Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, 4, and 5 Social Link Comparison, Part 1

Many, many thanks to good lady Iris, who took time--and quite a fair amount of it, for that matter--out of her otherwise interesting life to look the first version of this rant over, all those years ago, and make sure I didn't say anything particularly stupid or outright false in it. I salute you, Madame SMT Fanatic!

And an even greater amount and magnitude of thanks to good sir Ecclesiastes, who I dragged along for my journey through Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 5, and who as such suffered the role of my sounding board for months on end, which has contributed incalculably to this rant’s completion.  Not to mention that he, too, has looked this entire huge honking thing over and to help me correct the stupider parts.  Even by his normal high standards of being the guy I bounce ideas and thoughts off of, he’s gone above and beyond as my buddy lately.  I likewise salute you, Sir Persona Expert!



Once upon a time, many years ago, I thought it might be neat to compare and contrast the Social Links from SMT Persona games.*  Which game has the most accuracy to the Tarot Arcana in its Social Links?  Which game has the best quality in its stories?  

So I wrote a rant that did just that, my longest rant, and 1 of my very favorites still.  It’s been 10 years since last I labored upon this, and in the time since, Persona 5 has been released, and then rereleased with new content, so...I reckon that it’s high time this rant receive its expected update, now that I’ve finally played SMTP5.

Now, I’m trying to be nice and brief in this introduction, given the size of the rant to come, but before we go forward, it bears laying a bit of ground work:


A: Just pitting SMTP3 and 4 against each other was already a work so sizable that it barely even fit into a single post.  So this time around, we’re splitting this sucker up into 3 parts, to be posted in succession over this month of May.  More sensible this way anyway;  this would be too much text for even my staunchest reader to chew without choking.


B: When I first wrote this rant, I knew virtually nothing about the Tarot, and selected a particular site for use as my main reference for the meanings of the Major Arcanas, and judging the Social Links based on those interpretations.  I was using my best judgment to figure out a source for the proper, “official” meanings of the cards.

What I didn’t understand at the time but have realized since is that there is no real “official” interpretation of the Major Arcana to begin with.  Trying to pin them down and define them concretely seems as impossible a task as doing so with the RPG genre.  Each Arcana has aspects that everyone agrees on, but also traits that vary from 1 expert’s perspective to another.  I’ve done some more reading off and on in the years since first writing this rant, and am much more knowledgeable about the Arcana now, but I still can’t pretend to anything better than a layman’s understanding, if even that.

What I’m trying to say here is, judging the Social Links on their accuracy to the Arcana is tricky, in many ways hopeless, and subjective to an absurd degree, because the very metric I’m using for the judgment differs from 1 practitioner, scholar, or charlatan to the next.  I’m going to describe the meanings of each Arcana as I’ve best been able to glean from multiple sources, both well-known and obscure, including Tarot.com, Astrology.com, the games’ own intended meanings as reported by the Megami Tensei Wiki, and my original main source, http://www.ata-tarot.com/resource/cards.  What you read as the result is the best interpretation I’ve got of each Arcana based on credibility, number of sources, and gut instinct for what fits best when viewing the Tarot as a way of telling life’s stories from beginning to end.

In other words, it’s all hogwash that I feel very earnestly about.  Which, indeed, might be the very most authentically Tarot thing about this whole rant.


C: As is usually the case with my rants, the protagonists of each game will be referred to by their best semi-canon names: Yu for Persona 4, Ren for Persona 5, and, with extreme reluctance, Makoto and Kotone for Persona 3.  Not sure what the hell Atlus was thinking when they changed Persona 3’s protagonist to the SAME FUCKING NAME as another huge story character in the same damn series, particularly when they ALREADY had a perfectly functional canonical name in Minato, but I guess my puny pedestrian mind just can’t grasp the glorious, brilliant design of the same geniuses who came up with Teddie and published Shin Megami Tensei 5.  So Makoto it is.  Ugh.


D: The format of this rant has changed a bit from its original iteration.  In an attempt to better give credit for good writing to each game where due, and make things easier on myself for future iterations of this rant (let’s not pretend that Persona 6 won’t happen eventually), each game will get a score for its Social Link for each Arcana, from 0 to 5, on its merits as a story.  To break these scores down:

0: Bad.  The presence of this Social Link actually lessens the game’s overall quality to at least a small degree.
1: Okay
2: Good
3: Great
4: Excellent.  1 of the best moments the game has to offer.
5: Real, Actual, Sublime Perfection.  This Social Link is 1 of the greatest moments in RPG history and could genuinely change your life.

In cases where a game has more than 1 Social Link per Arcana, the higher score will be that which it gets credit for.  Similarly, when a Social Link has an option between friendship and romance, the game gets credit for whichever is the better-crafted outcome.

So, at the end of the rant (at the end of this month), we’ll tally all the scores together, and determine which game has the highest overall quality to its Social Link stories over its full course.  I think that’s more fair and accurate in a 3-way competition than just seeing which game wins the most categories, as was the case when this was just Persona 3 vs. 4.  Of course, since this is still a case-by-case competition, whenever an Arcana has a tie between games’ Worth scores, I’ll also denote which one was the best.

With that said, judging on accuracy to the Arcana is a less nuanced matter, so that will remain a winner-take-all matter.  For each Arcana, whichever game’s Social Link best expresses the concept of the Tarot will be the only one to get credit, and at the end, we’ll just add up who won the most categories to declare the champion.


Alright.  Everyone good?  Then let’s get started.



0. THE FOOL
In SMTP3, The Fool is represented by SEES, the group of main characters that you control through the game. In SMTP4, it's the Investigation Team, which are...well, actually, the same thing as in SMTP3, the main characters.  In SMTP5, it’s the master of the Velvet Room.

Meaning
The Fool represents absolute potential, tabula rasa, zero, the essence of inspiration and creativity, a foundation upon which anything and everything can be built.  It’s the beginning of the journey.  It’s innocent, guileless excitement to embark on something new, with no idea of the heights and falls that this new venture entails.

This works quite neatly for all 3 titles.  In practice, The Fool’s steps of advancement are associated with landmarks in each game’s plot, which essentially means that this Social Link can be judged by the main story, which coincides with the fact that it’s represented by the main cast in SMTP3 and 4, and by Ren’s captor and benefactor in SMTP5.  Each team is on a journey of discovery, and the Velvet Room is the place in which all events begin, as well as the process of discovering and nurturing facets of one’s self.

Verdict: While each example of The Fool is a functional one, I’m going to say that the SMTP4 team is a little more true to the idea of the Fool Arcana than the others. All 3 journeys may involve discovery, growing to understand their world and its mysteries, and personal development, but the Investigation Team is devoted specifically to finding Truth, to seeing things as they are. The SMTP4 team’s members also have a stronger theme of self-discovery and self-awareness, coming to terms with all aspects of one's self, and from that understanding, growing as a person.  Now, to be sure, there’s a lot of that in SEES, and as long as you give The Fool broad range over the whole of the plot rather than just the person(s) representing it, you can also say that SMTP5’s story has plenty of appropriate material, too.  But Persona 4 emphasizes these ideas of seeking personal truth and growth as its most substantial theme, and has moments of such advancement definitively linked to the progression of The Fool.  Finally, while events rope the protagonists of SMTP3 and 5 into bigger stories, Persona 4’s Investigation Team is founded specifically with the express desire of pursuing a defined goal; The Fool may not know all he’s in for, but he DOES intentionally embark on his journey.  Thus, the point for Arcana accuracy goes to SMT Persona 4.

Worth
Judging the worth of The Fool is tricky, because it’s clearly meant to use the beats of the main plot itself as its narrative, so I guess I have to make my determinations based not only on the actual characters representing it, but also the story as a whole, at least inasmuch as is covered within the 10 ranks of The Fool (in each game, The Fool is finished advancing prior to the game’s actual end).

Persona 3: SMTP3’s cast is a good one overall.  It has weak links like Akihiko and Koromaru, and some of the instances in which it tries to give depth to a character fall a bit flat (like Ken’s whole deal with Shinjiro, and Fuuka in general), but party members like Mitsuru and Yukari are solid, and Aigis is an excellent character, if admittedly more for her own Social Link’s contents than those of the main story itself.

As far as the story goes...I love Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3’s heavy, emotional, thoughtful, earnest entreaty to help us understand what makes life meaningful and aid us in facing our existential fears.  There are many reasons I’ve given the game a high position in my list of the Greatest RPGs of all time, and its powerful story is definitely 1 of them.  With that said...it’s in the latest parts of the game’s tale that its meaning and beauty fully coalesce and transform it as a whole into great art, and until that point, I have to admit, a lot of its main plot was pretty middling!  Never bad, mind you, but, well, The Fool completes itself prior to some of the stuff that makes SMTP3’s story truly amazing.  And judging by the part of SMTP3 specifically within the purview of The Fool, it’s good, but not great.
SCORE: 2

Persona 4: The Investigation Team is, in certain ways, utilized better than SEES was, with each party member being introduced by the game’s main story, and having a noticeable and significant role to play in it.  On the other hand, once their 5 minutes of plot time are over, most don’t develop any further as people (even in their individual Social Links, usually), and while there are highs and lows in the cast, those highs (Yosuke and Kanji) are only so good, and the lows are pretty bad (goddamn is Naoto BORING, and if you don’t already know my feelings on Teddie, you’re sure as hell gonna find out before the end of this rant).

While it has its virtues, and I appreciate what it’s attempting to do, SMTP4’s overall story is a massive step down from its predecessor, and while I’ll give it that it’s more cohesively paced, it just doesn’t have the same elegance or meaning to it.  It’s clunky and heavy-handed more often than not, watching the morons of the Investigation Team try desperately to grasp shit that’s painfully obvious to the player is tedious as all hell, and it’s all driving a story that lacks the compelling philosophy and heart of SMTP3.  As before, The Fool does cut off before the game’s finale, but unlike with Persona 3, this doesn’t really have much of an effect on the verdict--even if this Social Link included the culmination of all that the story has been leading to, Persona 4, when judged purely for the merits of its plot and main cast, is decent, but no more.
SCORE: 1

Persona 5: Really can’t say much about the character representing The Fool in SMTP5; he’s basically just an observer making cryptic comments.

