Arc Plays Games

Hello! My name is Arcturus! For some fucking reason, I have been liveblogging games, particularly the Persona series. I started randomly reacting to Persona 3 Portable because it was so goddamn good, I shouldn't stop. This evolved into full-blown recaps and analyses of Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Royal.

Yeah, I know.

I'm a cartomancy geek and a writer. My liveblogs tend to be summaries and hopefully amusing reactions to what's happening, but also a lot of wild conjecture about the twists in the story, rambling about narrative, and poking all the themes with a stick. I'm pretty thorough, have a lot of thoughts, and praise the games when they are good and break down the failings when they are Not Good.

I am also a Teddie and Morgana Apologist. My favorite character in the series thus far is Kanji Tatsumi. I tend to argue quite a bit with the arcana assignments of characters and offer more suitable options.

If you wanna check out my liveblogs, here are some links. They will work much better if opened on desktop or in your phone's browser, as these are /chrono links, meaning they will show the posts in chronological order.

Persona 3 Portable: Here! (https://arcplaysgames.tumblr.com/tagged/p3p/chrono)

NOTE this kind of just starts in the middle because I didn't expect P3P to be That Fucking Good so it started as my reaction posts and then evolved into a proper liveblog.

Persona 4 Golden: Here! (https://arcplaysgames.tumblr.com/tagged/p4/chrono)

NOTE this is the first full and complete liveblog. It is long and loaded with speculation and analysis and me falling desperately in love with Kanji Tatsumi.

Persona 5 Royal: Here! (https://arcplaysgames.tumblr.com/tagged/p5/chrono)

A truly enormous liveblog of this game. I went into P5R knowing nothing about the story, and unraveling it was a delight. However, I will warn you: I wound up disliking Ryuji.

Reverie Vantas the Third is the most dog person of the Persona protagonists, I don't know what Theo is talking about.

Akihiko looks great in the winter outfit. You gotta accessorize when you're gonna punch monster to death.

(Actually he's been healing a lot more this playthru and can someone explain why tf Akihiko's Dia does 64HP and Yukari's does 53HP when they are the same level? wtf is that shit)

Anyway I mentioned I love the summer vacation episode in P3P the most. Part of it is that it opens strong with everyone being gay for Mitsuru.

Yukari and Fuuka are gonna roshambo for who gets to help Mitsuru with her sunscreen.

But also its PEAK Akihiko+Junpei Autistic-ADHD Bro Show and I love it.

Junpei is "we need to get girls" and Akihiko is like "Nah" and then Junpei is "oh so you're admitting defeat" and Akihiko is like "BITCH?"

They split up to attempt girl-pick-upage and just.

Akihiko cannot stop infodumping.

oh my god lmao whatever girl told Junpei "please move, you are blocking the sun" is my hero l m a o

boys boys, you're both idiots, no need to fight!

Junpei spots the new party member and tries to chat her up, one last shot, but Aegis plays an uno reverse and the shot reflects and executes Junpei instantly. tragic.

i'm SORRY i just. Aegis has her own fixations and they don't overlap with Akihiko's special interests, so she is utterly immune and it's so fucking good. lmao.

"That type of information is irrelevant to me" CACKLES

fun fact akihiko is undefeated as the top boxer at school and i think he cares about winning soooooooooooooooooooo much more than he lets on

Junpei spots Aegis heading off into the forest alone and

..... /SUSPICIOUS SQUINT

i literally downloaded Yuzu and P5S on my Odin 2 in the past, like, week??? in the hopes of getting myself back into that game and maybe continuing the liveblog, how tf did you know

Yeah I heard. I'm..... sincerely and deeply uninterested with this remake, it's so fucking pointless. The biggest complaint about P3 is that there is no perfect answer for what version to play between FES and P3P. So instead of fixing that, they made the situation WORSE by adding a third option.

WHERE IS SHE WHERE ARE YOU HIDING HER

I did reblog about half of P3P! You can find the link in my pinned post.

For Hanged Man, I stan the Hanged Man card and have v high standards for it, and "lil girl running away from home bc her daddy hit her but its okay bc they love each other" was so wildly off base, it was a disaster. Also the ending where the dad literally hits on you was YIKESARONI.

Temperance was, like. I literally couldn't. I will never know how accurate to Temperance the Card it is because the fucking character made me so intensely uncomfortable, I was like "this feels offensive to about three different demographics, i just cannot."

doesn't happen when you have a folder full of screenshots! actually super useful!

i was making dinner just now and so

you know the part of your palm that the controller sits flush against as you hold it

i may have just sliced that bit of my palm open

it hurts like a bitch and wow that's so much blood

so sliiiiight delay on p5s

............

oh, buddy

i'm going to uh say i didn't know that because if i tell you yeah i've been doing that since, like, i recruited yusuke, you might be sad

hmmm okay lets do a basic round up

I am going to... give points

+ 2 (GREAT job) + 1 (They tried!) + 0 (phoned it in/makes no sense) - 1 (ACTIVELY BAD CHOICE)

Fool: SEES (P3) vs Investigation Team (P4) vs Notigor (P5) Gonna give P3 and P4 0 points bc these do nothing, but P5 gets -1 bc what the fuck

Magician: Junpei Iori (P3) vs Yosuke Hanamura (P4) vs Morgana (P5) Both P3 and P5 get +2 for AMAZING Magicians. P4 gets a 0.

