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Warning: This entry contains spoilers for all of Persona 5, for both plots and confidant links
So, years late, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 5 has come out.
The Plot
Persona 5's plot tackles way more themes and ideas that I thought it would at first, and it manages to weave them all into a cohesive story, which I find pretty impressive. The obvious theme is rebellion. Rebelling against a cruel society is what causes the characters to awaken to their Personas and there's frequent talk about "getting back" at society and, as Ryuji likes to put it, "rotten adults." It makes the game sound like a revenge tale and in some cases, it is, particularly in the beginning with Kamoshida.
It quickly shifts to justice and reforming society, the two being intertwined. Perhaps the one thing the various competing viewpoints of the game can agree on is that the world is rife with injustice and some kind of reform needs to happen. Where they differ is who's justice is the correct one and what kind of changes need to happen.
The Phantom Thieves believe that criminals must be forced to confess their crimes and atone for their sins, a viewpoint Akechi disagrees with saying that forcing a change of heart isn't right. Shido believes that only he is fit to lead and control the country, that he alone can enforce absolute peace and order. While he would be able to do that, what he wants is dictatorship, and his methods are criminal and cruel and he's motivated more by personal gain than any true concern for the world.
I think the most important part of the plot, however, is the midgame. It's an important aspect of the story where the Phantom Thieves lose sight of their goals and their justice, becoming more and more concerned with acknowledgement and fame. A lot of people will probably blame Ryuji for this, but all of the thieves are guilty. Ryuji was simply the loudest and most honest about it. This obsession with fame and trying to one up their naysayers is what lead them to being played and causing their downfall. It's only when they recognize this that they're able to make any headway post Okumura's death. This is what causes the thieves to sympathize with Akechi so much once his true nature is revealed.
Akechi is what the Phantom Thieves would have become had they not righted themselves in time.
The final themes of control, freedom, and cognition are perhaps the biggest themes of all. Throughout the entire game, the various factions are fighting for control of public opinion and remain in the minds of the general public. The ultimate goal of Shido and Yadaboth were complete control over mankind. The Phantom Thieves and their allies are only able to grow and fight as they free themselves. Initial awakenings happen when a thief breaks his or her first chains. Every confidant finds themselves tied to something that inhibits their growth and happiness. And Phantom Thieves are only able to rise and truly become strong once they stop shackling themselves to public opinion and fighting for themselves and their beliefs.
The plot itself makes coherent sense and progresses naturally, without requiring leaps in logic or bumbling about like Persona 4's plot did. My biggest criticism of it would probably be an over reliance on Futaba to be the magic plot fix it device. After her recruitment, whenever a major roadblock appeared, it was usually Futaba who was able to hack her way to a solution. Given how reality based the game is, it was probably necessary as the heroes are just a group of teenagers with little to no actual power in the real world. Still, it makes for rather unsatisfying storytelling and felt lazy at times.
The Seven Deadly Sins
The Seven Deadly Sins is one of the the less obvious themes of the game, until you reach the final boss at least. Throughout the game, there are seven palaces and each palace ruler is designated a sin which the thieves accuse them of in their calling cards. They are:
Kamoshida: Lust
Madarame: Greed
Kaneshiro: Gluttony
Futaba: Sloth
Okumura: Greed
Sae: Envy
Shido: None given, but the trophy for completing his palace labels him as Pride
The most notable thing here is the sin of Wrath is absent, greed being repeated twice. I don't know if this is an oversight or a translation error or what.
With the exception of Futaba, each palace ruler's Shadow form also has a demon's name attached to it.
Kamoshida: Asmodeus
Madarame: Azazel
Kaneshiro: Baal
Futaba: N/A
Okumura: Mammon
Sae: Leviathan
Shido: Samael
Half of these are the names of the Princes of Hell, each of which are associated with a sin.
Asmodeus with Lust
Mammon with Greed
Leviathan with Envy
The missing ones are Satan: Wrath, Lucifer: Pride, Beelzebub: Gluttony, and Belphegor: Sloth. I assume they did not want to use Satan, Lucifer, and Beelzebub and decided to replace them with different demons names. (Is it notable they kept fly imagery for Kaneshiro? Maybe.) Had Futaba's palace been a regular one, it's a toss up whether they would have used Belphegor or not. We'll never know.
Do the sins fit? Overall, they do. There's a few I think would have better fits, namely Madarame and Sae.
Madarame, I believe, is a better fit for Envy than Greed. Of course he was a fraud who was primarily concerned with money, but he recognized his students were better artists than him, leading him to steal their work. He knew he could never match their talent, and that in particular, he would never be able to come even close to Yusuke's mother.