But that’s okay, because the main plot of Persona 5 more than makes up for The Fool’s lack of character quality here.  While the best elements of both SMTP3 and 4 were humanistic ones to some degree outside of the plot (primarily the Social Links), Persona 5 went hard on telling a great story over its course that stands proud all on its own.  From start to finish, Persona 5’s tale of the major problems with Japanese society, told with a major theme of rebellion and individuality to the purpose of social reform, is engaging, thoughtful, and important.  Stepping-stone villains are still shockingly evil in ways all too recognizable from real life, emotional punches to the gut are raw, twists are expertly orchestrated, victories feel truly grand, and everything is paced excellently.  SMTP5 tells an honestly terrific story.  And in a reverse of SMTP3, The Fool actually benefits from what it doesn’t cover--it ends after the Shido arc, right before the finale to the game.  Since Shido is definitely where Persona 5 should have ended anyway and its last parts were almost as out of place and random as Persona 4’s Izanami nonsense, the 1 blatantly weak part of Persona 5’s overall narrative doesn’t really affect The Fool’s worth.
SCORE: 4


1. THE MAGICIAN
In SMTP3, The Magician is represented by Kenji, a classmate, for Makoto, and Junpei, a teammate, for Kotone. In SMTP4, it's Yosuke, a teammate.  In SMTP5, it’s Morgana, likewise a teammate.

Meaning
The number 1 is associated with The Magician, the first number of substance after The Fool's 0. Basically, The Magician symbolizes the act of creating, the will to make, the process of turning inspiration and creativity into something material, a conduit for the power of formless things such as talent and ideas (which wraps back around to its being represented by 1, for all other numbers are divisible by it, meaning that 1 is the most basic, inescapable stuff of creation).

...But mostly Shin Megami Tensei Persona just wants to focus on the “1” thing, translate that to your first and/or best friend, and call it a day.  Kenji is both Makoto’s first Social Link and best friend (or at least the closest thing Makoto seems to have to a bestie), Junpei is typically seen as the first party member, Yosuke is Yu’s best friend, first Social Link, and first party member, and Morgana is Ren’s first party member and...well, I think most people would say that Ryuji is Ren’s best friend, but there’s no denying that Morgana is Ren’s constant companion and is a participant in almost every part of Ren’s life.  He’s some nebulous mix of a best friend, brother, and pet to Ren, and whatever that shakes out to, it feels like it fits a “Number 1” position.

Alright, alright, there is a LITTLE extra to these Social Links to connect to The Magician, I suppose.  Morgana’s Social Link dances between him fretting about what he is, scenes that are just plain part of the main story and barely even relate to his character, and him contemplating each of the Phantom Thieves and his role on the team, none of which has the slightest thing to do with The Magician.  But, as Morgana’s Social Link progresses, he teaches Ren how to create tools to help with his exploits as a Phantom Thief, which relates to the whole creation aspect of the Arcana, so that’s something, at least.

In SMTP3, Kenji focuses much of his time on trying to hook up with a teacher he has a crush on, which is sort of like creating action and decision out of the intangible idea of love?  Hell of a stretch, though.  Junpei’s series of events are basically his growing connection to Kotone making him reevaluate himself offscreen and motivating him to stop trying to avoid the serious parts of his life through evasive humor.  Junpei’s decision to take his studies more seriously, approach his duties at SEES more responsibly, and visit his alcoholic father, are similarly a case of creating action and decision out of inspiration, that inspiration being his admiration of the strength of character of Kotone, which grows as their friendship deepens.

Yosuke’s focus on his issues with being the son of the owner of mega-mall Junes legitimately just has nothing to do with the Arcana.

Verdict: I’ll...give the point to Persona 3, for Junpei’s story.  As they’re all essentially equal in terms of the first/best friend/Social Link/ally thing, Junpei’s taking inspiration from Kotone and turning that into action is the most definitive expression of the lot of’em.  Even if this interpretation is, admittedly, a bit of a stretch, it’s not as out there as finding relevance in Kenji’s story, and Morgana teaching Ren how to make lockpicks is just too minor a symbol to secure the win.  So yeah, point to SMTP3, but someday in the future, Persona 6 will have an easy opportunity to claim a win with this Arcana.

Worth
Persona 3: Junpei’s version of this Social Link wraps up pretty well, but it’s a bit disorganized at first, and depends too much on revelations that Junpei has offscreen which only somewhat feel like they could have been significantly inspired by the events of the Link.  Thus, we’ll judge by Kenji.  Kenji’s story is at times a bit silly, but I’m quite fond of it overall.  It’s not so much a dramatic story of love and loss as Kenji himself would view it as, as it is one of learning to accept life’s disappointments (particularly when it comes to first loves), and to take comfort in having found things of value on the way to that disappointment (most notably, his solid friendship with Makoto).  It’s a simple but solid tale of friendship and personal growth, and the perfect sample of a basic, good Social Link with which to introduce this narrative feature of the Persona series.
SCORE: 2 (Junpei’s would have been 1)

Persona 4: Yosuke is the best-written party member in the game, and this story is a major contributor to that fact.  Persona 4’s Magician Social Link shows us a well-paced look into Yosuke’s psyche and character through a skillfully coordinated coming together of his frustration at being defined by being the son of the invading superstore Junes, his feeling of isolation and the way it made him crave a purpose, and his guilt and grief over the tragedy of Saki’s death and life situation prior to that demise.  It’s a great piece of character development for Yosuke, and a touching story of him finding some peace with his situation, and being able to take a moment to properly mourn Saki, thanks to having an honest friend who understands him.  Admittedly, Yosuke does seem to make a few leaps between scenes to get to a very wise state of mind that doesn’t seem to have required Yu’s input to achieve, and that does weaken this Social Link a bit.  But it’s still 1 of my personal favorites.
SCORE: 3

Persona 5: Morgana’s Social Link suffers from frequently being more of a case of him reflecting on the state of events in the game’s plot than doing much to tell its own story, or develop him.  That, and his obsessive delusion with being human (mixed with the exceptionally tiresome, vaguely Teddie-reminiscent going-nowhere crush on Ann) taking up a decent amount of conversation time.  Now, yes, Morgana does usually bring his reflections on the proceedings of the Phantom Thieves’ crusade back to himself, so it’s not like the stages of his Social Link are unrelated to him, but honestly, half the time he’s doing that just to talk himself up and boost his ego--and I get it, Morgana’s self esteem issues and uncertainty of who he is are the foundations for his character development, so that makes sense.  But that still doesn’t mean that hearing this damn cat be his own hype man doesn’t get old fast.  Morgana’s overall story of finding his home with his friends isn’t a bad story, it just isn’t especially good either.  While I like him personally and I think he’s very important as a friend and ally to Ren and the rest, in his own right, Morgana is simply a very middling character, and his story is sort of just there.
SCORE: 1


2. THE PRIESTESS
Also known as The High Priestess.  In SMTP3, The Priestess is represented by Fuuka, a teammate and, for Makoto, love interest. In SMTP4, it's Yukiko, also a teammate and love interest.  In SMTP5, it’s Makoto--the REAL Makoto, that is, not the renamed-for-no-fucking-reason-at-all protagonist of Persona 3--who is likewise a teammate and love interest.

Meaning
The Priestess is basically the intangible potential that the Magician draws from to create. Mysteries, the subconscious, hidden knowledge, intuition, instincts, and the inner self are what The Priestess best represents. This is sort of regarded as a feminine trait, in that it is a counterpart to the "masculine" Magician.

And in the world of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 and 4, all of this translates into...cooking. Seriously, both Fuuka and Yukiko's Social Links have a large focus on them improving their cooking. It's such a goddamn big deal that it's all I actually remembered about them; I had to look up what the Social Links were SUPPOSED to show, which was A, Fuuka coming to understand her insecurities with Makoto’s route, B, Fuuka coming to understand that just trying harder isn’t necessarily the way to succeed at things with Kotone’s route, and C, Yukiko coming to accept and want her future place as manager of her family's inn. I mean, I remember them now that I've refreshed my memory, but until I did, all I remembered was the stupid fucking anime obsession with females improving their cooking. It’s so bad, that the instant they add a female protagonist to Persona 3, she’s gotta start cooking, too! Because she’s a woman! And they cook! Always!

And honestly, none of this jives with the Priestess's meaning to me. I think maybe Persona interpreted the Priestess to be totally synonymous with femininity, and hence all the obligatory anime-girl-cooking nonsense.  But that’s not what the Arcana’s actually about, and femininity has more than 1 single blasted characteristic, goddammit.

(Real) Makoto, at least, has a story concerned with something other than whether or not she can stuff some rice into a bento box.  With that said, connecting said story to The Priestess is a tricky matter.  I suppose you can say that (Real) Makoto’s following her gut instinct that something is wrong with her friend Eiko’s boyfriend connects to the idea of subconscious, hidden knowledge, but that’s certainly a tenuous connection.  Similarly, the Social Link ends with (Real) Makoto better understanding her own inner self as the experience helps her realize what she wants to do with her life (become a police commissioner)...but a LOT of these Social Links end with their stars experiencing epiphanies and forming goals about where they want their life to take them, so (Real) Makoto doesn’t really stand out as an icon of The Priestess on that count, either.  Hell, even Yukiko somehow got to that point with her stupid cooking Social Link.

Verdict: I’m still giving it to SMTP5.  (Real) Makoto may only connect to the subtle unknown and inner mystery of the Priestess in the absolute vaguest, tiniest ways, but you CAN at least make an argument that she does.  And frankly, I just fucking refuse to give the others a point for trying to pass off another lazy “Girlz = IN TEH KITCHEN” anime subplot as some story of the feminine mystique.

Worth
Persona 3: This story works better without the romance subplot, which frankly seems pretty spontaneous and disconnected from the Link’s events as a whole, so I’m judging by the platonic version.

Both versions of Fuuka’s story are pointless and dumb.  I feel like the stupid cooking thing is supposed to heavily supplement or even replace any serious character development she gets.
SCORE: 0

Persona 4: This story works better without the romance subplot, which frankly seems pretty spontaneous and disconnected from the Link’s events as a whole, so I’m judging by the platonic version.

Yukiko’s story is pointless and dumb.  I feel like the stupid cooking thing is supposed to heavily supplement or even replace any serious character development she gets.

