#with yukari you go side by side-she wishes to stick around with you and spend time together and she is really is there for you.

[yuseirra]

The journey

[edvonstein]

which precures would read homestuck without being dared to

Boy howdy. There’s a question I didn’t expect. Well let’s see here and go down the list:

Nagisa: Got into it shortly after launch, after hearing Honoka talk about it.

Honoka: OG reader, has been around for most of Hussie’s stuff.

Hikari: She didn’t read it until about halfway through its publication run, but caught up in a single night. She made fanart.

Saki: She tried to get into it for Mai, but it never really meshed with her. Still learned enough through osmosis to cosplay both Dirk and Dave.

Mai: She has five sketch books that are just redraws of the entire series with everybody replaced by Saki. None of her friends must ever see. They saw. They didn’t get it, but liked the art.

Nozomi: OG reader, not the absolute biggest fan, but did walk away liking it.

Rin: Saw Nozomi read it, and tried a little herself. Then she met Kanaya. The rest was history and fanfics. And special flower arrangements.

Urara: Currently lobbying for a broadway adaption. She is undecided which role she wants to play tho.

Komachi: She has changed her writing pseudonym to John Egbert, to get a better likelyhood of getting her Pirate Hurricane series published. She writes more like a mix of Dave and Rose though. It’s fucking mind expanding.

Karen: She had it fed through her home’s in house cinema to watch it with Komachi initially. They all ended up watching it.

Milk/Kurumi: “Vriska did nothing wrong”

Love: Her and Setsuna totally are like Rose and Kanaya. She is Rose of course.

Miki: She knows she is everybody’s Kanaya. She spend some time making masks of the characters. You can imagine how well that ended. Her Kanaya cosplays are somehow still great for the family boutique.

Inori: Yeah, she read it. Each reading session was followed by a trip to the confession booth. Eventually she just started reading it in the confession booth. The priest liked it too.

Setsuna: Her and Love totally are like Rose and Kanaya. She is Rose of course.

Tsubomi: Yes she read it. No her friends must never know. She doesn’t realize all of them have read it too.

Erika: The only friend Tsubomi opened up to about Homestuck. Turns out Erika runs one of the main japanese fansites of Homestuck.

Itsuki: Main mod on Erika’s fansite. Tsubomi must never know. Nor her family. Itsuki still feels too uncomfortable in their skin for that.

Yuri: Almost OG reader, she and Honoka frequented the same forums. Upon casual mention from Honoka, Yuri tried it out. Her young friends must never be tainted by this horror. Hopefully Hussie updates soon!

Hibiki:Learned about it through Ako. Found it pretty sweet, but didn’t make it all the way.

Kanade: Also learned about it through Ako. her bi heart couldn’t be stopped as she steamed through almost all of it in one go.

Ellen: Had been following it for about a year with Hummie before Suite happened. Continued reading while on the villains side. Often plays Homestuck songs while busking, and has several rearrangements on niconico.

Ako: Has been reading Hussie’s stuff since halfway through Problem Sleuth. She was 7 at the time. There’s a reason she a) is so crumby, Karkat is her spirit animal, and b) she decided to go and become an extra af phantom thief precure.

Miyuki: She is a reading machine, and of course this would capture her attention. She came in a bit late but found it on her own.

Akane: Similarly to Rin, she saw it over Miyuki’s shoulder one day, did a bit of reading herself, and got pretty hooked for a while.The hiatuses however broke her streak. Oddly enough the main emotion she took away from it is a hate for Equius, which she shares with Nao.

Yayoi: Main fanart contributor to Erika’s fansite. Her and Reika spend hours talking about Terezi.

Nao: Never did read it, she was too busy with her family and superheroism. More recently though, she decided to kinda wiki crawl the subject. Walked away primarily with a hate for Equius.

Reika: Another mod on Erika’s fansite.She has found her path. Her parents are disappointed. Screw her parents.

Mana: Tried it, didn’t like it. Square.

