Persona 5 is game for adults in which you date children.

[psychowave]

Stewart was 18 when the first one released, lautber 17, Pattinson 22. They were about one year younger when they started filming.

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to be fair, women were fantasizing about the books way before the movies were released, and the characters were explicitly teenagers in high school. iirc bella and edward are 17-ish, and jacob is even younger (15?).

"but what about twilight" is a weird counterargument however. yes, women also jerk off to teenage boys. it happened with twilight and it happens with [insert current popular anime]. so what?

 

[Deleted member 1413]

Its made for teenagers and, just like shooting people in an FPS, is not a 1:1 translation of real life wants, needs or desires.

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But when localized, it's (in NA) rated M.
You're meant to project yourself in the protagonist, it gets weird the older I get.

You can also play as a teenager dating their teacher or a doctor so even with that it's not entirely ok

 

[Yung Kyubii]

Persona 5 is straight up trash.

Just like there is no 1 & 2, 5 doesn't exist in my mind as well.

 

[Aselith]

Man, FOH with this attempt. It's not pedophiliic for fiction to delve into adolescent relationships. Part of fiction is not just about thinking about your future but also your past. People remember their high school relationships and delving into those dynamics is perfectly acceptable. These relationships are fairly PG portrayals of those relationships without explicit sexual content.

I think the game goes a little far with the fan service on Ann which gets icky but the relationships themselves are not problematic.

 

[halcyjon]

I can't think of another game that lets you romance a goth doctor and your home room teacher at the same time while also letting you catch Satan like a Pokemon. Even if some of the relationship choices seem mildly fetishistic I found it unique and refreshing for a video game story to go to those weird places.

The relationships presented are really tame anyway, which is surprising considering one of the other "Pokemon" you can catch is a green dick in a chariot. A green dick in a chariot that happens to be a Buddhist representation of temptation and at the same time a Japanese pun.

 

[MrConbon210]

I already edited my post before you replied but okay. It doesn't matter what the point is behind it, because no entertainment medium should show you 15 year old girls dancing around strip poles. But if you don't see anything wrong with that there is no point in arguing with you anyway, because you clearly have some issues then.

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Let's not attack other people here.

 

[Iva Demilcol]

Also lol @ at the people who keep going "that's from the Dancing game, not Persona 5!!!" as if it isn't literally developed by the same people for the same audience

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Most of the people who buy the dancing games are young women tho.

 

[Gold Arsene]

It moreso the power dynamics of her being dependent on you. We could completely ruin her career, we have far more power over her than she does over us.

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You don't think knowing your the most wanted criminal in Japan gives any of your civilian love interest a slight advantage?

 

[Deleted member 1413]

A simple move, yes, but one a majority of the customers would hate. Adult life already is already view badly in Japan, and one most people don't want to experience in their games. Even on manga targeted at adults, seinen, teenage protagonist are a norm.

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College life would bump up the age of the character by like 2 to 3 years.
It atlus wants it to expand to a western audience, it's a simple change that wouldn't change the gameplay side

 

[Deleted member 19066]

to be fair, women were fantasizing about the books way before the movies were released, and the characters were explicitly teenagers in high school. iirc bella and edward are 17-ish, and jacob is even younger (15?).

"but what about twilight" is a weird counterargument however. yes, women also jerk off to teenage boys. it happened with twilight and it happens with [insert current popular anime]. so what?

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Someone needs to take a deep dive into the ethics of fantasizing about fictional characters that are not represented by living people.

That's also a really silly thing to research so I doubt anyone will do it.

 

[psychowave]

guys are those horrible chainmail bikini outfits really the hill you want to die on

 

[TheRealDennis]

They could, but that way they can't have their cake and eat it too. Funny how it's a conveniently built in excuse that anime avatars are quick to point out, so then they can go to a different thread and list their waifus in order of preference guilt free, because it's a thoughtful "realistic representation" and not pandering or objectification aimed squarely at them.

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True. It's sad how many people defend this bullshit. It became really obvious when Sony decided to ban sexualising underage girls in PS4 releases and a lot of anime avatars acted like Sony was against all kinds of creative freedom.