Hm?  What’s that?  Oh, I basically just copied what I’d done for Fuuka and pasted it here for Yukiko?  Gee, imagine that.
SCORE: 0

Persona 5: This story works better without the romance subplot, so I’m judging by the platonic version.

Weirdly, I feel like (Real) Makoto’s ultimate decision at the end of the Social Link to pursue a goal of being police commissioner is somehow at odds with her character, who I’d interpreted to be a composed, steely revolutionary who now saw through the cruel tricks of social expectation and structure.  At the same time, though, judging strictly by what’s contained within the Social Link itself, this is a fine, competent story that paces itself adequately and has a rational conclusion.  It’s nice to see (Real) Makoto find a “normal” friend, and although the Link seems not to be going anywhere early on, the conflict of Eiko’s being manipulated by her boyfriend is engaging once it emerges.  I also respect the fact that it jives with Persona 5’s theme of exposing the predatory parts of society where the law and justice fail to reach, and that it’s calling attention to what I am led to understand are real-world predatory behaviors in the host club industry.  (Real) Makoto’s decision to become a police commissioner to extend the law’s protection to places where it hasn’t been adequately vigilant makes sense and is a satisfying conclusion within the Link’s context.
SCORE: 2


3. THE EMPRESS
In SMTP3, The Empress is represented by Mitsuru, a teammate and, for Makoto, love interest. In SMTP4, it's Margaret, the Velvet Room attendants.  In SMTP5, it’s Haru, a teammate and love interest.

Meaning
The Empress represents physical beauty and pleasure of the senses, along with motherhood. Compassion, the creation of life, unconditional love, protection from the world, and Mother Nature, along with appreciation for the world's resources and pleasures (often seen as abundance, prosperity, and sexuality), are tied in with it.  It is a definitively feminine Arcana, and represents any distinctly female role--mother, daughter, sister, wife, aunt, niece, grandmother, granddaughter, amazon, K-Pop enthusiast, etc.

Mitsuru's Social Link...doesn't really seem to add up for me on this matter. I mean, I guess learning to enjoy cheap burgers and ramen, which she’s never had the chance to do before, might be an attempt to show an appreciation for the world’s resources and pleasure?  But this isn’t like some alien or robot experiencing food and entertainment for the first time; Mitsuru hasn’t had grungy fried street vendor food before because she’s lived as an elite all her life and has eaten accordingly.  The Social Link seems almost counter-intuitive to the Tarot's meaning, since Mitsuru's stepping down from her high class tastes and lifestyle would seem to be a step AWAY from greater appreciation for the material.  Her throwing her future social status into jeopardy for love in Makoto’s version doesn’t feel very strongly like an unconditional love situation (and it constitutes her choosing a mental and spiritual need over assured personal prosperity, so it, too, is sort of against the Arcana’s meaning).  And I don't think there's anything there that particularly symbolizes motherhood or its qualities.

Interestingly, Haru is in many ways the exact opposite of Mitsuru.  For her, this Social Link is about the exploration of new experiences and culinary appreciation, but her exploration into the world of coffee and so on is more about understanding this new horizon in its whole and to its fullest, and appreciating it at its best.  Mitsuru is an elite curiously stooping down to try a hot dog and unrealistically finding that she likes it, while Haru is an elite broadening her horizons and seeking to understand them on all levels in order to get the absolute most out of them; she’ll try both the simple and the high-grade to find the best.  And while Mitsuru’s high-society position is stifling and distancing herself from it is seen as a good thing, Haru’s arc is about her striving to find a place and earn her role in her 1-percenter world, and the way she wants to pursue that is to embrace the spirit of her grandfather and take her company in new directions of providing quality experiences to the masses.  She’s all about an appreciation of the world’s resources, and seeks to immerse herself in her world of prosperity to the end of sharing that appreciation with the rest of the world, which all fits very well into at least a portion of The Empress.  She’s also talented at growing vegetables, relating to Mother Nature, and the concept of nurturing, but that only barely relates to the actual Social Link events, so we won’t be counting it.

In Margaret's case, it's kind of fuzzy how she's meant to symbolize the Empress, but it's not quite as bad as Mitsuru. The way you advance Margaret's Social Link is by creating certain Personas--creating life, sort of, which IS a motherhood thing. Granted, it's Yu doing it instead of Margaret, but it's at least still there. Kind of.

Verdict: Margaret only has a remote, tenuous connection to The Empress, and Mitsuru possesses even less than that, so the win goes to Haru.  Her Social Link may only focus on a single aspect of the Arcana, but she IS at least pretty on-point in representing the world’s resources and pleasure in those resources, as well as prosperity.

Worth
Persona 3: This story works better without the romance subplot, so I’m judging by the platonic version.

Mitsuru’s story of chafing under the weight and sacrifice of her position, and finding the strength to stand for her own sake, is a nice one.  This sequence develops Mitsuru’s character well, balancing her personal self with the aristocratic leader she fashions herself to be in a way that satisfactorily acknowledges both sides to be valid parts of who she is as a whole, and there are some moments where it’s heartwarming without being sappy.
SCORE: 3

Persona 4: Margaret's Social Link has little dialogue, development, or deeper meaning worth note.  It’s about as stiff, terse, and uninteresting as Margaret herself, actually, but I’m not awarding a bonus point just for appropriately matching a crappy Social Link to a crappy character.
SCORE: 0

Persona 5: This story works better without the romance subplot, so I’m judging by the platonic version.  Even if Haru is actually my preferred SMTP5 romance for Ren.

This is the story of a high-class woman out to experience new things, stressing out about what her and her company’s future will be, engaged for political reasons to a self-important asshole, who will learn the self-confidence she needs to take her future in her own hands and ditch her shitty fiance thanks to the protagonist’s encouragement.  Man, Haru really can’t catch a damn break from SMTP5’s writers; not only does she get thrown into the game over halfway through and have to share her introductory character arc with that spotlight-hogging chump Morgana, but she even gets stuck with Mitsuru’s recycled Social Link!

Alright, admittedly, there are some significant variations in their situations, and, as noted above, Haru differs very much in what direction she’s going in from the foundations she shares with Mitsuru, so it’s not just a copy-paste or anything.  Seeing Haru come into her own, have her leap of faith in showing the company president trust be rewarded, and gain the confidence and interest in her position to come up with and share her vision for her company’s future makes this a decent, straightforwardly nice Social Link for Persona 5’s Best Girl.
SCORE: 2


4. THE EMPEROR
In SMTP3, The Emperor is represented by Hidetoshi, member of the Student Council and head of the Disciplinary Committee at the school. In SMTP4, it's Kanji, a teammate.  In SMTP5, it’s Yusuke, likewise a teammate.

Meaning
The Emperor symbolizes the mind's power to shape the world through words and writing, using law and order to create and maintain structure, emphasizing wise and unemotional logic as the basis for his laws. Government, rules and regulations, and fatherhood are symbols of The Emperor. Stability, authority, reliability, and a desire to control oneself and the world around one, are all expressions of this Arcana.  It is also the most distinctly masculine card, and represents any and all uniquely male roles--father, son, brother, husband, uncle, nephew, grandfather, grandson, OnlyFans simp, etc.

With Hidetoshi, the connection between his Social Link's events and The Emperor's meanings is fairly obvious--he's out to enforce the law as he tries to find out who broke the rules at the school, and he believes that the world needs more strict rules, that it's still too chaotic and needs more forceful order. Of course, the end of the Social Link for Hidetoshi kind of steps away from this, by having him show some appreciation for the emotion of friendship that he now shares with Makoto/Kotone, but overall everything matches up, and by the end, Hidetoshi has decided to try to change the world to something better by educating future generations as a teacher, which relates to a part of this Arcana's take on fatherhood.

Kanji's Social Link, on the other hand, doesn't seem to add up much to me. It's mostly about him trying to come to terms with how to be a true man, while still accepting his interests and hobbies, which are more feminine--sewing and such. You can only connect this to what The Emperor represents with extremely vague logic, if at all. At best, I could say that Persona 4's writers were mistaking the symbol of manhood for The Emperor as reflecting all aspects of being a man and the question of what is and isn't masculine, and so the whole Social Link is misguided in its efforts.

Yusuke’s not much better in terms of accuracy.  His story is that of an artist struggling to find his lost inspiration, make sense of the human heart, and come to terms with the contradictions of his father figure’s being both a genuine nurturing parent at times, and a manipulative monster.  The part of the Social Link in which Yusuke grapples with reconciling the duality of Madarame at least relates a bit to the fatherhood aspect of The Emperor, and you could stretch the Arcana to allow for Yusuke’s art to substitute for words and writing...but while Yusuke is, by the end, hoping to inspire others to artistic purity through his own work, that’s not the kind of change-the-world approach that The Emperor is intended to convey.  Realistically, I just don't think Atlus was really trying to significantly tie either Kanji or Yusuke to The Emperor, rather just slapping an Arcana on them that kinda-sorta-maybe fit each at a very brief first glance.

Verdict: SMTP3 definitely wins this one; the others barely even qualify.