Sae, I can see how she is envious, but I believe she is a perfect fit for Pride. She was obsessed with winning and climbing higher and higher. She cared about her career more than anything else. Before she changes, she speaks frequently about public image, about how she can't let the Phantom Thieves beat the police and prosecutors.
As an aside, as Shido is definitely Pride, he can also fit Wrath given his nasty habit of killing people who step out of line or have outlived their usefulness. I would have been much happier with the following sin lineup:
Kamoshida: Lust
Madarame: Envy
Kaneshiro: Gluttony
Futaba: Sloth
Okumura: Greed
Sae: Pride
Shido: Wrath
The Characters
Persona 5 has a very solid lineup of main characters which assemble to one of the overall stronger casts I've seen in video games. Persona has a great track record regarding its characters, so this should be no surprise. The heroes are likable, but also flawed, and the villains are villainous, but still human. Character development is available to not just the heroes, but the NPCs and villains too.
The Protagonist (Akira Kurusu)
Compared to his two predecessors, Akira is a much more defined character ingame than either Minato or Souji were. Along with a backstory, the game is told from his perspective rather than the usual second person narration. There's a lot you can gleam from watching him, like how his glasses seem to be more for looks than function or how he seems to act differently while in his thief outfit than in normal clothes. (A lot sassier for one!) He has some minor dialogue in cutscenes too.
I think the decision to make him a more defined character was definitely intentional. The other characters and the player especially need to bond with him as a character, rather than use him as a self-insert for the player. The game places a much stronger emphasis on the value of friendship and teamwork than previous Persona games. Akira is not the all powerful protagonist leader that Minato and Souji were. He begins the game completely alone with a caretaker that was apathetic to him and a populace that avoided him at best and slandered him at worst. He has the wild card and a destiny, sure, but it's made clear several times that he cannot accomplish this on his own. Without trust and teamwork, he would have lost hands down to Akechi in both the decision point and the battle with him. Even his teammates are right by his side in the final showdown, and were it not for the efforts of everyone who loves and cares about him, he would have rotted away in prison.
Ryuji Sakamoto
The resident electric bruiser of the game was a pleasant surprise for me. He's probably the most notably flawed of the cast. Loud, impatient, and is often the member of the group with the different opinion from the rest.
In the context of the story, as I mentioned earlier, Ryuji is the most vocal about chasing fame using the Phantom Thieves name. Sure, he might have wanted to use it to pick up girls, but it would be foolish to say he was the only one. Even if the others didn't want to admit it, they mostly agreed with him. He was giving voice to the desires and thoughts they didn't want to say out loud.
Where Ryuji mostly shines is his social link. Ryuji's social link is a real reality check for him and the player. Just because the bad guy got put away doesn't mean that everything is going to be perfect and great from now on. Even though Kamoshida was the villain, the track team still resented and blamed Ryuji for their disbandment. Furthermore, he knows that even if he isn't going to be welcomed back, he still wished to make things right for his mistake. Ryuji does not deny what he had done or try to dodge responsibility for it. Standing up to Kamoshida wasn't wrong, but doing so ended up hurting the people around him. He sees that, doesn't deny how his former teammates feel, and wants to make it up to them.
It's only after Ryuji helps reestablish the team that he's able to move on from them and find his new place in the world.Which is right by Akira's side, apparently. Ryuji's confidant link mirrors the game as a whole: facing the realities of your actions, owning up to your mistakes, moving on from the past, and finding your place in the world. Ryuji's confidant link is one of the two links I would say a player should absolutely experience the entirety of as part of the Persona 5 experience. It's extremely good and it mirrors the game's own messages quite well.
Morgana
As the resident inhuman mascot character, comparisons to Teddie are unavoidable. The big, number one thing Morgana has going for him is that he isn't as annoying or as cringe worthy as Teddie was. That alone has probably won him a lot of points with players.
The main problem I have with Morgana is that he seems like much less of a defined character than Teddie was. Morgana is often used as an exposition dispenser, a narrator, or a substitute for Akira's thoughts. As a result, he gets less time to be a character. That's not to say Morgana has no personality, he definitely has some. He's (over)confident, a know-it-all, has a love of treasure, has a tsundereish affection for the team, and has self-esteem issues. The issue is that Morgana spends so much time explaining things or stating the obvious it sometimes gets hard to remember what his personality even is. It probably doesn't help that people often point to his lines as some of the more awkwardly or even badly translated ones.
Ann Takamaki
Ann is an interesting character. Firstly, her background is definitely not one you'd expect to see and I think perceptions and reactions to her will definitely change depending on your cultural background. I was raised in a western country, so my perspective of her is that if Persona 5 took place in a western country, she would probably have a different background.
