#the mysterious phantom/codename joker

[the-silver-peahen-residence]

For Mineta: Who had the softest chest out of all the girls you met? :3

@demon-blood-youths

"Who has the softest chest?" Mineta thinks a little but looks left and right to be sure he's alone before looking at the anon. "It's hard to say honestly. All the girls had soft pretty boobies." he giggled but thinks.

"Most of them were really cute, and so so soooooo soft. Like Ashley butterfly. Her chest is so soft and snuggly. They were the right size to nuzzle my face in them. Sara has the cutest look on her face when you squeeze her cute butt. Even seeing strong girls like Maggie and Kali being cute! Some of the girls have normal or slightly plump boobies but still nice to enjoy." he giggled doing grabby hands.

"Though, I also love some of the fraction leader female boobies...even Van ink's. Hers is so so soooooo soft and it's like snuggling into a warm pillow." he drools flushing pink with a nose bleed.

"*Sighs* I was in heaven when I got the chance. I bet it's better when I get to squeeze and enjoy. Her bras and panties were soft too." He said to the anon but as he did, the anon tenses to see Mineta confused.

"What?"

"I'm sorry. But what the fuck did you say about Ink?" said a angry voice to scare Mineta. He slowly turns seeing six angry young men who were the six claws.

".......Uhhhh.."

"The hell you do to Ink you fucking asshole!?" Rin said aiming the tip of his blade towards him.

"What did I tell you about being a fucking perv Mineta!?" Bakugo cracked his knuckles.

"You know..that's pushing it. We can't let that slide." Ren said pushing his glasses up but he was angry.

"How dare you be a pervert around Ink!" Atsushi said growling.

"I say we beat the living shit out of him! No one touches our Ink!" Denji said.

"Right! That's low for you Mineta!" Midoriya said.

"uhhhhhh..I......." Before long, he begins running away screaming.

"GET BACK HERE!!"

"NOOOOOOOO!!!!"

[p5x-theories]

What We Know About the Protagonist

(last updated 8/9/24!)

The protagonist, codename Wonder, is a resident of Zoshigaya in Tokyo, and a second-year student at Kokatsu Academy in class 2C. He lives with his parents, however they are traveling abroad at the start of the game (though he still receives occasional texts from his mother).

The codename "Wonder" is invented by Ruferu, who connects it to how strange and mysterious aspects of him are-- a wonder, in other words.

Most of his personality is up to the player, as the series-typical "silent" protagonist, but one thing that seems to be set is that he doesn't know what he wants. The game opens with him being unsure what to put on a form about his plans after high school, eventually turning it in blank.

More generally, he doesn't quite have Joker's typical calm and unfazeable exterior, though his expressions tend to be more "blank" or neutral. He does show emotion outwardly sometimes: he grins during his Persona awakening, smiles widely at Ruferu after their first change of heart operation is a success, and visibly panics when pushed too far in athletics.

His voice actor is Koki Uchiyama.

The game starts with Wonder having what seems to be a dream, which follows the start of Persona 5's casino intro with Joker escaping, except Joker "glitches" into Wonder at one point. After Joker takes out the Moloch shadow that attacks him, however, Joker's attacked by someone else, who appears to be Wonder in a white mask. They fight, and Wonder wins, the dream ending with him shooting Joker with a smile.

Wonder jolts awake and goes to school, though throughout the day the player is prompted with choices to help someone or speak up about something, which Wonder seems to be prevented from acting on, as a vague feeling of apathy comes over him every time. On his way back home, he's the only person to react when a woman jumps off the roof of a building near the train station.

This inspires Ruferu to attempt to recruit him, during which Wonder is rushed by a person who rode a bike into the subway train car they were both sitting in. Wonder accidentally opens the MetaNav on his phone right before the bike hits him, and finds himself in Mementos with a strange owl. This leads to his Persona awakening (48:12 - 52:56 in this video) as they try to get out, and his recruitment by the owl (who introduces himself as Ruferu) as a phantom thief and "business partner".

Ruferu begins to follow Wonder around, and eventually lives with him at his house, as they pursue their first target, Takeyuki Kiuchi. Wonder has a strange vision at one point of Kiuchi pushing a woman and her stroller down the stairs, which goes unexplained. After Motoha Arai joins the team, they steal Kiuchi's Treasure and he has a change of heart, but as Kiuchi is arrested, this prompts another vision for Wonder of Kiuchi cackling and shouting about how he killed someone, even as the real Kiuchi is going quietly. Motoha and the protagonist decide to continue being thieves to help more people.

In the second arc, similarly, prior the the "Flavor Fight" between their second target, Hiromu Miyazawa, and their soon-to-be teammate, Shun Kanou, Wonder gets a vision of Miyazawa winning the fight, with Shun becoming a confirmed phantom, and Shun's mentor dying of a heart attack. This vision gives him the information they need to help Shun in the Flavor Fight, ultimately to the point that he wins it, though Miyazawa denies it.

When the Phantom Thieves later talk about making a logo for themselves, and Wonder gets saddled with the job, he has a vision of a girl drawing that gives him an idea for what the logo should look like.

After Miyazawa's Treasure is stolen, Wonder has yet another vision where Motoha and Shun vanish before his eyes, with Shun yelling at him to stop while Motoha says she doesn't want to forget him. After this, Wonder wonders if he's forgotten something.

Wonder's role seems to loosely parallel Joker's in the original P5. In the P5 Collab, characters repeatedly comment on a similarity between him and Joker, both in their roles as team leaders, and also in their overall demeanor.

Wonder's Persona Jánošík (based on a Slovak highwayman described as being similar to Robin Hood) is categorized as a Gun type, and resists Bless while being weak to Wind and Electric.

Janosik is a Resist Persona, meaning he's good at targeting single enemies, and his trait boosts his own attack power and "targets" a random enemy, increasing the damage they take. His gun attack skill hits one enemy and can reduce their defense, while his bless attack skill hits all enemies and also heals the weakest teammate + boosts their attack.

In addition to this, the protagonist is a wildcard, able to recruit shadows as new Personas, and access the Velvet Room to strengthen and fuse them. His Velvet Room is an underwater construction site, and the location within it where he meets Igor appears to be a tunnel in-progress, with a circular table in the middle that he and Igor sit on either side of. His attendant is Merope.

In combat, his melee weapon is a knife, and his ranged weapon is a handgun. He has two versions of his Highlight, based on what Persona he has equipped: his attack animation is viewable in this video (3:41 - 3:54), and his support animation is viewable in the same video (3:32 - 3:40).

While there are no separate Wonder units, Wonder did have a Summer outfit added in the summer event, which the player can purchase in Marthym's store with real money. The differences that come with this outfit are purely cosmetic, and are compiled in this video.

[meloriri]

AKECHI GORO — PERSONA 5 NAME ANALYSIS

Major p5r spoilers, minor “The Boy Detectives Club” spoilers.

First and foremost, I’m starting with Akechi because I thought his name was the most obvious, so I know the references in his name better. I will be making a post about Joker too, and hopefully more if I find enough material.

Akechi, meaning wisdom and intellect, Goro meaning “Fifth son.”

You might think that it was smart of the persona devs to name him Akechi for this reason, but it actually goes far deeper than that. (There’s reason for the name Goro too!)

(i promise this is relevant) Edogawa Rampo is a Japanese author who is highly important to mystery and thriller genre. He lived through the 19th-20th century and wrote many books considered classics.

Being a mystery writer, of course Edogawa had a main detective character. Known in the stories as “Japan’s greatest detective” is Akechi Kogoro, a private investigator inspired by Sherlock Holmes. That being said, naming your detective character “ Akechi” is pretty much equivalent to naming your detective character “Holmes.” Funny, right?

Akechi Kogoro is undeniable a genius, but quite eccentric. (For any BSD fans, the character Rampo is somewhat based off of Kogoro!) He appears in MANY of Edogawa’s books, as well as Edogawa’s juvenile fiction series, The Boy Detectives Club. Kogoro is a master of disguise, particularly good at disguising as young women. (Perhaps explaining Goro’s more typically effeminate appearance?)

Of course, Akechi Goro in Persona 5 is inspired by Akechi Kogoro, but it goes farther than that! I believe Goro is specifically based off of Kogoro in “The Fiend Of Twenty Faces,” the first book in Edogawa’s juvenile fiction series. The fiend of twenty faces is a gentleman thief based off of Arsène Lupin. I don’t want to spoil his name, So I’ll be calling the gentleman thief Kichi. Kichi and Kogoro have a relationship of mutual respect despite being rivals. Kichi is particularly well known for a character inspired by him, that character being Joker from Persona 5. I’d say Kichi is a notably worse person considering he threatened a group of ten year olds, but thats another story.

