Adults Shouldn't Be In Persona?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- Original Tweet is here ➤ / 1778035909675364829 doing these videos is honestly really interesting to see a plethora of diverse thoughts from you guys!
~~Follow me on my socials! ~~
➤ Secondary YT VOD Channel:
/ @crystaahhlstreams
➤ Twitch: / crystaahhl
➤ Instagram: / ocrystaahhl
➤ Twitter: / crystaahhl
➤ Patreon: / crystaahhl
➤ Website: crystaahhl.com/
➤ Tiktok: / crystaahhl
➤ Discord: / discord
➤ Join our subreddit!: / crystaahhl
![[UA] Eternal Fire проти NAVI | EPL Season 20 Malta](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/chvlsDygrZM/mqdefault.jpg)
AAAHHHHH I'm genuinely so sorry about the title everyone!!!! I meant to put a "?" at the end of the title to both invite more conversation about the topic and also it makes more sense regarding the base of the conversation spark.
I rushed the upload of this video because of P3R playthrough prep, I'm so sorry that I didn't double check 😭😭😭
Well, when it's next to a thumbnail of Zenkichi, we all knew the title was ironic.
Do not worry so much, your video was really cool. Nice cosplay also!
Oh I'm super relieved to hear that! I was thinking it seemed super out of character for you to make a weird clickbait title haha
I was about to say, "I do NOT want to hear this from a Katsuya simp 😆"
Thankfully, I actually _watched_ the video before commenting 😅
If adults can't be in Persona then why is Zenkichi so damn hot? Checkmate, atheists.
He is basicly on fire at this point x"3 (sorry)
But 100% agreed!
I see your Zenkichi and raise you a Sae Najima (technically not a persona user but still) 😅
Also look up the Toshiro and Erina concept art for P5T and GOD DAYM
Toshiro is hot too🤒....(Despite his Tactica design)
What do atheists have to do wi- You know what? Fuck it, why not??
Dilf Counseling is on Tues, May 14th
I always found the "adults already have themselves figured out" angle of being against an adult persona cast kinda funny because... like... Do these people even remember persona.
Categorically most adults in the series with any narrative importance, don't have themselves figured out lol
I agree. Some of the most interesting characterization in a story comes from characters who thought they had themselves figured out, but are just realizing that they didn't know as much as they thought they did. It's interesting to see a character's preconceived notions and beliefs challenged throughout the course of a story.
“Adults having themselves figured out” is the ultimate fantasy honestly. Just give me a game where I can play 30 year old who just figured everything out and can chill. That sounds lovely
You can have yourself figured out and yet have the fact make you miserable. It's about the choice. But it's young people who usually play games and think about sex all the time.
@@GlomezAtomZ that's an absurd angle to look at this from...
Are we really stereotyping now? Adults are always mature and teens are always... horny? I'd never play a game like that, unrealistic
@@nightowlowo149 It's hardly a stereotype. Young people also act with the most indignation too. They think it's righteous.
The biggest lie I was taught as a kid was that grown ups know wtf they're doing. I'm now in my thirties and I can say without a doubt that's bs lol. And not even just because of myself, I observed this even among boomers and gen X'ers
Yeah but when they did it, it was cool.
Having an adult could freshen up the average teenager cast and has potential for deeper character arcs (like how the leader is a teenager and one of the members they command is an adult so it brings conflict cus the adult as more "experience")
They need an adult that will help the teens about life and has more mature than everyon that why persona 5 striker is good because they have a father figure in that game
A single adult in the main cast would be a great way to acquire certain items and what not that teenagers would be unable to obtain legally. Like the adult member of your team on certain days of the week has enough free time to go and acquire things for the crew from some sort of black market, an underground business that would want nothing to do with teenagers for obvious reasons.
Young adult characters maybe college students would be an interesting approach.
I disagree with the idea of Highschooler figuring out a lot about themselves is "unrealistic", that really depends on how sheltered you are, but teenagers who have to face serious hardship usually mature very fast, so I have no issue with that. Expecially in P5 where most of those issues are real ass problems that japanese teens had to face from actual criminal cases, and those are only the ones that we know about. Expecially in Japan where teens are typically less sheltered, are expeted to already compette to get into good middle schools then good high schools, to try to get sucessfull in sports club since middle school to increase their chances, to go to school by themselves since a young age, to work part time very early...ect
I definitely thing that even if it's obviously exagerated the amount of shit the persona casts have to go through isn't that unrealitsic
On the other side I indeed think that there is absolutely nothing stopping anyone from doing self discovery as an adult, heck I doubt most people really figured out themselves by 30, heck some people never find out, as sad as it sounds.
I do think the older you get the more you can get stuck in your routine and unable to quesiton yourself (which is kind of part of P5 point) but that would only make the awakenings more interesting when a character question not just his recent decisions but his whole 10-20 years of adult life up to this point.
So honestly as long as they are confident in the story they want to tell, I'm fine either way, if they think they have another great story that works better for a young man MC (I honestly think that the whole plot of P5 about rebelling in the context of japanese culture works well better with teenagers who are like at the bottom of the japanase authority expectation rank, and of course they did dig in the adult side of it with Zenkichi and Toshiro which were masterfulyl done as well), if they think their next story would work better with a female MC that's cool, if they think their next story would work better with a college student great, same with a working adult, as long as they do it because they truly believe it'll work better and not just to please the community, I'll like it.
I agree that P5 works best with teenagers. They’re at the age where they recognize the societal problems that affect them, have opinions about the world, but don’t have the power (legal or influential) to change things. If they were adults it seems like they should try to solve things as an adult, or else it becomes the cliched hardboiled “sometimes we have to work outside the system” sort of thing.
But I don’t agree about high schoolers finding themselves. When I think of everyone I know who went through a lot at that time, I would still say they didn’t find themselves at all until around 25.
I only figured myself out and stuff after I left high school. HS was nothing but "study, go do these activities that you HAVE TO but don't want to, and suffer insufferable idiot peers that act like morons". It was only after I left that I figured out that I was one of the morons too and there was so much to learn, so much that I actually WANTED to learn. Adulthood >>> Highschoolery.
@@FieryAnubis @ER-gb4ee Most people only get mature at adulthood, I don't deny that.
But most people also don't have to go through nearly as much life changing shit as the average persona confidant does.
Like sure I also personally think I only started to mature in prep school and engineering school, but I am not everyone, and i'm also not japanese. Japanese kids have a lot more pressure put on them by the age of 16 than most of occidental kids.
