#prosymna

[herpsandbirds]

 East African Shovel-Snout (Prosymna stuhlmanni), family Prosymnidae, South Africa

Feed on lizard and snake eggs, using a specialized tooth to slice open the shell and suck out the contents of the egg.

photographs by Chad Keates

[p5x-theories]

I was gonna ask your thoughts on the new thieves we've gotten, but when I looked we've only got Berry added as far as I can tell?

But then I remembered all the different Alts so why not? What are your thoughts on Berry plus the Alts of the (female) characters?

(Can we get some Alts for the dudes that aren't just costumes, please Atlus?)

Hah, yeah, Berry's the only new one since you last asked!

Wonder's costumes are so elaborate they're almost like alts, if that makes you feel any better. I'm guessing (besides the obvious "girl characters sell better" assumption that seems to drive a lot of decisions in this industry) a big part of why only female characters have gotten alts so far is that there's just... a lot more female characters than male ones right now, heh? Out of the 29 original playable characters currently in this game, only 10 are male, and we know the next two (at least) are going to be female as well. But I'm getting a bit off track.

Same disclaimers as always; For thieves, I’m just commenting on what the design looks like it’s doing/trying to do, and whether I think it works and I like it. For Personas, I’m not really taking into account how well they do (or don’t) represent the figure they’re supposed to be, just how well I think the design gets its concept across, and does (or doesn’t) match its thief. And of course, these are all just my personal opinions!

Let's get Berry out of the way first:

In terms of design concept- Berry's supposed to be some kind of spooky/almost undead-looking bride, I think? The veil is the strongest indicator of that theme, but the rest of the outfit muddles it a little. That's not to say I dislike it as a whole, I think it's a fun overall outfit! But I have to say, it's not the clearest in execution, and it really doesn't feel like a thief to me. There are fun concepts here, but I think if they'd pushed either the bridal motif or the undead/skeletal motif a bit further, the design would feel more cohesive overall? I won't even get into making it feel more "thiefy", because I think that might be too unfairly high of a bar for this concept when it's already juggling the two other ideas, haha. The veil is quite fun, though, and I really like the ribcage/skeletal print on her torso, the uneven but kind of lacy gloves, and honestly the thigh-high pink boots, even if they're part of the problem in muddling the theme here, heh.

Thelxiepeia, though, is definitely one of my favorite Persona designs so far! She does what a lot of the Personas I'd consider "successful" do- she mimics the colors of her thief without being 1:1, and feels like a dramatic set piece to pop in behind the character and compliment them. Not to mention, I love how she's faceless with a weird floating head over her, the four arms, and all the spikes around her body that are almost exclusively pointed inward. I will say, the coffins remind me just a bit too much of Thanatos (as in, I love Thanatos, but it feels like she's creeping in on his territory a little, heh!), but I do really enjoy those, too. Her concept also isn't the most clear aside from "spooky spiky maybe undead lady", but in her case I don't think that detracts, because she doesn't need to be much more than that. She's just fun all around, and I actually think she'd work even better with Berry if Berry's concept were a little more focused to make her stand out just a bit more from Thelxiepeia.

Okay, now onto the alts! I think I'll structure these by analyzing how the alt and their Persona fit (or don't fit) the character and the event/etc. they were added for, plus my own personal likes/dislikes about them.

Starting with Summer Motoha! Aside from the fact that I hate the posing for her art (they just had to do that spine-breaking pose to show off her chest and her butt at the same time, huh?), I really do like Motoha's design here. The blue is a cute change of pace from her yellow, and the swimsuit overall doesn't feel too overdesigned, while still conveying a summery, sporty vibe. Her visor and the semitransparent cover/shirt also go well together, and particularly with Summer Awilda's ocean motif.

So, jumping over to Summer Awilda- I really like her as well! The pop of orange with the blue that matches Motoha is so nice, it really gives the impression of a sunny summer day at the beach. Her ponytail might be a bit too blue, but that does at least help it stand out, so I can't complain too much. For what's essentially a recolor, Summer Awilda really gets the job done, fitting with Motoha while thoroughly conveying summer on her own as well!

On to Summer Tomoko- and we all know I'm a bit biased, because I love Tomoko, haha. I'll admit, I actually don't like her summer outfit as much as Motoha's, but mostly because I really like blue/teal, and I'm not as big on the white + pink color scheme, heh. Overall I think it's also pretty successful- it doesn't scream summer as much as Motoha's, but it'd be a bit overwhelming if all the swimsuits were that much summer, anyway. The softer impression fits Tomoko's somewhat more reserved personality compared to Motoha's, and it has its own sense of style, too. The little ear things on the hat are particularly cute, haha!

