels overworked by his family, especially his parents. his shadow is the one that has a tv world dungeon and it takes the form of his desire to escape, taking the form of a pirate ship with yosuke as the captain. his desire to escape is not like shadow yukiko - who wants someone to save her - he just wants to get out of inaba without everyone noticing, believing that everyone only sees him as the perfect son and he has so much pressure to succeed when he just wants to be a normal kid

shadow!yukiko (emperor) - so yukiko still has the amagi inn, but she's basically lashed out and become a classic sukeban just out of spite for her whole situation. much like canon kanji, her shadow just wants someone to accept her for who she is - not the perfect amagi inn runner or the edgy sukeban, but for yukiko who snorts when she laughs and loves horror movies and cannot cook to save her life. her dungeon takes the form of a large prison, with her as prisoner no 1 and her shadow guards acting as prison guards who try to prevent her from escaping - unlike canon yukiko, she feels like she's permanently trapped there and there's no way to escape

shadow!kanji (lovers) - kanji is kind of a visual kei icon and works for an idol company similar to johnny & associates that basically forces him to cover up his true emotions with a smile on his face (and much like johnny & associates, he has the added bonus of the founder probably being a gross pervert lol). he feels kind of torn between the image of the perfect idol and his true self - which much like his canon self, is just a shy, socially awkward young man who struggles with communication. idk what his dungeon takes the form of, but his boss is pretty similar to is canon boss complete with nice guy and tough guy and the mars symbols being chucked around

shadow!marie (star) - now idk if star!marie is a shadow or a velvet room person or has a similar backstory to morgana from p5 but her nearly sacrificing herself to try to stop shadow kanji causes her to realize her mortality and the fact that there isn't really any real her because of her amnesia. her shadow basically does the same thing as shadow!teddie (your futile existence has no meaning~) but with the added bonus of her feeling like she's never going to achieve anything because she's not real and it sucks

shadow!chie (fortune) - fortune!chie is basically the detective princess but she has a fear that she's not being taken seriously because of her age or her gender (and unlike naoto in canon, she's not hiding her gender at all) and she often feels like she's not smart enough to be viewed as the perfect detective or even the perfect person. her dungeon takes the form of a massive like sports-field or athletic area, with shadow!chie focusing on her fitness and her physical appearance because that's all she has to rely on - she's not smart enough, not pretty enough, not good enough and it doesn't help that she's started to get a crush on the cute girl in the class she's transferred to (yukiko) which adds on to all of her problems lol

@latenitewaffles, @inkwell1013, @mushroomfusion245 @rollthedice-playthecards @thehedgehogat221b @sterling-writes @wonderguards @hobie-doh

[ffamranxii]

My ex got me into Persona. Normally I shitposting to him when I read the manga/watch the anime/watch the playthrough because I’m too poor to afford a gaming system and a non CRT TV to play on, but he’s at work so I’m shitposting to a friend. We’re talking about how cute P4 is. She knows nothing about the series so I’ve had to explain it. My explanation:

Persona 2, which CAME OUT IN 1998, had a canon bisexual protagonist with a canon gay boyfriend. (P2 was progressive as fuck. A side character is a lesbian and a one off character (you know, one of those "you're in a room and there are random npcs" type characters) was trans.

But Persona 4, which came out I think in 2010 or around there?, nope. No gays for you

Except... literally everybody in this game is gay

Yu gets hit on by every fucking girl and has NO interest, but he flat out flirts with and freely touches Yosuke. Yosuke is probs bi (he has a crush on a girl in the game and anime but not the manga) and takes Yu to lunch the day they meet

Chie is introduced to us as "I would DIE to protect yukiko, I love her so much!" and Yukiko deadass calls her her Prince Charming completely serious

Kanji is hypermasculine because his dad says boys have to be MANLY and his hobbies of sewing and cute things are NOT MANLY, and he turns into a blushing pile of nerves when he thinks a guy likes him and has THE most obvious crush on naoto

Naoto is... interesting. Idk if I want boy Naoto or girl Naoto. Naoto crossdresses and uses a masculine name (naoTO vs naoKO) and masculine pronouns because she wants to be a cop, a male dominated field (like there are NO lady cops in Japan) and she doesn't want to be judged on her gender vs her brain. Point for girl naoto.

But the whole game she never makes any attempt at telling her friends - her CLOSE FRIENDS - that she's a girl, she wants nothing to do with feminine things, and she's more manly than Yu, the guy literally every woman in the game (minus the lesbians Yukiko and Chie) is in love with. She seems comfortable in being a boy. Point for boy Naoto.

