Howdy

If you've ever played Ace Attorney, I'm basically just a fusion of Apollo and Athena in personality

[jesseoftheorder]

On the note of P6 protagonist, if the leaks are correct on what the protagonist looks like, I really hope that theory that he's a foreign exchange student is correct. It would not only be a good explanation for why he is in a new school and staying in a new place, (assuming we follow the usual pattern) but it also opens up some fun avenues for characterization.

Like, there's a culture barrier that's two-fold. He is semi-frequently confused by things in the general Japanese culture, but he also does things that regularly baffle his native friends and he doesn't bat an eye.

And language. He speaks Japanese well for it being his second language, but he doesn't always get words right, he never uses contractions or slang, common sayings and expressions are lost on him. I'm just imagining this very dead-pan, expressionless guy who rarely speaks and he's just had an incredibly harrowing supernatural experience and he turns to his new friend and says, so seriously, "Wow. That really heebied my jeebie, am I right?" And his new friends/party members are like "Is this guy for real?" And he is. He is so for real.

[apolloathenafusion]

What direction should the P6 OST go in?

Thank you for the question! I yapped about this for way longer than I thought I would, so fair warning:

I think the musical styles for the modern Persona games are super neat, because they always seem like they shouldn't fit the game's vibe/theme, but they always do in some way.

Like. Persona 3 is a serious, heavy game about death, suicide and depression, and its OST style is aggressive hip hop. Persona 5 is a goofier but sincere game about rebellion and teenage rage, and its OST is soulful jazz. It may just seem odd because I'm looking at it with an American perspective (idk if the general stereotypes about these music genres are the same/similar in Japan), but looking at Makoto and Ren as characters, I'd assume that their music preferences would be swapped.

But when you get over that surface level perspective, the style choices for the games make a lot of sense. Death is an incredibly common topic in Hip Hop and Rap music, and the aggressiveness of the OST fits P3's atmosphere perfectly. Depression can feel so loud and overbearing, so impossible to deal with or stop. What better way to represent an oppressive atmosphere than with heavy hitting music that won't stop either? Jazz may not have that reputation now, but it WAS seen as very rebellious when it was initially created by black artists during the 20s (and of course it was popular with teenagers, as nearly all black music has been throughout history). Soulful jazz is also specifically an African American genre of music, meaning it doesn't fit in with traditional Japanese society. What better genre for a group of teens who don't fit into the norms of Japanese society, and want to break free from them?

Anyway, my point is that Persona OSTs always have a thematic tie to their games. They seem odd or out of place on the surface, but there's some deeper aspect of the genre that connects to the themes of the game. So, whatever OST P6 gets should fit into the themes of P6.

Uh.

We don't know what those are yet.

We have stuff to speculate on though! The teaser trailer took place in a spooky as fuck graveyard, the mixed media segment with real world images and the "Who Am I?" written with magazine letters reminded me of a strung together conspiracy board, and the P6 logo reminds me a lot of a stamp. Like, a special stamp that you put on classified government files. The XBOX store page also says this: "But beneath the surface of familiar streets...lies something darker: strange rumors, unsettling urban legends, and occult incidients." And of course, we all know the game's main color is green. Specifically, a sickly, dangerous, radium green as seen in the sky of the trailer.

Personally, I think the main theme of P6 will be fear and paranoia. I think it'll have a much heavier atmosphere compared to P5 and the main commentary of the game will be on mass paranoia and how it seperates us from our communities, like what many experienced during the Covid pandemic. The Green color also makes me think a pathogen could be involved. And the Conspiracy stuff might be involved in the plot too. Something about how no one trusts the government anymore, because most world governments have fucked up so badly over and over again. But that lack of trust in the government also leads to a paranoia around things you SHOULD trust, like doctors or experts (maybe this will be illustrated through our protag? Like, "the government kidnapped John Persona 6's parents when he was 12, so now he's too scared to get close to anyone by the time the game starts"). These are all just guesses, so I'd love to hear what y'all think about P6's theme.

But if P6's theme is about fear and paranoia, what music genre could represent that in an unexpected way?

A part of me thinks they might go in a more traditional Japanese style, or a fusion of an American genre with more traditional Japanese instruments. If the protag and his buddies are investigating local urban legends or yokai, then it would be fitting. But I think it's more likely they'd go for techno. It's a modern genre that they haven't done yet, and the synthetic music could be used to make cool, funky sounding bops during the everyday segments and legitimately unsettling tracks during the scarier segments.

