(no subject)

[sailorkitty]

Finished Persona 5!

Here's what I liked about it.

-Talking cat. This game gives you a talking cat companion. An adorable black kitty with a white muzzle who calls himself 'Waga-hai'(Extremely old-fashioned/self-important pronoun). I thought he was going to turn out to be a girl at first, given the female name(And maid costume), and I never made him wear any of the cute clothing because I didn't want to get spoiled for his human form. This was a great mistake. Though honestly, I seldom brought him into the dungeons, because I didn't want to put the cute kitty in danger. The one problem I had was the lack of Morgana being petted in-game. Thankfully, Futaba is best girl and remedied that by rubbing his wittle kitty cheeks. I hope P4 Royal adds a 'pet Morgana' option.

-Finally, Japanese speech. Being Swedish, I'm not a fan of dubs, especially not for a language I'm studying. If having it in Swedish was the only option, I'd understand and enjoy it, because it would likely be crappy as hell and fun to laugh at. Instead, being stuck with English feels like a middle-of-the-road option. Hearing pronunciations butchered (YOOO-sewgay-COON, Naw-TOE) is a pet peeve of mine, and I really dislike having '-chan' and '-kun' still present in spoken English. So being able to play in Japanese makes me so happy. It added a lot to my experience, and I'm so glad that I didn't miss the 'Real-ju' joke from Futaba. (No shade to people who like the dub! P3 and P4 dubs weren't bad. Just not fun for me.)

-Haru is based on Princess Knight with a dash of RoV. I repeat: Based on Sapphire's secret disguise in Princess Knight with influences from The Time Oscar Was The Masked Avenger(Itself likely inspired by The Scarlet Pimpernel). It was at this point that I realised that this game was pandering to me specifically.

-The character designer did a fine job with Yusuke. Both his backstory, personality, and the white knee-high boots on 1970's skater-boy glam, complete with cleavage. I really appreciate all the gay subtext in his route, because obviously that's the first male contact we're trying to set the protag up with (Second being Mishima). Still annoyed that we get a Jun lookalike which is impossible to date, but at least Atlus hasn't completely forgotten about their female fanbase.

-Anna and Ryuji both seemed kind of boring at first, but they turned out pretty nice! Especially Anna. I didn't date her, because no way was I going to break up Anna and Shiho.

-Western P5 fans named MC 'Harry Potter'. Japanese Persona fans named him 'Pego' as in 'Persona' and 'Go'(5). Pego is Victorian working-class slang for male genitalia. Now you know.

-The Persona character designer likes a) Christmas Cake(Women over 25), and b) Dominatrixes. This game proves that it. It also shows him being given creative free reign, as there are now several fully dateable 'older woman' links (P3 and P4 had one each, but they were non-dateable)

-Sexual harassment and sexism is part of the game, the plot, the characters, but never feels preachy, more like just an unpleasant facet of everyday life. And the player still gets to see girls in bikinis and date high schoolers. I really like this, it's a good way to underline that "yeah, this is a problem for the characters in this world(And by extension Japanese society), but it's not going to affect the fan-service levels in your escapism."

-FUTABA. Futaba was extremely relatable, and her story was touching. A family member who was watching me play was laughing along when she kept acting like I did at her age. The part where Yusuke found her figmas had us in stitches. And her story being about 'Learning to go out by myself!' was really sweet. She'll go far. And her relationship with Sojiro was so sweet. The part where she called him 'Dad' I just.. Happy Sigh.

-Sakura at the start felt kiiiind of like a rehash of P4, like Morgana. But I'm glad that they seemed to take him in a different direction. It was fairly obvious as soon as he was taken aback at the protagonists' treatment at school, but well-written enough to still be enjoyable. Also, how come he had no date for Valentines day? It seemed kind of OOC.

-TOKYO. I was in Tokyo at the time the game was out, and boy, they've replicated it perfectly. I was even cursing at the fact that the subway was just like in Tokyo, IE unavigationable with way too many big stations. And it has Akihabara! And a Maid Cafe! I joke that these games are important to Otaku for being able to simulate the life of a High Schooler, but this was something completely different.

-Futaba/Yusuke! I very seldom actively ship het, but they're both adorable space cases.

-I'd been spoiled for Akechi being a villain, sadly. I'd probably have enjoyed him more if I hadn't known, most of the lead-up had him feeling like Light Yagami Mk 2. Still, I fell in love with him! <s>And am now in need of fic with Akechi pining for daddy's approval LOL</s> So now I have to get a very cheap old PS4 and P5 Royal so I can rescue Akechi. I also need all the genfic of Akechi being taken in by the team and fussed over.