I won’t get too into whatever Kichi has going on since that’s more related to Joker than Goro, but you get the idea. Initially however, Kichi was going to be called “The phantom thief of twenty faces” but it was ruled out because… It wasn’t appropriate enough for kids..? Regardless, Joker and Goro are clear parallels to Kichi and Kogoro, from Mutual respect to their rather dramatic rivalry.

SECTION TWO - Akechi Goro & Akechi Mitsuhide

Goro’s name holds a genius double meaning — The other being historical figure Akechi Mitsuhide. Considering this is based on reality rather than fiction, this part may be a bit disturbing. I’ll be using Goro for Akechi Goro and Akechi for Akechi Mitsuhide, because it feels wrong to use his given name.

PS: Im a random canadian teenager, Please tell me if i got any history wrong!!!

Akechi was a samurai in the Sengoku period, but also a grand traitor. Best known as Oda Nobunaga(One of the three great unifiers of Japan)’s killer. Akechi was Oda’s bodyguard, but rebelled against him and forced him to commit seppaku, which is essentially suicide. Goro’s use of mental shutdowns is likely a reference to this, as is his rebellion against the Phantom Thieves.

SECTION THREE - Crow, Kuro, and Karasu.

Goro’s codename “Crow” is pronounced in Japanese as “Kuro”, which is “coincidentally” also the word for black. Because of this, as soon as the Black Mask was mentioned (i had already been spoiled on Goro’s codename) I immediately knew it was going to be him.

Crows represent misfortune and death, but also self-reflection and intelligence.

And finally, something that was most likely unintentional but I found funny nonetheless. When Akechi first teams up with the Phantom Thieves, he suggests his codename be “Karasu”, meaning crow. The other members suggest Crow instead since they all have english codenames. The first time (I think?) Joker is given an official name is in a spin-off manga, in which they call him Akira Kurusu. It probably means nothing, but I found the idea of codename Karasu working with Kurusu pretty funny, so I decided to mention it anyway.

That’s all I caught on to!! Let me know if I got anything wrong :)

[sonicasura]

Today I discovered IDW Transformers Rung, a psychiatrist whose much more than he seems. He's too dad shaped to not drop into sudden parenthood. Look at him! You can't tell me this man wouldn't make such a delightful dorky father figure.

I already got a few characters in mind to drop him on. First is definitely going to be Jak from the Jak and Daxter series. Whether it be pre Jak 2/3 or Post 3 is in the air. I'm leaning to Jak, Daxter and the Kid being displaced with Rung in Transformers Prime. That or Earthspark. Most likely Prime because of comparisons between Eco and Energon.

Plus Jak seriously needs therapy alongside a hug. He's got a case of 'chosen hero' syndrome and self worth issues that needs to be handled.

Next is Sonic the Hedgehog specifically the Movie variant. Both will be displaced in either G1, Cybertron or Animated. I would say Prime just for Super Sonic vs Unicron but nah. Earthspark will be used in a different project with this iteration.

Rung ends up being a dad to a 3-5 year old Sonic, as i can't resist the image of him trying to raise a child that can fit in human sized pockets. Freshly traumatized hedgehog gets hugs alongside therapy. Also the hilarity that between the giant robot and his super fast child, it's Sonic someone has worry about as he will throw hands.

Last one for now is Ren Amamiya/Joker from Persona 5. Universe wise, Prime, canon divergent Bayverse or Knightverse be perfect for the two. Mainly cause Persona is an M rated series that are spurred from the design of particular Personas such as Mara to murder being a more uncommon occurrence. *Persona 4 was literally a murder mystery.*

Rung met and raised Ren when he was five years old. The bot would be unable to stop the unfair trial but definitely won't leave his kid alone in a different city. Plus Rung getting dragged into the Phantom Thieves' shenanigans by Ren. Kid already has a codename made for his pops: Guide.

What do you guys think? Should Rung be hit with the dad hammer?

[tricksheart]

CHARACTER SHEET ―

FULL NAME. Akira Amano-Suou. NICKNAME. Jokey, Aki, Prince of Nightmares, Attic Trash, Prince Boring, Frizzy Hair, Inmate, Trickster.ㅤ ALIASES. JOKER (codename), Akira Kurusu (Tokyo probation name) PRONOUNS. 'He/him' also can use 'they / them'. HEIGHT. 5'8 / 172.72 cm. AGE. 16-18 ( 18 after Strikers and Beyond ).ㅤ ZODIAC. Pisces ( western ), Metal Dragon ( Chinese ). SPOKEN LANGUAGES. Japanese ( native ), English ( skilled ), French ( novice ), and Spanish ( novice ). 𝐏𝐇𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐒 ― HAIR. Ebony black. Very curly and soft to the touch. Hasn't combed any strand for years and hurts to detangle, even with products.‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏Can find miscellaneous items if he or someone else shakes it ( with his permission of course ).‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ㅤ FACIAL HAIR. None. He is baby. ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ EYES. Storm Grey. You can actually see the weather his eyes are named after if you look into them for long enough. Very sharp and has caused people of all ages to be weary of him, so he wears fake glasses to hide them well. SKIN TONE. Pale, sometimes looks ghostly. ㅤ‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ BODY TYPE. Short yet solid muscles underneath his somewhat lanky gamer's posture. Will probably have to get surgery down the line to fix his constant stooping and bent neck / back. VOICE. Deep baritone but is mostly silent / whisper-y when dealing with daily life outside of Phantom Thief duties. A little higher in pitch when he's singing certain parts of songs. ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ DOMINANT HAND. Ambidextrous ( uses right and left hand equally ). POSTURE. Lax and Lazy. Mostly has his hands in his pockets and show delinquent walking and body behavior in order to protect himself. More alert during Phantom Thief duties but still maintains a somewhat lax bent posture during some parts of scouting. Takes his hands out when something threatening is happening or only one is shown to give off an attitude. SCARS. Emotional. ( invisible bullet wound right in the middle of his temple because of the cognitive death he suffered from Akechi ). BIRTHMARKS. None. MOST NOTABLE FEATURES. Shujin High School / Seven Sisters High School uniform, Huge black oval glasses, Having a cat in his school bag, Very attractive / handsome. 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐃 ― PLACE OF BIRTH. Sumaru City / Yokohama, Japan.ㅤ HOMETOWN. Sumaru City / Yokohama, Japan. SIBLINGS. None. PARENTS. Katsuya Suou ( father ) and Maya Amano ( mother ). 𝐀𝐃𝐔𝐋𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 ― OCCUPATION. A student in high school ( close to graduating after Strikers and Beyond ). CURRENT RESIDENCE. Sumaru City / Yokohama, Japan. Visits Yongen-jaya ( second home ) and other places in the Tokyo area quite frequently. ㅤ CLOSE FRIENDS. Kasumi / Sumire Yoshizawa, Haru Okumura, Yusuke Kitagawa, Morgana ( cat ). FINANCIAL STATUS. Has obtained a lot of demon blood money thanks to the trips to the Metaverse and TV world. ㅤ DRIVER'S LICENSE. Does driving in video games count?? ( Yes after Strikers and Beyond ).ㅤ CRIMINAL RECORD. Expunged. Has been falsely accused due to trumped charges. Currently still wanted by law enforcement for confessing to being the leader of the Phantom Thieves. VICES. Video games, Excess eating, Lazing about, Manipulation, Indifference, Carbonated beverages, Prideful.ㅤ‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 ― LOVE LANGUAGE. Quality time, Receiving gifts. RELATIONSHIP TENDENCIES. Very pragmatic, just like his parents are. Doesn't focus on appearances that often and is willing to support his significant other financially. Mostly put his needs on a backburner but doesn't totally neglect himself either.

𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐄𝐎𝐔𝐒 ― CHARACTER'S THEME TUNE. Beneath the Mask ( in-game theme ), Infiltrate ( Persona 5 the Animation ), Mystery ( Persona 5 the Animation ), Bad Luck ( Persona 5 the Animation ), Dusk ( Persona 5 the Animation ).‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ HOBBIES TO PASS THE TIME. Fishing, playing baseball / going to the cages, video games, cosplaying, reading, going to the sauna, going to the aquarium, going to the planetarium, going to the movies, sleeping, swimming, bursting out in song, taking care of Morgana, etc etc. ‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ㅤ LEFT OR RIGHT BRAINED. A little bit of both, thanks to having to think being the leader of the Phantom Thieves. ㅤ‏‏‎ ‎ SELF-CONFIDENCE LEVEL. Hides his self-confidence due to his perfect non standout civilian persona. ‎‏‏‎Is more bold during his Phantom Thief duties, to a point in being a little too cocky for his own good. Elevates higher if he has Narcissus equipped as a Persona.

