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A Little Vice (Trans Magical Girl fic)

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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Persona is a series of baller urban fantasy RPGs about (mostly) teenagers fighting supernatural threats based around peoples' repressed inner trauma, with their own weaponized inner trauma. It's got consistently great characters and visual designs but suffers a lot from having become a breakout hit in the mid 2000s and constantly getting massaged to be more marketable, vs. it's parent franchise (Shin Megami Tensei) which maintains a lot more bite and a lot fewer high school harem anime tropes shoved in there for Sell Figures To Otaku reasons.

Also the old director was a pretty awful homophobe and misogynist who caused a lot of...let's say INCONSISTENT writing around subjects that could have been handled much better. He's been more or less kicked upstairs and out of direction since Persona 5, at least.

If you do want to play it, there's multiple versions of 3, 4, and 5 which are all standalone, plus some spinoffs/sequels for 4 and 5. The first four games in the series (don't worry about it) are all very old school and tricky to find, let alone play, and likely require emulation at this point.
 
Bluespark9 said:
Is persona any good? I've heard about it but the only anime I've ever watched is the Pokémon one, 1 episode of Naruto, and some of the Yugo stuff.
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Yes, it is very good game series, but like GreatWyrmGold said, the games are a massive time sink (we're talking about 100-200 hours per playthrough). Best ones to start with are either Persona 3: Reloaded, Persona 4: Golden or Persona 5: Royal (all updated rereleases/remakes of the original games).
 
Icipall said:
Yes, it is very good game series, but like GreatWyrmGold said, the games are a massive time sink (we're talking about 100-200 hours per playthrough). Best ones to start with are either Persona 3: Reloaded, Persona 4: Golden or Persona 5: Royal (all updated rereleases/remakes of the original games).
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(It's worth bearing in mind that Persona 3 Reload is brand new and has a lot of Content from previous releases either gated behind paid DLC or not planned at all. If you want a game that looks good, sounds great, and plays like a modern turn-based RPG, get Reload. If you want none of that but all the story content possible plus a surprisingly differentiated and interesting female player character option, get Persona 3 Portable's Steam port. Or the PSP version if you own a PSP I guess. It's...not great-looking, though.)

(4 and 5 don't have these problems [yet] so you can just get Golden or Royal respectively.)
 
Nerdorama said:
(It's worth bearing in mind that Persona 3 Reload is brand new and has a lot of Content from previous releases either gated behind paid DLC or not planned at all. If you want a game that looks good, sounds great, and plays like a modern turn-based RPG, get Reload. If you want none of that but all the story content possible plus a surprisingly differentiated and interesting female player character option, get Persona 3 Portable's Steam port. Or the PSP version if you own a PSP I guess. It's...not great-looking, though.)
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It doesn't, actually. There is costume and music dlc, but the only story stuff that is going to be released as dlc is the Answer epilogue chapter, which was only in the FES version. Unless you count the Vincent cameo, pretty sure it is not there.
 
Icipall said:
It doesn't, actually. There is costume and music dlc, but the only story stuff that is going to be released as dlc is the Answer epilogue chapter, which was only in the FES version. Unless you count the Vincent cameo, pretty sure it is not there.
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Well I apparently hallucinated a whole ass game mode into my copy of P3P when I played it a year ago. Guess there's no definitive version then because I'm, personally, not paying over a hundred dollars for a remake of just FES and not including the girl route even as DLC misses a lot of...not main story content, but certainly the better-made chunk of social links.
 
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Nerdorama said:
Well I apparently hallucinated a whole ass game mode into my copy of P3P when I played it a year ago. Guess there's no definitive version then because I'm, personally, not paying over a hundred dollars for a remake of just FES and not including the girl route even as DLC misses a lot of...not main story content, but certainly the better-made chunk of social links.
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I did not count the FeMC route since you were talking about actual missing or dlc story content, like the Answer or the Aigis Social Link, where as the FeMC route is the exact same story with some slight differences and partially different social links.

You're right, there is now definitive version that has all the Persona 3 content. Reloaded is the closest one, with it having everything from the get-go, aside from the Answer and FeMC route, and all the new content and QoL improvements, as well as fixing most of the downgrades that Portable suffered from.

Well, at least until the FeMC route mod is finished, then it might be the definitive version.
 
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Honestly it would have been fun if they'd had the shadows take over or influence people more, and C having that for her invidia arc could be cute. Very confusing to the Inessa led investigation team?
 