Despite being pretty, Ann is ostracized for a number of reasons. She's mixed race and looks foreign. Students assume she's stuck up based on her looks. They think she's sleeping with a teacher for preferential treatment. And because they think she's sleeping with a teacher, she must be promiscuous. It's no wonder that in the early game, Ann is completely and totally devoted to Shiho, her only friend and in her words, the only reason she can bear to be at a school like Shujin. It's only after she's freed from Kamoshida's control and makes some real friends that her real personality comes out.
And then...she has no idea what to do afterwards. Until then, she had completely and utterly tied her identity to Shiho. With her family abroad, she had nobody else and thus devoted her entire life to Shiho, and once Shiho is in the hospital and eventually, must leave her daily life, Ann is lost and while she claims she wants to be stronger for Shiho's sake, her true search is for her own identity.
In a way, Ann feels a lot like Yukiko. Same element, same role in the party, a similar search for one's true desires. Both of them think they want to leave a world, only to realize they want to stay. I think Yukiko's social link was better done, however.
Yusuke Kitagawa
For being a eccentric artist who seems to operate on his own logic at times, Yusuke is surprisingly relatable. Yusuke at times seems like he's comic relief, but the game does an excellent job of balancing it out with his more serious side. He's goofy, but also thoughtful as well as being naive. He probably resonates with other people who feel like they're being taken advantage of by family and to a lesser extent, friends. People who feel obligated or guilt tripped into helping them and struggle with betrayal by a trusted authority figure. Before formally joining the party, Yusuke longs for freedom, but is too afraid to seek it out. He knows he is being mistreated, but still feels a tie of obligation to the one abusing him.
What makes Yusuke a truly interesting character, however, is what happens after he is free, in his confidant link. His link is all about him struggling with Madarame's continued influence on his life. After all, he can't just throw away the fact that he was raised by Madarame. Yusuke becomes preoccupied with purging everything about Madarame from his life and it reflects in his art, which ends up being one dimensional as he tries to place everything into neat, organized boxes, believing everything to be singular and clear cut. Beauty is a pure, good, singular thing he must discover. Madarame was an impure evil person who tainted him. Yusuke desperately believes must forsake his old mentor and father figure entirely. He can only get over his art slump after he accepts that the world is not black and white and that things are multifaceted and often contradictory. And that, at one point, Madarame really did love him as his own son. Once he accepts these things, rather than try to reject them and reduce the world to simplified undefinable concepts like "beauty" or "passion," he grows as both a person and an artist.
Yusuke's confidant link, of the ones I completed, was the other standout of the game, and I really recommend people experience it.
Makoto Niijima
Everyone's Best Girl, Makoto is probably the character who will resonate the most with players. Having high expectations placed on you, feeling like you're getting good grades just for the sake of getting good grades, being compared to your sibling, not having an end goal in your life, feeling like you're being forced to do the wrong thing or that you only exist to carry out orders, these are things a lot of people struggle with.
Afterwards, her character arc moves into dealing with the fact that being the perfect honor student for so long has left her at a loss for dealing with real world situations.
There actually isn't too much for me to say about Makoto. She is a solid character, but her appeal lies mainly with her common situations combined with her spurts of wild recklessness.
One thing that disappointed me about Makoto is her awakening isn't tied to a palace or a strong motivation. Kaneshiro was bland and fails to establish the personal connection needed to make the player want to take him down for Makoto's sake. They don't have a real link between each other other than he's threatening to extort her. Kamoshida permanently injured Ryuji and sexually harassed Ann. Madarame is taking advantage of and emotionally abusive to Yusuke. Futaba struggles against her own defensive mechanisms and Haru is being treated as merchandise to be sold to a creep for her father's financial gain. Makoto does have Sae's Palace, but by then, she has already undergone a lot of character development and she has to share it with Akechi.
I'm disappointed that Principal Kobayakawa didn't get a Palace, he would have been a perfect authority figure for Makoto to rebel against. There's ample reasoning to rebel against him: he was forcing Makoto to be his lackey and he made it clear that the well being of the student population is a secondary concern to protecting his reputation. His direct ties to the government conspiracy may have posed a problem, but every Palace ruler except for Kamoshida and Futaba were also directly tied to it as well.
Futaba Sakura
From what I can see, Futaba is the other fan favorite of the female cast. It's easy to see why. She's a gamer girl, shut-in, elite hacker with social anxiety, the type of character that resonates with Persona 5's target audience.
Unfortunately, I feel like she's the glaring weak point of Persona 5's cast.
The first reason for this is that Futaba feels like a stereotype to me, an exaggerated, extreme caricature of someone who plays too many video games. Unlike with Yusuke, there isn't anything to balance that part out of her. Futaba's character revolves almost entirely around video games and hacking. Her dialogue is rife with dated video game references. It gets to the point where Futaba feels like a gag character half the time. A gag character who also serves as the story's catch all answer to a significant number of the problems the Phantom Thieves run across.
