Persona 5 and P5: Royal Edition

I keep bumping into Makoto trying to spy on me in different areas hiding behind her book. At first, I thought it would just be in the school but I found her in Shibuya as well. Brilliant stuff!

I noticed during your trip to the TV station that Goro picks up on something Morgana says, which surely must mean he's the mysterious other Metaverse user fucking everything up and causing the mental breakdown. Unless Ryuji or Ann mentioned "pancakes" in relation to that amusement park, I think I've cracked it. I felt chuffed when I picked up on that as I didn't realise who Persona 4's villain was until stupidly late in the game.

At this point it's pretty obvious Akechi is the nasty Persona user we've heard is running around.  Haru may have a black mask, but as she only just started it's clearly a red herring that I'm not going to fall for for even a second!  Still a lot about him remains a mystery, such as his motivations and whether he's working autonomously or for the SIU that's super deep into exploiting the Metaverse for their own ends.  Either way he almost certainly knows who they are now (although he'd already pretty much worked it out) so I'm guessing some kind of collision is looming.

Speaking of the palaces I see we're getting back to dealing with the truly despicable again.  He's not Kamoshida nasty but he's pretty damn close, selling your own daughter off like that is all kinds of sick.  I can kind of understand how a person could run a business without giving a damn about the faceless masses they employ as it's human nature to become detached to people when they're just statics, but expecting your not-even-of-age daughter to become a guys plaything?  Blegh.  

Still no idea who the traitor is, honestly at this point I'm beginning to think there wasn't one and the MC got stitched up.  Akechi does seem to know after all.  

I love that Akechi turned out to be a ninth party member, and a pretty cool one at that.  Not sure I like how he's almost taken over as leader,
or that he's basically blackmailing the Phantoms into quitting.  That said the whole confrontation at the assembly was great to watch, could've cut the tension with a knife.  

Still there's one thing that bothers me, and I dunno if it's my memory being faulty, the writers slipping up, or something more, but I distinctly remember him mentioning Pancakes at the tv studio waaaaay back, which unless my memory is faulty was something only Morgana mentioned out loud.  Meh, probably just forgetting one of them rebuking Morgana like they almost always do when bantering.

Meanwhile Sae having a palace is a great turn, no idea how this is going to resolve though, it looks like the flashbacks are mere moments from finally intersecting with the present, she seems a little less on edge during the interrogation but who knows, maybe she isn't that bad despite having a palace.  Futaba wasn't.

I like what they did here, rather than make Akechi being the traitor some huge bombshell they instead chose to make the twist that the cast themselves knew he was suspect from the start and instead tricked him. Having a genre savvy cast that actually picks up on hints given to them is so refreshing.

Sae simply being brought back to her senses rather than having a forced change of heart was also a pleasant twist, proof that not all problems need solving from forced heart changes.

Back to Akechi, I have to wonder though what is up with his powers. He clearly was using a disguise when dealing with the party as Crow and his normal outfit and Persona must be different, and yet both are a representation of a persons true and hidden nature, for him to be able to go from assassin's garb to Crow and presumably back to assassin form, well, lets just say I think it alludes to something else going on here.

Shido's great, an absolutely loathsome villain who not even five minutes into his palace has already killed my respect for politicians in general. The scary thing is that with Trump in the White House villains like Shido aren't even unrealistic anymore.

The irony when the gang finally takes him down is going to be oh so sweet. Taken out by a group formed by a guy whose life led to form the Phantom Thieves solely because he himself decided to screw with other people.

I smiled when I read you ragging on Sae earlier knowing she was going to get her own Palace later in the game.

Haven't made much progress, slowly chipping away at the seventh Palace with its five minibosses and mouse trap labyrinths.  I adore how this game manages to juggle dark themes with insane style and ridiculous comedy.  

Also I kinda get the feeling that "cleaner" doesn't mean a guy with a mop, if you catch my drift. . .

I hated that mouse section! Far too long and tedious for a game that had been somewhat snappy with its dungeon design prior to that. It was neat the first couple of times, but it definitely dragged.