Hello and welcome to Wasted Plotential, where we discuss the wasted potential of our favourite
plotlines.
Persona 5 Royal is the enhanced release of Persona 5, with new characters and a new story
set after the vanilla release's climax. I'm going to spoil the entire thing, so you have
no right to complain if you get spoiled.
Royal introduces two new characters: Kasumi Yoshizawa and Takuto Maruki. Maruki is a councillor,
who gains the power to manipulate reality, which he intends to use to create a world
where no one has to be sad by erasing everyone's problems and even bringing the dead back to
life. The Phantom Thieves get caught up in this reality, with only Joker and the newly
revived Akechi being aware of the changes. The rest are just obliviously living in this
reality where Futaba's mother and Makoto and Haru's fathers are still alive, Shiho never
tried to kill herself, and other general improvements have been made. Once the truth is exposed
to the group, the illusion is shattered and all the changes made for their benefits are
undone. Maruki then gives them a month to live in this reality and then decide if they
intend to embrace his reality, or to reject it and substitute their own.
One issue here is that the benefits the Phantom Thieves gain from this reality are taken away
once they realise the truth. So, how is this extra month supposed to convince them if they
don't get to sample the benefits anymore to compare? Fucking idiot.
The other issue is that this new content, true to Atlus' history, is not particularly
well integrated with the older content, and I can't imagine even someone who knows nothing
about the original going in to not notice how much emphasis is placed on the new characters,
who have no real bearing on the plot until after the group has taken down what is essentially
a god ten months into the game. And the new plot just really takes the wind out of the
sails of the base game's fantastically epic climax. It feels like a tumour stapled onto
the end of an already overly-long game and the assertion that Maruki is more powerful
than Yaldabaoth really doesn't sit right with me.
And then, once the new final boss is beaten, everything goes back to how it was supposed
to be with Joker being in prison, with the only appreciable difference being that Yoshizawa
is part of the team in this version, making the entire thing feel like one of the spin-offs
was unceremoniously dumped into a rerelease instead of being released on its own, where
this new plot would have more time to develop.
And just to be clear, Maruki is neither a bad character, nor a bad antagonist. He had
the potential to be a fantastic final foe for the team, if given the room to fully explore
his methodology and to challenge the team on, not only a physical and mental level,
but on a philosophical one too. Maruki is a kind of dark reflection of the Phantom Thieves
themselves. Their goals are basically the same: societal reform. The difference is that
Maruki's version of this goal is on a much grander scale, and he actually has the power
to achieve that. In a way, there is a degree of hypocrisy on the part of the Phantoms,
that I don't recall being brought up, for calling him out for messing with people's
hearts and desires, when they themselves do that too. The difference is that they only
do it to bad people and Futaba, who specifically asked them to do it, while Maruki does it
to everyone.
An actual philosophical debate between Maruki and Joker could have been really interesting,
not only to explore their differences in methodology and philosophy, but also as a kind of culmination
of their conversations in Maruki's confidant story earlier in the game. It could even be
that performing poorly in the debate could lead to some party members losing resolve
and impacting the player's ability to properly fight Maruki in the end. Making this a spin-off
would have given them a lot more time to explore these ideas, and could well have cemented
Maruki as one of the best villains the series ever had, right up there with Nyx, Adachi
and Kamoshida. As is, he's good, but feels somewhat rushed and out-of-place here.
In summary, we don't get much time to see how the new reality affects the group before
their reality is put back to how it was, we don't get to see them living out these fake
lives while knowing they're fake, and the new characters would feel less out-of-place
if they were introduced in a standalone follow-up to the main game, rather than being crammed
into the main game.
And another aspect of this new content that would work better in a spin-off than in P5
itself is... well, the entire altered reality idea. What if they used that premise in one
of the crossover spin-offs like Q or Arena? What if the characters living in a world where
their greatest desires are realised, including dead loved ones being alive again, was applied
to Persona 3 and 4 as well? Spoilers for those games are also coming up.
Imagine the spin-off is set after vanilla Persona 5 or a version that has the setup
for Maruki and Yoshizawa's stories for the spin-off. We're about five years removed from
our last time meeting the P3 and 4 casts. Like how the Arena games moved the P3 cast
forward in their lives, this game takes them even further and does the same for the P4
cast.
The story opens with Yu Narukami waking up in the Dojima house in Inaba. He's confused,
since he's currently living in his hometown. Nanako comes to wake him up. He goes downstairs
to find Nanako and her father eating breakfast, alongside Nanako's dead mother and even Adachi.
Yu quickly calls Aigis, whose number we'll say he got during Arena. She confirms that
something is wrong on her end too, the camera panning to reveal that Shinji and the P3 protagonist
are also both alive again. We'll call the P3 hero Minato instead of Makoto here to avoid
confusion with Queen. Aigis uses Shadow Operative resources to track the source of this new
reality to Tokyo. Yu agrees to meet up with them there.
In Tokyo, Joker awakens in the attic of Leblanc. Like Yu, he's supposed to be back home, so
this is strange. He comes downstairs to find Wakaba alive and Morgana as a human. Akechi
shows up and confirms that reality has been altered but only they are aware of it. They
go to investigate, tracking down a palace that they conclude to be the source of this
reality.
It's outside the palace that the veteran team meets the two Phantom Thieves and both sides
are distrustful of one another. The veterans have heard of the Phantom Thieves and their
actions, allowing us to learn how the older characters felt about the rumours and the
election. Meanwhile, the other two assume the veterans are responsible, thanks to Aigis
identifying the two as Persona users. A possible fight is interrupted by the arrival of the
Velvet Room attendants, who get them back on track. Once everything is cleared up, they
go inside and confront Maruki. He tells them to go and observe how much happier their friends
are before they pass judgement.
