Board 8 > So, I've finally gotten around to playing Persona 5 Royal (spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

hombad46 posted...

Rank 4 is the cap for a while

But it still lets me hang out with him, which is just a waste of time? Or will I need to do a billion hangouts anyway to get to 5? I remember something like that.

I think I remember it not taking as many visits in Royal, but I'm not sure

- Wow, a Slumdog Millionaire reference. Remember Slumdog Millionaire?
- Ah, the five elements of going on a date: knowledge, proficiency, kindness, guts, and charm. There's nothing girls love more than a guy who's good at making lockpicks.
- It's always such a disappointment when you get a rank up on a confidant, but don't get a bonus.
- It's funny how Ryuji gets shit for dyeing his hair blond, and everyone is like "your real hair is black bro," but like... Ann has an excuse, but then you see all of these other characters walking around with anime hair colors. The only ones who have realistic hair colors for Japan are Joker and maybe Makoto.
- Is the guy selling stuff on TV on Sundays supposed to be the guy from P3? It's hard to tell.
- Cruel of them to make it harder to raise intelligence than every other stat.
- Stopped on 1 day before expulsion.

- I love how during Kamoshida's heartfelt speech where he confesses to his crimes, the principal's bug-eyed model just stands in the background looking like a doof.
- I like the idea that Kamoshida felt so horrible when he woke up thanks to the change of heart, but still put on his necklace timer.
- "500 yen is a lot for a middle schooler." Let me just check how much that is, Ann... Ah, $3.51. Shut up.
- 192.71 dollars for an Olympic gold medal, okay.
- I'm with Ryuji on this one. Meat and fish is way better than cake.
- You know, I've been to fancy restaurants before, and 200 dollars for three people is just about correct... Except that they act here like they've eaten multiple courses of food.
- You know, I can buy that in P3 and P4, everyone is willing to risk their lives fighting the shadows, since the threats they dealt with were immediate and didn't go away. But here, Ryuji is just like "Now that we beat Kamoshida, let's do that again," and everyone is like "Yes, that's a good idea."
- I'm not even going to bother trying to decode if this Thieves' Den thing is diegetic. Can I just ignore it with no consequences? Is there anything in it worth doing?

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Can I just ignore it with no consequences?

Yes

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Is there anything in it worth doing?

Depends how much you like Tycoon. Also if you're a completionist, the platinum for Royal is really easy. The real challenge is from completing all the challenges in the Thieves Den.

I definitely remember an early spot in Sojiro's social link where you need like a billion hangouts so I'm guessing you're at it. Pretty sure the game straight-up prevents you from spending time with him if it's time-locked. I'm not certain though, haven't played P5 in a while.

Let me explain!

Make coffee instead of hanging out with him, until he stops giving coffee lessons.

You can only progress him up to a certain point, until Futaba joins the crew. Even then you need to get kindness up to level 4 I think.

Rank 4 Kindness is for Futaba rank 2. For Sojiro you need max Kindness for rank 7

- Game, I've eaten a gigantic hamburger before, and I'm telling you, I didn't feel much gutsier afterward. I did poop out my guts, if that counts.
- Man, I used to be a teacher, and it's interesting to compare how anime portrays teenagers to actual teenagers. Actual teenagers are the stupidest people on Earth. I saw a kid buy 400 dollar sneakers. I saw a kid lose 2000 dollars on NFTs. I saw two kids get into a contest to see who can say "bitch" more in ten seconds. I saw a kid eat three One Chip Challenge chips at the same time. I saw two girls get into a used tampon fight (that was probably the worst thing I've ever seen in my life). I once saw a girl ask me how many points a worksheet with two questions was worth, I said each question is worth 8 points, and she couldn't figure out how many points that was total. The most responsibility I ever invested in a student was when I was subbed in a classroom, realized I needed something I left in my class, and gave my keys to a kid I trusted to run and grab it for me. Then you have the principal in this game giving important tasks to save his career to a seventeen-year-old girl, and offering to write her a college recommendation letter in return.
- "Wow, he dodged someone throwing chalk at him, his charm must be head-turning!"
- I can't believe it took until P5 to let unused party members earn experience. This should have been standard in every single RPG made since the SNES.
- You know, here's a reason why we couldn't have feMC in P5: your only romantic options would be Ryuji, Yusuke, and Mishima. I think if I was a girl in that case, I'd just stay celibate.

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here's a reason why we couldn't have feMC in P5: your only romantic options would be Ryuji, Yusuke, and Mishima

I think the female fanbase would riot if they couldn't romance Akechi from what I've seen of them.

hombad46 posted...

