So I've done alot of persona and shin megami tensei related game and anime reviews over the years and I've been playing alot of ATLUS games outside of the flagship series that they made over years too as a result of of me playing smt/persona.
I initially enjoyed the games because at the time, i really liked the unique storytelling,themes and kind of gameplay mechanics and features the series has.
To an extent, i still do ATLUS published or developed games but its really ones outside of the series, especially if its the 2000s and 90s period simply put cause of the variety there is to be found there.
Now as for the smt/persona games itself, the last one i really did played outside of aquapazza that finished would be persona 5 tactica and to give a brief recap of it i personally found the game to be derivative and nothing really all that ground breaking and its pretty much been there done that and really more so something to keep fans of devil survivor happy given the tactical based nature of the game and thats really it just a cashcow milker for the modern era of persona games lately from 3-5.
And something to keep in mind is this, you hardly ever see ATLUS do anything outside of persona 3-5 these days and while shin megami tensei v is successful and im sure by now soul hackers 2 has recouped its losses since its been years now since it came out you still can’t deny that at this point 3-5 and smt/persona as a whole is a crutch cashcow for atlus.
And im not going to dickride for smt either, like persona its also over milked too even devil survivor 2 to an extent was milked out too.
So if anything gets to be a popular entry like what final fantasy 7,8,13 and 15 was its going to be milked out sadly long story short.
On the flipside of things theres also the matter of fandom too, and as much as i love games and anime and manga over the years that i reviewed i wouldn’t really consider myself to be a part of any fandoms i identify as an japanese video game anime and manga and j-core and vocaloid and other kinds of Japanese music especially nicher ones type of otaku sure but specific fandoms nope.
You wouldn’t wanna share the same house as an abusive person would you? You'd have to get out and cut out all ties asap without second guessing yourself you just have to get out asap or else you’ll get hurt badly or godforbid in a early grave.
And smt/persona in this case like the fe and ff its a house divided and a house divided will at one point will always fall cause I've often always say this all cliques are total cancer and should be avoided at all times full stop point blank period.
And aside from the obviously obnoxious circlejerking cult like behavior from behaving like overgrown toddlers courtesy of reddit and discord chronically online behavior with annoying ok baka type mems to the opposite occurs where those who are “tourists” which I personally think is an ironic form of elitism santizing and basically trying to make the hobby as “mainstream” as it can gets making it a puritanical cult that would make the puritans of old times proud of their descendants carrying on their toxic message.
Look i know fanservice isn’t part of everyones cup of tea or that character types like Anya from spy x family exists thats all fine you can like ai enma or nico robin types too but people who basically make it an identity to be as morally self righteous as possibly can be and will come up with all sorts of gaslighting and bullying tactics to justify their bad behavior especially certain times of the year speaking of which when persona 3-5 comes around where something something is x when in reality something is really the polar opposite y.
Shipping and headcannons are one thing I'm pro ship so whatever rocks your boat go for it. But here when it comes to ironically going against the story plot themes of truth and what not if i can recall correctly by making Naoto Trans and Kanji being gay even tho neither are really the case theres people who will still say otherwise and will attack ATLUS/SEGA who even tho the director of Persona 5 thanked the fans for supporting and embracing Japanese culture those who claim to be weebs will ironically push alot of xenophobia that i noticed lately has gotten alot worse so much for #stopasianhate i guess.
And don’t get me started with the also other weird tourist behavior only getting into stuff just cause they saw someone like BlackJupiter or KingK did a video of it and now they become randomly experts just cause they saw the gaming section of “breadtube” do an essay of it and why x or y is problematic and if you like it you’re somehow a bigot. :/
You also see this shit alot too especially on sites that are like magnets of misery and mental illness enablement and creation factories known as twitter and tiktok too and I'll get to that part later during this essay.
So i guess in a nutshell you can really just call it a mess especially one that sega/atlus is willing to enable and create as its been pretty well documented by now every game they make is going to end up to have a dogshit fandom especially these days with post 2020 covid from yakuza,sonic and persona often coming to for front.
Now onto the social media part, long gone are the days of the 90s and 2000s sadly, when forums existed and when people actually enjoyed stuff especially if it was niche stuff and we were actually nice to newcomers who are curious genuinely now, its basically just a grift for clout and especially morally self righteous toxicity these days from radical extremists so yeah gatekeeping is necessary and healthy honestly and should always be done asap. I’ve seen older persona geocites with interesting thoughts on the series but i doubt any of these older fans would be alive though and i doubt any of them would be proud of how the series or the fans have turned out.
