At the core of Persona 5 are the characters who make this masterful JRPG what it is. The Persona 5 Confidants, composed of 22 of generally the best characters in gaming, are the most vital part of Persona 5. One of those nearly two dozen characters is Ichiko Ohya, one of the less famous and unknown Confidants of the group. Find out everything you need to know about her in this Ohya Persona 5 guide.
Ichiko Ohya is one of the shadier Confidants in the game, but she is also one of the love interests for Joker at the same time. I’ll be the first to admit that she is one of my least favorite characters in the Confidant group due to her off-putting personality, which I almost entirely love outside of like three, but there is still some value in her through the benefits she grants players. If you want to know about her and how to max out her Confidant ranks, you’re in the right place with this Ohya Persona 5 guide.
Bottom Line Up Front
Ichiko Ohya is one of the 22 Confidants that appear in Persona 5 and Royal. She is one of the shadiest in the bunch, being a journalist not unlike myself, but with some questionable ethics. Her goal of uncovering the corruption in politics and the world is noble, but her methods are somewhat corrupt in her own right.
She hangs out at the Crossroads Bar in Shinjuku where you can spend time with her and rank up her Confidant levels for her Devil Arcana.
Ohya Persona 5 Overview
Do you ever meet that person who is like your archnemesis? Perhaps you have some elements in common with one another but the parts that are different are just too far gone. Or you feel reminded of the darker aspects of yourself that you wish to see gone for good.
That is somewhat the relationship between myself and Ichiko Ohya, the representative of the Devil Arcana in Persona 5. She isn’t a main character, instead, being one of the most elusive side characters Confidants in the massive JRPG. She also happens to be among my least favorites.
While I adore most of the Confidants in this game as some of my favorite video game characters, Ohya isn’t one of them. This is due to her status as one of the more annoying and shady characters who feels strangely out of place compared to some of the other characters.
Tae Takemi is in a similar position, at least at first, but the difference is that she has a more attractive and intriguing side to her. It doesn’t help that the storyline for Ohya is one of the weirder and less interesting ones. I understand her desire as a journalist to expose the corruption of this world.
In fact, that storyline premise sounds so fascinating, but its execution is in the worst and most uninteresting manner possible. Even still, I always max out her Confidant ranks because she is part of what makes the Phantom Thieves what they are. It’s for that reason that I recommend every player still try to seek her out. Here’s what you need to know.
Appearance
Part of the reason I’m not a massive fan of Ichiko Ohya is her appearance. She isn’t ugly, but she’s far from the most attractive Persona 5 character. She has an almost 1970s or 80s look to her with her retro bowl-cut hairstyle that is short and not that great-looking, honestly.
She wears tattered blue jeans and a plain t-shirt with some words on it. What is the focal point for Ohya is her circular orange glasses that give off some retro love that I somewhat like, given their similarities to the goggles that Futaba wears.
Overall, Ohya has an almost Beatles hairstyle and look that is strange for this game. I give her points for originality, at least in a JRPG.
Key Moments in Persona 5
These are the key moments that happen with Ichiko Ohya in Persona 5. Since she is a side character in the JRPG, she doesn’t have too much to do with the main story. As such, there won’t be significant spoilers for other characters or the plot but an obligatory spoiler warning is in place. This also assumes that the character has maxed out her Confidant to experience her whole story.
Assisting Joker and the Phantom Thieves
Joker, the leader of the Phantom Thieves, meets Ichiko Ohya one night when hanging out at the Crossroads Bar. She introduces herself as a journalist who is just part of the paparazzi. This comes shortly after her brief cameo appearance earlier in the game as someone investigating the victims of the Phantom Thieves. However, her real goal is to investigate the corruption in the world, which is what she used to do.
Over the course of their relationship, Joker helps Ohya out with her job by giving her the secret details that only a member of the Phantom Thieves would know. This gives her more credibility as a writer and starts allowing her to have more opportunities over time.
In turn, she helps out Joker by giving him some in-game benefits for exploring dungeons. Over the course of their Confidant storyline together, Ohya eventually overcomes the sad state she’s been in and returns to the place of being motivated to take down the corruption in society. She is also someone who Joker can romance if he so chooses.
