Weekly Gaming Blog · 11:18am Apr 14th, 2017
Welcome to my Weekly Gaming Blog!
Even though I'm still more or less playing Pokemon Shuffle, I'm...just not going to bother blogging about it anymore. I mean, really, it's...it's just kinda there, y'know? Actually, I'm only even going through the motions now, checking the weekly updates and all, so...yyyeah...
This week's coverage: Persona 5
WARNING: This blog contains Persona 5 plot spoilers for 4/9 through 5/18 (After School). Proceed with caution.
REMINDER: Although this blog contains certain P5 plot spoilers, please be mindful of posting spoilers beyond that point in the comments. Please note where the blog's story summary leaves off, and mark any spoilers past that point. (Or better yet, don't leave spoilers past that point in the comments at all. 
)
Newly acquired games this week:
Drawn to Death (actually, downloaded this last week...)
Persona 5
(Note: I named my protagonist Bitch Fister Kaito Hidari, so for simplicity's sake I will be referring to him as such throughout. Additionally, I will be using the group name I gave the thieves in my game, Les Chatons, to refer to the party collectively. Also, and again for the sake of simplicity, I am omitting the narrative framing device of the interrogation from my recaps.)
(Another note: Anything spoiler-tagged below is speculation on my part.)
Current Progress: 5/18 (After School)
Lv. 13 Compendium: 9%
(0. 3) (I. 2) (V. 2) (VI. 1) (VII. 3) (XI. 1) (XIII. 1) (XVIII. 2)
The Story Begins...
Kaito Hidari, an ordinary second year high school student from out in the boonies. Up until recently, he lived an ordinary, nondescript student life. One night, on the way home, he witnessed a woman being attacked by a drunken man. Not willing to just stand by and let the woman be dragged off and raped, he stepped in and intervened.
He was arrested, charged with assault, and given a permanent criminal record. In short order, his life was destroyed--he was expelled from school, his family became pariahs, and he was shunned and cast out. For the man who he had acted against was apparently well-connected, powerful, and privileged, and so Kaito Hidari, who should have been hailed as a hero, was made into a dangerous, sociopathic monster.
The truth of the incident doesn't seem to matter to anyone--as far as everyone connected to him is concerned, he is a troublemaker, a disgrace, and a danger. His family sends him to Shibuya to stay with a friend of a friend until things blow over, if such a thing is even possible. Said friend of a friend, Sojiro Sakura, is a sour, disgruntled, pessimistic ass of a middle-aged man who wants nothing to do with this mess, verbally berates Kaito at every opportunity, and either doesn't know or doesn't care about the truth--as far as he's concerned, Kaito is a no-good, troublemaking delinquent, and that's how he's going to treat him. And so it goes--Kaito Hidari is banished to the dusty attic of a cafe on the back streets of Shibuya, under the "care" of a man who wouldn't care if he caught fire so long as he didn't burn down the cafe with him.
Worse still, the entire faculty of his new school, Shujin Academy, treats Kaito like he's a problem waiting to happen--like he's looking for an excuse to murder somebody. He's warned by everyone he meets that if he puts one toe out of line, he's expelled. He's berated and browbeaten by people he's never even met for things he's never even done.
And the entire school knows about his criminal record. Rumors are going around the school that he's into everything from drinking to smoking to drugs, that he carries a knife with him, and on and on and ON AND ON...
This is the new life of Kaito Hidari, second year high school student with a criminal record.
To make matters worse, at night, Kaito has strange dreams about being chained up in a cell in a strange blue room, where two female guards in blue uniforms with eyepatches stand watch over him and an eerie long-nosed man says cryptic things to him...
Also, a creepy app keeps appearing on his phone. No matter how many times he deletes it, it just keeps showing back up...
Strange things are happening lately. The trains are dangerous to ride because of a number of accidents recently, caused by the train operators suddenly simply going crazy and sabotaging the trains.
The Cruel and Lustful "King"
On the first day of school, it starts pouring down rain almost as soon as Kaito gets off the train at the station for Shujin. He sees a beautiful young woman getting out of the rain next to him, also wearing a Shujin uniform. A car pulls up, and a man offers her a ride. She accepts--hesitantly. The man then offers Kaito a ride as well, but he refuses.
