Recently, Atlus announced that you will not be able to romance Yosuke in Persona 4 Revival, citing that they would have to make all the male characters romanceable and it would just be too much work. Persona 2: Innocent Sin, released for the PlayStation in Japan in 1999, had a single male romance option for its male protagonist. It’s been 27 years, and Atlus still hasn’t even tried to produce any better or equivalent LGBT representation in the Persona series, Shin Megami Tensei as a whole, or really most of Atlus’ catalog. Really, the closest we’ve come are Rin and Erica in Catherine Full Body, and the latter is still mistreated in some of the game’s endings. Rin is OK if you read them as gender non-conforming, but a bit rough otherwise. Atlus keeps trying to capture youthful ideas, ideals, and themes in their titles, which are usually progressive in nature, and yet they keep failing to see them, though. What gives?
The biggest example of this is Persona 5. The game claims to be all about rebellion, going against society at large and authority figures to do what’s right and be who you are. Characters literally rip masks off of their faces every time they summon their personas, the manifestations of their hearts, to symbolize this. But what happens whenever you get close to true rebellion? To take society to task or make any true, lasting change? The game backs down. Kamoshida was just one bad guy holding the rest of the school hostage. Shido was the only corrupt politician. Surely they aren’t just symptoms of corrupt systems! We can just attribute everything to that one guy and move on, go back to normal. It’s the veneer of youth and rebellion while not so subtly telling you that everything should actually just stay the same and to get back in your lane.
It’s fairly well known that Yosuke’s romance was cut from the original version of Persona 4. They missed their chance to add it back in for Golden, and are deliberately avoiding it for Revival. The same goes for the female protagonist of Persona 3 Reload. We could have had the absolute definitive version of Persona 3 with her, but once again Atlus shied away from the idea, saying it would be too expensive. I believe them there, but I also believe that many fans would be willing to buy the game twice if they went for the Pokemon model. Heck, they could still do that and I would pony up the money on multiple platforms.
However, Persona 4’s main theme is truth, specifically uncovering it when you or someone else would rather not and then confronting that truth directly. Yosuke’s truth is that he hates his life; he thinks it's boring and that Inaba and everyone in it are beneath him. But you know what other hard truth he never confronts? The idea of homosexuality. Once Kanji joins the party, Yosuke is consistently afraid he’s going to catch the gay from him. This is never addressed in a meaningful way throughout the entire game; Yosuke’s just a dick.
You know what would be a meaningful way to confront that and stay true to the game’s themes? By allowing Yosuke to examine his own sexuality in his social link. And I think he’d need to come to the conclusion that he’s gay or bi to fully deliver on the theme of truth. This in contrast to Naoto, whose narrative I think is indeed better served by coming to the conclusion that she isn’t trans. However, I think the game also needs some decent trans representation to also contrast that with. A lot of (if not most) women I know love and hate being women, including trans women. Not just because of how society treats and belittles women but also because of stuff like period cramps. They wouldn’t rather be men, and they’re just dealing with their reality. We all hate things about ourselves, and I think it’s OK if Naoto comes to the conclusion that she still wants to be a woman even with all the baggage that comes with.
The homophobe secretly being gay is a fairly tired trope, but Yosuke was Atlus’ chance to engage with the idea honestly. By exploring a person who hates themselves on a deep, instinctual level and confronting that hate. Coming to terms with it in both how they treat others and themselves. I find that far more interesting than no-homo fist fighting your bro by the riverside.
Atlus keeps teasing these deeper narratives, then never delivering on them. Sometimes we do get to see them fully explore an idea, like the P3 female protagonist being the “mother of death” in a sense and how the world will treat you differently as a woman, or the exploration of democracy, equity, and the power of fiction to change reality in Metaphor: ReFantazio, or what you need to sacrifice for your ideals in Shin Megami Tensei IV. This is when their narratives and gameplay really get to shine together, and backing off from making your game true to what it is always makes it a worse work of art.
Atlus is a conservative company even within a conservative culture like Japan. Even if they weren’t, there’s always going to be a cultural divide between my perspective and the perspectives of the people making these games. That’s fine; in fact I prefer that, but not when the creators are clearly hiding what they believe. If you’re not going to commit to themes like truth and rebellion, don’t bother pretending you are. Don’t give lame excuses as to why you won’t give Yosuke a gay romance or have a female protagonist in any of your games post-2009. It’s not “tradition”, “giving your male audience what they want”, or that you’d have to “make all the male characters romancable”. You just don’t want to. If you’re making games aimed at young people, trying to capture young sensibilities, you need to fully commit. If you don’t, it makes your message ring hollow. As someone who these games have affected deeply, particularly Persona 3, I’m consistently disappointed by the company’s cowardice.
