#yosuke talks a lot of shit but he and teddie have such a good relationship AAAAh

[daily-hanamura]

[crest-of-gautier]

IM BACK IN THE FUCKING BUILDING!!! (i played 2.5 hours of PQ today!!!)

some thoughts under the cut! today has been mostly exploring the 2nd spot/floor of the group date cafe and i'm like 79% done with it :3 (and i did the whole arrest the food bandit! quest today)

i really enjoyed returning to this game, the sidequests and character interactions i saw today were fun!

i was particularly endeared by naoto's enthusiasm and interest in aigis, i think it's really neat that he's just so curious about her! i mean.. who wouldn't be LMAO

there was also an event where aigis says:

"Including incidents within Tartarus, Junpei-san has now run into a total of 27 dead ends."

and i honestly thought that was the funniest shit ever??? and how they go on to talk about how aigis's data is piped to fuuka's database on her pc. i really enjoyed how this interaction highlights this aspect of aigis and fuuka's relationship, they definitely make a good team given fuuka's inclination toward technology.

i think that's what a running theme of persona spin-offs are to me- i just enjoy seeing other ways in which the different character dynamics between cast members can be expressed!

and i think that's why i really enjoyed doing the arrest the food bandit quest too- i'm very endeared by the dynamic between the velvet room family. i feel like from what i remember in mainline persona games, it's something that only really gets alluded to in the attendants' dialogue lines (as opposed to seeing the siblings actively talking to each other). i fucking love elizabeth she's great.

there's something about the attendant's curiosity toward life (and how much they have to learn) that i find very charming, but i also think that this aspect of them is great for like.. absurd situations that don't make me cringe. (this is a not-so vague at teddie, i find that atlus tends to focus on teddie's more grating traits aka Hitting On The Girls?? which im not fond of LOL)

the way theo was the culprit because he didn't understand that chie was speaking in hyperbole about yosuke being a dead man if something bad happened to the meat jelly is just. the funniest thing ever. so have an excerpt of my reaction/liveblog document from obsidian that has some transcriptions of the event:

like genuinely. i love the velvet room attendant family a lot. i think they just hit a lot of Appeal PointsTM for what i personally find interesting in fiction (characters learning their way through life who have wonder and curiosity for the world), so i've just been?? thriving off of any interactions they get from the sidequests??? it's great.

mechanics-wise i am very interested in seeing if there's stuff i still can unlock...? it's been kind of a pain in the ass to level up sub-personas specifically (i haven't finished the legendary medicine quest bc i needed to raise a guy up to get an agility binding spell... and now that i did raise the guy i just need to Use It). so i am assuming that there's a mechanic that compensates for the lack of arcana bonus exp LOL (and i'm pretty sure in P5R you could sacrifice ur personas to each other?? can we do that here? thanks.)

anyway that's all for pq liveblogging (more like reflecting but y'know). i'm excited to pick up the game again- i might try and finish the group date cafe this month assuming i don't get carried away with other thingiemajigies!!

[doktorpeace]

