The Persona—or rather, the Megami Tensei—series has always suffered from a flaw: poor writing.
The Social Link events, the main storyline, and other side quests are completely disconnected. This leads to situations like in Persona 5, where the protagonist, Amamiya Ren, successfully pursues Ann Takamaki, the holder of the Lovers Arcana, only for her to immediately start acting all chummy with Ryuji in the main story.
In Persona 3, characters who have built a strong bond with the protagonist through Social Links will suddenly start berating him in the main plot.
If you look at these plot segments in isolation, the problem isn't too glaring. But when you play through the entire game, it feels like every character is suffering from a split personality.
To mitigate this, the original Atlus approach was to delay the unlocking of Social Links. They used stats, dates, and other triggers to push Social Link unlocks as late as possible, ensuring that character relationships had already progressed to a certain point in the main story before the Social Link could be started.
In a sense, this helped avoid the jarring disconnect between Social Link events and the main storyline.
But Kobayashi Tetsu didn't want to do that.
Side stories and the main plot could certainly be independent, but Social Links had to influence the main story. Characters who had built a relationship through Social Links should have different interactions in the main plot—for example, showing more intimacy or distance during dialogue, or increasing the chance of support actions in battle.
Kobayashi Tetsu twirled his pen, jotting down the various characters in the Social Links.
The Social Links in Persona were designed based on the Major Arcana of the tarot. From the Fool to Judgment, there were twenty-two cards, each representing a character with a substantial amount of story to interact with and be influenced by.
Kobayashi Tetsu planned to leave the party members unchanged, only making certain adjustments to their personalities.
For example, the original Chariot Arcana, Junpei Iori, had consistently low popularity due to his personality, making him a character that neither the developers nor the players seemed to love. In contrast, characters from later titles who were also poorly regarded, like Goro Akechi from Persona 5, still maintained a high level of popularity despite their overall negative reputation. This meant there were still some redeeming qualities in their character design.
As for Junpei Iori, he was an absolute bottom-tier character in terms of popularity. Both his character design and personality were completely devoid of any redeeming qualities. Therefore, changes were mandatory.
For the characters who couldn't join the party, Kobayashi Tetsu planned to replace them with people from his own circle. For instance, the original Hermit Arcana was a teacher who loved online games. But since that wasn't a possibility right now, this role could be perfectly filled by Shimayose Yosuke.
As for other characters, like the original Moon Arcana, their storylines were poorly written, so he could use that as an opportunity to revise them and replace them with more charming characters from his own circle.
Before he knew it, he had been busy until noon before finally standing up. He had already drafted a rough outline and would now hand it over to the Megami Group to flesh out. They would complete the rest, while Kobayashi Tetsu would only be responsible for the overall review.
Kobayashi Tetsu looked up from his desk and turned to Takamine Aika.
"Aika, could you help me contact the Pokémon anime project again? This time, let's not outsource it to other studios. We'll fund it ourselves, recruit the staff, and find a way to hire some skilled directors from the industry to produce the anime in-house. After all, Atlas will likely be producing many more anime in the future, so having our own animation team will be more cost-effective in the long run."
"Don't wait for me this afternoon. I'll head over to Adachi City to check on those new small studios."
Takamine Aika complied.
Finding animation talent wasn't a difficult task in Japan.
Japan had an abundance of 2D artists! If you threw a brick on the streets of Tokyo, you'd probably hit a renowned animation director or a manga master.
If you threw it at a motorcycle, you might even hit Shotaro Ishimori.
However—
Takamine Aika had a bone to pick.
Why had Kobayashi Tetsu been finding all sorts of excuses to send her away and act alone lately?
This was highly suspicious!
And Kobayashi Tetsu was acting suspiciously.
After arranging for Takamine Aika to recruit the animation staff, Kobayashi Tetsu immediately hurried to Adachi City.
The several studios he had previously sponsored were all located in Adachi City, including GF Group.
Tajiri Satoshi was a perfectionist who preferred a slow and steady pace. The original Pokémon Gen 1 took him several years to complete. Kobayashi Tetsu hoped that with the Persona Engine, Tajiri Satoshi's progress would accelerate.
Kobayashi Tetsu did a round of inspections before finally arriving at S0BA Studio—the name Kobayakawa Rinko had given to the studio she had set up for him.
Since she had called ahead, Kobayakawa was already waiting outside. Seeing Kobayashi Tetsu arrive, she was visibly pleased, though she tried her best to hide it, pretending she wasn't that happy.
