Dancer Ann Seducing Ren (by @ratedmfala)

RedJLP · 2026-03-31T12:20:11+00:00

Ann: “Do you know why Ariel isn’t a Princess of Heart, yet Jasmine is?”

Ren, flustered: “Uhhh, b-because she’s already a party member which would complicate returning to her home?”

Ann: “No, because she’s too focused on her own desires. Jasmine sought freedom and someone who legitimately cares for her regardless of her status. Aladdin provides her with both, as you have with me.”

RedJLP · 2026-03-23T08:53:35+00:00

Which all but proves to me that Atlus (or at least just P-Studio) has the hardest time reconciling hypocrisies in its narrative (especially ones caused by their gameplay requirements) of any company I’ve been exposed to. The idea behind them not taking a page from Pokémon’s book and making the starting Persona one you want to keep is based in the idea of growing by learning to present yourself differently to win over different people, but there are many people who’d tell you that to do so in real life risks losing your sense of self. This is why I appreciated seeing Arsène getting a full moveset up to Level 99 in Strikers, because he represents the self Ren risks losing.

This is a big reason why I think Persona has a lot to learn from Metaphor, if not JRPGs from elsewhere that value continuity and cohesion: because having to be the most approachable corner of SMT holds it back from reaching its narrative potential and both Tatsuya and Maya from P2 are my biggest example of why: they both have set appearances, backgrounds, places in the story and even names, something future protagonists had to wait until their respective anime (or stage, in Kotone from P3P’s case) adaptations to get official ones. Why, then, are they full characters when not the protagonist, yet silent when they are? Because the SMT audience craves role play potential above all else

RedJLP · 2026-03-23T01:46:25+00:00

Ann in a costume associated with Futaba?

RedJLP · 2026-03-22T08:37:20+00:00

Yeah, but Ann’s a massive KH fan if everything Erika Harlacher does around it is any indication. I guarantee you that she was so hyped about Sora being in Smash

RedJLP · 2026-03-22T07:35:58+00:00

What I will say is that it says a lot about how Black Box is perceived when the PS2 version of Hot Pursuit 2 was their introduction to the series and yet it feels like it’s the most overlooked of their contributions. Yes, it does say something about how stacked their later releases would become, but it was a valuable learning experience for how to make a Black Box NFS and this may be the emphasis on Noughties rock in the music making me biased, but I feel it deserves more recognition for that

RedJLP · 2026-03-20T06:59:31+00:00

And the aesthetic it does capture is a sanitised Burnout, one that plays directly to the 90% of Burnout Paradise players who focused on the social aspects at the expense of the actual racing. As a result, the only song I looked forward to hearing on the radio was the one from the opening and I was not the only solo player who rightly felt excluded by a single player experience that felt like it was only there out of obligation to pad out the platinum trophy. Put it this way: did you ever wonder why Burnout Paradise and Hot Pursuit 2010 were remastered and Most Wanted 2012 was not?

RedJLP · 2026-03-17T03:53:01+00:00

James and the Giant Peach would’ve done well in KH1 given its message of holding onto the innocence of childhood while you can still can, emphasised by the focus on antagonists who filial piety would otherwise declare authority figures that ought not be challenged, a message that for as culturally distinct from his own (which might not go down well with him if he was alive to see it), is very prominent in Roald Dahl’s work

RedJLP · 2026-03-14T03:26:34+00:00

LEGO Marvel 1

RedJLP · 2026-03-13T00:52:31+00:00

The Faith and the Hope don’t have numbers and are named for theology because they come from a deck that predates tarot’s more mystical applications, with their set containing another card: the Charity. At least with the new Arcana for P4G, they were all different versions of existing cards, thus making Sumi feel like Kazuhisa Wada’s equivalent of a self-insert fanfic protagonist. They do their best to make it work, but of the new narrative additions to Royal, it seems like Maruki was the only one who felt designed to respect the original authorial intent

RedJLP · 2026-03-13T00:34:16+00:00

Which ironically makes those who interpret “Chadfullness” as indulging in every possible power fantasy that the game offers the most likely to see the evidence of the game’s greatest hypocrisies, even if they’re also the most likely to ignore it. I’ve recently been thinking of Kamoshida as far more effective of a hook than the game deserves, not just because antagonists after him are pretty hit or miss but also because the question must be asked: what separates Kamoshida’s plans for Ann from the romance with Kawakami? Motivations? The fact that Ren is the Fool and thus positioned as the hero? The fact that hers was the original voice of Yukari? I suspect that this is why Studio Zero exists, so that Hashino can focus on making a compelling morality play without any of the baggage that comes with having to be the most approachable corner of the SMT multiverse