I think the female fanbase would riot if they couldn't romance Akechi from what I've seen of them.

I juts assumed they shipped him with Joker.

- I've decided to change my favorite waifu of the game. It's now Creepy Female Student.
- I love the random student who brags about being a Phantom Thief to you, such a cool little detail.
- I say this every time I play one of these games, but it bears repeating: setting an RPG in normal-ass Japan, and contextualizing all of the video game elements as part of your normal life, is just such a genius concept.
- "Arrogant Housewife" talks to "Modest Housewife," I'm sorry, I don't believe at all that there are just 1950s housewives in 2016 Japan. Those women have boring-ass jobs along with their husbands.
- Customer service does not give charm. If it does, then actual customer service people must have started out with negative charm.
- I just realized that Caroline is inconsistent about whether the real world or the Velvet Room is the prison. She's definitely called both your prison at different points.
- Ryuji, I want you to know that I'm only hanging out with you because Ann won't let me hang out with her yet.
- "There's no way I'm going to let you use my undies." Okay, Ryuji.
- I really, really hope "what's bonkin'" becomes Ryuji's catchphrase. I don't remember this at all.
- It says some people hang out with Takemi tonight, but I can't. I don't know why.
- "I had a life once. I was an art student." -- homeless man. Most realistic thing in this entire series.
- I love how the "Live an honest student's life" tab changed to "Act like an honest student," great detail.
- "Do you know the translation of femme fatale?" Let me tell you how stupid teenagers are. In my class where almost every student spoke Spanish, we once read a story where an Italian character goes to a "palazzo," that is described as very fancy and elegant, and not a single kid could figure out what "palazzo" means, even though the Spanish version is "palacio" and the English version is "palace." That's how stupid teenagers are.
- "My friend here's an upstanding guy." That's how I refer to people during conversations when they're standing to me, with their relation to me rather than their name.
- It's funny how Makoto is treated as a supergenius for being able to connect the most obvious clues together. It's like in those Edgeworth games, where you have to connect Key + Door so Edgeworth can remember how locks work, but Kay is like "oh my god you're amazing!"
- ... Is 'cats turning into buses' a thing in anime that I didn't know about? In fact, I'm certain I asked that exact same question the first time through.
- "Path of Qimranut," I forgot about these names. Do they actually mean anything?
- Ugh, game, I wanted to save and get dinner, now you're forcing me to do Mementos.
- What waifu archetypes haven't been used in Persona yet? Has there ever been a straight-up goth girl? Takemi doesn't count, she's too much of an adult.
- Wow, this random unimportant stalker guy you have to beat the shadow of gets his own portrait?
- You know, I made fun of this series for letting you dress girls up as French maids, but I won't lie. I always do. If I could, it'd be nothing but French maids and goth girls, and maybe Little Red Riding Hood outfits. Not catgirls, though. Catgirls suck.
- Mementos is better than the P3 tower, but it's still kind of bad.
- That's not how you pronounce Jose.
- Is this "Lady Ann" thing less awkward in Japanese?
- I feel like it would be in poor taste to make a "did you just assume Morgana's gender" joke.
- Oho, Yusuke standing there, watching us.

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Has there ever been a straight-up goth girl?

Chidori

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Is 'cats turning into buses' a thing in anime that I didn't know about?

My Neighbor Totoro

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Do they actually mean anything?

The paths of Mementos are named after the Qliphoth. If you want to know more, look at the trivia section on the wiki.

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Is this "Lady Ann" thing less awkward in Japanese?

I haven't actually watched anyone play in Japanese, but I'm guessing he says Ann-Sama. Too lazy to check lol

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- "Path of Qimranut," I forgot about these names. Do they actually mean anything?

They're hebrew, iirc

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- Is this "Lady Ann" thing less awkward in Japanese?

Yes, because honorifics are an actual common thing in Japanese. Like, it's still obviously out of place and white knight-style overly polite but it's not actually linguistically awkward in the way it is in English

hombad46 posted...

I haven't actually watched anyone play in Japanese, but I'm guessing he says Ann-Sama. Too lazy to check lol

Ann-Dono, specifically. Which is why it's obviously out of place, but also still not awkward.

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- ... Is 'cats turning into buses' a thing in anime that I didn't know about? In fact, I'm certain I asked that exact same question the first time through.

A Ghibli movie, specifically.

KamikazePotato posted...