High Priestess: Fuuka (P3) vs Yukiko (P4) vs Makoto (P5) P3 gets the +2 here. P4 gets a -1, Yukiko is a terrible choice. No opinion on Makoto but she doesn't seem like the right pick imo.

Empress: Mitsuru (P3) vs Margaret (P4) vs Haru (P5) I'll give P4 one point and P5 two points. Mits shoulda been Emperor.

Emperor: StuCo Guy (P3) vs Kanji (P4) vs Yusuke (P5) P4 gets +2 for a shockingly good Emperor. P5 gets a -1 for a shockingly bad Emperor.

Hierophant: Old Couple (P3) vs Dojima (P4) vs Sojiro (P5) P3 gets -1 and should feel lucky its only minus one. P4 and P5 get zero points.

Lovers: Yukari (P3) vs Rise (P4) vs Ann (P5) P3 gets the +2, P4 gets +1, P5 gets zero.

Chariot: Rio (P3) vs Chie (P4) vs Ryuji (P5) Everyone gets +1.

Strength: Koromaru (P3) vs Athletes (P4) vs Twin Wardens (P5) P3 gets +1, P4 gets fucking nothing, and P5 gets +2.

Hermit: Saori (P3) vs The Fox (P4) vs Futaba (P5) P3 gets +1, P4 gets -1 bc no that's not what Hermit is, and P5 gets +2 for nailing it.

Fortune: Ryoji (P3) vs Naoto (P4) vs Chihaya (P5) No points, everyone see me after class. Actually, no. P4 and P5 get -1.

Justice: Ken (P3) vs Nanako (P4) vs Akechi (P5) I AM GOING TO GIVE P5 +3 FOR AKECHI, FOR THE FIRST TIME PERSONA FUCKING DID ANYTHING WITH THE JUSTICE ARCANA. AND BOY THEY DID STUFF.

Hanged Man: Maiko (P3) vs Naoki??? (P4) vs Iwai (P5) P3 you get a -1, see me after class. Zero for the others.

Death: Pharos (P3) vs I HAVE NO IDEA (P4) vs Tae (P5) I refuse to give Pharos points, so fucking basic. P5 can have a point.

Temperance: UGH NO (P3) vs uh whoops (P4) vs Kawakami (P5) P3 what the fuck -1, +1 to P4 bc its boring but it fits, and Kawakami gets +2 for fucking nailing it.

Devil: Pres Tanaka (P3) vs that nurse??? (P4) vs Ohya (P5) I'm gonna skip this one bc I don't think I know enough about P4 and P5's to rate. And Tanaka fits but is just Fine. +0 to all.

Tower: Cool Monk (P3) vs uuuuh idk (P4) vs whoops x 2 (P5) Honestly, same as Devil. No points.

Star: Akihiko (P3) vs Teddie (P4) vs Hifumi (P5) FUCKING PLUS 3 TO TEDDIE FOR BEING A TREMENDOUS STAR. +1 to P3 for Akihiko. 0 to P5 bc I don't get the angle.

Moon: Shinjiro (P3) vs that one girl (P4) vs Mishima (P5) Fuck Mishimia. He's an amazing Moon. +2 to P5, zero to the others.

Sun: Akinari (P3) vs Yumi (P4) vs Yoshida (P5) -1 to P4 bc the Sun link sucks. +2 to P3 and P5 for AMAZING Sun links. Yoshida may be the most nuanced take on any NPC's Arcana.

Judgement: Nyx Squad (P3) vs Truth Dudes (P4) vs Sae (P5) P5 gets +1 bc at least they fucking tried, P3 and P4 were just tagged on and superfluous.

World/Universe: Reverie III vs Reverie IV vs Reverie V Reverie The Fourth loses HARD here bc the point of the World is coming to the end of a journey and being changed for it and he doesn't have enough personality to be changed. -1 to P4 Reverie the Third is a decent one who went through a lot and has enough personal stakes that I buy it. +1 to P3 I hate to say it but Reverie the Fifth gets +2. He feels the most complete of them all, so for the Arcana of Completion, or the Whole, it has to be him.

Okay I have no idea what that tallies up to, lemme see.

Persona 3: 10 points Persona 4: 4 points (OUCH) Persona 5: 19 FUCKING POINTS WOW THAT ISN'T EVEN CLOSE

My math might be wrong bc I suck at math (yay, dyscalculia) but that is a huge margin for error.

Honestly, makes sense. Like I said in the post-mortem, P5 succeeds in a lot of ways just for having actual adults available for the arcanas. P4 and P3 are so strongly limited to your classmates, there is only so many ways to make a high school student wacky and weird in a way congruent to their Arcana.

P5 has the worst Emperor in the series by far but it has the best Justice easily and possibly the best Sun and honestly a lot of the NPC SLinks are Just Really Good.

Sorry but telling the guy you personally disabled to "apologize, say you're sorry for being a cripple" is an event horizon no one can come back from imo. Cannot and will not stan her.

Also I talk a lot about how forgiveness is not the goal, you should strive to be a better person for it's own sake. The thing about Vriska is I don't think she seeks forgiveness and I don't think she tries to become better. She's the worst of both worlds.