Again, biased because I already like Prosymna, but Summer Prosymna's super pretty, too. She feels like an iridescent fish swimming by Tomoko in the water, which is, in my opinion, exactly the right direction to take her recolor, given she already was very fishy in design! Similar to Summer Awilda, she takes the color scheme of her user- in this case, pink and white- and adds another color- in this case, blue- to tie them together without looking too much like a copy of her. I would have to slightly dock her points for not looking as summery on her own, but she goes so well with Tomoko, and they're summery as a duo, that it's hard to really fault her.

Dancer Mont was added alongside Kotone's Confidant, wearing her performance outfit which we ironically never get to see Kotone wear in the actual Confidant. She really does look like an ice skater, so it's hard to have any complaints with her fitting the theme!

I really like her color scheme, particularly the wind version (which has a slightly nicer contrast than the ice version in my opinion). Her outfit itself isn't really personally my taste, but I do think it matches the kind of Swan Lake theme she has overall, sort of as both the swan and the lake, heh. Her mask I have the same complaint about as the original- that it blends in with her hair too much- but clearly if they've done it twice that was intentional, so at least there's that. I'm not much of an ice skater, so I don't have much to say about the practicality of this outfit, but it conveys its purpose well.

My thoughts are similar on Dancer Terpsichore- she's more elaborate than just a recolor (especially those sleeves!), but even the original Terpsichore already was an ice skater, so the bar for making her fit the theme wasn't too high here. Exchanging the fur on her outfit for feathers, to match Kotone more, was a really good call, and I like the overall impression (even if I feel the sort of ice... tutu... thing is still a bit out of place and distracting). Another good pair, even if not as much suited to my personal tastes.

Ceaseless Wind is... well, in the nicest way possible, I like the overall idea but I just think she's overdesigned. There's a bit too much going on, too many little details added. Some of that makes sense, considering she's basically a powered-up version of regular Wind, but I'll admit I think they went a bit too far. That said, again, I do like the concepts at play here. The uneven skirt and general asymmetry there (which I would've also done a bit of with sleeves, rather than going so hard on specifically just the skirt/legs) gives the impression of the usually reserved Riko letting loose and going all out, and the color scheme is nice, too. It conveys the ideas they needed to, I just would've refined it a bit more, myself, rather than adding more doodads and belts and stuff.

Ceaseless Chiyome is in a similar boat, with the added problem of, in my opinion, looking way too much like Wind here. You can really see it in the second image- it's hard to tell where one overdesigned outfit stops, and the other starts, especially without clicking on the image to enlarge it! But the original Wind and Chiyome also look pretty similar, so I suppose they're at least consistent. It's not a bad pair, but I think they could've done more with less.

We've all heard the complains that Lion Dance Yaoling doesn't really look suited to a festival set in late January, so I won't get into that again. I'll admit it doesn't bug me as much as it did when she was first announced, but I still wish they'd... y'know... at least given her pants, or shorts, or something, heh. This is also supposed to be the outfit she performed in the festival in, so with all her jumping around, I think shorts would've just made more sense...? That aside, she's at least got a lot of red and gold, which fits the festival. I kind of wish she looked a little more literally lion dance-related, but that wasn't actually her role in the performance- that was Leo- so I guess it's fine. It's all... fine. Not terrible, but some missed potential, I think.

Lion Dance Meng Po is cool, and honestly I think conveys the idea of the Spring Festival a little better than Yaoling herself, though still not really the idea of the lion dance, per se. She mimics Yaoling's color scheme a bit closely, but has more white and larger gold details, so I think they're acceptably distinct in terms of my personal preference. I actually like her design a bit more than Yaoling's, heh, even if it maybe veers into having perhaps a little too much going on.

Summer Minami's another one that I think is fine, but I'm not particularly crazy about. They mentioned wanting to keep her outfit more simple in the stream, but I think the white outfit plus white flowers is a little... boring, personally? The semitransparent cover/skirt over her legs at least adds a little interest to the outfit, but it's just not particularly to my taste. At the very least, I'm glad they didn't go overboard with it- I think an understated outfit suits Minami more than something really over-the-top, for sure. And it's a swimsuit, so I suppose it's summery enough, although the basket of flowers/picnic basket weapon doesn't feel as swimsuit/beach summery to me?

