The Cool Crime of Robbery: Let's Play Persona 5 [SSLP]

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > The Cool Crime of Robbery: Let's Play Persona 5 [SSLP]

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AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Deceitful Penguin posted:

Also it's extra amusing picking that date option considering we're narrating this to her older sister

I'd imagine Sae would be conflicted on this front. On one hand, her kid sister is dating (and from Sae's perspective, is potentially an accomplice to) an accused criminal. On the other hand, said accused criminal has generally been a nice person to Makoto and helping her sister out with her issues. It probably won't result in Sae asking for a lenient sentence for Maaku, however.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2018 03:31

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 18:19

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

amigolupus posted:

A chase sequence where Joker and Queen have to chase after Morgana using Johanna might have made this sequence better.

Agreed. I mean, how do you give one of the party members a motorcycle for a Persona and not crowbar in a dumb racing minigame? Just call in a couple of favors from Sega to send over some devs who've worked on racing games, and boom, instant vehicle minigame. You could even half-rear end in the Morganamobile for extra kicks, too.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2018 22:45

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Welp, Haru got to watch her dad die on live TV. That's definitely going to make things awkward for the next few updates.

# ¿ May 26, 2018 20:37

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Funky Valentine posted:

It's astounding that Maaku hasn't OD'd yet during the interrogation.

I think it's safe to assume that being a Persona user does grant some level of added physical and mental resistance compared to normal humans, as seen with the close combat characters in the series (i.e., Reiji, Lisa, Ulala, Akihiko, Chie and Makoto) who can punch or kick demons/Shadows/et al. that are twice their size or have other damage-reducing attributes like a full suit of armor, but suffer no ill consequences like shattered bones or something worse like a dislocated knee (do not google images of that injury, it is highly :nms:

). Or take Jun for another example, who can beat up said enemies with nothing more than flowers, objects that are absolutely not designed for direct combat. Maaku being able to resist something like a mind-altering substance while under intense interrogation for a long period of time is entirely plausible.

# ¿ May 29, 2018 22:28

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Ibblebibble posted:

Sojiro looks like Daisuke and Fujiko's been covertly referenced. Goemon and Arsene Lupin are personas.

Should've named Akechi Zenigata instead >

It's still possible for his Persona to be "Totally not Zenigata here, nope this is totally an original design!", since we are kind of starting to run low on rogues/thieves/anti-heroes that either party has or are generic enemies we fight. Like, off the top of my head, the only major regions we haven't covered are the Wild West or ancient civilizations like Egypt or Rome (despite Futaba's palace being set in a pyramid).

# ¿ Jun 15, 2018 05:33

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Seriously, why isn't Lala a Confidant? She just casually strolls into that Makoto event, and instantly wins the day by being cool. If they ever decide to milk more out of P5, please give Lala time to shine, Atlus. Hell, make Lala the Aeon link you're fond of shoving into updated re-releases.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2018 04:02

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Arist, Boss is voiced by Kirk Thornton, not Jamieson Price. Price voices Catherine's father, IIRC.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2018 02:37

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

GunnerJ posted:

It feels like there was supposed to be a courtroom scene that would have, like, mattered to our understanding of the characters in some way, but it got cut.

Same here. If that was the case, my guess is that such a scene was tied to Maaku, like a parole hearing or something related to his probation that would get the gang involved in coming to courthouse. This would probably where the team would learn about the details of Maaku's arrest (or find out some details to the arrest that was not revealed yet), and set up things for later. But alas, as mentioned, a lot of the second half of the game has been sent through rewrite hell and come out the other side looking worse for wear.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2018 00:10

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Funky Valentine posted:

Also the unspoken

3) Make Makoto's sister less of an awful human being.

I'd argue that it's less making Sae into a better person, but to teach Sae that her approach to her professional life has been slowly overwhelming her approach to her personal life, to the point where the two are almost becoming a single entity. As seen by her Shadow's dialogue, Sae sees the world as a game of chance that she must always win at no matter how much Sae must rig the game to achieve a win. This even applies things like raising a younger sibling on her own, something one would normally never treat the same as playing blackjack or solving a murder case. Sae has become consumed by her career as a prosecutor to the point it is all that Sae sees; to her, what life throws at you is just another case to solve and win big at all costs. In short, our goal is to help Sae realize that it is possible to have a career in a field like the judicial system and still have a life separate from all of that madness.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2018 02:53

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Kith posted:

This is the first time I've actually watched a video with Sojiro's voice in it and wow does he sound nothing like I expected him to.

