Crimson Cheer, Verdant Faith and…. Alabaster Duty. At least call it Silver Duty, but his clothes are just as ‘azure’ as the others’ are red and green! Ah… (also personal skills based around Our Avatar, sigh… just make them less effective and applicable to a wider variety of unit…)
In any case, I’m really enjoying what they’re doing with clerics being able to make a protected unit around them, especially now that I have two, it just becomes an advancing formation and they can heal each other to let them chain guard the next turn. Plus being effective against ranged! Also backups are fun! Boucheron is pretty forgettable but I like how the backup mechanic works enough that I keep giving him preferential treatment lmao, he currently is Marth’s pet unit. Break is fun as well.
Also I’m really actually pretty enjoying the joke of the fact Yunaka is obviously an ex-assassin and nobody realises it I wish it had continued rather than her immediately admitting it for sympathy points. I’m already a little biased towards her because Micaiah got attached to her - clearly because Sothe reasons.
I’ve finally played all four routes of Three Houses, and it only took me until like, 2-3 weeks after the next game in the series came out. Epilogues, untouched by the wayseer:
Azure Moon
Byleth+Ashe (I am convinced Ashe/Cyril would have happened otherwise and I am filled with regret as that became a ship of mine)
Dimitri+Flayn
Dedue+Shamir
Sylvain+Ingrid
Annette+Gilbert
Felix+Bernadetta
—
Crimson Flower
Byleth+Sothis (to be honest, out of morbid curiosity due to events, and poor, poor Rhea, she does not care)
Edelgard+Linhardt (from what I remember, surprisingly and interestingly platonic)
Hubert+Ferdinand
Dorothea+Lorenz
Petra+Ashe
Caspar+Shamir
Hanneman+Manuela
Jeritza+Mercedes
—
Silver Snow (Ashen Wolves + Faculty + gdi I missed the deadline to A-Support Rhea again Run)
Byleth+Yuri
Hapi+Linhardt
Balthus+Constance
Seteth+Flayn
Hanneman+Manuela
Alois+Catherine
Shamir+Cyril
Ferdinand+Petra (apparently so into each other they still got together despite not being fielded since White Clouds)
—
Verdant Wind
Byleth+Singledom
Claude+Flayn
Hilda+Cyril
Raphael+Ignatz
Lorenz+Lysithea
Leonie+Shamir
Marianne+Linhardt
In summation, Flayn likes powerful men and Hanneman and Manuela apparently can’t get enough of each other.
Thoughts on routes and best route order below the cut, along with controversial archetype opinions:
Azure Moon - definitely the best one to start on. Has the big cinematic reveal of who Edelgard is right after Dimitri talks about who she is and what she means to him. It has the least to do with the Agarthans or Imperial motivations. Dimitri’s character arc is cool, and it’s a more personal story about Kingdom characters with cameos of others.
Crimson Flower - then, the other side of the conflict. Gives a bit more info about why Edelgard is up to things, introduces the Agarthans, gives the other side of the central Kingdom-Empire conflict (last chapter in Kingdom capital against a desperate dragon, compared to last chapter in Empire capital against a desperate abomination). Does nothing about the Agarthans other than be like “these are our allies we’re wary of”, slotting it neatly between Azure Moon and the last two routes as an intro to the (Slavic for some reason? I got spoiled for other things but not that Shambhala was covered in readable Cyrillic) Molemen Lore.
Silver Snow - Back to the save point, decide to go against Edelgard instead and see what happens. I mean, I didn’t actually do that, since I wanted to make it an Ashen Wolves + faculty playthrough and wanted to avoid giving Edie and Hubert experience that others could get, but one less White Clouds playthrough is good for the soul. Though it could be interesting playing Black Eagles against their classmates, the Church characters are great and deserve some focus, so honestly would highly recommend focusing more on them. You fight Rhea in the end in both Black Eagle routes, and if they’re close together, you can mark the differences in how she’s treated. Also the Edelgard defeat scene makes way more sense here than in Verdant Wind and is more impactful after the reunion fight animation post-timeskip. It should be seen in context here first rather than being confusing in Verdant Wind, plus, does hit harder if you have sided with her already.
Verdant Wind - You’ve done the surface-level major conflict already, that’s now on the sidelines, it’s time for the ones caught up in the middle (and from outside Fódlan) to demand some lore and then open up to the rest of the world, bringing the routes from the insular and lore-light routes to the lore-heavy one involving the most outsiders.