Her palace does not help either. While it certainly poses interesting questions and observations about the Metaverse, in terms of Futaba's character, the entirety of her palace is causing a change of heart in her, meaning that she suddenly takes a huge leap in getting over her social anxiety issues. Furthermore, her other real struggle, her mother's death, is completely brushed aside. It's not her fault, she doesn't have to confront it or the feelings she had over it. It was all a government conspiracy she can just suddenly stop feeling guilty and bad over it. Suddenly she has no issues about her mom's death. No lingering feelings about how she said nasty things to her mom or how she had convinced herself her mother was cold and cruel. Just poof, gone in a blink of an eye. Also what the heck was up with the hallucinations did they mean anything or what.
Admittedly, I did not finish her confidant link in time. I got about halfway through it, but I was disappointed to see her just charging through her promise list with each event, sometimes not even really fulfilling the promise. (Going to school, the conversation with Mishima) I hope this gets addressed later on in the link, but it seems like the Kanna plot point takes over from there.
Is there anything good about Futaba? Of course there is! It was great that Futaba isn't portrayed as a complete loser and that her main goal is overcoming her crippling fears as well as acknowledging the love and support Sojiro has given her all this time. A lot of people in Futaba's situation try to double down on their isolation, convincing themselves they don't need to change anything, it's everyone around them who's wrong. It just happened to happen too fast and too shallowly for my liking.
Haru Okumura
Being the quietest and most polite of the Phantom Thieves, Haru doesn't stand out compared to her more attention grabbing teammates. She lacks any particular traits that make her stand out like Ryuji's hotheadedness, Ann's perkiness, Morgana's catness, Makoto's commanding presence, Futaba's nerdiness, or Yusuke's...Yuskeness. So what makes Haru special as a character?
The answer is her internal struggles. The player formally meets her as a nervous girl who wishes to change her father's heart. Like Makoto, Haru has spent most of her life being obedient, to the point where her father started seeing her as a commodity to sell off for more wealth and influence. Unlike Makoto, she doesn't have a fierce, fiery drive, yet she still sets off to oppose her father all the same. Haru's rebellion comes not with yells and snarls, but with a calmer, quieter declaration which is no less defiant than any of the others that came before her.
Haru's awakening is important, she had a partial awakening at first when she was hesitant, but still determined, and it only came in full when she made a firm stance. Haru is proof that even someone who is seemingly meek and passive can still find the strength of rebellion within them. She is also the game's first example of a rebellion born out of love for the person she is rebelling against. She defies her father in order to save him and even though she knew he had turned evil and cruel, still loved him.
Later on, she has to deal with being suddenly thrust into the business world and not knowing who she can trust. She finds herself suspecting everyone and only after she makes her stand can she really see who her allies really are. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the new president of Okumura Foods was actually a standup guy, he really was only just trying to help. But Haru learns that she has to speak up to make herself and her wishes known, and that when she does, she'll find that she isn't as alone as she thinks she is.
Goro Akechi
Yeah yeah not technically a phantom thief. He's on the cover and the title screen so I guess he gets a spot here.
You can't convince me they didn't make Akechi Persona Light Yagami on purpose.
Him turning out to be a villain was not a surprise to me, given the massive hints the game was dropping ever since his introduction, the fact that they all but name him as the traitor at the decision point, and the fact that Persona 5 seems to actively do the opposite of what Persona 4 did at every opportunity. I suspected him ever since his introduction and it was confirmed for me the moment I saw Robin Hood. (Akechi uses one of Robin's arrows to kill Okumura) Even so, Akechi manages to pull out some entertainment and surprises as well as providing a strong opposition to the Phantom Thieves.
Akechi is what would have happened to the Phantom Thieves if they had lost their way permanently. Akechi's true nature shows that he craves acknowledgement and fame, willing to do whatever it takes to get it. Like the rest of the cast, Akechi has been wronged by the world, but his reaction is to lash out at it and hurt anyone within reach. Those he doesn't hurt are just stepping stones on his path to validation and success.
He is what happens when rebellion is used for harmful causes. He didn't want to fix anything, only cause chaos. The weak get trampled and human lives became sacrifices for the sake of his "justice." Speaking of justice, he is the one who accuses the thieves of hiding behind the word as an excuse for horrible crimes when that's exactly what he was doing. Akechi reasons it's okay to murder or drive people mad because it's all for the sake of his "justice," the word he's using to mask the fact that what he's really after is revenge. He doesn't trust anyone, relying only on himself. Still, he manages to form a confidant link with Akira, and perhaps unwillingly, got to know and like him. As it's said, he couldn't bring himself to truly hate Akira. Instead, he was jealous of him.
It would probably drive him mad if he ever realized how similar he is to his father.
