Colors Flying High - Let's Play Persona 5 Royal

Ryuji you’ve literally beat the shit out of their inner desires.

I want to strangle this nerd so bad you have no idea.

You know I like the characterization of Joker as an Ace gay man. It fits a lot. It’s a shame we can’t go full stoic “please just stop being horny” mode.

A soft and good bat friend.

Joker: “Ahem. I have an announcement to make. Thank you all for coming.”

Joker: “If you are, have been, or will be horny at any point in the future, please stop talking to me about it.”

Joker: “That means you, Dr. Femdom. And don’t think I’ve forgotten about you either, Morgana. Or you, Kawakami. And ESPECIALLY you, Mishima!”

Joker: “I am now going to leave in order to gently coax Yusuke out of the closet. That is all.”

1 Like

Just figured I’d drop this in here, but if anyone’s interested in playing P5, Royal’s on sale for $20 USD at Best Buy for Black Friday. Vanilla’s also on sale for $15. Presumably only in the USA?

Click Here for Update 26

timrodresized: The game just kind of goes right into a cutscene. What do you mean I look different? I’ve always looked like this.

Madarame: “Plainly put… I, um… plagiarized work… I-I… tainted this - this country’s art world… and… even ‘Sayuri’!”

timrodresized: Madarame’s face here is a reference to a Japanese politician by the name of Ryutaro Nonomura. Nonomura was an assemblyman for Hyogo Prefecture in Kansai who was convicted of embezzling 3 million yen (just under $30,000) on things like hot springs trips and gift certificates out of public campaign funds.

timrodresized: He initially insisted that the money had been spent on stamps for campaign mailings, but investigators quickly proved that to be a lie. Nonomura then went on TV and cried like, well… the video’s linked above so you can see for yourself.

timrodresized: The press conference video went viral pretty quickly, and was also parodied in Gintama (apparently, I’ve never actually watched it). The worst part is that it kinda worked: he avoided a prison sentence, but that was also because he’d already paid back all the money he’d embezzled.

timrodresized: Makoto is definitely saying this the way Kazuhira Miller screams out “CIPHER!” every time he stubs his toe.

timrodresized: Wouldn’t it be kind of impossible for them not to? They’re maybe one street away from the giant TV we just saw.

Ann: “And they mentioned the Phantom Thieves!”

Ryuji: “Man, this is startin’ to get interesting… if we do it right, we can change people’s hearts. With this power… we might be able to do more than just gettin’ back at society. It’ll be a big deal!”

timrodresized: He says this like he doesn’t realize they’ve already done it twice now.

timrodresized: I like to think that Joker is the only one smart enough to realize how easy it would be to pinpoint them as John Persona.

Ryuji: “Man, you’re so indifferent.”

Ann: “Then again, doesn’t that make him more trustworthy as our leader?”

Ryuji: “As for me, I hope we just keep gettin’ more and more famous!”

Ann: “If we continue doing this, we’ll definitely be able to give courage to everyone who needs it.”

Ann: “Do you know them?”

Ryuji: “You moron! Those’re attendance officers!”

timrodresized: Why is that guy in the suit just Johnny Gat?

Morgana: “That monotonous acting of hers never fails to send a chill down my spine.”

Ann: “We were just discussing where we should go…”

timrodresized: This actually has to do with the next dungeon - there’s a reason that truancy officers are out on a Sunday morning.

Ann: “We’ll be careful!”

Ann: “Hey, don’t go making stuff up on the spot like that, okay!? I totally panicked 'cause of you!”

Morgana: “From now on, we’ll need to be even more cautious than before. Look at us! Right after the second Thieves incident, both prior victims are meeting up.”

Ann: “Wait, you mean people might be listening to us?”

Ryuji: “Eh, it’ll be fine. Look around. We’re the only people worryin’ about it.”

Ann: “I guess you’re right…”

Ryuji: “By the way, Yusuke… you able to get anything out of Madarame? Remember how he was talkin’ about that suspicious person in the black mask?”

Yusuke: “Well… I pressed him for answers, but he doesn’t even understand what happened to him to begin with.”

Ann: “It’s not like he actually saw his desires get stolen, after all.”

timrodresized: I was talking a couple updates ago about how a lot of the scenes with the boss shadows don’t really work because the real person is never aware of it, and this kinda confirms it.

Yusuke: “It’s rumored that he may be sent to prison. In that case, gaining information will be difficult.”

Ryuji: “So, what’re you gonna do now?”

Yusuke: “I’ll be leaving that house. I can’t draw in such a place anymore.”

Ann: “Do you have somewhere to go?”

Yusuke: “The school dorms. I can stay there free of charge thanks to my fine arts scholarship.”

Ryuji: “A scholarship!? Wait, you’re that good?”

Yusuke: “Although, Takamaki-san’s house would do as well.”

timrodresized: I think we all know where he actually wants to go, and it’s not Ann’s house. Inside, he’s sweating because he almost said “Kurusu-san’s house”.

Ann: “…Wait, WHAT!?”

Ryuji: “Then again, now that Yusuke’ll be livin’ alone, it’ll be easier for us to meet up whenever we want.”

Yusuke: “For the time being, we should wait and see how this case plays out.”

Ryuji: “And it’ll prolly take some time findin’ a target as big as Madarame.”

Ann: “Anyway, we should just act like normal students while we look for our next target, okay?”

Morgana: “We’ll be entrusting that to you again, Ryuji.”

Ryuji: “All right. Guess it’s just more prep 'til then.”

Sae: “You were sent away twice, almost reported to the police… and yet you still wanted to save him? Moreover, you ended up in a museum instead of a castle this time…”

Sae: “You’re still going to maintain this rubbish about changing someone’s heart by stealing their Treasure?”

Sae: “Very well. The truth behind this tale of yours will be clear once your conspirators are in custody. Now then, tell me about this new member who joined your group.”