So my answer is techno music. I'm sure whatever musical style they pick will sound great and fit the themes of the game, but techno would be neat

[apolloathenafusion]

Sumire and Ren cuddling and Sumire is the big spoon

[myawuk]

A sketch of Ren spacing out... Probably thinking about stealing Akechi's heart(?)

[kopawz]

i need to reread his manga i miss him

[thousand-winters]

Thinking about a D&D episode now (shout out to @lord-pretzel for the tag that gave me the idea).

Kaido would bring up the idea because that's exactly the kind of thing he would like, so naturally Saiki, Kuboyasu and Nendo are getting dragged into it to different levels of willingness. Then either Teruhashi or Yumehara are hearing about it and they're getting involved now alongside Mera. Hairo gets invited because everyone likes Hairo and Saiko is dragged along via his soft spot for Nendo.

It's a whole disaster.

Kaido is DMing with the edgiest story known to mankind, but his dramatics are actually very good to act the part of the enemies when it comes down to it, especially since he's amongst friends so he doesn't have to worry about stage fright.

Saiki debated for a whole hour about what kind of character he should make and what everyone would assume about him based on that. In the end, he went with Human Fighter, he's fulfilling his dreams of being the most average guy ever (although he's suffering because he can read Kaido's thoughts and knows the plot twists, unless he acquired another germanium ring and brought it along to actually enjoy this).

Teruhashi really wanted to try one of the most out there races like Bugbear or Goblin, but she's still too worried about what that would say about her so she ended up going with an Elf. She ended up picking a Bard for her Class since being charming is kinda expected of her but she was eyeing the Barbarians and Monks.

Nendo would be a Fighter too became he wasn't paying attention and Kaido just gave him that because he figured it would be the least complicated. Or a Barbarian, which in the end doesn't matter much because he just uses his attacks whenever someone is attacking Saiki, most of the time he actually tries to play nice with whoever they encounter because this is Nendo.

Hairo makes a Monk and he's far too committed to the bit. He breaks one of the lamps in the Kaidos' household because he insists in actually acting out each attack his character makes. He's trying to get more "wins" than Nendo's character despite the fact this is a cooperative game and Nendo isn't even interested in competing in the first place, but that tracks for them.

Yumehara was mostly planning to try and flirt with the NPCs Kaido offered as a subtle hint so they would have to act out romance scenes, so she picked a half-elf for the pretty factor, but she ended up getting far too attached to her cool Fiend Warlock spells and forgot about her initial goal, now she's kinda invested in acting out her backstory and using her most heinous spells if she gets the chance (it's the Occult Club vibes carrying over).

Mera is more interested in the snacks they brought at first so she's not paying that much attention to the game, but because she had no time between her multiple jobs, her character is basically her with some Rogue cosmetics. Her backstory includes too providing for her siblings and she ends up getting oddly passionate about the NPCs paying the party for their services because she gotta provide for her family, she can't do this work for free, for shame.

Kuboyasu is trying the "what I want to be" approach and went all the way to the other side so he made a Paladin of Devotion. He has to remind himself not to try and beat the shit out of every NPC who's kinda rude to them or of Saiko's character because he has an oath and he's NOT going to break it, though he doesn't hesitate at all as soon as they get a reason to attack.

Saiko wasn't particularly interested in this in the first place but he ended up going for a Druid so he could have his tiger. He put a lot of emphasis on picking the Noble background so he could have retainers, which is a bit hard to reconcile with his class, but he wasn't having it any other way. He makes very good use of those NPC retainers so he can have them doing for his character all the things he would have his real life servant do. He provided at least 75% of the snacks because he didn't want to eat "peasant food".

Despite all the disaster, it becomes a tradition.

[spoiky]

The Summer Yosuke Died

It didn't take long for his partner to notice

[apolloathenafusion]

Persona 5 x Persona 4 Shitpost Crossover

It's post-canon P5R but before P5S. The Investigation Team are all around 20-22 with the exception of Teddie (he's mentally and physically 16). Yukiko and Kanji work for their family businesses, Chie's at the police academy, Yosuke and Narukami go to the same university in Tokyo, Naoto does detective work and Rise juggles being an idol on top of her online school work. All of them are out of Inaba with the exception of Yuki and Kanji, though the rest all visit when they can. Yosuke is packing up his stuff in his university dorm, preparing to head down to Inaba for golden week, when he gets a phone call from Teddie.

