Persona 5: The Phantom X director Yusuke Nitta was recently critical of a former writer who created the game’s opening storyline. The Persona 5 developer took to social media to criticize P5X‘s divisive “Subway Slammer” arc and promised fans that the Gacha RPG’s story would improve.

‘P5x’ Director is Critical of Former writer

Ever since the launch of Persona 5: The Phantom X on June 26, fans have been divided about the game’s opening storyline. Known as the “Subway Slammer” arc, players are tasked with taking down a Scooby Doo-esque villain who shoves people who are walking through the train system. If you think that sounds silly, you aren’t alone! Many fans in the Persona community have been criticizing it online.

However, players were surprised when the game’s own director, Yusuke Nitta, was also critical of it on X. In a series of social media posts, the P5X developer was allegedly critical of a former writer who created the Subway Slammer plot. “He [the Subway Slammer writer] was like the lord of the palace. But he is no longer on the team. We have been involved since Chapter 3, but we plan to have the best story and ending. Thank you.”

Yusuke Nitta followed up on this post, apologizing to players. “Sorry, I got a little emotional. I’ll delete this post later. But rest assured, P5X will get more and more interesting from now on.” The tweets have since been removed. Interestingly, if you read the full social media post, he even presents a scenario where the Phantom X team was rebuffed by the writer when they questioned whether it was a bad plotline. “Subway Slammer. This is the best subject! What I say is true. Don’t defy me. What I wrote is absolute!” the tweet read.

‘Persona 5: The Phantom X’ Players Are Divided Over Subway Slammer Storyline

While a villain who “shoulder checks” people on a subway might seem silly to the rest of the world, it’s an actual problem that Japan faced a few years back. The issue is, some players feel the P5X villain is written like a Dragon Ball Z character. The plot also feels a bit goofy in comparison to the serious Kamoshida storyline in Persona 5. I mean, the opening chapter of P5 literally dealt with abuse in the school system, so the tone shift is a pretty big one.

As a result, Persona 5: The Phantom X players have either been criticizing the Subway Slammer plot online or straight-up mocking it with memes. Fans of the Atlus series sounded off on the P5X story on the Persona 5 subreddit. “The idea behind the Subway Slammer was good. However, the writing behind him was cartoonishly bad,” a user wrote. “He is kind of a s**t villain. But it’s cartoonishly bad to the point it wraps around to being good just to laugh at. No doubt it’s terrible writing,” another commenter replied. One comment simply exclaimed, “Let’s set the record straight. Subway Slammer is a terrible villain writing, memes aside.”

So, it seems that P5X director Yusuke Nitta’s social media posts were a response to the community’s reaction to the divisive storyline. Although the posts are now deleted, it appears the team is aware that not everyone loves the Subway Slammer chapter. Persona 5 writers have also seemingly taken control of the Gacha game’s storyline starting with Chapter 3, so we should see some improvements.