"This place is looking good. You've even hung up the sign. But why call it SOBA?"
Kobayashi Tetsu looked at the sign.
Because you like soba noodles?
Kobayakawa walked with her hands behind her back, bouncing on her toes, occasionally glancing back to see if Kobayashi Tetsu was keeping up.
"It's a bit complicated. Basically, because of the pronunciation, 'KOBA' can sound like 'SOBA' if you have an accent. So it ended up like this."
She stopped and looked at Kobayashi Tetsu's face, unable to fully conceal her anticipation.
"So, would the great President of Atlas like to take a look at our Little SOBA Studio? We've already recruited some staff!"
"Sure," Kobayashi Tetsu smiled. "And you can introduce me to the people at SOBA Studio."
Kobayakawa then led Kobayashi Tetsu into the studio, introducing the staff as they went.
The moment the door pushed open, Kobayashi Tetsu was stunned.
An all-girl studio?! This is a bit scary!
For a fleeting moment, he suddenly worried about what his twenty million yen would actually be spent on in the end.
The few people in the room looked up at Kobayashi Tetsu, their expressions instantly shifting to one of sudden realization.
No wonder the male protagonist in the game looked so familiar! So that's the reason!
But...
Isn't this male protagonist a bit of a creep?! Xiao Lian is just a nine-year-old elementary student!
Kobayashi Tetsu shook his head vehemently.
You've got it all wrong! The game character has nothing to do with reality! He likes JKs, not JCs! Besides, elementary schoolers are even younger than JCs!
Kobayakawa, as if completely oblivious, continued introducing the members of SOBA to Kobayashi Tetsu.
"This is Hanaoka Yuzu, this is Momoi Saihara, and this is Midori Saihara—"
Kobayashi Tetsu hissed in surprise.
"I can see now, each of you is incredibly talented!"
With such an all-female team, even Kobayashi Tetsu could finally relax.
Kobayakawa beamed with a playful smile and took a few steps closer to him. Sensing he didn't mind, she smoothly wrapped her arm around his.
Claiming her territory!
Kobayashi Tetsu is hers and hers alone. She already had Anegasaki Nene as a rival, which was trouble enough—she absolutely couldn't allow a third person to enter the fray!
Kobayashi Tetsu remained still, allowing her to hold his arm, and said casually, "Go ahead and give me an update on the development progress."
"Alright."
Kobayakawa Rinko let go of Kobayashi Tetsu and immediately switched into work mode.
"We've already roughed out the design for the first major level. It starts with the player entering the aquarium, which then transforms, transporting Xiao Lian into another world for her adventure. She'll be chased by monsters, hide, explore, and eventually meet the male protagonist, Toru, who joins her party."
"And all of this is actually symbolic. The monster chasing her represents the pressures of real life, while the creatures inhabiting the aquarium embody the various troubles Xiao Lian faces. On the surface, she's exploring the aquarium to evade monsters, but in reality, she's exploring her own inner world."
Kobayashi Tetsu stared at her.
Toru, huh? Why not just name the character Kobayashi Tetsu while you're at it!
"The theme is solid. The real challenge will be the level design."
Kobayashi Tetsu thought for a moment, recalling a 2D horror-puzzle game he'd played that had a similar concept.
"To heighten the dramatic tension, you could try introducing a character like this..."
Kobayashi Tetsu casually suggested, "Visually, the character should be a child just like Xiao Lian. But in reality, they would hold a much deeper significance, symbolizing the underlying logic of this world. You could call her... hmm, Xiao Ning. This way, you can introduce branching choices in the game. When Xiao Lian makes more choices that lean toward Xiao Ning, it means she's taking a step closer to this bizarre world. Conversely, when she makes choices that lean more toward Toru, it means she's gradually breaking free from this monster-infested world and rediscovering her true self."
"You could describe such a character as the two sides of the same coin—good and evil—or as a scale representing the character's inner turmoil. The end result would be a game with multiple endings for the player to achieve."
Koyakawa blinked, and suddenly, a lightbulb went off in her head.
"No wonder Tetsu-kun is the one running the company!"
She had been worrying that a small game of this scale might lack replay value. Although Kobayashi Tetsu had assured her that such games could still be profitable if managed well, Koyakawa still hoped it would sell even better.
Otherwise, Tetsu-kun would be so broke he'd have to take the bus, and Sister Nene would have to support him for the rest of his life!
Kobayashi Tetsu raised a hand to press down on her shoulders.
Sit down.
This is a normal operation! Don't panic!
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