But I do love Summer Thalia! Replacing the ring around her normal design with a ring of water that sort of looks like an inner tube is genius, with the water fitting both the beach and the flowers. I like the almost dumbo-octopus-little-tentacle-like protrusions by the tip of the syringe, instead of regular Thalia's leaves. The whole design really feels like it's riffing off of regular Thalia's in a clear and thoughtful way, only changing the design itself where needed to support the theme and cohesion better, even if her color scheme and plant motifs do collectively make me think of spring a bit more than summer. Still, she works well with Summer Minami, though honestly she draws my eye a lot more than Minami, but maybe just because I like her design better and there's more to look at, haha!

And finally, Summer Miyu, though we don't have the best images of her yet. Right out of the gate, not only does she feel like summer/the beach, but I love that apparently her theme is surfing even though she barely knows how to surf? It's a hilarious concept. Her swimsuit's also a bit on the lowkey/simple side, but that makes a lot of sense for Miyu, as a character we know struggles to scrape together money, living on her own. The hair bow thing is really cute, and pulls a lot of weight in keeping the design interesting despite its simplicity. I also think the bandaid on her knee is funny. Again, I may be biased because I like blues, but it's a fun design, and makes a lot of sense for Miyu!

Summer Nemertes is... almost redundant in concept, given she's already like a fish/submarine lady, but the iridescent look is really nice on her. It's maybe just a little much, but I enjoy how she contrasts with the darker details on her, and Miyu's suit. In her case, she's kind of like the ocean/shallow waters around where Miyu's surfing, I guess? She's maybe a little too iridescent to fully convey that, but I feel like I can see the idea. Plus, if she was totally ocean-colored, she'd probably look too much like Summer Awilda, and Summer Motoha already also has a surfing theme to one of her attacks. Ultimately, I think she makes a good pair with Miyu, and definitely does feel summery/ocean-y, so while she's a little bit extravagant I think she works well.

[thieves-in-the-palace]

They're really pulling some niche figures for these new Personas, huh?

Prosymna is one of three naiad daughters of the Greek river god Asterion. Along with her sisters (Acraea and Euboea), she served as a wet-nurse for Hera. The name Prosymna means "celebrate in song," which explains her harp-like design.

(Prosymna is also a genus of snake!)

Erytheia is one of the three (or four, or seven) Hesperides, nymphs who presided over evening and sunsets. The name Erytheia means "the red one." There doesn't seem to be much mythos surrounding Erytheia specifically, but her name was assigned to a small island northwest of Gilbraltar. (Nowadays it's part of Spain! The city of Cadíz can be found there.)

Preceded by Leucothea, Erytheia is one of the two (possibly 3?) P5X Persona to be rendered as a masculine entity despite being based off a distinctly feminine mythological figure. Not sure why they're doing that, but hey, the designs are great!

Syke is a bit of an oddball. While it would be easy to presume it's meant to represent Psyche, the Greek goddess of the soul…Psyche has already appeared as Metis' Persona back in P3 FES, so it's possible this one is a different entity. However, something worth noting: like the other Greek myth Persona in this post, Psyche came in a set of three, having been the youngest of three sisters.

Of what I've been able to dig up, Syke (or Syca) was also the name of a town in ancient Cilicia, a region in southern Anatolia. Another name for Syke was Setos, possibly based off the primordial sea goddess Ceto. Ceto is considered one of the oldest-known deities in Greek myth, and was mother to a myriad of monsters, such as the Graiae and Gorgon sisters.

Meng Po is the Chinese goddess of forgetfulness, tasked with ensuring that souls headed for reincarnation are reborn with no memories. To accomplish this, she serves a memory-wiping soup to souls crossing the Naihe Bridge out of Diyu, a subterranean maze that serves as an equivalent to hell in Chinese mythology.

This lore explains both the bowl and lantern in this Persona's design. The bowl represents the soup, obviously enough, while the lantern can be interpreted as symbolic of "guiding the dead."

Cleodora was one of the three Thriae, prophetic nymphs who lived in the Corycian Cave of Mt. Parnassus. Though the Thriae are often considered to be the "bee-maidens" (women bearing human heads/torsos and bee wings/lower bodies) described in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, it's possible they're different trios; the Thriae predicted the future through throwing stones (pessomancy/mantic pebbles), while the bee-maidens predicted the future through casting lots (cleromancy).

The only info I can find on Cleodora as separate from the Thriae states that she was the mother of Parnassos, who invented a way to predict the future based on birds (ornithomancy).

[p5x-theories]

The full, transparent art of the returning P5X thieves' Personas that we didn't have yet, plus Rob Roy, Awilda, and Mandarin, whose lighting appears to have been changed from their previous full images (Mandarin's only very slightly.)