They do so before reuniting a week later to compare notes. It's theorised that the only
people who remember the old reality are those with the Wild Card ability and Persona users
who should be dead. During this week we find that, like with Makoto and Haru, Mitsuru and
Yukari have gotten their respective fathers back. Also, Yosuke and Junpei's respective
lost loves are alive and happily dating them.
We even explore various social links and confidants to learn that, for example: the three traitors
never killed anyone or betrayed their respective allies, and Takase never died and now regularly
meets Kawakami to chat about their lives. Things do seem genuinely better on the surface,
but the group determines that the old reality is preferable, because this one just coddles
people until they're faced with unavoidable sadness, as immortality is probably not attainable;
and that many people's dreams will clash, prompting Maruki to forcibly rewrite people's
wants to make them more compatible. That last one is briefly touched on in Royal, but Maruki
is never confronted with the immorality of such a thing, and there's no real debate about
why Maruki's reality is bad; we kinda just put a stop to it because the group decides
that things aren't supposed to be this way.
By now, the other party members from each game have noticed that their leaders are acting
strangely and begin to worry, especially when Joker and Akechi start hanging out with total
strangers and when the others take mysterious trips to Tokyo without telling anyone. They
all come to investigate and are confronted with the truth by Maruki. Some of them do
not take it well.
Maruki gives them one month to experience this new reality from the outside, but they
actually get to keep their own benefits this time. Futaba, for example, has the next month
with her mother, knowing she's supposed to be dead, but will get to live in Maruki's
reality. This way, those resurrections actually have plot relevance, rather than just being
five minute cameos that can show up in screenshots to get fans theorising about the "interesting
new plot". Fuck off, Atlus.
This leads to a split in the group, as some of them would rather have reality stay as
it is, such as Futaba, Yukari and Junpei. A mature character like Makoto could show
a hidden side as they want to stay in this reality, while a less mature character, such
as Yosuke, who is dating the still alive Saki in this reality, shows surprising maturity
by saying they need to go back to the old one. The big one comes from Minato, Shinji
and Akechi, who want to return things to how they should be, even knowing full well that
they won't be around to see it. I love that shit.
The divide can have an effect on gameplay too, as those that embrace the new reality
leave the party and have to be convinced to come back, with the player having to really
put their knowledge of the characters, what they lost and what they gained, to use in
convincing them. New players can get help catching up by getting recaps of past events
from Theodore, giving him a real purpose for once. Some characters are harder to convince
than others, like Futaba and Yukari, who really do not take loss well, as seen in Futaba's
backstory and The Answer, respectively. Luckily, Wakaba can sense something is wrong and help
convince Futaba, at least.
If you don't manage to get everyone on the same page by the time you're going after Maruki,
those characters will fight to defend him from the others. It's kinda like The Answer,
but without making anyone unlikable or contriving a series of two-on-two battles.
As for Yoshizawa, she is now much more heavily tied to Maruki, maybe being his niece and
serving as a more significant motivator for his actions. She is now the OC of this crossover,
similar to the likes of Labrys and Rei. She will oppose the player no matter what to help
bolster the objectors group. Once they're beaten, they can be talked around to rejoin
the party, but you have to work through their guilt. Unlike Royal, though, these scenes
actually get full voice acting because they're significant moments of growth for the characters
and should be prioritised in the budget over random faffing around with Yoshizawa.
Once Maruki is beaten, the cast are returned to the real world and crowd into the cafe,
where the player can use the three protagonists to comfort their friends before reality finally
reverts and they have to say goodbye to Minato, Shinji and Akechi again, leading to a bittersweet
ending overall.
And a few more details I couldn't find a place to fit it:
Only those who learn about the two realities will remember the fake one. So, Nanako won't
have to go through losing her mother again, but Futaba will, for example.
Yoshizawa can still be styled after the Phantom Thieves here because she goes to the same
school as some of them and she really looks up to Joker for helping her come to terms
with her own loss.
This would be somewhat unique for a Persona spin-off, since one that takes place after
P3 can't use Shinji or Minato without undoing P3's ending, which would be a net loss for
the franchise, I think. As such, Persona Q and Dancing use time travel to pluck the characters
from the middle of their adventure and then put them back with no memory, so they can
use the dead characters without messing with the timeline. This spin-off would allow the
story to move forward, rather than adding nothing to the story and erasing everyone's
memories at the end, thereby making the whole thing feel like more of a waste of time than
if the characters had just dreamed it all up, while not damaging Minato and Shinji's
fates.
Seriously, everyone getting their memories erased at the end is an even worse ending
than it all being a dream, because at least the dream can serve as an epiphany to push
a character forward. If they forget the adventure, then it will very rarely (if ever) matter
again. Stop having the spin-offs make themselves redundant, Atlus. How is it that Koei's doing
this better than you with your own IP?
And while I'm here, I may as well get into the other thing, or I'll never hear the end
of it.
Aigis, Naoto and Ann among party members;
Elizabeth, Naoto and Kawakami overall.
Call Lyle Rath, because I just started a comment war.
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Today's recommended video is Why Persona 5's Okumura Palace is THE WORST by Oziach.
It sums up the issues with that part of the narrative quite well.
Seriously, even if he wasn't a goddamn simp, fuck Morgana.