Most of the fandom sees her as trans. I'm... undecided. I understand the Japanese POV and like, no one called Mulan trans for dressing as a man to fight the Huns, right? But also Kanji/(boy)Naoto is my favorite ship

Then there's Teddie, who's actually a supernatural creature who gets a human body. And what human body does he decide on? THE MOST FLAMBOYANT MOTHERFUCKER I HAVE EVER SEEN. Teddie likes girls but he has that Gay Best Friend thing going on like omg

And then there's poor Rise, the only straight girl in the whole game, desperately in love with Yu and oblivious to his love of Yosuke

Like persona 4 is gayer than the game with CANON LGBTQ PEOPLE, but nobody ever outright states "I like the same gender as myself"

[arcplaysgames]

Back in P4G. Yukiko's whole thing seems to be that she's so anxious about her family's inn that she misses a lot of social cues, especially ones she doesn't want to deal with right now, like romance. Also, this dude from another school just showed up to ask her out??? Where the fuck is there even another school around here?

Don't go to a second location with strangers.

I've lived in these exact types of small towns, lmao. They call it a suburb but it's very rural. If you have a fucking field and multiple farmers around, that's a rural town.

holy shit chie. i'm trying to give you a fair shake here but damn. Punching people in the nuts and asking invasive questions and revealing your best friend has never had a boyfriend is a LOT.

It's very odd but even though everyone here is around the same age as the P3P cast, Chie strikes me as emotionally much younger. But hey, I was harsh on Yukari in P3P and got schooled when she turned out awesome. I got hope for you, Chie.

Okay so. School was let out suddenly because a murder. ALSO THE BODY WAS HANGING FROM A TELEVISION ANTENNAE. And come to find out, it was the local reporter who's embroiled in some... local... scandal thing? (If this game expects me to care about a councildude who did an affair, idk man, i just work here.)

[CARTOMANCY CORNER]

She was hung upside down. Interesting. As a Hanged Man Stan, I have to say that the card is often about a willing sacrifice. You are suspending yourself in an inverted state in the hope of having some sort of epiphany brought on from the new perspective. It comes at a significant risk though, as you may be dooming yourself to death or madness by taking that chance.

While the Wheel of Fortune is about fate being kind or cruel, Hanged Man is about taking the dice in hand and rolling them. I don't know if this lady was an investigative journalist, but if she happened to place herself in a dangerous situation in the search for a scandalous truth and died for it, that's Hanged Man to a T.

[/CARTOMANCY CORNER]

Anyway.

This shot is pretty.

Went to the shrine and it told me to get the fuck out. Hey, rude.

...

Well at least he let me ride on his bike, that's cute. I can't tell if I like Yosuke (not Yusuke, I guess that's ANOTHER Persona character, whoops) or if I just really like his voice acting. Hard to tell.

After class he invites me out for grilled steak as thanks and uh

This is entirely my damage of coming from an incredibly food-insecure upbringing, but man, what the fuck, Chie. You already KICKED HIM IN THE NUTS, you don't get to extract more concessions.

Okay, do I like Yosuke, or do I get Cheerful Bully vibes from Chie? HM.

also yukiko you're like 16, please don't even step on a weight scale, goddamn. send me back to Iwatodai, please. I think P4 has mentioned girls' weights more already than in the entirety of P3P.

Anyway, Yukiko is off to work on her very concerning teenage eating disorder while Yosuke takes everyone to the local...

Junes is easy to dismiss as a Japanese Walmart--

wait. i have to google something right now.

Okay, Walmart tried to move into the Japanese market by purchasing a chain called Seiyu, but as of 2020 they are almost entirely out of the game, sold most of their shares, and apparently they just don't do well in non-American markets. Interesting to know!

ANYWAY MY POINT WAS, Junes is less Walmart and more Target-meets-Costco. A very pleasant place to shop with good marketing and food provided on-site, but also still undercutting and screwing the local businesses. Yosuke works for TargetCo. Costget.

also Chie complains that Yosuke changed the plan from grilled steak to food court and I'm plastering on a smile and chanting give her a chance, we are less than two hours in here.

Saki works here too, she's "senpai" so I assume a senior, and Yosuke's got a transparent crush and she is Not Interested. Also the vibes are Bad, like she can tell Yosuke is a good guy but his business is putting her family's liquor store in jeopardy, so.

Man, remember when my group drama was whether Junpei and Akihiko could successfully talk to girls at the beach? Man. 😬😬😬

Saki comes over to basically neg Yosuke???? So our man Reverie asks her if she though Terezi and Vriska were pale or black or red until she leaves, saving the day. Phew.

Aaaaaaand here we go. Some PLOT. Thank you god. Everyone agrees to try the Midnight Channel thingie.

Did this game have these anime cutscenes originally? I avguely remember them but not how LONG they are. Were these repurposed from the anime or made bespoke? Anyway, they look great.

Saki is on the Midnight Channel, and then our heroic dumbfuck almost gets eaten by the TV.

good job, idiot.