As the car pulls away, a vulgar boy with blond-dyed hair rushes up, yelling angrily about "that pervy teacher". Kaito chats with the boy for a bit, then they start to head to school. On the way there, however, the world around them goes all weird, and when they arrive at what should be the school, they instead find a strange castle.
They decide to go inside to ask what's going on and how they managed to get lost, and are attacked by armored guards. When they come to, they're in a cell, and the teacher from earlier appears before them, wearing a crown and a robe. He orders their execution, and the vulgar boy is viciously beaten by the guards. As this plays out, a desire to fight this injustice swells within Kaito, becoming a power...the power to unleash his soul of rebellion.
A mask appears on Kaito's face. He rips it off, spraying blood everywhere. This act releases his inner self...his Persona, Arsene. With this power, Kaito overcomes the guards and the two boys escape.
As they race through the dungeons, they meet a mysterious talking cat-like creature named Morgana, who offers to help them escape. With Morgana's help, the two boys are able to leave the dungeons and find the exit. Soon after, they return to the normal world...
...to discover they have missed half a day of school and are in serious trouble.
The vulgar boy, Ryuji Sakamoto (henceforth known as Sock Emoji), has a bad record at Shujin and is viewed by most of the students and teachers as a delinquent. Apparently, he got into an altercation with the volleyball coach, Kamoshida--who is identical to the king of that strange castle--and as a result, his track career and his reputation as a good student ended in one fell swoop and he has been on the razor's edge of expulsion ever since.
Over the course of the first week of school, Sock Emoji asks Kaito to help him investigate the strange castle, which they learn from Morgana is a projection of the distorted cognition of the human heart--in other words, it's how Kamoshida views his reality. He views himself as the king of his "castle"--Shujin Academy--and all the students as his slaves. Kaito learns that Kamoshida's reputation as a medal-winning volleyball player and the performance of his volleyball team have given him a heroic status at the school--that no matter what he does, everyone turns a blind eye to it. Also during their investigations, Sock Emoji rips off the mask of his own rebellious soul, awakening his Persona, Captain Kidd.
Because he is untouchable, because he is upheld as practically a god by his peers, Kamoshida has become corrupt and sadistic--or, perhaps, always was corrupt and sadistic, and can now simply indulge his vices without fear of repercussion. The investigations and conversations over the course of the first week paint an ugly picture of the reality of Shujin Academy:
Kamoshida physically abuses his volleyball students. Not only during practice, but if he's in a bad mood, he calls them into the PE faculty office and beats them. The other teachers know, but they won't speak up. Also, he obsessively lusts after Kaito's classmate Ann Takamaki, the pretty but sad girl he met in the rain, who has an after-school job as a model. Kamoshida wants to make Takamaki his lover, but she rebuffs him as far as she's able without causing repercussions to her best friend Shiho Suzui, a starter on the volleyball team who, along with fellow starter Mishima, suffers the worst of Kamoshida's physical abuse.
No matter how hard they try, Kaito and Sock Emoji are unable to convince any of the volleyball team to come forward about the abuse, because it will only make things worse. Things come to a head when, after being rebuffed again by Takamaki, Kamoshida angrily calls Shiho into the faculty office after school for another "session".
The next day, Shiho attempts suicide during school. She jumps from the third floor, and while the fall does not kill her, she falls into a coma from which she is not expected to awaken. It is strongly implied that Kamoshida raped her.
Kaito, Sock Emoji, and Mishima confront Kamoshida in the faculty office, and he reveals his true colors to them: a sadistic, arrogant bastard who delights in causing suffering and misery to others for his own gratification. He declares that all three of them will immediately be expelled from school, and further informs Kaito that the reason the entire school is gossiping about his terrible criminal lifestyle is because he ordered Mishima to spread a bunch of garbage about him on the Internet before Kaito even arrived in town. For no reason but to ruin his life, just because he didn't want him there.
Or perhaps because he knows the truth about Kaito's "crime".
Earlier in the week, Kaito and Sock Emoji had learned from Morgana that in order to make the "castle" disappear, they would need to steal the treasure of Kamoshida's heart, which would rob him of his desires. If the source of his desires was taken, Kamoshida would suffer a mental breakdown and confess to his crimes. However, in all likelihood, making the castle of his heart--his cognition of the world around him--disappear would leave him brain-dead and possibly kill him.