coffee emoji + Persona

I’m a big fan of Persona as an overall series, I actually just started Innocent Sin the other day so I can finally get P2 under my belt. As a whole the mainline franchise does a great job writing meaningful stories full of great character interactions which all serve to accent each entry’s core themes. Persona 3 has some of the strongest and most consistent writing of any RPG I've ever played with regards to quality and execution on its themes, which is a big part of why it's my favorite one. All of the members of SEES change meaningfully as characters by the end of just the base game, not to mention additional content like The Answer, or the Persona 4 Arena Duology (which, funnily, are way better through the lenses of the P3 cast than the P4 cast), and especially more niche but still canon content like the Drama CDs which do a great job of filling the listener in on what the other members do while Minato is away or sick or asleep. Spoilers: They're really gay and not in a queerbaiting way either. Did you ever think it's out of nowhere that Yukari and Mitsuru are dating at the end of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax? These explain how they started dating and also talk about Akihiko and Shinjiro's relationship in romantic terms, comparing it directly to Junpei and Chidori's. Basically, Junpei is canonically the Token Straight of SEES and I think that's wonderful.That said the franchise really botches it at times. Persona 4 especially fucks up by directly undermining its own core theme of ‘Be true to yourself’ with its treatment of almost every playable character. Like, seriously: Yukiko decides to abandon her dreams to do what she's told when that's what her whole social link is about not doing. Kanji is openly bisexual now but his sexuality still treated as a joke by Yosuke and Teddie. Rise decides to abandon her beliefs and just keep working in the idol industry because other people want her to. Yosuke was written as a closeted gay teenager but had all of his gay content locked away from access despite being finished and on the disc. And most especially Naoto, who they build up as a very good representation of a trans man with a strong personal narrative arc but the INSTANT he joins your party everyone's like "But you're really a girl, right?" and then in order to get him to date you you have to CONSTANTLY undermine his gender identity and what he's comfortable with. It's shitty content and really inexcusable regardless of what game it were to be in but ESPECIALLY because of this game's core themes.And that all is genuinely really sad and infuriating because 4′s plot and all of its NPC social links are REALLY good! There’s still a lot to enjoy there but like, damn if it isn’t disheartening how they got so scared to letting characters meaningfully change and/or be gay that they were actively willing to ruin the main theme of the game. The franchise after 3 really kind of has an issue with letting playable characters meaningfully grow and change and also with LGBT content in general, with some minor examples being good like Lala Escargot, but otherwise just removing it altogether unless it's for Jokes™ which aren't funny and are based on annoying stereotypes. Not even 3 is perfect about this but at least almost every adult member of SEES is canonically LGBT and good representation so I can kind of excuse how bad that one scene is. I've heard 2 is actually quite progressive even by today's standards and from what I know about it it is, so I'm excited to see how it handles this kind of content.Honestly, Atlus used to be really cutting edge and daring with the kinds of themes and content they were willing to put into Persona but ever since 4 hit it big and the franchise got mainstream attention they've been kind of cowardly about it. P5 is a big step up from P4 in terms of overall writing quality, the party members are more interesting and are allowed to change at least a little bit by the game's end but it still fucks up more than I'd like. Its representation of mental illness and people on the spectrum are quite nice in my opinion but it still won't let you be gay even though Yusuke has the most unique dates of any character in the game! Come on, AT LEAST let us date Yusuke who already reads VERY MUCH as more than friends. Also make Ryuji a romance option and don't make Akechi a romance option because I don't want that shit. I want good characters to be romanceable.The spinoffs are all kinda just there to me. Like, they're a decent enough distraction but they absolutely do not have the love and quality put into the writing for me to really have much fun with them. Characters who were already kind of flat like Chie become really annoying and characters who WERE really well developed and three dimensional like Akihiko still get reduced to just 'Musclehead Protein Man' which is fucking stupid. Only P4A and P4AU really do any of the characters justice in terms of writing quality but even then only really the P3 Cast and Naoto get good and interesting story content. Everyone else just get schlock. So whatever. P4A and P4AU are super fun to play though, mechanically they did an excellent job realizing each character in a way that feels authentic to their personality, if not their gameplay niche, in their home games. I can only hope P5A doesn't have some bullshit timeline thing to get the P4 characters out of aging and advancing as people. They NEED the treatment P4A gave SEES. Show me out of shape middle manager at Junes 24 year old Yosuke, Atlus you fucking cowards. There's so much room for advancement and growth with these characters but at the same time I know they either won't do it by introducing some dumb timeline bullshit OR they'll fuck it up and like, make Naoto a big tiddie ultra femme looking person to REALLY try and tell us "NO REALLY NAOTO IS CIS IGNORE HIS ENTIRE CHARACTER ARC AND ALL OF HIS WRITING IN PERSONA 4 AND ALSO HOW IN PERSONA 4 GOLDEN WE LEANED EVEN HARDER INTO THE TRANS NARRATIVE WITH HIS ADDITIONAL CONTENT"You can always count on the gameplay to advance and get better at least, so that's nice. I'm not really gonna discuss that though other than to say P3 not letting you directly control party members serves its themes and writing well and isn't even hard to play around if you just use the Command Wheel to issue orders to your party members, the AI is pretty smart. Not Xenoblade Chronicles 1 smart, but still pretty fuckin' smart.Anyway, basically, I like Persona a lot as a franchise. It's a flawed franchise that I want and expect better out of than what it delivers in some aspects but on the whole it's hard to deny the quality of the overall products. I just hope that Atlus listens to the kind of feedback they've been getting in the last few years and really start becoming more daring again with the kind of content they put into the games again. Go harder on those themes and really challenge people's mindsets, this franchise has so much potential for that and it just scratches the surface really.Oh, also, Persona fans on the whole are some of the absolute dumbest motherfuckers I've ever seen on the internet. They'll really ignore blatant shit that's extremely clear just because it wasn't said in such plain wording a child would understand it while jumping through 70 mental rings to try and explain how Kanji isn't REALLY gay or how Naoto is ACTUALLY cis or how Akechi is actually the deepest most amazing character in the franchise, or whatever. That and/or they're just straight men who use the term 'waifu' and just reduce all of the female characters to 'which one do I want to fuck most' while ignoring everything else about the games because all they value these for are as dating simulators to try and fill the sad, gaping hole that is their social life. Some of them will actually get mad at people for discussing the psychological or political aspects of the series as if that's not what this IP is founded on because they're too stupid to think of anything other than which fictional underaged girl they want to fuck. Persona fans are fucking stupid and really make it embarrassing to like this franchise at times.This basically turned into me yelling about LGBT content in Persona but honestly that’s like, the aspect that needs the most constructive criticism. The psychological, theological, and political themes are generally really well handled. Worth discussion for sure but not what I want to talk about right now.

