#we got morgana who's robin's boss

[hiddenspriings]

Robin threw a little house warming party for her new friends in the town and they all had a blast!

Befriend boss ✓

[trcelyneart]

13, 25, and 31 for the fe asks!

13 - What do you like most about Fire Emblem?

As a child I liked strategy games. I had FF Tactics Advance on Gameboy and I really liked the concept. So gameplay wise I liked the familiarity. And then I accidentally married Chrom on my first Awakening playthrough, discovered what that S-support thing meant, and the rest is history.

25 - Any general or specific headcanons you have?

Ooooo boi here we go:

Awakening

- Aversa is Robin's cousin (the daughter of Validar's sister), and got kidnapped and brainwashed by Validar because if he couldn't find Robin he could use her as a replacement to be Grima's vessel.

- Robin's name was Morgana, which explains why they name the kid after her (subconsciously)

- Emmeryn chose Lissa's name (from their mother Lissandra who died in childbirth).

- Lissa actually has the Brand of the Exalt. It's inside her mouth, on her palate.

- To wield Falchion, the person has to bear the Brand of the Exalt and receive Naga's Light, which is a benediction and basically Naga's green light to say "this one's a good one, you can trust them". It manifests once, when the person does something "heroic", their hair shine and they feel energy flow through them.

- Falchion can be wield by other people but it will be dull and impossibly heavy.

- Robin is "allergic" to Falchion. If they touch it, they get burnt. The sight of the sword makes them uncomfortable but they get over it in battle.

- If Robin has a second child, they will have the Mark of Grima on their sternum.

- Lon'qu and Olivia have a sibling relationship, they're actually closer than their supports suggests. Their supports are weird imo, since they're both Basilio's adopted children it feels strange that they know so few about each other. She's the only one who can approach him without him freaking out (besides his wife).

- Frederick only gets maried with serious women who have their lives together (namely Miriel, Panne, and Cherche). Aversa's an exception but it's a crack ship anyway

- Lon'qu and Sumia deserved supports

- Emmeryn is soft and gentle but does not let people walk over her. She can be as scary as her father whenn she wants to (she has to remind her advisors who's the boss sometimes)

Three Houses

- Lysithea is ace (I mean, have you seen her colors?). She has no time to be horny, she's got things to learn. Same goes for Linhardt.

- I don't know how it can work in the lore but I'm a firm believer of the "Marianne is Berkut and Rinea's child" theory. He's a very loving dad even if he looks stern btw.

- Byleth is demisexual, Sylvain and Claude are bisexual.

- Mercedes teaches Marianne how to make embroidery

- Dorothea and Sylvain hate-fucked at least once

- Byleth has always felt Sothis' "presence". Like, they feel Sothis' subconscious sort of? Basically it doesn't surprise them that much when she awakens.

- Claude wears lipgloss pre-timeskip (have you seen his lip color and how it shines?). I've also read a fic that mentions he wears khol when in Almyra and I really like the idea.

31 - Some moments of Fire Emblem you keep thinking of?

The Ball Scene in Three Houses makes me weak. Like, Claude's wink? Dimitri and Edelgard dancing right next to each other and not even dare a peek at the other??? Also we were robbed of an opportunity for everyone to show off with amazing outfits and it's my personal mission to correct that in every single fic I write.

Also that scene when Chrom recognises Lucina is *chef's kiss*

And last but not least, when Lucina wants to kill Robin. The first time I had that scene I had to put my 3DS down and pace around my bedroom because my daugther wanted to kill me to save the world and honestly? What a dilemma.

Ask me something about Fire Emblem!

[allykakamatsu]

Hypothetical P5A

Okay, gonna make this clear right up front, I wanted to make this post for a while but the main reason I decided to do it now is because the Atlus announcement thing is almost here, and also cause I saw a video on this topic by Thorgi’s Arcade (go watch it btw it’s good) and while I agree with a lot of what he said, there’s also some things I’d change, not just cause I disagree, but also cause I think it would be fun. Anyway enough beating around the bush, let’s do this

Gameplay

I’m a firm believer in the phrase, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and the Arena games are already really good so not much to change. That being said, I still wanna change some things. First off though, we are keeping this 1 vs 1, no tag team matches. The arena games already have a lot of Mechanics going on and trying to keep everything as well as some new stuff WHILE adding a tag team button, yeah no let’s not outside of maybe a bonus mode.

This means I can’t add Batton Pass in as a new mechanic to represent P5, but I have a solution, that being Technicals. Status ailments already exist in this game, so how about when you inflict one and do a specific combo you do more damage, also providing risk vs reward as the player with the status will have a better idea of what the opponent will do making them more predictable. Also as for Persona’s, mostly everyone’s will be fully evolved, minus Yu cause him getting a final boss persona normally is a tad to OP, meanwhile the P5 characters will have their starting Persona’s, but they will evolve for big moves, like awakened mode supers and instant kills

I’m also borrowing Thorgi’s Arcade idea of having supports giving a slight buff in battle, like if you pick Fuuka your meter can build faster for a bit, meanwhile if you pick Futaba you’ll get an attack and defence buff. It’s the fairest way to include them without having to make them playable. I know Rise is already playable but this roster is going to have to be small as it is, and being a support doesn’t mean you can’t be DLC later.

Also, we’re not bringing back the Shadow Characters, just, we are not dealing with the likes of Shadow Naoto again.

:readmore:

Story

I am about to cop out a bit here, but Thorgi’s Arcade video had a really good idea for the story so I’ll just link it here https://youtu.be/yyB5rEM9UVU

To summarise for people who don’t want to watch, Nyarlathotep, the main villain from the Persona 2 games, has been gaining strength from all the suffering humanity has gone through due to 3, 4 and 5, and has gained enough strength to create a new Joker to try finish what he started and destroy the world. Mitsuru might think the Phantom Thieves are behind it cause this is clearly persona related and the fact that the leader of the PT’s is also named Joker is public knowledge, Naoto gets largely the same idea, Katsuya and Maya decide to have their own investigation, meanwhile the Phantom Thieves are trying to prove their innocence and help save the world. Nice excuse to bring everyone together, but who will the everyone be?