What I did though: Silver Snow | Verdant Wind. It’s more complicated to put these two in any order since they’re basically identical other than characters involved, so ironically, feels like playing them concurrently is actually better than playing them side by side. They’re way too similar, but at least if they’re played together, you can pick up on small differences more than “ugh, again?”, such as skipping Gronder Field and Claude pushing for info from Rhea where Byleth accepts what’s being said, and food for thought on implications (why does Rhea snap in one and not the other, for example? Did Edelgard treat her worse as a prisoner of war when The Professor takes her side?) Still, I’d put the Nemesis fight after Rhea fight. The opening up of Fódlan and Nemesis getting put down is a more uplifting conclusion than Rhea succumbing, and it’s the point I prefer to have it end on.
Also, Edelgard and Dimitri are a take on Alm/Celica.
Prince and princess of opposing lands. Princess, the “one” surviving child of a haggard-looking king’s consort. Knew each other for a short while in childhood before the princess was taken away again. The Agarthans go on about pitting “the children” against each other, Alm and Celica both have the brands. Echoes came out directly before Three Houses, they added a bunch more fight scenes between Alm and Celica for little reason. Alm is “the jasper lion”, Dimitri is a “blue lion”. Edelgard allies with the Agarthans, Celica… it’s not one to one, but she sure did go along with what the Duma Faithful asked of her. Also I’ve heard things that happen to Edelgard in Three Hopes which tie into some things which happened to Celica in Echoes and not in the original Gaiden which makes me even more suspicious lmao.
Okay, it’s not exact one to one, but the main thing that sparked the notion is they were childhood friends and then Edelgard was taken away, while Echoes was really recent. Three Houses is just wider than Echoes because multiple routes and Claude.
This is the first Uchikoshi game I’ve not taken constant notes on while playing ahaha, it’s a strange feeling. I feel like there’s less mentions of concepts which will come up later, and more clues to things that have happened that get followed up on immediately since Date is a detective and not stuck in a confined space. It’s still strange though.
But anyway!
Spoilers ahead up to Mizuki Ending
Egyptian Mythology References Checklist: A-set, another name for Isis (ahaha, I wonder exactly who is gonna get split into pieces when her husband’s reference comes into play); explicit mention of the Eye of Horus and Ra from A-set, which will no doubt come into why the first series of killings targeted the left eye, while the second round targets the right; the Wadjet System. (I’m pleasantly surprised with the them: Uchikoshi has brought Ancient Egyptian stuff before, after all, even if they fell by the wayside after All-Ice became just Alice.)
Don’t think I didn’t notice that the knife used to stab creeper boy was his mother’s, and that there was no mention of those chocolates she dropped in the warehouse after getting confirmation she bought them! Or that the person needed to transport Renju’s body was 105 pounds when So Sejima definitely wasn’t that, but that it’s just brushed over to place the blame for all the murders on him. Or that So Sejima is Date’s father, but that he didn’t notice. Or that any follow-ups on Iris’ horrible mindscape never comes up (that broken child’s laughter on the TVs… distressing.) Why she was kissing So Sejima in her mindscape, if it really was Renju in Mizuki’s mindscape, why Iris was really with Renju, who the lover is who gave him the watch. Or that the New and Original Cyclops Serial Killings have definitely not been solved, that Date losing his eye was definitely part of it no matter what the others keep insisting. The source of Mizuki having superpowers! (Though admittedly, that might just be a humour thing. And it was hilarious ahaha.) A few things that will come up on other routes, which I’m very much looking forward to.
Also, why is Mama not listed as a character… since this is an Uchikoshi game, I have a conspiracy theory she’s not real and that’s why she’s not there lmao, but it might just be that she’s missing, which is a shame. I wanna know extra info about her… she has way more presence than other characters listed, after all, but I don’t wanna check online if it really is a mistake or if it’ll get added later on. (Also the St. Sebastian portrait gift from Renju she has hanging in the bar, nice.)
Meanwhile, there’s so much more sexual humour than usual, even for an Uchikoshi game. There’s something kinda refreshing about it coming through as characterisation rather than something that’s randomly peppered through and not commented on like in a lot of games, though. It just feels like Date’s a pervert rather than the world itself being fanservice for the viewer, if that makes sense, and it’s not… coy about it, so it feels less skeevy than other games that try to push it through under the radar like “ah, yes, this is fine for X X X reasons.” People are just flirty, and he’s just a perv who gets dunked on it by everyone.