[herpsandbirds]

Two-Striped Shovel-snout (Prosymna bivittata), family Prosymnidae, Mapungubwe, South Africa

photograph by Tyrone Ping

[p5x-theories]

What We Know About Moko

(last updated 2/19/26!)

Tomoko Noge, codename Moko, is a second-year at Kokatsu Academy in class 2D. She and her best friend, Motoha Arai, both have an interest in baseball, and were in a little league together when they were younger. She joins the team as a “Phantom Idol”, or cognitive teammate.

A separate, summer event version of Tomoko was added in Version 2.1.2, and has a separate post documenting her combat information. Note that Seaside Tomoko cannot be on the same active team as Moko.

Previously, in the second beta, her codename was “Kotomo”, however, it was changed to Moko from the third beta onward.

Her Japanese voice actress is Satomi Akesaka.

Tomoko is a Confidant of Wonder’s, available to start after Tomoko's return to school. Her Confidant focuses on her trying different part time jobs with Wonder, in an attempt to figure out what she wants to do now that she can't play baseball anymore. Kotone Montagne appears during it, and Tomoko recognizes and relates to her, wanting to get to know her. More information about Tomoko’s Confidant can be found here.

Tomoko is first relevant in the plot when Wonder sees she dropped her train pass and returns it to her, though she then continues to be relevant as Motoha’s friend who gets scouted for a baseball tryout. She also develops a bit of a crush on Wonder, to her own admittance, though she says it's mostly an admiration of him.

However, shortly after Wonder and Ruferu begin exploring the first Palace, belonging to Takeyuki Kiuchi, the real-world Kiuchi sees Motoha and Tomoko at the train station and attempts to attack Motoha. Tomoko sees what he’s doing, and takes the blow for Motoha, getting knocked over the guard rail and onto the train tracks. She ends up needing to be hospitalized.

Her injury means she can no longer play as a baseball catcher, which causes her to become extremely dejected and hopeless during her hospital stay, to Motoha’s dismay. This ends up motivating Motoha to agree to changing Kiuchi’s heart, despite the possible risks involved.

Correlating with when Wonder, Motoha, and Ruferu open the next area of Mementos, she mentions suddenly feeling the desire to do something, and returns to school after Kiuchi’s change of heart and recovering from her injuries. Ruferu says this is because her desires were returned to her.

Tomoko’s role seems to loosely parallel Shiho’s in the original P5. Motoha and Ann draw a similarity between the two (and their own motivations to avenge their friends) in the P5 Collab.

Tomoko is quieter than Motoha, but not to the point of shyness, and she's no less passionate about baseball. She has little difficulty approaching the protagonist and talking to him despite her crush (though she does get nervous when Motoha more directly tries to push her towards Wonder), and asks him to work part-time jobs with her during her Confidant because she feels more at ease having him there than she would alone.

While Tomoko ultimately seems to be sad about baseball getting taken away from her, she's also enthusiastic about the jobs she and Wonder try, and is always looking for more things to try wherever they go. She seems to take this as a chance for a new experience, rather than solely a bad thing.

She also doesn’t seem insecure about her role as Motoha’s best friend, though we haven’t really seen her interacting in-depth with anyone besides Motoha and the protagonist. She jokingly apologizes to Wonder for “stealing” Motoha at one point when Motoha drops everything to visit her, instead of Motoha’s original plans with Wonder (visiting Takemi's clinic for the first time).

When Motoha and Wonder are planning to talk to Tomoko's classmate Shun Kanou, Motoha actually texts Tomoko to ask her if Shun came to class today, and Tomoko seems to have at least an idea of Shun's habit of eating lunch alone. Though there’s been no indication that Tomoko knows about what they’re doing as phantom thieves, Motoha does seem to rely on her intel. Tomoko also uses her good awareness of her surroundings while working part-time jobs with Wonder (and one of her Confidant rewards is based around it), crediting it to her time as a baseball catcher.

The above is supported by her profile, which has been translated as “She has a calm personality, outstanding observation skills, and is used to taking the initiative to take care of those around her. As a baseball catcher, she won various championships with Motoha when she was young, and she is full of confidence in her strength on the field.”

Moko's Persona Prosymna (based on a naiad who nursed Hera, alongside her sisters) is categorized as a Psychokinesis type, and resists Psychokinesis while being weak to Curse.