Worth
Persona 3: Hidetoshi’s story of coming to view the world and people in a new, better way speaks to me, and I especially like the fact that Hidetoshi’s take-away plan from what he’s learned of people and society is to become a teacher, so that he can help open and guide the minds of others to a better perspective, too.  It’s a good, well-paced story with something to say, and it connects well to the theme of SMTP3 of finding a better way to look at life.
SCORE: 3

Persona 4: Kanji's coming to accept himself as a whole, recognizing that he can be a masculine person while still enjoying feminine hobbies, and that just because he likes certain things and finds female behavior off-putting, it doesn't mean he's gay, is a pretty cool story, and executed well overall.  I also strongly respect the intent and message of this Social Link, and think it’s 1 of the most valuable to the target audience of this series--teenagers and young adults still in the process of finding themselves and determining where they sit with the world.  While being a geeky video-game-loving, anime-watching introvert kept me happily far from embracing the self-destructive stereotypes of masculinity that every level of society has thrust upon men for most of my lifetime, it still took me until well into my adulthood to really become comfortable allowing myself to enjoy “girly” things.  But I’ve only been a happier person since My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic opened my eyes to the foolishness of denying oneself something genuinely good out of some ridiculously arbitrarily gender standard, and if I’d had a chance to see more stories like Kanji’s earlier in my life, I might have benefited from them and not waited as long to reach a better place.  So...yeah, this is a good Social Link story, handled well (as well as anything with Kanji is, at least; Persona 4 does have an unhealthy dose of homophobia that it can’t quite seem to shake), and with a genuinely valuable message to impart.  Solid.
SCORE: 3

Persona 5: Yusuke’s character is easily the most bland and uninteresting part of SMTP5’s major cast, but I have to say, I really like his personal story here.  His failed initial endeavor to depict the human heart through his art and his subsequent attempts to recapture the artistic inspiration of his youth make for a good and inspiring story of the difficulty of devoting oneself to art.  The struggle of the artist against his own failings, against the realities of the world, and against the difficulty of both seeing truth and making others understand that truth, are well-depicted by Yusuke’s tale.  I also like the fact that it reveals, unapologetically, the fact that Madarame had his virtues as Yusuke’s parent, adding complexity to the previously interesting but non-nuanced villain, and likewise really like the conclusion, in which Yusuke’s triumph of artistic clarity and learning comes in the form of a great work of art painted upon and into his first failure--a great bit of symbolism for his process of advancement.**  This is a really good coming-of-age story for the artist.
SCORE: 3

Tiebreaker: I definitely think Yusuke’s Social Link is the best of these; he’s about as close to a 4 score as he can get without quite making it.


5. THE HIEROPHANT
In SMTP3, The Hierophant is represented by Bunkichi and Mitsuko, the old couple who run a bookstore. In SMTP4, it's Dojima, a local detective and uncle to Yu.  In SMTP5, it’s Sojiro, a cafe owner and caretaker to Ren.

Meaning
The Hierophant's easier to verbally define than most of these so far. This Arcana represents belief, faith, religion, all that jazz. Spiritual leaders, personal beliefs and faith, teachers and mentors, and submission to group feeling and ideas are all tied to it, as is the idea of secret and/or forbidden knowledge that can only be imparted by representatives of a higher power. Basically, it represents the fundamentals of organized religion, while not necessarily having to be linked to any organized religion as a whole.

Neither Persona 3 nor 4’s Hierophant stories have anything to do with the card, really.  I mean, the legacy of a teacher who was Bunkichi and Mitsuko’s son is sort of related, if you really, reeeeeeaaaaalllllly stretch and see the tree as a representation of something divine, kind of?  But it’s definitely not accurate in any significant way.  And Persona 4’s Link, which is all about Dojima trying to come to terms with single parenthood and find an acceptable balance between professional and personal lives, is...just totally unrelated.

Persona 5’s story doesn’t really have much to do with the more religious, faith-centric part of the Arcana, but it DOES at least relate to The Hierophant a bit.  Sojiro’s tale is of a man coming to see the foolishness of the prevailing social belief that a child is automatically better off with a blood relative than an unrelated guardian who actually cares about her.  In coming to understand that his fatherly love for Futaba weighs far more than her abusive uncle’s biological connection, Sojiro finally gains the courage to stand up to the oppressive group-thought of his culture.  And within this story, Sojiro also comes to finally and fully realize that Ren is a good person, and that assuming otherwise because the kid’s on probation was wrong, which is again a case of Sojiro opposing the kind of collective stigma that falls under The Hierophant’s purview.

Verdict: Why weren’t these stories made for the Emperor Arcana, instead?  Every 1 of them has a theme of fatherhood.  I mean, okay, parenthood overall in Persona 3’s case, but still.

Anyway, Persona 5 may be more opposing the ideals and concepts of The Hierophant, but it IS still discussing an idea that’s a part of the actual Arcana, while Persona 3 and 4 are not, so I’ll give it the point.  This could be another easy win for Persona 6 someday, though.

Worth
Persona 3: The tale of an old couple still feeling the pain of losing their son to a car accident many years before, and their concern for the precious symbols of his life that he left behind, is a moving story that speaks to anyone who’s dealt with not just loss, but, in the years that follow it, the pain and worry that the world has started forgetting and discarding the memory of that person.  The ending to the Social Link, which involves Bunkichi and Mitsuko coming to realize that the legacy of education that their son left behind would be better realized by an expansion to the school than by simply letting his tree stand untouched, is an elegant and meaningful one--the message that valuing the intangible legacy of a person, the way they touched the lives around them, is more important than valuing the mere objects that represent them, is one I very much agree with.  Good stuff.
SCORE: 3

Persona 4: The story of Dojima struggling to balance his duties as a detective and a father while slowly coming to understand why he juggles them to begin with is compelling, and the character development it provides to Dojima, who is a significant part of the game's proper plot, is important and well-done. It’s great character development and a solid story overall.
SCORE: 3

Persona 5: I wish there’d been a little less lead-up to the good parts of this story, but overall, Sojiro’s story of coming to embrace fatherhood and reject the unjust collective mentality that would try to dictate his capacity and right to love his adopted daughter and son is another strong, well-written vignette that ends with feel-good sentiment all around.  As with Persona 4, it also provides good character development for an individual whose importance to the plot definitely warrants it.
SCORE: 3

Tiebreaker: While I really like all 3 of these Links, I think Persona 4’s just manages to edge the other ones out.


6. THE LOVERS
In SMTP3, The Lovers is represented by Yukari, a teammate and, for Makoto, love interest. In SMTP4, it's Rise, also a teammate and love interest.  In SMTP5, it’s Ann, likewise a teammate and love interest.

Meaning
The Lovers represents mental and emotional unity and harmony between two people. This can, but definitely does not have to, be represented through romantic love and sexuality. The ability to do great things together that could not be done alone, and become more fully complete people through complementing one another, is symbolized by this card. The Lovers also often implies difficult ethical dilemmas involving having to choose the best of two options which are both good.

As far as how the Social Links relate to this...well, Persona 3 gives us a small, somewhat unconvincing romance on Makoto’s side, so I guess it kind of portrays the Arcana in the most surface-level way of interpretation. I mean, there's romance, even if there really isn't any indication of that mental and emotional unity between Makoto and Yukari that the card is supposed to be all about. Unless you count the bit that Yukari mentions about them being similar due to lack of family life, but that's really only mentioned at the beginning, and it's neither significantly touched upon nor indicated to actually be true, so...doesn't count.

On Kotone’s side...eh. She and Yukari bond as friends to a certain degree, and I’d actually say their friendship is developed and portrayed in a better, more genuine way than Yukari and Makoto’s romance, but it’s nonetheless not really anywhere close to the sort of harmony and unity that The Lovers is meant to represent. Their friendship doesn’t seem particularly stronger or like it has more oneness than many of Kotone’s other friendships.

Rise's case is far more in tune with the Arcana's meaning. While there's the option (read: strong encouragement) of romance, the Social Link really lives up to its Tarot symbol in showing Rise finding emotional unity and understanding with her two personas (in the normal sense of the word, not the game sense). While I think The Lovers is meant to show separate individuals coming into a spiritual bond with one another, Rise's personal journey to accepting her pop star self as part of her whole instead of rejecting it blindly does constitute, to me, coming into an emotional harmony worthy of representing The Lovers.

Ann’s Social Link doesn’t really connect to the Arcana in any significant way that I can see.  There’s no more harmony and unity in Ann’s story than there is in almost any other given Social Link, and while Ann does have to make a choice eventually about what she wants to devote her energies to, I really wouldn’t call it a “difficult” choice, particularly since she ultimately decides to continue being a model, something she already IS.  There’s a romantic option with her, but frankly, it’s completely out of nowhere and feels extremely forced and tacked-on, so that doesn’t add up to a Lovers connection, either.

Verdict: No contest; Persona 4’s the only one that even qualifies.

Worth
Persona 3: This story works better without the romance subplot, so I’m judging by the platonic version.

Whether with Makoto or Kotone, whether friendship or romantic, Yukari’s Social Link is a pleasant but wholly unremarkable affair that doesn’t do or say much. Although a neat character in general, most of Yukari's better character development occurs during the game's plot proper, and not in her Social Link.  It’s not bad, but that’s about all you can say for it.  A shame, because I do like Yukari.
SCORE: 1 (I like Kotone’s version just a little more, but both earn the same grade)

Persona 4: This story works a little better with the romance subplot, so I’m judging by the romantic version.  Even though Rise is definitely not the right romantic option for Yu.

Unlike Yukari, Rise hasn't got too much character development in Persona 4's main story beyond her introduction, but her Social Link uses that introductory development as a foundation and builds from there, creating a tie to the game's central plot that benefits the Social Link. In addition, Rise's conflict and resolution over her past as a pop idol and coming to terms with all parts of who she is presents a fine plot for a Social Link. The love subplot is decent, too--Yu's helpful guidance and reassurance to Rise makes her falling for him seem far more realistic and emotionally satisfying than this series’s overall tendency to have love interests just sort of glide toward love for the protagonist.  Rise’s far from the best romance option for Yu, of course, but at least she’s a halfway decent one that feels appropriate to the Social Link’s story.
SCORE: 2

Persona 5: This story works better without the romance subplot, which frankly seems pretty spontaneous and disconnected from the Link’s events as a whole, so I’m judging by the platonic version.

I hate to do this, because I really like Ann.  But, like Yukari, while she’s a good character with both decent depth and a likable personality in the game’s plot as a whole, few of her best moments are to be found in her actual Social Link.  Frankly, the whole thing feels unfocused and directionless, and its destination is boring.  The Social Link tries to juggle Ann’s coming to realize that she doesn’t know what she feels passionate about, her connection to and admiration of Shiho as well as desire to support Shiho in her recovery, AND a subplot about finding a rivalry with an underhanded fellow model...by its end, the audience really has no idea why Ann randomly decided to make modeling the thing she’d devote herself to, Ren feels more like a witness than a participant in the whole thing, and frankly, nothing all that important seems to have been accomplished.  It’s a confused mess.

