The Café

Links with other character giving you skills and stuff is just another Tokyo Mirage Sessions innovation! A lot of Togo's skills are also TMS battle things, interestingly enough.

I got all the social links in my run because schedule managing is for suckers.

I liked Iwai's. But I liked his appearance in the end-game scenes more. He's obviously also Junpei's real dad. I agree Mishima was a tough character that they mostly stuck the landing on. Futaba was also fun.

HunterF wrote:Kawakami is legit one of the best S-Links. Sojiro is pretty awesome as well. Most were pretty great. Ann and Makoto, sadly, seemed pretty boring, and I didn't care about Shinya at all. Iwai was also kinda boring.

Still, all of the P5 S-Links are leagues above the other games. Fucing Bebe...

Sojiro is so damn good. I liked Dojima in P4 well enough, but Sojiro laps him pretty quickly. Great voice too. I really appreciated the Catherine references he gets with the trivia and Boss nickname.

Makoto's s-link felt like a somewhat improved version of Mitsuru's, minus the hamburger, unfortunately. Her role in the actual story is much better though. I felt like Ann was the unfortunate odd-girl-out after the Kamoshida stuff and her s-link... exists? She ended up in the Xander position somehow. I don't remember Innocent Sin very well but I feel like Lisa had more to do.

I kind of see more of Mitsuru in Haru's link, even if she lacks Mitsuru's hypercompetency. Really, she has the "pressures of privilege" stuff and Makoto gets the "how does adolescence work" bag.

Yeah, honestly Ann and Ryuji's links are underwhelming for main characters. I like the stuff with Shiho and Ann but the model stuff felt forced. As for Ryuji, I just don't care about sports, and there was a lot of focus on track and his no-name ex-track member guys. I didn't get to finish Makoto's due to her charm requirement, though I originally wanted to date her. I spoiled myself on her romance on Youtube already so I'm just going to finish it as friends this time (I'm in July and already further than I was in my first file).

I also didn't finish Sun's due to his deadline so I'm right where I ended with him, too, now that I'm picking him every time he comes up. Iwai's courage requirement and me picking the wrong answers all the time the first time around also made it so I was only 6 or so with him, and I'm caught up there, too. I'm interested in his adopted son dynamic.

John Layfield wrote:I kind of see more of Mitsuru in Haru's link, even if she lacks Mitsuru's hypercompetency. Really, she has the "pressures of privilege" stuff and Makoto gets the "how does adolescence work" bag.

Yeah, maybe they sorta split Mitsuru into two people there. Makoto is hypercompetent but show me these places you call "arcades" while the rich kid stuff goes to Haru. So maybe it's more like Makoto is the Naoto and Haru is the Mitsuru.

Weird thing: I spent a fair amount of time in P5 wondering if Makoto and Sae were Katsuya's daughters and Katsuya got himself killed offscreen.

Oh shit! Is Katsuya old enough to have someone Sae's age? How old is Sae, actually? There's obviously the last name issue with that theory, though.

My understanding of the timeline is fuzzy. I think Katsuya was probably in his mid-to-late 20s or early 30s in Eternal Punishment, which doesn't have a strict year attached to it, but I guess we could place those events around 1999 or 2000 or whenever Persona 2 was out. Sae is probably also in her mid-20s, or old enough to have already finished university and scored a fairly plum prosecution gig.

Persona 5 itself is the first game in the series since P2 to avoid nailing down a specific year, which gives some wiggle room, but obviously it can't be too far in the future and there's a reference to Rise being at least 20 years old.

The calendar and P4 cameo mentions on the TV establish that the majority of the game almost certainly takes place in 2016.

Yep, it's the 2016 calendar. I heard a theory that 20XX was used to avoid an legal troubles, since in Japan, I guess someone (politicians) could sue if they thought any of the characters in the game were based off of them. That's part of why you have to agree to that disclaimer when you start a new file, too, apparently.

That makes a lot of sense, yeah. All the stuff with Tora is probably loosely based on actual Japanese politics to some extent, those cult-y dudes with the signs and megaphones in Station Square totally exist (and probably aren't fond of being satirized) and I've heard some chatter about the game making allusions to Abe in places.

And, uh, yeah, it's 2016 as fuck towards the end with all the Shido stuff. If it weren't written in 2013 or 2014 and delayed until recently we might be calling it "too on the nose."

Right? I kept thinking, "man, this is so Trump!" except it's a Japanese game that was being developed before he was elected. The difference is that Shido is at least smart and knows what he's doing when he's being a piece of shit.

I don't get the Trump comparisons. With Shido, we're talking a politician whose personal charisma allows him to garner mass backing from private and public business interests while simultaneously being the case of several domestic security incidents. Shido is a man dragging the people with him by force of will and manipulation while covering his true intent with actions no one can discern.

Trump on the other hand, is not a popular candidate in any sense of the word. He is a man wielded by a segment of the population that managed to fall through the peculiar net that is electoral college distributions. His fears and biases are, and have always been, on full display. He possesses neither Shido's base competent, intelligence or ruthlessness. Given his position, he is remarkably inept at coercing people into propping up his regime, in fact.

This reminds me of when people used to say Suikoden V was about Republicans and Democrats.

I got Trump comparisons more from Shido's supporters, than anything. "This guy says things I agree with! That makes me feel better about my own beliefs! I'm gonna vote for him!" It's like, how can you be so blind?

I mean, I agree with you, but I still see outspoken support for Trump everywhere somehow, which is why I felt the comparison was apt. Even after everything going down today, people (young people even!) on FB are saying, "he did nothing to get impeached for!" and other stupid bullshit. Maybe it's a difference in perception based on where we live, but I still feel like Trump has too much support and I *just* *don't* *get* *it.*

They both have the same ego, at least? Shido with the, "I don't care if you're literally nobody, I will still ruin your life even though you've only affected a night of mine and ultimately nothing bad will happen to me even though I was the abusive one!" seems apt.

Edit: this was a reply to Layfield's post. I agree with you, Hunter. It's gross.

Yeah, Trump is known for having a revenge boner.

...And now I know why Belphegor's always on a toilet.

P5's waifu wars are intense. There's not really a bad choice in the whole squad.

Well. Maybe Chihaya.

Nowt wrong with Chihaya. If you want to argue "least best", maybe, but bad? Ah now.

Yeah, I can settle on least best. There aren't any Ayanes in this group, that's for sure.

Kinda surprised. Most folks seem to think Ohya is least best.

I like Ohya herself, but her social link was pretty dull. I felt one degree of separation too many from the interesting parts of her life. I'm a sucker for "fake relationships" turning into real ones though.

I have a real soft spot for Ohya. Maybe it's her ability to turn on a dime between being sloppy drunk and strangely insightful.



Also she's an integral part of one of the best ways to fuck with Mishima.

Mishima deserves hurting.

I'm still luxuriating in my first run through P5. I really like this game! Except for the Phansite popularity meter, but I can blame Mishima, so it's still a win.