#me forgetting that 4 years is normal and not like. egregiously bad

[1o1percentmilk]

if touichirou suzuki can spend 20 years working on world domination only to have it flop thwn i can spend 4 years getting my degree

[mod-jazzy]

Probably the dumbest munday question across the land but do you have any advice for creating good oc reference sheets? In terms of stuff like canvas size, % of space given to the character and colors, how much information to include, and background colors.

It's definitely an ocd thing for me but I have a hard time making refs that are both informative and look nice without being too cluttered or bare. Your oc refs are always very helpful so aajhbdsjkbhsd

(( WEEPS THANK YOU FOR THE KIND WORDS?? I didn't answer it before because I.. forgot!

BUT I WILL TRY TO ANSWER TO THE BEST OF MY ABILITY...

DISCLAIMER SONG This is how I personally make my OC references, based on tips I've been given over the years and what I find easiest for me! I make my OC references for ME and based on my own preferences, so they are heavily catered to what I want in a reference image. Also because I will forget how to draw my own character if I do not have it. That's not a joke either I am just that bad at what I do lmaO

Behold my totally professional labelled example of a basic reference, using... Basic!

THE ANATOMY OF A JAZZY REFERENCE

This is basically how I try to make my references look most of the time! Simple but it works for me!

I ELABORATE MORE BELOW THE CUT I just talk so much I am sorry

Number 1: A basic pose

For reference images, I always use a bare basic pose. I do not try to do anything dynamic or special. It is a reference image, it is meant to show the design clean and concise, not to impress anyone. I have a inside joke of "Stand straight, Hand Out" with myself because that is 99% of my reference images lmao The main image is always unshaded. I do not shade my refs. At most I will add effects to the eyes, but that is it. I avoid shading refs because a ref should be the basic plain colors. I know some shade but still add plain color dots.. but a lot of the time with complicated OC designs, adding shading can confuse some people. I know I certainly get confused! So I avoid it at all costs

Number 2: LARGE color dots

Having color dots / some form of palette is obviously extremely important... so people can like.. color pick. BUT I make them LARGE. Taking up around half the ref sometimes. I do this because if you make the dots too small, they will be JPEG crunched when shared across platforms. It creates a pixel crunch that makes the actual color harder to color pick. (Unless you are linking from a HD source, but also depends what device you are using. My phone will crunch images even if they are HD because.. It's a phone.) I have colored so many people's OCs wrong due to their color dots being itty bitty and forced under image crunch. I've had my own OCs colored wrong because of my refs having small color dots that were put in the ImageCrusher5000. Having large color dots doesn't entirely stop image crunch, but it makes it less egregious.

Number 3: Special eye and mouth color dots

Kind of lumped in with Number 2 but important for me to make separate from the normal color dots. For eyes, as I mentioned I sometimes add effects to character eyes in the ref image. So having a blank plain colors is needed for better color picking. It's a apology from me for adding effects from the reference image lmao

For the mouth, I just add that merely because I have a lot of OCs with odd colored mouths! I love making silly mouth colors!! Having a OC whose tongue is just blue for some reason! It's silly and it's fun! So I add a special "mouth" color dot to the image to show it! I also sometimes use it to show the OCs teeth style. (shark teeth.. flat teeth.. etc etc. It's not ALWAYS the case but still!)

Number 4: Bland/Themed color background

For backgrounds on reference images... I try to keep them plain! Because the focus should be on the character, not the background.

So I try to keep the backgrounds simple. I generally try to choose colors that are dull to draw more focus to the actual character. Nothing eye searing or painful, but I also don't want the background to "blend" with the character colors itself. Especially when it comes to color dots, if the background matches or blends too well with the color dots, they can be hard to see! Just easier to pick a dull, yet mildly ""clashing"" (lack of better word) color to make sure the character and the color dots are seen as best as possible. I will sometimes "Theme" a reference based on what blog/story they are from! All Ask-Eden refs are purple with a dark purple stripe! All Ask-Scrafty refs are this weird dull red color with stripes! Etc etc It's not needed for me to do that, I just do it because it's fun for me to have all the references for a specific story ""fit together"" if that makes sense!

Number 5: Name and Pronouns

Self explanatory really. I wouldn't say a ref NEEDS this information per say, depends on the context. But I generally add this information that way when I share the OC to others, the information is there and easy. That way nobody gotta question who they are or what pronouns they use, it's just already right there. Also avoids having your character misgendered and such. Which may not manner to some, but it does to me so I add it!