Base Roster

Okay, I know the dream is getting everyone from Ultimax back plus the new P5 characters, but given Arc System’s standard for small base rosters, I’m not holding my breath. The ideal would be everyone plus who I’m about to say for P2 and P5, but I’m keeping it… somewhat realistic. Anyway onto the actual size, 16 seems fair enough. One more than the most recent Guilty Gear game for a series that had pretty big success so that sound fair enough. Let’s get the obvious out of the way though, all the base 8 Phantom Thieves besides Futaba are making the cut

Okay so that’s obvious but how will they play? Starting off with Ren/Joker, Smash Bros already laid a great foundation with him being very fast on the ground and in the air plus being great at combos, so I see no reason to change that. Also no need for him to be a Jack of all trades either cause spoilers, Yu is coming back and he already fills that role.

As for the others, Ryuji I can see being a slugger charge hybrid. Basically starting out he hits pretty hard but is a bit on the slow side to compensate, but just like any good athlete, give him a chance to warm up, ie do a charge input, and he becomes a lot faster and has better combo potential. Or we could make him a toned down version of Little Mac where he’s great on the ground but he’s in trouble the second aerial combat is involved. Then there’s Morgana who with his ability to turn into cars and the fact he introduces thief tools like smoke bombs, I can see him being a faster but frailer successor to Teddie.

Then there’s Ann who, no doubt, she’s a Zoner, and with her fire she’ll be Yukiko’s sort of successor. However instead of healing, I’d implement the fact that she learns concentrate and have it so the more she charges it up, the stronger her attacks get, but the Meter will gradually go down over the match. Yusuke, as tempting as it is to cop out and say ‘have him play like Vergil in Marvel vs Capcom’, I have a different idea. Namely, take advantage of the fact that Yusuke can learn counter by having him be the defensive specialist, set up ice traps to freeze the opponent, and if they get close, he can either counter or go for some combos.

Then there’s Makoto who would definitely be a grappler. I mean, she practices Aikido and is really strong, she can 100% pull it off. Finally Haru…… TANK! I mean come on, Haru wields an axe, has a grenade launcher, and Melady is literally a dancing tank in a pink dress, it just makes too much sense. I’d also give her a bit of armor cause if she’s slow she at least needs a chance to get her attacks in.

Okay so that’s 7 out of our 16 slots down, and given that one slot will have to be saved for the Evil Joker who would be the villain, we’re halfway done with 3 games to go, lord help me.

Okay, starting this off with P4, I’m gonna give them more than the others purely because they were the focus of the originals and there’s less realistic cuts I can make compared to 2 and 3. To make things simple, every returning character would play the same, and as for the ones I’d bring back for the base roster, we’ve got Yu, Yosuke, Chie and Naoto. Why them specifically? Well Yu is the main character, Naoto being a detective would basically mean she’d be the one getting everyone involved in the first place, Chie is currently training to be a cop as confirmed in P5 so her getting called in makes sense, and Yosuke is the best investigator after Yu and Naoto, he’s always up for a mystery and the second he learns Yu is involved he’s joining in. I just couldn’t cut him.

Now before the really painful cuts, Persona 2 is really easy. Out of Innocent Sin party members, by the end of the series Maya is the only one left with a Persona, and Katsuya is not only older brother of Innocent Sin’s protag Tatsuya, but he’s also pretty important and a detective so he’s definetly the one Maya’s dragging into this. As for how they play, they both use guns like Naoto, but how I’d mix them up is with Katsuya, I’d let him attack while moving (unlike Naoto who has so stay still to fire) at the cost of less combo potential, meanwhile Maya dual wields her guns so she’ll probably play like Noel Vermillion from BlazBlue where she’d more or less just use the guns to get longer reach melee attacks instead of shooting.

Now, for the hard part. There’s only 2 slots left, one of them basically has to go to Mitsuru (not that I’m complaining I’d probably add her anyway) meaning now I have to choose between the rest of the Shadow Operatives/SEES for the last slot. I narrowed it down to the 3 that were in the original Arena cause they’re the most plot relevant, but that still meant I had to choose between Akihiko and Aigis. I ended up deciding on Aigis though cause A, with Labrys not making the base roster someone has to represent the robots of the series, and B, with Akihiko currently pulling a Ryu by travelling to get stronger, it makes more sense that Aigis would be closer and easier for Mitsuru to call up. Honestly I was tempted to bump the roster up to 17 so I could have both of them on the base roster, but this is ArcSystems, 16 is already kinda pushing it.

DLC

Given that this is a modern fighting game, DLC is inevitable. However since this DLC will likely be like Ultimax where the story acts to wrap up loose ends and have a new story, it’s going yo be big, especially since there’s going to be a fight with Nyaraloptep, so go big or go home in this case. Okay so first order of business, anyone who was in the previous arena games who wasn’t in the base roster is getting added back in, it’s only fair. That out of the way, the new faces I’d add are Futaba actually being playable now and the big 4 P5 characters I skipped, Akechi, Yoshizawa, and Sophie. Before anyone asks though, Sophie was added into a Dragalia Lost collab with Koei Techmo not being credited so she’s likely Atlus’s copyright so she's safe to add.

With that out of the way, how would they play? Starting with Futaba, I’d think she’d be the resident puppet fighter, sitting on top of Necinomicon and only occasionally adding in some of her own attacks like a projectile. Also she'd also probably act as a bit of a grappler cause her Persona has tentacles (no hentai jokes please) which have long reach so that'll be perfect for it. Next up is Akechi who I can see as semi being two characters in one. My basic idea is that at first Akechi will be fighting with Robin Hood and he'll be a solid jack of all trades with a slight focus on rush down. However once he goes into his awakened mode he'll gain Loki, which will increase his speed and attack strength, at the cost of his defence, turning him into a glass cannon.

Next is Yoshizawa, or 'Sumi as I like to call her, and her thing will be she's the mobility focused fighter, namely constantly moving around the stage and poking at her opponent while doing it, at the cost of being frail. Finally there’s Sophie who would be a combo focused zoner, as in her standard projectiles (the yo-yo’s) wouldn’t hurt that much on their own, but she can string them together into the fancy yo-yo tricks to potentially do big damage. As for how much this DLC would cost, it’s going to be very big, so €25 to €30 sounds fair

I think that more or less covers my thoughts. I could keep going on about this for a while, but I think this is a good place to stop. Hope you like my idea!