 

[FlintSpace]

For Atlus games in general, there is a large percentage of female players that Atlus likes to highlight whenever they can. Catherine, for example, also has a significant female playerbase.

There are a good number of women as Atlus employees, as well.

You can hear the fans here, lol (when the P4AU character is teased or when they see Yu Narukami dancing):

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haha..Wow that was really cool. Wish some gaming culture like that had been around here.
This was my first Persona game and certainly the issue the game raised caught me by surprise for a second. Goes to show female perspective is also needed among the writers guild.

 

[vitamind]

I'm curious as to what your take on teen novels like Harry Potter which are beloved by a wide range of ages is. You don't "play" as any of the characters but there is dating, kissing, etc between teens. The same goes for tons of books. Are those problematic?

 

[Council Pop]

Me, im 17.

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Should an innocent child such as yourself really be using an internet forum?? Be careful, young one.

 

[Deleted member 35077]

Did Catherine bomb? Is it not getting a remaster? I don't think it's that bad of an idea when they are making Persona dance games and stuff.

Not sure why'd they be so focused on sales if they can make their HD debut with a game like Catherine. Using a style similar to the Persona games and it being a bit of a social game wrapped up in a puzzle game. Japanese work life is cruel yes, 9-5's suck here in America as well, and we all play these games for an escape. When I played P3-5 I wasn't really reminded too much about HS life when I was busy fighting demons and shit.

I get what you're saying, but I don't think an adult theme Persona is such a crazy risk. I know they know their demographic better than I ever will, but Persona isn't some back burner franchise, I'd say it's pretty established by now. They should be looking to break a lot of the tropes in Japanese media... I think it's limiting to subscribe to these same rules for so long. P5 alone had so many moments that just didn't make sense for a teenager to be and the pretty high school themed gift wrapping doesn't really cover how they dropped the ball there.

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It will still be profitable, but i don't see it reachingvthe same heights as Persona 4 or 5. It also doesn't help that persona 2 bombed heavily when it was originally released, and again with its remake.

 

[Deleted member 1273]

Since when? I think the premise of your thesis is flawed from the outset, because Persona 5 is a game primarily made for a teenage demographic.

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Lmao of course.

 

[Spinluck]

The sales for Persona 2: Eternal Punishment have probably scared them from even thinking about doing a mainline Persona game revolving around adults for a long, long time.

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Perhaps, but the current line of Persona games didn't really catch fire till P3 tbh. I really think if they refined a lot of the working elements of P5's gameplay loop and battles, along with a gamed themed around adults who work or are in college... it could actually work. But I am aware that the game is a bit of a social fantasy where you are 17 and giving advice to politicians twice or thrice your age and getting every girl to ogle you with 2-3 word sentences. I can see the appeal but if not for the amazing combat and Persona crafting/progression, along with the social elements that play into combat I would probably have left the series by now.

Man, I'd kill for that shit. Older characters and more grounded character struggles. That's another thing that Persona has trouble with - a lot of the individual character struggles are either too banal ("I wanna be a high school athlete but my body can't take it") or too out there to be taken seriously as an adult ("I'm feeling pressured by my family to inherit the zaibatsu.") Something like Kanji's issues with gender roles and sexuality is great - or would be if they had stuck the landing.

Not that the mundane struggles so many of us face can't be interesting... it's just difficult to do so in the Social Link format, with a team of writers pulling inspiration mainly from anime and manga.

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This is where the writing really shows its limits imo. Not saying having characters that are out of high school is the quickest easiest fix, but it's certainly something they should explore again (P2 was a while ago the base has grown since then!). But I am quickly finding out that perhaps their demographic plays these games for a very different reason than I.

 

[stone616]

This is false. The player character is a minor who can date minors and apparently some adults. Hence the player character isn't an adult. Also the player character isn't you. He pretty much has set personality traits you get to chose between.

It might be a game for adults but the romance is shounen level at best.

I must say that as an adult who has been out of high school for almost 19 years I'm getting tired of all these anime stylized products that focus on high school.

Part of the reason I liked the anime Golden Time so much was it was in that style as some of the other anime but the characters were all adults in college showing everything doesn't have to be about high school.