I still havem't gotten around to reading the last chapter, but I should. Just lost my tempo. Persona from what I know or the series would be a good place to do a crossover. Temperance should have the Star and it gets played as a joke most of the time.

Random other thoughts about Persona. The idea of a Silent Hill crossover amuses me. I saw a Harry Potter crossover starring Ginny and Luna Lovegood set during the Prisoner of Azkaban. Which was abandoned at a cliffhanger right as Tom Riddle apparently possessed Ginny or something? And I am obsessing with the Nobilis/Glitch rpg and want to find a way to cross it over with Persona.
 
Aranfan said:
Renu said:
Chiro: I am a shadow, the true self.
C: You're not me!
Temperance: Bruh
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Nah. It would go:

Invidia: I am the shadow, the true self.
C: you know what, if you think you can run my mess of a life better than me, have at it.
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I'm not even kidding when I say that C's reaction to her shadow would primarily depend on whether it identified as female or came up with a convenient excuse for her feelings.

Temperance's reaction to that reaction, not so much.


NemoMarx said:
Honestly it would have been fun if they'd had the shadows take over or influence people more...
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I understand why they didn't. The Persona games (by which I mean the Persona game I played about half of) have a pretty rigid structure where you fight through one dungeon, reach the Shadow, fight its boss form, and recruit the party member who created said dungeon and Shadow. The more established a structure, the more impact that breaking it would have, and hence the more impactful a plot point needs to be to justify breaking the structure.

But yeah. Seeing characters overcome/reconcile with their Shadows would seem more significant if we saw characters who didn't. And seeing that alternate possibility could be neat, too.
 
GreatWyrmGold said:
I'm not even kidding when I say that C's reaction to her shadow would primarily depend on whether it identified as female or came up with a convenient excuse for her feelings.

Temperance's reaction to that reaction, not so much.



I understand why they didn't. The Persona games (by which I mean the Persona game I played about half of) have a pretty rigid structure where you fight through one dungeon, reach the Shadow, fight its boss form, and recruit the party member who created said dungeon and Shadow. The more established a structure, the more impact that breaking it would have, and hence the more impactful a plot point needs to be to justify breaking the structure.

But yeah. Seeing characters overcome/reconcile with their Shadows would seem more significant if we saw characters who didn't. And seeing that alternate possibility could be neat, too.
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That's mainly just Persona 4. 3 doesn't really have that structure at all beyond "regularly fight a boss Shadow", and 5 is similar in flow except the Shadows you fight are MOSTLY the other selves of the villains you need to take down - people who, in the real world, are criminals indulging in their worst habits, but whom society normally protects - abusive teachers, exploitative business magnates, corrupt politicians, etc. Going into the cognitive world and "robbing" their Shadows forces a change of heart and confession, but you do get to see both the Shadow playing supervillain and the ego reflecting that in the real world far more than in 4. Frankly in general it plays around with the formula a lot more, including breaking it entirely for a couple of sympathetic characters and the main human villain, so as much as I question some of its plot and character moments I'd probably lean into it more for a crossover here.
 
I just finished reading this fic, I really loved it, thank you so much for your hard work

I really hope that Chiro could maintain a bit of her bat powers, they were so cute

Also Chiro is even more dense than myself lol, girl you can do it!
 
Darth Locutus said:
I just have this mental image of the bat transformation being used for noncanon after-episode omakes to be cute. Like the SVAH version of the mini-dra shorts from Kobayashi, or RWBY chibi.
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This could be super cute, maybe Chiro turn to be Invidia again because of somenthing immensely cute she envy and the girls have to solve her shenanigans
 
ComfyOfy said:
This could be super cute, maybe Chiro turn to be Invidia again because of somenthing immensely cute she envy and the girls have to solve her shenanigans
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I was thinking something like one of the girls gets a makeover and the whole crew is fawning over her, POOF goes the cartoon smoke cloud and the crew looks over to see Chiro in bat mode. Temperance sighs and says something to the effect of "I guess we can all go get one." Smash cut to spa day montage with Chiro in batgirl mode for all the normal spa activities, but everyone is ignoring it and just doing the normal spa beautification routine.

Something whimsical like that, but without invoking the kind of trauma and drama that Chiro actually reverting to Invidia in the show proper would imply.
 