[brokenhardies]

PERSONA 5 -- KOSEI TRIO AU

so basically, this au is a big arcanaswap au, with the main variable being that the main trio are yusuke, goro and hifumi

i dont have many ideas for them yet but here we go;

starting gang - madarame’s palace

the biggest difference is that instead of opening with kamoshida, we open with madarame’s palace. goro is trying to use his detective skills to figure out what happens to all of madarame’s students, and while initially adverse to the idea of his mentor being a bad person, yusuke goes along with this after being dragged into the metaverse alongside goro. morgana is kept in a laser cage in the palace. 

yusuke - the fool

codename is ‘azure’. initial persona is goemon. basically the same overdramatic nerd as in canon, raised by madarame, the usual. however, he’s the one who yaldaboth chooses for his scheme, and is classified as the trickster. wild card user

goro - the lovers

codename is ‘ace’. initial persona is robin hood. still the detective prince, but tires to keep a low profile by attending kosei. very popular, especially amongst girls. gets dragged into the metaverse alongside yusuke due to him researching madarame’s plagiarism

hifumi - the chariot

codename is ‘rook’. initial persona is nobunaga,  first great unifier of japan and head of the oda clan. still has the same background as in canon, complete with being made fun of for her overdramatic nature. yusuke asks for her help with strategising madarame’s palace which leads to him showing her the metaverse. navigator

morgana - the moon

codename is still ‘mona’. initial persona is zorro. there’s a heavier focus on mona’s lack of identity in this au, as well as how distant he feels from the other human persona users. sort of like his thing for ann, he has a thing for hifumi, which she more sees as just him being an affectionate pet

the team expands - kamoshida & kaneshiro’s palaces

kamoshida’s palace gets kicked off by goro being given an assignment to investigate a recent suicide attempt by shiho suzui at shujin high. the group immediately discover that this jackass has control of the whole school, treating it like his castle, and has been using male students as slave labor, and assaulting female students on top of that. the party members introduced here are;

shiho - the star

codename is ‘knight’. initial persona is medusa, a beautiful mortal turned horrific gorgon by athena after she was assaulted by poseidon. her main confidant is learning to recover from kamoshida’s abuse, as well as how to find peace in herself. she joins the team by accident due to trailing goro as he’s trying to investigate kamoshida

ren - the emperor

codename is ‘noctis’. initial persona is arsene. still has the same background as before, being falsely accused of a crime and dragged to tokyo on probation. he feels like he has no control of his surroundings, because no matter what he does, he’s considered a delinquent or criminal. even after they defeat kamoshida, he still feels deeply insecure - which he hides with sarcasm 

kaneshiro’s palace occurs after kamoshida’s, with our gang of 6 persona users being brought into the world of the yakuza thanks to a certain ‘detective prince’ not being able to keep his mouth shut. the person who drags them into this world is

ann - the justice

codename is ‘agent’. ann is still shiho’s best friend and a model, but she has a much darker backstory. she got into modelling following an accident that left her mother bedridden and the family lacking in funds. as a result, she has a side job -- that being basically acting as a spy for siu. 

goro figures this out and when she badmouths the phantom thieves, he decides to bet his job on whether or not the phantom thieves can change the heart of a notorious mafia boss. ann ‘awakens’ during the palace, but it’s quite clear that she’s hiding something from the gang...

the rising star, fallen from grace - ryuji’s palace

ryuji - the hermit

codename is ‘seer’. persona is captain kidd. instead of just having his leg broken by kamoshida, ryuji also got ‘expelled’ by him as well. now with no real prospects and working two jobs to help support his mother, poor ryuji is a shadow of himself in the game, basically locking himself in his room, and only leaving the house to work because that’s all he thinks he’s good for. 

it’s actually one of his bosses who puts forth the request to change ryuji’s heart, knowing full well that he’s suffering under all the stress he’s putting himself through, especially considering he still has a busted leg that he can barely walk on. 

his palace is one of his workplaces, which takes the form of a massive sporting arena, with shadow ryuji forced to fight in gladitorial style battles for the entertainment of a giant cognitive version of his mother. ryuji winds up entering his palace through the metanav, and the group help him come to terms with his deep seated issues. 

i imagine he takes the navigator role. he and morgana still bicker from time to time as well, bc some things dont change

an accident - okumura’s palace

much like in canon, the phantom thieves have been starting to get popular after helping destroy medjed (which happens at the same time as ryuji’s palace, as a certain someone is pulling the strings). but morgana has been starting to doubt himself more often, especially now that most of his roles (navigator, healer, strategist etc.) have been taken up by the rest of the thieves. he and ryuji get into an argument that leads into him running off, but unlike in canon, yusuke follows morgana. this leads them to a backstreet, wherein they meet;

sumire - the fortune

codename is ‘rouge’. persona is cendrillon. sumire got injured in the car accident that took kasumi, removing both of their dreams of gymnastics for good. even though she is still a first year, she’s taken on a part time job working at okumura foods as an analyst. 

it’s through her that yusuke discovers about the mistreatment of the employees by okumura and feels especially sympathetic due to the fact that he understands what it’s like. he contacts the thieves and returns to the hideout with sumire, who is mainly there to help with the planning. 

morgana is initially hesitant to communicate with the team, which leads to a whole bunch of miscommunication between the gang. yusuke decides that maybe the group need to take some mementos requests to improve team morale before they go for okumura’s palace, but the phansite is blowing up with requests for him. 

during one of these mementos requests, morgana nearly gets killed going up against a dangerous shadow by himself, which leads to sumire’s awakening. this only serves to make morgana MORE insecure about his position on the team, which makes okumura’s palace even harder

also; at the same time, yusuke has been working at a flower shop, and one of his fellow employees is one haru okumura. yusuke is high wisdom, low intelligence personified so he didn’t spot the thread until either sumire or ann basically tells him that haru is related to kunizaku. he decides to ask her a few questions for the metanav, but haru asks why he’s doing this, which leads to her getting dragged along for the ride

haru - temperance

codename is ‘rose’. persona is milady. haru has to juggle being both the heir to okumura foods and an ordinary student with a part time job. she and yusuke have been working on a confidant for a while (id say shes about the same rank as shiho or ren, as the job opens around about the same time as kamoshida’s palace) and have become close due to their shared eccentricities.

haru awakens pretty much the same way as in canon, with the reveal that the biggest threat is her being basically sold into marriage with a total creep. blah blah blah worst palace in the game blah blah blah after they defeat shadow okumura and get his treasure, ann stays behind...

only to shoot shadow okumura in the head. this leads to okumura’s death, public support for the phantom thieves collapsing, haru having a breakdown and the group needing to decide whether what they’re doing is morally right or not. the bad news is there’s one more thing they need to do - one last job before the phantom thieves disband, set up by ann;

steal the heart of her boss, sae nijima. 

the harder they fall - nijima’s palace + interrogation 

this is where things get tricky. when the group arrive to the siu building, they have an encounter with nijima’s younger sister makoto. 

makoto - judgement

codename is ‘hero’. persona is johanna. makoto is very brash and headstrong, but also desperately wants to prove herself to her sister. the group don’t really have the heart to tell her that they’re stealling nijima’s heart, until much later. and she joins the group at that point, unlocking her persona while facing off against her sister in a stand down.

then just as theyre about to grab the treasure... yusuke is arrested. they were betrayed by one of their own. 

cue the interrogation, which leads to yusuke and sae bonding, forming a confidant on top of that (sae is the high priestess in this world). but then, yusuke hands sae his phone, telling her to give it to her ‘agent’ - ann takamaki

ann walks into the room, pointing a gun at yusuke with a frown on her face.