Sae: “There’s no point in being stubborn. It will only damage your position. The identity of Madarame’s pupil can be easily discovered with a little investigation.”

timrodresized: Of all the party members, even the ones we haven’t met yet, the last one Joker would ever betray is his boyfriend.

Sae: “So you won’t sell out your accomplice? …Fine. There’s still much more that I want to hear.”

Sae: “It was around this time that the Phantom Thieves began to truly gain popularity. Lies flooded the internet - things like, ‘The Phantom Thieves saved me too,’ or ‘I got a calling card’…”

Sae: “For heaven’s sake… those lies made the collection of intel take almost ten times longer.”

timrodresized: This reminds me of my favorite dialog line in Alpha Protocol, where if you’ve been perfectly stealthy there’s a conversation with the final boss where he goes “Up until 20 minutes ago, we had no idea you were even in the country.”

Sae: “Now, your next target was this man…”

timrodresized: If you’re playing this in Japanese, you will IMMEDIATELY know what Kaneshiro’s deal is because his name has the “money” kanji in it. The wiki claims that the “jun” kanji in his first name is also part of the word “profit”.

timrodresized: If this was Working Designs in the 90s, his name would absolutely be Profit McMoneybags.

Sae: “I’ve found a number of points of commonality between the two. Both, for example, were sent a ‘calling card’ before their unforeseen changes of heart.”

Sae: “Now isn’t the time to be worrying about things like jurisdiction and honor! We need to dig deeper and find a correlation among the incidents these past two, three years.”

Sae: “Thank you, sir.”

timrodresized: And now we know who the guy Joker hit really is.

Ryuji: “Looks like Yusuke’s textin’ me. I think you’re getting 'em too.”

timrodresized: I’m pretty sure this is Yusuke trying to text Joker for a date and then accidentally submitting it to the group chat.

Ryuji: “Anyways, that went well for our first job, huh? It was a huge success! So, that said… you got time after this?”

Ryuji: “Well, thing is, I got some free tickets to a darts lounge from this guy I know. But, I totally forgot that they expire today. So… you wanna go right now?”

Morgana: “Ryuji… didn’t we just finish talking about how we need to be on guard?”

timrodresized: I mean, Ryuji only practically shouts “HEY EVERYBODY, WE’RE JOHN PERSONA!” at everyone he sees when he’s not drunk. Maybe some liquor will fix that.

Ryuji: “C’mon, it’s just darts! Don’t you wanna play too, Morgana? …I mean, if you can actually throw anything.”

Morgana: “If you’re just going to play, then I guess it shouldn’t be a problem… all right, then let’s head to this darts lounge or whatever it is. Lead the way, Ryuji!”

timrodresized: What he doesn’t realize is that everyone in the party has a fake ID in the name of John Persona. Even Ann. Especially Ann.

Ryuji: “Hell yeah, I’m on it! Oh, right. The place is in Kichijoji, so we gotta take the train first.”

timrodresized: Yes. This is what I’ve been waiting for. Kichijoji is something that was added for Royal, and is how we’re going to get rid of all that dirty armor we’ve been accumulating.

Ryuji: “What, for real? There’s a buncha different shops right outside the station there. It’s just one stop away from Shibuya, so let’s head for the Inogami Line first.”

timrodresized: There’s a tutorial popup here, and I believe I mentioned it before, but any area that isn’t Shibuya, Yongen-Jaya or Aoyama is not covered by Joker’s free commuter pass, so we have to pay.

timrodresized: Makoto is confused because her shipping chart had Joker solidly with Yusuke, but now she’s starting to question if there’s some kind of gay love triangle going on with Ryuji.

Morgana: “You can tell it’s nothing like Shibuya, just from the atmosphere alone.”

Ryuji: “Well, yeah. Looks like there’re a lot of shops here you can’t find in Shibuya… not that I’d really know.”

Ryuji: “Oh, it’s got your attention now, huh? Ann’s not here 'cause she’s busy, but I bet it’d be fun to come here with some more people. I think the darts lounge is one block up from the main street.”

timrodresized: Kichijoji is home to a lot of unnecessary battle boosts that take time to get.

Ryuji: “But since we’re here, I won’t say no to checkin’ out a bunch of the other shops on the way.”

timrodresized: This is the one time I will ever be excited to visit a clothing store.

timrodresized: I sell all of the dirty armor and make a fuckload of money.

timrodresized: It’s about 50,000 yen when everything is said and done.

timrodresized: Each item of clothing you sell gets you 10 points, which you can use to buy stuff. Unfortunately, you can only buy one of each item.

timrodresized: In the 4-pack, we got three Old Cheongsams, which only Ann can equip…

timrodresized: And an Old Mythical Scarf, which is for Morgana. The reason the defense is so high is because I didn’t buy armor for Morgana last time.

timrodresized: Next door is a stationery store, which… I honestly have no idea what these gifts do. I think they’re for if you’d be otherwise permafucked, you can use these to buy more confidant points.

timrodresized: We can get a free knowledge point by going here and asking the person behind the desk every single question.

timrodresized: I did, and I took screenshots, but they boil down to “there are lots of stores here”.

timrodresized: Most places I looked at when looking for information about the real place said that it’s kind of a trendy neighborhood which is considered a suburb but looks just as densely-packed as the rest of Tokyo.

timrodresized: Technically, Joker’s been here twice already - Inokashira Park is actually located in Kichijoji. They consider it a “green area” because the park is there.

timrodresized: They should see Connecticut, where up until a few years ago my house looked like it was in the middle of a forest from the sky. It probably still would, except that we got hit with a lot of major storms over the last 10 or so years.

timrodresized: There’s a place that sells meat, but only at night. There’s no real reason to ever buy them as far as I’m aware, but I did anyway.

timrodresized: There’s an incense store in a back alley that we can’t do anything with yet.

timrodresized: I don’t know why there’s this weird connection between penguins and sniper rifles in Japanese media - there’s a character in one of the Ace Attorney games who has two penguins named Sniper and Rifle.