If you think Jamieson Price is odd, Sojiro's Japanese voice actor is none other than Joji Nakata, an equally deep sounding voice actor.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2018 05:09

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

I can't believe Maaku is loving dead.

But yeah, I don't blame you for being fooled with the silencer sequence, Arist. Akechi attaches it so fast it almost looked like he was cocking the gun in a weird manner to me. So don't feel too bad about it.

# ¿ Aug 26, 2018 04:44

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Arist posted:

My issue is twofold: we never get any indication Akechi has ever heard Morgana's voice before, and if he has, why would he respond to it? It's all really just a dumb minor quibble, but the idea that Akechi has been spying on us since before we even made our debut is absurd. gently caress, the weird teases with Kaneshiro and Madarame barely make sense in the first place.

I have a theory as to how Akechi might have begun spying on the team so early on. When Kamoshida made his big confession about being a horrible person/sex offender, Akechi either sensed something or decided to investigate further on his own, probably because of how vivid Kamoshida's full description of his crimes were. Since he can go into the Metaverse, Akechi went to where Kamoshida's palace was and found some trace of the Phantom Thieves' work. Since it was at Shujin, Akechi decided to see if any students from Shujin were involved, like any legit detective would do. This led Akechi to find out about the group when they were going after Madarame, and he slowly began his work. Somewhere in there, Akechi encounters Shadow Madarame and slowly plants the idea of a shadowy figure threatening those who exist in the Metaverse, which then spreads to Kaneshiro. Why did he do this? Probably as a way to deter the Thieves from going further and keep them away from his plans. The only issue with this theory is Shadow Futaba/Wakaba. Given that the palace was a giant pyramid in the desert but located in Futaba's home in the real world, one of two options would have had to play out. One, Akechi went out of his way to conceal himself inside the Metaverse while everything went down. Or two, Akechi was not present for the Shadow Wakaba fight and missed out on that whole sequence of events.

So yes, it is plausible that Akechi could have started spying on the team early on. The problems are a few timeline hiccups (everything with Futaba is a big question mark, for instance) and the potential effort Akechi would have to go through to conceal himself make the spying more difficult than necessary. I will admit, if the game went with Akechi discovering the group entering Okumura's palace and then going about his evil plans, that would have made more sense. But alas, it is clear that the back half of the game has been through the rewrite grinder a couple of times, and thus plot points like "When did Akechi decide to betray the Phantom Thieves/start being evil?" ended up as we just saw: presented in a very clunky manner that raises more questions than answers.

# ¿ Sep 4, 2018 05:07

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

MightyPretenders posted:

On the other hand, the Culprit must have access to Mementos or something like it. Not everyone has a palace like Okumura did.

That's kind of what my theory was going with. While Akechi doesn't have access to Mementos until he joins up with the party, he seems to have access to some equivalent power that grants him the ability to move about in the Metaverse outside of the app. My guess is that it's either something Akechi got when he awakened Robin Hood, or like Adachi, Akechi also got similar powers to Maaku but it's not as powerful as Maaku. Akechi definitely has *something* that lets him go about causing the mental shutdowns, and I assume that when we face him in the inevitable boss battle against Akechi, he'll reveal it there.

Although that does make me wonder: since the team knows Akechi is the culprit, how is Haru keeping up a reserved and calm appearance? She knows who murdered her father, and even though she didn't have a good relationship with him, I'd expect Haru to be a lot more angrier than she is at the revelation that her father's killer had the cojones to casually offer to join the group and lie to their faces..

# ¿ Sep 4, 2018 22:51

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Stroth posted:

Haru spent her entire childhood learning to repress all of her emotions so she could be the perfect daughter and eventually the perfect trophy wife. That's the mask she threw away to summon Milady. Also, judging by her comments in Mementoes, she's the kind of person that would cheerfully murder someone, dismember the body, and bury the pieces out in the woods without the slightest hesitation if she needed to.

What I'm saying here is that Akechi needs to watch his back.

And I just remembered that her firearm choice is a goddamn grenade launcher. I almost feel sorry for Akechi at this point. Almost.

# ¿ Sep 5, 2018 01:21

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Leraika posted:

It also would have been great to see Makoto punching Akechi's lights out, but we didn't get that either.

Well, we have to save something for the boss fight.

But yeah, that...was absolutely pointless for a plotdump. My guess is that with all the rewrites and content shuffling the back half of the game suffers from, somewhere in that period someone realized that they either gutted Shido's progression as a villain (slowly rising up the ranks in the Diet, showing his connections to Sojiro and Wakaba, etc.) or kept putting it off and couldn't find a good place to shove it all in the game until it was too late. Thus we get pointless crap like the SIU Director and this scene, where the staff try to salvage what they have and get the game out in some form after years of delays.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2018 00:20

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Grapplejack posted:

It's funny, because they have been telegraphing Shido as the big bad for the entire loving game in the most blatantly obvious ways possible. It isn't like with 3 or 4 where you figure it out eventually or learn about it in a big twist; it's really obvious that he's the bad guy the entire game, so this entire reveal seems pointless.