“i’m sorry, kitagawa-kun. i have to do this.”

“i know. just get it over with.”

BANG

she places the gun in his hand to make it look like a suicide... but here’s the thing -- he’s alive. that was a ploy by the thieves to discover the true traitor... 

ann takamaki is the black mask who is organising the mental shutdowns

the final countdown - shido’s palace and yaldaboth 

the group are rattled by ann’s betrayal, ESPECIALLY shiho. how could someone she’s known since childhood betray her and her friends like that?

we discover that one of the main reasons she was kept around on the siu was because she was doing sexual favours for the group. to make things even worse, the conspiracy blackmailed her into performing the shutdowns with threats of making the acts even worse

ann really doesn’t want to do this, but feels like she has no choice. she grew to respect and love the phantom thieves during their time together, but its the only way she can take revenge on the rotten adults who ruined her life

nearly everyone has been through the same amount of shit, but they’re willing to forgive her... but this leads into shido’s palace

basically, same shit as canon - big ass cruise ship, swimsuits, and a fight with black mask that ends with them getting shot by a cognition of themselves. (oh and sidenote; ann’s 'true’ persona is nemesis, the goddess who enacts retribution against those who fall to hubris. surprisingly fitting!) 

they defeat shido, in the process finding out that he’s goro’s biological dad and that he was the one who put ren on probation. then the whole yaldaboth shennanigans happen. a note; everyone has their ultimate personas by this point, and their mostly the same in canon, except for yusuke. atm im thinking of giving him mephistopheles, who is the demon from faust, bc yusuke’s a dramatic little shit. the day is saved! everyone’s lives are back to normal, but ren’s going back to juve following christmas...

or at least, that’s what yusuke thought, only to be shocked to find out from the man himself that he isn’t... and that ann takamaki, who died in shido’s palace, is alive

the ideal & the real - maruki’s palace

so basically the shujin students have been recieving counselling from maruki, and he’s also been visiting various students from kosei. yusuke has a social link with him that’s been increasing his sp, but he finds maruki suspicious (again, remember him and madarame) 

suddenly, as if by magic, everyone’s lives have been improved -- hifumi’s mother is nicer and she’s back to being a shogi wiz, akechi’s mother is alive and shido is in jail, morgana is human now and can spend more time with the phantom thieves, shiho’s best friend is back to life and she’s recognised as a star volleyballer, ren’s no longer on probation and can spend an extra semester in tokyo without fear of jail time, ryuji’s no longer working 2 jobs and his leg is no longer hurting, sumire’s sister is alive and she no longer has to live with survivors guilt or living up to her expectations, haru’s father’s alive and is considerably less of a jerk, and makoto’s father is also alive and her relationship with sae has been improved. 

hell, even madarame’s back and offering yusuke to be his pupil again, but god yusuke will not accept it. neither will ann. unlike goro, ann’s personality of being sweet and bubbly wasn’t really a ruse, but she can be a little short tempered and aggressive in battle as the black mask. they find maruki’s palace and discover that maruki has been doing all of this using cognitive psience. he also needed a fellow person to perform these, which leads the group to sojiro sakura’s house

futaba - the faith

i know. i know. it took me long enough. she’s more or less here as the last confidant, introduced following hawaii. still the same backstory, she goes along with maruki’s plan as they have similar goals. 

maruki even offers to bring her mother back, and while she initially accepts, she realizes that it’s wrong fairly quickly. she also doesn’t have a persona, she’s more like just a confidant here, but she’s very important to the plot as she’s the one who helps with discovering the plot

then maruki’s palace happens, complete with him and yusuke fighting on the glass roof. maruki begs him to reconsider, saying that he can create a world where beauty doesn’t need to be hidden beneath the evils of the world, but yusuke counters, basically with a variation of his amazing awakening speech. he goes back to the mona-copter and everythings back to normal. 

[badlydrawndrawnings]

That’s it I QUIT -Third Semester Round Up Edition

With Third Semester Info finally out due to Tim Barry deciding to come back from his power sleep

We got lots of spoilers

And I’m going to be FREE after this post.

No more posting spoilers myself. I’m just gonna enjoy the sweet ride to the new ending and see what people have to say because I accidentally ruined my own sleep schedule and got tired of the chat lol. These are just brief translation that are probably off (all done by translators in the stream btw)

We got endgame spoilers, so go with caution if you want to know them. 

12/24

So Sae is about to send Joker’s ass to jail when 

Surprised Mother F*cker! Goro is alive! It seems Tim Barry’s back tracking did good after all! Joker asks if Goro is real, and Goro is all, “yeah I’m real’. And Goro roughly says he’s going to accept that Shido’s sins are his and he’s going to jail in Joker’s place

It also seems you can’t please all the haters bc they think he’s still better off dead (bruh if he’s dead how you think we even got joker playable in third semester).

12/25

So there’s a Christmas Party, and Morgana comes back in his cat form. It’s pretty much like canon

12/30 and 12/31

Akechi is in jail (for what crimes I don’t know), and because of his testimony against Shido, the woman who Joker saved comes forward (I think). Joker is now free of his false crime. Kasumi is there.

So on the night of the 12/31, Joker has a dream about Shujin. It’s very Persona 1 like. The school is dark and empty. There’s a blue butterly, and Joker follows it around. Voices of the PT members can be heard talking about their wishes

1/1

New animated cutscene with Kasumi. The Gang celebrates the New Year.

By the way, Human!Morgana’s looks isn’t what curse. It’s his voice.

IT’S STILL THE SAME VA AND LEAVES A JARRING AFFECT.

We also get to meet Kasumi’s dad and there’s something off about him

To where she sense it as well

1/2

Wakaba is at LeBlanc eating with Futaba and Human Mona is there.