But! Okay! Mizuki Ending!
I am so emotional, even a couple of days later!
The last Somnium, with her coming to say her real feelings on Date being the true parent she needs, rather than her shitty ones that she blames herself for the deaths of, right around the time she’d be valorising them (since they’re both… you know, brutally murdered and she got to see both their eyeless corpses.) Her relationship to her parents, the affection she wants being normal levels for a kid, but with an absent father who placed all the burden on a mother who was emotionally neglected herself, him assuming motherly tendencies mean she’ll just be fine, she cannot deal, and starts abusing her… the take on Shoko is pretty nuanced while still having her come off as terrible. (Thank you, Date, for assigning the blame to both of them, Renju was v neglectful and his little comment about needing to prioritise the business even after the hitting becomes known…)
The ending at the Shrine with Aiba on her shoulder… Date’s coma Somnium being entirely surrounded on learning to take care of and be a dad basically to Mizuki over the last four years before the game...
I do wish we still got ending pictures… I miss them ahh. Though I’ll always be attached to the good old flowchart.
I am so far loving this game so much… it feels very Zero Escapey, but with a feeling of more freedom and leisure, without the cramped atmosphere (which I do love, but it’s a nice change of pace), and without puzzles aside from piecing clues and selecting the correct option (which, given I suck at Zero Escape puzzles so badly… is also a welcome break ahaha.)
(Also lowkey loved the Receptionist Ending. You go abandon the case and live at the beach with your reptile gf, Date. I support you.)
(Oop, I actually finished a few days ago, but here are my thoughts on the whole thing!)
Well that is the way to end a game. Been listening to that song and dance number for a while, aha, it’s fun~
So, it would appear I picked up on clues but didn’t link them properly to get to the right conclusion, with the medication and “Sejima” talking about Date being his son, but really being in “his” “son’s” body. I kinda like Saito as a villain. Just the hint of family issues regarding his father and dead mother, and how that impacted on someone without the capacity for elation outwith murder, how he does have a possessive streak which resulted in him killing his father’s “new woman”… so he does have emotions, just not positive ones. Revenge, anger, etc. I saw a comment about how he probably doesn’t realise what he’s feeling in the bodies of others while killing, is horror, and he has no idea why because he “knows” it should cause him happiness. There’s something interesting about that.
But also like, dude, why are you trying to take revenge on Hayato Yagyu when you’re the one who chose to go on the “journey” in the first place… it’s not as though he’s particularly stable though, so I’ll let it slide.
(Also, Manaka, I don’t wanna victim blame, but why the absolute hell did you choose to meet your corrupt politician lover in an abandoned warehouse district… your friends warned you, you’d just had a child, did you want to be murdered, like god… even if So was horrified and tried to stop it happening, she put herself in the position where it was very easy to be disposed of. And she would have been, if it weren’t for Renju and Hitomi. Jfc Manaka.) Though Hitomi’s Somnium was so lovely and atmospheric. Even if the darkness got annoying, it added to the tone, and it might be my favourite in the game.
I’m a little disappointed in Date going back to his original body. His voice is just so much… less charismatic than Greg Chun’s, and his face is a lot more generic hardboiled detective. And Saito’s body pretty much is Date’s now, it’s not like he really deserves it back or anything.
Also don’t be excited that Iris might kiss you, gross, you knew and helped raise her for a good few months…
Overall with the ending… I’m gonna say what a few people have said and say that I actually do prefer the Mizuki ending. It just was such a nice resolution, with her and Date, while the true ending involves going down a route of basically not being there for her at all as her adoptive dad and letting Hitomi cure her and kinda abandoning her? Sure, it’s not great for a lot of others, but the idea that we now know So is in Iris’ body, but nobody else does, is horrifying for everyone involved and it is fascinating to consider how that might work out. (He looks in a mirror and sees a face which mixes his own and Manaka’s, and learns he’s been labelled the murderer and his own body is dead… ahh, the scenes we’ll never see but I have the urge to make exist, like Pewter and Mama having their own feelings about Renju being pinned as the culprit, despite not being.)
(…I really need to figure out where Saito was for all the time. The first death in the game is then Renju’s in Shoko’s body, and then he goes on to Iris from Renju’s body, then to So from Iris’, then to Boss… I know he explained it all, but there are so many timelines where events are slightly skewed timewise lol.)