That's what also makes it hurt the mind. They seemingly wanted to show how much of a scumbag Shido actually is (instead of hint at and/or tell the player like it has done). But outside of the bits early on with the backstory of Maaku's arrest, the game pushes him so far into the background until very recently that it almost seems comical. And yet, they still manage to mess it up further by going so heavy handed with telling the player how bad Shido is without naming him directly. I get that Persona 5 had a troubled development cycle, but you'd think that "developing and fleshing out your game's main villain" would be a top priority. I kind of feel bad for Shido's voice actors; they have to sell this important villain to the player, yet they're given a script that is a jumbled mess and told to make it into diamonds. Which is especially interesting for his Japanese voice actor, who is none other than the legendary Shuichi Ikeda.

...please tell me that Shido doesn't paraphrase quotes from Char Aznable during his boss fight.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2018 03:12

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Malah posted:

I like the suggestion of a ship, bc that sounds outrageously dumb and we need more "what the gently caress is that??" palaces.

Over-the-top gonzo battleship sounds right up his alley.

So basically his palace is going to be Totally Not Space Battleship Yamato then, got it.

# ¿ Sep 17, 2018 04:54

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

I'm more concerned with the question of "why is most of Japan under water in Shido's palace?" I get the ship theme, but why go that far? Why not have it be a ship sailing on a big river or the ocean looking at Japan?

...the game won't even acknowledge that question, will it?

# ¿ Sep 18, 2018 05:37

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Hobgoblin2099 posted:

Not only will the game acknowledge it, it did so in the last update.

Well, looks like I missed that line. My bad.

# ¿ Sep 19, 2018 03:42

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Kith posted:

why hasn't our heater destroyed our chocolate fountain

Because the fountain has innate Dodge Fire, duh.

# ¿ Oct 4, 2018 05:02

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Funky Valentine posted:

This is the second time Prometheus has been an ultimate Persona.

It's the third goddamn time Susanoo has been an ultimate.

The hilarious thing about comparing Baofu and Futaba is that both are the tech-savvy members of their groups, with Baofu specializing in wiretaps and electronic surveillance (and occasionally being a rumormonger via 1999-era online chatrooms) while Futaba specializes in coding and hacking. Yosuke and Yusuke....don't really have anything in common outside of very similar sounding names. Seriously, it feels the devs peaked very early with Yusuke and forgot that he was supposed to have a character after his big recruitment arc.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2018 04:56

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

amigolupus posted:

We should've ditched the cat and got Tora to be our mentor-type character instead. I miss P2 letting us have adults as party members, s'all.

Agreed, it would be a nice change of pace to see that happen. I mean, if things went differently, we would have had Kanji Tatsumi as the oldest member of the P4 cast. From looking at the artwork, I'd wager that his early rockabilly concept design would have been someone in their early to mid 20s, or possibly into their late 20s (i.e., around the age of the Eternal Punishment cast). And then in the final product, Kanji is hilariously the youngest playable party member (save for Teddie, that is).

# ¿ Oct 28, 2018 06:00

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Hobgoblin2099 posted:

Sure, I'd be willing to cooperate with your company. By the way, your father was an idiot and I televised his death in order to make a massive profit. It sure was hysterical making bank off of your pain and suffering, haha! ...Wait, why are you getting upset?

On the one hand, as the world has shown us, some people really are that loving stupid. On the other hand, I fear for his real world counterpart because Haru is more than likely not going to let this slide.

On the other other hand, Maaku is about to inherit Totally Not NHK. Nice deal, all things considered.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2018 03:28

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Oxxidation posted:

might have been helpful if we had seen shido ever be anything other than a snappish, backstabbing toolbox

The little in-between segments where the game switches back to Shido in the real world would have been perfect opportunities for the game to expand on his characterization. Have Shido slowly realize that someone is inside (since he seems to have a better understanding of the cognitive world compared to other Palace targets) as each ~~sub-boss~~cognition goes down, then have him finally hit a paranoia-fueled breaking point and order this mass mental shutdown spree. I mean, the whole point of Shido ordering Akechi to kill off these supporters (thus tipping off Akechi that something is going on) is to railroad Akechi into being the next major boss fight. But like so much of the back half of the game, it is so poorly implemented that it drags everything down with it.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2018 01:18

