The journalist, Ichiko Ohya, has been the Devil confidant in both Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal. She is one of over 20 characters that the player can get to know through hanging out with them during free time, and as a confidant, she can be leveled up in the relationship to give the player unique abilities. Her personal abilities decrease the security level of the various palaces in the game.

In both gameplay and writing, though, Ohya was not well-received by Persona fans. In terms of gameplay, Ohya's abilities were not useful since the game already had a very easy stealth system. When it came to her character, players disliked how often her personality fluctuated and did not find her story interesting in comparison to the many other confidants in the game.

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Ohya's Scoop Abilities

Ohya with Joker at a bar.

Ohya's journalistic abilities lessen the security level of the palace dungeons. Understanding her abilities requires an understanding of the security level mechanic. When in a palace, the security meter can go from zero to one hundred percent. Ideally, players want to keep the security level low in order to avoid a ton of combat. The higher the security level, the harder and the greater number of enemies can become. An easy way to lessen the security level is to defeat enemies via ambush. There are also items that help, such as Purifying Ash, and players can lessen security by just leaving and returning to a palace the next day.

All of Ohya's ability ranks affect palace security levels. These abilities can make the security level decreases every time Joker finds a safe room and for the security level to be lower when starting infiltration of a palace. However, players quickly realized this was useless compared to other confidant abilities. Sneaking in the game is very easy, and it is also simple to just ambush enemies to make sure the security level remains low. In comparison to incredibly useful abilities from characters like Kawakami, Takemi, and Togo, a lot of players have Ohya low in their list of characters to level up for their tactical value.

Ohya's Story

Ohya and Joker at lit up bar.

Ohya is a journalist in her mid-20s that exposed a scandal of someone powerful and got demoted from being an investigative writer to entertainment writing. Due to this experience, she is a cynical alcoholic that spends most of her time at the Crossroads bar (a cool detail for the fact that she is the Devil confidant). As Joker gets closer to her, she regains some of her idealistic personality and goes back to investigative research. Persona 5 players can also choose to enter a romance with her.

This story arc did not charm many players, as Ohya's alcoholism caused her to fluctuate between cheerful and annoyed at all things around her. Her personality and story were far outshined by the underrated Persona character and bartender of the Crossroads Lala Escargot, a motherly figure who is hinted to be a crossdresser or transgender woman. Many players noted that they wished they could have spent time with Lala instead of Ohya in the bar. However, the closest they could get was working as a part-timer at the location.

Like her story, Ohya's romance was not experienced by many players because they did not find her interesting enough. She is also among the romances with a big age gap between her and Joker, which has been less popular in comparison to romancing other Phantom Thieves and high schoolers. Some hoped that Ohya's abilities and story could get a makeover in the Royal version of the game, but she got very little attention. As such, she remains the least interesting confidant in the eyes of fans.

Persona 5 Royal is out now for PS4.

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