"Hey, Ted."

"Yosuke!"

They get to talking and Yosuke feels himself smile hearing Teddie's voice again. He missed the guy. Yeah, he could be really annoying, but Yosuke did genuinely like him and his stupid jokes. It was a lot easier for him to admit that, now that they weren't living together and Yosuke wasn't an angsty teen anymore. He saw Teddie as a little brother and it was good to hear his voice. Yosuke zipped up a 2nd suitcase while asking Teddie why he called.

He could practically hear Teddie smile through the speaker. "I brought a boy home!"

Yosuke sighed. "You can't say that, man, it doesn't mean what you think it means."

"His name is Renren!" Teddie continued, ignoring Yosuke's reminder and barreling on forward with an explanation that Yosuke didn't ask for. This Renren guy was super cool, super pretty, ran around everywhere with a cat in his bag and thought Ted was funny (which the bear seemed very happy about). "He's with me right now! Say hi, Renren!"

"Yo," said a boy with a deep voice. He sounded like an Inaba local.

Before Yosuke could greet him back or react to any of the information he'd been given, Teddie continued at a breakneck pace. Apparently Renren was a bit of a coffee snob, had 4 part time jobs but not one at Junes because they refused to hire him, and scaled the Yasogami high building from the outside at 2 am last month so he could win a bet. A bet he made with Nanako, which Nanako did not think he would take seriously. Renren was a little worried about getting caught, since he didn't want to get arrested again.

Because apparently Renren had been arrested before.

"Wait, you said 'arrested'? Like, jail!?"

"Yeah," Teddie causally said, "Ren got arrested last year 'cause he pushed some politician, he was on probation for it. That just ended a few months ago!"

Teddie leaned away from the speaker. Yosuke could hear Ren say something in the background but he couldn't make out what it was.

Ted leaned back towards the speaker. "Also, he got arrested last Christmas for a different crime. So he spent two months in jail."

...This guy pushed a politician so hard he got arrested? Wasn't that physical assault!? And then he committed a completely different crime that Teddie wouldn't specify for some reason!? And got arrested again!? What, was he supposed to be some delinquent, or...an actual criminal?

"...Ted, are you alone with him right now?"

"Yeah! I said I brought him home."

"We're in Junes," the other boy said, with a deep voice that Yosuke now found anxiety-inducing, "It's closin' time, though. Just the two of us."

"Yeah. It's romantic."

"Okay, I have an idea!" Yosuke squeaked without meaning to, "Teddie, why don't you call Nanako and go outside and just...uh, hang out there. Look at the sky, there's supposed to be stars out tonight. Just go outside."

"What about Renren?"

"Your friend stays inside! He can look at, uh, the floor or something."

Yosuke heard the two boys laugh. Something about it made him angry.

"Nah," Ren said, "Not right now. I wanna spend some alone time with him."

"Well," Teddie said, "You heard him, Yosuke. I should stay with him. I don't wanna argue with my boyfriend, after all."

Yosuke let out a frustrated sigh. "Don't call him that, Ted, it doesn't mean what you think it-"

"Yeah it does," the criminal interrupted.

"...Huh?"

"I know what it means," Teddie insisted, "Renren's my boyfriend. We're dating! Isn't that awesome?"

"WHAT!?"

Teddie offered no explanation, leaning away from the speaker to talk to his apparently boyfriend who was also a criminal. Yosuke dug his fingernails into his phone case until Ted eventually said, "Oh, I gotta go now, Yosuke! Renren wants to smooch. Bye, have a beary good night!"

"TED, DON'T-!"

He hung up.

Yosuke threw his phone to the carpet floor and nearly stomped on it.

Teddie was a little brother to him. Yosuke was very, very protective of his baby brother. He just didn't realize that until said baby brother admitted to dating a delinquent with a criminal record

[yurithraa]

autistic akihiko canon

[gunpowdercarousel]

Persona 3: Save the world from evil monsters with your badass sexy monster-hunter friends in the most magical city in the world (Tokyo)

Persona 5: Commit sexy fucking crimes with your badass awesome sexy thief friends in the most magical city in the world (Tokyo)

Persona 4: You are in OHIO. Your friends are LOSERS. You are WET. Go hang out at TARGET.

[dontrollthedicesideblog]

welcome back everyone. take a draft ive had on here since 2022

[crowgutzzz]

silly thief!

[dggmsk]

Reassurance

[darkrooklobby]

"We're not so different, you and I." 🎭🎭🎭

I just (personally) think Maruki is an adult parallel to Joker.

