15 hours of gameplay should be enough for an initial post. Though it’s more like 5 hours of the dungeon and 10 hours of visual novel hijinks, but the dungeon was really boring so I’m cool not having too much of it. I’ve finished the first, overly-long Kamoshida arc, now I’m into the second, also sure to be over-long Madarame saga.
Along the way I’ve had to remind myself over and over again that the protagonists are just kids. They’re just kids. They’re just kids. If I don’t keep repeating that to myself, it will be just too frustrating because there’s a lot of things I just wouldn’t do if I were in their position – at my age right now. As a dumb 17 year-old, yeah, it sounds about right, but as a *ahem! ahem!* year old, I’m more into “keeping my head down and getting on with my life” no matter where I go.
1) I wouldn’t get involved with any of this Kamoshida business to begin with. I already got into trouble once for meddling. I’d just serve my time quietly for a year and skedaddle. Especially the moment I was told the Principal, teachers and parents were all aware and kept their mouths shut for the sake of results, that would have been my cue to butt out and stay out. Those days of joining an organization and immediately trying to reform their culture are well over *ahem ahem!* years behind me.
2) I definitely wouldn’t hang out with that Ryuji kid. He’s an idiot. Always running about, mouthing off with to the wrong people, taking decisions for me, making uncontrolled outbursts left and right with all the discretion and common sense of a monkey at the zoo… I think he was supposed to be the “lovable idiot” type but they forgot the “lovable” part. In fact, as a general principle it’s best to avoid the kind of loser who latches on to newbies in organizations and is full of complaints about this and that. Eventually you’ll find out why they are shunned by their peers, hopefully you haven’t burned too many bridges by that point.
3) Once the whole Kamoshida saga was over, that would have been the end of my adventures as a “Phantom Thief.” If Mishima wants to create his little website, that’s his problem. If Ryuji wants people to know we’re real (why???), that’s his problem as well. I’ll deny everything to the end. I mean for story reasons we have to keep doing this whole thief and Palace thing, so I’m just talking in hypotheticals here. This whole thing is just too shady, better to read some books, watch some DVDs, and chill in the coffee shop until the school year ends than risk my life and reputation for stuff that doesn’t concern me.
4) No way in hell am I going to out of my way to save a creep that tried to blackmail a girl into posing nude for him. Being an abused orphan does not give you the right to become a lech. That’s criminal. Any sympathy I had for him went out of the window like whooosh. In fact, I wouldn’t talk to a stalker like that to begin with, or go to his art exhibition, or go to his house… And since I’m looking for dirt on Madarame, I would certainly have an audio recording going so I could capture both his confession of Madarame’s plagiarism and his threats. These Phantom Thieves are just too naive. They’re just kids… they’re just kids…
Actually the far more bizarre detail is how no one has realized over all these years that Madarame’s works are all drawn by different people. An artist can’t get that famous without his works being studied over and over again by art experts, who would spot the differences in style from all kinds of things like the depth of the brush strokes and what have you (I’m not an art critic but it sounds plausible, right?). He miiight have gotten away with it for one apprentice with a very similar style, but dozens of apprentices over the years? How stupid is the art world in this game anyway?
Honestly it’s only a matter of time before Madarame comes crashing down in a blaze of common sense, so I would just give Nakanohara the reporter’s number and stay well out of it.
But no, Persona 5 Royal doesn’t work by common sense, so I’ve been tossed into the second Palace in this game to take down Madarame because otherwise Ann will have to pose nude? Except she really won’t because she really never has to talk to that guy again? His threat to call the police is an empty one when it’s your word against his, and seriously, you can just talk to the shady counselor at school to get things sorted out. Shujin Academy is in a bad place right now and the last thing they need is more publicity. They’ll definitely help us make this thing go away… and there I go thinking like a rational adult again.
Okay, back to the game. The stealth mechanic isn’t as annoying as I’d thought it would be, and I’m happy to finally get to collect Personas again. Time to steal some treasure!
