The Shadow Self Arc
So, I think I may have been unduly harsh on this arc. On the one hand, I don't feel it lives up to the Shadow Selves of Persona 4, nor to the Shadow Self of Persona 1, but on the other hand, Maki's Shadow Self is the center piece of Persona 1, and Persona 4 has years and years of experience under its belt. Both scenarios differ from Persona 2, which should be credited as taking the concept of Maki's Shadow Self, applying it to a whole party and laying the foundation for their return in Persona 4. I think aspects of the Shadow Self Showdowns were not properly built up to, and that this left some elements to fall flat or feel like they cheapened the entire effect, but at the same time I need to bear in mind that this is the first time the team had really tried its hand at anything like this, mistakes were bound to happen, and that it isn't all bad.
So here are my thoughts as regards rankings. I don't like ranking, since it doesn't yield much reasonable content for discussion, but I'll throw down my rankings all the same and pray I do a sufficient job of explaining my thoughts regarding them after ward:
Shadow Eikichi > Shadow Yukino = Shadow Lisa > Shadow Tatsuya > Shadow Maya.
Beginning from the bottom and working my way to the top so that I can dispense with complaints and move toward praise, I'm not much of a fan of Shadow Maya. Mostly because I felt that she felt less like Maya's Shadow and more like Maya's Foreshadowing of the Reveal. She didn't seem to have much to do with Maya, and seemed almost entirely built around the "orphanage" reveal, which I'm not a big fan of anyway. Maya also reacts least to her, and why not? We're never really given any indication that the sarcastic, judgmental, caustic Shadow Maya we meet is at all related to the cheerful, forgiving, and overwhelmingly positive Maya. Her character is perhaps twisted by rumors and expectations, which excuses her, but leaves me with little real cause to feel any impact from her. That said, Shadow Maya was an interesting concept, especially as an unnoticed party member with her own nasty outlook on things.
Shadow Tatsuya does confront Tatsuya, but the problem there sort of stems from the fact that there really isn't a lot to Tatsuya's character to build off of. The confrontation sort of circles around Jun, who I don't really like, but more importantly includes bits about Tatsuya's character that weren't really brought up prior to this point in any real way. I applaud it, all the same, for doing what it could to characterize the silent protagonist, and, when taken as a criticism of a PC who is just following player's commands it sort of works better. If they had done like in P1 and had Tatsuya's Shadow condemn or praise him based on the player's choices, it would've been even better, I think.
Shadow Lisa is built to fairly well. We know she's coming a long way off because of her posters in Muse, and Lisa's hatred of her father and standing out in general are discussed at length over the course of the game. Her affection for Tatsuya is an established and central part of her character, and attacking all of these is most certainly one of the best moves the game could pull. In a way, Shadow Lisa is the truest to the way Shadows would be portrayed later on in the series, and she almost feels more aggressive than Shadow Maya in the way she goes about replacing Lisa by spending time with her friends. The encounter is marred by the writers going just a bit too far by introducing the whole "drugs and sex" aspect and then not addressing it at all, but discounting this hazardous misstep, I feel that it really is a solid Shadow Self encounter in every other way.
Shadow Yukino is great in general because Yukino herself is an excellent character. Her rough and tumble life is addressed prior to the showdown, but in an ambiguous way that makes Shadow Yukino's specific mockery much more understandable. Especially since Yukino is an older character. Indeed, the breaking of Yukino is done well enough that, even though the player is unlikely to care about her dead boyfriend, they may well still be affected by the loss because they feel for Yukino. Her Shadow's words are made believable by the fact that Yukino hints at this dark side frequently, when she isn't openly addressing it in the character of Anna. If there is a downside to Shadow Yukino, other than that the player can only experience half of her encounter, it'd be the sort of crazy kiss with Anna. It's just a bit much in a scene that doesn't need it, but since that's only in the "bad" route I'm not overly upset, either.
Shadow Eikichi is fucking awesome and the game's writing at its best. It's funny, because on the one hand, Shadow Eikichi doesn't talk much about Eikichi, but on the other hand, everything he says and does is EXACTLY about Eikichi and it hits him dead on. Miyabi was introduced as a pudgy, kinda homely girl who had once been romantic with Eikichi. Eikichi, in turn, turned out to have once been a pudgy, homely, dorky kid. He spends a fair amount of time talking up how hot Miyabi was back when they dated, unaware that she's right next to him when he's saying this stuff. When she's kidnapped by the New Boss or whoever, and they mock her and call her names for being fat, Eikichi comes to her defense in a big way. That scene is enhanced by the later knowledge that Eikichi himself used to be fat, and had to endure the scorn of others. And it all comes together when Miyabi, now hot and tall and thin through the devices of the Masked Circle is seen in the arms of Shadow Eikichi. She turned to evil for his sake, and after the encounter Eikichi tells her he never cared about her weight, but that she hadn't cared about his.
Personally, the entire story of Eikichi and Miyabi is the most Persona-y part of the game. It's a story of two kids with very human problems that are exacerbated by supernatural forces. It's full of heart and sincerity, the kind of problem you expect that anyone can relate to or feel for regardless of their own issues. It rings real and true in a way I don't actually think much else in this game does (in part from design, since "is this for real?" is a part of the game.)
The Shadow Self encounters, in spite of my bitching and moaning about this or that frustrating snag, do help to develop the cast. They do add depth to them, whatever other faults I may find. I don't think the idea was executed perfectly in most cases, but I think it's unfair and unrealistic of me to expect perfection at every turn. Perhaps the best part of the Shadow Selves, though, is the way they tie into the game's central thread of rumors becoming reality. Sumaru City is going insane with lie after lie becoming the truth, and with people adopting masks to hide the things they don't like about themselves through the power of Joker and the Masked Circle, but along the way the cast is forced to face beings who are almost antithetical versions of themselves: Shadows who claim to be the true self, but embody the traits each most despises about themself. The heroes, armed with Personas, masks of their own that embody the power and strength of their characters, actually manage to discern the truth from the lies and accept their Shadow Selves. On a day when fucking Hitler comes back from the dead with a mech army wielding the Lance of Longinus on a Space Ship, when they could easily get away with saying "You're not me!" and if they believed it strongly enough make it so that those Shadows ceased to exist through the power of these rumors become reality, they actually stand up to their inner selves and accept them.
Thematically, it's really quite brilliant.