Also i don't mean "finding yourself" like becoming automatically as wise and self aware as they can be, I mean finding yourself in the sense of coming of age, that moment where you stop being a kid in his own selfish world and become aware of problems around you and your part in it. Some people get it very fast when they have to take responsibilities early and other still didn't get it by the age of 40.
And I am perfectly aware that for most people it doesn't happen before around 20, but persona characters are rarely "most people"
@@naproupi Life changing events aren't high school era exclusive. Again with my example, biggest life change happened at 27. It took til 32 to even process it and accept it. Especially in the context of Persona, that would be incredible to see, even if it was all condensed to a single year as usual. Because that's just it, Persona doesn't represent "the majority" or the average experience. These are clearly special people with special powers, and there's always a disconnect between the themes and the setting, making certain themes not even hit as hard as they'd like to as a result.
"heck some people never find out, as sad as it sounds"
I don't think that's sad at all. If you've "figured yourself out," you're stagnating.
The best part of being a middle-aged adult for me is how often I end up surprising myself with something new that I didn't know about myself or changes in my mindset.
there are 4 comments and people have literally just flamed without watching any video 😭
Yup!
That's what you get when you use an inflammatory title. It brings in clicks, but also flames.
the title is clickbaity, if I didn't know Crystah I would have blocked her lol
it took me reading this comment to realize that I fucked up my title D,,x the flame comments probably, understandably came from that... Thank you AHHH!!
Some people only read the headline and got the conclusion in their head.
I too find it unrealistic that only japanese high school students can defeat gods.
Agree 100%
Depressed middle aged wagies could defeat gods too!
Honestly, it’s weird to see people, ummm… fixate on female characters in the series especially since a lot of them are, you know, underage. So it’d be nice for an all adult cast as it’d feel less weird imo
I keep getting distracted by the Majima standee in the background and all I can think about is Majima being in Persona 6
I agree and I agree! I think Atlus knows how to write adult characters and their redemption arcs!
Katsuya Suou, every P1 character as adults in P2: "Are we a joke to you?"
I often notice that the people who think that young adults/adult are boring characters and games work better with a teenage cast tend to be young themselves? I also did that back when I was a teen, thinking that everyone above age 22 was the same kind of old but as I age I'm starting to notice that wow being a teen was a very limited experience. Which makes sense! As teens we just simply don't understand what it feels like to have been born 20-30-50 years ago. We are just interested in different experiences.
But yeah while I do think that the way they made Persona games function at the moment are most suitable for a younger cast (and also I don't fully trust the company to make meaningful romances between adult characters) I do think it COULD work if they actually tried to make it work.
I mean i dont think you can trust the company to make meaningful romances in any capacity, haven't the creators/writers of 3-5 gone on record to say that they've never even had a female friend?
I find it funny how people always say that university studends in Japan have no life. Meanwhile in my university all the exchange students and my Japanese class teacher keep touting about how university is the best moment of their life with all the freedom they got.
My partner who I brought into the series has LONG said that they feel like college would be a better fit bc you generally have even MORE free time than you do in high school, you can cover more adult themes more comfortably and realistically, and as an added bonus, giving everyone a major is just a fun bit of extra characterization. You could even have some characters who aren't in college but are the same age and just already working or in an apprenticeship/trade school. Both of us felt that Persona 5 would have felt even better if everyone was in college. Then you could have had stories like:
Joker had to change schools bc he was at a top university and was expelled, having to switch to a lower tier or community college
Akechi being a polisci student and political intern for his father at said former top university, giving them a little connection before the game even starts
Ryuji's injury costing him the scholarship he needed to stay in school and having to shift to the workforce, maybe even working at the school he used to attend. It would also feel more realistic that the coach is literally physically abusing students and everyone just lets it slide if he is coaching a team that earns the school a lot of money. We've seen MANY scandals of coach's and player's actions being covered up by the school so they can keep raking in money via the team.
Ann trying to figure out if she wants to be a model or a designer while managing everything with Shiho. With the coach being more prevalent, it's more believable that his relations with a student would be covered up, especially since she isn't a minor anymore and thus, it's a harder sell to the cops ESPECIALLY in Japan.
Makoto dealing with being a girl in a largely male major and dealing with misogyny as a Criminal Justice major on top of her sister guilt-tripping her about the cost of her college
Haru trying to balance her family's required major of Business Management with her own passion for Botany in the form of a club or minor and being isolated from other students due to her status. Maybe she is even forced to join a certain sorority bc all women in her family join it and everyone hates her there. (though I don't think Japan has those)
Yusuke as the Art major hailed as a prodigy, propelled into stardom by the scandal from his sensei, and now reliant on a scholarship to survive, adding pressure to perform that keeps tainting his work
Futaba debating whether she even NEEDS to go to college bc she knows everything they would teach her already and she could just take all the classes online from her room and maybe realizing that while she has the job skills already, attending classes and clubs with everyone can still be fun and good for her, maybe even having a storyline where she takes a struggling computer science or programming student under her wing.
Kasumi also cracking under the scholarship pressure as her failure to perform as well as her sister did could lose her her place at school or even the Olympics
The stories are all similar but just have higher stakes in college and it feels more natural for them to get caught up in things like politics and drug rings than it does for high school. It's also more believable that they would have an on-site counselor that students are using for the Royal ending. Also can you tell I was a scholarship student?
Everyone goes to high school. But not everyone goes to college. Most people have similar life experiences up until turning 18. But while some people are married with a house and kids at 25, others might still be on school, or in the army, or moving to Hollywood to chase acting dreams or in AA or playing professional sports, or a VTuber.
Once you take the concept of social simulation out of high school it becomes dramatically less broadly relatable because adulthood doesn’t look the same for everyone, but we can all remember being kids.
I think this is why so many genres resist aging up their characters even when it would make sense to do so
In Japan, over 60% of adults have some form of tertiary education, and a "college-aged" cast could easily be a mix of college students and non-college students that are still in their early 20s, but starting their careers (or hell, even stagnating with adult expectation paralysis).
@@vorpal22 My point isn’t that it is unrealistic or undoable or that I would be against it as a concept.
My point is THIS is the the reason I think Atlus & other creators stick to the high school settings (it is why Euphoria is set in a high school even though it should 1000% should have been put in college instead because of all the sexual content).
High school is a broadly relatable setting. Most of us had similar high school experience. But very dissimilar adult lives.
But there are still popular social simulation games where you don’t play children, such as Stardew Valley and Yazuka
@@TheJadedJames Okay, I can appreciate that, but the experiences of high school students is extremely diverse as well: if you ask me if I can relate to any of the characters in Persona 3, 4, or 5, I'd be hard pressed to think of one that resonates with my teenage experiences. I think claiming that we had "similar high school experience" just because most of us had to attend school for four years doesn't really draw people together much more than the experiences of being in your 20s separates us.