[valantinetime]

P4 kids

I’ma go into a little detail about them, though these are only the investigation team’s + two other characters children, I will be giving kids to a lot of others as well.

thanks to an amazing website I can use real Japanese names for these-

Most of the other parents don’t matter, so they aren't other characters.

-Haruto Narukami (遥斗  鳴上) Yu’s son, he’s part of the next gen investigation team. He has his fathers grey hair (which he ties in a short ponytail) but blue eyes from his mother.

He tends to wear long sleeved shirts most the time, tends to keep his hands in his pockets.

He keeps to himself and only speaks to people when they start the conversation. His voice is quite and sometimes people would just completely miss it when he does talk.

He’d come of a little pessimistic at first, but if anything the stuff he says is just more realistic.

Even if it doesn’t seem like it, he’s always paying attention. Out of everyone he’s probably the one who will remember that small detail someone mentioned, like a pets birthday.

He’s second year.

-Akiko Narukami (晶子  鳴上)

Baby, she’s only 3. She has grey eyes and short black hair. Being as young as she is she still has childhood innocence. Generally excitable. Basically a happy child. Love’s her dad and brother.

-Keiko Hanamura (慶子  花村)

This little shit. She’s also part of the next gen investigation team. Her teachers probably hate her. Puns. It would be wrong if she wasn’t the class clown. 

Green eyes and brown hair, probably brushes her hair every three-five days with how messy it normally is.

Tends to wear hoodies because why look ‘nice’ when you can be comfortable. also by that logic she owns crocs. a lot of crocs. Yosuke is kinda disappointed and kinda proud.

She’s a second year.

-Atsuko Hanamura (敦子  花村)

Yosuke’s son, actually is Keiko’s twin. Tends to get mistaken for a girl sometimes. Some people refuse to believe he’s a boy. He has dark brown hair that covers one of his eyes and brown eyes.

Tends to keep to wearing shorts and jackets. A little quite, decently mature. Still helps his sister with pranks though. Can and will be an asshole if you insult his family/friends.

He actually wears contacts since he doesn’t like glasses.

He’s a second year.

-Chihiro Satonaka (千尋  里中)

she grew up just with her mom, so she seems a lot like her (only having one parents to look up to and all)

Like Chie she’s sporty, she’s actually went to the football club in her first year and second yeah she went to the basketball club.

Though instead of kicking (like Chie) she tend to punch. She has stronger upper body strength.

She has black hair and green eyes, both from her dad.

She’s part of the second generation investigation team

She’s a third year.

-Haruka Amagi (春花  天城)

His dad moved out of inaba when he was younger, but he tries to visit his family when he can and makes sure to call every week, so they have a good relationship.