Tagged by: @adoranoia Tagging: Anyone who wants to do this and also @kingspuppet

[jackstabbaths]

Muse Info

Name: Jack Stabbath

Codename: Joker

Occupation: Student, Phantom Thief

Age: 17 (P5R)

Synopsis: A boy shunned by society for a crime he didn’t commit, Jack was transferred away to Shujin Academy to continue his education. Outspoken but considerate, he eventually begins to make new friends and confidants as he continues to grow and learn more about the Metaverse, Palaces, and the mysterious breakdown incidents sprouting up around Japan. With his band of trusty thieves, Joker now just has to balance his time wisely between studies and training.

[ In terms of how in tune my Joker is with the series, he basically follows my playthrough of P5/P5R and the way I have him interact rather than go off of the anime or manga routes, though I will take some notes from both from time to time.]

Personality: Outspoken, kind, strong sense of justice, and can be quite the suave gentleman. But other times he’s just a dork who wants to hang with his friends and just try out new things, or go out on the town and sing bad karaoke. Just wants to have fun.

[unitygamedevlopment]

Persona 5 Royal

"Persona 5 Royal," players assume the role of a high school student, codenamed Joker, who leads a group of Phantom Thieves. Together, they navigate the twisted reality of modern-day Tokyo, known as the Metaverse, where they explore dungeons called Palaces and confront the distorted desires of corrupt individuals.

"Persona 5 Royal" introduces several enhancements and additions to the original game, including new story elements, characters, and confidants. Players can also explore a new Palace and uncover additional secrets and mysteries that deepen the game's narrative and lore.

The game features stunning visuals, stylish character designs, and an eclectic soundtrack that blends jazz, rock, and pop music. With its compelling story, memorable characters, and engaging gameplay, "Persona 5 Royal" offers an unforgettable journey through the highs and lows of teenage life and the power of friendship, rebellion, and self-discovery. Whether you're a fan of the "Persona" series or a newcomer to the franchise, "Persona 5 Royal" promises an immersive and captivating experience that will leave a lasting impression.

[laureviewer]

Persona 5 Royal: A Review

It’s finally time to review one of my all-time favourite games.

I first played Persona 5 around 3 years ago, and I’ve really grown since then in a few ways. A few thoughts before I begin: a) since my first playthrough, JRPGs have cemented themselves as one of my favourite types of games; b) I don’t hate all turn-based RPGs except Pokémon anymore!; c) after my first playthrough I went to Japan, and as Persona 5 is set in Tokyo, playing Royal was a lot of fun as I knew a lot of the locations, which meant I could dive into the setting deeper than the first time; and d) my 250 hours of playtime in total across both playthroughs can most likely be attributed to the incredible writing and masterful character development.

Warning: HEAVY story spoilers

I’m not trying to sell you a game. I want to give you an in-depth analysis of the story, characters, gameplay and all other aspects of this brilliant game, spoilers and all. I want a discussion. So, dive in and see what I really thought, no holds barred.

The Silence is Deafening

‘…’ – a direct quote from our protagonist, there. Our silent hero, codename Joker, is a victim of circumstance. Wrongfully accused of assault by a mysterious man who is angered that a kid prevented him from forcing a woman into his car et al., he must move away from his hometown to wait out his probation period and live a normal student life. Why must he live above a failing café under the guardianship of the cranky owner? Not to mention: why is he banished to Tokyo of all places, somewhere very likely much more exciting than wherever his hometown is?

Either way, Joker isn’t going to tell you. He’s quiet and lets the other many, many other characters do the talking for him—a usual trope of JRPGs, but it is still an issue as he is also put on a pedestal as an incredibly special, talented, empathetic and all-round great guy. He’s the only one capable of saving the world, as he has abilities no-one else has, for some reason.

But this isn’t as bad as I’m making it out to be. Sure, it doesn’t really make sense why you have such a huge following when you don’t have much of a personality, but that’s the beauty of the silent protagonist. You, the player, are the protagonist. The fact that you can even put your own name in as his name is telling. You make the decisions, you make the friends, and you carve out your own destiny from the choices you make. It’s always these kinds of games that, when I talk to my friends, I say ‘I messed up with Sojiro’ or ‘I went to the arcade today’—and it is me. Because even though I’m not a woefully silent Japanese male teenager with glasses, for the time I’m playing Persona 5, I am.

So, you are the protagonist. You learn that there are mental shutdowns all over Tokyo, making people go crazy and kill lots of people, such as a conductor crashing his train, or simply killing people on the spot. It’s weird, but what can you do? You’re just a student with his own problems: not only do many of the students avoid you because you are a delinquent, but the volleyball coach, Kamoshida, seems to be harassing students, from the ones on his team who seem terrified of him, to girls that are being hit on. When a strange app appears on your phone, you accidentally find yourself in the metaverse, along with Ryuji, who also has a good reason to get revenge on Kamoshida.

I Am Thou, Thou Art I

What teenager doesn’t have a rebellious self hidden deep within their subconscious? Well, these teens can utilise that hidden self past its usual constraints to overcome the crappy adults that suppress them and make detrimental decisions for them. Once Joker and Ryuji, and later many other young adults, realise this potential and recognise that these adults need to be stopped, they are awakened to their Personas. A Persona is a manifestation of a persona user’s personality, which the individual can use to face hardship and overcome injustice, even if just in the Metaverse, the collective unconscious world.

But, really, there’s no ‘just’ about it. Here in this world, which take the form of Palaces, the Phantom Thieves (you and your friends) can defeat the ruler of the Palace (the adult with a distorted desire) to convince them to change their heart. In this way, the ‘real’ them in the real world will atone for their actions and justice can be served. So, really, your actions are vital to solving crimes, dealing justice and, eventually, saving the world.

These Personas are like Pokémon for adults. You are special, as you can catch and wield multiple Personas, allowing you to have a whole array of powers, but your friends have one that they train and evolve throughout the course of the story. Catching them is a skill: you have to learn their weakness, and use a skill that takes advantage of it to ‘down’ the Persona. This gives you a chance to either: perform an ‘all out’ attack which sees all your allies fight them at once for increased damage; ask them for money or an item; or negotiate with them to convince them to become a part of you (and thus catch them for use later). This gets harder when there are multiple different Personas to battle at once, all with different weaknesses and strengths that means you must time your combat precisely to ‘down’ them at the same time.

Personas are one of the best parts of the game, as you can see.

Not happy with a persona’s moves, or you want to create stronger ones? Go to the Velvet Room, where Igor and the Twin Wardens Justine and Caroline will fuse two or more Personas together to create new ones.

This is where the Pokémon element is better and worse. You can get completely new and stronger Personas immediately, which is cool, but if you are particularly drawn to one it doesn’t make sense to keep using them as they will level up far quicker if you fuse them than if you keep them. I struggled with this at first, as Arsene is your first ‘official’ Persona, and I couldn’t quite believe you are only meant to have him for the first few hours. It’s like Ash giving up Pikachu after defeating Brock!

Also, have you seen how you have to fuse them? It’s so dark and unnecessarily vivid! You have to guillotine, electric chair or hang them in order to create these new Personas, which is so different to Persona 4 where the Personas are cards, making it less gruesome to get rid of your companions. It definitely made me feel bad for fusing them, but that didn’t stop me!

Essentially, the Persona franchise wouldn’t be the same without all the incredible Personas you fight and capture along the way. It really encapsulates what the games are like: stylized and deeply considered, exuding character and imagination throughout.

Take Over, It’s Time to Put You Down

Using these Personas are a lot of fun, too. The moves are elemental as well as physical, they can inflict ailments such as ‘sleep’ and ‘fear’, and evolve as you and your Personas level up. Personas all have strengths and weaknesses, and by fusing them, you can create Personas with stronger moves and resistances that, as you get towards the end of the game, means that you can fuse some incredibly powerful Personas that can fight any and all enemies, if you’re smart with the moves you inherit.

This all sounds very similar to Pokémon, right? Well, there are other more showy, fantastically fun elements that integrate beautifully with the stunning graphics to make every battle (which have the potential to become very repetitive) exciting and challenging. When a character manages to ‘down’ an enemy by using a move that is strong against it, they can either do another attack or choose to Baton Pass to an ally, chaining super-effective attacks to down multiple enemies in one round, which is useful if there are a lot of different enemies with different affinities and weaknesses. Then, once all enemies are downed, all allies can come together for an All Out Attack for an extra boost of damage.

As much as this is useful for the player, if the enemy downs one of your allies, they can also do a secondary attack, which means that they have the potential to wipe out your team very quickly. Plus, some moves are one hit kills, which may have low accuracy but is still extremely frustrating sometimes, particularly in regular 5 where I found the combat more challenging. The worst boss fight was Haru’s dad, where I actually had to change difficulty for the only time throughout the game—who decided it was a good idea to revive the robot shadows if you didn’t kill them in three moves?!

