After 137 hours of playtime, I finally finished Persona 5. I mostly enjoyed my time with the game - the gameplay is multitudes better than the last game, the art and soundtrack are exemplary, Shibuya is vast and overwhelming and full of things to do. But I can only say I mostly enjoyed it because the game’s statements on self-discovery and belief ring more and more disingenuous the more I consider it. I blame Ryuji. Okay, that’s not fair. Ryuji is not the sole proprietor of Persona 5’s shortcomings. But he is the most representative of them. To be blunt, the cast of characters that make up the Phantom Thieves came off as really dumb to me. The so-so translation likely exacerbates these problems, but the number of times plans and situations had to be re-explained during the same scene became increasingly grating to my ears. In Ryuji’s case it’s intentional since his lack of intelligence is the basis for the grade-a beef between him and Morgana, as well as the general dunkathon that occurs whenever he says opens his mouth:

That stuff is ultimately harmless at the worst of times, but Ryuji’s grossest act is far from that. In the beginning of Futaba’s dungeon, the Phantom Thieves enter the metaverse in the middle of the desert miles from the actual palace, so they all pack into Catbus Morgana in order to escape the punishing heat (how great is it that someone put a playable catbus into a video game?). After a short conversation with Makoto, Ann starts fanning herself off before the camera cuts to a view looking down on Ann as she fans herself with her sweat-drenched shirt. Ann then looks behind her to find her fellow phantom thieves and alleged friends staring directly at her slightly revealed chest. Ann is understandably aghast at this and throws them back with the emergency brake. "Morons", she utters. Catbus Morgana then rolls up to the giant pyramid that houses Futaba’s treasure and the focus quickly shifts to saving Sojiro’s secluded daughter.

And that’s the end of the scene. The incident is never brought up again, the guys never really apologize, the episode amounts to a total non-sequitur that’s never referenced again. This really bothered me. Aside from the fact that brazenly ogling your teammate is a real scumbag maneuver, but it’s also tonally asynchronous with the game’s themes. The Persona games, the ones I have played at least, are a longform metaphor for self-realization and acceptance. Discover your inner power, defeat the malevolent opposition standing in your way, save the world in the process. Freedom is the ultimate goal in Persona 5, but the freedom the game believes in still clings to an old-fashioned view of society. The inability to have gay romantic relationships between the player character and your friends didn’t strike me as peculiar when I played Persona 4, but that was eight years ago. My desire to see stories from unfamiliar perspectives has increased, and so has the conversation surrounding representation of different subcultures. It’s still depressingly controversial, but refusing to give players that choice in a game where you decide how this character behaves almost every day feels like a missed opportunity.

Then again, given how Persona 5 depicts gay people, leaving this possibility unseen was the best move for all parties because whoooooo boy is this game a sorry representation of that community. The only openly queer characters you come across during Persona 5 are tired stereotypes incarnate, obsessive perverts who can’t stop themselves from shamelessly creeping on Ryuji’s young body. Their existence is played for cheap laughs, like Sideshow Bob stepping on a rake except with a group that is disrespected and discriminated against far too often.

For all of the gameplay improvements Atlus made with Persona 5, the game’s collective voice is disappointingly two-faced. Atlus’ view of empathy is still a very heteronormative one. The depiction of homosexuality in this game is out of step with the rest of the game’s ethos. Persona 4 certainly had some of these problems in retrospect - the hoops they leaped through to make Kanji not gay weren’t necessary - but society has inched forward just enough that the adherence to tired stereotypes feels way off. Persona 5 wants to have its cake and laugh at the people who are banned from the dessert table. It’s still an excellent game, but it could have stood for something more.