The brief time Akechi is with the party, it feels like there's hope for him, and he probably enjoyed his time with them even if he never admits it. He would have made an excellent Phantom Thief, had the circumstances been different.
Warning: This entry contains spoilers for all of Persona 5, for both plots and confidant links
So, years late, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 5 has come out.
The Plot
Persona 5's plot tackles way more themes and ideas that I thought it would at first, and it manages to weave them all into a cohesive story, which I find pretty impressive. The obvious theme is rebellion. Rebelling against a cruel society is what causes the characters to awaken to their Personas and there's frequent talk about "getting back" at society and, as Ryuji likes to put it, "rotten adults." It makes the game sound like a revenge tale and in some cases, it is, particularly in the beginning with Kamoshida.
It quickly shifts to justice and reforming society, the two being intertwined. Perhaps the one thing the various competing viewpoints of the game can agree on is that the world is rife with injustice and some kind of reform needs to happen. Where they differ is who's justice is the correct one and what kind of changes need to happen.
The Phantom Thieves believe that criminals must be forced to confess their crimes and atone for their sins, a viewpoint Akechi disagrees with saying that forcing a change of heart isn't right. Shido believes that only he is fit to lead and control the country, that he alone can enforce absolute peace and order. While he would be able to do that, what he wants is dictatorship, and his methods are criminal and cruel and he's motivated more by personal gain than any true concern for the world.
I think the most important part of the plot, however, is the midgame. It's an important aspect of the story where the Phantom Thieves lose sight of their goals and their justice, becoming more and more concerned with acknowledgement and fame. A lot of people will probably blame Ryuji for this, but all of the thieves are guilty. Ryuji was simply the loudest and most honest about it. This obsession with fame and trying to one up their naysayers is what lead them to being played and causing their downfall. It's only when they recognize this that they're able to make any headway post Okumura's death. This is what causes the thieves to sympathize with Akechi so much once his true nature is revealed.
Akechi is what the Phantom Thieves would have become had they not righted themselves in time.
The final themes of control, freedom, and cognition are perhaps the biggest themes of all. Throughout the entire game, the various factions are fighting for control of public opinion and remain in the minds of the general public. The ultimate goal of Shido and Yadaboth were complete control over mankind. The Phantom Thieves and their allies are only able to grow and fight as they free themselves. Initial awakenings happen when a thief breaks his or her first chains. Every confidant finds themselves tied to something that inhibits their growth and happiness. And Phantom Thieves are only able to rise and truly become strong once they stop shackling themselves to public opinion and fighting for themselves and their beliefs.
The plot itself makes coherent sense and progresses naturally, without requiring leaps in logic or bumbling about like Persona 4's plot did. My biggest criticism of it would probably be an over reliance on Futaba to be the magic plot fix it device. After her recruitment, whenever a major roadblock appeared, it was usually Futaba who was able to hack her way to a solution. Given how reality based the game is, it was probably necessary as the heroes are just a group of teenagers with little to no actual power in the real world. Still, it makes for rather unsatisfying storytelling and felt lazy at times.
The Seven Deadly Sins
The Seven Deadly Sins is one of the the less obvious themes of the game, until you reach the final boss at least. Throughout the game, there are seven palaces and each palace ruler is designated a sin which the thieves accuse them of in their calling cards. They are:
Kamoshida: Lust
Madarame: Greed
Kaneshiro: Gluttony
Futaba: Sloth
Okumura: Greed
Sae: Envy
Shido: None given, but the trophy for completing his palace labels him as Pride
The most notable thing here is the sin of Wrath is absent, greed being repeated twice. I don't know if this is an oversight or a translation error or what.
With the exception of Futaba, each palace ruler's Shadow form also has a demon's name attached to it.
Kamoshida: Asmodeus
Madarame: Azazel
Kaneshiro: Baal
Futaba: N/A
Okumura: Mammon
Sae: Leviathan
Shido: Samael
Half of these are the names of the Princes of Hell, each of which are associated with a sin.
Asmodeus with Lust
Mammon with Greed
Leviathan with Envy
The missing ones are Satan: Wrath, Lucifer: Pride, Beelzebub: Gluttony, and Belphegor: Sloth. I assume they did not want to use Satan, Lucifer, and Beelzebub and decided to replace them with different demons names. (Is it notable they kept fly imagery for Kaneshiro? Maybe.) Had Futaba's palace been a regular one, it's a toss up whether they would have used Belphegor or not. We'll never know.
Do the sins fit? Overall, they do. There's a few I think would have better fits, namely Madarame and Sae.
Madarame, I believe, is a better fit for Envy than Greed. Of course he was a fraud who was primarily concerned with money, but he recognized his students were better artists than him, leading him to steal their work. He knew he could never match their talent, and that in particular, he would never be able to come even close to Yusuke's mother.