The Showtime moves, new for Royal, bring a fresh new element to the game. As you progress through the story, your allies start forming bonds, which will then be reflected in combat. At seemingly random times, they can join up with fantastic new animations (such as Yusuke cooking Ryuji some yummy food at a bar, who get interrupted by a shadow coming in the door, and they both take it out) and inflict massive damage. I was sad that Joker doesn’t get one, until the Royal section where baes Akechi and Sumire both team up with you respectively for new Showtimes. It made me wonder whether Joker just wasn’t as close to the rest of the team as he becomes to Akechi and Sumire, which actually also made me glad that I focused on both of them heavily in my playthrough!

Every song that plays throughout the game, including combat, is a banger, so even though my husband got annoyed hearing it coming out of my TV for 120 hours, this soundtrack will remain one of my favourites to date. Overall, the combat is great, and thankfully not too repetitive after so many hours of gameplay.

Adulting is Hard

The story of Persona 5 is deeply gripping, and keeps you invested and interested the whole way through. It didn’t absolutely destroy me like other JRPGs have done (see: Final Fantasy XV), but fun, emotive and has huge repercussions if you don’t succeed in your mission, including people dying and the world ending. No pressure, then.

Your actions, then, are crucial to making the world a better place: and the villains that you encounter are integral to succeeding. In true revolution fashion, it’s the kids that need to stand up to the adults to rid them of their distorted desires—but it’s not all random. The adults are truly abhorrent (the first one, Kamoshida, sexually assaults female students and physically abuses members of his volleyball team) and they continue a running thread from first to last—that is, the ones who you think aren’t connected at all seem to be connected to the final villain by the end. It’s very clever, and kept me gripped the whole way through—something that’s needed with 80+ hours of gameplay.

The writing is absolutely fantastic. All characters have their own distinct mannerisms, personalities and stories, which you get to explore with the Confidant mechanic (see below). The voice acting is great, and as I progressed through the Confidants, I really started to feel like they were becoming my friends, and that every time I turned on my PS4 I was hanging out with my pals again. It’s the way games should make you feel—like you actually care about what will happen to them.

This does make the game quite stressful (in a good way), as what you do has actual repercussions. It’s a bit frustrating sometimes that some of your dialogue doesn’t affect the game at large, as well as your romance choices. None of the characters acknowledge you have a girlfriend, and if you date Ann, for example, she won’t act any differently than if you decide to not even become her friend. While that’s disappointing, other dialogue choices can completely affect your game so that you always have to be very careful with your decisions. Will you get the ‘bad’ ending, where you fail to stop the final villain; the ‘good bad’ ending, where you accept his distorted view of the world; or the ‘true’ canon ending, where you revert the world to normal? A lot of choices throughout this lengthy game affect what ultimately happens, so you do feel like you’re affecting the story a lot more than, say, Pokémon. In fact, in Royal, you can even miss out on a whole section of the game…

Ascending to Royalty

As long as you max your Confidant links with Akechi (the renegade teen detective), Kasumi (the new gymnast freshman at your school) and Maruki (the school counsellor), you get to experience the 30+ hours that Royal adds to Persona 5. And—major spoilers here—once you’ve defeated the God of Control and exposed Akechi for the unhinged betrayer that he is, you should go to juvenile detention and your ability to use Personas should be gone for good, as Momentos has been destroyed.

However, in Royal, Maruki has figured out how to use cognitive psience—and you’re the reason why. His sessions with you has helped with his research, and so now he can make the world a better place by granting everyone’s desires in the collective unconsciousness.

As you can see by his actions, he’s not your typical antagonist. His heart is completely in the right place: he wants to make everyone happy by granting their desires for them, such as bringing back Futaba’s dead mother and helping Ryuji recover so he can get back on the track team. I resonated with that, and actually wondered whether it would be worse for certain characters, particularly Futaba and Haru who get to spend time with their respective dead parents, to reject the “blissful ignorance” reality that Maruki had created for them in favour of the truth.

By this point, I had grown rather fond of the deranged but entertaining firework that Akechi has revealed himself to be, and once I learned that Akechi would die (as he did in regular 5) if Maruki’s reality were to be revoked, I almost chose to accept it. But Akechi being adamant that he was going to stop Maruki no matter what as he didn’t want to live under anyone else’s rule helped make that choice for me. It was difficult, though. Akechi’s is a motive that is simultaneously selfish and noble: selfish as he doesn’t want anyone else to control him, even if that means other people are happy, but noble because he values the truth above all else. Plus, the fact that he was one of the main villains throughout the story up until this point made me question whether we should continue to trust him, even though he had decided to help us, even if it were primarily for his own gain. I think my fondness for him (perhaps because he is a fully-fledged Confidant in this game, unlike regular 5) and the wildcard elements he brought to the game made me feel a certain brand of loyalty towards him, and so I chose to honour his “dying wish”. And, of course, this path led to the ‘true’ ending!

This indecision is shown most clearly in Maruki’s palace, where you have to deduce what decisions in certain situations Maruki would think is the ‘right’ one. It really helps you understand where he’s coming from. For example, his question ‘if your friend is being attacked, and you don’t have much time before they get seriously hurt, would you a) run to get help but you might not make it back in time, or b) join the fight to help but you might get hurt yourself?’ Neither answer is necessarily wrong, but b) is correct as Maruki simply wants you to look out for yourself over others. The crux of his viewpoint is that you should endeavour to make yourself happy or safe, even if that means others may not be. It’s a very interesting conundrum, and one I enjoyed debating philosophically whilst playing.

The concept of right and wrong and mental health was also tackled in this game through Kasumi/Sumire. Ultimately, even though Maruki wanted to help her by allowing Sumire to pretend to be her dead sister, as she blames herself for her death, he ultimately did her more harm than good. With the support of Joker and the others Sumire was able to overcome her delusions and grow into a strong, confident young woman. This cemented for me how backwards Maruki was and that reality is the most important thing, even if it’s not always what we want, because that’s life. In this way, I feel that Royal added something to 5. Even though going into someone’s mind palace was about mental health, I never really considered it until Royal dealt with an innocent traumatised girl and a misguided man attempting to heal her. I applaud Atlas for tackling something so difficult pretty well.

Confident in my Confidants

It’s a good thing the player can really get into the story, because it’s heavily dependent on personal decisions and making friends.

In order to get stronger within the Metaverse, Igor, the man inside the Velvet Room, tells Joker that he needs to strengthen the relationship with his friends first. This is absolutely true—not just with your teammates, but with other individuals who live in Tokyo too, in the form of the Confidant mechanic. For example, while your teammates all get skills such as curing afflictions and taking fatal hits for Joker, others give just as much if not more valuable perks, such as Kawakami giving you more free time or Mishima allowing all teammates to gain experience even if they don’t contribute to the battle once you max them out.

The way you level them up is through socialising. This passes time, but is also incredibly interesting, as each Confidant has a gripping story (except Ohya!). You can’t downgrade a Confidant, but picking the right dialogue choices can make leveling them up much quicker in a game where time is everything. It’s also necessary to level up your stats, such as knowledge, kindness and charm, to allow you to progress with some Confidants and be empathetic or charming enough to deal with the situations thrown at you. I loved the dual play style of dungeon battles and social simulation—in a lengthy game, it broke up gameplay and kept it fresh.

As this was my second playthrough, I already knew that maxing certain Confidants would yield the best results, such as Kawakami and Yoshida who eventually allows you to negotiate with and catch shadows of a higher level than you. But in Royal, the new additions of Counselor, Faith & Justice—Maruki, Kasumi & Akechi—freshened things up. Technically, Justice isn’t new, but you can now hang out with him instead of his progress being facilitated purely by story.

Time to rate my friends from worst to best!

21: Ichiko Ohya Devil Arcana

I found this alcoholic journalist very annoying. Her story isn’t that interesting, she isn’t very nice, and the skills that she gives you to allow you to sneak around Palaces easier aren’t worth it either. I only maxed out her story near the end as I had time, but honestly, she shouldn’t be a priority.

20: Iwai Munehisa Hanged Man Arcana

Didn’t think anything of him until Royal, where I had more time to learn about his time in the Yakusa and his son. Useful for guns (which aren’t even an integral part of combat, really), but other than that I barely used his shop—plus you have to have high Guts in order to progress. Definitely better Confidants out there.

19: Tae Takemi Death Arcana

The fact that this doctor is a sexy goth is probably the best thing about her. You can level her up quite early on, so she is quite exciting at the beginning as she’s one of the only adults you can turn into a Confidant at that point, but after a while she stopped being interesting to me. In my Royal playthrough I found I didn’t need many healing items—SP was far more important!—and in the end I didn’t max her out. A fun outfit, but can leave her.

