This is a long overdue update to my previous forum topic, but in summary, I started creating a Persona-themed Discord bot over a year ago for my friend's server and have been building upon it since. At first, its only main features were Persona status screens where you can gain levels and social stats according to your activity. Now, I've developed a scene generator for it where you can create your own fake screenshots from the series! Nearly every single character sprite is here along with their own theme layouts (P1, P2, P3, P3P, P4, P4A, P4D, P5, BBTAG), and it's proven useful so far for meme making, roleplaying, story creation, etc. Here are some examples: https://i.imgur.com/YEieUUP.gif https://i.imgur.com/hp15VJU.jpg https://i.imgur.com/dxaxwuO.jpg https://i.imgur.com/QJ2xFx3.jpg I plan to make this bot public sometime in the coming future once everything is polished and ready, but if you're interested, take a look at the website below and consider joining the server to try it out! Since it is server-exclusive for now, some features like this one can be used via DMs in the meantime. Website: https://sites.google.com/view/prcsociallinker/ Server Link: https://discord.gg/RwZau2A

It's been quite a while since I've last made a post on the forums, so I thought I would do a little update on a big project I've been working on! Since the beginning of February, I've been programming a special Discord bot that's entirely Persona-focused and used to encourage social interactions. It's a bit difficult to explain using only words, so take a look at the images below! https://i.imgur.com/n3iAFTz.png https://i.imgur.com/v1YkaaJ.png https://i.imgur.com/U3gOttx.png This is the main feature of the bot. To put it simply, there's an account system that keeps track of three social stats (Charm, Diligence, and Expression) that gradually increase depending on certain actions and combines that with other information Discord provides to generate images that replicate the social stat screens from P3, P4, and P5. Nearly all of the art assets were remade from scratch to keep the social stats consistent when users swap between themes, and the images keep dynamically changing depending on what state the user's account is in at the time; the progress bars fill, the radar chart grows, etc. The stats themselves each have an individual purpose that correlate to server activity: Charm increases due to how users show appreciation to others (which there are special commands dedicated to doing just this), Diligence increases with consecutive days of server activity, and Expression increases by participating in server events. And of course, the leveling system is dependent on how many messages someone sends during their time on the server. The three social stats reset to their base values on the first of every month, so while they aren't persistent values like the leveling system, it creates friendly competition to see who can increase their stats the fastest and gain a reward if they manage to max out all three within a single month. Adding on to all of this, I've also recently started implementing other fun commands that some of the other well-known Discord bots use to make it a bit more diverse in function. This is by far the largest project I've ever worked on in my programming career, and I'm so glad it's turning out so wonderfully! (And since I'm here, I might as well share the server the bot is being used in! Camziez, Rom_Dolos, and I run a fairly large Persona server together where we hold both Persona-themed roleplays and use as a general community to discuss all things about the series. If you're feeling curious about the bot or even the server itself, please feel free to join us! https://discord.gg/MfZUKF5)

Yes, I was absolutely bored when I decided to do this. But interestingly enough, I have some results. https://i.imgur.com/Pgp12m7.png First things first! Joker’s mug shot is what made me consider doing this in the first place, as the background is clearly marked to show increments in 5 centimeters. From this, we can tell his height is approximately 175 cm (about 5 ft. 9 in.). Notice where his elbow rests: nice and centered at the 115 cm mark. But because of the held sign, it’s crooked at an angle. https://i.imgur.com/DPuNOHO.png Marking the distance from the shoulder to his elbow (blue line) and setting his shoulder as the pivot point, we can see at what height his elbow would be when placed at a default resting position (red line). This would bring his elbow’s natural height to about 113 cm, shown by the yellow line. https://i.imgur.com/jvAfL53.png Next up: Lavenza appears! With her standing next to Joker, this is a great chance to compare their sizes. Using the distance between identical parts of the two guillotines as a point of reference, the thin red line shows how tall she is compared to Joker while taking the camera angle into consideration. In other words… <i>She’s right under his crooked elbow.</i> Now this is of course assuming the animated cutscene shows a 1:1 match with Joker’s in-game model, but if he were to “un-crook” his elbow, the distance doesn’t seem to be that far off from the estimated resting position, right? So with that in mind, Lavenza’s height should be around 113 centimeters, or about 3 feet and 8 inches. Almost the height of an average 6 year old girl.

Looking back at Katsura Hashino’s past titles, it’s easy to see the evolution in gameplay. Persona 5's mechanics feel like a nearly perfected take on the formulas introduced in P3, P4, and even Catherine, combining them all into Hashino's big finale for his role in the series. Persona 3 carried over many of the vibes from P2, but Hashino took the series in a new direction with the introduction of the calendar system and Social Links. The battle system in particular received an overhaul with the 1 More system, taking Hashino’s Turn Press mechanic from Nocturne and somewhat reworking it. Persona 4 refined the systems introduced in P3, adding more activities to do during leisure time and tweaking Social Links. Moon phases were replaced with the weather system, which was not only relevant to the plot, but also put strategy into planning out the days ahead. Diversely themed dungeons were an especially welcomed return compared to Tartarus, each having their own gimmick to keep exploration fresh. But Hashino’s role in Persona 5 intrigues me the most, not only because it’s his last title in the series, but because he himself had a direct role in writing the script. Crafting both the story and gameplay gave him more control of how everything played out, and it worked to his benefit. Social Links evolved into the Confidant system, having a greater effect on gameplay both inside and outside of battle. Tartarus from Persona 3 mechanically returned as Mementos, but coexisted with the idea of multiple themed dungeons with uniquely crafted layouts. The entire concept of using a phone as a gameplay mechanic was clearly adapted from his previous title Catherine, and the online features from Persona 4 Golden were taken in as well. Even demon negotiation was brought back into the series, something Hashino hadn’t done since his Nocturne days. It’s clear that Hashino put all he had into Persona 5, and players who stuck with him and the series in general can see the reworking of old ideas with the combination of new ones. But now that he’s leaving the series for good, I just wonder what kind of changes we might be seeing from the next person in charge.

No, not the inventor. Ever since the release of P4G, I've noticed the English lyrics in Persona games started to make sense compared to the seemingly random ones from previous titles. I suppose Atlus hiring the lyricist Benjamin Franklin was likely a response to the series' increased popularity in the west. I personally enjoyed what Lotus Juice brought to the series, but the fact that he speaks English fluently surprisingly didn't show in his own work. So let's all thank Benjamin Franklin for writing lyrics we can listen to without trying to decode their cryptic meanings.