Ryuji: “It says… ‘Penguin Sniper’? Huh? Why’d you give one of those doofy birds a gun?”

timrodresized: Morgana wasn’t talking about the name of the building. He thought someone was accusing him of thirsting for human women again.

Ryuji: “Still, if you’re comin’ up with a good name… well, whatever. Let’s check it out!”

Ryuji: “Oh man, I’m getting kind of nervous…”

Morgana: “Ha, you’re such a child. Try not to embarrass the rest of us, would you?”

timrodresized: Joker pulls out his cellphone and threatens to play the video of Morgana talking about how he wants to kiss Ann with his sandpapery cat tongue.

Ryuji: “You don’t gotta tell me that! So what’s the plan? You wanna head inside?”

timrodresized: I was wondering why Dartslive is in like every Sega game, and as it turns out they were acquired by Sammy at some point either before or around the time they acquired Sega.

timrodresized: This next part is basically viral marketing for expensive dartboards - even the home ones go for like $300-$400.

Ryuji: “All right, bull! That’s a new high score!”

Ryuji: “The center of the target’s called the bullseye. If you land a dart there, it’s called ‘bull’! …I know because I looked up the rules online last night.”

Ryuji: “Anyway, this game’s called “01”. You win by getting your score all the way down to 0 points before the other player.”

timrodresized: Who the fuck plays darts anymore? Let alone on some big expensive dartboard?

Morgana: “Oh, so you’re not trying to get a high score, but get rd of your score? That’s pretty different.”

timrodresized: I’ve never actually played it, but I think all the Dartslive boards are set up specifically for this or something because this is how it worked in the Yakuza games as well.

Ryuji: “We both start with the same score, then you lose points based on the number on the board where your dart lands… and you can only win if you get your score down to 0, exactly.”

Ryuji: “You can’t even be off by a single point! How’s that sound? Pretty sick, right?”

timrodresized: Seriously though, I want to see the one real-life teenager who actually gives a shit about darts. No one gives a shit about darts.

Morgana: “So you have to be able to calculate your score properly while making sure you hit the right numbers on the board… this game seems like it takes a lot of concentration.”

timrodresized:The best part is, I have zero idea why the fuck they’re going over all of this other than for marketing purposes. There’s no darts minigame as far as I know - it basically works like any other confidant event.

timrodresized: Wait a second, how does the cat know anything about darts technique when he didn’t even know how to play not even minutes ago? What the fuck is this shit?

Morgana: “Hey, Ryuji, what’s up?”

Ryuji: “Ah, I was just readin’ this flier. It says ‘Darts is a party when you play in pairs!’ You team up with someone and alternate throwers when it’s your turn. You still use the same rules I told you, though.”

Ryuji: “Hey, whaddya say we give it a try?”

Ryuji: “Hell yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about! Let’s do this!”

Ryuji: “Here goes! Don’t underestimate an ex-athlete!”

Morgana: “Whoa, he hit such a tiny spot! Quite impressive - especially for you, Ryuji.”

Ryuji: “We’re almost down to 0 points! Let’s really focus for this last round!”

Ryuji: “Woohoooo! 0 points, right on the dot! Ain’t we badass!?”

Morgana: “That’s no easy feat! You really do have something special going on!”

timrodresized: This is like all those “high school club” mangas where they go on about some specific topic no one cares about and in the end it was actually about everyone being gay.

Ryuji: “Man, this is so fun. When you’re on the line, the pressure’s insane, but it makes you wanna do your best for your partner!”

timrodresized:: Is he talking about darts or relationships? The world will never know.

timrodresized: Anyway, here’s what darts does. Each character can rank up in Baton Pass twice - the second level gets you SP regeneration as well as HP regen. We will never use this.

timrodresized: Just in case you’re wondering, apparently all the scenes for this are generic, so I don’t think anyone counts them as confidant events. Just in case they’re not, I can make a save near where the base game ends and do them all.

Morgana: “Even if it is just a game, it can be some kinda training, depending on how you play…”

timrodresized: I don’t know if you could count Two Brothers as training for anything beyond spotting typos.

Morgana: “Heh… well, I do always have the Phantom Thieves on the brain.”

timrodresized: I mean, I guess that’s technically true since Ann is a Phantom Thief and that’s all he ever thinks about.

Morgana: “Let’s keep practicing together here - Ooh, ooh! Let’s invite everybody next time!”

Ryuji: “Man… all this, just from me askin’ you to meet me here! This is, like, y’know… one of those strikes of good luck!”

Morgana: “A ‘stroke’ of good luck! Why would it be a strike? Who would protest having good luck?”

timrodresized: Unlike darts, we will definitely be doing pool at night. Let me explain why.

timrodresized: Darts doesn’t get you anything outside of the boost to baton passing, which is kind of pointless in the first place. Pool not only gets you 3 points in a random social stat, it also improves the damage you do if you get a Technical hit (hits against enemies who are under a status effect).

Ryuji: “It’s already pretty late, though. We can come back and play it later.”

timrodresized: I’m gonna cut a few lines from this because this is already just a glorified tutorial.

Morgana: “Wow. It’s really gotten that unsafe, huh? That said, you still want to check out Kichijoji at night, don’t you?”

Morgana: “Don’t worry, Akira. Worst comes to worst, I’ve got your back! Besides, there’s a certain delicious smell on that street that bears investigating… myeh heh heh.”

timrodresized: Before we do that, you might have realized it’s Sunday and there’s something very important we haven’t done.

timrodresized: Anyway, we have to find the old man’s name, and on the way there I saw an “examine” prompt outside this cafe. I think we all know why Joker is looking at him like that.