Rikka: Wishes she could live on that first planet they showed, with the froggies. She tries to dare Mana, but continues to get shot down. Mana is such a square.

Alice: Found it on one of her internet binges to bring her temper down. It proofed a surprisingly good tool to keep her mellow, which is why we see so little of her inner rage during the show. Another Terezi fan.

Makoto: Somehow has never come across a single shred of evidence that Homestuck exists. As unlucky as she is, she might be the luckiest of us all.

Aguri: Unlike Makoto, she has seen what Rikka and Alice are up to. She did read it a little, and liked what she saw well enough, but didn’t stick with it. Not enough time, and her twin sister lives fifty miles in Vriska did nothing wrong territory, so clearly she must be better than her. (She isn’t.)

Megumi: Came across it on her own, read it, but lost interest.

Hime: Runs the discord server for Erika’s fansite.

Yuko: Does occasional lyrics for Ellen’s arrangements, both on youtube and niconico, and makes the occasional troll riceball.

Iona: She was in fact dared, but by Megumi of all people, after she stopped reading. There is no bigger Rose fan now.

Haruka: As an avid reader, it did cross her radar, she went through it, and came out more determined than before to be the best princess she can be.

Minami: Amusingly enough, stumbled across it during her internet binges boning up on marine biology. Feferi popped up in her searches somehow, and the rest is history.

Kirara: Fans suggested it to her. She read it. The most fabulous Kanaya cosplayer of them all.

Towa: Kirara suggested it to her after she herself had finished (by now the webcomic is done IRL) partially because nerds gotta share, and partially because she truly felt it might help her cope with some of her inner turmoil from the guilt over being Twilight. Towa is slow in reading through this particular one, so she is still going through it today. Results unclear, she doesn’t talk much about it, even with Kirara. It might be helping though.

(The remaining characters I don‘t know as well as the others yet, but I’ll see what I can conjure up. Intriguingly I feel this also marks the first generation of Cures that lived in a post Homestuck world, what with Mahoutsukai airing in 2016, and Homestuck ending in 2016.)

Mirai: Got dragged in by the hype over the ending of Homestuck. Dared Riko to read it with her. They did. They planned their wedding to be like Rose’s and Kanaya’s.

Riko: Got dragged in by Mirai. Would feel very big deja vu next year when they both became moms to Kotoha.

Kotoha: Her moms protect her from this vice. (She found it anyways. There is no stopping the corruption of the youth.)

Ichika: Heard about it, but didn’t really care. Unfortunately for her she is on a team with Aoi, Yukari, and Akira.

Himari: Closet fan, wrote several dissertations about the science in Homestuck on Erika’s fansite. Which is probably where her crush on Honoka comes from.

Aoi: Loud and proud, likes this retro comic. Has started collabs with Yuko, Ellen, Amour, and Emiru because of course.

Yukari: She was a depressed gay teen during Homestuck’s peak... what do you think?

Akira: She was a gay teen during Homestuck’s peak... what do you think?

Ciel: She would have been save. But Undertale dragged her right into this fresh hell.

Hana: Huge fan of Undertale, but never quite pulled together the energy to tackle the behemoth that is Homestuck. Did learn through osmosis, with so many of her senpai cure friends being raving lunatic homestuck fans.

Saaya: Actually dodged both the Homestuck and the Undertale bullet initially. Hana then tossed Deltarune at her, and Saaya fell down the rabbit hole.

Homare: She had some inner hangups about getting into the whole mess, but Hana did dare her, knowing enough about the series to know that it’s message might gibe Homare the kick in the behind she needed to give ice skating another go.

Emiru: Big Undertale fan, but doesn’t care about the webcomic herself. Uncertain if even a dare would work, she does her own thing... well, besides the music. She freaking loves the music.

Amour: Read the whole thing in one hour to understand its impact on culture. What else would make her crash and join the heroes? Jokes aside, she did do it, and it did leave an impact on her. She was the one who connected Aoi and Emiru.

Hikaru: What are the freaking odds that she hasn’t read through it in its entirety three times this week alone?