Towards the end of the main plot in Persona 5, she can be seen in the crowd that is watching and cheering on the Phantom Thieves as they fight the final battle to save the world. She will cheer on the group with a single voiced line in the midst of the other Confidants that the player has maxed out their relationship and that is the end of her appearances in the game.
Special Abilities
Ichiko Ohya isn’t a unique Persona user like the main cast in Persona 5. However, this doesn’t stop her from having some slight abilities of her own that allow her to help out the Phantom Thieves in her own way. This mainly comes from her job and motivations as an investigative journalist.
Shady Journalistic Capabilities
While the beginning of Persona 5 and your relationship with Ichiko Ohya sees her as a shady member of the paparazzi, it turns out that she has some impressive talent when it comes to investigations. This power is precisely why she was relegated down to the tabloids in the first place.
Her strength of investigation and journalistic motivations were too strong, leading her into dangerous territory with the mastermind villain behind the events of Persona 5. Part of her skill with investigating people comes from the fact that she’s willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.
This could be considered a little shady and unethical at times, but Ohya is capable of doing what it takes to find the truth. This power in her motivations is what helps the Phantom Thieves as it grants them new abilities that they can use in the Palaces and Mementos.
Persona 5 Ohya Voice Actor
The voice you occasionally hear for Ichiko Ohya will depend on which voiceover language you’re listening to. If you are playing the English dub, which I usually do for this game, then you’ll be hearing Amanda Winn-Lee as her voice.
Winn-Lee is a prolific voice actor in the games and anime business, having been active since the 1990s with her roles. A few of her most iconic roles include, believe it or not, another character in the Persona series. She was the recognizable voice of Yukiko Amagi, one of the best Persona 4 cast members in that game and Golden. In addition, she voiced Heather Mason in Silent Hill 3 and Rei in Neon Genesis Evangelion.
On the other hand, if you listen to the original Japanese voices in Persona 5, you’ll hear Yumi Ichiyama as the voice of Ichiko Ohya. She has some recently classic roles in anime and gaming that I recommend you check out, such as the lovable Puck in Re:Zero, the main character Rudy in Mushoku Tensei, and Emma in the amazing Tokyo Revengers.
Key Relationships
We get to see only a few relationships for Ichiko Ohya in Persona 5. One of them is a spoilery reveal, so I recommend turning away now if you haven’t found out about the mastermind behind everything in Persona 5 yet.
The first of the relationships for her is with Joker, the leader of the Phantom Thieves, and the character you play. This relationship is the crux of her story in Persona 5, as she only truly exists in the game in the first place if you seek her out.
She is one of the many Confidants that exist, so you can get to know her deeper and spend a lot of in-game time with her. Joker is like an informant for Ohya, who eventually becomes her most excellent motivator and, honestly, a trustworthy friend of hers. And for some players, even more than that. Ohya and Joker can experience a romantic relationship, but it is ultimately up to him if he wishes to pursue that dangerous lifestyle.
The other central relationship that is clearly seen in Ohya’s Confidant story is with the proprietor of the Crossroads Bar, where she always hangs out: Lala. If you work at the Crossroads Bar, you likely know her quite well, but she is the owner of the bar and seemingly a pretty good friend of Ohya’s. They hang out a lot, and it is because of Lala that Ohya has a place to call home at the bar where she can drink and be herself.
The final relationship that Ohya has in Persona 5 is a massive spoiler one. Like most other members of the Confidants, she has more to do with the whole outcast’s plot and main storyline than meets the eye. It turns out that she was benched and put on the tabloid side of writing due to her investigation into the main villain of the game, Shiho.
It was her investigation into his endless corruption that sealed her fate. For Ohya, Shiho is her ultimate enemy and the final boss that she has to take down at some point. And she finally gets the chance to do so canonically with what Joker and the Phantom Thieves accomplish.
Ohya Confidant Explained
Ichiko Ohya, as you likely already know, is a member of the Confidants group in Persona 5. This makes her one of the 22 central characters in the game that you need to know about. Though she is one of the least important and impactful, her role as a Confidant makes her more important than initially seems.
If you want to know everything about how to unlock her Confidant, rank up her relationship levels, and when to spend time with her in the game, you are in the right place. Let’s get started.