18: Shinya Oda Tower Arcana

Definitely annoying (but what little brother isn’t?) but there’s a sad reason for that—his mum is emotionally abusive, even if she doesn’t mean to be. In the end I wanted to max him out to save him from that life, but I never quite got that far. At least I managed to change his mum’s heart before I finished the game.

He’s also quite useful in buffing gun attacks and bonuses for downing and negotiating, so definitely useful for combat. I just ended up feeling bad for him, but he was also a bit of a shit, being a bully to his classmates; his big bro Joker helped with that!

17: Hifumi Togo Star Arcana

I never got to know her in my first playthrough, and I didn’t realise how useful she is for battles. She eventually allows you to swap players in combat, hastens escapes, improves money hauls, and allows back-up members to do follow up attacks. I’d definitely give her a shot for just those bonuses, even if you don’t want to romance her—but she is sweet, if very detached from the rest of the story.

16: Chihaya Mifune Fortune Arcana

I maxed her out pretty quickly so I could get the fortune readings; affinity was especially useful, as you can level up Confidants a tiny bit quicker, for a price. And, after she takes 100,000 from you near the beginning (!) and eventually gives it back, she’s lovely. Nothing special, and definitely not one to romance, but nice.

15: Twin Wardens Justine & Caroline Strength Arcana

Their Confidant path was slightly different: you have to show them Personas with specific moves, and they will level up. This was very interesting, and also put a natural brake on their relationship, as some Personas can’t be made until you are a certain level. They are also very useful as you eventually unlock group Persona fusions and can fuse Personas of a higher level than you, for a price. Always fun to get the ridiculous Personas a bit earlier on! Also, their story was super interesting, due to the mystery that surrounds their identities…

Also also, Royal gives a new element to your relationship with them. You can now take them out of the Velvet Room to show them ‘human things’, like aquariums and cinemas. I didn’t utilise this much as you only get skill cards, and no actual level progress, but I wish I had more time, as the dialogue in these sequences is hilarious as they try to understand why humans would do certain things. The fact that I’ve ranked them so low is telling—there are so many fun and useful Confidants that mean they rank this low. 

14: Yuuki Mishima Moon Arcana

I actually think you’re a bit mean to him—he’s definitely your friend, but every time you are asked to clarify this the dialogue choices make you seem like a dickhead when you say he’s only ‘sort of’ your friend! He’s helped you so much, stop being such a dick, player. Plus he helps increase EXP, as well as allows EXP to be given to back-up members so it’s definitely a good thing to max him earlier. Plus, he’s sweet, and gives you Momentos requests. Justice for Mishima!

13: Takuto Maruki Councillor Arcana

Lovely. What a gent. Shame he turned out to be distorted by deciding to change people’s realities by interpreting their vague wants instead of actually asking people if they’d WANT their realities changed or not. Sounds a bit like Thanos to me, but with a better reason to be evil.

The bonuses of Maruki though are: he’s interesting; he’s lovely; and his bonuses are mainly SP based, which is always hard to recover in Persona, especially in the early stages of the games. He raises your SP, gives you a chance to instantly recover ailments, gives you a chance to become focused and therefore raises your attack, and gives you a chance to recover your SP when low. Very useful, and you can’t play the Royal storyline without maxing him out before November 18th anyway.

12: Haru Okumura Empress Arcana

Again, I wasn’t too much of a fan of Haru on my first playthrough (perhaps because she’s quite a late addition to the team), but this time round, I had more time to get to know her. I really wanted to save her from her awful fiancé, and hoped I’d be able to say ‘don’t marry him, marry me!’ if I chose to romance her, but alas. I was also quite surprised with how business-orientated she is, which was a surprise. However, she was just too prim and proper for me, and even after her story showed her to be evolving into a confident woman, she didn’t evolve quite enough for me to be interested.

She’s useful, though, as all the Confidants are who are your team members, so leveling her up is a must, for help in combat and to evolve her Persona.

11: Morgana Magician Arcana

Morgana was the most useful as the support hero—I always wanted him in my party, particularly in hard battles, just to keep me and my allies alive. Plus, who doesn’t love a talking cat? Though, at one point, he does get moody and very annoying. While Morgana as a character was never that exciting past being the initial reason they can become Phantom Thieves and the mystery surrounding where he comes from, Royal switched that up by turning him into a dreamboat with piercing blue eyes when Maruki made his dream of being a human come true. They kept saying throughout this sequence how beautiful he was, which was amusing. A nice twist on the original game.

10: Toranosuke Yoshida Sun Arcana

I learnt to level this fallen-from-grace politician up quickly from my first playthrough as, once you max him out, you can negotiate easier with shadows of your own level, and negotiate with higher level shadows and add them to the compendium—absolutely necessary. Also, he’s basically a massive socialist leftie, so he rocks.

9: Yusuke Kitagawa Emperor Arcana

I didn’t like him much in my first playthrough, but now I appreciate him far more—he’s flamboyant, artistic and, best of all, happy to be in his own mind and be himself, no matter what people think of him. He’s a bit stuck up sometimes, but all in all he’s an outsider who fits in better than he really should. And he provides funny dialogue, particularly when interacting with Futaba. I also love his Showtime moves with Ryuji and Ann.

8: Ann Takamaki Lovers Arcana

I’m quite surprised she’s this low down for me, but even though she’s the first girl you befriend and she’s hopelessly beautiful to everyone who meets her, she doesn’t quite push past the ‘ditzy girl’ trope. The story does try to make her more nuanced, and to an extent it works—she’s also fun, thoughtful and empathetic—but there’s just too many misogynistic and ditsy jokes that even only a few years later don’t land anymore. Saying that, she literally uses her sexuality to break free of the misogyny that surrounds her body and the sexual abuse and prejudice she experiences, at the most from the volleyball teacher, and at the least from everyone around her. It’s a steep hill to climb, but she’s doing it.

I drew the picture below!

7: Sadayo Kawakami Temperance Arcana

Kawakami’s your teacher—what could possibly go wrong? Well, she’s also a sexy maid who comes over to clean up, though she won’t go any further as you’re her high school student. Yet. It’s a bit dodgy, especially as she acts like your mum, but even so, the forbidden fruit angle is fun. Her story is also compelling. Not only is she an interesting Confidant, but one of the most useful ones for the amount of extra time she gives you when you level her up. Why on both my playthroughs did I not level her up immediately?

6: Sojiro Sakura Hierophant Arcana

He’s your guardian who takes you in when you have to move from your hometown after your alleged assault to live out your probation. He starts out cranky, but has an absolute heart of gold. He ended up being one of my favourite Confidants—plus, he’s one of the most useful, as he is one of the only ways to get SP in the early game by making coffee and curry. You need to understand the pride I got from making coffee that met his expectations!

5: Futaba Sakura Hermit Arcana

Sojiro’s adopted daughter is so much fun that I romanced her in the first game. While some may think she’s more like a little sister, she’s just a bit more immature because of her hermit lifestyle and Arcana. She’s funny, loves games, and has great references; she is one of the only instances of a game that has a young girl who doesn’t sound like 40-year-olds trying to sound like teenagers. She has a heartbreaking story, but her personality keeps it light. She says it how it is, no matter what anyone else thinks. She’s great.

4: Kasumi/Sumire Yoshizawa Faith Arcana

I chose to romance the gymnast honour student in Royal, because how can you not romance the new girl? Though I wasn’t sure at first, as I found her quite twee at the beginning. However, she became a lot more nuance when she became Sumire, which is to be expected. Plus, she is really well integrated into the story and really makes you feel she cares about you. She has an amazing costume when she is Codename: Violet, and gives you some truly useful abilities, such as ambushing from a distance and avoiding being surrounded by shadows. She’s a great addition to an already great game.

3: Makoto Niijima Priestess Confidant

She’s bestgirl in terms of smarts, badassery, and simple relatability. She is Student Council President, an honour student, and has been manipulated by evil adults for their own distorted desires. Her parents have died, which instils her with deep guilt for being a burden on her sister. She’s also the only one whose Confidant story doesn’t actively revolve around herself: she changes, but it’s through helping her friend who may be a victim of trafficking rather than her own self-interests. She’s sharp, poised and even more badass when she awakens to her Persona, Johanna—it’s a freaking motorcycle!

2: Ryuji Sakamoto Chariot Confidant

Your best buddy. I’m always drawn towards these ones, who are treated a bit dumb but are loyal to the end. He’s also hilarious, like when he complains the Phantom Thieves are in the shadows and not getting any credit, and I chose the option ‘I like the shade’, he says ‘what are you, moss?!’ I really do wish I could romance him, because I can see a lovely storyline where he’s unsure at first but the fact that they’re soulmates transcends gender.

