"Trickster. This was not the fate meant for you. You have sacrificed yourself and was rewarded so little. We are going to fix this."
Persona 5 New Game Plus: Joker’s Second Chance is a Persona 5 Peggy Sue fanfic. It’s a collab between GreyKing46 and GhostKaiser23.
Two years after the events of the original game, Ren Amamiya shoots himself in the head. Expecting death, he instead wakes up on the day he came to Tokyo. Turns out the Velvet Room’s main head, Philemon, decided to give him a second chance after seeing his death and sent him to the past to redo his journey.
The game was not rigged in his favor... what if it was?
It can be found here
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Tropes for this fanfic include:
- Abandoned Hospital: Oyamada's Palace takes the form of castle with the inside being a creepy hospital.
- Acceptable Breaks from Canon: Due to the story being written before Strikers and Royal was released, characters from Royal got adapted out and Ren's situation in his hometown is much bleaker in comparison to Strikers hinting that Joker's situation in his hometown is positive due to Yaldabaoth's cognitive control of the public masses, including those in Joker's hometown being released in light of his defeat.
- Adaptational Badass: Shiho, Kawakami, and Tae all gain Personas.
- Adapted Out:
- Due to the story being written before Strikers was released globally, the events of Strikers and Tactica by extension didn't occur in Ren's original timeline in this stoy. Especially as Strikers hints that Joker's situation in his hometown is far more optimistic in comparison to Ren's own in this story due to canon hinting that Yaldabaoth being defeated for good means that the false god's More than Mind Control on the people of Tokyo that caused Joker to be reviled for no reason is no longer in effect, which includes those in Joker's hometown, resulting in Joker being portrayed as a lot more cheerful by the time of Strikers, while Ren doesn't have canonical Joker's luck with his hometown in this story.
- Due the story following the original game instead of Royal, Maruki, Kasumi and Jose don't appear.
- Adaptational Villainy: Oyamada caused a lot of trouble for Tae, but he was only a Mementos target and never developed a Palace. Here, he has.
- The Alcatraz: Kobayakawa's Palace takes the form a military prison where he serves as General, with a cognition of Makoto serving as his most loyal henchwoman.
- Ascended Extra:
- While Shiho had a minor role in the game, Ren’s actions led to her not jumping off the school roof and coming to Kamoshida’s Palace, leading her to awaken the same time as Ann and becoming a member of the Phantom Thieves as their scout
- Kawakami eventually awakens her own Persona in Kobyakawa’s Palace.
- Due to Oyamada developing a Palace, Tae gets involved in the heist and awakens her Persona.
- Berserk Button: Yadalaboth and Shido are both sore spots for Joker. During the first trip of Mementos, he flies into a blind rage shooting at the locked gate that leads to the Holy Grail.
- Big "NO!": The last thing Ren hears before killing himself in the old timeline is Morgana trying in vain to stop him.
- Boom, Headshot!: Ren's fate in the original timeline.
- Butterfly of Doom:
- Due to Ren’s insistence of not letting Makoto get involved with Kaneshiro, she doesn’t awaken her Persona in his Palace and he’s much stronger when the group faces him due to not knowing them.
- As another consequence of dealing with Kaneshiro privately, Principal Kobyakawa hadn’t been scared off and Medjed wasn’t sent after the thieves. This would eventually lead Kobayakawa to form his own Palace that the Thieves have to shut down, as he had threatened to have Makoto expelled if his heart isn’t changed.
- This is the explanation by the authors for some of the new Palaces forming. The Thieves' reputation is what caused some people to only be in Mementos out of fear of being a potential target. In the new timeline, though, they're more under the radar, and the lack of a threat has caused some people to form Palaces of their own, like Dr. Oyamada.
- Clock Tower: Ren’s True Velvet Room takes the form of this
- Code Name: Shiho has “Dove”, Kawakami has “Fleur”, and Tae has "Seacole".
- Cutting Off the Branches: The story follows the original game rather than Royal. Additionally, the story timeline doesn't include Strikers in Ren's original timeline, which hints that Joker's situation with his family and hometown is much more optimistic due to Joker being shown to be cheerful in Strikers canon contrasting Ren's own Happy Ending Override in this story. Justified Trope, however, as the story was initially published before Strikers was released globally.
