Persona series

I wouldn't say that Yu has less personality than the other two MCs, just that his personality is less interesting. The P3 MC has an aloof brooding sort of vibe to him, but doesn't fall into the trap of being an Ineffectual Loner who needs to be taught the value of friendship — he's just sort of quietly reliable, rather than loudly proclaiming his loyalty to his friends at every turn. Joker we know has an eye for style and a flair for the dramatic — the whole phantom thief getup is proof of that if nothing else, as do the plans he comes up with over the course of the game, which are universally pretty flamboyant, designed to be flashy and impressive as much as anything else.

Yu, on the other hand, is just sort of Generic Anime Protagonist. He's popular at school, inexplicably attracts a large and diverse circle of friends, isn't actively a troublemaker but still gets drawn into Wacky Anime Shenanigans because he has friends who are, is The Chosen One by random happenstance rather than any aspect of his backstory or personality, etc. The only thing unique or interesting about him is his propensity for doing weird shit (like eating random inedible crap out of the fridge), which is a fun quirk but not really enough to build an entire personality around.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

I did like how the Anime imply that he's deathly afraid of losing his friends and going back to being alone. It ties into the whole bonds thing.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

One rather interesting mystery about Yu is that he's got this magnetic charisma that can right the wrongs suffered by an entire town... and yet it's strongly implied that he has nobody he's particularly close to back where he actually lives. I wonder why that is.

Smalltown hicks are more easily impressed

Edited by Nouct on Oct 11th 2018 at 11:16:37 AM

I always got the impression (from all of the protagonists really) that prior to actually getting their powers they weren't particularly social. It wasn't until they learned that they had literal friendship powers that they started actively hanging out with people (instead of just having people cling to them).

This song needs more love.

So what you're saying is that they're all manipulative bastards exploiting their 'friends' in the pursuit of ultimate power?

Don't forget ultimate poon Arha.

These guys get so much tail a porn-stars back would start aching.

Edited by slimcoder on Oct 11th 2018 at 11:57:15 AM

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

Pretty much.

This song needs more love.

The P3 MC is implied to have been a loner before he met SEES, and Joker presumably had all his old friends abandon him after being Wrongfully Accused. Yu's a bit of an oddity since his life before the game starts is pretty much just completely ignored, even though there's no real reason for all his previous friends to cut off contact entirely.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

The manga flashback to his childhood was funny because one of the kids looked like kid Yosuke.

Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.

Hot take: What'shername from Dancing All Night was right all along

Heart of Stone

I prefer to think of Persona protagonists as ordinary people with their own quirks and histories whose bodies are violently taken over by the player the moment they put their name on the contract. When the game ends the hosts are cast aside, mere shells of human beings quickly forgotten by their "friends" and society as a whole.

While Joker has the most consistently good smartass responses, nothing can top Yu's "Be an ass and leave."

It's been 3000 years…

The games have consistently shown otherwise. The I Ts been dragged into stuff long after it. The early games allude to the supernatural will always find them. Its why Tamaki from If... became permanently involved in demon affairs by becoming a Demon Summoner.

The only actual normal Protagonist in any SMT story, Space Marine, not only can't wash his hands of the supernatural in Strange Journeys Neutral ending, but Neutral+ is having to fix humanities mess forever after becoming Immortal because humans will kill themselves the moment he doesn't.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Oct 11th 2018 at 5:24:48 AM

Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.

Strictly speaking for the Arena games, Yu's lack of expression also play a part IMO. His only expressions are "flat expression" and "flat expression with a slight smile". A bit jarring considering how expressive everyone else is. He might actually feel like a character if he shows more faces.

You know, I didn't even think about this at first for the plot of PQ 2.

Slight spoilers for Persona 5 here.

Whoever's the villain of this game is grabbing the Phantom Thieves and Goro right out from underneath Yaldabaoth's nose. And considering we're talking a guy who was already stronger than Igor, this also means this villain is stronger than THAT, which probably makes them stronger than Chronos from Q1.

At this point I'm starting to wonder why Makoto needed to die for Nyx/Erebus when he's basically beaten two guys way stronger than either of them.

He needed cosmic power to beat Nyx and killing her would have fundamentally altered humanity in unknown(mostly bad) ways. Not to mention seriously underestimating Nyxs power.

Erebus was never a threat. The problem is that he doesn't even stay dead for long and so hed always be there ready to unleash Nyx who will kill everyone because people want it.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Oct 14th 2018 at 2:53:15 AM

Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.

Pretty much this. Nyx is way stronger than the other antagonists, it's just that it has no will of its own unless erebus calls it, and erebus doesn't stay dead.

although, that does raise the question : does yaldabaoth stay dead ?

Edited by Yumil on Oct 14th 2018 at 12:36:39 PM

"when you stare too long into the abyss, Xehanort takes advantage of the distraction to break into your house and steal all your shit."

If they are the anthropomorphic representation of human concepts then....... aren’t they immortal?

Cause people won’t stop feeling this shit.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

yeah. and that's kinda worrying for the case of yaldy. unless lavenza starts doing like elizabeth and kills it every year to prevent it from getting too strong.

"when you stare too long into the abyss, Xehanort takes advantage of the distraction to break into your house and steal all your shit."

Then again the only reason Yaldy came into power in the first place was because Igor was foolish enough to make a bet with him.

So the lesson to be learned here is don’t gamble with devils.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

They all come back eventually, some take longer than others. Erebus return si so routine Elizabeth kills it all the time.

Nyarly and Nyx cant be killed and if we somehow did kill them a likely apocalypse would follow.

Yaldy forcibly assimilated the Velvet Room before then and took Igor captive. His hubris is why he humored Igor: to entertain himself.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Oct 14th 2018 at 4:09:10 AM

Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.

Really it’s oretty scary that none of these dangerous Gods can permanently killed.

They will all eventually come back one way or the other.

Huh damn so he is that powerful.

Edited by slimcoder on Oct 14th 2018 at 4:14:40 AM

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

Nyx isnt evil.

Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.

Okay dangerous then.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."