Number 6: Speech Colors

This only applies to my ask blog characters I do this because I have a lot of characters... who talk a lot! Often at the same time! So having each fella have their own special colors for their speech bubble, helps show who is talking easier. This is my own personal thing however, I know some people literally do not care but I like it.. so I do it! I add the color text there so that way the viewer knows "Black bubble with green text is This Character talking" and that way I myself, can color pick the bubble so the text remains consistent. Although sometimes depending on the lighting, I may tweak the speech colors a bit.... But they generally "stay true". I would rather tweak a speech bubble color slightly in a image than have it be unreadable, yknow?

Number 7: Important Design Tidbits

These are the tiny bits of text I'll add to a reference, ranges from basic info about the character to design info! I try to limit the amount of information on the ref to what is needed or what I deem is "important to know when drawing this character"

Stuff like this:

I try to keep the information short as I can to avoid cluttering text on the image. I also put things that someone might miss or "get wrong" when drawing the character or just mini text blurbs to describe what is happening in the image. If it is important to the characters design, I add it to the ref.

I cannot complain that someone "drew my OC wrong" if the reference image didn't clarify that aspect clearly. It never hurts to clarify even if it seems obvious

Also it is for me to remember! That way I'm not like "wait why does this guy have these weird spots again?" Because again I just.. I just forget constantly.

Number 8: Bonus Info

THIS can range honestly.

In the example doodle I showed a close up of a paw, to show paw pad details/colors

but this can range from showing another hairstyle.. some extra expressions... Or sometimes, if the character wears clothing, I'll include a another image of the character without the clothes on I do this to show body patterns or body types better. As clothing can hide/restrict what is shown. It's useful for me to have, that way when I draw the character again in a different outfit, I can have accurate info on how their body patterns work. Instead of just winging it every time. I try to not include too much of this stuff in the "main reference" I know some people do but I try to keep my refs as minimal as I can

IF A DESIGN WAS MADE BY ANOTHER PERSON, I will often give text credit within the reference image! I just want peeps to receive as much credit as they can for something they designed. So if it is already in the reference image, it just makes it easier! I usually do it in small text somewhere to the side.

I AM SO SORRY I TALKED FOR SO LONG ABOUT THIS

HONESTLY I just try to keep my reference's as simple as possible. Simple and Clean. I used to make REALLY cluttered references in the past and honestly I don't think my character's need a wall of text on a ref page I just draw a guy standing there with his hand out and slap on some color dots and call it a day.

I can't say I have anything on canvas size? Canvas size is something I literally never pay attention to. I'm a fake artist I know I just do not look at those numbers So my canvas sizes range a lot of the time I think. I only just recently started using the same canvas size for Ask Blog Posts, but that's only because I got really lazy and just copy and pasted some panels

ANYWAYS there is a horrifying insight on how I make reference images!! Could I have simplified this? Yeahg,.

but yeah again thANK YOU FOR THE KIND WORDS ANON!!! So sorry for yapping at you for so long !!!!!

[beevean]

🔥 Ace Attorney

Rise of the Ashes was a very boring case I forgot everything about, and it's obvious that it was written post-humously.

I don't like any of the assistant girls except for Maya, Pearl and Susato lol (susato best girl btw, i love her to death). Trucy was from what I gathered butchered by the translation, Kay has nothing interesting going on for herself and her dynamic with Edgeworth is not as interesting as the Phoenix/Maya dynamic, and while I commend that Rayfa is different, she's still not the most enjoyable character for me - Franziska in 3-5 did the tsundere companion better lol.

Iris deserves her own paragraph because I think she was very poorly written. As a character she's fine, she's cute, she's helpful, nothing bad about her personality... but man does GAA1 beat you over the head with how much of an impossible genius she is. She's 10, she has a medical degree that she earned in less than 2 years, she writes the Herlock Sholmes books that are so good that even Barok secretly reads them, she's the main breadwinner of the house... And I'm sorry, I know AA is no stranger to child prodigies, but compare her to Franziska, who impossibly became a prosecutor at 13 but you can see how much damage that did to her: she's emotionally stunted and, until her character development, saw her very serious job in a very black and white "I win, you lose, if you lose you aren't perfect" way. Iris OTOH seems perfectly normal for being a child who has to financially take care of her own adult guardian. C'mon. (at least she had some very cute normal kid moments in GAA2, like her helping Ryuu in G2-3 and having fun during the fair)

Barok best prosecutor. Best character even. He's a much better Nahyuta :P (or I guess, chronologically, Nahyuta is a worse Barok lol)

Simon Blackquill is underrated. I don't remember a thing about DD, and I know the game overall is rather unpopular, but I remember Simon was very funny and I see him as a Godot without the controversial parts :P I was so happy to have him as the assistant in 6-4.

I think fans nowadays forget a little too quickly that Miles did some shady shit as the Demon Prosecutor, and even after that, 2-4 being the most egregious case.