I'll never understand anime's obsession with high school.

 

[Stowaway Silfer]

I will however say that I have yet to meet someone in my life or online who has played this game who is under the age of 20.

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Hi. I'm a person who played Persona 5 at the age of 18. Nice to meet you.

The age rating in the US is older than the main cast.

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Works age-gated to adults about minors (or otherwise restricted to a demographic older than the characters featured) aren't really uncommon. South Park comes to mind for example but it and Persona 5 (apparently just in NA) are hardly alone.

 

[Deleted member 888]

Stewart was 18 when the first one released, lautber 17, Pattinson 22. They were about one year younger when they started filming.

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I haven't watched the Twilight movies, but I'm going to guess there isn't panty shots?

It is possible for mediums to show off teenage relationships, but it's a scale of credibility from panty shots and bathing scenes of 14/15 year olds to 17/18 year olds falling in love and maybe sharing a kiss.

An issue for many games is they go in with the most crude depictions possible for the sole purpose of titilating grown men.

 

[Deleted member 4034]

I really underestimate how much Gaming Era really hates anime and anime inspired things sometimes.

 

[Exist 2 Inspire]

i'm not from the US and that's fucked up. i'm glad the age of consent was recently raised in my country, although it's still pretty bad (16).

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Why? I don't want to sound like a dumbass but i had sex when i was 14 and it did not kill me? (and yes with older girls too) It just feels to me like the subject matter is dealt with in a much more mature and free/open way here if that makes any sense. I don't know maybe i'm just lacking perspective here, but for me personally it was never a problem.

 

[TheRealDennis]

Let's not attack other people here.

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I don't have a problem with attacking people who defend sexualizing underage girls. No cap.

 

[Qikz]

Lol the game is not made for teenagers. It's made for the 30-45 dem

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[MrConbon210]

Weren't the Twilight actors like 28 year olds "acting" as teens? Considering it's real actors it doesn't concern as much. Most of the girls/women lusting after those actors do it for the actors themselves.

Games and anime usually try and do the inverse of the above. This is a 65 year old house maid, please excuse her huge tits and appearance that makes her look 12.

The teacher dynamic is one of the worst parts of Persona 5 because it is a pretty straightforward acceptance and mockery of teacher/pupil sexual abuse dynamics.

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It was originally a series of books and still had a bunch of adult women arguing over what guy they wanted Bella to pick. The guy who played Jacob was 16 in the time of filming the first movie and still was shirtless all the time and had posters you could but of him.

 

[Aesthet1c]

I don't know... The teacher is the only thing that felt weird to me.

I played the game as the MC. Who is clearly a set character. Even though you make choices you are still making those choices for him, not yourself. So dating other age appropriate people to the MC never came off as creepy.

 

[Ravenwraith]

I would love a Persona game aimed at adults but Persona 5 convinced me these writers can't handle anything beyond dumb teenage power fantasy shit so if they want to stay in their lane to keep from embarrassing themselves that's fine with me too.

 

[Kapryov]

This thread kinda reminds me of that time someone said that adults do not need to be playing Animal Crossing, and that it was creepy and gross.

Also adults do not need to be watching coming of age films, they shouldn't relate to the underage protagonists.
Hell let's ban any media featuring characters under 18, can't risk adults projecting themselves.

Spoiler

the waifu war stuff is trash though, I agree

 

[Deleted member 5535]

If it's 14-16 year old (or younger) panty shots then I approve of Sony cleaning that up a bit for a Western release.

Even Steam has apparently been kicking off some of those visual novels where underage characters actually get fucked if not raped (because you know in a good visual novel it has to be rape or implied rape).

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Steam is doing nothing over it for quite some time, you're wrong about that.

There's a large collection of 20+ year olds on this forum arguing about how much 14-16 year olds are wank material. If not characters that look even younger.

The amount of bans handed out for sexualizing minors is off the charts on this forum. Same goes for topics needing to be locked to save the forum the embarrassment of its userbase jumping up and down discussing paedo shit in anime/games. It's just drawings and they aren't real! Jokes about anime aside, which most people can take on the chin, there are a lot of sick fucks on the internet and some on this forum. Was the same on GAF.