1: Goro Akechi Justice Confidant

I’m almost hesitant to admit I find him the most fascinating and fun. Not only is he dangerous, exciting and unhinged, he's at the centre of an incredible twist. He’s one of the most interesting characters, and you never know what he’s going to do next. I would definitely date him if Japanese games let gay relationships happen; he has all the best attributes for a crazy romantic relationship. Not IRL, but in a game, why not?

I love that he didn’t die and teams up with you in Royal, and that . He’s also the first character that Joker gets a Showtime move with, which made it quite special. When it is revealed just how evil and crazy he is, his whole character changes, including his Persona, his Phantom Thieves outfit, and his demeanor—it’s scary how excited he is by killing, but at the same time, he is absolutely certain of his viewpoints and won’t compromise for anyone. Many of these points would be a reason why he shouldn’t be my number one, but I can’t help it.

Honourable Mentions: Igor (Fool Arcana), Sae Niijima (Judgement Arcana) & Jose

Igor is the ruler of the Velvet Room, and the person who facilitates your rehabilitation in changing peoples’ hearts. However, ‘person’ isn’t quite right for Igor: he’s the God of Control, born from the desires of the collective masses who want to be controlled and be told what to do rather than make difficult decisions. It was a cool twist to realise that the God of Control had been impersonating the real Igor; I don’t know if Igor was lovely in the previous games, but he certainly is once you restore him at the end of 5. Despite him being interesting, I never felt like I had a connection with him, as you level up his Arcana automatically throughout the story, and he never tried to have a personal relationship with Joker.

Sae has her own palace and Arcana, but she’s not quite the same as the others. Like Igor, you level up automatically throughout the game when you confess to her the whole Phantom Thieves story, and while she does have a Palace, she doesn’t through any huge transformation other than realising that learning the truth is better than trying to win at any cost. She’s cool, and her outfit in her Palace is sexy, but you can’t romance her and can’t change much of what you say to her. I wish in Royal she could have been a fully fledged Confidant instead.

Jose counts even less. A new addition to Royal, he helps you change the cognition of Momentos by collecting stamps as you go further down, and he gives you items in exchange for flowers, so he definitely makes Momentos better. However, his addition is nothing world-shaking, and he only shows up randomly, which makes him quite annoying. I could have done without him, but at least he made Momentos more interesting than in the base game, which, compared to Palaces, was quite boring.

All in all, my main issue with the Confidant system as that you still can’t date boys. We’ve been saying for years ‘that’s just the Japanese way’, but considering the crazy hentai they bring out (still with only very little amounts of yaoi/gay hentai) it may be time to stop excusing them for not being with the times. Catherine: Full Body aimed to dispel that somewhat—perhaps Persona should too.

A Momentous Game

Overall, this is one of my favourite games of all time. The gameplay keeps me entertained for 100+ hours (though, to be fair, I do love long games) and the characters and writing makes me emotionally connect with the story they are telling. I’d suggest playing for at least 8 hours, as it’s a slow burn, but once that hurdle is jumped the real obsession begins.

Time to go and play Persona 4 Golden, as I’m not quite ready for the fun to be over yet.

[biscuitreviews]

Biscuit Reviews Third Anniversary Review: Persona 5 Royal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Or is reality back in its original state? 

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

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

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

[satoshi-mochida]

Atlus debuted the first gameplay footage and new details for the Omega Force-developed action RPG Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers during the game’s first official live stream today.

Here are the details:

General

Development is 90 percent complete. Fine-tuning is the focus from here on.

Many Persona fans in Omega Force are working on the game, who are bringing the game to quite the high quality level.

Persona negotiation is being naturally and strategically incorporated into the action.

Rather than simply being an action game where you rush about wildly, there will be a proper story with character growth and the like.

Some character models have been borrowed from Persona 5, while some have been newly created.

The game is being made to be received as one of the games in the Persona 5 series.

Whether Confidant or story characters make an appearance is still a secret.

You can unleash various actions through a combination of the Square and Triangle buttons.

There is also shooting.

When you summon a Persona, you can choose a skill with the up and down buttons. Also, the protagonist can change Personas with the left and right buttons.

When you summon a Persona, time will come to a halt. Since information about the enemy will be displayed, you can carefully choose the Persona and skill to match the enemy.

A Persona’s attack range differs depending on the skill.

SP is important. Strategies like striking the enemy’s weakness, or swallowing up a wide scope of enemies are essential.

When you shoot your gun, time will come to a halt. There is also charge shooting. Each character will have their own gun.

Depending on the battle, you can also escape.

With the “Phantom Move” ability, nimble movement and attack actions using background objects such as traffic lights and street lights are possible.

You can go from shooting to pursuing the enemy.

The concept of buffs and debuffs are also in the game.

By striking the enemy’s weakness, it will become a Technical hit and deal greater damage.

By lowering the enemy’s shield gauge, which is right next to their HP gauge, you can unleash One More and general attacks.

You can also summon a Persona while in mid-air.

You can attack by exploding a patrol car. It is a flame attribute attack.

“Show Time” is in the game. Since Joker can switch his Personas, he has different Show Times for each.

You can befriend Personas. Persona fusion is also in the game.

Story and New Characters

As the characters travel to the various cities of Japan, Atlus hopes to bring out aspects to the characters not shown in Persona 5.

They want to depict Phantom Thieves as teenagers having fun. There is a notion of wanting to reward the Phantom Thieves that worked so hard in Persona 5.

The setting consists of more than just the five cities that have been previously announced.

Sophia (voiced by Misaki Kuno) is a girl the Phantom Thieves meet in a different world. She cooperates with the Phantom Thieves in hopes of being a good neighbor to humans. Her codename is Sophie, and her weapons are a yo-yo and blaster. She specializes in recovery skills. She controls a being similar to a Persona called “Pithos.”

Zenkichi Hasegawa (voiced by Shinichiro Miki) is a public safety police officer. At this point it is currently unknown whether he will become an ally or not. Both Zenkichi and Sophia are heavily involved in the main story.

Game System

A “Baton Pass” system for changing characters is included. Change characters in real-time while striking the enemies weaknesses.

All-Out Attacks can be activated without stopping the flow of action.

Each character has different parameters, weapons, and play style.

Each character has their own HP, so switch up characters when you are in a pinch.

Character growth also affects strategy.

Enemies appear as enemy symbols on the map, and when you touch them, battle will begin. You can also encounter enemies by shooting them. Also, by successfully sneak-encountering enemies from behind the back or overhead, you can start the battle at an advantage as a chance encounter.

Sophie is a good character to use for beginners. She has a technical element that advanced players can also enjoy, where by connecting attacks with good timing, she can expand her power and range. She can charge her power with the Triangle button. Her charged shot can possibly paralyze the enemy.

Panther uses a whip. She fights with magic more so than power. Among her attacks is a fire attack unleashed by Carmen. By pressing the Triangle button, she can enchant her whip with fire to deal fire attribute damage and attacks. She can also enchant while attacking. She can also lower the enemy’s attack power with the “Tarunda” skill.

All of Skull’s special attacks can be charged. By charging, “Zio” can become “Mazio.” While it takes some time to charge, Skull can activate super armor to take hits without recoil (the damage is slightly reduced).

Strategy is an important element of battle, and it can be very difficult to win with power alone.

By lowering the down gauge in mid-boss battles, a special All-Out Attack can be activated.

Analysis allows you to check enemy weaknesses and parameter status. For example, when an enemy’s defense is lowered by “Rakunda,” you can check this information via analysis.

Boss battles can be made easier through debuffing.

During battle, a party member may suggest an attack at particular timing where they can unleash an effective attack. By following through on their suggestion, you will switch to that character as soon as the attack begins.

There is also an easy mode for users who only want to enjoy the story. Difficulty can be changed at any time during the game.

Atlus has also started a Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers edition of “Morgana’s Report” monthly information drops. Here is the first:

A Completely New Story Set After Persona 5

About half a year since parting from each other upon resolving the mysterious incident that bustled society, the Phantom Thieves gathered again at Cafe Leblanc. While they were planning to enjoy summer vacation together, they wind up lost in an unknown world following an unexpected event. It was a terrible world where shadows snatched away human “desires,” ruled by the command of someone called King.

Mysterious “Conversion Events” sprung forth all over Japan. To pursue these incidents, the Phantom Thieves set out on an RV journey of societal reformation.

New characters that are key to the story will also appear, including Sophia (voiced by Misaki Kuno), a girl who lost her memory, and Zenkichi Hasegawa (voiced by Shinichiro Miki), a skilled public safety police officer.