How to Unlock
The first day in the in-game calendar for Persona 5 in which you can unlock the Ichiko Ohya Confidant is on June 23. As you likely know, she appears briefly in the main storyline of Persona 5, where she gives some information to the Phantom Thieves to help them in their investigations.
At this point, the player can then seek her out on their own accord and spend quality time with her on the side. To do this, players will want to head to Shinjuku at night and then to the Crossroads Bar starting that day. You’ll meet her at the bar and be able to raise her Confidant ranks there from then on optionally.
Thankfully, there is no other requirement for raising your relationship with her at this point in time. Unlike some of the other Confidants, you don’t have to have a specific social stat level or anything like that.
Schedule
Once you have unlocked the Ichiko Ohya Confidant, you can hang out with her depending on the week’s day. Keep in mind that she is only ever available at night, except for a few occasions, but here is her general availability in the game:
- Every single day of the week: Nighttime only
- On rainy days, she is available all day, including daytime and nighttime
However, while it appears that she is one of the most open Confidants around, she is honestly quite random in her appearances. She can be available any day of the week, but this doesn’t always turn out this way. Sometimes she’s at the bar, and other times, she is AWOL.
One tip that I should note about hanging out with her is that there are no social stats you need to raise at all to spend time with her. Unlike most of the other Confidants, there doesn’t come the point in the relationship where you need to have your Guts or Kindness high enough, for instance.
However, there is still a requirement that happens in between the seventh and eighth ranks in her relationship. After the seventh rank, you receive the Mementos request from her, known as Fighting for Truth in Journalism. This is crucial to her storyline, so you must go to Mementos at some point and complete it. I recommend just piling up a bunch of Mementos requests and then going when you have nothing else to do in the game one day.
From that point forward, you will have a clear goal to the end of her Confidant storyline.
Rank Benefits
There are ten ranks to the Devil Arcana Confidant. Some of them will grant you extra benefits to the Phantom Thieves, usually themed around the security that happens in the Palaces. This is welcome for those players who struggle with the security system and get kicked out of the dungeons. Here are all the benefits you get from her relationship. I am basing this on the Persona 5 Royal version of her Confidant, which is slightly different.
- Rank 1: Rumor-filled Scoop – Whenever the player finds a new safe room in the Palace dungeon, the security level of the place will decrease.
- Rank 3: Shocking Scoop – The chances of the security level going up will decrease, and the general level will go down every time you complete a successful ambush.
- Rank 5: Unbelievable Scoop – When you enter a dungeon, the starting security level is lower than it usually is.
- Rank 7: Outrageous Scoop – The starting security level for a dungeon is even lower than before.
- Rank 10: Legendary Scoop – You can instantly ambush enemies no matter the security level in the game.
Her ranks will essentially make the security system easier to deal with and almost nonexistent by the end, especially if you are playing the base Persona 5.
This is exceedingly useful, especially towards the end of the game when it is easier to trigger the security alarm. Still, I find it not that useful since it is relatively simple to avoid the security system.
FAQs
Question: Is Ohya a Good Confidant Persona 5?Â
Answer: This is a primarily subjective answer as to whether or not Ohya is a good Confidant in Persona 5. It also depends on what you mean. If you mean in terms of rewards, I would say she is a decent Confidant. In terms of being a good person, I would say that she is a decent person, too.
Question: Can you Date Ohya Persona 5?Â
Answer: Yes, you can date Ohya in Persona 5 if you rank her up high enough and select the correct response toward the end of her story.
Question: How Old is Ohya in Persona 5?Â
Answer: Ichiko Ohya’s exact age in Persona 5 has not been revealed. We only know that she is in her 20s in the game, but she looks like she’s in her 30s to me. Controversially, you can date her, despite being a high school student.
Which Confidant to Spend Your Time With Next
Ichiko Ohya is one of the shadier Confidants you can spend time with in Persona 5. She plays on the edge, trying everything she can to expose corruption, even using some less-than-ethical means herself. That said, she is still a generally good person who has a heart for helping mankind to become better, which is her redeeming quality.
If you are looking for another shady member of the Confidants group, look no further than the representative of the Death Arcana, Tae Takemi. Like Ohya, she is odd and sometimes unethical in her medical methods as a doctor. But she ultimately has a heart of gold and is, honestly, the better version of Ohya within the same game. Find out more about her in this Tae Takemi guide.
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