Depicting Manfred as horribly abusive is cliché. I much prefer the anime interpretation of him being an emotionally distant but doting father to Franziska... it's just that the "emotionally distant" part fucked her up.

Speaking of which, I see something unfortunate in insisting that she's a lesbian because of her "whip only the men" policy. I can understand seeing something romantic in her chemistry with Adrian, but uhhh that whip thing is more the result of the writers' double standard (she was more than fine with whipping women in JFA, when she was meant to be unlikeable).

[androgynousblackbox]

goddamnit a youtuber made a video about the needle cookie incident and called antis the normal people, i quickly stopped watching her videos after that

Yeah, I saw that and it was overall so much bullshit because like: 1. She acts as if anyone treating the incident as a shipping wars thing was being a silly goose that didn’t do their research, but she also needs to literally stop everything happening and clarify, just in case anyone could get the wrong idea, that she still thinks the ship that artists was doing was gross and she doesn’t like aging up characters. This bit was completely necesary and relevant because... Like, honestly, that was so fucking tacky. Literally nobody asked you, nobody cared and you are talking about a story, that if true, could have meant someone could have died and your first reaction is to be “but her art was gross though”? Fuck the hell off. 2. Also, she tells other to do their research and she just says with her entire chest that Frisk is 10 years old like, what? I have been on the fandom for five years now and I have NEVER seen Frisk’s age confirmed on any sort of way, so that really peeved me. 3. Her definition of an anti is “someone who doesn’t like pedophilic or incestuous ships, therefore normal people” and like, I hope I don’t have to say what an egregious, disgusting, not even half assed attempt at research that bullshit was. She literally talked about some of those antis being glad that the attempt against someone’s life happened, she showed their posts on the screen and she still wants to pretend like THOSE are the normal people?? Oh, but pro shippers are supposed to be the weirdos who take things way too seriously and go accusing these poor super normal people of being big meanies online. Not the people who wanted someone dead because of fanart. The bias was so fucking obvious there, holy fucking shit. 4. To on top of that seeing people like Sarah Z on the end being “my uncle who works at nintendo says it was totally about shipping wars” was also highly dissapointing like, I knew already that Sarah was very much detached from modern fandom, but I hoped at least she would have any kind of nuance on a situation in which, again, “normal people” were dissapointed someone didn’t died.  You see, that is why I don’t follow commentary channels anymore. All of them require a certain level of arrogance because, sure, you can’t be talking about bad thing people do on the internet if you consider yourself just as bad. And sometimes that it’s fine because you are talking about truly awful people, but it also means that after a while you can’t turn it off and forget to go down your high horse at all to make sure you are being as fair as possible with the situation. You start to treat your opinions as facts instead of contrasting them with facts. I am fully convinced this is just inevitable and, again, sometimes this is harmless because it will be a person talking about “this person scammed people through bad comissions” or whatever, but most of the time, it’s a bunch of people making a career out of putting themselves above every situation they cover. I stopped following that particular channel a while back, I don’t even remember why, but I am glad that I did. If you ever want to pretend like people who think “not liking these ships” is on any way comparable to “pity it didn’t killed her lol” and treat it as “normal”, therefore acceptable, I don’t want to ever find out what kind of fucked up world you live in.

[esc-is-holding-me-hostage]