Introducing Shibuya, a Place of Pop Culture

Shibuya, a place brimming with fashion and sub-culture, and where young men and women gather. At the fashion building Shibuya 705, an event will be held for popular artist Alice Hiiragi (voiced by Ayane Sakura), who is known for her unique fashion and music.

However, there is another side to the bustling city of Shibuya… In the heart of a Shibuya that has become a different world, a Shibuya 705 transformed to look like a castle stands tall, and the appearance of the city has changed significantly. Slip through traps and mechanisms made to obstruct intruders, mow down the shadows, and set your sights on Shibuya 705.

Super Stylish and Exhilarating Action

In Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers, the members of the Phantom Thieves are playable. In addition to Joker, you can also fight as your favorite member of the group (except for the navigator).

There are various tactics, including summoning Personas and pursuing the enemy.

You can also dominate the battlefield in style with “Show Time” and “All-Out Attacks.”

Atlus also announced that if you have Persona 5 or Persona 5 Royal save data on PlayStation 4, or Super Smash Bros. Ultimate save data on Switch, you will receive the “Persona 5 Sound Set,” which includes the Persona 5 battle song “Last Surprise” and Persona 5 Royal preemptive battle song “Take Over,” which can be used as the standard battle music for Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers.

A character trailer for Persona 5 protagonist Joker will be released on YouTube on November 5 at 18:00 JST.

Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers is due out for PlayStation 4 and Switch on February 20, 2020 in Japan. Read more about the game here.

Watch the footage below. View a new set of screenshots at the gallery.

Live Stream Archive

31:32 to 40:09 – Gameplay #1

1:29:39 to 1:42:24 – Gameplay #2

Morgana’s Report #1

Full

Story Part

Shibuya Part

Action Part

[justeverydayakechi]

Some Black Mask verses:

v: Black Mask

The Phantom Thieves crew all achieve their personas in a way that generates little notoriety (details to be worked-out individually), and thus, they have not yet met Akechi. However, they do happen to stumble across one feral mysterious black-masked figure just going at it against some monsters in the Metaverse. Both parties are shocked to discover the other’s existence. TL;DR, the protagonists meet and gradually get to know Black Mask Akechi, whose identity remains a secret, as he only calls himself Crow and keeps his helmet on, before the Detective Prince ever comes into play in the real world.

v: Double Agents

Similar to the above verse, the group meet Black Mask Akechi before any betrayal, before Detective Prince Akechi joins forces with them in the Metaverse (and obviously before he betrays them). They do meet the Detective Prince, though, and Akechi keeps both identities separate. However, he develops a rivals-with-benefits/friends-with-benefits relationship with Joker in the Metaverse as Black Mask (calling himself Crow here, with a little bit of an altered Black Mask costume), and with Ren in the real world as Akechi. He thinks he and Ren are similar, in that they both have two drastically different sides to them. With Ren, there is the deep, quiet boy who works at a coffee shop and the dashing renegade who steals hearts outside the bounds of the law. Akechi thinks he has the advantage knowing this, while Ren knows nothing about his double life, despite being involved with him in both areas. What Akechi doesn’t know, that Ren never thought to tell him, is that Ren has a twin--Akira--who is the one with persona powers, the one codenamed Joker, who became rivals with Black Mask.

[the-silver-peahen-residence]

Garu was pacing back and forth as he waited for Ren to come back from his mission. He was holding their daughter in his arms as he paced. She looked up at her daddy confused. "Is dad coming home soon... I miss him." She said and Garu nuzzled her. "Dad will be home as soon as he can. I know he will!"

In a moment, the door open but it seems like he was tired while looking like he was hurt in some way. He did keep a straight face for the moment but he sighed after completed the latest heist mission.

[p5x-theories]

What We Know About the Protagonist

(as of the third beta; last updated 1/22/24!)

The protagonist, codename Wonder, is a resident of Zoshigaya in Tokyo, and a second-year student at Kokatsu Academy in class 2C. He lives with his parents, however they are traveling abroad at the start of the game (though he still receives texts from his mother).

The codename "Wonder" is invented by Ruferu, who connects it to how strange and mysterious aspects of him are- a wonder, in other words.

Most of his personality is up to the player, as the series-typical "silent" protagonist, but one thing that seems to be set is that he doesn't know what he wants. The game opens with him being unsure what to put on a form about his plans after high school, eventually turning it in blank.

More generally, he doesn't quite have Joker's typical calm and unfazeable exterior, and updates to the game with each beta have made his expressions more "blank" or neutral. However, he does still show emotion sometimes: he grins during his Persona awakening, and smiles widely at Ruferu after their first change of heart operation is a success. He's apparently also prone to falling asleep in class.

His voice actor is Koki Uchiyama.

The game starts with Wonder having what seems to be a dream, which follows the start of Persona 5's casino intro with Joker escaping, except Joker "glitches" into Wonder at one point. After Joker takes out the Moloch shadow that attacks him, however, Joker's attacked by someone else, who appears to be Wonder in a white mask. They fight, and Wonder wins, the dream ending with him shooting Joker with a smile.

Wonder jolts awake and goes to school, though throughout the day the player is prompted with choices to help someone or speak up about something, which Wonder seems to be prevented from acting on if the player tries to. On his way back home, he's the only person to react when a woman jumps off the roof of a building near the train station.

This inspires Ruferu to attempt to recruit him, during which Wonder is rushed by a person who rode a bike into the subway train car they were both sitting in. Wonder accidentally opens the MetaNav on his phone right before the bike hits him, and finds himself in Mementos with a strange owl. This leads to his Persona awakening (32:18 - 37:08 in this video) as they try to get out, and his recruitment by the owl (who introduces himself as Ruferu) as a phantom thief and "business partner".

Ruferu begins to follow Wonder around and eventually lives with him at his house as they pursue their first target, Takeyuki Kiuchi. Wonder has a strange vision at one point of Kiuchi pushing a woman and her stroller down the stairs, which goes unexplained. After Motoha Arai joins the team, they steal Kiuchi's Treasure and he has a change of heart, but as Kiuchi is arrested, this prompts another vision for Wonder of Kiuchi cackling, even as the real Kiuchi is going quietly. Motoha and the protagonist decide to continue being thieves to help more people.

Wonder's role seems to loosely parallel Joker's in the original P5.

His Persona is Jánošík (based on a Slovak highwayman described as being similar to Robin Hood) and has Bless and Gun skills, and resists Bless while being weak to Wind and Electric.

In addition to this, the protagonist is a wildcard, able to recruit shadows as new Personas, and access the Velvet Room to strengthen and fuse them. His Velvet Room is underwater, and appears to be a tunnel, with a circular table in the middle that he and Igor sit on either side of. His attendant is Merope.

In combat, his melee weapon is a knife, and his ranged weapon is a handgun. His highlight attack is the first 15 seconds of this video.

[pyroflyer23]

I wonder what would happen if I told y’all that I self-ship. Cause I do. I have a list of F/Os who I love dearly. Y’all wanna see it? No? Too bad.

Romantic F/Os:

Starscream. (Transformers franchise)

Blizwing. (Transformers Animated)

Wreck-Gar. (Transformers Animated)

Robot Devil. (Futurama)

Nick (Left 4 Dead 2)

David (Left 4 Dead Screamer OC)

Merasmus (Team Fortress 2)

Sniper (Team Fortress 2)

Medic (Team Fortress 2)

Fritz Ludwig (Emesis Blue)

Christian Brutal Sniper (Freak Fortress 2)

George “Digger” Harkness/Captain Boomerang (DC Comics)

Oswald Cobblepot. (ANY VERSION OTHER THAN THE SKINNY ONES.) (DC Comics)

Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow, (Batman/DC Comics)

Jervis Tetch/Mad Hatter (Arkhamverse games)

Joker (Young Justice version and Injustice 2 version)

Arthur Fleck (Joker 2019)

The Amazing Mumbo/Mumbo Jumbo (Teen Titans)

Blade (Puppet Master)

Erik Destler (The Phantom of the Oprea, 1989)

Inkubus (Inkubus, 2011)

The Doctor (Doctor Who)

Agent Smith (The Matrix)

Egon Spengler (Ghostbusters franchise)

Peter Venkman (Ghostbusters franchise)

Ron Alexander (Ghostbusters IDW comics)

Dr. Caligosto Loboto (Psychonauts)

Alastor (Hazbin Hotel)

Sir Pentious (Hazbin Hotel)

Vox (Hazbin Hotel)

Father/Benedict Uno (Codename Kids Next Door)

Lou Pottingsworth III/The Toiletnator. (KND)

Jack O'lantern. (Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy)

Dr. 0/Zero (Fallout New Vegas: Old World Blues)