Lala: Had her ship read it to her as something to fall asleep to. It put her to sleep quickly, actually, like tales from home. Her ship didn’t fare as well. It’s one of the biggest crack shippers on Erika’s site. Lala only heard like ten percent of the story.

Elena: Has neither the free time nor privacy to read a webcomic that’s now a decade old. Likes listening to Hikaru’s ranting about the series. Also likes how somehow that ranting makes Madoka’s face light up.

Madoka: It is unknown how she found the time, but she is a freaking huuuueg closet fan. She wants to talk with Hikaru about it, but still feels too uncomfortable being public about it. Hikaru does however know that MoonSollux, one of the biggest fanfic writers on Erika’s site, is her, but will wait for Madoka to come out of her shell in her own time.

Yuni: Missed the whole mess being a space alien idol phantom thief. Is getting a very wrong idea about human culture from Hikaru’s ranting. A dare would totally work.

(I have zero grasp on the Healin’ Good Girls, so not gonna do them.)

[doktorpeace]

P5 Update after the break I’m very very far into the game so there will be heavy spoilers, just read through later if you aren’t at least in Mid November:

I guess first I’ll give an overview of my progress and general playstyle before moving onto thoughts about characters, social links, and the story. It’s currently 11/14 in game, so I’ll be delving into Sae’s dungeon soon. Like I mentioned before I’ve maxed 4/5 social stats, everything except Kindness which is at rank 4. Including the Confidants which will max out on their own eventually but have not yet (Fool, Magician, Judgement and I’m going to assume Justice) I’ve completed 13 social links with Haru’s (Rank 7), The Twin Wardens’ (Rank 8), Iwai’s (Rank 7), and Futaba’s (Rank 2) pretty likely to finish before the game is over. The only one I’m concerned for is Futaba’s since I’ve shamefully raised hers so little. Thus far I’ve completed every Palace in just one visit a piece, discounting any story forced segments like the first couple visits to Kamoshida and Madarame’s Palaces. I’ve really liked this game’s schedule tbh. Overall while I feel some of the story segments take up too much time, specifically during October, I don’t mind so much because I’ve gotten a lot done on a near completely blind first playthrough, and there’s still more I can do. While initially I was worried that social stats took too long to level up I feel it successfully threads the needle between 3′s “They’ll cap without effort” and 4′s “Fuck you for trying” approach for first time runs. They take effort and dedication, but like I said I’ve maxed nearly all of them. I also like how different confidant relationships will help improve your social stats as well, it’s a great secondary incentive to max certain ones and to stick with them. On top of that, there are more major barriers that require certain social stats and while some feel a little arbitrary (maxed charm for Makoto past rank 5) it makes sense to incentivize players to spend time on them as well. Another improvement to Confidants I enjoy over previous social links is how they all give a variety of skills. I know I focused on Hifumi’s and Kawakami’s way more than I might have otherwise just because their skills are so good and varied. Hifumi’s in particular add a lot of tactical depth. On the opposite end though, I know I ended up putting Ohya and Chihaya on the backburner because their skills weren’t that useful, though I certainly got a lot of use out of Chihaya’s social stat booster readings. Honestly, I just wish I had taken the time to max Sojiro’s. I like him a lot but he’s only at rank 3 because I spent the time I could have spent with him in the early game on my social stats. *sad trombone* For transparency, I’ve completed: Makoto’s, Yusuke’s, Ann’s, Ryuji’s, Takemi’s, Kawakami’s, Hifumi’s, Mishima’s, and Yoshida’s, and then another 3-4 will max automatically. I’ve enjoyed them all thoroughly, Yoshida’s in particular is one of my favorite non-party member Social Links in the entire franchise. I also like how Akira’s dialogue with women is much more respectful and natural than Yu’s or Minato’s was. He gets a lot more dialogue that doesn’t have sexual tension and feels like what an actual person would say, which leads to great character relationships and dynamics between him and characters like Ann, Makoto, and Hifumi even if you elect not to date them. In some cases I’d even say that his relationship dynamic is stronger if you do not date them, particularly with Futaba and Ann. (please don’t kill me avaterem if you’re reading this) This isn’t to say that electing to date one of them is bad or lesser per se, I just feel like there was a great dynamic between him and Ann as Just Friends which honestly I didn’t feel was there between Minato and Yukari or Yu and Rise, for instance.  