Morgana: “An old man making trouble?”

timrodresized: Does that guy have a license plate on his hat?

Morgana: “All right, we got the name of our target!”

timrodresized: He says this like it’s winter and not the start of summer.

timrodresized: Actually, come to think of it, why is Joker still wearing that jacket? It’s JUNE!

Morgana: “His joints hurt on rainy days? Poor guy.”

timrodresized: I stopped at the meat market on the way back and got a thing of katsu - it’s basically just breaded chicken. No real reason for it, just kind of wanted to see what it did.

timrodresized: We’re going to do Yoshida’s confidant tonight.

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “Is not right! It will take time to solve this problem! However, we must start by making small changes!”

timrodresized: “We need to erect a man-sized trash bin and toss Shinzo Abe in there!”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “Regardless of the audience’s size, you must convey your thoughts as if you’re talking one on one. By the way, I forgot to ask you last time we spoke. Why do you want to become a politician?”

timrodresized: So that I could send military assistance to Australia and finally win the Great Emu War for humanity.

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “Ambitious, indeed, if a little ambiguous. Well, I’m sure you’ll iron out the details as you go along. May I ask you one more question?”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “What kind of politician do you want to be?”

timrodresized: This kind.

timrodresized: We all know Joker just wants a giant mech with a beam on it that makes people stop being horny.

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “Yes, don’t ever forget that. Although, what’s important is what lies within. Allow me to give you some advice. If you aspire to get into politics, you must possess a central philosophy.”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “What is it that you wish to accomplish? That is the foundation of a great speech. You’d do well to remember that.”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “I’m glad. By the way, my philosophy is… never give up until your voice is heard…!”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “To get your message across, be tenacious in conveying your thoughts to the audience. Have a firm point of view, and communicate it clearly - that’s the first rule of negotiating.”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “Haha! You have me reliving the fighting spirit I had when I first became a politician.”

timrodresized: This ability isn’t too bad, especially if you’re mass-farming red shadows before confusion farming becomes effective. I think it stacks with another confidant ability we have coming up that increases the amount of money you get per battle.

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “They’re right… I am no good… ah, my apologies. We’re done for today.”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “I’m sorry you had to see me acting like such a coward. Right after I gave you that self-important lecture, too… but I’m quite a stubborn individual myself.”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “What did you think? Did you take anything useful from it?”

timrodresized: It changed his whole outlook in that instead of holding up old man demons with a gun, he’s now going to hold them up and also shout at them for more money.

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “What, really? I wasn’t expecting to have such an impact… but I’m glad if I helped somehow. I hope our talks from now on will keep giving you the direction you need.”

Ryuji: “The response to Madarame’s press conference was huge! Everyone’s talkin’ about the calling card. Girls are checkin’ me out today… maybe they can’t help but sense my overflowing phantom thief charisma?”

Ryuji: “Oh shit, am I finally startin’ to be popular with all the fly hon- …oh no!”

Ryuji: “I knew people were lookin’ at me… oh, goddammit!”

Ryuji: “I gotta go home and change, so you go on ahead!”

timrodresized: The other guy looks at him and goes “Wait, is John Persona the name of the group? Is it one person? What the shit is going on?”

timrodresized: I swear when I saw this scene in the base game, I thought his shirt said “Homo Rules”.

Ryuji: “Welp, that’s definitely my personal best… by a lot…”

Makoto: “I have nothing to report yet…”

Kobayakawa: “Nothing at all? How many students are there who could provoke a teacher?”

timrodresized: He says this like teachers are some kind of separate species.

Makoto: “I’ve already narrowed it down. I just can’t get any solid evidence…”

Kobayakawa: “What will come of you asking that?”

timrodresized: Actually, that’s a good question - why hasn’t anyone asked whether the principal knew anything?

Makoto: “This investigation is for a just cause, right?”

timrodresized: Nah, it’s more of a Far Cry thing.

Kobayakawa: “I believe I understand how flustered this must be making you. I’m sure it was truly shocking for you as student council president to see a peer attempt suicide.”

Makoto: “Yes…”

Kobayakawa: “We must provide a school environment where all students can feel at ease. That is the most pressing issue we have to tackle at the moment.”

Makoto: “So that’s your reason behind this investigation on the Phantom Thieves of Hearts? We don’t even know if they truly exist. Why are you-”

Kobayakawa: “You heard about the incident with that Madarame fellow, I assume?”

Makoto: “…They said there was a similar calling card to the one used in Mr. Kamoshida’s case.”

Kobayakawa: “I wish to believe that this is unrelated to our students.”

Makoto: “Yes…”

Kobayakawa: “That is where I stand. I suggest you devote your energy to the task at hand, not unnecessary questions.”

timrodresized: There’s no dialog here that I missed or anything, it just does Ryuji’s cut-in.

Ryuji: “I just started lookin’ yesterday. No way I’m gonna find one that quick.”

Ann: “Oh yeah. I guess that’s true. By the way, I decided on the TV station. What about you two?”

Ryuji: “Huh? Oh crap, the social studies trip! Ugh I just wanna ditch it…”

Morgana: “You’d better go to your school activities. Didn’t I tell you not to draw attention to yourselves?”

Ryuji: “Wouldn’t me suddenly turnin’ into a good student stand out more?”

Morgana: “Quit bickering and go.”

timrodresized: Let’s be real here, Morgana wants to go in order to find new human women to be horny for.

Ann: “Then let’s all choose the TV station! I heard we’re gonna get to watch them tape a show! Maybe there’ll be actresses there!”

Ryuji: “Oh well. Not like I got anything better to do than waitin’ for info to come in online. Plus, Morgana’s right. Showin’ up’ll keep the teachers from gettin’ all suspicious of me.”