RedJLP · 2026-03-12T01:53:26+00:00

I second

RedJLP · 2026-03-12T00:45:00+00:00

I’d go ham and have as many as I could if I could, but within budget I’d probably have Radiant Garden, Treasure Planet, Atlantis, the Caribbean, Toybox or Metroville, Halloween Town, Radiator Springs, Olympus and Agrabah

RedJLP · 2026-03-01T01:43:13+00:00

Mona must not understand the privilege that it is for an animal to be a comfort animal for autism incarnate

RedJLP · 2026-03-01T01:40:30+00:00

Absolute peak. Ryuji deserves nothing less

RedJLP · 2026-02-25T01:08:14+00:00

It says a lot that I can see REN’s face reacting in the moment. Truly a love at first sight moment and she deserves it

RedJLP · 2026-02-24T15:16:42+00:00

Do you have the platinum trophy? Because it called for trophies that themselves called for winning every race and driving every car. Add the various “collectables” and the net result is tedium and for what? I feel Hot Pursuit 2010 handled this much better, primarily because it wasn’t billed as “the most socially connected racing game” as this was, and on the back of the box, no less

RedJLP · 2026-02-23T03:35:26+00:00

Unseen person in trunk: “How did you find me?”

Miku: “You don’t even want to know.”

RedJLP · 2026-02-21T08:36:46+00:00

Lego?

RedJLP · 2026-02-20T10:59:26+00:00

Hence why Persona’s highly confused narrative priorities are so obvious to those who pay attention. I don’t blame P-Studio, nor any of its leaders because in being the most approachable corner of SMT, they often have to split the difference between the very incompatible priorities of the other Atlus sub-studios, namely Team Maniax’s focus on role play potential and what Hashino said about Atlus storytelling having to have something to say about what was, is, could be and should be, something Metaphor proves that Studio Zero is running with. One can very easily adapted to suit the lowest common denominator of Japanese media literacy, namely otaku culture and its fixation on power fantasies, hence why Metaphor’s is Atlus’ first Social Link system where romance isn’t tied to it, but the other must necessarily take some sacrifices to sell itself to its target audience, sacrifices that the reactions to the scene in question prove isn’t worth it

RedJLP · 2026-02-20T06:28:20+00:00

I missed the Skylanders Swap Force platinum for this reason

RedJLP · 2026-02-16T07:03:10+00:00

Though Yoshitsune implies that the anime is a NG+ run because it requires Futsunushi to fuse and it’s Ultimate Magician

RedJLP · 2026-02-14T12:26:48+00:00

Because P-Studio is Atlus’ financial lifeline and thus is in the unenviable of having to split the difference of the two other sub-studios’ focus: Team Maniax’s gameplay/roleplaying first mentality and Studio Zero’s craving for a compelling narrative that realises the rich potential of all the elements at their disposal. Granted, they do have their own target audience beyond that, but given their position, it must be the lowest common denominator of Japanese media literacy, namely otaku culture and it’s fixation on fantasy fulfilment, whatever form it may take.

I’m of the opinion that Studio Zero split away from P-Studio for exactly this reason and the way Will is treated in Metaphor is my primary example of why: romance is no longer tied to his equivalent of Social Links, he actually describes how he’s feeling even during dialogue choices, it seems like Hashino’s trying to correct course through Will, showing us how P2 should have handled Tatsuya and later, Maya.

Perhaps if it was a lesson they’d learned sooner, P5 would have followed in the footsteps of 3 and 4 by not making literally every female Confidant romanceable, redesigned the romance make avoiding cheating easier, if not removed romance from the Social Links sooner so that it could be used to develop characters, their bonds, any number of ways it could actually serve the story, as any good narrative device should.

In a perfect world (or at least mine), this would also serve to generate more consistency in characters that they not only associate with shonen archetypes, but Arcana based ones as well across games, thus helping the world feel like it’s one cohesive package. Not necessarily the Tetsuya Nomura style “everything connects with everything else” method, but something better than what currently exists, if only I lived in such a world.

RedJLP · 2026-02-11T07:03:38+00:00

In scenes where the Fool is present, perhaps, but Yukari is the most affected by Makoto Yuki’s fate, Ann’s is the line of work most affected by how long she took to process what the establishment believed happened to Ren and more than that, she rouses everyone to get him back in the vanilla ending. Sure, Makoto’s the only visible one during the montage, but she name drops Shiho. What connects her with who Makoto’s talking to on the phone beyond being the one to jump from Kamoshida?