Surprise Mother F8cker! 

Goro walks in. He takes in his surrounding, and he and Joker speak in private. Turns out Goro suddenly got release from jail for no reason, and that tipped him off lol. So they talk about the dream world, and Kasumi calls Joker, and the two head of to meet her at the construction sight.

After three damn years, Goro -since Kasumi is confuse why he’s there- tells her he is not a Phantom Thief. But he is helping them. Kasumi called Joker because she realize that yeah, something is off and think there’s a Palace there.

The trio enter the Research Facility Palace and Goro is in Black Mask mode. Kasumi ask why, and he tells her he doesn’t feel the need to be the detective prince. As a result, we must press F for Robin Hood (for the time being. Who knows if he’ll show up again).

So they investigate and fight Shadow. Tim Barry was able to get an All out Attack with Goro. I decide the truth is in fact, real.

As a humorous moment, because Goro is now allowing himself become more feral, Kasumi ask if he’s like this. The chat made Tim Barry pick option 2: This is his true self.

Anyway, they run into a screen that shows Kasumi’s father talking to his dead daughter, aka, Kasumi’s twin. Something is said, but I have no idea what is translated.

Kasumi starts to feel off herself, and

Oh hey we see Kasumi on some stand? Why is your hair kind of brown? Why do you have a beauty mark on your face? Serious did you-

Who the hell is Sumire (I think that’s the spelling)? Isn’t that the dead twin?

(Where did Harumi came from?)

The trio continue to go further into the Palace and-

OH HELL NO!

In the strangest twist, the Paalce Owner is in fact, Takuto Maruki.

But it’s not his Shadow Self. IT’S THE REAL TAKUTO MARUKI. HE HAS ENTER THE METAVERSE HIMSELF AND CREATED A NEW REALITY AND PALACE FOR HIMSELF.

My god. I’m getting Persona 1 and Kandori flashbacks. Anyway, Takuto had no idea he even made a Palace until Goro tells him. So it turns out Takuto is something of a well extreme villain antagonist. The reason he’s been playing GOD is to keep Kasumi’s happy and free from pain of reality.

BECAUSE THAT AIN’t KASUMI THAT’S SUMIRE PRETENDING TO BE KASUMI.

It turns out, Kasumi was the oldest of the twins. She’s pretty much the cheerful girl we see from Sumire- as Kasumi. The real Kasumi was so much better than Sumire in gymnastics, and it create a lot of self inferiority complex on Sumire. It got to where Sumire wanted to be Kasumi, and somehow Sumire decided to run into traffic while it was raining.

The real Kasumi saved Sumire and died as a result. 

Upon remembering, ‘Kasumi’ de-transforms, and appears as her frumpy self. Talks happens, and I don’t know what was said for much of this because the chat was spamming too much. Apparently Sumire was an experiment of sorts (YOU’RE A MAKI AND MANGA!BOY WITH EARRING/NAOYA CLONE FUSION) and her own cognition/mask of herself was change for this ‘switch’ to happen. 

Goro finds everything about Takuto’s research and plan terrible and hates it. Takuto feels sad Goro feels that way (well maybe if Takuto got Goro’s damn dream he would be on board with it lol). 

So Sumire, wanting to still be Kasumi, agrees to go with Takuto. Takuto says Sumire won’t be harm (because again, he actually does care for her), but Joker doesn’t agree with it. So a boss fight happens, and we get Joker and Black Mask Crow’s showtime.

It’s in the rain and on a city rooftop. Goro is just on a blood spree and Joker shoots with a gun.

So they get expell (?) from the Palace and Goro is all like ‘well we can’t talk down the guy with just the two of us we need more help’. This is the part of Goro’s trailer where he’s all ‘you can hang out in dream world if you want’ in that disgusting tone.

And then I left the stream because I got sick and tired of the chat lol. Last thing I saw was Joker visiting his friends and their ‘dream that became reality’.

[mightygarchomp]

Why I Love Goro Akechi: A (Long) Character Analysis

(WARNING: SPOILERS FOR PERSONA 5 LEFT AND RIGHT.)

(ADDITIONAL WARNING: Due to how controversial Goro is as a character, I’m definitely gonna get people disagreeing with me, and that’s perfectly fine. Just don’t start tossing in death threats, kay? Kay.)

Goro Akechi. One of the most controversial characters I’ve ever seen in a video game. Opinions on him are widely varied; either you love the guy and feel sorry for what he’s gone through, you can sympathize with him but dislike the lengths he goes to, or you just plain hate the guy due to his actions.

Well, if you couldn’t tell from the title of this analysis, I’m in the first camp, and proud of it.

I accept the risk of an angry mob going for my head in saying that Goro may just be my favorite character in a video game. I love pretty much everything about him, and yet I’m actually legitimately angry at how Atlus treated the guy. Seriously, they had a goldmine here and they wasted it. But whatever, I’m not here to rant about how disappointing Persona 5’s endgame was (though if you REALLY want me to do that, let me know). I’m here to pick apart Goro Akechi. Just what made him into who he was? How did his newfound Persona powers affect the course of his life? And what lead to him pulling the ultimate sacrifice? I’ll be answering all these questions - and hopefully more - in this analysis on the dashing Crow.

Part 1: A Life Full Of Hatred - How Goro Became Who He Was

All of the Phantom Thieves have pretty terrible lives, don’t they? The death of Futaba’s mother gave her some pretty intense survivor’s guilt, Haru’s stuck in an arranged marriage with the worst fiance imaginable, et cetera. Well, I think very few people will argue with me when Goro has the worst of it - save perhaps Futaba, but she gets over her issues. That never truly happens to Goro, even in his final moments. And can you really blame him?

The basic gist of it is this: Goro was born as an illegitimate child who was abandoned by his dad before he was even born. His mother either died from childbirth or killed herself out of shame, which left Goro to be passed around from foster home to foster home by the court. Throughout his entire life he’s never really had anyone to call a friend due to being shunted around. And note that this is just what he tells you before you find out what he’s really up to. When you find out who that dad is, things get much worse.

Goro’s dad is none other than Masayoshi Shido, the main antagonist of the game and one of the most heartless characters I’ve ever seen in a video game. Of course, Goro resented Shido for abandoning him, but he couldn’t really do anything. I’m not completely sure how Goro managed to find out how Shido was his dad, but that’s less an issue with his character and more an issue with Persona 5’s writing, so we’ll skip over that.