Sae, I can see how she is envious, but I believe she is a perfect fit for Pride. She was obsessed with winning and climbing higher and higher. She cared about her career more than anything else. Before she changes, she speaks frequently about public image, about how she can't let the Phantom Thieves beat the police and prosecutors.
As an aside, as Shido is definitely Pride, he can also fit Wrath given his nasty habit of killing people who step out of line or have outlived their usefulness. I would have been much happier with the following sin lineup:
Kamoshida: Lust
Madarame: Envy
Kaneshiro: Gluttony
Futaba: Sloth
Okumura: Greed
Sae: Pride
Shido: Wrath
The Characters
Persona 5 has a very solid lineup of main characters which assemble to one of the overall stronger casts I've seen in video games. Persona has a great track record regarding its characters, so this should be no surprise. The heroes are likable, but also flawed, and the villains are villainous, but still human. Character development is available to not just the heroes, but the NPCs and villains too.
The Protagonist (Akira Kurusu)
Compared to his two predecessors, Akira is a much more defined character ingame than either Minato or Souji were. Along with a backstory, the game is told from his perspective rather than the usual second person narration. There's a lot you can gleam from watching him, like how his glasses seem to be more for looks than function or how he seems to act differently while in his thief outfit than in normal clothes. (A lot sassier for one!) He has some minor dialogue in cutscenes too.
I think the decision to make him a more defined character was definitely intentional. The other characters and the player especially need to bond with him as a character, rather than use him as a self-insert for the player. The game places a much stronger emphasis on the value of friendship and teamwork than previous Persona games. Akira is not the all powerful protagonist leader that Minato and Souji were. He begins the game completely alone with a caretaker that was apathetic to him and a populace that avoided him at best and slandered him at worst. He has the wild card and a destiny, sure, but it's made clear several times that he cannot accomplish this on his own. Without trust and teamwork, he would have lost hands down to Akechi in both the decision point and the battle with him. Even his teammates are right by his side in the final showdown, and were it not for the efforts of everyone who loves and cares about him, he would have rotted away in prison.
Ryuji Sakamoto
The resident electric bruiser of the game was a pleasant surprise for me. He's probably the most notably flawed of the cast. Loud, impatient, and is often the member of the group with the different opinion from the rest.
In the context of the story, as I mentioned earlier, Ryuji is the most vocal about chasing fame using the Phantom Thieves name. Sure, he might have wanted to use it to pick up girls, but it would be foolish to say he was the only one. Even if the others didn't want to admit it, they mostly agreed with him. He was giving voice to the desires and thoughts they didn't want to say out loud.
Where Ryuji mostly shines is his social link. Ryuji's social link is a real reality check for him and the player. Just because the bad guy got put away doesn't mean that everything is going to be perfect and great from now on. Even though Kamoshida was the villain, the track team still resented and blamed Ryuji for their disbandment. Furthermore, he knows that even if he isn't going to be welcomed back, he still wished to make things right for his mistake. Ryuji does not deny what he had done or try to dodge responsibility for it. Standing up to Kamoshida wasn't wrong, but doing so ended up hurting the people around him. He sees that, doesn't deny how his former teammates feel, and wants to make it up to them.
It's only after Ryuji helps reestablish the team that he's able to move on from them and find his new place in the world.
Morgana
As the resident inhuman mascot character, comparisons to Teddie are unavoidable. The big, number one thing Morgana has going for him is that he isn't as annoying or as cringe worthy as Teddie was. That alone has probably won him a lot of points with players.
The main problem I have with Morgana is that he seems like much less of a defined character than Teddie was. Morgana is often used as an exposition dispenser, a narrator, or a substitute for Akira's thoughts. As a result, he gets less time to be a character. That's not to say Morgana has no personality, he definitely has some. He's (over)confident, a know-it-all, has a love of treasure, has a tsundereish affection for the team, and has self-esteem issues. The issue is that Morgana spends so much time explaining things or stating the obvious it sometimes gets hard to remember what his personality even is. It probably doesn't help that people often point to his lines as some of the more awkwardly or even badly translated ones.
Ann Takamaki
Ann is an interesting character. Firstly, her background is definitely not one you'd expect to see and I think perceptions and reactions to her will definitely change depending on your cultural background. I was raised in a western country, so my perspective of her is that if Persona 5 took place in a western country, she would probably have a different background.
Despite being pretty, Ann is ostracized for a number of reasons. She's mixed race and looks foreign. Students assume she's stuck up based on her looks. They think she's sleeping with a teacher for preferential treatment. And because they think she's sleeping with a teacher, she must be promiscuous. It's no wonder that in the early game, Ann is completely and totally devoted to Shiho, her only friend and in her words, the only reason she can bear to be at a school like Shujin. It's only after she's freed from Kamoshida's control and makes some real friends that her real personality comes out.