And as for the social media part once more, i personally blame short form media like “mainstream public” discord servers,tiktok,twitter,reddit and resetera especially for cultivating and creating the basically fucked wasteland we’re in with the internet where its juxtapoxed into reality escape to reality is escaping it now.
With reddit or discord having it focus on certain series ofc its going to turn into a hive mind especially with bigger servers too its fucking pirhannas or sharks eating you alive bones and all included and i ain’t talking bout a sesh song, like literally eat you alive.
Servers that focus on niche and not so lesser known series are personally more chill and you can easily discuss without feeling overwhelmed by dumbassess turning chat into chaotic obnoxiousness cliques trying to show off how superior they are on a fucking discord server of all things or well.
Similar things can be said bout subreddits too with them turning into radical left leaning hive minds especially r/batmanarkhamasylum or r/twoxchromesomes with either somehow x or y is bad and you’re bad if you like them or annoying low effort spam shitposts like what r/batmanarkhamasylum does.
Not helping either mods on either discord or reddit enables and rewards bad behavior and even take part in it aside from obvious grooming and brainwashing kids for sex toys of course its banning people who step outta line so yeah dead horse beating aside reddit and discord are total dogshit places and why fandoms are bad.
In persona/smt discords and subreddits you see one you seen them all really, circlejerk of elitism,minors going in grown up spaces and getting mad at said grown up content and of course annoying obnoxious behavior that even kindergarten kids would look at them like what the fuck are these grown ups doing? And it can’t be mainstream public big servers without groomers too like i mentioned earlier sadly especially with the idiots on the mod team too being terminally online assblasted idiots getting mad at everything and just going on power trips of course so long story short its a mess.
For reseteras part going back to the forum parts they are ironically why along with places like mal and anilist are why forums are dogshit stupidity these days cause of chronically online mods who get mad at everything and everything,users who have mental health issues especially with a wide arayment of nsfw paraphililas,a never ending goalpost moving to see who can be offended the most and self righteous the most and all around mess.
Self explanatory for twitter and tiktok same things mentioned but in short form shit which pretty much in the long term fucks up attention spans and of course artist harassment and cancel campaigns too.
And oh faking disorers and its pretty popular outside of danganronpa to use persona or your turn to die as fucking did fictives for people who need to be put in asylums.
So long story short here, social media thats mainstream is pretty much cancer and its not real life nor should it even be seen or consider to be looked at as such.
Now for the solution itself, can you still be a fan of said series? Yes that should be pretty obvious, i like lot of stuff i mentioned earlier but that doesn’t mean i should be counted as or seen as part of the fandom cause i really am not.
I don’t interact with fandoms in any way shape or form and i certainly wouldn’t take shit or do shit for them either cause i do not wish to throw my sanity or ruin my mental health and send me to an early grave all cause of some fucking dumbass you’ll never meet in the real world.
As for discord itself, its best just to stick to personal private hangouts on dms or your friendslist with people that you can actually have a conversation and talk with like professional reasonablitiy but please don’t let it evolve into a clique or circlejerk if it does run and block and hell yeet your account if necessary. And chalk it up as expierence to be totally selective,cautious with interactions and always on your guard and not take shit from others.
Cause remember a house divided with cliques and cults will always be a house that falls.
And of course don’t join public mainstream big servers either if you have a blog you wanna share just do the self promo content and if the mods give you shit hey their loss and just leave and yeet your posts from there to prevent them from tracking you as best as possible and to let them rot in their own misery.
As for reddit,tiktok and twitter just avoid them all together if you need art, just go on zerochan,minitokyo or pixiv and keep them on your personal pinterest board. Places like r/persona be it their discord or subreddit or these days with other atlus or square enix places too its all cancer so just really avoid those aforementioned sites altogether.
As for handling the people itself, simple block report if its reportable and go about your day. And never interact with any mods directly outside of reporting stuff just don’t mods on paper shouldn’t have any biases and the moment they show any bias yeah throw their asses out asap.
Don't like the way a game or series is being milked simple don’t buy them and fuck the fomo too or anyone gaslighting you into joining in the milking.
Banning minors too from social media i think would help big time all for free speech and expression and minors are ironically against it so really they’re basically should be thrown the hell out asap.
So in a tldr format to conclude this messy rant piece, don’t interact with any fandoms at all period just don’t and if you are run just run away from the cult you’ll never find any kind of happiness or support or love in cults they’ll throw you out and eat you alive the deeper you get and the slightest disagreement is only just enough to set them off so thats really just it run away and stay away from them point blank period thanks for coming to my messy rant talk.
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