Prosymna is a Strategist Persona, meaning she’s good at buffing teammates and improving their effectiveness. Her trait gives her four "green leaves" at the start of combat, and another every other round, which she uses for skills. She has a psychokinesis attack skill that damages all enemies and gives her two green leaves, a support skill that costs two green leaves to buff a teammate's attack, and a status skill that costs two green leaves to increase the next damage an enemy takes, with a chance of putting them to sleep. Her passive skills increase the damage dealt by a teammate when she casts a spell on them, and increase the damage done by all teammates to enemies with mental status conditions.

In combat, her melee weapon is dual daggers (though she can also use Seaside Tomoko’s fairy sticks), while her ranged weapon is a bow. Her Highlight is shown from 0:09 - 0:20 in this video, and it increases the next damage the target receives, with a high chance of putting them to sleep.

Her recommended card sets are 1) 4 of Coins (Power) + Queen of Cups (Trust), 2) 3 of Cups (Prosperity) + Queen of Cups (Trust).

The game recommends teaming her up with 1) Joker.

[p5x-theories]

The promised companion to this poll...

Which female Phantom Idol's Persona has your favorite design?

Styx (Yuki)

Terpsichore (Mont)

Prosymna (Moko)

Cleodora (Okyann)

Meng Po (Rin)

Apseudes (BUI)

Nemertes (Puppet)

Daeira (Riddle)

Thalia (Marian)

Ampelos (Vino)

Urania (Phoebe)

Calliope (Chord)

Voting ended onOct 27, 2024

[p5x-theories]

What We Know About Moko

(as of the third beta; last updated 1/23/24!)

Tomoko Noge, codename Moko, is a second-year at Kokatsu Academy in class 2D. She and her best friend, Motoha Arai in class 2C, both have an interest in playing baseball, and were in a little league together when they were younger. She joins the team as a "Phantom Idol", or cognitive teammate.

Previously, in the second beta, her codename was “Kotomo”, however it was changed to Moko in the third beta.

Her Japanese voice actress is Satomi Akesaka.

Tomoko is a Confidant of Wonder's, though her Arcana is unknown.

Tomoko is first relevant in the plot when Wonder sees she dropped her train pass and returns it to her, though then continues to be relevant as Motoha's friend who gets scouted for some sort of baseball thing. She also develops a bit of a crush on Wonder, to her own admittance.

However, shortly after Wonder and Ruferu begin exploring the first Palace, belonging to Takeyuki Kiuchi, the real-world Kiuchi sees Motoha and Tomoko at the train station and attempts to attack Motoha. Tomoko sees what he's doing, and takes the blow for Motoha, getting knocked over the guard rail and onto the train tracks. She ends up needing to be hospitalized.

Her injury means she can no longer play as a baseball catcher, which causes her to become extremely dejected and hopeless during her hospital stay, to Motoha's dismay. This ends up motivating Motoha to agree to changing Kiuchi's heart, despite the possible risks involved.

Correlating with when Wonder, Motoha, and Ruferu open the next area of Mementos, she mentions suddenly feeling the desire to do something, and returns to school after Kiuchi's change of heart and recovering from her injuries.

Tomoko's role seems to loosely parallel Shiho's in the original P5.

Tomoko is quieter than Motoha, but not to the point of shyness, and no less passionate about baseball. She has little difficulty approaching the protagonist and talking to him despite her crush (though she does get nervous when Motoha more directly tries to push her towards Wonder), and works part-time jobs with him during her Confidant, trying to figure out what to do now that she can't be a baseball catcher like she wanted.

She also doesn't seem insecure about her role as Motoha's friend, though we haven't really seen her interacting with anyone besides her and the protagonist. She jokingly apologizes to Wonder for "stealing" Motoha at one point when Motoha drops everything to visit her, instead of Motoha's original plans with Wonder (visiting Takemi for the first time).

When the "Flavor Fight" video is posted, she texts Motoha that her classmate Shun didn't come back to their classroom after lunch, suggesting Motoha may be keeping Tomoko at least slightly in the loop about what Motoha's up to, though there's been no indication that Tomoko knows about what they're doing as phantom thieves. This also suggests Tomoko has a good awareness of her surroundings.

This is supported by her profile, which has been translated as "She has a calm personality, outstanding observation skills, and is used to taking the initiative to take care of those around her. As a baseball catcher, she won various championships with Motoha when she was young, and she is full of confidence in her strength on the field."

Her Persona is Prosymna (based on a naiad who nursed Hera, alongside her sisters), and has Psy skills, a status effect skill, and a support skill, resisting Psy while being weak to Curse in the third beta.

In combat, her melee weapon is twin daggers, while her ranged weapon is a bow. Her highlight attack is shown from 0:09 - 0:20 in this video.