I was wondering, how does ERA overall feel about Persona 5? I see claims that this site is like anti-persona or fire emblem even, which I'm sure aren't valid
Persona 5 is an excellent game that is tainted by homophobic and sexist issues, and for a game that is supposed to be about "fighting against society injustice" and shit, it's contradictory and badly handled sometimes. Persona 3 and 4 also have similar problems (the beach scene, Yosuke being homophobic, etc).
As for FE, I suppose it was mostly when FE:Fates was out, and some stuff in that game was... bad. I didn't like FE:Fates personally. Gameplay was very good, but the story was stupid. FE:3H however is a huge improvement.
But anyway, these games have issues that need to be addressed because they should not be acceptable in 2019. "Artist's vision' and "but Japanese culture" are bad excuses to dismiss criticism.
If the gameplay is bad, do people dismiss it by saying "it's a feature, it's part of the artistic vision"? No.
If the graphics are terrible, do people dismiss it by saying "it's the artist's artstyle, it's their vision"? Nope.
If the story is awful, do people dismiss it by saying "it's the story that they want to tell"? Nah.
Well okay, actually, some people do it, but usually there are debates about it. BUT when it's about sexist/LGBT/diversity issues, no debates allowed, it's "politics" or "agenda", or whatever new terms they come up with. Some say "if the gameplay is good, that's enough". Okay, sure, if you personally enjoy the game despite its other issues, it's fine. However, do not tell other people who wish to discuss those issues that ruin THEIR experience to shut up about it, or they're "sensitive".
"Respect of the artist's vision" is a lazy excuse for people who don't want to discuss those issues seriously. If they don't want to have that conversation, they can also choose to shut up and let other people do it. Some of them even talk about "freedom of speech/freedom of the artists to express themselves", but they don't let people express their concerns and criticism, they want them to shut up because "artist's vision".
As for "but Japanese culture", I understand that comment can be used as an explanation, because Japan is not the most LGBT or women-friendly country in the world, but that doesn't make it okay, especially when a game is released globally. That excuse is also kinda insulting towards Japanese people because it basically means "oh Japanese people don't know better, pls forgive them", it's a tad infantilizing. And that also implies that Japanese people cannot do better whereas the famous Yakuza example exists.
Anyway uh, there are people on Era that can explain all of that better than me, I'm not good at it lol. But I also wanted to express my frustation. We all should have discussions about improving games that we love, on all kind of topics (story, graphics, music, gameplay), and if we want video games to do better in general.