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

My guess as to why the cleaner doesn't become a grovelling wimp after beating him is probably because you appealed to his yakuza heart: you beat him in a contest of strength and now he respects you. Granted, the party did not follow the cleaner's example and go shirtless for the battle as per yakuza tradition, but alas.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2018 01:24

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Oxxidation posted:

If this game wasn't so willing to give into stock cliches then Akechi would have been a pretty interesting examination into what society pushes its dispossessed into doing - he was an orphan (which in Japan means you're good for nothing but slave labor and pig food) who stumbled across the power to exert his influence onto a society that he never gave a poo poo about and vice-versa. The system never showed him any consideration or compassion, so why should he show any in return? But at the same time, his mission to ruin Shido allowed him to glut on cheap admiration from people he always hated and sneered at, so he slowly started going nuts from wanting love from society and wanting to destroy it at the same time. This is reflected in Loki himself - that zebra pattern is apparently battleship camouflage that makes it difficult to see whether the vessel is coming or going. The kid was twisted up inside from contradiction.

In short, Goro Akechi is a boy of contrasts.

And this makes the party's slow attempt to win him over even more painful to watch. This is someone who is absolutely broken beyond redemption, a physical representation of the darker sides of Japan's society and culture. And yet, the party thinks that by talking and being friendly to him, Akechi can reform and be a good person. I know that this series is built around friendships and people uniting together to defeat evil, but in this case, Actual Serial Killer Goro Akechi does not deserve a redemption arc. It gets even more ludicrous when you recall that both Futaba and Haru have had family members literally murdered by Akechi. In the former case, Futuba was so messed up from her mother's death and cover-up that she turned into a shut-in who wanted almost no contact with the outside world until meeting Maaku and company. Of all the people here, Futaba should be calling for Akechi's head to be served on a platter. And that's not to diminish Haru's feelings either; she had to watch her father get murdered on live television. Haru should also be at the point where other party members have to restrain her from ripping Akechi's head off with her bare hands, not trying to win him over with kindness and platitudes.

It feels like two very important plot points (the deaths of Wakaba and Mr. Okumura) were forgotten when this scene was written. Or, more than likely given Japan's rear end-backwards method of game development, Akechi's reveal as the one behind the mental shutdown was scripted well before the team got around to writing the deaths of Wakaba and Mr. Okumura. And no one on the staff thought, "Hey, maybe we should go back to that Akechi reveal and change things up to fit this new information..." for whatever reason. Like, updating your cutscenes as changes to the plot happen should be priority number one, and I will never understand how an entire industry came to believe that important detail should be an extremely low priority.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2018 05:28

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Req.Martyr posted:

Yeah, I just wish the characters took more of a "Yeah, okay, I get why you're a bastard... But you're still a real bastard. Top shelf poo poo syrup. So, screw ya." Instead of what happened.

As others have said, Haru and Futaba being at the forefront of forgiving Akechi is probably what hurts the scene the most. The fact that hours earlier in-game, the player was dealing with the fallout of Futaba creating her own Palace out of resentment and fear over her mother's death, and also Haru having to stop her father from using her as a tool to gain a higher political standing but ultimately losing him due to a mysterious assassin. Now, having found the person responsible, the natural reaction of rage and anger is replaced with....painfully forced attempts at redeeming the culprit because the plot says they have to.

Honestly, if the game really wanted to go with this redemption, they should have then have the other shoe drop by having Akechi agree to confess his crimes once Shido is dealt with. Like, have Akechi rejoin for the Shido fight and limit his availability (i.e., you can't jump out of Shido's Palace and go through Mementos with Akechi), then the gang turns Akechi over to Sae for prosecution in the real world. And during all of this, Akechi is treated as a case of "the enemy of my enemy is my ally" and not as a real friend like the rest of the party are to Maaku. No platitudes or cheerful dialogue, just a long segment of awkward partnership until the boss is defeated.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2018 03:45

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

MonsterEnvy posted:

Haru explicitly states she does not forgive him.

And yet she immediately follows up that statement with words of sympathy. Meanwhile, Futaba frames her sentence to Akechi to essentially say "if you only had friends like us, you'd actually be able to use the Wild Card better". And again, this is coming from the person who was deeply affected by one of Akechi's murders. It's like the script wants Haru and Futaba to be both angry at Akechi, but also trying to recruit him to our side again because they now apparently sympathize with the guy who murdered their respective family members. Or to put in more simpler terms:

Coq au Nandos posted:

As ever, the true enemy in Persona 5 is the writing.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2018 07:31

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Omobono posted:

The moment where every Shujin student suddenly was gripped by existential terror.
Because no way they don't recognize Ryuji and Maaku, and they've been shittalking the two behind their back all year.

