Kanji Tatsumi, the ambiguously gay gangster from last year's Persona 4 has my nuts in a twist. Well, not him exactly, just who ever was responsible for handling the delivery of his story in Atlus' latest installment. Persona is one of those games that you either love or hate. This game is VERY Japanese. By day you attend high school with gameplay centered around a relationship sim allowing you to build your social links with friends and teachers which in turn make you stronger in battle after school. I understand to some this may be a recipe for boredom but what hooked me to the Persona eries in the first place was the subtle irony of each character and the stories held within. If your imagination and powers of empathy are above par than Persona will be a richer experience. This is not simply Animal Crossing for adults it is a rich, artistic personal journey akin to the choose your own adventure books I remember as a kid. Atlus has truly taken a step towards more artful interactive story telling in games by giving the human condition a digital playground to battle it's demons. This is why my nuts are so twisted. Perhaps it is because I myself came out in High School in the nineties or maybe it is because when you take a story a sensitive as Coming Out in a modern high school I believe one has a some big responsibilites, one of respect and one of taste.

In Persona 4 we have Kanji who is the town trouble maker. Tattoos and attitude. He will beat the shit out of you if you even look at him funny. Through the story we already know about the Midnight Channel, a show that appears at midnight on rainy nights in the town of Inaba. This show reveals what is in a person's heart, their inner most desires. Kanji appears on the show in a towel in a bathhouse hanging out with men, "ONLY" men and implying sexual desires with them. His voice is feminine and singsongy. The gameplay takes the player into the TV to a bathhouse dungeon where after battling Kanji's shadow self he come to grips with his feelings and admits that the shadow self is also him. So essentially he comes out to himself in front of his friends; a very tender moment indeed. Not two lines later he is talking about how he really doesn't like guys and thinks a girl is cute and for the rest of the story his liking guys is joked about in a jocular way periodically for comic relief. Here's the URL if you'd like to see for yourself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NOu5BvQZWQ

Now why make his journey about a bathhouse at all? If this kid's pathology is truly about lack of discipline and fear of woman why not have his dungeon be a boot camp military excursion or a trip to "charm school" with cooking classes and floral arrangements! ? Why the bathhouse? Why even suggest that this has anything to do with being gay? I remember the moments leading up to his "coming out" so excited to have an experience similar to my own well represented in a game only to be disappointed with his retraction. I do not feel Atlus had any intention of being disrespectful but I feel that is important in our current social climate for us to be softly vigilant about our public posturing. As Gay men and woman we are no longer in relegation of playing second banana but are starting to become an integral part of the socioeconomic conversation. With gay marriage on the rise our actions are closely watched by others so when I see something so obviously half baked I begin to wish the writers of Persona 4 would have just left well enough alone and made Kanji just some dude who likes to sow. Video games are being positioned to become a substantial form of media in the next 50 years. The current boom in "casual gaming" is a testament to that potential. The newer gamers of today may well be the hardcore gamers of tomorrow. This being said I feel we have a much larger responsiblity in voicing how we portray ourselves in game. Sigh... Nuts relieved :-)

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Riding the subway today I was treated to yet another ad obviously aimed at the newer casual gamer market. I cannot be sure if these ads are working to reel in the grandmas and "single working gals" in New York City but I can tell you if I was new to gaming it would most certainly put off any curiosity.

Snapshots of painfully confused young ladies plastered the upper portions of my subway car with samples of puzzles from the North American release of Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. Is this to imply that correctly solving a puzzle will assist in purging that troublesome midday bout of constipation with a completely salacious, yet satisfying "dunder head!" moment? To be sure Nintendo has a lot to live up to if it plans to compete with the likes of X-Lax in both discretion and delivery. As for myself I will be keeping my head down while riding for a while.

I always start my day with a nice bowl of Wheaties and at least one hour of the game du jour. Today that game was Persona 4. Persona is one of those games that can end up being more of a lifestyle than your typical RPG largely because of its daily calender of events and relationship SIM. I started this game in October but got easily sidetracked with a back log of games this unusually bountiful Christmas. I spend a lot of time quantifying my actions in games I play so when I have time to actually develop a relationship "digitally" I am exceptionally curious. Persona's dating simulation works well when the writing and plot is strong. I have had some truly moving experiences with some of the social links (Helping a dying boy come to grips with his own mortality was skillfully delivered in Persona 3) and the connection to the tarot, something I have a great affinity for, solidifies the experience both artistically and spiritually. It is here Atlus fuses gameplay with culture (Japanese) an especially subtle mix of brilliant, stylized animation and suburb voice acting presenting a slow building drama that sparkles with dark undertones. I like very much :-)

While P4 shares much of these attributes with it's predecessor things have most defiantly been coated candy-confection this time around. In P3 I was blasting my skull out with my soul ripping "Evoker" gun to summon my persona, here I simply call it's name. P3 weaved a tale with intrigue so dark I welcomed the moments of comic relief and random trips to a tropical island resort ala "Saved by the Bell goes to Hawaii". In P4 while the narrative is still dark I get annoyed when need to spend an hour of game time watching these kids bicker and "almost get drunk" in one of the most ludicrous cut scenes I have ever endured. P3 met with rave reviews and a huge cult following stateside to the point where Atlus released a "directors cut" edition rife with fan service' new social links, extended gameplay and weapons systems with a new epilogue chapter. I wonder if Atlus thought that it would profit by packaging themes more for a younger audience? I can see this game appealing to the tween crowd earnestly. Unfortunately if it weren't for the balanced mechanics (largely improved from the first game) you would not have found me slogging through Inaba's Cross Dressing Cultural Pageant this morning. The thing is: even with the improved battle system and social link wiggle room the writing is mediocre and the main cast an insult to adult fans of P3. Come on Atlus! For Persona 5 I want my Evoker back!