Chidori

That's another variation, you're not a pure goth girl if you wear white or the fancy elaborate frilly dress. I'm talking straight-up Lydia Deetz goth girl.

hombad46 posted...

My Neighbor Totoro

Reg posted...

A Ghibli movie, specifically.

Oh, it's a specific reference, okay.

hombad46 posted...

The paths of Mementos are named after the Qliphoth. If you want to know more, look at the trivia section on the wiki.

Reg posted...

They're hebrew, iirc

Reg posted...

Ann-Dono, specifically. Which is why it's obviously out of place, but also still not awkward.

I figured it was something like this.

I feel like they should just leave honorifics intact, especially when the story takes place in Japan. That's what LaD does and it's fine.

kevwaffles posted...

I feel like they should just leave honorifics intact, especially when the story takes place in Japan. That's what LaD does and it's fine.

Well they do for most of them. Shoutout to Rise squealing "Senpai!" every five seconds.

Not sure where they draw the line. And it's hardly the weirdest thing that Persona translations have done. I can't believe they kept the intentionally wrong pronunciation of 'Takamaki' and 'Sakamoto' in Strikers.

IIRC they were told to pronounce them that way by the Japanese team, so I don't see why that would change for Strikers

KamikazePotato posted...

Well they do for most of them. Shoutout to Rise squealing "Senpai!" every five seconds.

I remembered Senpai but I forgot they did use most trailing honorifics. Just not that one for some reason.

I guess they just figured dono is too obscure too keep

Ace Attorney used the dono honorific!

But specifically by a character who's essentially the lawyer equivalent of a samurai so it's meant to sound outdated

hombad46 posted...

I guess they just figured dono is too obscure too keep

Probably, but I feel just being introduced to the basics is the biggest culture shock. When they toss a new one in there it's just kinda whatever. People will figure out the context well enough.

- I think the funniest thing about Persona's premise is the idea that our collective unconscious consists mostly of obscure Japanese and Semitic deities. Our collective unconscious would consist of Batman, Homer Simpson, Santa Claus, minions, and Elsa singing Let It Go.
- Sometimes you see future party members hanging out in the crowds of generic NPCs, like Haru or Makoto. It would be cool if you also saw the very minor school characters, like the creepy girl, etc.
- Vending machines in Japan can dispense hot drinks?!
- Wait, now Ann *is* sticking her ass into the air. Is it just when she's knocked down by a crit or weakness, but not unconscious?

Random question, but you know how to eventually access the major new Royal content, right? It isn't automatic.

KamikazePotato posted...

Random question, but you know how to eventually access the major new Royal content, right? It isn't automatic.

No, I don't. I know you have to do the S-link for the new counselor guy the same way you do Adechi in P4G, but that's it.

Then you should be good, although it's also recommended to max out Akechi and Kasumi as much as possible too, as I think that adds more bonus scenes.

I know you asked for no spoilers, but I literally just saw a post on the Persona subreddit about someone who played through Royal while missing all the big Royal content because of this, and it's not a short game! Figured it's better to be safe than sorry.

For the Akechi confidant, there is one very specific span of time during it:

For Ranks 7 & 8, they must be completed before the calling card deadline of Palace 6, but, these two Ranks also are not available until you've reached the Palace Treasure Route and called the meeting at the hideout discussing the timing of the Calling Card itself.

- Wait, I can just summon the P3 personas for zero yen at the start of the game? I didn't realize. How dumb. Stop doing DLC like this. Just letting me summon level 50 personas right away.
- "You know the time period Yoshitsune was active in, right?" Dude, no, my name is Ralph Bensen, I clearly won't know something like that.
- Teacher: "People like rooting for the underdogs." Morgana: "I understand that. If I don't root for them, who will?" Morgana, we JUST established that it's everyone.
- I refuse to believe that even in Japan, Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Minamoto no Yoritomo, and Minamoto no Yoshitomo are distinguishable.
- I'm confused, is Obviously-a-Bad-Guy a teacher or a counselor? Because he's referred to as both. See, the problem here is that if you played P5, the fact that they went out of their way to add this guy just instantly tells you he's a villain. But even if you didn't, the game clearly makes a bigger deal out of this guy's introduction than the other ancillary characters.
- Jesus Christ, stop pushing the snacks.
- I kind of like how P5 has Morgana tell you to go bed, as opposed to P3 and P4 just having you think it.

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Wait, I can just summon the P3 personas for zero yen at the start of the game? I didn't realize. How dumb. Stop doing DLC like this. Just letting me summon level 50 personas right away.