And then...she has no idea what to do afterwards. Until then, she had completely and utterly tied her identity to Shiho. With her family abroad, she had nobody else and thus devoted her entire life to Shiho, and once Shiho is in the hospital and eventually, must leave her daily life, Ann is lost and while she claims she wants to be stronger for Shiho's sake, her true search is for her own identity.
In a way, Ann feels a lot like Yukiko. Same element, same role in the party, a similar search for one's true desires. Both of them think they want to leave a world, only to realize they want to stay. I think Yukiko's social link was better done, however.
Yusuke Kitagawa
For being a eccentric artist who seems to operate on his own logic at times, Yusuke is surprisingly relatable. Yusuke at times seems like he's comic relief, but the game does an excellent job of balancing it out with his more serious side. He's goofy, but also thoughtful as well as being naive. He probably resonates with other people who feel like they're being taken advantage of by family and to a lesser extent, friends. People who feel obligated or guilt tripped into helping them and struggle with betrayal by a trusted authority figure. Before formally joining the party, Yusuke longs for freedom, but is too afraid to seek it out. He knows he is being mistreated, but still feels a tie of obligation to the one abusing him.
What makes Yusuke a truly interesting character, however, is what happens after he is free, in his confidant link. His link is all about him struggling with Madarame's continued influence on his life. After all, he can't just throw away the fact that he was raised by Madarame. Yusuke becomes preoccupied with purging everything about Madarame from his life and it reflects in his art, which ends up being one dimensional as he tries to place everything into neat, organized boxes, believing everything to be singular and clear cut. Beauty is a pure, good, singular thing he must discover. Madarame was an impure evil person who tainted him. Yusuke desperately believes must forsake his old mentor and father figure entirely. He can only get over his art slump after he accepts that the world is not black and white and that things are multifaceted and often contradictory. And that, at one point, Madarame really did love him as his own son. Once he accepts these things, rather than try to reject them and reduce the world to simplified undefinable concepts like "beauty" or "passion," he grows as both a person and an artist.
Yusuke's confidant link, of the ones I completed, was the other standout of the game, and I really recommend people experience it.
Makoto Niijima
Everyone's Best Girl, Makoto is probably the character who will resonate the most with players. Having high expectations placed on you, feeling like you're getting good grades just for the sake of getting good grades, being compared to your sibling, not having an end goal in your life, feeling like you're being forced to do the wrong thing or that you only exist to carry out orders, these are things a lot of people struggle with.
Afterwards, her character arc moves into dealing with the fact that being the perfect honor student for so long has left her at a loss for dealing with real world situations.
There actually isn't too much for me to say about Makoto. She is a solid character, but her appeal lies mainly with her common situations combined with her spurts of wild recklessness.
One thing that disappointed me about Makoto is her awakening isn't tied to a palace or a strong motivation. Kaneshiro was bland and fails to establish the personal connection needed to make the player want to take him down for Makoto's sake. They don't have a real link between each other other than he's threatening to extort her. Kamoshida permanently injured Ryuji and sexually harassed Ann. Madarame is taking advantage of and emotionally abusive to Yusuke. Futaba struggles against her own defensive mechanisms and Haru is being treated as merchandise to be sold to a creep for her father's financial gain. Makoto does have Sae's Palace, but by then, she has already undergone a lot of character development and she has to share it with Akechi.
I'm disappointed that Principal Kobayakawa didn't get a Palace, he would have been a perfect authority figure for Makoto to rebel against. There's ample reasoning to rebel against him: he was forcing Makoto to be his lackey and he made it clear that the well being of the student population is a secondary concern to protecting his reputation. His direct ties to the government conspiracy may have posed a problem, but every Palace ruler except for Kamoshida and Futaba were also directly tied to it as well.
Futaba Sakura
From what I can see, Futaba is the other fan favorite of the female cast. It's easy to see why. She's a gamer girl, shut-in, elite hacker with social anxiety, the type of character that resonates with Persona 5's target audience.
Unfortunately, I feel like she's the glaring weak point of Persona 5's cast.
The first reason for this is that Futaba feels like a stereotype to me, an exaggerated, extreme caricature of someone who plays too many video games. Unlike with Yusuke, there isn't anything to balance that part out of her. Futaba's character revolves almost entirely around video games and hacking. Her dialogue is rife with dated video game references. It gets to the point where Futaba feels like a gag character half the time. A gag character who also serves as the story's catch all answer to a significant number of the problems the Phantom Thieves run across.
