You must submit! (On a personal note, I think Rise's character is so enjoyable almost purely due to Lauren's performance. Not sure I would have warmed up to it as much with a sub.)
Well, I mean, more broadly, they're all about this idea of overcoming something. P3 is about coming to terms with inescapable truths, P4 is about accepting personal flaws and Catherine is about overcoming various forms of infidelity (Amongst other things). I think Persona 5 will be about getting a grip on the parts of your life that drag you down. Maybe it will be smoking, or drinking or who knows what? But I think that might be the way that it goes.
Too much Rise love here. Of the announced characters, I'll be using Narukami. I'll use Teddie if he's in and Naoto if she doesn't look silly.
Well, I mean, more broadly, they're all about this idea of overcoming something. P3 is about coming to terms with inescapable truths, P4 is about accepting personal flaws and Catherine is about overcoming various forms of infidelity (Amongst other things). I think Persona 5 will be about getting a grip on the parts of your life that drag you down. Maybe it will be smoking, or drinking or who knows what? But I think that might be the way that it goes.
I feel like theme of suicide as the "easy way out" was already somewhat expressed in P3. Then again, that was more about dealing with death, where as this could be more about dealing with stress, grind, and the feeling of a worthless existence. What I heard from my friends who grew up in japan is that there is a very strong cultural idea that once you leave high school, everything becomes one massive grind, more so than how Americans view it. There's very little movement between companies, so you're often locked into the first place you work for a very long time.
Hashino's games have all lightly touched upon topical psychological issues in Japan. P3 was clearly about the high suicide rate in japan and the feeling of hopelessness that leads to suicide. P4 was about dealing with people who cover up the truth from society, which while not specific to Japan, has a very large presence in japanese society. (If you've ever seen Freakonomics, they talk about this in depth, in the section about Sumo Wrestlers cheating). Catherine was definitely a reference to the declining marital and birth rates in japan (and other affluent societies), where men are becoming less dominant and more indecisive.
I'm not saying these games were breathtaking exposés on pressing issues, but rather that Hashino's team takes themes from what's actually affecting people at the time.
Well said, but I really do think that suicide was a little more incidental to the themes of Persona 3. It's never directly confronted, and Apathy Syndrome is less something anyone has to deal with head-on so much as representative of the escalating stakes and reinforcing a sense of hopelessness in your continued failure to make a dent in it. Again, the game flirts with suicide and definitely uses the imagery (if only for the shock value), but for as much as Persona 3 deals with 'death', it doesn't really explore the thought process behind contemplating taking your own life. Shinjiro is obviously suicidal and self-destructive, but he's almost always entirely aloof (
and has a pretty short shelf life
) and he doesn't even have a Social Link until P3P. And
there's also Ken, but that bit of where he's going to kill Shinjiro and then kill himself really just comes out of nowhere
. What I really want P5 to look at is what drives someone into that corner, particularly given what we understand of the game's theme - P3 was more about confrontation with societal problems and being crushed by them, while P5 seems like it'll wind up being more about trying to escape it and feeling boxed in (or chained down, as it were).
You hit the nail on the head with regards to how Persona looks at prevalent social issues, though. Makes me wonder if there'll be anything that addresses the population issues that Japan is running into.
You must submit! (On a personal note, I think Rise's character is so enjoyable almost purely due to Lauren's performance. Not sure I would have warmed up to it as much with a sub.)
For sure. Lauren does an astounding job with Rise, and after listening to the P4 anime with the original audio, I can't say that I dug Rise as much as I usually do. No disrespect to Kugimiya by any means, because she's a very talented voice artist with a ton more range than her reputation credits her with, but it was a little too... I guess I'd say overbearing? I'm trying to reach for the right words here, but it's a little too high-pitched and not entirely pleasant to listen to, and moreso never sounded natural to me. I think it'd be really easy to fall into a similar trap with English VA (and as many dubs have and will continue to demonstrate) with worse consequences, but Lauren really did a phenomenal job walking a fine line there with all the peppiness and confidence of the original performance but delivered with a fair share of personal restraint.
I feel like theme of suicide as the "easy way out" was already somewhat expressed in P3. Then again, that was more about dealing with death, where as this could be more about dealing with stress, grind, and the feeling of a worthless existence. What I heard from my friends who grew up in japan is that there is a very strong cultural idea that once you leave high school, everything becomes one massive grind, more so than how Americans view it. There's very little movement between companies, so you're often locked into the first place you work for a very long time.
Hashino's games have all lightly touched upon topical psychological issues in Japan. P3 was clearly about the high suicide rate in japan and the feeling of hopelessness that leads to suicide. P4 was about dealing with people who cover up the truth from society, which while not specific to Japan, has a very large presence in japanese society. (If you've ever seen Freakonomics, they talk about this in depth, in the section about Sumo Wrestlers cheating). Catherine was definitely a reference to the declining marital and birth rates in japan (and other affluent societies), where men are becoming less dominant and more indecisive.
I'm not saying these games were breathtaking exposés on pressing issues, but rather that Hashino's team takes themes from what's actually affecting people at the time.
Fuck college. I wanted my Persona: Cubicle Life Simulator edition.
(increase Social Links by drinking water out of disposable cups around the water cooler, increase Diligence by doing mindless busywork, increase Courage by playing Solitaire while your Boss is watching!)
The P4 voice cast in general was extremely warm. There was a good cohesiveness that isn't always present in a lot of VA work. Lauren and Troy were the stand outs, to me (they far outshine their japanese counterparts in my opinion), but everyone else did a great job. This isn't to knock P3, which also had a pretty great cast, but I really think that localization hit it out of the park in P4. Something about their performances just seemed really natural.
I've made my peace with the fact that 5 will be set in a High School Enviroment. Looking at P2, especially Eternal Punishment, i see that we can have a mature story with a story set in such a place. hopefully we get an age variation in the party members, like in EP.
And please, please, please bring Philemon back in full form. Would be so, so awesome.
I also love the concept of the theme. Overcoming obstacles to free yourself holds many possibilities. I hope its handled well
I can just imagine philemon telling the protagonist, after awakening his persona "Go forth. Breal down the walls that tower over you, and seek emancipation."
Edit: That Hashino interview says that there's a message hidden in the chains and chairs? Someone please get on that.
I expect something obscure and ridiculous, like how the leg of the second chair is in the center of the chain handle, while all the others' legs are pressed up against a side of the handle.
You must submit! (On a personal note, I think Rise's character is so enjoyable almost purely due to Lauren's performance. Not sure I would have warmed up to it as much with a sub.