Combat wise this game’s been a little on the easy side but I’ve enjoyed it a lot. I’ll definitely play new game+ through on hard or maybe even higher, we’ll see. All the party members fill unique niches and the greater variety of skills this game has helps keep them all fresh. Nobody overlaps unlike with 3 and 4 so that’s great. The Palace Bosses have all had really great fights, though I feel visually Kamoshida’s was still the most impressive because it was very out there comparatively. Still, they all fit thematically with who you’re fighting and they’ve all been very fun. Ever since she joined Makoto has been on the team and I just swap around the two members who aren’t Akira or Makoto. Generally it’s been a good move because she’s an extremely well balanced tank with good spread damage and support skills. The Palaces themselves have also been very enjoyable, they’ve each taken at least a somewhat different approach to design and I like that so far. Kamoshida’s has a good number of mandatory stops to keep you from getting worn out, and otherwise goes fairly easy since it’s the tutorial level basically. Madarame’s requires a mandatory stop to do stuff in real life which was neat and otherwise its level design was super cool and well realized thematically. Kaneshiro’s is a gauntlet through, it’s super long and fairly tough for its time in the story but there’s nothing stopping you except your own pacing and skill from actually just completing it in one go. Its level of difficulty is consistent throughout with no real spikes anywhere, it’s also the dungeon I had the most trouble keeping a low alertness rating in because it has a lot of unique mechanics. Futaba’s Palace is similar, though its difficulty is very spike-y. The dungeon itself isn’t too long, but the enemy mobs are generally speaking a good bit higher level than you are and many of them are only weak to PSI skills, which only Joker can have, or are weak to nothing at all. It’s the only dungeon that I made heavy use of just running away from encounters in. Most recently was Okumura’s Palace which is honestly one of my favorites. Its a great puzzle-dungeon that’s incredibly front loaded with challenge. If you can’t figure out that the worker drones are weak to fire then you’re in for an extremely bad time. On top of that several of the normal enemies in the first area are immune to regular attacks and guns, then it makes you fight a lot of unforgiving sub bosses up front but rewards you with an area where all the enemies are weak to physical attacks and guns. Then Haru really comes into play in spite of being a bit weaker than the others by virtue of lacking baton pass, the nearer you get to the end the more enemy types are weak to PSI and Gun skills, which Haru will just chew through. Overall it’s really well designed, but definitely much easier than 3 and 4. I’ve only had one game over happen and it was to a very unfortunate string of criticals. On a side note: Mementos is a nice bone throw to people who liked Tartarus a lot, though because of how it works it’s never challenging. I don’t have a lot to say on it, but I have a sneaking suspicion it’s gonna be the true final dungeon we do where we fight god or whatever because this is a Persona game so I know we’re gonna fight a god at some point, probably after the story mostly ends and we time skip to March. The story’s been very good so far. I was wondering when we’d get into the meat of it and oh boy October really delivered. There’s been this tension about the whole game because like, the first thing you learn is that you fucked up and got caught. You’re recounting what all happened to the prosecutor who’s in charge of your case. It’s flowed well and while a couple of the early segments, like within the first hour mostly, were somewhat stilted I’ve felt that way about every atlus product I’ve ever played. It’s just their weakpoint in storytelling as a company. This game does a great job not leaving things hanging, basically everything I’ve wondered about has been addressed in some way, even down to “Jeez Ryuji and Morgana are being really hostile towards each other” becomes an actual plot point and I like that a lot. Which btw Morgana running away called me the fuck out because like yeah, I’d totally benched him more or less in favor of the human party members since Yusuke joined. Since then I know I’ve been using him more not because I felt bad but because it made me appreciate having him more. I’ll do a full write up on the story once I’m totally done, all I really have to say right now is I haven’t trusted Akechi one fucking iota all game and that hasn’t changed now.  