Not just Shujin students, I bet a good number of the models Ann's worked with/has met during her work recognized Ann's voice and their jaws just hit the floor. It's a shame that Haru didn't speak up, because I would have loved to have seen a smash cut to the lovely guy her dad was trying to pair her up with, if only to see his own jaw drop in sheer terror. Because he would then suddenly realize that if Haru could cause her own father to flip on a dime, his rear end is equally on the hot seat.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2018 04:56

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

GhostStalker posted:

They all used voice modulation in the video though. It would be dumb of them not to. I figure it's their distinctive silhouettes that make Ryuji and Maaku able to be picked out by Shujin students.

I watched the video and somehow the voice modulation flew over my head. That said, Ann still has a chance to be ID'd by her classmates because of her own distinct frame, on top of Ann's unique hairstyle giving her away to people that know her.

Oxxidation posted:

you say that as if the guy isn't already fertilizer

There is always room for him to show up during the epilogue for some random reason. Until the game says otherwise, I will continue to believe that he's alive, blissfully unaware of Haru's impending wrath.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2018 07:29

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

And now we behold the zenith of the crippling illness known as Butts Disease. I look forward to Shadow Shido literally pulling bullshit attacks out of his rear end(es).

# ¿ Dec 2, 2018 04:38

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

You know, for all the faults this game has, at least they knew where to put effort into things and the fight with Shadow ~~Armstrong~~Shido works great. I do find it silly that in the middle of the dramatic disrobing, Shido somehow found time to change his pants and shoes in the blink of an eye. As for "Rivers in the Desert"...I like it, even though it's not my favorite major boss theme from the series (that goes to "The Almighty"). It definitely is a good track for a boss, and I do like that we start off with the instrumental version for the Beast of Sacrifice before shifting to the vocal version for Shadow Shido. It's a nice touch for a good boss fight, even if Shido's character is a jumbled hot mess. But hey, Atlus had one job (do not drop the ball for the Shido boss fight) and they managed to accomplish it, which given all the development hell Persona 5 has gone through, says a lot.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2018 05:03

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

I'm rather curious as to what stage they'll create to represent Joker. Will it be an amalgamation of the various Palaces (with the bosses as various stage hazards), or will it be Mementos with the various Mementos requests being cameos?

Also, Jack Frost better be an assist trophy. No excuses. :colbert:

# ¿ Dec 7, 2018 07:35

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

I'm going to echo a comment from earlier in the thread: Futaba absolutely needs to party crash some of Otacon's codec calls. Bonus points if it results in a nerd-off between Otacon and Futaba over who has the better equipment.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2018 06:25

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

fractalairduct posted:

They didn't record any new codec calls.

Bummer.

Well, there's still Palutena's Guidances to crash.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2018 06:45

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Funky Valentine posted:

Sojiro's a former g-man of some description, at least one of those thugs has a broken jaw.

And another possibly had the unfortunate displeasure of having scalding hot coffee poured all over them.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2018 05:16

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

GhostStalker posted:

Ne, ne, seihai-kun...

Why yes, I was just playing FGO before I read this update, why do you ask?

Last I checked, Friendmaker wasn't a giant laser beam. When did that change happen?

Also, to whoever it was who said to keep an eye out for how this game handles the sin of sloth, I definitely did not expect a sentient Holy Grail fueled by the subconsciousness of Japan to be the representation. Even if said form is almost certainly hiding a second form underneath that the party will face once....whatever is happening to Morgana gets cleaned up.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2018 07:20

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

I look forward to Tora taking over as the protagonist in the next update.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2018 06:21

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

Arist posted:

I will say this, it's nice for Igor to finally get some updated/new artwork, since I think the last official artwork for him was stuff from Persona 1 and/or Persona 2. Aka, nearly 20+ years ago.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2018 06:57

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 18:19

AradoBalanga: Jan 3, 2013

RareAcumen posted:

Whoa, that's even worse than Morrigan's sprite. I think this is the first time I've seen Igor's full appearance because I always assumed he had a Penguin roundness to him going by how big his head is and his giant nose.

It gets worse when you realize that one of the few constants throughout the Persona series has been Igor. Even when Philemon decided to go off on an extended vacation, Igor has stayed around to be there as a prominent presence for the player. And only with the 5th mainline game does he get some modern artwork, all thanks to actually being part of the plot this time around instead of his usual supporting role.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2018 07:19

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > The Cool Crime of Robbery: Let's Play Persona 5 [SSLP]

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