A lot of people like to say Goro’s just a guy with daddy issues, but I’d like you guys to keep in mind that this takes place in Japan. If you live in America, then this probably isn’t as much of an issue, but in Japan, being a bastard child is a huge problem, to the point where you’re basically born an outcast. Japan has a family registration system called koseki, which - until 2013 - did nothing to protect against discrimination towards illegitimate children. And keep in mind that his foster homes were probably aware of this, so imagine all of the hatred and discrimination he went through.

Honestly, with this information, it’s no wonder he grew into the bitter, resentful person he was. Never being acknowledge by his father, having to put up with loads of abuse... his early childhood was a terrible mess, to the point where he seems to have little in the way of self-worth. He outright calls himself a “disgrace to the world”. It also puts his ultimate plan into perspective, considering this would destroy Shido’s reputation - and also any trust in government, which would throw society into chaos AND give him the revenge and closure he desired on all the adults who abused him.

Despite his princely detective mask and fame, he has some pretty deep-rooted issues to the point where he’s not only angry that the Phantom Thieves are “better than him” (as he perceives it) but also terrified. The few things he actually has in life - his fame and image - were at risk of being worthless, considering he perceived the Thieves as having things he didn’t despite him being much more successful than them. It shows that even with all this fame he’s not really that happy. And worst of all, he had no chance to change his terrible life.

Or did he?

Part 2: A Chance At Revenge - Goro’s Wild Card Abilities and His Father

Goro may have hit rock bottom, but he found hope when he gained the ability to use Personas - and also the possible power to get revenge on his father, who he was formerly powerless against. But he’s not just any Persona user; he’s a Wild Card. This wouldn’t be much of a big deal before Persona 3, considering from what I know everyone was a Wild Card, but after Persona 3? We never really got Wild Cards other than the protagonist, save maybe Adachi. And even then, Goro was the only one to actually use multiple Personas in battle. Or, well... two.

See, most people complain that Goro’s boss fight could have been a lot cooler, with him switching between Personas, but these people are missing the entire deal of the Wild Card. Goro was unable to fully utilize the power of the Wild Card because he had no bonds. Of course, you may wonder in that case... what’s the deal with his Personas? Which one is the original, and how did he get a second one? Well, my theory is that Loki is the original. It would make sense, given his whole deal of causing mental shutdowns and sending people berserk - the main thing he did with Loki.

Of course, in that case, how did he get Robin Hood? Well, my theory is that there is one bond he made: his bond with Joker. He’s legitimately regretful about the turn of events that leads to his boss fight, and wishes he could have met Joker beforehand. Morgana even points out that he’s happy when he’s with Joker. The other Thieves treat him with scorn initially, and by the time they start warming up to him, it’s not enough to get a true bond. But Joker was... well, depending on your choices, the nicest one to him. At the very least, he’s the one who interacts the most with Goro.

Of course, there’s probably going to be the inevitable argument of “you can still fuse Personas if you don’t have the Social Links yet”. However, one thing I’d like you guys to keep in mind is that we have no confirmation that Goro even got to see the Velvet Room. During his confrontation, his exact words are “Someone, be it god or demon, gave me a chance...” which implies that he has no idea how he got Persona powers. If he doesn’t have access to Igor and the Velvet Room assistants (notably, Caroline and Justine never mention him) then how’s he supposed to fuse new Personas? He had no one to guide him into believing he could negotiate with Shadows, either, unlike Joker. So it makes sense that the only Personas he have would be born from his own heart - one from his sheer hatred for the world and Yaldabaoth’s gift, and the other one being from his bond with Joker.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about Goro’s plans from there: he came to Shido as an unknown benefactor and offered him his services. Of course, seeing as Shido saw him as a useful pawn, he accepted, and the two entered a partnership. Goro was effectively Shido’s personal hitman - and this started two years prior to the events of the game. Basically, Goro became an assassin right out of middle school.

Of course, the biggest elephant in the room is... if Goro is so sympathetic, why did he murder so many people, including being responsible for Wakaba Isshiki and Kunikazu Okumura’s deaths? Well, the thing is... keep in mind Goro has gone through a lot. His dad was basically responsible for his terrible life, and since we can infer he was regularly abused at his households, he probably became pretty fixated on getting revenge. Imagine not getting closure for over a decade for someone who made your life a living hell. Goro is very determined to get revenge on his father, no matter the circumstances. He pretty much had to do exactly what Shido told him if he wanted to get revenge. Keep in mind Shido is willing to kill pretty much anybody who isn’t useful to him anymore. One wrong step and Goro would probably be a victim.

Furthermore, another thing to keep in mind is that throughout all his live, Goro has been severely affection starved. He’s had no friends or family that really loved him. At this point he’s willing to do anything to get acknowledgment from someone even if it’s just for his talents. By the time he found a real friend in Joker, he thought it was too late to really change. Goro outright admits he just wanted to be loved and acknowledged by someone, but due to his own narrow-minded views and the refusal to accept the fact that he wasted two years of his life murdering people and obeying the person he hates most for nothing, his ability to back out is long gone. In Goro’s life, anyone could die.

The most important thing, however, is that even with Persona powers, he’s just a kid going up against a powerful conspiracy. What could he do to escape the cycle of abusive homes? The only real option he could think of to take was revenge. And honestly, I can’t blame him. Even if he’s done some terrible things, he couldn’t really be a hero in the first place, considering he didn’t even know stealing hearts was possible until it was too late.

Luckily, he did see the light in the end... kind of.

Part 3: A Desire For Redemption - The Lead-Up To Goro’s Sacrifice

With my personal disdain for Persona 5’s endgame, I won’t deny that Goro’s redemption arc could have been handled far better. That said, there are clear signs of it. The big question for this section: What built up to Goro eventually sacrificing himself for the Phantom Thieves in a situation that he could’ve escaped from if he had done something as simple as move back a little?

Well, let’s start with the most important part: his friendship with Joker. As you find out in Shido’s cruise ship, despite being a traitor, Goro didn’t lie about his past to Joker - he just left out the more important parts. For a guy who’s perfectly willing to lie and seems heartless, that’s kind of odd, wouldn’t you think? Why would he spill such personal details? It’s obvious he holds Joker in high regard, which is made even more evident as you meet up with him more often and rank up his Confidant. In the final confrontation with him, before he starts to get more hostile, he laments that he couldn’t have met Joker earlier, before he deemed it too late to change.