To argue the Persona characters in the game are around the same age is one thing, but the teacher dynamic is creepy as fuck. That shits illegal in most places. The further issue becomes the fact whatever age the characters are of in of themselves, the players who drool over them are usually a fair bit older. 15/16 year olds dating each other, yeah great, nothing really wrong with that. A 28 year old getting their socks off over 15/16 year olds, starting to yikes a bit there.

I love Life is Strange. It has a romance element with a youngish set of lead characters. I did not get excited/turned on about said characters and the romance was handled pretty well in most instances. Most Japanese games don't do romance, they do cheap sexualization.

It has been fucking hilarious seeing all the crying on the internet as Sony is feeling shame and having to censor some of the weeb shit releasing on the PS4. Then you get grown men crying over it.

Persona 5 is a shit game as well.

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It's easy to do that against smaller developers, let's see when Sony will have some courage to do that against Atlus, Sega, Square Enix, Bandai Namco and other big companies.

Not even counting the absurd that it's to require two certifications and rating for english and japanese now, even for japanese releases which have nothing to do with overseas. That's the actual problem, not the "censorship".

 

[Rajang]

I agree, it's disgusting.

 

[Polygatari]

Since when? I think the premise of your thesis is flawed from the outset, because Persona 5 is a game primarily made for a teenage demographic.

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It is, but I bet the majority of players are on their 20s and 30s. It's far too niche of a game for it to be popular with teens of today.

 

[Rosebud]

Is the "dating" in Persona 5 anything more then a single scene of soppy dialogue near the end of the game like it was in P4?

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It's only it. But according to some it's exactly the same as "intimacy mode" and other creepy stuff Sony is (rightly) censuring.

I never played those dance games so I don't know about them, but the worse about P5 is exactly the adult (your teacher!!) romance option.

 

[lino]

...the protag is 16-17 though right? So apparently im the protagonist? Wtf am I reading honestly.

 

[Milk]

I really underestimate how much Gaming Era really hates anime and anime inspired things sometimes.

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It really does boggle my mind that someone will wave away a game as passionately made as Persona 5 because your teenage protagonist can date other teenagers.

Like... that's some Sony-level "protect the children" (when they tried explaining no crossplay) right there. Calm down.

 

[MegaSackman]

Honestly I always felt that I was guiding the teenager protagonist, I never projected myself into him, maybe my beliefs in certain actions but always applied to a teenager character and how I want him to behave, not some pervert side of me.

Maybe some people put too much thought or senses into this.

 

[MrConbon210]

I don't have a problem with attacking people who defend sexualizing underage girls. No cap.

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I'm telling you why the premise of the dungeon was a strip club. You never see Rise on the pole stripping. Her whole charecter dynamic is the struggle between pop star and small town girl. Sorry that you don't get it man.

 

[Dice]

I mean, it's set in high school, I'm sure a good portion of us dated in high school (not like any relationships consummated things either). I'll admit the shit where a 16 year old protag dates women at least 10 years older is more out of line) (funny enough).

That said I'd love to see the Persona series take on University-aged characters.

 

[Wamb0wneD]

Kawakami is your teacher (who I romanced because I am also a degenerate)

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Can relate OP

 

[AgentLampshade]

I can separate me as a person and my avatar in a game. Stop overthinking it.

I'll admit a lot of the optional costumes are shite though, but my solution there was to just... not use them.

 

[Mr.Fletcher]

Why? I don't want to sound like a dumbass but i had sex when i was 14 and it did not kill me? (and yes with older girls too) It just feels to me like the subject matter is dealt with in a much more mature and free way here if that makes any sense. I don't know maybe i'm just lacking perspective here, but for me personally it was never a problem.

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When I was studying media (I'm from the UK), I'll always remember being told Brits are more sensitive to sex in their media, but forgive violence. While in Germany the opposite was true.

Not sure if that's still the case, but I thought it was interesting. I'm talking about classification (age ratings) here, not on a social level.

 

[Mgs2master2]

No. There are no sex scenes or even hints for them.