Her palace does not help either. While it certainly poses interesting questions and observations about the Metaverse, in terms of Futaba's character, the entirety of her palace is causing a change of heart in her, meaning that she suddenly takes a huge leap in getting over her social anxiety issues. Furthermore, her other real struggle, her mother's death, is completely brushed aside. It's not her fault, she doesn't have to confront it or the feelings she had over it. It was all a government conspiracy she can just suddenly stop feeling guilty and bad over it. Suddenly she has no issues about her mom's death. No lingering feelings about how she said nasty things to her mom or how she had convinced herself her mother was cold and cruel. Just poof, gone in a blink of an eye. Also what the heck was up with the hallucinations did they mean anything or what.
Admittedly, I did not finish her confidant link in time. I got about halfway through it, but I was disappointed to see her just charging through her promise list with each event, sometimes not even really fulfilling the promise. (Going to school, the conversation with Mishima) I hope this gets addressed later on in the link, but it seems like the Kanna plot point takes over from there.
Is there anything good about Futaba? Of course there is! It was great that Futaba isn't portrayed as a complete loser and that her main goal is overcoming her crippling fears as well as acknowledging the love and support Sojiro has given her all this time. A lot of people in Futaba's situation try to double down on their isolation, convincing themselves they don't need to change anything, it's everyone around them who's wrong. It just happened to happen too fast and too shallowly for my liking.
Haru Okumura
Being the quietest and most polite of the Phantom Thieves, Haru doesn't stand out compared to her more attention grabbing teammates. She lacks any particular traits that make her stand out like Ryuji's hotheadedness, Ann's perkiness, Morgana's catness, Makoto's commanding presence, Futaba's nerdiness, or Yusuke's...Yuskeness. So what makes Haru special as a character?
The answer is her internal struggles. The player formally meets her as a nervous girl who wishes to change her father's heart. Like Makoto, Haru has spent most of her life being obedient, to the point where her father started seeing her as a commodity to sell off for more wealth and influence. Unlike Makoto, she doesn't have a fierce, fiery drive, yet she still sets off to oppose her father all the same. Haru's rebellion comes not with yells and snarls, but with a calmer, quieter declaration which is no less defiant than any of the others that came before her.
Haru's awakening is important, she had a partial awakening at first when she was hesitant, but still determined, and it only came in full when she made a firm stance. Haru is proof that even someone who is seemingly meek and passive can still find the strength of rebellion within them. She is also the game's first example of a rebellion born out of love for the person she is rebelling against. She defies her father in order to save him and even though she knew he had turned evil and cruel, still loved him.
Later on, she has to deal with being suddenly thrust into the business world and not knowing who she can trust. She finds herself suspecting everyone and only after she makes her stand can she really see who her allies really are. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the new president of Okumura Foods was actually a standup guy, he really was only just trying to help. But Haru learns that she has to speak up to make herself and her wishes known, and that when she does, she'll find that she isn't as alone as she thinks she is.
Goro Akechi
Yeah yeah not technically a phantom thief. He's on the cover and the title screen so I guess he gets a spot here.
You can't convince me they didn't make Akechi Persona Light Yagami on purpose.
Him turning out to be a villain was not a surprise to me, given the massive hints the game was dropping ever since his introduction, the fact that they all but name him as the traitor at the decision point, and the fact that Persona 5 seems to actively do the opposite of what Persona 4 did at every opportunity. I suspected him ever since his introduction and it was confirmed for me the moment I saw Robin Hood. (Akechi uses one of Robin's arrows to kill Okumura) Even so, Akechi manages to pull out some entertainment and surprises as well as providing a strong opposition to the Phantom Thieves.
Akechi is what would have happened to the Phantom Thieves if they had lost their way permanently. Akechi's true nature shows that he craves acknowledgement and fame, willing to do whatever it takes to get it. Like the rest of the cast, Akechi has been wronged by the world, but his reaction is to lash out at it and hurt anyone within reach. Those he doesn't hurt are just stepping stones on his path to validation and success.
He is what happens when rebellion is used for harmful causes. He didn't want to fix anything, only cause chaos. The weak get trampled and human lives became sacrifices for the sake of his "justice." Speaking of justice, he is the one who accuses the thieves of hiding behind the word as an excuse for horrible crimes when that's exactly what he was doing. Akechi reasons it's okay to murder or drive people mad because it's all for the sake of his "justice," the word he's using to mask the fact that what he's really after is revenge. He doesn't trust anyone, relying only on himself. Still, he manages to form a confidant link with Akira, and perhaps unwillingly, got to know and like him. As it's said, he couldn't bring himself to truly hate Akira. Instead, he was jealous of him.
It would probably drive him mad if he ever realized how similar he is to his father.
The brief time Akechi is with the party, it feels like there's hope for him, and he probably enjoyed his time with them even if he never admits it. He would have made an excellent Phantom Thief, had the circumstances been different.
