(The following is based a save file of 62 hours and 52 minutes, up to December, twenty-first, 2009, in game date. A early virtual Me-ri-Ku-ri, which is short for “Merry Christmas” in Japanese, to all.)

As someone who is very interested in Greek Mythology, I shamefully didn’t know about Nyx until 2020’s Hades. Dubbed “Night Incarnate” in the game, she was the second friendly NPC I encountered only after the more famous Achilles. Hypnos would be there to laugh at the game’s player character. The titular final boss might not be on his chair if someone is good enough to face him during the first run. Orpheus the bloody bard was useless that early into the game. Only Nyx, who raised the son of Hades and Persephone, would offer the game’s player character a “Be careful out there” before another run. As I am near Persona 3 Reload’s endgame, I am increasingly convinced that people at Supergiant took a look at how Nyx and Persephone being positioned as final bosses in PS2’s Persona 3 and PSP’s God of War: Chain of Olympus respectively, and turned the closer to myth version of those deities into the friendliest NPC probably: the player character’s loving mothers.

Persona 3’s Nyx, spelled in Japanese as “nyu-ku-su”, is still a motherly figure or “maternal being” as “haha-na-ru-sun-zai” was oh poetically translated into English. They, since one cannot assign gender to darkness, just give birth to the Shadows one gets to fight in the game. They will come back and end all according to NPC Ryuji or Death (“de-su” with katakana in Japanese) as he announced the endgame in a cold December night, 2009. But I am getting ahead of myself for there is a truly eventful autumn before all the grim and doom.

The three “Anakin Skywalkers”

“Shinji, get into the fucking robot!” is a joke people tell regarding Neon Gensis Evangelion. Funny enough, this line is practically in Persona 3 when Akihiro asks Shinjiro, a mutual friend of his and Mitsuru’s plus S.E.E.S burnout, to come back to dorm and fight again. Where is “the fucking robot” in Persona 3, you ask? Why, the titular Personas of course. The Personas in Persona 3 animated movies behave more in line with human shaped war machines in mechs show than the JoJo stands that inspired them. Not to mention how everyone’s get upgrade respectively at certain plot points. Well, they are not called armor for one’s soul for nothing.

Anyway, Shinjiro just looks so like Hayden Christensen in the opening to yours truly that he can be considered as the Anakin Skywalker look like. When he came into the fray in early September, I thought “Get out of here, Mitsuru’s dad. Now this is the coolest motherfucker in the game.” “Cool motherfucker” is just my vulgar way to describe one of Atlus’s narrative strength: idealized masculinity. Shinjiro has the thug look and kind nature. Yukari saw that when Shinjiro saved her along with her Junior peers from bullies. When Akihiro said that someone used to cook a lot in the dorm, I thought “That got to that manly looking (Given the game’s two human shit heels, Takaya and Ikutsuki are both men with long hair, I don’t think artists of this game would put long hair against masculinity.) one wandering that town.”

Though it’s not to say that masculinity here is completely without toxic. Shinjiro’s video in the war room shows him shaming away from the fact that he studied cooking when 2 girls came into the dorm by pretending to sleep. Koromaru the dog, Aigis the robot and Fukka (Or one can assume that he is trying not to embarrass her too much. Reason will be discussed under.) my player character’s girlfriend are also in the footage. The dog barked that he was not asleep and the robot translated that into Japanese. The player character then still future had to push the robot away so the man can resume his study of cooking. The dog expressed his apology when the ladies left and here came the non-toxic cool bit of masculinity: Shinjiro said that it’s not the dog’s fault and offered to cook for the hound.

This anime Hayden Christensen and Ken, the anime Jake Loyd are connected in the narrative as the latter became an orphan due to the death of his mother caused by the former lost control of his Persona. Little Kenny pretty much aimed to have his revenge against Shinjiro with his newly found Persona power while Shinjiro was actually not long for this word due to the Persona damaging him from the inside. While I did buy into this tragic melodrama, but I am rather aware that this is pretty typical anime bullshit. Nothing is more effective than cliché when one can invest in the characters involved.

Shinjiro is only with the party for a month, between the full moon days of September and October. During this short period of time, the player character can engage in the back and forth regarding whether Shinjiro goes back to school or not. During the quest line, Mitsuru would open up about the origin of S.E.E.S, how her, Akihiko and Shinjiro started out in their Junior High years. This feels like the previous generation story typical in action comics for boys this game took inspiration from. What feels odd here is that “previous generation” members are only one year senior to the player character and they were younger in the flashback.

Shinjiro would die protecting the boy he orphaned from the gunfire of enemy Persona user Takaya in October. Of course, Ken didn’t lack courage in this situation. The enemy wanted to find and kill S.E.E.S’ navigator and Ken pretended that he was instead of spilling the bean. The main cast of this game is shown as a bunch of heroic cops so I guess it’s fair that the youngest among them would not hesitate to sacrifice himself. My player character certainly owns the kid one since he would go on to date said navigator in November.