- Deconstruction: The story deconstructs the ending of Joker and Morgana returning back home after everything's over by pointing out how bad an idea it was for Ren to get back home and stay there for a year when stigma against former criminals, even after Ren was proven to be innocent and how Shido framed him, doesn't erase easily in a small countryside town than it would in a big city like Tokyo. All of which led to Ren and Morgana suffering from scorn from his old hometown because they refuse to give Ren another chance despite his now clear and proven innocence at the time with Ren's parents trying to extort him of the money he gained over the year in Tokyo because of the "shame" he gave to the family name among some examples. This later contributed to Ren committing suicide as a last defiant act against the people of his hometown who expect him to falter and be pressurized to follow the status quo of Japanese society. Had Philemon not bring him back in time, Ren's death would have been permanent.
- Despair Event Horizon: Losing all contact with his old friends and Morgana in the old timeline was the tipping point for Ren.
- Downer Beginning: The story starts with Ren, broken by society, shooting himself in the head.
- Groin Attack: Shiho escapes Kamoshida by delivering one of these to him.
- Happy Ending Override: Ren going back to his hometown after the ending of the main game is revealed to be a bad idea because the people living in the countryside are too set on the ingrained, traditional and societal beliefs in contrast to those living in a big modern city that Ren ends up being even more scorned despite his name being cleared.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite his time travel, it’s shown that Joker still found his way into police custody and has to tell his story to Sae
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: While Morgana did return to the past with Ren with his abilities intact, he doesn’t remember anything that happened in the game (he does retain memories of being a Phantom Thief/the embodiment of Hope and everything that happened when they went to Ren’s hometown though)
- New Game Plus: True Igor explains this is how he’s gonna beat Yaldabaoth this time around. In this new timeline, Joker now has access to what he had before his death: memories of the old timeline, most of his equipment, all Personas he had registered in the compendium, and his Social Stat levels which are all at Level 3.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: The people at Ren's hometown view Ren in a "Once a criminal, always a criminal" light despite the fact that his innocence has been proven (And due to heavy stigma to former criminals in general in Japanese society) and it's one of the factors of Ren's life spiraling in his hometown.
- One Degree of Separation: Turns out Tae used to date Sae in college.
- Point of Divergence:
- Thanks to Ren telling Shiho to stand up for herself, she gets away from Kamoshida before he does anything to her, so she never attempts suicide. This allows her to join Ann in Kamoshida’s palace and gain a Persona as well.
- Since Makoto doesn’t awaken in Kaneshiro’s Palace, she awakens in Kobayakawa’s Palace, which takes place after Futaba’s Palace
- Polyamory: Ren is slowly gaining one. Currently, Ann, Shiho, and Tae have all agreed to share Joker, while Futaba has confessed to him. Makoto, Haru, Kawakami, and Ohya have also gained interest in him, as well as the twins and Lavenza.
- According to True Igor, Yu Narukami also has several lovers, two confirmed to be Rise and Naoto.
- Porn with Plot: There are chapters where Ren is busy satisfying his harem.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: After realizing he's now in the past, Arsene suggests to him to fix his mistakes concerning Shiho, Mr. Okumura, and Akechi. So far, he has managed to save Shiho
- She Is All Grown Up: Ren notices that Lavenza had grown up to be a beautiful young woman
- Shout-Out: In chapter 11, the Thieves start quoting a Great Rider show.
- Starts with a Suicide: Ren’s to be exact.
- Sudden Game Interface: To help Joker, True Igor gives him a new phone app which works how the game’s menu would
- Tarot Motifs: Shiho becomes a new Confidant Link under the Arcana of Lust, which is a symbol of life, purpose, and self improvement. Her link story is her slowly overcoming her trauma from Kamoshida.
- Trauma Button: While Shiho wasn’t raped in the new timeline, the fact that it nearly happened still has her traumatized that she doesn't do well with crowds and trains.
- Wham Line: Chapter 40 features another part of the interrogation with Sae. She then reveals that another new Target has popped up in the timeline... and it's not one that's expected:Sae: Tell me why you targeted Dr. Oyamada? And what does my ex-girlfriend have to do with any of this?
- Wham Shot: One straight in Chapter 2, nonetheless. Instead of summoning Zorro like Joker expected, Morgana summons Mercurius, his Ultimate Persona. This makes Joker realize Mona remembers the old timeline.