I just don’t care so much for Date’s past, forgotten relationship with the Sagans in the same way as I do about the one he has in the now with Mizuki. And it’s one he has to kinda abandon to save that relationship with those two… maybe it’s part of the same reason I don’t like him being in his old body either aha, since it feels like slotting him back into that old family he might have had (especially given Iris’ “just the three of us”. Not cool, c’mon, Mizuki looks up to you…) I’m glad they’re alive and well, don’t get me wrong! But, just… Mizuki and not having the sad loveliness that is her going through Date’s Somnium, that being a “non-golden end”… ;; Especially when it seems like her own father took more care of Manaka’s child than he did Mizuki, with Date doing the same… it’s just kinda sad.
(But at least she’d adopted now ;u;)
But! The ending is still great with the song and dance number! I’m just sad Greg Chun!Date isn’t dancing too, or didn’t get added to Dance Mode as an extra.
Overall, I loved the game so much! A few bits and pieces I was a little iffy on, but ahh… when it got the character beats right, it got them right. (Though uh… the loading times… maybe they couldn’t have put in quite so many pictures if they knew it was gonna take literally seven or eight seconds for them to load each time…)
So, I was curious and looked more into Yukio Mishima, because Yuuki’s name has pretty obvious parallels…
And he’s been getting increasingly… let’s say, deranged over the course of his confidant link. “Yuuki’s Desperation”, ffs. So, one of the real Mishima’s books is The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea in which a boy, who is part of a GANG THAT IS CONTEMPTUOUS OF ADULTS AND REJECTS CONVENTION, grows obsessed with a SAILOR CALLED RYUJI and when said Ryuji falls from the pedestal they put him on, kill him. The gang’s chief also vivisects a CAT.
(NOISES OF CONCERN)
Yeahhhhh. Yuuki just shot past Morgana on my traitor suspect list. I really shouldn’t be analysing it, since I haven’t actually read it or anything, but I’ll start REALLY worrying if that book comes up as a question in class.
(I’M JUST REALLY CONCERNED OKAY, THAT BOOK ENDS IN A SUPER MESSED UP WAY)
Given how Yuuki’s relationship to the Phantom Thieves has panned out storywise, I think the Ryuji figure is likely to be Joker rather than Sakamoto. Though Joker also fits the role of the gang’s chief, kinda - he’s the leader, of course, but he’s also shown opening up a creature, which could be shifted around to be like him delving into the human soul.
It doesn’t have to be one to one, is all I’m saying.
(ALSO OUR HOMEBOY YUUKI HAS A GUN. A FAKE GUN, ADMITTEDLY, BUT THAT DOESN’T STOP THEM FROM WORKING IN THE HUMAN UNCONSCIOUS.)
Can I just say that I really appreciate how Persona 5 has been portraying the Seven Deadly Sins with regards to the villains? It’s showcasing how the sin is bad BECAUSE of how it harms others and falls directly in with that Terry Pratchett quote about sin being treating others like objects: literally, as we see in all their Palaces.
So far, the game has done Lust, Vanity and Gluttony. The first and last are the ones that tend to be a bit iffy in fiction, but I really like how they dealt with them here.
I mean, whenever you have a line-up of people to represent them, Lust has a tendency to be shown in a way that makes them more the object that perpetrator - some generic drop-dead gorgeous women who dares have a sexual appetite. In P5, we most definitely have a perpetrator in Kamoshida, your quintessential fuckboy who views women as nothing but sexual outlets there for his own pleasure, going as far as to abuse children under his care and drive them to suicide. His Palace has literally objectified women’s bodies.
I also like how they portrayed Gluttony. A lot of the time, other depictions just go straight for the “evil fat person eating everything in sight” angle, so I appreciated how P5 didn’t actually use food at all when it came to showing it - sure, Kaneshiro isn’t exactly skinny, but the main focus is on how he sucks in excessive amounts of money, which he absolutely does did not need, devastating the incomes and lives of vulnerable people. And his palace has people as walking ATMs.
Vanity was also well-done, with how Madarame’s drive for fame and fortune led him to abuse and plagiarise his students and how it led to more than one death, with Yusuke’s mother and his unnamed student’s suicide. His Palace has his students as paintings, his own masterworks rather than their own people.
