i rlly wish i could see what p3 fans back in the 2000s thought of characters like shuji, strega and ryoji when only the og game was out.
because looking at base game p3... ryoji was kind of just... there.
he transferred to gekkougaun, obviously looking like pharos who left days eariler so no secret there, flirted with everyone, was junpeis bestie and then after a month of just existing we find out hes super important, connected to the protag and aigis and kicks off the finale of the game. og ryoji is kind of just 'the dude nobody invited'.
maybe im missing some things, maybe he didn't necessary need to be more prominent because maybe it was obvious he was going to be important to platers. like i stated above, he and pharos were obviously connected bc of their looks (hair colours, eyes, mole) and him appearing this late in the game can't be a concidence, however considering his very important connection to the mc its baffling how he barely had any one to one scenes with them before december. he's more junpeis friend than yours.
it's so insane to think back how little you interact with him, as if the universe itself is preventing you two from being alone together. the thing is tho, i'm 95% sure ryomina did exist back then still, it had to have since its basically kawoshin in a different font but there rlly was nothing to work off of in canon (for both the ship and ryoji) until the manga and portable.
did atlus think just bc pharos, the werid kid who appeared once a month to be ominous (ok not entirely accurate but u get the picture), had a SL (which wasn't even a full one), ryoji didn't need one and players would care abt him on the princple they were the same person? Did anyone back then have ryoji as their favourite character? and if they did it sounded like they would've liked the concept more than what was actually shown in game.
2006 atlus undoubtably fumbled. luckily, future adaptations would focus alot more on ryoji, his love of the world and especially his relationship with the protag. cant rlly say the same for the former 2 mentioned at the beginning but it is what it is ig...
I played the original P3 and didn't initially see Ryomina as romantic but even when I played the game for the first time, I knew their bond was incredibly unique.
I don't know when this actually changed for me as it was a long time ago (maybe around when Portable came out but it could have been before, maybe Persona 3 FES and playing the game again?) but all of a sudden I absolutely loved them together and saw them in a romantic light.
I even set up a Ryomina group on Deviant Art and ended up chatting to other people about them.
Ryoji was still one of my favourite characters, even in the original P3. He was such an interesting character and I'm glad they got more moments together in the manga/movies/Reload.
It's crazy thinking how long ago I first played Persona 3. It still remains my favourite game, I even have a blue butterfly tattoo 🦋
I still have a huge soft spot for Ryomina, even after all these years 💙💛