Up until this point, the boys had been unwilling to go that far to deal with Kamoshida. Now, however, they realize they have no other option available, so they return to the castle of Kamoshida's heart to put a stop to him once and for all.
What they don't know until it's too late is that Ann has followed them, and now knows about the strange distorted world...
As they prepare for their debut as kaitou, the team adopts code names: Kaito becomes Joker, Sock Emoji becomes Skull, and Morgana becomes Mona.
During the infiltration, Joker discovers he has a power Mona has never seen before: the power to turn enemies into allies. Shadows Joker negotiates with may choose to lend him their power, becoming new Personas.
While the kaitou explore the castle, Ann finds the app on her phone and makes her way back into the castle, where she is mistaken for the princess and taken by the guards. Discovering this, the thieves set out to rescue her.
When they find Ann, they also find...well...Kamoshida's cognition of the girls on the volleyball team. Which is to say, they're all writhing half-naked sex slaves wearing nothing but bloomers. 
Shadow Kamoshida berates Ann for not giving herself to him, and tells her what happened to "I forget her name" is Ann's fault for not throwing herself on him in the first place. Ann breaks, believing this--torture and death in a bizarre, twisted distortion of reality--is her punishment for letting Shiho suffer, but Joker tells her not to give in. Ann snaps back, her despair replaced by anger. Her anger awakens the soul of rebellion within her, and she rips off her mask, awakening her Persona, Carmen. Ann then destroys the false "Princess Ann" image of herself and swears to rob Kamoshida of everything.
After battling and defeating the Guard Captain, Ann has a total freakout. She's exhausted, her brain hurts, and everything is freaking her out and pissing her off: Morgana, the castle, her Catwoman outfit, everything. With the castle guards on high alert, the kaitou have no choice but to withdraw for now...
Once they're in the real world and Ann has a chance to calm down and process everything, she asks to join the party, because she intends to make Kamoshida pay for what he did to Shiho and to everyone else.
As the deadline for the boys' expulsion draws ever nearer in the real world, the kaitou meticulously explore the castle, making their way through guards, secret rooms, traps, and puzzles as they secure a route to the Treasure Room. The Treasure of Kamoshida's Heart is indistinct and formless when they first reach the Treasure Room, Morgana explains that in order for the Treasure to be stolen, it must be given form by making the target aware of their desires. To do this, the kaitou must send a Calling Card, after which they have one day to steal the Treasure. Once the Calling Card is displayed in the school, it creates a buzz and sends Kamoshida into a rage. That day, the kaitou return to the castle and steal the treasure, but Shadow Kamoshida is waiting for them, and doesn't want to let them go. He is convinced that everything he has been doing--sating his perverse lusts, abusing the students like his personal slaves--is all for the greater good of the school, and that he deserves these things because he is a great man. The kaitou aren't having it, and it comes down to a battle, as Shadow Kamoshida reveals his full grotesqueness...
Spoiler alert: Everything about this boss battle will make you want to throw up. -_-
After successfully stealing the Crown--Kamoshida's Treasure--the kaitou lay the smack down on him, but before they can escape with the Treasure, Shadow Kamoshida snatches it away and runs for the nearest window--only to realize he's now cornered. There's no way out. Ann bears down on him with all the fury in her heart and all the hatred of the man. The Shadow cringes and pleads for mercy.
In the end, Ann chooses to allow Kamoshida the chance to repent. He gives the kaitou the Crown and swears he will return to his true self and atone. The Castle begins to crumble around them...
The kaitou successfully return to the real world, where they discover the Crown has transformed into a replica of Kamoshida's Olympic gold medal. With no way of knowing whether he will truly have a change of heart, they wait for the day of the school board meeting...
Kamoshida is absent from school until May 2nd. On the morning of May 2nd, the last day of school before Golden Week, a special assembly is called to discuss the attempted suicide of Suzui Shiho with the student body. However, Kamoshida barges into the assembly and begins confessing his crimes to the entire student body of Shujin. He admits to physical and verbal abuse, sexual harrassment, making untoward advances on Takamaki and threatening her friend if she refused, and ultimately, being responsible for Shiho's suicide attempt. He also admits that he only wanted Kaito, Sock Emoji, and Mishima expelled out of personal dislike for them, and immediately agreed to rescind all of that. At first he vows to commit suicide to atone for his sins, but Ann calls him out on it, telling him that if he truly wishes to atone for his sins, he must face justice. He agrees, and asks for someone--anyone--to call the police so he can turn himself in. He is led away by the other teachers, who attempt to restore order as the student body erupts in a mass of confused gossip and disbelieving murmurs.