That’s 2 Anakin Skywalker look like out, how about the third you ask? Well, first a brief history regarding yours truly and the brand “A Hideo Kojima Game”. I dived head first into Metal Gear Solid about one year after I saw Revenge of the Sith, starting with the worst one possible to be introduction, Sons of Liberty. I would not say why I think it’s so overrated here. Anyway, I went through the series up to 2015’s Phantom Pain, realized that spy commandoes code named Snake and the dory men named Emmerich can be seen as the 2 sides of Kojima becoming 2 separate characters. Combined that with Star War prequel in my subconscious, my mind can sometimes doubt cast Hayden Christensen as a Snake like killer and an Emmerich like dork.

Ikutsuki in Persona 3 is an Emmerich like dork but turns out he is a Huey rather than Hal. Under all those dorky puns is a man who sold the world. Up to November, the game’s rouge galley is composed of 12 giant Shadows, though Strega would seem to be destroyed under the November full moon as well. Ikutsuki told everyone that the research of Yukari’s father’s shows that killing all 12 would end Dark Hour and the Shadow threat (False final battle is a mainstay of Persona I guess. Though the Fool Arcana Social Link being at 6 should be a dead giveaway).

But in fact, killing all 12 is to turn on the doomsday machine. Ikutsuki took control of Aigis and captured all S.E.E.S members to sacrifice his new master (The image of those kid crucified is uncanny to this Ultraman episode. In Persona 5, when Codename Jack releases a Phantom Thief from a prison, the suit up sound effect sound a bit like Ultraman appearing. Perona games have it fake Power Ranger, implying there is Toku show focusing on bikes like Kaimen Rider. Then there are Ultraman homage in all are lost scene.). Mitsuru’s father sold his life dearly to save them and kill the shit heel, led to her long absence in November and eventually dateable status. Aigis overridden due to their priority to save the player character. Everyone just lost their purpose, the future is bleak.

The myth of one Kaoru Nagisa

With this being my fourth Atlus game, I think my brain is adjust to their style enough to regard the lack of female player avatar in their games as a good thing. Would you trust them to handle a lass codenamed Joker or Harlequin in Perona 5 well? She would be probably a victim of Shishido’s sexual misconduct and that’s a can of worm none of us would like to open. As for Persona 3, its demake dubbed Portable does have a female player avatar and she is received very well. Though given the triple casting with the male player avatar, it’s not hard to argue why Atlus consider the game with only him as definitive.

Akira Ishida had been in the game of voice acting long enough that he inspired some usual suspects nowadays to get such jobs, Yoshikatsu “Japanese Nolan North to yours truly” Matsuoka included. One surprise hit in Mr. Ishida’s career is Kaoru Nagisa in the final real tv episode of Neon Gensis Evangelion. Kaoru and Shinji were basically acting out the fabricating with the enemy doomed romance arcs (Well, this bloody game got one for party member Junpei and of course the girl who was an enemy died.) that Mobile Suit Gundam started in 1980, with the queer twist of course. While Hideaki Anno and crew retold the story in movie form, they devoted one whole feature length thing just to please fans.

Persona 3 on PS2 were sold in Japanese on its star-studded voice cast. With the player character speak so little, I do suspect the triple casting was to asssure consumers that Ishida would whisper sweet nothing to them in the game by hook or crook. In fact, Ishida’s first line in the game was out of the player character, but mysterious little boy in prisoner stripes named Pharos. This ghostly kid would appear one week before full moon to remind us that shit is about to go down and he would stop after all 12 giant Shadows slain. Then a dashing highschooler with the same mole as Pharos named Ryoji would appear in November. He would accompany the gang on a journey to Kyoto, a week of work rather than study and played a tune for player character before disappeared into thin air. All girl liked him but Aigis hated hits guts.

Ryoji turns out to be Death, who would appear after his 12 brethren Shadows were dead. He has a child-like curiosity regarding the world he is born to kill and enough pity to spill out everything for our heroes. Which led to the things I opened this chapter with. “God killing endgame” is not new in JRPG, though I guess the “The throne of Supreme Being is empty, now every Tom, Dick and Harry who consider themselves divine are having a go” bullshit is limited to Persona 5 Tactica. Nyx does not have their finger on a big red Reset button, they are summoned by one. Ryoji offered the heroes a choice, kill him on December, thirty-first so they can face the end without pain or face the end with painful foreknowledge. I say it’s a false choice for the former does not lead to the final boss and I am determined to see credits roll only after I beat the final boss. With the release added to the game’s page, I am ready to writhe a product review as the final chapter. But before that, allow me to end this one on a slightly lighter tune.

Blue over pink and red

Many still see Persona games as half dating sims. So how can my player character not have a girlfriend. I missed the better side of Ryuji in Persona 5 due to my skirt chasing there. I counted 6 Romance options, including one in the faculty that I would not touch with a ten-foot pole. The Jocky and the Booky both have nice designs, but as someone always dates party members in Mass Effect games, I was just building up my character for ladies I locked shield with.

