Like I've watched a lot of anime cos I'm a DWEEB and yet nothing I have seen comes close to the constant bullshit attacks of lgbt that persona does.
Persona not be bigoted shit challenge IMPOSSIBLE.
How tf am I supposed to play these games? Persona 4 golden is just plain shit beginning to end Kanji and Nauto arcs are just insults front to back.
Anyway I'm enjoying persona 1 and 3 until the game enforces I don't cos Atlas couldn't make a fucking worthwhile game if they tried. Why do i do this to myself?
Oh and don't look up generic G*mer thoughts on the series unless you want to be expose to some weapons grade brainworms
Pretty much all Japanese media: OMG CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW GROSS IT WOULD BE TO BE GAY? SO GROSS WOW.
It's disgusting and I hate myself for consuming it anyway.
It sounds like P3R attempts to fix some of it's issues, but falls a bit short: https://www.inverse.com/gaming/persona-3-reload-beach-scene-transphobia
These Atlus RPGs have always had these issues, but it's less present in the mainline Shin Megami Tensei games.
Edit:
I think Tokyo Mirage Sessions was relatively alright? I have to admit that most of my memory of that game was overwritten by VAGINA BONES discourse from theNevermind, I remembered the creepy coach guy that is obsessed with the elementary school idol girl.
s.Yosuke can't say 3 lines of dialogue without including something sexist or homophobic and you're just supposed to think that's funny I guess.
i always thought naoto was about gender roles rather than gender identity. like it's giving atlus way too much credit to say they even know enough to have a bad take on gender theory.
I dont have a problem with the character nor the challenge of gender roles my very specific gripe is the boss of the dungeon being some surgeon who "mutilates" you to change gender.
The issue was men in her life so the boss very easily could have been ynow the men who stopped her being a detective not some fucking surgeon doing a trans.
Oh and to add the men in her life basically saying "you should be a woman to please my eyes"
I really liked Persona 4 and its gameplay. I can overlook problematic stuff if the gameplay is worthwhile.
Fire Emblem Fates is pretty bad with its bisexual character undergoing gay conversion therapy and the overall shitty story, but I love playing it because the gameplay makes up for it.
Using the mod that lets any FE characters get together regardless of gender
Seeing Chrom referred to as "wife" in Awakening is forever funny
Seeing Chrom referred to as "wife" in Awakening is forever funny
Show
This is where it falls short for me cos i hate the gameplay. Fukin pokemon ass find the weakness
Honest question how do you get around the problematic elements? In P4G i could barely defend Kanji (best boy) as the dead eyed wank stain that is the MC
Gonna be honest ive only played p5r and im almost done with p5s.
I have p4 in my library so ill get back to you in like 6 months
Fair enuff. Not saying you can't enjoy the games but i started with P4G on vita and that game killed any and all enjoyment of the series for me. Giving P3R and P1/P2 a fair shake atm but this is like 2 maybe more years later
Persona 4 hit me at a very specific time in both my life and the world that I think led me to some very generous readings of the character storylines. I played it shortly out of high school in like 2009 and was dealing with a lot of orientation and gender questions of my own. At that time in the US (midwest at least) portrayals and expectations of homosexual men were not much better than the bathhouse stuff in Kanji's dungeon. As an AMAB person in that time period who was firmly denying and rejecting my attraction to men, I related really closely to how Kanji felt and what he was going thru. Mentally struggling thru the culturally ingrained homophobia growing up in that time (I remember distinctively thinking as a younger teen "I can't be Gay, I don't speak with a lisp, love the color pink, or have a limp wrist") felt fairly similar to the more japanese example of muscly bathouse guys that Kanji's unconscious projects into his dungeon.
From that viewpoint and processing the dungeons as manifestations of the character's own perceptions instilled by the large cultural collective unconscious ( a big persona theme with its shadow worlds) I think its possible to not read that dungeon as malicious. This also takes into account that Shadows selves are not bad, just something the person wants to reject (No one could really argue that Yukiko feeling trapped is portrayed as evil / bad and I think that is one of the main themes of the game)
Even with generous readings - I do think Naoto's dungeon being mad scientist themed was a fumble that the writers didn't consider the implication of. The vibe I think (hope) they were going with would have worked better with a magic / wizard theme. My own gender thoughts at the time would often turn to "I wish I could cast some spell or push a button and be able look how I want and have everyone treat me as if I've always been that way" - I can see a CIS person taking that mindset they may heard of and clumsily applying Naoto's more analytical mind to make the mad scientist surgery theme.
Even so, both characters facing parts of them they didn't want to acknowledge and embracing them as part of who they are did help me to finally break past my own denial that I feel like was much more common in the era it was released.
THAT BEING SAID, I am aware this is the most generous reading possible and later Atlus properties like P5's portrayal of "real world" (not metaverse zietgiest construct) LGBTQ characters have informed me these readings are almost certainly incorrect but I hope it at least answers the question of how some people can have fond memories or even felt like the game helped them come to terms with their own orientation and gender identity.
My issue with Kanji was less his dungeon and more how the other characters treat him. He gets treated like shit constantly the whole game and only ever really seems to be a friend of the MC and it upset me in general cos he never did anything wrong. His treatment by the rest of the group really rubbed me the wrong way and I feel he never got a proper completion to his arc.
Its been a while since i played so i can't remember exact details but its the feeling the game left me with when I did play it
Oh yeah, it absolutely sucks that you can't tell Yosuke to shut the fuck up. While that shitty treatment is fairly accurate to how my high school was at the time towards the one out kid, it doesn't at all excuse the party, who are all growing into better people by the game's logic, being consistently terrible towards him.
I was like 15 or something when I first played P4. I dropped P4 basically the second the party steps into Kanji's dungeon.
It's been a really long time since I played P3 but O Dear Wise Owl, what are the queerphobias in Persona 3? Please do enlighten me if you so wish
I'm yet to hit any I'm early game I'll update you once i get there. My issue currently are with P1 being garbage. Judgement 1999 setting me off
P3 has the woman at the beach scene which is removed from reloaded I'm not aware of anything further outside of the MCs social links being the cringiest redditors in existence