Ryuji: “All right, I’m gonna head back. TV, huh… maybe I should get a haircut…”

Morgana: “That guy is such an idiot… I hope nothing happens…”

timrodresized: The background in the last shot is different because I accidentally closed the the IM and couldn’t open it back up until after school.

timrodresized: Ushimaru, apparently back from his mid-life crisis of being a Cessna, returns to throw chalk at Joker’s head. We still can’t dodge that even with proficiency 3.

Kasumi: “What a pleasant surprise.”

Kasumi: “It’s really pouring down, isn’t it?”

Morgana: “I thought something like this would happen… so I snuck a collapsible umbrella into your bag!”

timrodresized: You just know he did that to hide the pictures of Ann he keeps in there.

Morgana: “Well, you do carry me around in your bag all the time. I’ve gotta show my appreciation somehow!”

Kasumi: “Well, see you around.”

Kasumi: “Unfortunately, I forgot it. But it’s fine. I’ll barely get wet if I run to the station! If anything, it’ll make for good training.”

Kasumi: “Huh? But how are… oh, are you offering to share your umbrella? That’d be wonderful! Thank you so much!”

Kasumi: “To be honest, prelims are coming up soon, so I didn’t want to take any chances of getting sick.”

Kasumi: “Yeah, that’s right. Two huge competitions are coming up - one at the beginning of summer and one near the end. If I’m going to participate in the prelims, I have to be selected as my club’s representative…”

Kasumi: “And there’s a qualifier meet to determine who that rep will be. It’s my dream to compete in gymnastics on the global level. So, I plan on maintaining a strict training regimen with my coach.”

timrodresized: She wants to be the star of Gymkata II: Gymkata Harder.

Kasumi: “I’d be invincible if I had you cheering me on, Senpai! * giggle * Oh, we’re already at the station…”

Kasumi: “I can’t thank you enough for today. I swear I’ll return the favor some-”

Kasumi: “I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have to deal with a misunderstanding like that.”

Kasumi: “Oh no! If anything, it’s my own fault. The same thing happens in class, too. People are often wary of me because I’m an honor student.”

Kasumi: “The school’s expecting me to attain strong results in the upcoming competitions, too. They even told me I didn’t have to participate in the cleanup event… but I just don’t like getting special treatment.”

Kasumi: “Hello? Dad? …What was that? Sorry, my phone’s been acting up lately. It’s okay, thanks. Mmhm. I’ll see you later.”

Kasumi: “Sorry about that. He asked if I needed a ride since it’s raining. A bit overprotective, don’t you think?”

Kasumi: “Well, I have to get to practice, so it’s time for me to go. Thanks so much for today. Excuse me!”

timrodresized: In an ideal world, Joker would just drop Mishima’s number in Dr. Femdom’s lap.

Morgana: “What did he mean by S and M? Those are shirt sizes, right? Is it the size of clothes?”

timrodresized: How are you that horny and you don’t even know…

timrodresized: I got a Thieves Den popup after this, and now we can turn it into Madarame’s Palace if we want.

timrodresized:: I bought a thing of vending machines for no apparent reason.

timrodresized: Oh, and then I got a copy of the room where Madarame confesses.

timrodresized: Today, we need to go to the sports store in the Shibuya Underground Mall and buy an Imported Protein. These are super expensive for what they are, but we’ll be using it to trade for a weapon later.

timrodresized: Imported Protein is only sold on rainy days, so this is the only chance we have to do it for a while.

timrodresized: Finally, we need to do one of Maruki’s godawful plot dumps.

Maruki: “I spotted a kitten that had gotten itself stuck up in a tree. I tried rescuing it since I felt bad for it, but I ended up with the clawing of a lifetime for the effort. I had no idea a cat’s claws were so sharp…”

Maruki: “Speaking from experience, eh? It really does hurt a lot. But I was able to rescue the kitten, so it was all still worthwhile. All I really have to do is make sure to put antibiotics on the scratches, anyway.”

: And that’s how you get MRSA.

Maruki: “Well, let’s move on and talk about a different kind of pain. We discussed this for a bit last time when we talked, actually: the pain felt within one’s heart.”

Maruki: “There are all sorts of ways to identify and diagnose physical injuries and illnesses. But when it comes to pains of the heart, we’re working in unknown territory. There’s so much we haven’t learned yet.”

Maruki: “Treating trauma sure is difficult when it’s invisible. If only we could somehow directly reduce emotional pain in a healthy way - like putting antibiotics on a scratch.”

timrodresized: It’s kind of wildly irresponsible that he’s a doctor of some sort and is recommending that.

Maruki: “Oh, how astute of you! As a matter of fact, you’re not too far off the mark. Unfortunate as it may be, there’s no topical medicine that can properly heal a heartache.”

Maruki: “Not only that, psychological issues are even more complex. Here, allow me to demonstrate.”

timrodresized: Good. When you finally drop dead, can you call Maki so we can do this confidant the right way?

Maruki: “…Sorry, that was a poor attempt at acting. Please don’t look at me like that. But uhhh, basically what I’m getting at is, our own emotional pain is the only kind we can fully comprehend.”

Maruki: “That seems obvious, right? But it’s absolutely vital to understand. A person’s ‘heart’ - their pain - cannot be seen.”

Maruki: “Even if they spent their whole lives expressing it to others… there is no way for them to truly grasp it. It’s not like we can directly look at their hearts and remove the root causes of their pain…”

timrodresized: I think what he’s trying to get at is a Jungian thing involving the idea that you can never see someone else’s Self except through the Persona, except they kind of threw Jung out the window after Persona 4.

Maruki: “But for me to do any good in that area, I need to conduct further research into the heart… more specifically, I need to learn how the heart reacts to the world around it.”

timrodresized: So okay get this, all you have to do is question your own sanity for several years until the magic jangly key man shows up in your dreams and reveals the true nature of reality.