I did love Stardew Valley back in the day, which definitely focuses more on being a young adult than a teenager. I think a well-written story - regardless of demographic - can have widespread appeal, and having a diverse cast of characters in terms of their experiences can make for a really interesting story, even if it's hard to find one to relate to specifically.
Why lots of Japanese fictional media companies focus on high school students is an interesting question, though.
@@TheJadedJames FWIW, GPT-4 seems to agree with you. I don't' really have any objection to plots being focused on high school students - and even with sexual content, in Japan, nationally, the age of consent is 13 (but in many prefectures, it is 18), and while it's becoming more controversial, depicting things like statutory rape in drawn form isn't necessarily illegal. I think that's possibly why we see things like Joker dating adult women and clearly having sexual situations with them.
I guess for me, I found the characters of Personas 3 and 4 to be really well done, but the characters in Persona 5 to be terrible, and it's burnt me out on the whole high school trope when I think about it specifically in the context of Persona. Like I said elsewhere in this thread, Joker is one of the dullest protags I have ever played, so neutral that almost anyone can insert themselves into his character however they want, and the characters are obnoxiously grating, needy, and often one-dimensional compared to the earlier entries.
I know the game didn't sell fantastically, but I really liked the characters in Soul Hackers 2, and they represented a fairly broad representation of adulthood between the three "human" characters. I'd like to see more of that, but with the issues in Soul Hackers 2 resolved. (I still can't believe that ATLUS didn't try harder to fix what were obvious flaws... at least with SMTV Vengeance, we MIGHT get SMTV with fixes for the obvious flaws, even though the game had fewer of them.)
I'd like a mix, but personally relate more to teenagers than i do adults because I'm still rather young(turning 21 in a few days). I especially relate to characters who are young, but take on too much responsibility for themselves since i myself have taken on a lot of responsibility with caring for my unwell mother and taking care of my siblings
The problem with discussing the teenager/adult topic on a public forum with your followers and subscribers is that a large portion of that base, maybe even a majority, has no frame of reference for what it means to be an adult.
It's really weird for me to see people talking about the discovery of who they are as teenagers, because for me (and maybe I am the odd one here) I only felt as discovering myself and following my own path in my mid-twenties.
I personally think young adults like 18-21 are a good middle ground. It would also allow more freedom like no school or school replaced with work. Or if they go even older than 21 they could make the main characters parents.
My main problem with adult persona is that adults have no free time and i can barelymax out the social links already...
I just want one of the protagonist's teachers to be a Persona user and a party member. It's the most obvious idea that I'm surprised they haven't done yet
Same, I used that concept for a crossover AU (aka Persona story with the cast of another series). Became an interesting dynamic when one of his students is the "leader" and the group also has another one of his students & his son.
Persona 5 Strikers literally has a 30 something cop join the Phantom Thieves who gets his own Persona and everything
@@TheJadedJames yes but his persona is activated so late in the game and he’s gonna be a forgotten character like all persona games so I’m not even gonna count him too much
@@devbyrd6127 how dare you imply i will ever forget zenkichi
I wish Akane was used more than just an obstacle the Phantom Thieves face that also gets Zenkichi involved but it could be hard since the lifestyles are massively different. It, however, would not be impossible since she really wants justice for her mother’s killer.
I'm 31 and I'm still trying to figure myself out. Persona helped me with that process but I've also struggled to make real the person I think I should or could be, and so that process still goes on. I don't think there's any aging out of a series like Persona, because not everyone finds themselves in the same way, at the same rate, or at the same time in life.
0:55 Counterpoint to this first argument: Adults don't have their life together. Being an adult and having their shit figured out are not intertwined in the slightest.
That being said, Crystal, I don't think it's entirely unrealistic to go through that much self-discovery within your highschool years. Unlikely, yes, but it does without a doubt happen. I myself discovered my affinity for writing fanfiction when I was close to graduating.
4:25 I also agree with this point. Being an adult now, I would love to hear stories within Persona that appeal to my current experiences as well, with finding a job and such.
However, when I have characters that I can truly resonate with (and in most of these games, those characters are teenagers) and who spoke to my past struggles, they give me a sense of catharsis. As if I wasn't the only one who felt exactly like I did then. Knowing that I share that pain lightens the burden, in a sense.
5:46 This. Honestly, all that truly matters is the quality of the story told. All of the Persona stories have a certain level of quality, and while I certainly don't agree with some of the methods they tell those stories with (or the elements they include for "shits n giggles" (they usually aren't very funny at all, like imagine having a hot springs scene between a bunch of adults blegh)), in every circumstance the story ends up being _truly_ meaningful and has me sobbing like a little bitch. I trust Atlus to do that, at least, and if they do it with a bunch of adults, then great!
8:59 What even is this take???? You could tell a story just as impactful as any modern Persona game without having high schoolers dominate the cast entirely. This is why I love the Persona spinoffs, like 5 Strikers and the Arena games: the character stories they introduce could just as easily apply to an adult character as a teenager. Take Sho, for example: say he was 17 by the time Minazuki awakened and attacked Ikutsuki instead of when he confronted Yu and the others with the P-1 Grand Prix and Climax. That would put him at... what, 21-22 by the time of Arena/Ultimax? Even older? Not a lot would fundamentally change about his story. In fact, it would let his and Adachi's own stories have more parallels, and make each one even more impactful, while still not entirely separating him from Labrys and Yu.
9:57 This is a point I'm actually neutral on. I do agree that the high school setting has been done a lot, but not necessarily done to death, or to the point of boredom, at least for me.
11:14 I would totally love seeing the whole cast of Persona 4 as adults, though! I loved that they went down that path with the Arena games showing the P3 cast post-Answer, it was so cool seeing them after all that time, and I would love having them retread that ground again with a P5 Arena, or even having them cameo in Persona 6! Maybe even have a passing-of-the-torch story?
12:22 YES! I FUCKING LOVE ZENKICHI AND TOSHIRO! THEY'RE AMAZING! SHOUTOUT TO MACLEOD ANDREWS AND TOM TAYLORSON FOR THEIR PHENOMENAL PERFORMANCES AS THEM, THEY'RE SOME OF MY FAVORITE PERSONA CHARACTERS!
13:33 Yeah, just like... don't be _weird_ man. You're killin' the vibe. If you're the kind of person who gets torn up about this, you're probably REALLY fun at parties.