The 1 saving grace of this Social Link is the rooftop scene with Shiho, as she confronts the place and terrible moment in which she tried to take her life, and has a heartfelt talk with Ann.  Honestly, I don’t know why the writers didn’t just have this Link focus entirely on Ann’s part in Shiho’s recovery and their relationship, with Ren at Ann’s side to help her find the strength to stay at Shiho’s.  This rooftop scene would have been a great conclusion to such a story, it would have been far more focused and emotionally affecting, it’d have a greater connection to Ann’s overall character development, and it would even have better represented the Arcana by making Shiho’s recovery and coming to terms with what happened an act of both her own and Ann’s labors together to achieve something greater.  Instead, we get some barely cohesive collection of subplots that puts Ann and Shiho’s complicated and mutually inspiring relationship in the corner, only just barely managing to tie it to the rest of the Link.  What a disastrous waste of potential!
SCORE: 1, and it’s ONLY Shiho’s final scene with Ann that gets it that point.  I really would prefer to give it a 0, to be honest, but that scene deserves some serious credit.


7. THE CHARIOT
In SMTP3, The Chariot is represented by Kazushi, a classmate, for Makoto, and Rio, a classmate, for Kotone. In SMTP4, it's Chie, a teammate and love interest.  In SMTP5, it’s Ryuji, a teammate.

Meaning
The Chariot is meant to show discipline and drive to succeed. It represents taking one's emotions and, instead of simply ignoring them as The Emperor does, focusing them, harnessing them as power to drive one's efforts. To a degree, this also means that The Chariot is associated with things like conquest and victory--but only in the sense that those are the natural results of channeling your discipline, ambition, and emotions to a cause.

Persona 3's Social Link for The Chariot on Makoto’s side does work pretty well for the actual Arcana's meaning, though--Kazushi uses his emotions, his wish to inspire his cousin, to push himself toward greatness and victory for the majority of the Link, making it clear that he's honing his feelings to keep him going. It kind of loses points here in that Kazushi says in the ending that he was just fooling himself and that it was foolish pride rather than the noble emotions he had claimed inspired him, but overall, the connection's definitely there.

On Kotone’s side, I...guess it kind of works, since it’s only when Rio accepts and acts on her feelings of love for Kenji and friendship for her teammates that she becomes a better leader, so you could say that it’s her using and harnessing her emotions for a constructive purpose, except...well, I don’t think that’s accurate. With Rio, I’d say it’s more a case of her becoming a better player and leader because she accepts her emotional side without letting it become obstructive to her goals. But keeping one’s emotions from being a stumbling block isn’t the same as channeling them into your efforts, so I don’t think Rio’s a very accurate representation of The Chariot’s true meaning.

Chie in Persona 4, though, is a bit more true to the overall idea of The Chariot than either Persona 3 story, with her Social Link focusing from start to finish on directing her desire to protect others to activities and a lifestyle to help her achieve that emotional need. Since at the end she affirms her emotional drive further by planning her future around it, rather than denouncing it as Kazushi seems to, I’d say that Persona 4 trumps both Persona 3 stories for Meaning.

Ryuji’s Social Link story in Persona 5 is only sort of tangentially related to the idea of channeling his feelings into proactive action.  While there’s a bit of an angle of becoming more disciplined over himself here and there, the Link is mostly about self-respect, coming to terms with who he is and the fallout of the Kamoshida incident, and striking a balance as he moves forward between doing right by his past ties and not letting them hold him back.  It’s only barely related to the Arcana.  In fairness, though, Ryuji’s involvement with the Phantom Thieves is already kind of a great representation of the Chariot’s meaning, as he’s channeling his indignation against the unjust into his work, and has learned the discipline needed to pursue effective means to his team’s ends rather than just impulsively acting out as he once did with Kamoshida.  In a sense, Ryuji’s story of embodying the Chariot was already largely completed by the time this Social Link even started.

Verdict: This is a rather bizarre situation.  As a character overall, Ryuji best embodies the Arcana, absolutely and easily.  But he does so almost entirely outside the confines of the Social Link itself.  So...even though Ryuji is the best representation for The Chariot’s meaning on his own terms, I’m actually going to give the point to Persona 4, because what we’re primarily judging here is the content of the Social Link, not that of the rest of the game, and on those grounds, Chie’s story is the most grounded in the Arcana.

Worth
Persona 3: Rio’s journey of self has nothing especially wrong with it, but no part of it stands out or seems particularly interesting or wise, either.  Kazushi, on the other hand, represents a more solid story with better character development and a more interesting overall premise and message.  You do feel for the guy, and his conflict over his wish to inspire his nephew being at odds with what his body is capable of and his responsibility to the team as a whole is a decent one.
SCORE: 2 (Rio’s would have been 1)

Persona 4: This story works better without the romance subplot, which frankly seems pretty spontaneous and disconnected from the Link’s events as a whole, so I’m judging by the platonic version.

Chie’s story is okay, I guess, but it doesn't feel like there's really much going on in it--little about Chie changes, and the nature of the inner conflict she's overcoming is vague.  It’s also 1 of those Social Links in which the protagonist feels more like a witness than a participant in the story, which doesn’t make it any more compelling.  It’s fine, just no more than that.
SCORE: 1

Persona 5: Ryuji’s finding himself and a healthy perspective on his past, learning to assert himself, and discovering how to strike the right balance between friend, loner, pariah, and hero as he finds a way to help the former track team while not backtracking on the fact that he’s grown past that part of his life, is a good story that’s interesting and deftly managed.  It’s a good story of personal growth, and of friendship, and I like it.
SCORE: 3



Alright, that's it for now!  We'll continue to compare the Social Links next time.  See you then!












* Or “Confidants” as SMTP5 wants to call them, which I’m not indulging, because look Persona 5 I really like your commitment to your theme and I’m 100% with you most of the time but Social Links are goddamned Social Links so stop trying to be cute and just call them what they are.


** Although if you ask me, the first painting was way more awesome.  I know it’s about the idea, not the actual visual props the game uses for the paintings, but if we just go by face value of those props, the first one speaks to me with way, way more substance than the second.

Tales of Vesperia's Yuri's Vigilantism

You know...for all that Tales of Vesperia likes to spotlight it, for all it’s supposed to be a fundamental part of his character development and his adolescent edge appeal...Yuri being a vigilante doesn’t really seem to amount to all that much.  Really, his relationships, his personality, and his overall character arc wouldn’t change much without it--the whole premise of this protagonist is largely superfluous.

I mean, look at how things go when it’s finally discovered that he’s been killing bad guys on the sly.  Estelle finds out earlier than the rest of the party, but not early enough that it serves any purpose at all for her to--the extra day or 2 head-start she has on this plot twist doesn’t noticeably alter her dynamic with Yuri, nor does it have any tangible effect on her own character development.  And once Yuri’s dollar-store-Punisher shenanigans are discovered by the rest of the party...what comes of it, really?  There’s little reaction from any of them that amounts to more than someone making a Surprised Pikachu reaction post before moving on with their day.  Hell, discovering shortly thereafter that Judith is actually the one who’s been going around busting up ancient machine relics actually gets more of a reaction from the party than the knowledge that Yuri has been murderously taking the law into his own hands!*

Would’ve been a great opportunity to develop Karol, by the way.  A terrific chance to play into Karol’s role as guild leader, his issues of self-esteem, his uncertainty about what his guild is supposed to be...all of that could have been explored excellently here!  Having it revealed that his most valued and trusted guild member is a vigilante could have caused Karol to question whether or not he could allow Yuri to stay in his guild after this, and what the “justice” that his guild stands for really is (and whether there should be limits upon it; man, do I miss the fascinating perspective on Justice that Planescape: Torment’s Vhailor gave us on the concept).  It also would have been a great way to tie into Karol’s issues with self-esteem as he questions whether he’s qualified to lead a guild when his judgment of character may be deeply flawed, since he looks up to Yuri and many of his foundational ideas about the guild come from Yuri.  I mean, frankly, the revelation that the trusted protagonist has been murdering evil-doers in cold blood as a vigilante is the easiest, softest pitch that ToV’s writers could have given themselves for developing any of the rest of the party’s characters, but the fact that they managed to completely strike out on this matter with even Karol is an almost remarkable waste of potential.

I’ll at least grant you that Yuri being a vigilante does heavily figure into his relationship with Flynn, where it serves the purpose of creating the divide between them that makes them mirrors of one another.  And I’ll happily admit that Yuri and Flynn’s friendship, rivalry, and 1-subconsciously-roaming-hand-away-from-romance is actually pretty decently crafted, probably the best case of mutual character development and thematic chemistry that the game has.**  Honestly, a couple of Flynn and Yuri’s conversations are some of the rare moments of Tales of Vesperia that I genuinely liked.  But that’s a single cast member--and 1 who wasn’t even actually a party member in the original game!--among over half a dozen for whom Yuri being a vigilante has any effect whatsoever upon him.  Of them all, Flynn is the only one who ever seems to demand elaboration from Yuri about his actions and perspective, or challenge their legitimacy to any real degree!

Also, frankly, even Yuri himself doesn’t seem to get much mileage as a character out of being a vigilante!  I mean, really, where’s the storytelling payoff, here?  Do we ever get any real, tangible indication from Yuri of inner conflict, philosophical musing, emotional turmoil, slight remorse, anything?  Ohhhh, right, he sits and silently broods every now and then, wow, yeah, I guess I forgot that I never got past being fucking 12 years old so just sitting in a corner looking like someone’s Naruto OC is still really deep to me.  Yeah, sorry, but just brooding and never actually expressing himself doesn’t fucking cut it as character development.  Is he wracked with guilt over his homicidal actions?  Stewing in resentment at the imperfect justice of the world?  Trying to remember the lyrics to a song he used to like?  Wrestling with an urge to take his campaign of violent retribution even further?  Seething in hatred for that damned clothier who said non-buttoning shirts were gonna be the next big thing?  Just thinking really hard about crepes?  Yuri could be contemplating literally anything, we have no way of telling what!

You can’t just have a character silently mope and assume that it magically makes him some deep and interesting individual.  You have to prop it up with something.  Have your character show some emotion silently, a bowed head or looking with horror at his shaking hands or something.  Time the brooding so that it follows actions in a way that emphasize that the guy is reflecting on what’s happened in some meaningful fashion.  Something, for God’s sake!  

There’s never any significant outpouring of personal unrest from the guy.  No one around him demands anything emotionally of Yuri.  No troubled dreams to give us an insight into what’s really going on behind the carefully constructed wall of indifference, as there would later be with Tales of Berseria’s Velvet.  There’s certainly very little actual exploration into the intellectual side of the matter, the right and wrong of the matter of Yuri’s vigilante killings--it’s shocking to think that Tales of Vesperia came after Tales of the Abyss; they had a perfect blueprint of how to deal with issues like this with the personal story arc of Luke’s reticence to kill his opponents.

