Kotaku Says Persona 5 Tactica Is Homophobic | Are They Right?

Persona 5 Tactica is being labeled homophobic in what is one of the most bizarre arguments I have ever seen. While everyone is entitled to their opinions when you express them online, people also have the right to react. Kotaku is known for its provocative articles. In the age of extremely high competition, rage baiting is one of the most effective tools. While it is a short-sighted strategy, the immediate effects cannot be denied. Kotaku recently released an article titled “Persona 5 Tactica Tries To Make Up For The Series’ Homophobia”

While it is worth noting that this is an opinion piece written from the perspective of a gay person, the claims are still interesting, to say the least. Persona 5 Tactica will be released on 17 November 2023, and it is considered a spin-off of the original games. If the label of homophobia is taking you by surprise for this game, you are not alone. While I have known about this game’s existence for quite some time, I have never heard these accusations before. Thus, this latest set of allegations by Kotako comes as a surprise. While Persona is not a mainstream series by any stretch of the imagination, they do still hold some success.

Along with that comes a significant fan base. To date, the Persona Series has sold more than 18 million copies worldwide. Although they might make the occasional joke, the game has always been known for being relatively unproblematic. However, by today’s standards, if you do not declare how stunning and brave you are every hour, you are viewed as problematic. However, let’s go a bit deeper into the article and see what Kotaku’s problems with these games are.

Kotaku Vs. Persona 5

The writer of this article starts things off by immediately claiming that the socially conscious persona of Persona is nothing more than a farce. According to them, while the game claims to love everyone, they make jokes every holiday season. It is not clear what jokes Persona makes that won the label of Homophobic. Kotaku does at least go on to state that Persona 5 did recently make an attempt to be more open to queer people. To understand this claim, you need to understand a recent feature that Persona 5 Tactica added.

There is a scene called the ideal marriage. During this phase of the game, you can scan the room and find ourself a partner. In the spirit of being inclusive, the game allows you to choose any person, man or woman. While you might think that this will be enough to please people, you probably also know better. By this point, we know that it is never enough. In the article, the writer states that they expected the worst but were surprised that you could marry a same-sex person. However, they still could not stop themselves from pointing out that Persona used to have limited views on marriage.

You might ask yourself why that would matter if they corrected it in this game, but leave it to Kotaku writers to never be happy. If you criticize something for being a certain way and they take corrective measures, and you still complain, then you never really care about the issue. You are just complaining for the sake of doing it. Additionally, just because a game does not include same-sex couples does not make them homophobic. Maybe the developers are just telling the story through their own worldview.

Persona 5 Is Mean Spirited

Although Persona 5 tactica has opened the door to queerness, they are still doing it in a mean-spirited way. At least, that is what they claim in the article. You see, they are cracking the occasional joke, which is a big no. While they still have not established what these deeply offensive jokes are, we know that they are bad enough to discredit anything else the game does for LGBTQ rights. The writer of the article keeps saying that they expected exclusion, only to be met with inclusion. When there was an option to choose your partner, they thought you could only be with the opposite sex.

However, the game allows for same-sex marriage. They then say that they expected the wedding to be nothing but a big joke, but it turns into a beautiful scene. We have yet to establish what the issue is or how they draw the conclusion of homophobia. In the article, they acknowledge that Persona has always positioned itself as fighting for the little guy. They use their powers for good, go after corruption, and even tackle class issues and power imbalance. However, there is not enough queerness. The claim is that they also struggle when it comes to victims of abuse because they address the issue too late.

While they take a stand against the issue, they do it at the end of the game, which is too late for the writer. As established, you cannot win here. No matter what the game does, they will draw the ire of the writer. If they do not include something, they are labeled with a bunch of bad words. If they include the issues the writers want, then it is too late.

The Problem With Kotaku

I will state one more time that everyone is entitled to their opinions. If this is how the writer feels, then they are allowed to express themselves. However, let’s not pretend that this is not a common trend for Kotaku. They know exactly what they do when they write articles like this. While Kotaku brands themselves as gamers, there is a long history of them being more interested in politics and social issues than they are in gaming. Sadly, those topics do not get traction on their own, thus they choose to fuse their personal views with popular video game releases. Luckily, fans are starting to catch on. Many people on the internet have pointed out how crazy these views are.

Even in the comment sections of the article, people are pushing back. While there are a few crazy people trying to pander, most agree that this take is silly. I saw the typical comments that stated that, as a straight person, they agreed, but most understood that this game is far from Homophobic. Now, obviously, the title of the article is intentionally provocative, but the actual content is not far better. Whether you like Kotaku or not, they are a staple of the gaming internet. While their popularity has dwindled over the years, they have managed to stay afloat for over a decade.

That is not easy to do, considering their size and the current landscape on the internet. However, they also had to downsize quite a bit over the last few years. With more and more media companies shutting down, you do have to wonder who is next. While the cost of operations might be low for an opinion site like Kotaku, you still have overhead.

Conclusion

There will come a time when people will grow tired of reading intentionally provocative pieces like this. When people talking about your work get more traction than the actual work, you might want to consider the way you approach things.

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