I was imagining Invidia and Gula showing up alongside Chiro and Temperance and possibly C (perhaps not in the same shorts but without timeline concerns), with no explanation because they're just goofy comedy shorts with no continuity with the main series and barely any with each other.
 
Nerdorama said:
Persona is a series of baller urban fantasy RPGs about (mostly) teenagers fighting supernatural threats based around peoples' repressed inner trauma, with their own weaponized inner trauma. It's got consistently great characters and visual designs but suffers a lot from having become a breakout hit in the mid 2000s and constantly getting massaged to be more marketable, vs. it's parent franchise (Shin Megami Tensei) which maintains a lot more bite and a lot fewer high school harem anime tropes shoved in there for Sell Figures To Otaku reasons.

Also the old director was a pretty awful homophobe and misogynist who caused a lot of...let's say INCONSISTENT writing around subjects that could have been handled much better. He's been more or less kicked upstairs and out of direction since Persona 5, at least.

If you do want to play it, there's multiple versions of 3, 4, and 5 which are all standalone, plus some spinoffs/sequels for 4 and 5. The first four games in the series (don't worry about it) are all very old school and tricky to find, let alone play, and likely require emulation at this point.
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Thanks for the summary, if I didn't have like 10 games I need to get around to actually playing more then the tutorial on before I give up, I might have given it a spin.
 
Darth Locutus said:
I was thinking something like one of the girls gets a makeover and the whole crew is fawning over her, POOF goes the cartoon smoke cloud and the crew looks over to see Chiro in bat mode. Temperance sighs and says something to the effect of "I guess we can all go get one." Smash cut to spa day montage with Chiro in batgirl mode for all the normal spa activities, but everyone is ignoring it and just doing the normal spa beautification routine.

Something whimsical like that, but without invoking the kind of trauma and drama that Chiro actually reverting to Invidia in the show proper would imply.
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The idea of Chiro growing bat wings every time she wants something but doesn't want to admit it is exceptionally cute tbh.
GreatWyrmGold said:
I was imagining Invidia and Gula showing up alongside Chiro and Temperance and possibly C (perhaps not in the same shorts but without timeline concerns), with no explanation because they're just goofy comedy shorts with no continuity with the main series and barely any with each other.
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Chiro getting Humanitas/Invidia shoulder Angel/devils….
 
Shadell said:
Chiro getting Humanitas/Invidia shoulder Angel/devils….
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Invidia: "That dress is never going to look as good on you as it does Temperance. Steal it and try on, then seethe and rage when-"
Humanitas: "Oh look, they also have that style in green. And they have your size in stock. Go ahead, treat yourself and try it on."
Temperance: "Look what I found, Chiro."
Chiro: (⁄ ⁄•⁄o⁄•⁄ ⁄) "O-o-o-kay"

Could apply that to the rest of the cast, too.
Gula: "Look at the tray of cookies there! They look so delicious! Eat them all!"
Temperentia: "No, only eat one. Don't just eat junk food. Look! Carrot sticks!"
Temperance: "Temperance can have a plate of cookies. As a treat."

Diligentia: "Now make sure to double-check your citations."
Acedia: "Who cares? Just submit the essay and go to sleep!"
Ida: "Oh, this one references the wrong source."
Acedia: "AHHH! Just go to sleep!"
 
Me starting this: I wonder why I'm interested in this story specifically, despite mostly being on the alternate history forums, still cis though
Me reading this: Wow, C is super dense about being trans, like they are envious of trans people but somehow think that's different from being trans, still cis though
Me finishing this: Such a great story, I loved reading about this trans person accepting themselves, still cis though
Me looking back after unrelated gender thoughts: Well, I guess that explains why I was interested in reading this... Chiro was still impressively dense though
 
Bluespark9 said:
Me starting this: I wonder why I'm interested in this story specifically, despite mostly being on the alternate history forums, still cis though
Me reading this: Wow, C is super dense about being trans, like they are envious of trans people but somehow think that's different from being trans, still cis though
Me finishing this: Such a great story, I loved reading about this trans person accepting themselves, still cis though
Me looking back after unrelated gender thoughts: Well, I guess that explains why I was interested in reading this... Chiro was still impressively dense though
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I know that feel, more or less. Like, I found this because I was looking for trans magical girl stories, but the fact remains that it took me 24 years to figure out that men like being men.

But still, congratulations on the new gender, I hope it fits better than the old one.
 
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