Yuri just gives his audience nothing.  He just withholds the entirety of his own character development from the rest of the world, and we’re never allowed any other means to see what’s going on in his damn head.

Hell, even on the really quite shockingly rare occasions that his companions actually insist on a discussion with him regarding the fact that he’s an unrepentant murderer, we’re still left in the dark about how he arrives at his conclusions and decisions on how he’ll act going forward.  An example: After the Don’s death, once they find Judith, Yuri talks about how the Don’s death taught him that when there’s a part that’s infected, you cut it off, doesn’t matter if it’s friend or family.

Uhh...how is that a conclusion he’s drawn from the Don’s death?  I guess maybe he’s referring to the fact that the near war between the guilds started from a mistake made by the Don’s grandson Harry, whose punishment for Belius’s death*** the Don takes unto himself?  But that was said to be an earnest mistake the kid made--dumb, but earnest; he was tricked by Yaeger.  It’s hardly applicable to Yuri going Chinese-knockoff-Robert-McCall on real, actual, intentionally malicious villains.  Also, if Yuri’s takeaway from the incident was that the Don should have eliminated his own grandson before the kid’s incompetence could cause a problem, that’s, uh, a bit concerning.

Or does this conclusion of Yuri’s come from the fact that the Don went to get rid of Yaeger before going to his death?  Makes more sense, but not to the degree that it’s actually sensible.  In this scenario, either Yuri’s deciding to follow the Don’s example in his vigilantism, which then doesn’t really connect to the Don’s death 1 way or another, or Yuri’s saying that the Don should’ve killed Yaeger long before the asshole had a chance to do something evil like this.  Which, uh, really sounds like Yuri’s advocating for a tyrannical dictatorship where the guy at the top has full dispensation to just execute any sap he deems a potential problem.  Well I’m sure Edelgard and Hubert are just thrilled that you approve, Yuri, but that’s generally not an attitude towards government that we like to see in heroes, bud.

Does Tales of Vesperia have a way to rebut this point?  Did I perhaps misunderstand Yuri’s statement entirely?  That’s fully possible!  But because no one in the game has the slightest interest in challenging the murderous vigilante in discussion at all, because nothing ever prods Yuri into doing anything more than scratching the very surface whenever he’s sharing any part of himself, we just have no way of knowing.  We never see how Yuri came to this conclusion, or any other.  If the game DOES have any better interpretations than my own, any more flattering way of looking at Yuri’s stupid adolescent-edgy point of view on the world, it sure as hell doesn’t feel like sharing them with us.

And even this tiny inadequate surface-scraping doesn’t really seem genuine.  It’s not like we ever see that he was particularly moved in any way by the Don’s death.  The most we got was a skit conversation where his companions said that it had affected him.  Certainly nothing about how Yuri acts nor anything he says to himself or Repede when alone, no dreams nor daydreams, no alteration of speaking manner nor tone, no penetrating emotions verbally nor facially expressed, give even the slightest indication that it’s weighing on him.  By that point in the game, I had long since become bored with ToV’s facile writing and uninteresting plot, and I think even I gave more of a damn about the Don’s death than Yuri ever demonstrates.

It’s just always inept, fumbling Tell, Don’t Show with Tales of Vesperia when it comes to its protagonist.  I am so sick of Yuri’s companions talking amongst themselves about how much Yuri suffers internally over the murders he commits.  Where are they getting this idea that Yuri even has a second thought about his actions, let alone feels genuine regret?  NOTHING HE SAYS OR DOES INDICATES THIS.  Stop projecting actual human feelings onto this easy-going psychopath, already!

Even the overall character arc and story beats could have been maintained without this whole vigilante thing.  The arm of the law is already reaching for Yuri long before he commits his first murder, because the necessary circumstances of the plot still involve his being arrested, escaping from jail, and “kidnapping” Estelle (at her request, but try telling THE MAN that, amirite).  He takes stands against injustices without having been duly deputized to do so, and he opposes those who are technically working within the scope of the law when they do something morally wrong.  Yuri is already and unavoidably a guy working outside the law to do the right thing, the Chaotic Good that mirrors Flynn’s Lawful Good.  So the juxtaposition upon which their (90% yaoi) relationship is based would still be entirely intact without the vigilantism, AND Tales of Vesperia’s overall (morally shaky) theme of taking justice into your own hands would have still existed in adequate capacity.

And the final fates of those that Yuri kills could have been very easily altered to still work within the game’s needs.  The first guy actually getting away with it would have been way better as a test of their conviction to doing the right thing when the villain may still walk away Scot free, AND still sealed in the message that working within the law has its limitations.  The Cumore situation requiring vigilante justice didn’t even make sense to begin with, so him being defeated, detained, and arrested when Flynn gets there would have been a way more sensible way of going about that--and it still could have easily reinforced the idea of the law’s limitation, since Cumore still only would have been stopped in time thanks to the unlawful heroics of Yuri’s team.  And since you immediately after get the scene of Judy’s revelation and flight, you still have a climactic moment where the party is confronted with the idea that 1 of them has been doing “wrong” things to accomplish a greater good all along, and give them all the opportunity to come to terms with that to develop their moral perspective accordingly.  I mean, the game largely squanders that opportunity, but it’d still be there, regardless.  You don’t even lose the ability for the rest of the party to be upset with Yuri, since he knew about Judy’s side hustle already, and so the (again, largely wasted) opportunity to have Yuri justify taking justice into one’s own hands is still there, just in the form of his defending his having condoned Judy’s doing so rather than his defending his own killing.

The game is already inextricably about doing good in spite of the law.  The events of the story are already independently in place and will occur almost exactly the same way, with very little adjustment.  Yuri’s vigilantism (inasmuch as it is separate from the actions of the party as a whole) does not actually impact the way the story of Tales of Vesperia happens.

So what’s the point, then?  If it doesn’t have any lasting impact on how the cast at large sees and interacts with him, and it doesn’t actually do much of anything for his character, and the story doesn’t require it to accomplish what it needs and wants to, then what purpose does Yuri being a murderous vigilante actually serve?  It’s not necessarily something I don’t want in the game, but if it doesn’t actually do anything, then all it is is just some self-indulging grandstanding by writers whose minds are still stuck in middle school and who have no idea of how to take advantage of the very opportunities that they’ve arranged for themselves.



















* This is terribly incompetent timing on the part of the writers, incidentally.  As the environmentalist version of a vigilante herself, her presence could potentially have allowed for a lot of characterization and exploration of Yuri’s vigilantism through the fact that she, unlike the rest of the party, has the capacity to identify with what he’s doing.  And that, in turn, could have led to more nuanced and fulfilling conversations with the others on the matter.  But that’s all just thrown out the window, because the plot demands that Judith run off on her own immediately after Yuri’s actions have been exposed, and by the time she returns, the moment for exploiting this potential has long since passed.

I mean, sure, Tales of Vesperia completely drops the ball on appropriately using the characters that DO stay in the party to any meaningful purpose as regards Yuri’s vigilantism, so there’s no reason whatsoever to assume that it would have done anything useful with Judy’s potential on this matter...but it’s still stupid to pace your plot out in a way that denies you opportunities for character development, even when you’d just squander those chances anyway.


** Although I’d argue that part of that is largely because Tales of Vesperia keeps dropping the ball when it comes to exploring Karol’s depth of character and potential, giving the kid a half-effort every time the writers work with him.


*** Also muddying the issue is the fact that Belius’s death is really mostly the fault of Estelle’s inability to hesitate for a single goddamn second before hurling healing spells at anyone who’s so much as nicked themselves while shaving.  That battle wasn’t really going particularly badly before Estelle went and drove Belius berserk.  Belius’s death is more the fault of the bad, dumb luck of a bad, dumb princess than anything Yaeger could have planned; really, she was just 1 accidentally stubbed toe in Estelle’s presence away from it, anyway.

Pokemon Generation 9's Add-Ons

I genuinely have no idea what I feel right now.  Normally I’m pessimistic going into a game’s downloadable content, particularly for a Nintendo venture, but my last foray into a Nintendo RPG’s DLC suite was actually pretty positive.  So maybe I should be optimistic!  On the other hand, the add-ons for the last Pokemon game were predictably bad, and that was both more recent and for the same series, so likely there’s more call for pessimism.  Then again, bad though they were, Generation 8 was such irredeemable, lazy trash as a whole that its merely regular-bad DLCs were nonetheless its best quality!

Meh, I guess the answer is to stop waffling and just get started already.  Here we go!



The Teal Mask: This little adventure sees the protagonist go on an extended field trip to a new area in the countryside, and partake in a quest to exonerate a Pokemon that’s been wrongly vilified by the nearby village for ages.  It’s a mixed bag, but pleasant overall.  On the upside, the primary new characters involved are decent (Carmine is, in fact, strangely very likable to me), and the overall plot has a pleasant feeling of authenticity to its theme of local legends, traditions, and festivals; it seems like the kind of story that could have been an arc in Okami.  I also find it interesting that an element of the backstory to this DLC’s town is that a friendly and well-meaning stranger and his Pokemon were chased out of town for the fact that they looked different, while a trio of thieving, violent charlatans who looked more “normal” were embraced by the community and even eventually venerated as heroes--this year I’ve played Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 5 and watched I’m in Love with the Villainess, and I’m starting to get the distinct impression that the creatives of Japan are rapidly losing their patience and abandoning light touches and analogies in favor of direct, outright criticisms of the problems of their society.

Most of all, I approve of making a story that involves its lead Pokemon as a major participant, an actual character, rather than just a non-entity that amounts to no more than a prize.  This trend of valuing the occasional Pokemon as an actor in the drama that Generation 7 began with Nebbie, Generation 8 very lightly continued in its DLCs with Kubfu and Calyrex, and Generation 9 incorporated with Koraidon and Miraidon, is probably at its best here with Ogerpon.  She actually does have a bit of a personality, and a character arc, and I approve of each tiny little step Nintendo takes (even if unintentional) towards an eventuality where Pokemon games actually value and are about Pokemon, as entities.  As an individual that you actually assist, who’s shown to have her own feelings and opinions, and, hugely, one who gets to actually choose to become the protagonist’s partner out of her own goddamn free will, Ogerpon’s a great possible step forward for the franchise in terms of its narrative potential.  Doubtless it won’t come to anything for a long while, if ever--I’m done with my previous naive optimism about that--but it’s still good to see.  Oh, and the fight against Ogerpon to prove that you’re worthy of her is actually pretty cool, even epic.