Despite having minimal characterization, Joker innately helps people he meets, protects the weak (like the woman from his arrest), solves the problems of his confidants (most confidant links is you dealing with their problems, let's be real 😂), upholds justice, takes the fall for his whole team, doesn't share his burdens, etc.

Maruki is just an adult version of that, grown up and taken to the extreme. After everything he went through + positively reinforcing his 'savior' nature, the only difference is his methods and reach.

The savior complex / messiah complex is present in both of them in different degrees. It manifests differently within someone who is a teenager, vs. someone who is an adult with trauma (which, btw, Joker would realistically become, given enough time after p5r/p5s.)

I think that Maruki is someone Joker could have become if given enough time / conditioning.

Just as well as Maruki possibly sees his younger self in Joker, the 'bright-eyed kid' he himself no longer is, jaded by life since then.

[homuraakumaakemi]

As a certified Sumire fan and a Yoshizawa fan in general, I can't recommend Rose and Violet enough if you can play it. But there's one moment in particular that's kind of the culmination of what makes this mod so great that my friends and I are crazy about. BIG spoilers for Persona 5 Royal, and in particular the Rose and Violet mod. I'm serious. If you have even the VAGUEST INTEREST in this mod, do not proceed further, not even if you've played Persona 5 Royal, until you've experienced it yourself:

While I adore Sumire in Persona 5 Royal, her implementation is not perfect. At least insofar as the English localization and the nature of how the Confidants are set up, you can interpret Joker being all over the place for how he feels about Sumire. Some act like she doesn't exist. Largely, it's up to the player how he feels about her. While that approach can work, this mod takes a different approach, since you're playing as the REAL Kasumi.

At various points, Kasumi will let the player know what she's thinking. While there's at least one point where she's bitter at Makoto's friend Eiko for not thinking she's charming, most of the moments where, regardless of player input, she will let you know what she's thinking have to do with Sumire, fittingly enough. No matter what you do, even if you ignore her Confidant entirely, Kasumi will worry and want to help her. But if you do do it, you are rewarded with the subject of today's post.

I love Sumire's Rank 9 in the original Persona 5 Royal, but today, we're talking about how the mod handled it. At this point, Sumire is recovering from her trauma (even though Kasumi's clearly alive, she still SAW Kasumi die for reasons unique to the mod, and of course she still felt like the spare). She's grateful, naturally, for Kasumi's help. And in this reality, Kasumi manages to get through to her. Not only do they affirm their love for each other, but what I wish to point out is HOW Kasumi says it back.

This is a video game. Literally every dialogue option in Persona 5 Royal gives you at least two choices, even when it's basically two iterations of the same thing. For the most part, the same applies in Rose and Violet... except once. Right here. Here, Kasumi herself leaves no room for error or interpretation. She loves her sister, and she will tell her so. Again, this is the ONLY TIME this happens, and of course it has to do with her sister. Of course you will get other scenes too of these two, but that's a story for another day.

[mxihi]

eventually.... i'd like to draw all the phantom theives in this style.... got to lock in

[springvamp]

fought okumura and his fuckass bots, fought shido in all his fuckass forms and 1 on 1, even whooped yaldabaoth's fuckass and its four arms.

yet somehow being forced to fight yoshizawa hurts more than all of them combined. her begging joker to stop, letting us know that she doesn't really want to fight, she just wants to be left alone. not because she wants to, but because she feels like she doesn't deserve to be saved, let alone by somebody like joker.

this is not like akechi's fight. even though akechi was also lashing out for much similar reasons, there is also a part of him that genuinely enjoys and gets a thrill out of fighting others. yoshizawa meanwhile has none of this. she doesn't hurt us on purpose, she does it as a response to trauma.

the last time you fought someone 1 on 1 in the game with shido, it felt like you could take on the world. in the 1 on 1 fight with yoshizawa, it feels like you're tearing her world apart.

holy fuck is it cruel. but is it crueler than anything maruki is currently doing? encouraging yoshizawa's delusions so that she no longer suffers, or tearing the world she knew apart so she can live a life that is truly hers? the game lets you figure it out, but deep down, you already knew the answer before the fight began.

so, you fight her until she cannot anymore. then cendrillon, who was supposed to be a figure of her rebellion, goes beserk in a state of denial. it is only then we see just how far yoshizawa has fallen, and despise maruki for enabling it.