He’s a good character, but he’s sus as fuck and I’m waiting to fight him as a boss later. If he ends up just being an actually good boy and not betraying us I’ll eat my hat. But I’m dead fucking certain that he’s Future Prime Minister Shido’s darknet hitman who goes and assassinates people for him using the Metaverse. I’ve already caught Akechi in a lie, he said he only received his persona a month ago but that’s BULLSHIT because he could understand what Morgana was saying all the way back in May. He’s known about and been able to access the Metaverse for a long time. The only thing I’ve really not had addressed yet is why exactly was Akira accepted at this school? Kobayakawa mentioned it was because of ‘outside influence’ at the start of the game and that still hasn’t been addressed. The Phantom Thieves are great. Easily my favorite player group of the three people actually care about between SEES, The Investigation Team, and now these guys. They have a great set of dynamics and relationships, and you get a ton more interparty interaction and dialogue thanks to the text chat logs. They’ve all been great and it’s neat seeing the nuances of their relationships both as a group and individually. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean I like either other group less now, but after P4 neatly sorted the investigation team into sets of two all game it’s refreshing to see them all interact with each other directly and often. They’re all interesting and good characters. Morgana’s improved a lot. I already liked him better than Teddie, but after the Okumura arc of the story he’s improved a lot. I like him a good bit, but I’ll still wait to talk about him in full until the story’s over. Ryuji’s still great. He’s the ‘your first and best friend’ of the game. Compared one to one I probably don’t like him as much as Junpei but he’s real close. Obviously he blows Yosuke out of the water because he’s actually a good and enjoyable character. Ryuji’s dates are also really great, he’s just an earnest, good, vulgar boy trying his best. His hot headed-ness has actually been a detriment for the group a couple of times, which is good because him shouting about being Phantom Thieves in public and being overly combative toward Morgana (for understandable enough reasons) SHOULD come up. Still, he shows great growth and humility over the course of the story, particularly when he apologizes to Morgana and after he gets angry during a meeting and scares Haru and Futaba by punching some furniture he tells Akira that it made him feel shitty and he’s going to apologize to them individually. He’s great, I love him, and he’s strong in combat to boot. Ann is still the explosive, great, multifaceted character she was and I like her even more now that I’ve finished her Confidant relationship. She’s a very good character and honestly the driving force behind a lot of P5′s feminist messages. She’s a great character who can be silly, friendly, and serious all at the same time and it doesn’t feel like she’s whipping around from one personality to another, she’s just really well realized. One of my favorite things about her is that she’s allowed to be angry, she’s allowed to be pissed off and shout and rage against society in the same way as Ryuji. She’s never as loud as him, but it’s still great. As a party member she’s a little weaker than the others, mostly because he gun fucking sucks lol. That said she has a great mix of offense and utility, I just wish her speed were a bit higher. Yusuke’s even better now that I’ve taken him on like, 4 dates and finished his Confidant relationship. Like, putting aside that he’s obviously gay for a moment there is way more erotic and romantic tension between him and Akira than there is between Akira and most other characters. His dialogue, the way they interact, Akira’s response options and what motions he makes around him, it’s all very homoerotic and it makes me even more confused as to why he’s not romanceable. He has more date locations you can take him on than several of the romance options, just make him a full romance please Atlus. Aside from that, I love his character, he’s great. As a character he’s also great representation for people on the autism spectrum, imo. This game never outright says “Yusuke is autistic” but it’s extremely obvious he’s intended to be on the spectrum given some of his dialogue, behavior, and the particular use of the word ‘eccentric’ and ‘eccentricities’ in regards to him and only him. Japanese games don’t like saying shit like that outright but it’s totally clear if you just pay attention. His Confidant Relationship is also one of my favorites in the game. You get a great look at his life circumstances, some of his philosophical beliefs, and you get to see this great maturity come about as he takes it all in and turns it into his art. I think it was really meaningful that