In short order, some of those who have spread malicious gossip about Ann walk up to her to apologize, and Mishima apologizes to Kaito for his hand in Kamoshida's machinations.
While Shujin Academy now has a great deal more to discuss in the wake of Kamoshida's exposure as a bully and a pervert--the public opinion turned against him incredibly quickly, though most of the school already knew something wasn't right--Kaito and Sock Emoji still have reputation problems, because the rumors about those two aren't as easy to deal with, and there's a new rumor going around:
That the two of them bullied Kamoshida into confessing his sins, and may even be the ones who posted the Calling Card on the school bulletin board.
For now, however, the danger has passed, Kamoshida has been exposed, and the deep wounds he's inflicted on Shujin Academy can begin to heal...and Shiho woke up, if only very briefly, and Ann told her all about Kamoshida's change of heart.
More importantly, the kaitou have now learned something important: if the Shadow of a person with distorted desires can be convince to atone, that person will survive the Palace of their Heart being destroyed and confess to their sins. But for now, the little group needs to lay low...and enjoy a much-deserved break during Golden Week.
Golden Week
During Golden Week, Kaito pawns the gold medal at the airsoft shop. Iwai, the shop owner, acts a bit shady when he sees it. Also, he gives Kaito a strange paper bag and tells him to bring it back later unopened. Just then, some detectives walk in...
Kaito manages to evade them by not giving in to their intimidation bullshit, while the shop owner refuses to cooperate because they've got nothing on him. Outside, Kaito and Morgana sneak a peek in the bag, and discover a very realistic-looking gun...
On Kodomo no Hi, the kaitou spend their ill-gotten gains on a luxury buffet dinner at an expensive hotel restaurant. It's not easy to keep all the fancy food down because the hotel is infested with assholes. Also, Kaito, Sock Emoji, and Morgana overstuff themselves to the point where they get sick. The restroom at the restaurant is out of service for cleaning, so they have to go upstairs to one of the hotel floors to find an open restroom. While waiting for the elevator to return to the restaurant floor, there's an altercation: some rude jackasses push ahead of them in line for the elevators, led by Hawk Moth Gabriel Agreste some asshole voiced by Keith Silverstein. One of the subordinates goes so far as to PUNCH Sock Emoji as the elevator doors open.
During the altercation, Kaito recognizes one of the assholes' voices...
Is it the guy who fucked up his life...?
Anyway, after the run-in with the bastards at the elevators, Sock Emoji gets the idea in his head to continue on as phantom thieves stealing the hearts of people like Kamoshithead and the elevator jerk. The rest of the group are pretty okay with this line of thought, because apparently having the power of Persona and having gotten revenge on one disgusting asshole has made them all Light Yagami or some shit. They decide to continue on as kaitou, electing Kaito as their leader. Tasked with giving the group a name, he chooses to call them Team Butts...
(At this point you are prompted to choose a name for your team. I went with Les Chatons.)
With that decided, they began making plans to carefully, meticulously select their next target...
The Ugly Maker of Beautiful Things
As school life slowly begins to return to normal at Shujin, the Principal is unwilling to simply let the Kamoshida incident DIE, and blackmails the Seitokai president, Makoto Niijima, into investigating the matter of Kamoshida's change of heart.
SERIOUSLY?! After everything that just happened, this motherfucker is BLACKMAILING A STUDENT?!
No wonder Kamoshithead was able to run rampant...
Worse, the Principal appears to be under the thumb of someone even worse...
After school, Kaito learns that Mishima is the creator of the Phantom Thieves Aficionado Website, and that he created the site in the hopes that people experiencing problems would come forward and post about them. He suspects that Kaito and Sock Emoji are the Phantom Thieves, and wants to help in any way he can, including creating a safe space where the Thieves can begin research into their next target.