This carries further through the dungeon he joins you in. Throughout the Palace, Goro is getting hazed by the other Thieves because they’re onto him. However, as the dungeon goes on they start to respect him more for his wit and assistance. Goro was probably feeling good about being admired by people who aren’t complete sociopaths like Shido, and he no doubt wanted to hold onto that feeling, but ultimately decided to go forward because he had sunk too much into his mission with Shido. How could I assume this? Well, after he kills Joker and talks to Shido about the deed, he manages to convince Shido not to have him off the other Thieves, AND also ignores Morgana’s existence and lies about it to Shido - the man he’s pretty much the obedient puppet of at this point. That speaks volumes.

So what happens when the Thieves manage to convince him that it’s not too late for his life to take a turn for a better? Well, one beating-the-crap session out of him later, they outright admit they admire his strength and wit, but also gently admonish him for his power being fueled by hate and anger. Then they give him the option to join them against Shido - for real. A part of me wonders what would have happened if he was able to say yes before Cognitive Goro showed up...

Regardless, this leads to Goro pulling the ultimate sacrifice: blocking himself off from the party and performing a mutual kill on his cognitive self. We’ve already established the lead-up to this, but one thing I noticed is that Goro had an easy escape route. If he just moved a little bit - or, hell, even dived - he could have ended up on the other side of the wall and Cognitive Goro would have been unable to stop him. Why didn’t he? Well...

The biggest reason is that even if Goro changes, as many fans like to point out, his crimes aren’t magically erased. Goro is well aware what he’s doing is wrong, even if he considers it his own twisted “justice” at the same time. Given his demeanor after he’s defeated and the fact that he didn’t reform due to how much he had put into this plan, it’s easy to say he probably doesn’t think he can atone for his crimes with any method other than, well, death.

The other reason is also interesting: Should Goro have escaped, that wouldn’t have helped with Cognitive Goro. He’d still be active and roaming the Palace and could kill the Thieves. Goro’s intelligent enough that he probably considered this and wanted to remove the Thieves’ biggest opponent for good - and the only way to do that was by sacrificing himself.

Or, y’know, he just didn’t have enough energy to move out of the way in time.

Part 4: Closing Thoughts + Should Goro Turn Out To Be Alive?

This doesn’t really relate to his character, but I figured it’d be interesting to include. There are people who think Goro should either stay dead or turn out to be alive, but have to atone for his crimes. What do I think?

Well, this is down to some heavy personal preferences, but I think Goro should stay alive... but only because his redemption arc was pretty rushed due to the endgame’s rather poor writing. They could have done so much more with Goro, honestly, but his redemption arc just kinda happened - and what makes it worse is that he’s mentioned maybe three times max after his death.

The reason I think Goro should have survived his death is because he deserves so much more than what he got. His arc could’ve been absolutely wonderful with how complex a character he is. All he wanted was acknowledgment and love, and we can all relate to that, right? He may have committed some truly heinous crimes, but I think he would have turned out far differently with the right people around. Even if no one else will, I’ll stick up for him any day and give him the affection and respect he deserves.

Thanks for reading.

[albino-troll-ninja]

Persona 5 Thoughts: Closing the Loop Edition

(MAJOR spoilers, up to the end of the sixth Palace and the scenes that happen after that)

So, the story is caught up, the villains have revealed themselves, and the Big Plan has gone off without a hitch. (Ignore the part where I got the Bad End)

Overall, I feel... a little underwhelmed? Not by much, granted, but there’s something a little unsatisfying about that chain of events.

That was a cool plan on the Thieves’ part. Called the phone being hacked and Morgana’s voice being important to the plan. My big complaint is that it doesn’t feel like something the Thieves would come up with? Who actually brainstormed that plan? Futaba? Makoto? Let’s be real, we’re a bunch of idiots. Having a plan with that many moving parts and logical-in-retrospect assumptions about the Metaverse feels like something you’d need a party member with a higher INT stat to accomplish. (Come to think of it, if Hifumi was a PT, as was planned in development, then I could buy such a complex plan)

Once again I got mad at an animated cutscene but not for the usual reasons. Why the HELL is Haru’s fiance anywhere near her? Was the fifth Palace all for naught, then? The fuck, P5.

There’s probably a lot to say about Akechi. I’m mostly wondering how exactly he went around getting people to mentally shut down. Did he just hunt through Mementos after school, searching for Shadows to shoot?

At this point, I just plain don’t get Robin Hood. I get his design more - idealized superhero, not different from Zorro in that way - but why Robin Hood? It doesn’t reflect either of Akechi’s selves at all. (Now I’m mad that it wasn’t the Scarlet Pimpernel. First superhero vigilante? Saved the rich and wealthy from popular justice at the hands of the common people? Perfect fit.)

I feel like we could use one or two more people on Team Evil, under Shido’s direct thumb. In particular, a rogue scientist (or perhaps pscientist?) who’s specifically the one that fucked over Wakaba. I’m getting the feeling that their consolidating all the evils into either Shido or Akechi is going to dilute the satisfaction of seeing particular party members get their revenge. (I’m just going to bet now that no mention is going to go to the fact that Akechi killed Haru’s father.)

Sae’s boss fight was neat. Good use of “Will Power”.

Ugh, I hate that I’ve run out of time. I feel like I won’t even be able to complete the small slice of Confidants I have set aside to do. If I’m unable to complete Hifumi, Futaba, or Yusuke, I’m gonna be sad.

Final thoughts: I know there’s a last swerve, but I’m not seeing the evidence for it in the story. I assume that means it’ll be underwhelming. Oh, well, you can’t be perfect I guess, P5.

[thebaalpit-blog]

I like P5 a lot (Spoilers)

So I finished P5 and now that i’ve come out of playing it twice, both in separate languages, I have a lot of wild opinions to go about so here we go. It should go without seeing I’m gonna talk about the game freely, but here’s a warning in case.

I would have to say I like the story of the game a lot, but I’m accounting for the first, fourth, and everything after the fifth arc. Kamoshida is an incredibly strong antagonist who does a million things for setting up the game very well, Sae and Futaba are great ways of showing that Changes of Hearts can happen to people on their own so long as they’re willing to make the change, and Goro and Shido are great personal antagonists for the group and Joker respectively. I like the final storyline a lot too with Yaldabaoth, but it’s very cheesy social commentary in a lot of ways and Yaldy himself isn’t a compelling antagonist so much as the idea that the strict social order that controlled Japan so strongly gave birth to his existence. I’m a big fan of stories that have weird realms or things going on because of the desires of a person being so strong they manifest out of the blue due to human sin and it’s part of the reason why P3 and P4 disappoint me on that front, because they’re largely god plots with very little of that, while P5 is a god plot but it is a god plot created by humans and their sin. While Yaldy himself isn’t particularly impressive, the desire that the Citizens of Tokyo had towards not wanting any part of society to break even a little bit being so strong it creates a god to ensure that never comes about, is and it’s wonderful when Joker summons Satanael to blow his fucking brains out.