14:43 again, see above. Having a new story with the old characters is something I absolutely love about the Persona spinoffs. It's great, we should be doing it more. We _want_ the more. Give us the more.
15:35 this is something I mostly agree with. Part of the issue I take with Persona 4 and 5 is that characters almost entirely stop developing past the arcs where they are introduced, and they try to supplement this issue with the Social Links, but it feels like it intrinsically ties these characters's development to their respective Wildcard, which is just... it sits wrong with me? I don't really like it that much? However, the Persona 4 Anime solves this issue entirely by baking the party member Social Links and development into each episode, as well as adding more and better scenes with each character (including non-PM SLs), and it works SO WELL. Please go watch the P4 Anime, it's so good.
@@My2Cents.iF7934 BASED
The "modern" Persona 3 and up settled on the high school structure because it's a daily grind for the yearly gameplay loop, and you can chuck most of the main non-optional npcs into the school.
You could easily do this setting in an university from our western perspective but I have no idea how they work in japan, never saw one in dramas or animes( Gran Blue being the only one I remember that the cast is from an Uni). Now full on adults, 27 and up, would require a lot of creativity and effort to apply this daily /yearly gameplay loop from a team that is used to do the same thing over and over for the last 17 years.
About the highschool thing: you're viewing it with from a western perspective. I recommend you both read and watch 5 centimeters per second by Makoto Shinkai for a different angle on the idea of Japanese highschool
I'm on the side of making personal users all adults in an entry. You're always reinventing yourself. I'm almost 40 (God, just... why) and my tastes in media and literature have gone more classical, I'm a teaching instructor at my job now, I live by myself with excellent credit, started drinking wines joining a club for it, most recently got my motorcycle license and a Harley Nightster Special when the very idea of ever driving terrified me. I mean, WHO AM I? I would have never thought to achieved what I am and keep expanding as steadily. A game with people reinventing themselves or even looking back at who they were as their better selves would be cool. As well as a shout out to Persona and SMT players who grew up with it, and something for younger generations to chew on for when they get there.
People are drowning themself in cup of water. Both adults and teanagers go to self discovery faces. Some people have some part of themself discover by higschool while other part reaming unknown until their 60's. At end the persona saga have so many themes that pretty much any demografic can enjoy it, so who cares if the protagonist are adults or tenagers what matthers is the story and how can it be related to your life
Hear me out: cast is all retired seniors who revert to their younger selves when they summon their personas
I think what I find funny is that this sounds like “all persona games” when the funny thing is is that p5 strikers has Makoto and Haru. Whom are over the age of 18 thus adults. I think they’re 19 in it (don’t quote me) but think about college or stuff like that. Cool college mystery stuffs.
I think adults for P6 would definitely be a nice change of pace, but for your points on teenage struggles I don’t think I’d agree since everyone has different circumstances. I know a dude pushing 30 living with his parents, no job, never cleans his room is lazy etc. and then I knew 16 year olds in high school who worked jobs and had to help out with things in the house because they had a single mother and lots of younger siblings, the high schooler had to mature and struggle way more than some 30 year old bum. It’s all about circumstances not just age lmao. That being said, adults have cool stories too and should be included in persona
I would love a mixed cast. Part of some of the character arcs could easily be trying to view the world the way their allies do, which is always difficult. I've been through that so many times. I've had people tell me that doing XYZ is easy but then when I try to look into it I can't understand a thing. Experience or lack thereof is a powerful barrier at times and it can cause quite a few problems. Perhaps they could work with that a shape a story that shows people how to respect other people's views, because I think overall the world could definitely use a game like that.
my preferred option for an adult or college cast, would be to lean into the character schedule persona 3 had. where you have to work around the characters having to work or having a class that day. and deciding if you want to wait and go into the other world at full strength or work with that you've got. it would also definitely help people build overall stronger teams. since i know for a fact i just end up using the name 3 characters in my party every game with no variation. unless the story takes them out of play. maybe even let you choose what college courses you want to take, and building them around being a persona user.
would also be interesting to have more characters that can work as navigators. each with a different skill set. considering each game always starts with one character acting as a navigator. who then just completely loses that ability once the actual navigator gets added to the party
When they say a cast of adults can't be interesting all I can think of is how much I adored the cast in Yakuza 7 and Infinite Wealth. I also totally agree with you that's it's sad how so many people seem to think that you just suddenly stop growing and learning about yourself as an adult. It makes me wonder if the people who feel this way are still very young and just don't know any better yet.
As a high schooler (for about a few more months) I am all for Persona mixing things up or keeping to high school. While I disagree that adults or teens are more or less interesting, some of the most interesting people I know are adults, or my youngers, I do see why people would think that. Because adulting is often seen as boring, and in many ways, it very much is boring. But being a teen can be just as boring.
Like an adult cast formed of previous Persona teens all grown up would also be super cool, because we get to see if their personality and Persona has changed along with them as they've gotten older!
Make them adults, but make them in their late 30-40's. Their new ailments/debuffs will be: back pain, tax attack and hospital bills.
Navigator: "Oh no, leader has been cursed by back attack, he is going home!".
Here’s what I heard:
“You guys know how much I related to Kenji-“
WHAT??!!?!?
“- from Persona 5”
???????
Honestly I think it would be an amazing angle of doing a cast of adults that actually bite back against that idea that you have yourself figured out once you turn 18. As somebody who was arguably raised by media that shoved that idea down my throat the second I became an adult I felt like a failure because I fuckin *fumbled.* So I will always shout from the rooftops for rep of struggling adults so someone else gets to understand that.
Some other things just to throw wood into the fire: Teenagers and Adults have different utility in stories.
For example, a teenager (13~22ish) tends to be a bit more emotional; Going through changes, growth spurts, and in the later part of their young-adult phase, are starting to apply changes and lessons to the world around them to absorb new information and reflection on their journey, many of them even becoming more worldly in general through travel, or even just starting their careers and learning about the "real" world.
An adult (22~45) is more steady. Their growth changes have dramatically calmed down. Many of them become weary of the drama or concerns that used to nag on them in their youth. They tend to slow down. Many of them start to have families with children at this point. They become much more risk adverse, while also accumulating many more resources, such as a house, steady income, and wider relationship net with a local community (neighborhood, work, local stores, etc).