Sometime in March I've started writing a long-ass post about my opinions on each entry this year. Aaaand then I've decided to procrastinate on it for almost two months. Anyway, rehearsals are in full swing already so let me share some quick-fire thoughts at least. 1. Albania There's no shortage of powerful vocalists in Albania, huh? 2. Australia I kiiinda like it but I wish that I liked it more. 3. Austria It's allright. 4. Azerbaijan It's the same song as the last year but for some reason I like Cleopatra 2 Electric Boogaloo more. Also, why the fuck do the last 20 seconds sound like they're from the Hades soundtrack? 5. Belgium Belgium can keep sending these moody, dark songs every year and I'll eat them up every time and ask for more. 6. Bulgaria It sounds like a very pleasant nothing 7. Croatia My favorite "female bop" song this year 8. Cyprus Don't worry it's not JUST another Fuego clone. This time they're copying Lady Gaga's homework too! 9. Czech Republic Seems to be kinda underrated for some reason 10. Denmark Out of all 80s-inspired entries this year Øve os på hinanden feels the most authentic, I'll give them that 11. Estonia Wow, Estonia grew all the way from painfully mediocre in 2020 to regular mediocre in 2021. 12. Finland Adorable. Fucking nu-metal with the authentic "I'm 14 and I hate everything except Linkin Park" lyrics and delivery. Just *chef's kiss*, thank you, Finland, every bit of it is hilarious and I love it. 13. France Compared to their last year's entry, it's almost aggressively French 14. Georgia D-did they put Tornike on Xanax for You? The dude looks fucking sedated. 15. Germany Why did no one tell me that Pewdiepie has made a song for that new Spongebob movie?/s 16. Greece Not a big fan of the chorus, but the rest of the song is kinda cool.17. Iceland Gonna agree with general consensus here: still very good but not as memorable as their 2020 entry. 18. Ireland Well, at least it's not as dated as Lesley's song from last year 19. Israel The revamped version of Set Me Free sounds more like a DJ-remix from the Deluxe-edition of an album than an actual song. At least Eden looks like she really enjoys singing, which is always good. 20. Italy Zitti E Buoni is my favorite song this year, I'm just gonna say it. The only downsides are the repetitive chorus and that my fingers are too clumsy to play it on bass q_q 21. Latvia Someone, please tell Samanta that "I'm the baddest bitch here" is a totally valid genre and she doesn't need to masquerade her songs as some grand all-women empowerment anthems 22. Lithuania Eh, it's not as good as On Fire. Also, why is their backing dancer is wearing a sailor-fuku and where can I get one? 23. Malta Parov Stelar's cover of Toy sounds great, amiright? It's kind of a wast of Destiny's voice though. Give the song to a weaker vocalist and it'll work just as fine 24. Moldova I hate that I like Sugar as much as I do. It's the drop, it kinda slaps. 25. North Macedonia It surely does sound like a song from a Disney musical 26. Norway Fallen Angel is such a normal, inoffensive, cheesy song but TIX's egregiously gaudy outfit really elevates it 27. Poland The Ride is ok if derivative but Rafal seems like a fucking charisma black hole. Which is weird, because this guy is a TV-show host. 28. Portugal It's allright. Will probably forget about it 5 minutes after the contest ends 29. Romania Alcohol You was one of my favourite songs last year, but I really don't care about Amnesia. Maybe the lyrics don't click with me, I dunno. 30. Russia Manizha has such an amazing stage presence it's insane. The song is not neccessarily my cup of tea but as long as it's not a typical Russian ESC entry I'll take it. 31. San Marino Best Summarinise entry since Vola, I'm just gonna say it. Flo Rida's presence on ESC can set a bad precedent, though, but it's also so surreal that I'm not even angry. 32. Serbia Very tacky, very 2000's, very much should not be my thing. Why can't I stop listening to it? 33. Slovenia Great voice, meh song, that's it. 34. Spain Why

does it sound to me like a fucking Argonavis song? You know, that anime band? 35. Sweden One time. One single time in years Sweden chooses something interesting for Eurovision and the show gets fucking cancelled. And this year they're back on their bullshit with yet another bland, safe, standard Swedish pop entry. I really don't like Voices, I'm sorry. 36. Switzerland I would've loved it Gjon's voice wasn't so high-pitched 37. The Netherlands I do respect bringing traditional elements into the song but it's not for me and was never supposed to be. 38. Ukraine Oh hey, it's my country. Shum is pretty great. It sets out to make you wanna dance in the woods, worshiping some ancient god and it achieves precisely that. 39. United Kingdom It's good. Could've done much better in a year with less upbeat songs.

[characteroulette]

Hey PQ was pretty good!

so I’m having trouble getting into PQ2 because of several factors, so I thought I’d write a half-think piece, half-essay on why I think the first PQ gets more flak than it deserves. So here’s that.

------

I genuinely don't understand why, when talking about Persona Q, people are always saying things along the lines of, "The gameplay was good, but the characters were trite and the story wasn't that great." Like, as a fan of the Persona series, I genuinely don't understand that assessment.

Not saying PQ is flawless, oh no. There are PLENTY of things in PQ that I have an axe to grind with (the small door scene with the P4 gang, for one), but the overall story? The characters? They're both fine. Good, even, dare I say. And here's my argument as to why:

The returning Persona series characters (from 3 and 4) in PQ do a good job of representing their games and their own personalities, even if a little more light-hearted than their source material,

AND

The story is genuinely in-line with the rest of the Persona/SMT series, even if it ultimately doesn't matter due to time shenanigans (and I'm okay with that).

These are my two points. Just those two. Because these are the two most contested parts of PQ, as far as I can hear, since we all agree that the gameplay is the real breadwinner here hahaha

Anyway.

First, let's talk about the returning characters, since they seem to be the ones who matter most. The P4 cast are generally less griped about (save Chie and Teddie) and I believe this is largely due to the brighter, more hopeful tone of P4 as a whole. (Aaand, in my opinion, they're done a MUCH BIGGER disservice in the Arena games, but no one ever talks about that so let's not bother with those right now.)