He gets told he looks like his mother a lot, having black hair and dark brown eyes. (the wiki says Yukiko has dark brown eyes-)

He tends to wear a cardigan most the time, another thing that causes people to say he’s just like Yukiko, and almost never wears shorts.

He’s a polite, kind boy. Though he has no interest in a love life, which makes his life difficult because he’s Yukiko’s son, someone a lot of people would like to date. He just wants friends.

He learnt how to play the piano and violin at some pint and is in the music club. In his spare time he likes to draw, and he’s actually good at it.

He doesn’t understand humour.

He’s part of the second generation investigation team.

He’s a third year.

-Ayaka Tatsumi (彩花  巽)

Kanji's and Naoto’s first child, people tend to compere her to Kanji more. She’s the tallest child (taller than her mom) which makes her seem threatening.

She’s more like her mom when is comes to intelligence, though sometimes if something is a little to obvious she cant see it. Though she’s great at picking up peoples emotions.

She bleached her hair a few years back (so the ends are still bleached) but her natural hair colour is blue. Her hair is long so she tends to keep in in a ponytail. She has grey eyes.

She’s a third year 

She’s part of the second generation investigation team

-Hibiki Tatsumi (響  巽)

He’s the middle child, just taller than his mother. He has black hair and blue eyes. (Naoto’s eyes change from blue and grey.) He needs glasses.

He’s the most formal child, actually caring about his appearance. He’s the smartest but tends to over think everything.

A lot of the time he starts mumbling to himself, his room is filled with notes most the time and he has a note book he carries everywhere with him.

He’s a little socially awkward, not really knowing what to do when someone starts talking to him. Kinda a teachers pet, or atleast the teachers like him.

he’s a first year.

he’s part of the second generation investigation team.

-Fuyuko Tatsumi (冬子  巽)

the youngest siblings, she’s a lot different compered to the other two.

She has long black hair (that tends to cover her face) and piecing blue eyes. She’s the only child shorter than Naoto.

She tends to wear a buttoned up shirt and shorts with leggings. the only people that see her not wearing this outfit is her family.

She tends to be frowning most the time, lots of people say she just looks angry. Which she’s not most the time, thats just her resting face.

Her glare either seems empty or like she’s considering murder.

She kinda just dislikes people a lot.

-Hina Kujikawa (日菜  久慈川)

being Rise’s daughter, she’s well known. Which is part of the reason she likes going to inaba a lot, there’s so little people she can actually have a moment alone.

She’s pretty short, has brown eyes, blond hair with the ends dyed green. She tends to wear skirts and tank tops, if not dresses.

She loves jokes and pranks, and tends to pull a few on friends. Absolutely adores puns.

Loves dressing up and fashion, she tends to practice make up in her spare time. She loves helping people out with outfits.

she’s a second year.

She’s part of the second generation investigation team.

-Aoi Kasumi (碧  霞)

Teddie’s daughter. She has long brown hair, a green eye and a blue eye. Her dad usually calls her his princess.

She’s a little bit of a sheltered child, she tends to just stay in her room with her plushies. Most made by her dad for her.

She’s shy, kind, energetic and friendly. The only reason she doesn’t have friends is because most people forget she’s even there.

she’s a first year.

she’s part of the second generation investigation team.

-Aiko Dojima (愛子  堂島)

Naniko’s child! Sweet baby, loves her family to death. Has brown hair and blue eyes. Always wearing baggy clothing, cause it’s comfy.

Love meeting people and believes there’s good in everyone. Defiantly a people pleaser. Always tries to help.

-Ayumu Adachi (歩夢  足立)

yep, Adachi has a child. A daughter. She’s a young adult with black hair and grey eyes. Generally a formal and mature person. Great at tricking people when she needs to.

She tends to wear a suit, if not a buttoned up shirt with trousers or (on rare occasions) a skirt (she’ll always wear leggings with a skirt). Tend to be wearing heels a lot of the time.

though it is something that has never happened before, she can snap. If she ever was to snap, anyone would be able to see the resemblance to her farther.

Her relationship with her parents doesn't really exist. She hasn’t seen her mother since she was 18 and she never really visits her dad. She kinda just lives alone and does everyone on her own.

She’s a police officer.