All 3 dateable party members would not open the Social Link until after the player character maxed out a quality in the Social Stats: Courage, Charm or Intelligence (No I would not use that A word). Courage for Fukka with blue hair and blue shirt, since it’s about trying out her terrible cooking (Yep, I guess once think that the late Shinji is considerate towards her when he pretended not learning cooking.). Charm for Yukari in Pink. Intelligence for the fiery redhead Mitsuru since she can be quite the sugar mummy when the player character does well in tests, giving him resource for dungeon raiding I mean.

Courage was the first quality I maxed out during summer vacation which is fitting for this whole mid-night warrior thing. So, I dived into Fukka’s Priestess Social Link immediately in early September. Maybe it’s the white pantyhose plus mini-skirt design or the ghostly soft talk, when her Social Link reached 9 on November, thirteenth, Friday, (53 hours and 57 minutes into the game.) I selected yes to her advancement. Mamiko Noto, the voice behind Fukka was regarded by a corner of the internet as perfect dubbing voice for Dr. Liara T’soni of Mass Effect fame and the writing here is on par with “I got admit my interest is beyond professional, Commander”. How could have I said no.

Yukari is the one with “just friends” vibe, though things did get spicey on December, twenty-first when player character triumphed in street fight to get her purse back. The option of being a sexist 70s movie man is on the table but I think it’s too painful to say to a friend.

There is a mean-spirited way to describe Mitsuru, the orphan collector who became an orphan herself. And it’s after her becoming an orphan that her Social Link of Empress Arcana opened up. It was already 2 hours after (56 hours and 2 minutes on November, twenty-first, Saturday. Granted I took her to Tartarus for a Monad hunt first during the 2 hours.) I made commitment to Fukka. I only play the skirt chaser, not the fuckboy. But Persona Harlin of Empress Arcana is a back-up healing option I got so I dived in. What I got is another reason to roast Persona 5’s handling of characters.

Mitsuru Kirijo is a fancy queen cop. The storyline of her social link is about player character taking her to places where a fancy lass like her is not often seen: noodle shop, fake McDonald, snack stand, the movies along with a couple of visits to the library given the quality she values. She reveals that she might be married off to some older asshat to secure a future for her family company.

Then said asshat showed up when Empress Social Link reached 8, appeared as a coward classist. Mitsuru gave him a firm talk-to while expressed her affection for the player character. Choice to accept or decline appeared at Social Link 9 along with the reminder that I was in a committed relationship so I declined. She took it with a smile and asked me to buy her dinner just to make up for it. At Social Link 10 she showed me her bike and promised a road trip. It does feel more romantic than Fukka giving a pair of better earphones I got to say.

The thing with her asshat ex-fiancé was resolved off screen as his company would assist Kirijo Group without a marriage proposal. I guess after she told the Group employees, who fit under this “peasant” umbrella the rich man used, what a classist he was, the deal was off. To think how Persona 5’s fancy lass Haru does not have a chance to say “Fuck you” to her fiancé just because no party member’s Social Link involves manhunt in Mementos, this feels good.

Culture shock finite

Velvet Room’s Elizabeth asked my player character to hold her hand when she visited his room in the dorm. The lady in blue is voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro, who voiced a very different Elizabeth in Bioshock Infinite’s Japanese dub. The twin Velvet Room attendants of Persona 5 have a Social Link but I failed to pursue that one for how it would take time from my more skirt chasing approach (Reasons include not limited to the fact that they wear shorts).

However, showing Elizabeth around town does not require passage of time so I maxed out. Of course, she does not leave her post at the player character’s invitation. One got to do her bidding before she follows: reach certain level of Tartarus and recover certain item; fusion a particular Persona; get something from some corner of the town. The showing her around the town is packed with physical comedies so I highly recommend.

This Elizabeth is also key to dungeon crawling. Once hard roadblocks reached, her phone calls would tell player when hard roadblocks lifted. She also calls in for missing person cases, including 2 cases regarding people with Social Links. It certainly adding stake in ways Persona 5’s optional manhunts do not.

Close out on movies

“It’s like the movies” is said under more than one occasion in the game. First Fukka would call Tartarus’ fourth ancient ruin looking area something out of treasure hunting movies. Then people dancing in a night club would say the same about the conspiracy theories surrounding the city.

The wee lad in the dorm Ken would usually do 2 things in the nights, making coffee (Skill point potion) and rent a movie to share with the player character. Given that I had taken him to the movies to watch Tokusatsu, I thought he rented something similar. Turns out it’s dad cinema about cool detectives, which to a degree is similar to Tokusatsu for kids. Tsubagaya tried to merger those 2 in their 2023 Ultraman show. Yours truly was certainly introduced to dad cinema while watch Tokusatsu as a six-year-old.

And I guess it’s the charm of Persona games: when they are spot-on, they are more spot-on than lots of photo real fantasy out there despite the cartoon appearance. Attorney of law seeing court -house as casino is in Persona 5 not that 2016 Naughty Dog game. Bar of game being a reflective artform of life is still very low, and here is to it can be raised a bit.

(To be concluded as a user review)