The utility of this makes itself apparent when you try to sit down and write a story and involve the characters. One of the important things about growth and self-discovery is acknowledging the mistakes you are making, which a teenager is far more prone to do, especially because they will likely be making mistakes in situations they've never encountered before. That makes it easier to believe the character and also easier to forgive them. Junpei in P3's early game getting jealous of you being the leader is far more tolerable from a teenage than a 40 year-old. The reason why this becomes more difficult with adults, even though that they too can still actually grow and have these experiences as well, is because their age and experience can make some lessons harder to avoid. If you write in a teenage character who is sexist against their friend and causes a fight, then that character can still learn and just might not have seen enough of the world. When you do that with said 40 year-old characters, that makes them look like they are entrenched in an ideology, potentially makes it political, and you have to write excessive amounts of backstory to explain how that character got that way if you even want to consider the idea that someone forgives them for it.
An adult's function in a story is more easily apparent when you are trying to write less from a character-growth perspective, and more from a "scenario" perspective, i.e. there is a problem to solve, and the adults must solve it. When you write with the scenario first, and only want to write characters second (cause you should never completely divorce the two), then you don't need the characters to learn to accept themselves and the power of friendship, but instead you want capable people trying to handle a dangerous situation the best they can using the tools that are available to them. Ironically, these types of stories are best demonstrated in the more intelligent summer blockbuster flicks where you are meant to "turn your mind off," because it's often a lone SWAT or military member swooping in and fighting a very intelligent opponent that covers a lot of their weaknesses.
If we consider Persona to be a character-growth centered story, then with the above in mind, I still consider teenagers the best way to tell the story. Even if you move them up to college.
I am still for the idea of an adult cast, but if we see that, I would love to see pre-developed characters and for there to be far more complex problems for the cast to solve, like maybe a Light Yagami-level intelligent Persona-user as a villain who has explored and figured out the limits of manipulating shadows and Personas and pushing the cast into a corner more readily.
I feel like Catherine explored sliver of it, but I’d love a Persona that actually talks about some real adult topics. I.e. caring for old parent with dementia, falling out of touch with old friends, growing a local community from hobby/interests/beliefs, and nurturing future generations.
Trying to finish playing Persona 2 Eternal Punishment, this video's super relevant for me right now.
Persona with an adult cast can definitely work, as we saw with Maya Amano's adventures. It mostly depends on what topic ATLUS wants to cover and how they want to approach it. While Personas 3, 4, and 5 were all fun, with messages I can get behind (the inevitability of death and making the most of life, searching for truth amidst the misinformation, the system has problems and sometimes you need to break the rules because they don't work anymore or are used to subjugate), I do feel like those deep topics would probably be a better fit in an adult setting with a main character whose profession is relevant to the intended message moreso than a high school kid who needs to focus on their education so they don't get grounded, but it's moreso about suspension of disbelief than realism. I mean... calling forth the power of the fairy king Oberon from Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" to electrocute everybody is absolutely not realistic, but we still accept it because that's Persona. A teen saving the world isn't realistic, but we suspend disbelief to allow the story to do what it's trying to do, and as a result, we get stories that don't disappoint.
I also feel like it might make things feel less hectic overall if the MCs are adults. The younger you are, the less chill you are, and that excess energy and craziness seems to make stories about teens and kids feel like "please take a freaking chill pill people, you're making a huge deal out of nothing..." I definitely have more control over my emotions now compared to when I was younger and was constantly panicking all the time.
Another thing to consider with adults is the fact that they have more options for what their lives are like. Teenagers are in school, but they don't have a variety of options by comparison to adults with full-on jobs and hobbies and stuff.
There's a lot to consider, and it would take more than 1 UA-cam comment to run through the options to see what'd work best for the story. Sorry if this feels like a thought dump mess.
Ngl, I saw the red armband, black-and-white pin, and the black suit and got really concerned that Crystal took a really dark turn…
I think the argument about adults having less time cause Japan's work culture could be a way to highlight hikikomoris maybe and perhaps them gaining personas is how they make their first steps to going out their rooms
dont think too deeply bout the comment above tho, i just had that idea popped up lmaonade
not for adults, but like persona in university college has much more potential (and they can be freaky and still be legal/not as weird, at least they’d be sexualizing fresh 18 year olds instead of 16 year olds)
College experience is very different in Japan than US or UK.
@@Dracobytevery true
@@Dracobyte This!! People forget this whenever they suggest a University setting for the games.
Hey guys wanna go save the world?
Nah we got midterms next week.
Damn…
@@goroadachi9489 This already happens in the high school setting lmao, what are you talking about? You escape from a Palace in Persona 5 and half the time the first fucking thing people yap on about is exams.
The reason persona always takes place in high school is bc in Japan it is seen as your golden years it’s meant to be a sort of nostalgia trip in Atlus’ mind.
The Persona 2 Duology does have a really good adult cast. I enjoy looking into Katsuya and Tatsuya's dynamic. Maya is an interesting Protagonist for Eternal Punishment. Baofu starts off mysterious in Innocent Sin, and becomes a great character in EP. Ulala is also amazing and her growth is also interesting. And you see the growth of some of the Persona 1 cast in the Persona 2 Duology.
Zenkichi has a pretty good development in Strikers. He starts out with the Phantom Thieves' distrust, but that distrust slowly breaks down the more he helps them. He almost acts like a dad to them really (or funny uncle if Sojiro took the dad spot already lol). And the awakening of his Persona is really one of my personal favorites, as well as the catalyst for getting his Persona, that being his daughter, Akane.
I can't say much for Maruki because I have not played Royal 😅
But from what I've seen he's been received pretty well.
How could adults be boring? Just imagine:
A bunch of people tired of the monotony and lack of individuality, who feel like they've lost their sense of self, decide to break away from the system. They bring life and color back into the world (maybe literally, could be a fun art direction) by fighting the higher ups taking advantage of those who feel stuck in their ways as they've been "brainwashed" (metaverse plot relevancy) into becoming drones, sheep, cattle, etc, feeling like there's no other way to live than to follow and conform to the terrible treatment of those in power.
Add a rent mechanic that gives a game over… enemies do not drop money and dungeons do not give it… boom adult hood
As someone who grew up on the games from being 6 years old playing Persona 3 to being older than the cast of P3 now, I think that having adults as main characters would be a great change of pace. We've had that in Eternal Punishment and I hope thet somehow incorporate it to the new Persona system.
In short It really comes down to how the story is structured. I ultimately don't mind either way but I would prefer an adult cast. I've mentioned it in one of your playthoughs and you touched on it here, but I think as great as it still was 5 was the only one that suffered for its cast because the story encompassed society and government. Hell just as a thought experiment with the back stories for some of the SL I think the game becomes more compelling If say Sae Nijima, or Tae Takemi awaken to personas (not everyone needs to join the Phantom Thieves).
Lastly while I understand the concept of "target audience", I find it hard to believe the industry and writers aren't aware of how much more they are catching and where criticism is typically coming from.