his final art piece for that competition was just him going back to the canvas he started on and making something more out of it. He’s a well rounded character and is also one of my favorite combat party members because he’s so fucking strong. His damage output is absurd to be frank and his followup attack is one of my favorites, he just instantly kills whatever enemy has the most health on the field. It’s great. Makoto’s a total babe tbh... She’s got the punk biker aesthetic when you’re in the metaverse, her weapons of choice are her fists and revolvers, she does the whole ‘Pretend we’re dating and whoops we just don’t stop’ thing. She’s a little socially awkward but not totally, she’s the boss friend and voice of reason, though she isn’t beyond jokes and she’s just great. I’m weak, she’s powerful, I love this character. It also helps that she’s clearly the secondary protagonist of the game in the same way that Mitsuru and Naoto were before her, so she gets a lot of nice extra focus in the story. Not so much as to detract from the others, but her being Sae’s sister naturally makes her interactions with her sister the main way we see Sae characterized. I’ve got a lot to say about her but I can’t really get it into words right now. I’ll talk about her more later cause some drama’s gonna go down I’m sure of it. Futaba’s the character I was most worried about going in, but I’ve been happily proven wrong. I was worried she’d just be your NEET Japanese Gamer Waifu and she’s absolutely not. I mean, she is literally a NEET Japanese Gamer Girl, but the story doesn’t sexualize her nor does it make her the ‘obvious’ romance like how Yukari and Rise were in 3 and 4. She’s a character with paranoid schizophrenia for christsake and they manage to not only handle that well, but they kept the integrity of her character all throughout it and make her own effort the reason she improves, not the phantom thieves magically fixing her. I’m still not over it. I haven’t done much of her confidant relationship, but I do really like what I’ve seen of her. She’s driven and works hard, but she’s got her limits and is trying hard to broaden her horizons. She’s very comedic as well in the text logs but in a way that makes sense for someone her age and background. Her relationship with the others is a little stilted, but it doesn’t feel awkward, it makes sense because really she only interacts to any major degree with Akira, Yusuke, and Morgana. And finally we have Haru! I love her, she’s so fucking cute and such a sweet character. It’s kind of funny how she’s almost the same as Mitsuru but is so different. They’re both 1%ers who are the sole daughters and heirs to a conglomerate, are set up for an aranaged marriage they do not want, and whose dads die suddenly. Plus they’re both Empress Arcana. Yet the major difference is Mitsuru’s dad was supportive and she was prepared to inherit her company, where Haru has neither of those things. She was a passenger to her dad’s corrupt will and suddenly has all of this thrust upon her. I think it’s neat how similar they are in concept yet they’re totally different. I haven’t completed her confidant relationship yet but so far I like how down to earth it is. She just needs someone she can trust and talk with about her life issues. It’s cute seeing her go out and try different hobbies of her own choice just to get away from it all and to see what comes of it. Oh, I just realized, but also like Mitsuru she copes with her situation by burying herself in more work, though with Haru it’s with getting more hobbies to do where Mitsuru just takes on more corporate responsibilities. I hope this ends well for her. Honestly I wish she joined us sooner, I get the feeling she won’t be around for enough time to get the focus she deserves. Also, and this is just me, but I feel people saying ‘This game’s gay representation is shit just like Atlus always is’ really aren’t giving the game its dues. Yes, those two NPCs are bad and solely negative inclusions that just randomly throw in two (admittedly very short) scenes with a couple of predatory gay guys. But to only highlight them and ignore characters like Lala Escargot being well handled and shown to be nothing but a good person, Yusuke being pretty gay, and even the main character explicitly and without joking being able to show attraction to men multiple times is just unfair. The game’s gay representation isn’t perfect, but it’s certainly a lot better than Persona 3 or 4′s initial releases. Though Persona 3′s cast ended up being very queer with later content if you just compare the initial releases of each game Persona 5 blows the others out of the water by means of actually having positive queer representation. All in all, it’s still amazing, 10/10, my game of the year without question. I love it.