But there are downsides to The Teal Mask, too.  While plenty of older Pokemon are added to Generation 9 through this DLC, there are very few outright new Pokemon to be found, and most of them are pretty dumb.  I can’t believe that the fucking apple pie Pokemon is no longer the dumbest version of its evolutionary family, and a matcha tea Pokemon?  Really?  Actually fucking really?  Nintendo really looked at their keyring Pokemon and said to itself, “I know I can never recapture the magic of Garbodor, but I think I can still do worse than this”?  And, related, the villains of this piece are pretty lame, too, which lessens the story of Ogerpon’s vindication a bit.

I also will say that the way this add-on’s story concludes is, on a certain level, dissatisfying.  To me, it feels wrong that Ogerpon chooses to go gallivanting off with Juliana/Florian.  Sure, she/he has helped Ogerpon defeat the Loyal 3 and clear her name, and been a friend to the Pokemon after presumably centuries of loneliness.  But Kieran also assisted and was only not involved from the start because his sister made the dumbass decision not to tell him about what was going on, and whereas Juliana/Florian just blew into town earlier this week, Kieran has spent his whole life feeling instinctive sympathy for the maligned Ogerpon, and trying to find and befriend her.  It feels like Juliana/Florian just inserted her/himself into someone else’s heartwarming Pokemon story, and yoinked the happy ending to it for her/his own.  I understand that this ending is needed to set up Kieran’s going all Vegeta on us* in the next DLC, and I even actually respect some of the intent behind that, but it still feels like an unfair and out-of-place turn of events.

Still, as a whole, I actually like this add-on well enough.  I’m not going to judge whether or not it’s worth buying just yet, though, because all of Pokemon Generation 9’s add-ons are sold together rather than separately, so we’ll hold off on figuring that out until the end.  Still, there’s reason for at least a little optimism!


The Indigo Disk: This DLC package is a continuation of the story of The Teal Mask, in which the protagonist gets involved in an exchange program with another academy, notably the one that Carmine and Kieran attend.  And I have to say, I’m impressed with the amount of content to be found.  There’s a lot to The Indigo Disk!

You start off with a storyline where you find out that since losing his match to Juliana/Florian and watching Ogerpon choose her/him over Kieran, the kid’s adopted a try-hard anime tough-guy attitude, and made his school’s Pokemon training club a no-fun zone.  It’s the protagonist’s job to battle her/his way up the ranks to challenge and defeat Kieran in order to knock some sense into him and restore his club to being about the fun kind of competition, which...well, it’s not exactly an interesting premise, but on the other hand, “beat some trainers, beat the champion, be the best” is the boring default of Pokemon narratives anyway, so just the fact that The Indigo Disk bothered to create a reason for becoming the academy Champion beyond “Because it’s there!” or “Because it’ll shut Nemona up!” is at least a step in the right direction.

Besides, I happen to very much like the idea of Kieran, a regular guy, being pushed over the edge because he can recognize the gross, cosmic unfairness of Protagonist Privilege.  It’s not just Ogerpon--Juliana/Florian gets the best Pokemon, she/he gets to travel as she/he pleases, everyone seems to like her off the bat or becomes her friend through, let’s face it, very little real effort...meanwhile, Kieran’s stuck as an introverted kid limited by reality in what he can achieve, forced to give up on a Pokemon he had a legitimate emotional claim to for no apparent reason beyond the fact that it’s a 1-of-a-kind and thus HAS to belong to the player.  I like it when games force us to look at our player privilege and confront that our demands of wish-fulfillment from games might in fact be an unhealthy, destructive kind of mindset and behavior.  It’s not Undertale or Doki Doki Literature Club or Nier: Automata, but this story of Kieran’s frustration still clearly touches upon this notion of looking at ourselves as players and asking critical questions.

Unfortunately, the resolution to this is basically just Kieran seeing the danger his fixation caused, and giving up on beating Juliana and asserting himself over the Player Character.  Turning away from obsession is a good thing, of course, but at the same time, it feels like Nintendo was approaching a thoughtful discourse but chickened out before anything could be meaningfully explored--not an unknown phenomenon when it comes to Pokemon.  A more brave and passionate creator would have done interesting things with this scenario, but Nintendo clings to Pokemon’s status quo the way Bethesda clings to its Creation engine--unreasonably and to the expense of its own creations.

Still, both parts of The Indigo Disk’s story are okay enough, and there’s a LOT that comes with them.  The first part necessitates traveling through a large, multi-biome conservatory as big as any given zone of the main game, to challenge a new stable of Elite 4 in both minigames and actual battle, which is a sizable endeavor.  The new Elite 4 also have a little personality to them,** too, which frankly I thought was really lacking in the Gym Leaders of Generation 9’s main game.  Combine that with the second part of the DLC being an exploration of a sizable cave below Area 0, and you have an add-on with a pretty wide scope overall.

The new Pokemon are mostly pretty cool (and Terapogos is adorable).  A new sidequest is added where you help Team Star with some tutoring...it’s a pretty decent little side thing that helps better expand and cement their personalities and team dynamic, which is a positive gesture since they really didn’t get as much characterization in the main quest as they probably should have.  And there’s a ton of new cosmetics and emotes, if you actually care about that.  Sadly, most of the ones you can get at auction are stupid, but at least you can be Cyclops now.

Finally, there’s also, when you’ve finished the main story, a secret post-story scene you can find at the Crystal Lake from The Teal Mask involving the game’s professor.  It somehow feels very meaningful and significant, even though Sada is, really, merely a long-gone villainous legacy.  The fact that a scene with her can make such a poignant and positive impression is interesting, really.  Regardless, it’s a nice experience.

So yeah, there’s a LOT of content in The Indigo Disk.  I’m genuinely, pleasantly surprised by how much there is to do in it; this add-on is really more like an expansion than a typical downloadable content.  And it even has some deft touches of flavor and creative care here and there along the way--I really like the fact that if you bring Ogerpon out when battling Carmine, she’ll recognize it and comment on it, and that if you use Ogerpon during the battle with Kieran, he’ll likewise see her and react with strong hurt and anger.  Pokemon REALLY needs to incorporate little personal touches like this in its major battles more often; it added such great, raw drama to the battle!

With a lot of content, a reasonably okay story for Kieran (even if it did disappoint by not living up to what it could have been), a few cool new Pokemon, and some laudable care put into its method, I think it’s safe to conclude that The Indigo Disk is actually a pretty good DLC, too.  I think I liked The Teal Mask a little more simply because I think Ogerpon’s story is a bit better, but things are still looking optimistic.


Mochi Mayhem: This is so fucking dumb.  Like...holy shit, this is so.  Fucking.  DUMB.

Okay, so this DLC is a mini-adventure that takes place as an epilogue to The Teal Mask and The Indigo Disk.  In this add-on, Juliana/Florian’s friends from the main story of Generation 9 (Nemona, Arven, and Penny) come along with Juliana/Florian to meet up with her/his friends from the DLC story (Carmine and Kieran) and hang out.  And that’s actually a pretty good concept for a little finale episode to Generation 9!  Because the protagonist’s connections to both friend groups formed the backbone for each of Generation 9’s major stories--Juliana’s story has been that of forming friendships and both helping and being helped by those friends.  It feels very right to bring the 2 groups together and to have that be the ending note of this game.

But then once that’s going on, this thing happens where people are eating purple mochi that turn them into a Pokemon’s mind-controlled zombies who do...who...who do the...the funky chicken dance as they shout “Mochi Mochi” and try to battle you.  As the rest of Juliana/Florian’s friends are controlled, it’s up to her/him and Kieran to defeat the Pokemon causing it.

This is a fetish thing, isn’t it?  That’s the only explanation I can really think of.  Someone on the Generation 9 team has a weird kink for mind-controlled girls doing weird little dances, and the rest of the writers finally let them have a turn at the script to shut them up.  There’s just no way something this fucking dumb and bizarrely out there came about from anything other than some deeply buried tag on Archive of Our Own.  I’d stake half of my entire readership on it.***

That said, even if it’s dumb as hell, I suppose it’s harmlessly silly-dumb, and thus, I guess, not really bad, per say.  But it does kind of suck that something this weak is the last impression of the game you’re left with.  Also a little annoying that, as the first one affected, there’s basically no Carmine in this DLC; she already had to take a decidedly backseat role in The Indigo Disk to Kieran’s story, so it would have been much better to have switched her and Kieran’s role in this so that she’s the one helping Juliana/Florian through to the end and Kieran’s Patient 0, balance things out a bit.  But eh, whatever.  This thing’s barely worth the time it takes to play it.


Purchase or Purse-Pass?  So here’s the thing.  Is The Teal Mask pretty good?  Yeah.  Is The Indigo Disk also pretty good?  Yes.  Is Mochi Mayhem at least not a net negative?  Ehhhhh, I guess.  But are they good overall and going to provide you with 35 hours of gameplay?

No.

And that’s the problem.  All in all, the combined content of Pokemon Generation 9’s add-ons is probably gonna give you between 20 and 25 hours of gameplay.  Which is a TON!  This absolutely should be viewed as an expansion and no less.  But the combined cost is a staggering $35.  Over half the cost of the actual game!  And I’m just not ready to abandon the metric of $1 = 1 hour of content for DLCs.  That day is coming, but it’s not here, and even when it gets here, it’ll still probably have a hard time justifying this particular purchase.

Still, this expansion package IS good as a whole, and I genuinely like a lot of it, so I can at least say that when it’s on sale or its price has dropped to $25 or lower, then it’ll be worth the price.



Well, even if I can’t recommend it as of this moment, the quality of Pokemon Generation 9’s add-ons is generally positive, and that by itself is a pretty unusual occurrence when it comes to DLC, so all said, I’m pretty pleased with this state of affairs.  I’ve no doubt that the good mood that Fire Emblem 15’s DLC put me in won’t last for much longer, but it’s certainly nice that it’s managed to prolong for more than a single game.  Who knows, maybe we’ll even be able to start a streak of good add-on experiences!