I personally think there's plenty of ways they could do an adult cast while still keeping the MC's schedule semi-open.
There's the obvious of having them be a teacher. I feel like they'd have to change some of the social stats around (Intellect 1 teacher, let's gooo!) But it could work. You would lose access to part-time jobs, but the stat boosts they give could be replaced by teacher duties, like preparing lessons for the Int replacement, or preparing dumb teacher jokes for Charm. Hell, you could go into a class with nothing prepared and maybe get a point for guts. It wouldn't deviate too far from the typical formula, and if you absolutely needed highschoolers, boom, you have your students as party members.
In a completely different direction, homeless MC. Or just unemployed, either works. It gives a good explanation for why you start with no social skills, and the MC can have a character arc about integrating into society. Or if we do the homeless option, it could be an Akiyama situation where the MC was a scapegoat for the company they were working for.
I feel like when most people think of adults in Japan, all they can see are sallarymen or office workers. And, sure there is alot of them in Japan, but it's a videogame. We don't have to stick to what's typical in reality, especially in a franchise that has a history of giving teenagers the responsibility of killing God.
Somebody should tell Crystaahhl about Kurohyō: Ryū ga Gotoku Shinshō in regards to having teenagers being involved in crime.
I think the discussion is something that's inevitably gonna happen because, as fans, we love the Persona series so much and like to see it grow in ways which we'd enjoy.
Edit: Personally, I'd like to see a game where ATLUS takes the craziest fan theory and makes it the plot. Something like a giant SMT Crossover where the Demi-Fiend fights unique demons while navigating the Amala Network (again) and some of those demons he beats turn out to be the endgame bosses of the Persona and Devil Summoner games.
Soul hackers 2 is persona with adults look at how that games prospection ended up
I think if you want proof that an adult cast can be every bit as relatable all you have to do is look at the last 2 LAD games. One of the best differences in the transition to Ichiban and a party based cast is the "social link-esque" relationships Ichi builds, something the Kiryu era didn't do much of because he had to stubbornly keep up the lone wolf act despite having many great friends. Anyway back to my point, the portrayals of the friendships Ichiban (and finally Kiryu) develops in 7&8 are some of the most genuine and relatable I've ever seen in a game. The casts here also show that there are so many ways an adult cast can still be growing & figuring out who they are and where they are going. Every single party member in these games is an example of that in some way.
If we can have a little kid and different animals as companions, we could have someone's older family member or mentor/guardian be a party member...no question about it. Especially if it makes sense in the context of whatever the plot is! It probably couldn't just be an adult that hangs out with kids for no reason though...
I think it would be interesting if you played a young adult character who works for the police, but hasn't figured everything out yet. Growing up, you were told to do X, and then things would work out. However, you have done x, and yet your life feels unfulfilled. You are then assigned to investigate a high school setting, and some strange things are happening. You with your partner (assuming the main character is male, then your partner is female) pretend to be high school students. You then figure out that some students might be associate with this strangeness, so you and your partner work to become friends with the students. One of the students there doesn't speak much, but he seems well-liked by his class mates. You and your partner gain personas, yet you find out that this silent student has multiple personas.
Idc, I still wanna keep replaying a fictional teenager phase in which I can accomplish what I couldn't during my irl highschool years D':
grow great vegetables I mean
Big props to Crystaahhl for reading EVERY COMMENT on a controversial tweet like this! This is a great service to the fandom, for real - taking us thru the whole gamut of responses (and picking out the most hinged ones to showcase, thank you for elevating the discourse) to really showcase what kinds of opinions are out there! Big thumbs up, this is a great format - for doing when you feel up to it, obviously, we don't want you to push yourself too far and burn out from thinking about controversial topics just for Content(tm)
The it tweet is funny because p2 was structured after the it format!
This whole thing came from my wishlist tweet so I feel like I can explain a bit.
I like the idea of diversity of cast and p5 spin offs are adding more variety especially p5X, with the new studio lead I imagine some changes will happen so adding to the mix is more likely to me than removing, p5 returned many dead things back into persona
Katsuya, Kasukabe and Zenkichi: *exists*
I mean it's been done well and I think it's more realistic to remember no one has life figured out once they are an "adult".
Also, take the P2 and P4A/AU approach again, bring back some of the younger characters as college students, parents, or just older in general. Like, people forget how much growth a character like Ken has both IN P3 and then after through Arena.
If they contribute to the story proper,and are fleshed out characters,I think ANYONE fits into the Persona world....anything can happen! Koromaru was a dog,Cyber Hitler,Igor is an animated doll,Kenichi the Cop! So many crazy ideas,all of which work in their respective stories!
The people saying "Adults in persona wont work because you do all your growing up and discovering yourself in high school" seem extremely naive to me.
The point of personas is that they are masks. They are inherently changeable and therefore, it could be more interesting to have adults go on a Persona adventure because they have so much more established.
People in the Shin Megami Tensei universe are also mostly teenagers and young adults. But it's the environment that makes it click. For example, you can have an adult work space, work there during the day, and embrace the supernatural stuff at night.
Something that always bother my about newer personas was that teenagers get only one persona, when you are still experimenting with who you are, changing "personas", but when you are in your early adulthood, not matter who disaster we can being, there is something that we know, not matter who small, there are core of our personalities already settle. So it makes more sence that teenager persona users are all wild cards, while adults can only use one that evolves.
P5 had the chance to at least put one college student, they are in freaking Tokio, one of the biggest cites in the world, but all of the Persona useres they can find are in high school? Really? For them is unthinkable to even reference it, almost all of the adult characters that you can play in the series had been people with jobs or seeking one, with exception of Nanjo in P2 EP and Fuuka in the fighting game.
A spinoff of less scale with an adult new cast would be a dream, but i don't think the Persona team is interested in that, sadly.
I would like to see an adult cast but I can also see why they choose teens as they struggle the most with their self image. That being said a college setting would be awesome.
It's pretty funny, that some people think adults are not interesting in a story about figuring yourself out and that's why Persona shouldn't do it, but the only reason they think that is _because_ they don't consume any media where adults figure themselves out.
By advocating for not having more media like this, they are creating the very problem they complain about.
I think adults 100% should have a place in Persona, heck I'd love a college-aged Persona cast in a future instalment.
CrystAAHHL, WHO'S THERE? You really left us with that?!
Video was great BT Dubs and I really appreciate your opinions on exploring the depth and maturity of Adults through Persona.
Having an adult cast reforge or form new lasting friendships despite crazy bullshit wirk hours would be amazing!
I don't think the main theme of persona is "self discovery". It's what happens but that's just the product of character development.