Yep. You can summon Izanagi-no-Okami Picaro and just blast through the whole game with Myriad Truths if you want to.

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I'm confused, is Obviously-a-Bad-Guy a teacher or a counselor? Because he's referred to as both.

He's a school counselor that just kinda teaches classes sometimes. Like how the nurse in 3 teaches magic for some reason.

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Jesus Christ, stop pushing the snacks.

But they're good snacks

hombad46 posted...

He's a school counselor that just kinda teaches classes sometimes. Like how the nurse in 3 teaches magic for some reason.

Fair enough there.

hombad46 posted...

Yep. You can summon Izanagi-no-Okami Picaro and just blast through the whole game with Myriad Truths if you want to.

Booo.

- "You became acquainted with Madarame's pupil by chance?" Sae, I just explained, it wasn't by chance, Yusuke was stalking her. Are you even listening?
- God, I forgot about how much Ann's interactions are related to her being objectified even after Kamoshida.
- I forgot until now how Madarame is probably the least important palace owner in the game? Kamoshida is Kamoshida, of course, and Futaba, Sae, and Shido are important, and Haru's dad dies and is important that way... am I missing someone? I feel like I might be missing someone. Anyway, compared to all of that, Madarame is just a random bad guy.
- I like how the characters comment about how gaudy the cognitive museum is... but like, I've seen real museums that are about the same.
- I like how the starting area for this palace is just a parking lot. But given how popular it is, all of the spots should be filled with cars. Ah well.

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Kamoshida is Kamoshida, of course, and Futaba, Sae, and Shido are important, and Haru's dad dies and is important that way... am I missing someone?

Kaneshiro is so unimportant that you forgot about him

lol me

But in my defense, he's even less interesting than Haru's dad.

For the record you can still fuse all the DLC personas. So you don't have to get them for nothing. Although they're still generally OP even at appropriate levels, or at least they propagate OP skills.

Also after you get them they have a cost so that's weird.

Also Kaneshiro gets the best Palace music so at least he has that.

kevwaffles posted...

For the record you can still fuse all the DLC personas. So you don't have to get them for nothing. Although they're still generally OP even at appropriate levels, or at least they propagate OP skills.

Also after you get them they have a cost so that's weird.

Also Kaneshiro gets the best Palace music so at least he has that.

Oh, I did get the Orpheus one by fusing, then I fused it to make another thing to make room for more personas. Maybe that was unwise, but the game's not difficult anyway.

Best palace music is the jail in Strikers.

- Y'know, I feel like if Madarame really stole the work of THIS many artists, like dozens of people, it doesn't matter what his public persona is, it would have come out by now.
- "Yous-kay Ki-ta-ga-WA" You emphasize the last syllable?!
- "I'll call the police unless you let me paint you naked." I completely forgot about this part. Ann legitimately cannot catch a break here.
- Man, Ohya is the worst journalist ever.
- "Welcome to our new hideout! The middle of a busy walkway!"
- "Ann's chastity is on the line!" I seriously only remembered the Kamoshida parts of Ann's sexuality being abused, and Morgana being a simp, I didn't remember the rest. Are Futaba, Makoto, and Haru also going to start commenting on her boobs being big or something? That seems in-character for this game. Actually, I remember the original game having a joke where a transvestite tries to seduce Ryuji, was that removed for the remake?
- Random Woman: "I'm more into younger guys." Yep, that's how it goes in this series.
- I love Makoto tailing you pretending to read a magazine, very cute.

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Actually, I remember the original game having a joke where a transvestite tries to seduce Ryuji, was that removed for the remake?

Yeah that was changed.

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Welcome to our new hideout! The middle of a busy walkway!

I have no idea how these idiots weren't caught by more people than they actually were caught by. Since you've played before I'll remind you that they decide to enter the next palace IN THE MIDDLE OF SHIBUYA!

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You emphasize the last syllable?!

The dub pronunciations of most names in this game are admittedly ass.

The P5 anime generally sucks but the one good thing it did was get rid of the "Yusuke tries to blackmail Ann into nude modeling" plotline

Leonhart4 posted...

The P5 anime generally sucks but the one good thing it did was get rid of the "Yusuke tries to blackmail Ann into nude modeling" plotline

What's he do instead?

hombad46 posted...

I have no idea how these idiots weren't caught by more people than they actually were caught by. Since you've played before I'll remind you that they decide to enter the next palace IN THE MIDDLE OF SHIBUYA!

To be fair, they're caught by literally every single confidant and the Japanese government.