Maruki: “That’s the first stepping stone to a breathrough in the field. Once that’s been figured out, we’ll not only comprehend psychological pains that were once unknowable… but we’ll be able to perform more effective treatment for those people with wounded hearts.”

timrodresized: I mean, it’s not like a machine that let you enter people’s hearts was half the plot of Persona 1 or anything.

Maruki: “It’s nothing so grandiose. But hey, if we can get rid of people’s pain, that’d be for the best, right? I’m no fan of pain, myself.”

Maruki: “On the other hand, people have laughed off my idea as just a silly, pointless dream… and I can’t say I blame them. But still, you take the time to listen to what I have to say, and you actually try to understand…”

Maruki: “Thanks to you, I can tell I’m actually getting somewhere with my theories. How can I phrase it… I guess I could say you’re making this hazy, hard-to-grasp idea finally appear before me?”

timrodresized: You mean like… gasp a Treasure?

Maruki: “You know, you could very well become a counselor yourself someday. Say, would you like to try being my assistant? Of course, I’m on a shoestring budget, so I wouldn’t be able to pay you!”

Maruki: “Ooh, surprisingly eager! Maybe you really WILL become a skilled counselor in the future! Joking aside, I truly am grateful for your assistance. Thank you, Kurusu-kun.”

timrodresized: No reward, just a rank up.

Maruki: “Let’s put a pin in that for today, shall we? I hope you’ll lend an ear again when you’ve got time to spare. Now! I know you’ve been waiting for this, so let’s get to the mental training.”

timrodresized: 5 extra max SP and a healing item, as usual.

Maruki: “Today got pretty one-sided… I just ended up rambling again. This keeps happening.”

timrodresized: Even the writers admit this confidant sucks.

Maruki: “I should’ve asked this sooner, but… is this leaving you with any mental fatigue? Is your schoolwork being affected?”

timrodresized: I’m struggling to get through this. This confidant event actually made me so tired I wound up permafucking right after it. And of course, I forgot to save.

Maruki: “Really? Thank goodness… I was worried. Not every guy wants a middle-aged weirdo rambling to them about a bunch of philosophical abstracts.”

Maruki: “I know it’s asking a lot, but it’d be great if we could keep- …what? Er, the station…? Sorry - I think this tourist needs help. I’d better go.”

timrodresized: Joker looks at this and immediately imagines having Yusuke rest his head on his shoulder while they’re both on the couch in his room watching a movie.

timrodresized: No I’m not. I did see someone livetweet a read-through of the YIIK LP though. I was funnier back then.

Justine: “Inmate, come to the entrance of the Velvet Room before we change our minds.”

Caroline: “That’s the door only we can see in your world! You’d better not go to the wrong place!”

Justine: “We’ll be waiting for you. We expect great haste and enthusiasm from you.”

timrodresized: And this is where I permafucked. There are confidant events with Caroline and Justine which don’t count toward their confidant - and we want to do them because they ARE confidant events - but I forgot to feed the fucking plant first.

timrodresized: Since the closest Velvet Room door is just outside the weapon shop, I stop and sell all the vendor trash from the museum. This brings us back up to around 560,000 yen.

Caroline: “You’re late! Next time we expect you in front of us within two seconds of our calling!”

Justine: “We’ve got some new duties lined up for you. To the point: there are a number of places in your reality’s society that may foster your rehabilitation. You will prove the value of these places to us - in person.”

Caroline: “We will select various locations that we suspect could be vital to your rehabilitation. Should you recognize a place that we mention, then you are to escort us there.”

timrodresized: Persona 3 and Persona 4 had this with the Velvet Room attendants, but Persona 5 did not. This was something that was added for Royal.

timrodresized: We need to do this because there is a scene much later (past where the base game ends) that you can only see if you have done all but two of these outings. I will point out the optional ones.

Justine: “Are those ears of your just for decoration? These are special assignments for the sake of your rehabilitation. Work just as hard at them as you do the rest of your duties.”

Justine: “We will await you in front of the door - like this - whenever a special assignment is available.”

Caroline: “Should you meet our expectations, we’ll scrape together some sort of reward for you - so no slacking off!”

timrodresized: I should mention that not doing these is NOT a permafuck as far as I know - you can still max every confidant and never do them, because the Strength confidant is totally separate from this.

timrodresized: It also takes time, so if you for some reason ever permafuck and save in such a way that you can’t re-do it, just skip these events.

Justine: “You are also required to continue working towards your rehabilitation to earn these assignments.”

Caroline: “We’re really going out of the way for you here - don’t tell us we never did anything special for you!”

Justine: “The first location we have chosen is… one that has grown quite popular lately. It’s purported to offer foods that simulate the feeling of being in space.”

Caroline: “The food is apparently massive enough to rival the size of the universe itself and resembles a mysterious spacecraft.”

Justine: “If this food exemplifies both the unknown and the vast nothingness of space, it is sure to stimulate the heart.”

Caroline: “Well? If you know where it is, then escort us there immediately! So, what’ll it be?”

Caroline: “Big Bang Burger? The name is fitting, I suppose.”

Justine: “We shall confirm the intel for ourselves. Lead the way.”

timrodresized: I had a lot of questions about this scene when I first saw it. Normally, no one can see Caroline and Justine - we’ve seen that everyone else sees Joker going to the Velvet Room as him just kind of going braindead for a few minutes.

timrodresized: But then you have the problem of why no one finds it strange that you have a high schooler hanging around with a couple of foreign-looking kids dressed in police cosplay.

Justine: “Is this the meal they boasted to be as immense as the cosmos? I’m quite disappointed.”