The theme is bonds and how they make you stronger. Each game in the modern persona makes is a point about how having others around you, having multiple PERSONAS helps you overcome life's greatest hardships both narrative and game play wise. You don't stop having bonds when you become an adult
Honestly I think an all adults Persona cast would be a mistake.
There's another angle we need to look at when it comes to the "adults would be more relatable to me" / "adults still figuring themselves out should get representation too". Sure, that might make them be more relatable for us as adults, but Persona games aren't *just* for us, they're for older teenagers too. If I had to guess I'd say that most of us here first got into Persona when we were still in high school (or your country's equivalent).
While we might find the struggles of adult life relatable, like paying rent, the work-life balance, trying to maintain social relationships both in and out of workplace, being a homeowner, etc etc, we can *also* find the high school struggles relatable, because we can remember what it was like for us back when we were that age.
But for new young fans still at that high school age, will they really find all of these life struggles that they've not experienced yet that relatable? I don't know. The obvious retort at first glance would be to point to the vast array of games that are popular with high schoolers that already have adult protagonists, but the big strength of the Persona games, to me, have always been the life-sim aspect combined with the in-depth and intimate explorations of the characters and their interpersonal relationships.
I can appreciate the desire to change things up and keep things fresh, but I also worry about the next generation of fans too.
I'm fine with adults characters in persona as long as the protag is in high school and they don't make up the majority of the crew. My limit for teammates would be half and half. But the protag themselves has to be a high school student because that is the only way i could stand it. I'm currently in the process of graduating high school and i don't want to be reminded about the sucky situation that is adulting. I wanna be able to flash back to the good days. I want to be able to come home from a job and completely forgot about it. The protag has to be in highschool.
Like A Dragon is an example of how to develop adult who clearly doesn't have their shit together. Persona could easily borrow from that. Heck the whole genre of Isekai is some adult dying who never had their shit together and got a second chance.
I think college would be the place to execute Persona, it would open up to drinking places and also a game like P5 would be better with adults since they are talking about the collective concious and be centered at High School. The mix of college students and people who never manage to get something going is a great place.
Honestly i think they should just do it with adults just to see how well it does.
Anything would be refreshing after at least 5 games in highschool.
One thing I've noticed in my Persona 5 Royal playthrough is that Joker is the Persona protagonist that indulgences in the adult world the most - out of the last three.
Although most of his activities in the Red-Light District are optional, they tell the player more about Joker. He likes older women; he works at/is a patron at a queer bar; and he works with the Yakuza (this one is in Shibuya, but it still counts). These little details suit a young adult better, but that's coming from someone who's not Japanese.
As I see it, some of his parts belong to an adult, but he's stuck as a teen. He goes out for drinks with Ohya, but the characters make it sound like something is missing when they mention the fact that Joker doesn't drink alcohol. These small interactions feel off, and they could be fixed by having Joker in college. (Again, this is coming from a different cultural standpoint.)
I haven't played P2 because it was too outdated to my taste, but Catherine is basically like adult Persona. So it can be done, just put day-to-day sched. The struggles of adulthood and various topics are limitless, there's so much themes they can tackle instead of teen tropes and events we've seen rehashed a lot of times.
I wouldn't want to take Persona out of a school setting, just for the utility of it. Specifically, having the school gives a bunch of advantages
- A location where many different people with different thought patterns, social standings, and cliques are forced to interact regularly
- A centralized location that contains many locations of interest
- A schedule that allows most of the characters to be available at the same time.
A college setting would work for all of those, which is why I don't mind that idea. And that is not to say that a Persona game without the school setting cannot make all of this work regardless, it would just take more writing work that in my opinion could be better spent elsewhere.
One thing I think having a more adult cast would be to have things revolve less around the main character. One of the things I think P3 did that P4 and P5 didn't really replicate is that the cast had real conflicts between each other, as well as having more of a mystery around character motivations. P5 had a little of this with the traitor, but by the time they were revealed, it was kind of obvious.
Zenkichi was lovely though, a perfect combination of a depressed adult who felt stuck between a rock and a hard place and masking that with humor and wit. With all these adult responsibilities weighing him down and then his Persona powers and the youthful viewpoint of the Phantom thieves help him break free from that.
A big part of Persona is about forming bonds, and that's a theme that might be even more relevant to an adult audience, since forming friendships as an adult tends to be a lot tougher
Can you imagine trying to get a group of adults all free to invade the metaverse? Good luck to the MC of that cast.
As far as I heard, in jp, highschool is the peak of their lives. Adulthood is where dreams die and people settle. Assuming it's true, it makes sense why they would depict the stories at such age/environment.
Now, if they want to catter for the global audience, I'd think it makes sense to put some adults in there. Heck, put some grandmas and grampas in there - people are getting old and not having children XD
I would love a spin off of High-school/before Yakuza 0.
Kiryu and Nishiki just fight with other school or taking control of their own school like any basic furyo manga. Fighting P5 Kamoshida-like teacher etc, see how Kiryu choose the dragon as his tatoo, etc
Spend time and develop Yumi and their relationship with Kazama and Kashiwagi before they join the family.
Like that you can again reuse Kiryu before his final breath.
The people saying adults are boring and self discovery fits more with teens gotta be saying that for stubbornness sake because in my own experience, i am finding out way more about myself and growing as a person as an adult than i ever would as a teen. Also calling adults boring is such a out of pocket thing to say when adults are way more complex and allow for much more story telling variety and tackling of real world problems.
I think the only ones calling adults boring are teenagers. I know when I was a young teenager, I thought adults were boring. Now that I'm an adult, I look back on my teenage years and see that compared to my life now, my teenage years were comparatively boring.
I'm still waiting for the Newborn Persona cast, nothing like discovering yourself as soon as you're born
Persona with all adult cast is just "Like A Dragon".
The best SLinks/Confidants cast in any Persona is Persona 5, and I say this as a P3P stan. It took me a while to figure out why, but I really genuinely think it's because a huge portion of that cast are adults. I think P3 and P4 showed their cast weaknesses the most because they felt like "aw geez we have three more arcana to fill, lets invent yet another weird classmate." With P5, Joker gets to interact with a wider variety of people than Kotone or Yu and thus the options seem richer.
Following that logic, i think if the main cast was also allowed to be people from more diverse backgrounds, it'd made the character composition more interesting.
Absolutely. I've been asking for years for a new Persona game (or Persona-like game, kinda like Metaphor Refantazio) with an older cast. Young adults involved with university/work instead of high school would be dope and it would also allow to approach different themes and issues that are mostly unavailable in an high school setting.