- One thing I appreciate about Persona, and I don't think this is even intentional, is that most RPGs have moments in dungeons where it's like "you can easily just knock down that door or jump over the fence," but because the dungeons are never 'real' in Persona and follow their own logic, that's never an issue.
- "We need to find the password" *Guards are talking about the password one second later.* What a pointless diversion.
- What the hell is the point of this "fake endless hole" drawn on the ground?
- Do treasure demons appear only in real treasure that you break, or any treasure, including the ones that give nothing?
- What, no cutaway to Sae when I get the Strength persona? No "You must have known two little girls who let you use three-persona guillotine! What were their names?!"

I honestly don't remember. I just recall being glad they changed it.

I think they can appear from any treasure, but it's been a while

I think they're only random in Mementos?

- Because I refuse to leave a palace with SP remaining, and because I had time to kill at the airport between flights, I just grinded on enemies to reach level 18 so that I could get the origami persona that's immune to physical and gun damage, then did another of the twins' requests.
- Will I go back and do the level 3 request before I actually leave? Depends on if I can find a way to make Flauros at level 18, I suppose.

Will not play again for a few days but bump

Tomorrow.

- I start the game up again after a week, and what's the first thing that happens? Morgana and Ryuji pressuring Ann to do the nude portrait so they can access Madarame's house. I'm fourteen hours into this game, and like eleven of those hours have involved people talking about her being naked in some capacity, it's incredible. And I know Kaneshiro does something similar to Makoto. Haru's subplot involves an arranged marriage, is Futaba the only girl who dodges weird sexualization stuff? I'll forgive that she shows up in Cleopatra mode.
- Ryuji gets confused, immediately uses an expensive healing item on himself at full health, wonderful.
- For some reason, this second part of Madarame's Palace is giving my computer constant stuttering.
- Ann, who has consistently been a huge moron for the entire game, suddenly sees through Madarame's lies related to the fine arts, a subject she knows nothing about.
- "How dare you, Yusuke! I'll pull out my flip phone in 2016!" Honestly, actually, an old guy is the most likely to use outdated technology like this, so I'm okay with this.
- Ann and Yusuke enter the Cognitive World, and Yusuke, the normal human, lands on his feet and Princess-style catches Ann, the experienced Phantom Thief.
- "My emotions are overwhelming me" - Man whose tone of voice never changes.
- I remember when I played this game the first time, not liking Madarame's shogun version, and I still don't. It's just, like, shouldn't he be dressed as a glitzy artist or something? I don't see any connection between art, museums, and shoguns. I mean, yes, I know that Yusuke has a samurai motif and is an artist, and obviously there's a connection between samurai and shogun, but I don't know, that seems kind of weak.
- Wow, Yusuke actually shows an emotion on his face in this cutscene, how rare.
- I'm just going to ask... are all of the male party members in these games just pretext? Like, for the waifu merchandise. Would the games make more money if every single party member was just a hot chick, and they only bothered including two male companions (besides Joker) so they could allow customers to claim this isn't some weird harem game?
- Ah yes, the traditional samurai-themed assault rifle. I admit I don't know what the appropriate type of gun would be for Yusuke. Some kind of weird artsy thing that no one actually uses? Or some kind of very elegant, precise weapon, like a sniper rifle?
- "I'll destroy any chance you ever had of being an artist." Dude, this is like the one profession that benefits from having bad stuff in your past. People LOVE artists who were once criminals or whatever. Remember that one murderer in France who became an artist, and people called for his release because they loved his art, then he got out and immediately murdered another woman? That's how much people like criminal artists.
- Wait, it took Yusuke THIS long to realize we're the Phantom Thieves? Jesus Christ, I'm demoting you to below Ryuji levels of intelligence.
- I love how we're explaining what the Phantom Thieves are to Yusuke in a crowded restaurant, and there's a woman literally one foot away from Joker.
- The idea of putting everyone's grades up on the wall to see, that's real, right? Because I've seen it outside of Persona. What an insane thing to do.
- Now that we have five characters, I wonder who the most commonly-dropped character is. It has to be Morgana, right?

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Now that we have five characters, I wonder who the most commonly-dropped character is. It has to be Morgana, right?

My guess is either Ryuji or Yusuke, since they're both physical damage dealers, so there's the most overlap in role. Morgana is a healer and Ann is a magic damage dealer. Though I guess people might just let Ann do the healing since I think she learns single target healing.

I wont accept this Yusuke and Ryuji slander

I try to maintain a fair rotation, but I try to use Morgana as little as possible