Caroline: “Hey, inmate - you don’t really expect some kind of reward out of this, do you?”

timrodresized: There’s also the question of why no one would find it weird that Joker is there with two kids and didn’t order anything for them, unless we’re dealing with some kind of selective invisibility.

timrodresized: Or maybe this is one of those things where Joker is actually 12 and only sees himself as a high-schooler, which would make the whole “got sent to probation for beating a guy up” thing far more amusing.

timrodresized: Now that I think about it, the entire Metal Gear franchise makes way more sense if you assume that all the characters are kids pretending to be super-spies.

Justine: “So, humanity intends to generate its own universes now, does it?”

timrodresized: So what you’re saying is that we’re becoming gods? There’s a new master of creation, and it’s us?

Caroline: “Oh, so they can get THAT large?”

Justine: “The Big Bang Challenge… what an intriguing concept. For the sake of your rehabilitation, you are to take this challenge. Of course, you will take the largest they offer.”

Caroline: “Any objections, inmate?”

Justine: “The last burger was downright insignificant by comparison…”

Caroline: “It’s bigger than the inmate’s entire stomach… perhaps the moniker implies that any diner’s stomach will suffer its own Big Bang?”

Justine: “This is your rehabilitation, not ours.”

Caroline: “We are here only to observe you - and don’t forget it!”

Justine: “I predict this challenge shall be a fairly difficult one… be that as it may, you must finish the food tower in its entirely. Failing to join the clean plate club is a grave offense…”

Justine: “But you’ve only just begun…”

timrodresized: I’m wondering now if this scene is different if you choose to do these later in the game when you have the social stats to handle the biggest burger.

timrodresized: That’s one thing I wanted to mention - these events aren’t time-locked, apart from two which are not necessary to get the final reward.

Justine: “You’re stopping?”

Caroline: “Who said you could stop!? No breaks! Work that jaw!”

Caroline: “Hmm, don’t his eyes look rather… dead to you?”

Justine: “Perhaps he is glimpsing the vast emptiness of outer space?”

Caroline: “Uh, hey… is he really all right? He’s not about to keel over, is he?”

Caroline: “I think he’s about to pass out.”

Justine: “…It appears this truly was too much for him to handle. Very well, let us pitch in.”

Caroline: “You’re hopeless, inmate! You’d better be grateful that we’re bailing you out of this!”

Caroline: “I have to say, you really held your own in there.”

Justine: "You almost didn’t make it through, but we’ll call this a success since your stomach didn’t burst. I must say though, I’m rather dissatisfied with this place’s usage of the moniker ‘Big Bang Burger’. "

Justine: “They certainly craft a meal of impressive size, but when compared to what the big bang generated, it’s not grand in the least. Do humans have some sort of compulsion for exaggerating the sizes of things?”

Caroline: “Good question. In fact, this challenge raises quite a few of them. You took the challenge for the sake of your rehabilitation, but who in their right mind would willingly consume that much food?”

timrodresized: This is very, very close to being one of the negotiation questions in Innocent Sin.

timrodresized: That was one thing I didn’t like about this game - the negotiation questions suck compared to Innocent Sin’s.

Justine: “How preposterous… the simple inmate speaks as if he’s an expert on humanity.”

Caroline: “Hey, Justine. Maybe we should take the challenge ourselves.”

Justine: “I just had the very same thought. If we were to thrust ourselves into this ordeal, perhaps we would discover some answers.”

timrodresized: Wait, wouldn’t she have seen them eating the giant burger? Are they actually selectively invisible? What the fuck is going on here?

Caroline: “…A spaceship?”

Caroline: “Wait! We didn’t ask for…”

Justine: “It’s too late now - let’s just settle for that today… I admit I’m intrigued by the diminuitive spaceship.”

Justine: “You seemed much more excited by the toy than the taste, anyway.”

Caroline: “Sh-shut up!”

Caroline: “I see. Well, they didn’t taste bad. But seriously, what are they!? I ate all of mine, you know!”

Justine: “Calm down, Caroline. We’re getting off track.”

Caroline: “Grr… well, at any rate, we’ve determined that hamburgers are incapable of conveying the majesty of space.”

Caroline: “While the toy spaceship helped to soften the blow, there’s no denying the truth. Now we will formally acknowledge the completion of your task.”

timrodresized: This makes it REALLY easy to finish their first confidant event - I could just compendium summon a Jack Frost and slap a Mabufu card on him. It’d be a waste since Jack Frost learns that move naturally and we could just fuse one to get it, but still.

Caroline: “You better work just as hard next time! We know about all sorts of locations that would aid your rehabilitation!”

Justine: “I’m still taken aback by the truth… your world is absolutely full of these ‘shop’ places. For a reasonable fee, nearly every desire can be fulfilled, all as if it were nothing.”

timrodresized: Yeah, except a consolized Naomi 2 where I don’t have to solder everything myself. Or the Pizza Burger which I can’t get anymore.

timrodresized: Speaking of shit you can’t get in stores, I managed to secure a PS5 for myself earlier this week. In case you’re reading this in the future, this is when it’s impossible to get one.

image

timrodresized: I didn’t resort to anything that dramatic, but I can confirm I am NOT migrating the LP to the PS5. We are doing this on original hardware the way it was at launch… plus I don’t want to update my PS4 so I can copy the save over.

Caroline: “That does sound interesting. I believe it may merit further research.”

timrodresized: I should point out that Big Bang Burger is like… two buildings down the street from the Velvet Room in Shibuya.

timrodresized: Well, that about does it for this update. Next time, I’ll go back and fix that unfortunate permafuck, we’ll babysit Caroline and Justine again, and then end right before the next big cutscene dump.

I’m pretty sure I did this exact substory in Yakuza Kiwami.

Since Sae’s asking all the leading questions maybe between scenes she’s slamming her fist on the table going “You’re a teenager! You must have been horny! What’s your type?! I want answers damnit!”

Click Here for Update 27

timrodresized: I did a second run through of the last update to fix that permafuck, and got some different armor this time on the clothes run.

timrodresized: You can also spot Makoto in Kichijoji, just uh… reading a book and staring at a wall.

timrodresized: Anyway, I make sure to water the fucking plant this time.