P4 was a game about making friends, the hijinx that come from that, and finding the truth about a string of murders and confronting the worst parts of yourself in a harsher world in the process! And it executes this with the appropriate amount of balance between serious moments and comedic relief. The theme colour for the whole game is bright yellow/gold, a happier and more friendly colour which helps remind you that this game is all in good fun.

(Side note here: I honestly think that P5 really failed in this respect, despite my liking its tone slightly more. I just personally like darker-themed games, but P5 was a little too dark and oppressive right out the gate, with hardly a friendly face, which helps make your gradually growing group of friends much more appreciated but also a harder atmosphere for jokes to really land well. Most of the 'funny' sequences felt very undeserved and really dragged because uh guys we literally just fought a rapist, an abusive father figure, and some other fucked-up shit. Can we please acknowledge that a bit more instead of pretending it never happened by laughing at the expense of Ann's autonomy of her body? Especially when she was a target of said rapist??) But that's its own discussion for later.

Really, the fact that most of the P4 gang get out of this with little criticism shows how accepted their caricatures have become. I guess? At least, except for Teddie and Chie.

Teddie being a wannabe Casanova must've been a huge hit with the Japanese audience, because it's just the hill he's going to die on for the writers. There was more to Teddie than his hitting on the girls in P4, believe it or not! (And there's a whole thing about it being brought on by him mimicking the type of behaviour he saw Yukiko's shadow exhibiting, which has a lot of really interesting undertones, but it makes him more swappable with Junpei, so whatever, I guess.) Meanwhile, Chie's not as meat-crazy, either, but I guess it's a better trait for them to roll with than her (cut in the translation) glossed-over sexism.

Both work fine, however, and aren't really too annoying enough to be that egregious. (Though they both go right up to the line sometimes. Teddie more so, but none of the girls playing along really helps show how gross his actions are. Most of the time.)

No, the real complaints I see directed at the characters being 'too cartoonish' are usually reserved for the P3 gang.

P3 is, really, such a bizarre game to go back to now when compared to its two successors. It's dark and hopeless, like P5, but formulaic and mystery, like P4. It's actually a natural progression when looking at its two/three older siblings (both P2s are bleak. As. Hell!), but, at least to me, it's the odd duck of the bunch, being the first to implement this winning formula of being caught in a time limit of a school year and managing spending time exploring this other world. It adds Social Links and social stats with this new time limit and this idea that the Persona and Shadows you fight don't just happen out on the streets in 'normal' circumstances for everyone to see. It pretty much went from an RPG to a management game with RPG elements.

And its emotional, impactful story, like P5, had a lot of tonal whiplash due to the attempts at comedy!

I feel like a lot of people forget this about P3 (and maybe I think more about it because I haven't actually beaten the whole game yet myself), but the story is actually a goddamn mess of tonal confusion. You got kids shooting themselves in the heads and a Social Link dealing with a classmate's crush on his teacher. You got wacky foreign exchange student and kids taking experimental drugs to suppress their Persona and slowly poisoning themselves to death as a side effect. The protagonist is an orphan who lost his parents in a huge, plot-relevant accident... But he's able to date every single girl at the same time and be the most wish fulfillment charming guy if the player so desires.

P3 being messy isn't a bad thing. P4, P5, and even P2 and PQ are all a little messy in their own rights, too. But because P3 was a lot of fans' first in the series, and PQ is just a spin-off, it gets way more flak for this than I feel it deserves.

(I mean, hey. Both P3 and P4 have those classic anime scenes of the boys walking in on the girls while at a hot springs. All PQ's got is an awkward group date scene and the implication that Yosuke and Kanji kissed each other while getting knocked out.) (They all. Have. Problems.)

And I know a lot of this comes down to personal preference. I'm not saying you're wrong for liking P3 or P4 more than PQ. I'm just saying I feel like PQ is often wrongly accused of being worse and less well-written when, really, they're all pretty much on par with each other. (And someone on the team really doesn't understand how to handle large casts of characters sharing the same space...)

But, personally, from everything I've seen from P3, I don't like the way most of the characters get presented to me in the source material. Junpei is way more insufferable in P3 than in PQ and Yukari is way more uninteresting in P3 than in PQ. Really, PQ helped me appreciate these characters more than P3 itself did. And, yes, they're more funny when they're trying to be, too. Because PQ is set up better for comedy than the 'remember you are mortal' tone of P3.

(Which makes dramatic moments hit all the harder when they happen) HEY check that segue! It's time to talk about the story and the two original characters of the game!

So, second point: people say the story isn't very good. To which I wanna ask... "Did you stop playing before defeating the fourth Boss?" Because it really sounds like, to me, everyone who says that didn't actually finish the game and reach all that juicy character development that happens for both sides around the fourth dungeon, where all the issues they've been building up (like Yukari's issue with Mitsuru for the P3 side and Kanji and Ken's awkwardness in the P4 side) start getting resolved in a satisfying way. And it comes with a reveal for the two characters we've been getting to know, Zen and Rei, as well.