When Les Chatons meet up to discuss future strategies, including Mishima's website and whether or not it will be of any use to them, Niijima appears and begins questioning them. She acts highly suspicious of them. She also declares the school roof off-limits. When she leaves, Les Chatons question what her issues are, and if perhaps she is on to their role in Kamoshida's change of heart. But, for the moment, they have something more important to discuss: Morgana has something he's wanted to show them for a while now, and asks the group to head for the rail station. There, Morgana instructs them to look for any one person's full name on the support forum on the Phan-Site--any person named as an aggressor by a victim. After some searching, they find a post made by a woman whose ex, Nakanohara, is stalking her. Morgana instructs the group to use the keyword Mementos in the Meta-Nav...
A distorted reality appears. It's quite different from Kamoshida's Castle, and not as elaborate; in fact, it looks more like the rail station they were just in than any strange Palace. Morgana explains that this is Mementos, the Palace of the collective unconscious. Mementos is formed by the thoughts and Shadows of every living person, and as such is an ever-shifting maze of distorted perception. Morgana then surprises Les Chatons with a very odd transformation...
(Really, Atlus? REALLY? 
)
So, uhh...anyway, Les Chatons now have a...well...Catbus to explore Mementos in. Okay. So they begin exploring, and there are Shadows here, so this is a good place to hone their combat skills. They soon encounter Shadow Nakanohara, whose obsession with his ex has formed the seed of a Treasure. If left alone, it will fester and become a Palace...but right now, it's ill-defined enough and weak enough that he can quickly be defeated and convinced to have a change of heart. After his defeat, Nakanohara blames his being abused and cast out by Madarame for his obsessive fixation on his ex, as he has developed abandonment issues. He asks Les Chatons to find Madarame and force him to have a change of heart.
Later, Morgana explains that Mementos is the source of all Palaces. Palaces like Kamoshida's didn't exist until recently. The mystery of Mementos is the key to everything.
With exams approaching, Les Chatons put their activities on hold for the time being to focus on school. During exam week, Ann has a perpetual uneasy feeling during her commutes...she believes she's being watched or followed. On the last day of exams, she's with Kaito and Sock Emoji on the train when she and Morgana both notice a suspicious youth following them. The group ambushes her stalker at the rail station exit. The tense confrontation is interrupted by an old man in a car who calls out to the stalker.
The stalker asks Ann to model for his next piece of art, and introduces himself as Kosei High second year art student Yusuke Kitagawa, disciple of famous traditional artist Madarame. He gives the group passes to Madarame's exhibit the following day; Ann decides to attend. The others do as well, because it seems like too much of a coincidence that they have heard the name Madarame so frequently recently and now have met his disciple.
At the exhibit, Ann is immediately dragged off by Yusuke to talk art, while Kaito and Sock Emoji roam the exhibit to try to learn more about Madarame. Sock Emoji is bored out of his skull (I can't say I blame him), but this is important kaitou business.
We overhear a reporter praising Madarame's imagination and his expansive array of different styles and techniques. She asks him where and how he continues to come up with so many different things. He begins his answer with "Well, it's difficult to put into words..."
Uh-huh. I've seen enough Meitantei Conan episodes involving highly regarded artists to recognize that as code for "I shamelessly steal my students' work and take credit for it." He plays so many false modesty cards during the interview you could play Vegas Blackjack with them. Kaito and Sock Emoji try to get closer to listen in, but a rush of people press in to see the "great" Madarame in person, and the kaitou are forced to fight their way to the exit to get some air.
Meanwhile, Ann is touring the Japanese art exhibit with Yusuke. Madarame briefly appears while Yusuke is praising him, and praises Ann for her ability to sense things from art. Once he leaves, Ann catches sight of a painting she particularly wanted to see in person. She comments that she can sense the artist's anger and frustration from the piece, and remarks that it's bizarre that such a kindly and lively gentleman could paint something so angry and distorted. Yusuke seems...unnerved or dejected by this remark, and urges Ann to move on to a different section of the exhibit.
Yeah Yusuke painted that.
Later, in the corridor outside, Ann meets up with Kaito and Sock Emoji just as Sock Emoji is about to share a post he read on the Phan-Site:
"A master of the Japanese arts is plagiarizing his pupil's work. Only his public face is shown on TV. His treatment of the pupils who live with him is awful. He teaches nothing and bosses them around. He treats them inhumanely, as if diciplining a dog..."
Since Ann has been invited to the atelier by Yusuke, Les Chatons decide to head out after school the following day and check things out.