I am a big fan of things generally considered to be evil or negative are framed as heroic or things people use to grow. So I appreciate that Joker and Arsene while both very menacing and demonic looking are the heroes of the story and his persona. Arsene especially has such an amazing design that I love looking at him and honestly want to get some sort of figure of him if one gets made. Joker is a fantastic way to make a quiet protagonist that also has a lot of character to him. Between his own backstory, the grudge with Shido, Goro being his foil, and his generally menacing demeanor combined with very theatric and over the top motions he makes, he has a ton of personality in him. The game in general does, but I was not expecting to love the Protagonist more than most of the main cast. His ultimate persona being Satanael is also fucking cool, because not only is the entire moment just an amazing thing and the scope of the whole fight is absolutely beautiful, but Satanael in gnosticism is the dude who is supposed to keep Yaldabaoth in check. So it’s awesome they played to the Trickster theme, the “Blacks are whites” mentality P5 has towards the protagonists, and the lore of the mythological figures themselves. It’s such a cool moment and the music that plays during the summoning is a great arrangement on the boss them that played prior. I can talk forever about Joker and his persona, but I need to talk about other stuff.

The main cast is great. I love Ryuji, he’s easily the best bro character of the games excepting maybe Eikichi. You get to see him grow from a bitter teenager with a huge chip on his shoulder, to a young man with a strong sense of self respect and justice. He gets into silly situations and can be stupid, but he’s a genuinely cool dude and I love him. Ann’s alright and she enhances Ryuji a bit too since they’re both old friends, but they can mess around with one another and it feels organic. I don’t think highly of her tbh, but she’s alright for the most part. Makoto is awesome, being Joker’s contemporary in the group. She’s smart, she has a good head on her shoulders, she kicks ass, and has an amazing outfit. It’s really cool that when they thought of a girl they would try to push as the romantic interest for Joker they made her as much of a character in the group as him. Yusuke’s hilarious, but also is one of the more emotional parts of the team. His interactions with Futaba are great and shows how his weird perspective connects with others. Futaba herself is a ton of fun with her goofy ass personality and smart ass comments. Haru I don’t care for much, but she’s got cool animations so I warmed up a bit to her over time.

The antagonists are all kind of a mixed bag, but the great ones are great. I won’t talk about Yaldy because I already mentioned his deal before. Kamoshida’s an immaculate piece of shit. I cannot tell you how happy I am that he is never once hidden in that aspect. If they had tried to hide his shitty attitude when adults or whatever were around it would cheapen the whole thing, but nope he’s just as shitty to you regardless of whose presence he’s in. It helps that he has such a connection to the school that he effects literally everyone there even the people who don’t associate with him. The underlying character depth also of him being a gold medalist who probably got fucked up by the societal and personal pressure of having to keep being the best giving him a warped perspective on others owing him for this is also great. He’s just got a ton of fucking great things about himself and a super easily punchable face. 

For Goro and Shido, they’re both great. Goro is a fantastic foil to Joker, also being a user of the Wild Card and a pawn of Shido’s due to wanting to be recognized by his dad. His being sent from home to home as an unwanted child has fucked him up so much he desires to see the destruction of the same society that allowed this to happen. At the same time though Goro only has two Persona, Loki and Robin Hood. The underlying implication of course being Goro has only ever had himself and never actually made connections with others so he has two Persona compared to Joker’s several. Shido on the other hand is a good antagonist for how militant he is and how business like he is when handling others. He doesn’t actually recognize the people he steps over in his path to success. He barely recognizes Goro looking like his mother and doesn’t even know Joker is the same child he got locked off into Shibuya. It shows his megalomania off very well that he ultimately created his own enemy and him killing literally everyone tying back to him characterizes perfectly how militant and cold he truly is. 

As for the rest of them. Sae is a good antagonist for her purposes, but she’s not as strong as the other three. Madarame has moments where they characterize him later, but them insisting on his murdering of Yusuke’s mom and his moustache twirling villainy combined with that makes him a very confusing and lame character. Kaneshiro has a minute of characterization, but is a fucking joke villain. Okumura is boring and has a nice moment of depth with the space station kit, but unfortunately he’s being a nothing character every other minute in the worst storyline of the game so rip.

The music in the game is really fantastic. Beneath the Mask and Rivers in the Desert are hands down two of the best tracks in Shoji Meguro’s history of music. Blooming Villain is my favorite non-final boss track in Persona. Layer Cake is CATCHY AS FUCK. Price and When My Mother Was Around are amazing dungeon tracks with Whims of Fate being even better than those two. There’s a lot of other great tracks as well, but I cannot list every single one.

The gameplay mechanics overall improved for the better in a lot of ways and Confidants are really cool too. I do have to say though some of the non-party member ones fall into a really lame pattern of “Character is griefed by other outside character in some way, go to mementos and get rid of them.” But the storylines more than often make up for them. Hifumi, Munehisa, Sadayo, and Toranosuke are some of the more memorable ones. 

If I have complaints though it’s that Mementos is fucking lame. Some of the dungeons are really boring or have lame gimmicks or are LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNG (Kaneshiro and Okumura’s palaces most notably). The story feels like it’s going nowhere for a while. Bosses are boring for the most part with really lame ass mid battle gimmicks, the Sphinx is an absolutely garbage boss fight too. The best bosses are probably Shido and Shadow Okumura, the former because of it not being a lame gimmick driven fight and the latter because you can find fun ways to negate entire legions of the robots. Shadow Madarame and Kamoshida are okay too, but they’re not remarkable or particularly interesting either. The designs on a lot of them are pretty lame too. Also Morgana needs to shut the fuck up about telling me to go to sleep. I love the little bastard, but jesus christ.

But yeah, those are my thoughts on P5. It’s a really cool game that I love a lot that honestly has a decent number of faults, but I don’t care about them which is surprising because I haven’t felt that strongly about a game since like... Metal Gear Rising. Not that those two have a lot of crossover sans the incredibly buff final boss politician with lyrical music in the back.