(And, from here on in, there be spoilers. You've been warned.)

The two new characters to this game are Zen and Rei, who were in this place before the P3 or P4 gangs were called to the scene. Zen is quiet and a bit unsettlingly dense, but devoted to Rei, who is bubbly and full of life, but terrified of the dungeons you have to traverse. The two have been in this place for (what's implied to be) a very long time and enlist the help of the P3 and P4 teams in order to find a way out through defeating the bosses of each Labyrinth/dungeon. Simple enough, as it also helps the P3 and P4 team's goal of getting out. With each new dungeon, it feels more and more like something about Zen and Rei aren't quite right, but the length of the dungeon and all the team chats help you put it out of your mind each time. Rei can even get kinda annoying with her loudness and big appetite if you don't find her cute (which: how dare you. But yeah, I get it).

And then, at the end of a fiery festival fourth dungeon, you find yourself in a dark tomb at the bottom level. The boss awaiting you is Rei's shadow (a nice callback to the way P4 works) whom she still doesn't accept after you defeat it.

All the locks are gone and the P3 and P4 teams can return to their worlds if they wanted. Except Rei gets kidnapped after Zen reveals that Rei has been dead all along and it was him who trapped them here. It was he who created this place and even he who called both teams here.

And this was a plot twist that I friggin' loved.

It definitely had more impact on me because Zen and Rei easily became my favourites out of the whole cast, to the point of having them on my team for the whole game, but to find out such a fucked up twist is wild! (Seriously! Go watch the cutscene and tell me it isn't super fucked up!) You can say the P3 and P4 twists were shocking (or P5s I guess), but for my money, this is the best reversal of expectations I'd ever seen in a Persona game. In any game, really!

Zen was, in effect, the villain the whole time. His true identity as Chronos, God of time, makes sense with displacing the teams from their own times and the time here being erased once you reach the end. His own power that he sealed away growing impatient and taking matters into its own hands by drawing the teams to this haven displaced from time also makes perfect sense! And the entire climb through the last dungeon is his redemption arc and it makes for a super emotionally investing final dungeon all the way. (Which is great, because I hate every single one of the enemies that appear in this god-forsaken place.) (Even P4 and P5 can't really boast that, I felt very little investment through Izanami's dungeon and Baldabaoth's distortion.)

Of course, if you found Zen and Rei to be annoying and pointless, I can see how this would fall flat for you. The fact that they hinged such an emotional climax on these new characters, characters that don't even matter outside of this game!, was such a risky move. Especially when you consider this is just a fanservice game made basically under the promise of seeing the P3 team interact with the P4 team. But, for me, it really paid off.

And whatever complaints you had with the P3 or P4 characters, I feel like the resolutions to those character moments I mentioned earlier get explored even further during the climb through the final dungeon. From the P3 gang coming together to finally communicate with one another to the P4 gang reconfirming their bonds with one another, it's a really investing and emotional journey. I do wish the writing had been this tight and impactful through more of the game, but I believe it's worth it in the end.

Perhaps this moment comes too late in the game, though. I can definitely see others giving up before reaching this point due to the repetitive nature of the dungeons and the tidbits of character development that are meant to build up to this moment that can be too sparsely placed. (But, really, it's the same from P3 to P5, Social Links don't really add much variety when they can be just as repetitive and boring, just saying. Especially when you get caught in waiting to rank up hell, ugh.) For me, however, this really sealed the deal on this game being an incredible experience that I adored from start to finish. 7/10. Final score.

....

....

(7 outta 10?? Not perfect??) Well, it's not perfect. Japan's blatant homophobia and sexism really ruins a lot of scenes for me. I'm super salty especially about how the fake marriage scenes are handled so differently from the girl choices to the boy choices. (But you just argued in its favour for 2000 words!) Listen. ALL the Persona games wouldn't receive perfect scores for me for this aspect alone. There are a lot of other factors as well, but they vary from title to title and PQ in particular is guilty of spending too much time focusing on Teddie and Junpei being girl-crazy. And Marie is in this game more than she really should be. UGH.

But I digress.

In conclusion, this game's story and characters are better than most give it credit for. Hopefully, my argument helped you see why I believe this and why I think claiming that both aspects are just 'bad' is lazy.

[ryouverua]

Final Answer (3)

I mean, to be fair, with your track record...

1 is here / 2 is here

I... I don’t want it to be true, not just because that takes away layers of his character but also because he’s been so openly suspicious? Is that a weird way to feel?