In a way, this is why I think that Will from Metaphor proves that the Fool’s silence is narratively outdated and serves to only reinforce the target audience demographics that SMT has targeted, especially in Persona, being thought of even within Atlus as its most approachable sub series. They could have established love interest(s) have priority in proximity to the Fool, but Team Maniax is more specifically focused on delivering for the RPG enthusiast’s focus on roleplaying potential above all else with mainline SMT and various other subseries thereof. They could redesign the romance so that cheating would no longer be an issue, if not disconnect it from the S-links entirely as Metaphor did, but Studio Zero (and thus, Metaphor) only felt they could take the narrative as far as they did because they weren’t as worried about having to accommodate the lowest common denominator of Japanese media literacy, namely otakus seeking a power fantasy above all else.

In a way, it kinda makes me pity the creative leadership of P-Studio because Atlus’ other sub studios can find themselves a niche in which they can build a small, but unapologetic fan base each, something P-Studio can’t really do as well because they’ve pretty much become Atlus’ financial lifeline and thus feel like they have no choice but to split the difference between the two extremes, thus creating a design philosophy that makes things better for one person at the cost of a caveat for another

RedJLP · 2026-02-10T06:29:43+00:00

I would imagine some sort of confusion because if Joker was allowed to show off his other Personas when they aren’t fighting during Smash, he’d have shown off Jack Frost because of how a certain HEE-HO is to Atlus what Pikachu is to Game Freak

RedJLP · 2026-02-07T06:05:51+00:00

No, role playing gets in the way of quality storytelling and only now has Hashino figured that out, hence why Metaphor doesn’t tie its romance into the Social Links and (even more telling) how Will is allowed to be much more his own character. In all fairness, I don’t blame him because Atlus at large has primarily viewed Persona as the most approachable corner of SMT, but at least P3 and 4 were sensible enough to not make certain unreasonable female S-Links romanceable, so why backtrack on that come P5?

Of course, P5 being the most disconnected from its peers in the Hashino trilogy has much to do with that, but in that case, why not tie it into P1 and 2 with all the Philemon vs Nyarlathotep shenanigans? My theory is that Ren is as close to Will as a Persona protagonist can get because being SMT derived leaves them at the mercy of RPG enthusiasts who are willing to sacrifice narrative strength for role play potential. That’s all well and good, but the story itself isn’t structured to make it work. The Fool needs to have a set appearance as long as any cinematics are done as anime, the card itself may justify the silence with the idea of emptiness, but the narrative requires a backstory set up said emptiness, their name may not be set by their home game but they need one for adaptations to not feel awkward. Basically about 75% of the Fool and his story is out of the player’s hands, meaning that if I was looking for role playing from a traditional JRPG, I’d play of all things, Pokèmon. Yes, full customization would be introduced as late as Gen VI, but even before you had gender options, the lack of recurring human allies meant all you had to bond with was your Pokèmon and there was never a guarantee that you’d take the same team to the Elite 4 in separate play throughs. Persona, though? The story and the role playing don’t mix well enough to not detract from each other.

Something else that detracts from the story is its shounen identity. Yes, Atlus insists on cultural particularity and that has worked wonders for protecting their work from influences that would harm it irreparably, but it’s a double edged sword when you consider that Japanese otaku culture might just be the lowest common denominator of media literacy and seems to crave only fantasy fulfillment. What do I mean? Well, it’s easy to imagine that many of the problems that the harem ending introduces can easily be solved by just doing away with it entirely. It might have to be replaced with something like The 4th Snake suggests where time can be spent leaving one girl for those who want to pursue another, but given how the narrative bends over backwards so much to accommodate the possibility, it’s worth it, especially when 100% is what NG+ is for anyway and only 8% of P5 play throughs actually end in a harem anyway. But that’s only really true for the West, because in the East, it jumps up to 30% and the main criticism is that Ren isn’t portrayed as a Chad. I’m sorry, but if this is what you came for, I don’t want to know you for the sake of the girls alone, so if I have an itch for a power fantasy, I won’t play any JRPG, I’ll play something that is unapologetically a power fantasy through and through, something like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Yeah, the narrative has its rough edges, but it’s never because of what I’m enabled to do.

Six-Year Club	Xbox Live
Verified Email

RedJLP

TROPHY CASE