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not true? you spend alone time in your room for each one of them (except futaba which is her room, make out with Ann and Fortune lady on faris wheel)

i guess its implied?

 

[FluxWaveZ]

It is, but I bet the majority of players are on their 20s and 30s. It's far too niche of a game for it to be popular with teens of today.

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But we're talking about Japan, where the game was mainly made for. And Persona 5 was one of the best selling video games of 2016 in that region.

 

[Aselith]

I really underestimate how much Gaming Era really hates anime and anime inspired things sometimes.

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This isn't even about anime. Like this is fairly typical coming of age story stuff, the are whole genres of movies and books dedicated to this stuff. If you read the His Dark Materials books as an adult, you are now on OP's watchlist.

not true? you spend alone time in your room for each one of them (except futaba which is her room, make out with Ann and Fortune lady on faris wheel)

i guess its implied?

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A "sex scene" is not when characters end up having sex. It's when you watch them bone down.

 

[psychowave]

Why? I don't want to sound like a dumbass but i had sex when i was 14 and it did not kill me? (and yes with older girls too) It just feels to me like the subject matter is dealt with in a much more mature and free way here if that makes any sense. I don't know maybe i'm just lacking perspective here, but for me personally it was never a problem.

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this is getting off-topic, but the purpose of age of consent laws is to protect minors from sexual advances from adults, and to avoid a power dynamic in which the adult is capable of taking advantage of the teenager's lack of maturity/experience.

if you had sex at such a young age and are happy about it, that's totally fine. nothing wrong with teenagers exploring their sexuality among themselves, as long as they're educated on how to do it safely etc. but we do need to protect teenagers from predatory adults.

I really underestimate how much Gaming Era really hates anime and anime inspired things sometimes.

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because anime fandom is full of trash. yeah, it's not all bad yadda yadda, but a lot of it is "which teenage girl would you prefer to fuck?". and that's not even getting into the whole nazi issue.

anime fandom needs to take the garbage out, tbh.

 

[Deleted member 23212]

It really does boggle my mind that someone will wave away a game as passionately made as Persona 5 because your teenage protagonist can date other teenagers.

Like... that's some Sony-level "protect the children" (when they tried explaining no crossplay) right there. Calm down.

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Yeah, if anything it's the relationship with the adults that is an issue. Here in Canada the age of consent is 16, so him dating most adults would be allowed, but if someone has authority over you, like a teacher, it is 18, so the relationship with Kawakami becomes an issue. But then again, that is for sexual acts, and well with Kawakami at least I don't think they ever have sex?

 

[Geg]

Like I agree with a lot of criticisms about some of Persona 5's scenarios but this is the weirdest one I've ever seen

 

[Heckler456]

not true? you spend alone time in your room for each one of them (except futaba which is her room, make out with Ann and Fortune lady on faris wheel)

i guess its implied?

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A regular treasure trove for those implication-pervs.

 

[Alex]

You know what would be dope?

An ounce of moderation to clean up moronic bait threads like this. Because that is literally all this is.

 

[Deleted member 888]

Steam is doing nothing over it for quite some time, you're wrong about that.



It's easy to do that against smaller developers, let's see when Sony will have some courage to do that against Atlus, Sega, Square Enix, Bandai Namco and other big companies.

Not even counting the absurd that it's to require two certifications and rating for english and japanese now, even for japanese releases which have nothing to do with overseas. That's the actual problem, not the "censorship".

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Seems like there is some credibility to this

https://steamcommunity.com/app/872710

Well I'm not posting any more screenshots or videos on this forum as the last time I did that and tried to use state of the art blurring, I was permanently banned.

You can yourself go and look up Intimacy Mode of Senran Kagura and see why Sony might axe that. Literally slapping and molesting young characters. Some of the other lesser known games have had other young or young looking characters covered up.

If devs want to dip into straight up sex/pornographic depictions, they best keep it to 18+ if they don't want games continuing to come under scrutiny. Especially if they are wanting to operate in countries which are paying more attention to lewd sexualization of minors - https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/anime-fan-convicted-over-illegal-7958896

What I find funny is you just know it's 20/30+ year old men leading the charge boycotting Sony now.