The address they were given does indeed lead to a...decrepit shack, of sorts. At the very least, the building is old, run-down, and looks like it could fall over if you farted in its general direction. When Yusuke answers the door, Sock Emoji wastes no time in directly asking him if Madarame is doing terrible things. Yusuke dramatically rejects the accusations with a haughty, conceited laugh. Sock Emoji isn't having it, and accuses Yusuke of lying. This seems to slip past his guard, and his haughty act crumbles into defensiveness. Then Madarame emerges from the house with a calm demeanor and defuses the situation with gentle politeness, basically acting like Jesus of the East.
Well at least he's better at hiding what an evil bastard he is than Kamoshithead...
After the encounter with Madarame and Yusuke, Les Chatons begin to doubt their conviction that this man is the Madarame they heard about in Mementos.
But the Meta-Nav app has reacted to the words "Madarame", "plagiarism", and "shack"...
It's definitely him. But they're missing one more word to enter Madarame's Palace...
After Sock Emoji rambles off a spew of pointless verbal diarrhea, Kaito suggests "Museum", and the Palace appears around them: a gaudy gold tower with brilliant lights and tons of people lining up to enter.
Inside the museum, Les Chatons find exhibit rooms full of distorted paintings that depict various subjects--notably all people dressed in everyday attire. Men in suits, boys in neat dress shirts and ties, girls in school uniforms...
Upon discovering paintings of Nakanohara and Yusuke, Les Chatons realize what's going on here: the gallery in Madarame's "Museum" is of all his past "pupils", whose art he has claimed as his own to further his own fame and glory. Further exploration of the Museum leads them to a grand statue in the main hall, which is described as a "continuing self-funded work"...basically, it boils down to this: Madarame lures "pupils" in with promises of training and wealth, then basically makes them produce art for him on pain of ruining any future they might have had without him.
The next day, at the atelier, Les Chatons confront Yusuke. He confirms that Madarame has been taking credit for his pupils' work for years, but insists he himself allows this willingly, and seems angry at the ones who got fed up with the abuse and left. He also threatens to report Kaito & Sock Emoji to police unless Ann poses nude for him.
Oh hell no.
So anyway, Yusuke has virtually unlimited private use of the atelier until Madarame's exhibit ends, because the exhibit is occupying all his attention at the moment. Between this fact--making it the opportune time to strike at Madarame's Treasure--and the blackmail threat, the time limit for stealing Madarame's heart has been set.
As they're leaving the atelier, they're approached by a hot reporter, who's investigating the rumors surrounding Madarame. Later, Mishima alerts Kaito to a hit on the Phan-Site from Nakanohara. Nakanohara meets with Les Chatons in person at Shibuya Station, and asks them to save Yusuke from Madarame's abuse.
À SUIVRE...
Thoughts:
- I love the Shadows' banter, both the audio banter and the Hold Up stuff. Adding some old-school SMT (which I still haven't actually played) back into Persona is a fresh and fun element.
- Oh my GOD Ann's Persona Awakening. It's like each Awakening is more badass than the last. 
- For being furious at being viewed as a sex object, Ann's Catwoman costume sure is...hellaciously sexified.
- Speaking of sexy, the Doctor's sexy legs and shoes. Mmrrrr.
- The decor of Kamoshithead's Castle is very disturbing, especially in the upper levels. I thought about snapping some pics with my phone but decided against it (and I'm sure you can google the shit out of it by now in any case). Past a certain point, there are statues of scantily clad female students in their PE clothes everywhere, all in suggestive poses--and most of the statues are just the torsos. Very few have legs (except the one in the throne room, UGH), and none have arms or heads.
- Playing through Persona 5 is becoming an awkward experience for me and Zef, considering how many things we did in Persona EG are showing up in P5. By far the crowning example of this so far? In Persona EG, after Flash cheats on Twilight with Trixie, a Shadow Trial is disrupted by the emergence of the Dark Persona Mara. In P5, near the top of the first palace, you encounter the "Torn King of Desire"...which is THE TOP OF MARA. And seriously? GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!! @ everything ABOUT THAT.
AT LEAST WHEN WE DID THAT SHIT IN PERSONA EG THEY FOUGHT ALL OF MARA. NOT JUST MARA'S BOBBITTED HEAD!!