But here he is, outright saying he’s the mastermind... in chapter 5??? Is, is this allowed - 

I’m trying to imagine the facial contortions it must take to swing so wildly from such a cute, childish face to this nightmare fuel and man, Kokichi’s cheeks must hurt.

Kokichi’s chirps are on point as usual.

Uh..... what is that....?

OH WHAT THE HELL KOKICHI

also damn what gives you the right to be so cute in this picture jeez

I... I WILL SAY... THIS IS... PRETTY COMPELLING EVIDENCE IN KOKICHI’S FAVOUR...

YEAH THAT’S WHAT I’M SAYING!!!

But... but he does have the exisals??? How in the world does he have the exisals under his control otherwise???

I’M WITH YOU, SWEETCHEEKS

I’M SO TORN RIGHT NOW...

But... they did??? Shuichi confronted you about it, and you denied that it was your doing???

But you could have just denied it again, and also the exisals?!?! And hold on, why are you scolding them about not preventing more deaths??? If this is gloating, there is definitely something ringing false about it!

If - and this is still an if to me, even though the remote control bit is pretty damning - you’re the mastermind, then why would you have been egging us to doubt each other more? Sure it could be a way to sow seeds of distrust, but.... but....

DAMN that was a direct hit in the waifu

But... but why??? Why are you revealing your hand now, then??? Why would you tell us you’re the mastermind at this point? Sure you have the exisals, but if you continued to hide Monokuma that ever-growing target on your back wouldn’t be so bad! Maki’s probably going to attempt to punt you outside at this rate!

And who better to organize something with such a high degree of skill than the Ultimate Supreme Leader, is that what you’re saying? Hmm....

S... Somehow Kokichi using ‘u mad’ is even more egregious to me than this whole killing game affair.

aslkdfjsdf

Oh Kaito, if you didn’t have bad luck you’d have no luck at all.

a-also did you forget who gave those to you or -

Were you?!

Man, Kokichi, your poker face is stellar. Or faces? Maybe that’s the key - swing wildly from one act to another and you just can’t get a read on him at all! I guess if he had used one himself to get through the tunnel in the first place, he’d have a rough idea of how long they would last?

Also Kaito it, uh, didn’t really work well for you last time so please don’t punch him again. D: I really don’t think you have the strength to, at this point! Even forgetting how it went last time, you just went through an obstacle course from hell (even if you were finally well-equipped for it this time) and you literally just got up after collapsing - because you were exposed to the toxic air from the outside, which definitely irritated your lungs, which are already being ravaged by disease!

As usual, he knows exactly what to say to hit you hard right in your emotional weak points. Maybe he likes lies so much because the truth hurts...

KAITO NO THIS ISN’T A SETTING WHERE SHOUNEN ACTS OF HEROISM PREVAIL -

Then again, what the hell does he have to lose at this point if he’s most likely going to die within the next week? FUCK THOUGH I REALLY DON’T WANT HIM TO HURT HIMSELF AGAIN -

MAKI SHUICHI COULDN’T STOP HIM AREN’T YOU FASTER THAN KAITO DO SOMETHING DAMN IT

!!!! Shit!

aaah fuck, aaah you bastard, shit shit Kaito!!!!!

ARE YOU SURE?! ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY SURE?!?!

C-Can you let him go then, please??? Please?! You’ve shown us what you can do, and Kaito is really not faring well in general right now!!!

U-Uh, Maki, your hair is... doing..... something interesting there....

HOLY SHIT MAKI I THINK YOUR HAIR IS ALIVE

HER EYES, HER HAIR, HER HANDS, HER CLOTHES, HER LITERAL EVERYTHING IS SCREAMING MURDER, SHUICHI!!! THAT IS A HUGE UNDERSTATEMENT!!

I DON’T THINK SHE’S JOKING THIS TIME, SHUICHI!!!

D-Damn Shuichi... you’ve gotten stronger in all of this, at least. I imagine he wants to help Kaito too, but he understands that he’s got nothing on the five exisals, even if Maki may stand a slim chance.

And honestly? I bet Kokichi is waiting for an excuse to retaliate against Maki. He’s probably itching for revenge after being thrown around so badly by her.

Another relationship, broken...

Still as enamoured with Shuichi as ever, huh.

As happy as Shuichi would normally be about that fact, I’m pretty sure this particular victory must ring rather hollow to him.

Himiko raises a good point, actually! Exactly what do you have in mind for everyone, Mr. Mastermind? Is this where a supposed new motive comes out?

............... Huh.

Despite.... setting a rule, as Monokuma, that the killing game would end with only two people left?

Also I shouldn’t find that whole ‘sorry about that, guys’ hilarious but I do - it’s like he’s telling his friends he can’t show up to the movies a day before they were planning on going because he’s ‘not feeling up to it’, but instead of the movies it’s a damn killing game.