* I don’t get it when Pokemon trainers start talking about becoming stronger.  With the exception of Bea, who is actually fucking hardcore...they’re not.  Their strength has absolutely nothing to do with Pokemon battling; it’s the damn Pokemon who do everything and whose strength is tested.  The most personal strength you contribute to any given Pokemon match is simply having the physical capacity to lightly toss a ball onto the ground a few feet away, asshole, so take your scrawny little kid physique over to the corner, shut the fuck up, and stop trying to take credit for the ones actually putting in the work.


** Crispin’s kind of an idiot, though.  These are 2 actual quotes by the man:

“I love battles and I love cooking ‘cause they’re both so easy to understand!  In battles, you either win or lose!  With cooking, your dish is either spicy or not spicy!”  
“I’ve got no clue how to manage the temperature of anything besides what I’m cooking.”

Crispin, your entire existence is defined by 2 things: being a Fire Type trainer, and having a frying pan.  And you have basically just told us that you should never, ever be allowed near either.


*** You hear that, Ecclesiastes?  We’re slicing you right down the middle if I turn out to be wrong.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 5's Social Links' Rank 11

Under normal circumstances, Social Links in the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona franchise are a series of 10 scenes long.  Among the many features and quirks of the post-game adventure added for the rerelease of Persona 5, however, is the opportunity to have a new, eleventh rank with the game’s party members, provided that the player has fully maxed out the Social Link prior to the end of the game’s main adventure.  Social Links tend to be my favorite parts of a Persona, and I’m quite fond of most of SMTP5’s main cast, so this was certainly 1 of the parts of the post-game adventure which I most anticipated.  But unfortunately, they’re by and large disappointing, and are the most tacked-on feeling part of the rerelease’s new content.

Here’s the first main problem: these eleventh rank scenes are almost* completely uniform across the cast.  Every party member during the game underwent his or her own individually-tailored side story of personal growth for each one’s Social Link, and these vignettes within the larger tale served well as a way of further characterizing the game’s cast beyond just their role in the events of the main plot.  The Social Link for Haru, in which she works to find her place and future in her company and learns how to believe in her goal of sharing the bounties of the world with others, is completely different from the Social Link for, say, Futaba, whose story is focused on her overcoming her social anxiety, and through doing so making peace with her mother’s passing.  From Yusuke sorting himself out through his art to Ryuji finding a way to positively conclude and move forward from his history with the track team to the jumbled, directionless mess that is Ann’s Social Link, each major character’s subplot is distinctly true to them, and would very obviously fit none of the others.

And yet with the necessary exceptions of Yoshizawa and that asshat Akechi, the eleventh Social Link scene for the rest of Ren’s friends is in all significant ways the same across the board!  Each time, the companion invites Ren to her/his room, saying that she/he needs to talk seriously with him.  Once there, the important, heartfelt discussion is basically a sincere, fervent apology that the party member allowed her/himself to be caught in Maruki’s illusion, and a solemn oath to never leave Ren hanging like that again.  At this point, the friend awakens to her/his third and final Persona form, you either giggle or roll your eyes at how immensely dumb/silly/underwhelming said Persona looks, and they part ways.  

It’s really disappointing, honestly.  While each companion may reference previous moments of her/his Social Link and the way Ren was there for her/him, this final, extra scene clearly has no real connection to the events that preceded it.  This scene doesn’t feel like a new iteration of this person’s story, it feels like a fucking form letter, and that’s precisely how the writers use it!

And in addition to how impersonal and lazy this sence-repeated apology is, it’s also honestly really freaking dumb.  All of Ren’s friends are like, “I am so, SO sorry I wasn't there for you my bra!  That was my B, totes won’t happen again.  Seriously, I am more personally ashamed of myself than I have ever been before at the way that I BETRAYED you like that, dawg!”  Like, somehow, feeling guilty over this supposed offense they’ve committed against Ren is a more powerful and life-changing event than the entirety of their shared 10-part Social Link story that preceded this moment.  The clouds having parted for Makoto and revealed what she wants to do with her life, how she will honor her father’s memory and integrity and do right by herself and those she cares about, was apparently a less important part of her life in Rank 10 than her pledging to have Ren’s back next time in Rank 11.  Yusuke coming to understand the complexity of the human heart and discovering his purpose as an artist was somehow less of a milestone within his psyche than his decision to say “I got you my G.”  If you’re gonna have a scene that unleashes a new, greater cognitive will within a character as their heart and mind reach a new level of clarity, it had goddamn better be based on more than a copy-pasted apology!

A copy-pasted apology over nothing, I might add.  Let us not forget the foundation for this massive self-recrimination: when a guy came and asked these kids whether they thought their lives could be better, they said yes.  With the guilt they’re carrying around and the gravity of their apologies, you’d think the Phantom Thieves had all taken part in an Ides-of-March stabbing spree against Ren or something.  Guys, for 3 of you, the transgression you’re agonizing over was Maruki passing you a note that read “Would you like your parents to be alive again?” with a spot underneath for you to check Yes or No.  Like, Jesus, Ann, you’re apologizing and asking forgiveness because when asked, you agreed that yes, it would be pretty cool if the person you love most in the world hadn’t been in such suffering that she’d tried to end her life!  I think the fact that Yusuke’s wish that his father figure hadn’t turned out to be a plagiarizing manipulating dirtbag leading to art-boy briefly detaching from Ren’s combat party for a week or 2 deserves, at most, a “Whoopsy, sorry I got tricked. No worries, I’m up to speed now.”

It’s not even like it was a conscious decision they made!  Maruki just dropped everyone into this happier reality sans preamble or explanation, and at least some level of hypnotic influence was involved in the matter!  Futaba’s over here consumed with shame for supposedly betraying Ren just because when she woke up to a world where her mother hadn’t been killed before her eyes, with an actual layer of mind control telling her that this was normal reality, she didn’t immediately recoil in disgust and holler, “NO WAY JOSE, I PREFER MY MOM DEAD THANK YOU VERY MUCH!”  Like, you can, with some time and thought, reason your way to understanding that Maruki’s seemingly perfect reality of escapism isn’t the right answer to one’s problems no matter how well-meaning, but without some introspection on the matter to figure out what’s wrong with it, accepting the gift of having the worst moments of your life erased is a pretty natural knee-jerk reaction, certainly nothing to beat yourself up over!

What instigated this angst, anyway?  It’s not like Ren’s been particularly hurt or inconvenienced by it.  They still came riding to his rescue when he needed them most.  It’s not like he’s been taking his friends to task over this matter; all of Ren’s dialogue options when reminding his allies that this reality isn’t right were pretty neutral, as is typical of the guy, or even slightly apologetic for having to drag them away from a happier existence.  Ren hasn’t been acting upset about his friends being initially misled by Maruki.  And frankly, if the guy HAD been getting salty about Ryuji getting to return to his dreams of success and acceptance as a track star, or Haru being able to see what life would have been like if her father had actually loved her, then he would’ve been overreacting and being a shitty friend.  Even if it’s for their own good, it’s Ren’s friends who are giving up something major in their lives to come back and fight at his side again, so I don’t know why they’re all apologizing like HE’S the injured party here!

There was a better way to do this.  I mean, okay, several better ways, the best of which being not to have a 1-size-fits-all scene slapped onto 7 highly different people and instead just have each character’s Rank 11 actually BE a continuation of their Social Link, a new and significant conclusion that actually warrants an awakening to their final and ultimate Persona.  But if Atlus was going to insist on running the final Social Link installments through a mimeograph, there was still a way to make it a less downright silly, illogical matter.  Instead of having Ren’s friends prostrating themselves in anguished repentance before him over nothing, how about instead, the eleventh Social Rank scene is Ren apologizing to them for the fact that he’s made them choose between a painless reality, and his own ideals of facing the world as it is and overcoming adversity rather than fleeing from it.

Think about how much better and more sensible this is.  THEY are the ones who have given something up, even if, again, it IS for the best in the long run, in order to support Ren.  Ren is the one who spurred them to face this question of which reality is right.  And it was for Ren’s sake that they first bucked Maruki’s influence.  Rather than them feeling like they’ve wronged him, Ren is the one who more naturally should feel the need to apologize to them, even if he is, indeed, in the right of the matter.  And from there, you can have Ren’s friend reassure Ren that he doesn’t need to apologize, because the friend now understands why they have to stand against Maruki and that giving up that painless reality was for the better.  Finally, the friend reaffirms that they’re with Ren all the way, acknowledging that the friendship he and they share is so great that nothing can keep them from being there for each other for long.  With this new understanding of just how deep their bonds of friendship (and/or romance) go, the friend’s third and greatest Persona awakens, and they and Ren part ways, more sure than ever of their commitment to and support for one another.  It’s no literary masterwork, to be sure, but it’s still an easy scenario that I just concocted off the top of my head that would work far better logically and emotionally than the nonsense we got!

Honestly, I have very few significant complaints about Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 5, be it the game’s main story or the added postgame adventure.  It’s an excellent title in nearly every capacity.  But if I had to name Persona 5’s most glaring fault, it would be...well, okay, it would be the fact that it tries to pretend that Akechi is anything more than a shallow, irredeemable asswipe.  But the second fault would be...well, alright, that would probably be the fact that it didn’t know when to quit in its main story and the whole Holy Grail thing was a way, way less appropriate, compelling, and satisfying main villain than Shido would have been.  But look, the eleventh Social Link situation is at least still way up there when it comes to SMTP5’s few real shortcomings.  It’s a weak and disinterested approach to each main character’s last spotlight moment in the game as it reduces them all to a single format, it’s emotionally inconsistent as it cheapens previous emotional breakthroughs by attaching their greatest awakenings to such a mediocre and routine interaction, and the context makes the content of these scenes irrational, even silly.  The eleventh Social Link ranks in SMT Persona 5 were handled poorly, plain and simple.












* Yoshizawa and Akechi do, at least, get eleventh rank scenes that are somewhat more tailored to their actual Social Link stories.  Although Yoshizawa's’s is only so-so, and Akechi’s is on-brand for Akechi, as in it’s mostly just him being a douchebag as Ren pretends that there’s some hidden significance to it.