- Keith Silverstein is amazingly good at voicing condescending assholes.
- I get SO SICK of the fucking cat not letting me do shit in the evening when it makes no sense!!
- Yusuke is a total creep.
Actually for me this is what I thought of Morgana's Transformation:
4495918 Then you fail. But OK.
4495937 Come on like you weren't thinking the same thing.
Amen, it pisses me off how many evenings you lose for story purposes.
I actually scrolled past the last part of this update since I'm not quite caught up yet, but I'd just like to remind everyone that the Principal looks hilariously like the Kingpin. No wonder he's a jackass.
(Also dammit, I'd forgotten how long it took to upgrade social stats in these games. Looks like my exam results are gonna be suboptimal.)
4495968 No worries, I happen to have the test answers right HERE!
I like that Morgana isn't as annoying as his predecessor. But he still gets really annoying with this:
"Ooh, you stumbled into something? Let me comment on how this might be part of a game mechanic! In case you can't figure that out by already having your whole attention pulled into it."
Doctor. Eyup. Plan on romancing her on my second playthrough. Uh..why sock? I don't get it. So, favorite persona so far?
4495939
Umm...I wasn't, actually. In fact, I'm pretty sure you're the ONLY one who WAS. Because the REST OF US all knew EXACTLY what the reference was:
i2.wp.com/cdn.makezine.com/uploads/2012/12/totorocatbus.png?resize=598%2C327
(Thanks SO MUCH for the casual spoiler, by the way. Really appreciate it.)
4496003 Just a silly joke on my part. I've been hanging around Zef too long, his corny sense of humor rubbed off on me. :P
4496072 Meh, can't be helped. By the way while you can romance multiple women it's not recommended since it can and will come back to bite you in the ass.
It's still a bit random, but I think the demon's personality determines which kinds of answers they'll react best to. Of course, once you HAVE recruited them, and their proper name is displayed instead of their title, it's a bit of a crapshoot unless you remember what personality they're supposed to have.
My only lament is that Joker is the only one who can Negotiate, and that he doesn't have as much fun conversing with demons as the other SMT Protagonists have. P2 and Strange Journey have, in my view, the absolute best Negotiation scenes because of how hilarious they can get, mostly because the other teammates can get really goofy when chatting with demons and because the Space Marine is an absolute troll. And when the demons themselves have a connection...
pbs.twimg.com/media/Ck7T_TBUYAA5iOF.jpg hardcoregaming101.net/megaten/persona2ep-7.png
There's a serious disconnect between what Persona 5 says and what Persona 5 does, especially in terms of objectification. The Confidant for Temperance and the setup for meeting them has caused plenty of heads to slam against a wall.
The funny thing about this is that this is BOTH a fitting boss for the Tower section of the Castle (Mara is of the Tower Arcana, and the tower itself is a phallic representation of Kamoshida's heart) and an amusing callback to SMT Nocturne's failed Mara invocation, in which it was accidentally summoned into the body of a floppy Slime.
pbs.twimg.com/media/C9KNeMcW0AELFxB.jpg
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Whenever someone pronounces Sakamoto's last name, it comes out as "Zach o'Moto" or "Sucker Moto" to my ears. Apparently Atlus' "masters in Japan" (their words, not mine) requested this and other dubious localization choices from the ADR director...
I agree 100% on the Kamoshida boss fight... I've seen some shit in games and even I was disgusted by that. At least it was a simple boss fight, least for me and compared to some of the other ones later on. Here's hoping you enjoy what's coming up!
Yeah, I got that feeling too regarding the "Torn King of Desire" being the Snozzberry of Mara. Also, I wish that I could punch Sock Emoji to make him stop making things worse. It seems like every time he's around ANYONE, he escalates the situation. Yosuke wasn't as annoying, just teen-boy ignorant.
I'm considering giving up on renting DVDs ingame. Quite frankly, every time I rent one out, I end up getting hit with either auto-progress days or Auto-Dungeon days.
If it exists in P5, I so want Hyperspeed Reading
I love that you don't like the cat bus thing when everyone else loves it.
4497276 Where and in what country and at what time and on what planet did I say I don't like it? Please don't put words in my mouth.
4497564 It sounded like it annoyed you. Sorry.
4497828 Umm...I was reacting to it being a lame joke, dude. That's all.
4497964 Well, sorry either way.