This....... doesn’t...... feel right, does it? Are you satisfied? Why would you be satisfied? What about this is satisfying to you?

I-Is that really the crux of the issue right now Tsumugi?!

?!?!

And with no motives being thrown their way to encourage the killings?

................................ I’m holding judgment right now.

This is Chapter 5. The ‘mastermind’ appears in plain sight, despite setting the rules of ‘until 2 people are left, the killing game will continue’, and declares the killing game over. There’s one chapter left after this. He’s telling everyone they can live or die together, but they have no obligation to him to do either. They’re free to live or die miserably if they would like to. He won’t interfere with them. The killing game is over, so that means he won’t offer motives or encourage them to kill each other anymore. And also - also, I just won’t forget this - he was negotiating with Monokuma in Chapter 4, which is something I just can’t see the real mastermind doing. I know Monokuma is supposed to be an AI, but why would the mastermind of all people need to negotiate with his avatar? Monokuma should be acting as his right hand, right? Is this just an even bigger, bolder version of him ‘confessing’ to being the culprit during all the previous trials? But if it is, why? Why would he do this? Is this his version of winning? He just wants to take absolute control of everything?

But on the other hands, how in the world does he have control of the exisals? He may have gotten his hands on the keycard, but he’s put together so much information that he shouldn’t have access to on his own - when we were searching earlier and found things like the Gopher Project files, he wasn’t with us. So how did he find out about those things, barring him already knowing it all going in aka being the mastermind as he is claiming?

You mean you want to have a hostage in case Maki tries anything, right?

Wait.... 

...

Wait, wait wait.

No, that’s an odd thing to say. What do you mean, it might start up again if he runs around? Why would it, if you’re the one in control? Kokichi, if you’re the mastermind, how could the game start up again without your ‘okay’?

......

Kokichi....

I’m just getting more and more doubtful by the minute now -

Are you lying to us right now?!

“It also happens to be one of the new areas of the game for the chapter, but I’m sure that’s just a total coincidence and totally won’t be where the next body is found!”

I’m so sorry Maki but your red-eyed glare just cannot match the sheer terror Kokichi’s troll face invokes.

I think what feels like 100 years ago I said that I’m less inclined to believe the guy who proclaims himself a liar and then also calls himself THE SUPER MOST AWFUL, TERRIFYING SUPREME LEADER OF EVIL!!! within the same breath a moment later.

I........ I don’t know. I wonder if I can apply it to this situation as well. He’s saying plenty of right things, but it’s almost like...

You know when people tell you that tone matters, and that if you say nice things to someone in a dismissive or outright awful way, your initial intent is lost? It’s like he’s doing that on purpose. The lies aren’t in the words - they’re in the execution of those words.

But still, it’s that damn exisal remote that’s throwing me off!!! Kokichi has something only the mastermind would have, and he has the power of the exisals - the mastermind - behind him! Oh, and of course, Monokuma hasn’t shown up to refute any of this, and you’d think he’d be more than happy to pop up and say something right now! I’d say he might not have the range to go this far out, but I can’t think of a reason why he wouldn’t be able to travel this far! By Monokuma not appearing, he’s basically acknowledging that this is true!

Cancelling the killing game, though? I don’t care if you’re bored - the rules were explicitly set to only have two survivors left, and if you were really determined to let humanity kill each other off, you’d let this go to the bitter end! There is something seriously screwy going on here!

“Just so you know, you’re seriously wrecking our Saiouma potential.”

“Shuichi, sweetie, does this look like the face of a guy who isn’t down for a good hate-ship? Also I have Kaito now so you know Tsumugi’s going to be writing some damn good Oumota drabbles as she cries herself to sleep tonight.”

the power of escapism is real

Kokichi’s gone. Kaito’s gone. It’s just... the five of us left. Holy crap. The only way a murder could possibly happen would be with, uh, well, Kokichi as the victim - but no one has to commit a murder at this point either, right?

But Kaito is probably on his deathbed too... a-aaah jeez, I’m really worried about him. I don’t know how he’s going to get out alive from this.

Actually, for that matter, if we’ve got almost all the answers - and I feel like there’s a bit missing still, but we’re nearly there - what in the world could even happen from now on? Where is there to go from here, when there’s nothing left to even fight for? Everyone is dead! And their mission completely failed! Seriously, what is even the point of doing anything now, except living on quietly until they die?

And man, I’m suspicious as hell about Kokichi’s declaration of culpability but honestly, that could still just be me being stubborn. This entire affair could easily end with Kaito winding up dead, and everyone having to overthrow Kokichi next chapter. Having the villain announce himself a chapter earlier... well, that would be a twist in a DR game - but what does that leave for the next chapter? if someone says despair one more time I will end them