In Persona 5 Kawakami's social link, while kinda silly and over the top, resonated with me a lot more than Makoto's. Kawakami being stressed, overworked, underpaid, etc... felt real and relatable even if it was surrounded by the somewhat silly maid stuff (it's mostly sad rather than silly when you think about it)
Persona 5 was my first Persona game. I knew nothing about the series before that point. In the early stages of the game I genuinely thought Kawakami would join the team at some point. I thought the whole team would be composed of students from Shujin plus one or two adults. She would've totally fit right in with the Phantom Thieves. Looks at Zenkichi in Strikers! Having one or two adult figures in a team of mostly kids can be extremely entertaining.
Also, if the characters were a bit older we could at least get better Social Link romance scenes. Like, would it kill Atlus to have two characters kiss once at the end of their SL instead of the usual "fade to black"+"and they held hands the whole evening" combo? Like c'mon let's be real lol
But of course this all kind of a moot point. I don't really care all that much. It's fine if Persona 6 is still a high school game.
There's a long list of other stuff that I'd like to see in P6 and changing the school setting is not one of them (I'd rather see Atlus add a female protagonist like in P3P, the option to change clothes and customize a bit your character, add some same sex romance options, etc...)
I want a persona game with a full team of adults and 1 token teenager who really does not want to be there lol
I do think The concept of young age game to old age you spoke at 14:00 is really cool if it can be done right, game like Tales of Graces, or FE Three Houses do it so well, were you get to know the characters on their young age and then how Adulthood changes their perception of responsabilities, right or wrong and even beliefs.
I think having adult characters can work in moderation. If there was a new party member archetype that was "adult who doesn't act their age/adult who relates to a younger generation", I could see some interesting plot related stuff come from it, but having a full game with adult characters may not work
People think that adults stop growing?? Even as an adult you can still find a way to discover yourself, I’m 19 maybe I don’t have myself figured out yet but I do know about myself I did a lot of self reflection when it was covid times but some people in their 20’s don’t know and that is okay, I feel like a college setting would not be bad
I want a Persona game that is based around university students (>18yo), as I grow older (late 20's) I relate less and less to teenage protagonists.
In hindsight, that’s the same reason why my favorite characters in P4 and 5 were Yukiko and Makoto. The fundamental conflict of their arcs were as applicable to high school seniors as to someone just finishing college and entering on a career.
that's a personal problem and basically agrees with the comment that started the discussion, people are simply growing out of the series by setting the boundary on themself, I'm 25, I dont care if im 40 I'd still play these games and love them if the stories they tell are compelling, You were 16 once too, you can always relate by simply letting yourself remember when you were a teenager
im 30 now and to be 20 yearolds are even dumber than teens.
@@warlordofbritannia Definitely agree about Yukiko and Makoto. I really disliked most of the cast of P5, and Makoto was one of the few exceptions.
Persona 2 is amazing, people saying that persona don´t work with adults probably didn´t played 2 or played the games for real
Honestly im totally fine with high schoolers, college students, and adults i think all of them work
"Aged out of the series" LMAO. Persona 2: Eternal Punishment had a playable cast entirely composed of working adults, way before Persona even took off in popularity.
My personal dream cast is a distant family as the core party that has social links and persona awakenings through the story and with the protag being sort of the 'middle age' for the group with a combined theme of 'you reflecting the world' and 'selfless vs selfish'. With some characters outside the family maybe not being full on temporary party members for certain parts of the game, but can maybe join as full on members as you do their social links (with their social links being more akin to P4 and P5). Of course not all side characters can be party members, some would still just be socials lol.
So in the formula of Persona, protag is a young adult, maybe 23-28, and returns home to move back in with his folks (Mom, Dad, Grandpa, siblings with cousins and extended family living close by in town, whole sha bang. Good reference for vibe is like the movie Summer War). Protag had big dreams out of high school and totally bunked it up, with the return being one of shame.
It could help keep the daily formula as the protag has to get a part time job, could choose to reconnect with ppd friends who may have the vibe of being whole different people with families or careers that change how they react to their old friend dynamic when the protag comes home and expects nothing has changed, going out and maybe having a sort of moral choice on what you want to do for your free time etc.
I feel like it could be a cool way to have the characters go through personal arcs on a personal and as a group, with the family dynamic obviously having clashing heads with like an angsty teen younger sibling butting heads with their parents and the protag cause of their immature view of the situation, jaded widowed grandpa with maybe an even more nihilistic worldview of everything (Old Woman from P4 but with more than social links to sort of illustrate a tone they could go with).
Cause Persona has a lot of supernatural elements, dungeons could be say a riverbed, it seems to be a popular setting for emotional moments in a lot of coming of age anime so maybe a way to make that setting more of a threat to be around than a comfort place.
Jump into the lakebed and enter an open massive dungeon and specific dungeons are other locations outside of the town in this reflection world. Protags is the city they left after failing at their dreams, grandpa's is maybe a two part with you first thinking it was where he lost his wife, only to see it's actually where he met her, the parents could change depending on who you decide to recruit to your party. Sibling maybe joins early and is a sort of wild party member that acts freely, with maybe a fake out dungeon as they mature and grow past their stubborness.
Big bad could be something that is created through the casts original mindsets and is more of a direct rep of the games concept than a god doing it.
Of course still romance for the protag with some old friends from their youth, people from their time in school that they didn't really hang out with since cliques were pretty important back then but now that barrier is kinda gone, etc. Since the romance is an appealing thing for players.
Edit: Just cause I thought of it. I would also hope that their is a choice between female or male protag, but with them basically being two different experiences. Both are the older siblings returning for different reasons or one was already there being a sort of shut in. Something to encourage playing different right from the start of new game +. I also get that is sort of like asking for 2 games in 1 if the gender options give you different experiences but I just like the idea that they'll be more to the choice than just romance options and visuals changes. This could help with the issue some have with a silent protag where the other is vocal while the one you pick is silent so it switches. Kinda like P2:ID to P2:EP.
But this long comment is also just my personal want lol.
Well, as far as I'm concerned, they can't write an adult character any worse than they wrote Kasumi. Plus, Zenkichi was fucking awesome.
16:07 On the topic of a Yakuza game starring a teenager, I recommend you play the Kurohyou games. It's Yakuza spinoff duology for the psp with a 17 year old as the protagonist, you'd be surprised with what they do with him. There are english fan translation mods available for both games now. 👀
I really like the idea of an all adult cast and we know it can be done because of persona 2. But honestly the amount of time between when p2 came out and now makes me worry how atlus would handle it now. I’m sure it would be fine tho.