Stu Macher/Ghostface (Scream 1996

Johann Kraus (Hellboy franchise)

Demongo. (Samurai Jack)

Scaramouch the merciless. (Samurai Jack)

Jack Frost (The Santa Clause franchise)

Snow Miser (Rankin/Bass specials)

Springtrap (Goes by “Spring”) (FNAFB and FNAF world cannon mix)

Foxy (FNAF/FNAFB cannon) 

Dr. Insano (Atop the Fourth Wall/The spoony experiment)

Captain Buggy! (One Piece)

Soul King Brook (One Piece)

Sir Crocodile (One Piece)

Ryuma (One Piece)

Señor Diablo (JTHM)

Richard (Looking For Group)

The Terror (The Tick 2017)

Guerrero (Human Target 2010)

Willie Loomis (Dark Shadows 2012)

Pyramid Head (Silent Hill)

Albert Wesker (Resident Evil)

AM (I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream)

Herbert West (Re-Animator)

HP Hatecraft (Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated)

Captain James Hook. (Peter Pan. I like the cartoon version)

The Mask/Stanley Ipkiss (The Mask movie and animated series)

Kowalski (Penguins of Madagascar)

Murdoc Niccals (Gorillaz)

The Spine (Steam Powered Giraffe)

Lore (Star Trek TNG)

Thaddeus “Rusty” Venture (The Venture Bros) 

Zed Blanco (Borderlands)

Ned Blanco (Borderlands)

Giovanni (Pokemon) (It’s complicated.)

Lex Luthor (Justice Leauge Action)

Rorschach (Watchmen)

Dr. Ian Malcom (Jurassic Park)

Eckert (EleTRONica) (It’s a former Disneyland park show)

Spiderman Noir/Peter Parker (Into The Spiderverse)

Ghost Rider/Johnny Blaze (Marvel, 2007 movie)

Papyrus (Most of the Papyruses) (Undertale and it's AUs.)

Gaster (Undertale)

Spamton G Spamton (Deltarune)

Professor Membrane (Invader Zim) (I liked him before the movie. It just reminded me.)

Wade Willson/Deadpool (Marvel) (Both dating and friends with benefits depending on the day)

Cell (Dragon Ball franchise)

Jeice (Dragon Ball Z Abridged)

Skeletor (He-Man)

Cobra Commander (G.I. Joe)

Skullmageddon (Double Dragon Neon)

Remus Sanders (Sanders Sides)

Hades (Disney’s Hercules)

Platonic F/Os:

Jervis Tetch /Mad Hatter (Batman the animated series)

Grim (Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy)

Nergal (Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy) (Friends with benefits type)

Reg Barclay. (Star Trek TNG)

Ray Stanz, Winston Zeddamore, Rookie (Ghostbusters franchise) 

The Scooby gang (Scooby-Doo franchise)

Toulon’s Puppets (Puppet Master)

Bubba Sawyer (Texas Chainsaw Massacre)

Chop Top Sawyer (Texas Chainsaw Massacre)

Slimer (Ghostbusters franchise)

Q (Star Trek) (IDK but you could put Discord from MLP on here as well. I like them both for the same reason.)

Jervis Tetch (DC Comics/Batman the animated series.)

The Eds (Ed Edd n Eddy.) (Childhood friends type.)

Rrazputin Aquato (Psychonauts)

Milla Vodello  (Psychonauts)

Sasha Nein (Psychonauts)

Morceau Oleander (Psychonauts)

Stolas Goitia (Helluva Boss)

Hazbin Hotel staff (Vaggie, Angel Dust, Husk, Charlie, Nifty) (Hazbin Hotel)

Sir Pentious (Hazbin Hotel)

Guzma (Pokemon) (He is friend shaped.)

Sans (Undertale and it’s AUs.)

The robots and Water Workers (Save The Spine) (Steam Powered Giraffe)

All of the Straw hat crew (cept Brook cause we’re dating) (One Piece)

All the Sanders sides save Remus and Deceit. (Deceit might become platonic more we learn about him.)

Gnarl (Overlord games) (Leader and advisor type relationship.)

The Minions (Overlord games) (One-sided devotion on their end. I hold very little attachment to the majority besides appreciation.)

Familial F/Os:

Jack Skellington (The Nightmare Before Christmas) (Big brother)

Mad Mod. (Teen Titans) (Father)

Master Splinter (TMNT franchise) (Father)

All the Ninja Turtles. (TMNT franchise) (Brothers)

Freddy Kruger (A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise) (Uncle)

Lord Fathom. (Jake and the Neverland Pirates) (Father)

Brewster (Animal Crossing) (Father)

Mad Mod (Teen Titans) (Father)

Bill and Mandy (Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy) (I just kinda adopted them.)

Nergal Jr. (Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy) (Adopted nephew)

Irwin (Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy) (Son)  I'm not as attached to Irwin as I am to the others but he's still my son and I love him.

Nigel Uno/Numbah One (Codename Kid Next Door) (Nephew)

Delightful Children From Down The Lane (Codename Kids Next Door) (Children)

Webber (Don’t Starve) (Son)

Hank and Dean Venture (Venture Bros) (Sons)

Bowser Jr. (Mario) (Son)

Heat Miser and the rest of the Miser family (Rankin/Bass specials) (family in-laws)

Serena (Pokemon) (Daughter)

Silver (Pokemon) (Son)

Yellow (Pokemon) (Daughter)

Toriel (Undertale and it’s AUs) (Mom)

Thor (Marvel) (Brother-in-law)

Charles (Looking for Group) (Adopted son)

Dib Membrane (Invader Zim) (Son)

Gaz Membrane (Invader Zim) (Daughter)

Zim (Invader Zim) (Adopted son)

Shin Godzilla (Godzilla franchise) (Adopted child)

Pet F/Os:

Sparkles (Pikachu) (Pokemon)

Rex (Quagsire) (Pokemon)

Richard (Houndoom) (Pokemon)

Froggy (Greninja) (Pokemon)

Zigzig (Zigzagoon) (Pokemon)

Fifi (Xenomorph, Runner type) (Alein franchise)

Sparky (Licker B) (Resident Evil)

[sonicasura]

SonicAsura Doodles #78

"I never thought I see actual people inside the Metaverse! Hope you know how dangerous this place can really be!" Hattie, Wanderer Born of Cognition.

My first Persona OC. This is Hattie, a mysterious entity that lives within the Metaverse. She has a curious and nonchalant nature albeit with a bit of a short temper when it comes to particular topics. Cognitive beings like her are often born from terms or subjects collectively shared amongst humanity.

Hattie was created through the concept of magic, granting her skills in both tricks and actual sorcery. She seems to gravitate towards Palaces but is also able to return to ones that were once inaccessible! An ability the Phantom Thieves stumble upon and earned Hattie the Codename 'Locksmith.'

Under the 'Aegis' Arcana, her social link boosts Joker's magic based skills to incredible strengths. Hattie isn't always alone as her Persona Houdini makes sure every performance is a team effort. She often ponders on the type of individual who brought her to life.

Definitely isn't the same person that made Morgana since Hattie retains her normal form in the real world. Although her eyes and hair look different without the namesake. Hopefully she'll find a replacement in Tokyo that fits perfectly.

Ren prefers if Hattie stays out of trouble as now he has two housemates to look after.

You guys will be seeing her in my fics. I'll be working on Houdini after doing some research. You know me and accuracy for these kinds of things.

[tricksheart]

SOME MEME I FORGOT / LOST

@sparklymuses said: ❖ + What other codenames would you come up with for yourself as a phantom thief?

"I've really been partial to the codename RAVEN. Not only would I fit into the group more as only two members have a card theme, that being me and QUEEN but the animal in particular would be compared to my rival, CROW. As they look similar to each other but Ravens are bigger, capable of speech and more intelligent. Fitting no? Got to be better than some assassin moonlighting as a detective, that's for sure". Okay Akira really didn't see Akechi as his rival but it was closest the thing he could actually give to the persona user that was an actual killer.

"But speaking hypothetically, I have always been partial to SPADE. Not ACE because that is a character from an anime and it would be odd calling me that. On why I picked this one, I really dunno. The shape of the image is quite mysterious and quirky I think. A lot like me. Probably why I am drawn to it. It's much better than my JOKER one. Then again I wouldn't have a problem with the codename if it wasn't a bad omen with the history of my family and a villain character from one of my favorite DC superheroes. Plus, I think there is a guy that knows Narukami out there named Joker too. Sho is his name, probably. Don't quote me on this. Never met the guy. Just heard rumors".

Still at the end of the day, he was JOKER. Embarrassing or not, even when he gave his displeasure upon hearing it the first time. That's the name Morgana gave him and it has gotten out of hand. Akira doesn't think anyone will NOT call him that now.