Hiruta: “He was someone who represented Japan. They probably trusted him based on his name alone. Indeed, we’re easily manipulated by the names we see.”

Hiruta: “However, this world is filled with fake names. For instance, this creature, which you know well. It’s called the red king crab, but it has a form that a crab should not have.”

timrodresized: I thought we all got over that in 2008 or so.

Hiruta: “Kurusu-kun, look at this picture.”

Hiruta: “Heh… not bad. That’s correct.”

Hiruta: “The direction the legs unfold is reversed too. Typically they face forward, but a red king’s do not.”

Hiruta: “Incidentally, the tomalley of a crab isn’t its brain, as some people say. It’s actually the crab’s liver and pancreas. As you can see, the world is full of deception.”

timrodresized: I had no idea what a tomalley was, but it’s basically exactly what he says. The term is more associated with lobsters than it is crabs in the west - it’s basically this squishy green stuff inside the lobster that people sometimes use in lobster bisque or consomme.

timrodresized:: The crab tomalley (better known as “crab fat”) is common in a lot of Asian dishes, usually in the form of a paste. It’s in a lot of Thai food.

Morgana: “I saw some kind of paste like that in the fridge at Leblanc… but it’s not often you see real crab meat.”

timrodresized:: This is also apparently true. What we call “imitation crabmeat” was first created in Japan in the late 1960s, as an iteration on a centuries-old recipe for “surimi”, a kind of paste made to imitate lobster or crab.

Morgana: “Hey, why don’t we get sushi for our next celebration?”

timrodresized:: I’m not sure if that last line is meant to insinuate that Shujin is a private school, or that they’re hoping to get a college scholarship.

timrodresized:: The “pics or it didn’t happen” is another 4chan reference - I’m sure it was used elsewhere, but I primarily saw it there years ago.

Makoto: “Well, no… he’s out today, but I will ask him tomorrow. Please wait on this for the time being…”

Makoto: “…My apologies for the confusion. Don’t worry. I’ll do something about all of this…”

timrodresized: Hoo boy was that a lot of cutscene. Today, we’re working at the convenience store. You might ask why, and it’s because it’s a “7” day so we get extra Charm points.

timrodresized: There’s also a Mementos request that only opens up after you’ve worked here three times.

timrodresized: So what he’s saying… is that we should just smile? Look into your eyes? See the colors inside? Feel the chemistry?

Morgana: “That’s the ‘Panda Bread’. The package is shaped like a panda.”

timrodresized: I’m pretty sure that was a thing in Shirokuma Cafe. Too bad about the manga artist killing it off over a contract dispute.

Morgana: “That’s the ‘Jumbo Vanilla Cup’. What a huge cup of ice cream.”

Morgana: “Let’s just focus on finding the barcode and quickly getting through the crowd! ‘Jumbo Vanilla Cup’, huh. Where’s the barcode again?”

Morgana: “There it is. Let’s scan it. The mascot has such a radiant smile.”

Morgana: “Alriiight! That was some perfect barcode slaying!”

timrodresized: And now we’re at Charm 3.

timrodresized: We have another outing with Caroline and Justine tonight, but first we’ve got a crossword. This one is probably more difficult in Japanese.

timrodresized: I uh… I think most people old enough to play this game probably know what a press conference is.

Justine: “Listen closely: the place we wish to evaluate for your rehabilitation is… one that many young people are said to visit. Here, one has the opportunity to view the fantasies of humans.”

timrodresized: Oh, you mean the PS5 waiting line. Does this mean you want to go camping, or would you rather try it digitally?

Caroline: “We hear there are a variety of fantasies available for perusal there - and all outside of a Palace! How strange.”

timrodresized: Fantasies like “I’ll be able to get one”, or in my case “They’ll surely make the 3080 widely available by 2024”.

Justine: “Yes. These fantasies… they are the cognitions of others given form. They will undoubtedly support your efforts. Does such a location sound familiar to you?”

Caroline: “Well? If you know where it is, then escort us there immediately!”

Caroline: “So, what’ll it be?”

Caroline: “The what? The ‘moving theater’!? Is this place cursed to wander the land or something!?”

timrodresized: Howl’s Moving Theater, the unauthorized sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle. In theaters 2022, produced by Fred, the Janitor Who Worked in the Building Where Ghibli Made Nausicaa.

Justine: “We shall confirm our intel for ourselves. Lead the way.”

timrodresized: This brings up a good question - what exactly happens to the Velvet Room attendants once the protagonist moves on?

timrodresized: Is this going to be one of those things where Igor comes up to Joker and is like “Uh, so I kind of need you to adopt a couple of little girls” because he’s spending all of Philemon’s money paying off the constant reconstruction costs for the Velvet Room?

timrodresized: Then the question is, could Joker fuck with Mementos to make gay marriage and adoption by gay couples legal in Japan? How does that even work?

timrodresized: I have so many questions, and I’ve played this game to completion.

Justine: “…It certainly was startling. The eyes and nose seemed to stretch out right at me… and it all began the moment I donned those black glasses.”

Justine: “What exactly were those that we wore?”

timrodresized: This is an updated version of another demon negotiation question from Innocent Sin. In IS, beast-type demons would ask you something like “HUMANS ALWAYAS STARE AT GLOW BOX IN HOUSE, WHAT GLOW BOX IS?” and you could answer “A TV”, “An Aquarium”, or an option that basically amounted to “Fuck Off”.

Caroline: “Oh, so there was some sort of trick to the glasses? But your own glasses are just normal ones, right?”

Caroline: “Your attention wasn’t wandering while we were caught up in the movie, was it? …Why is it that humans even create such large and elaborate fabrications in the first place, though?”

Caroline: “Isn’t the imagining of these things satisfying enough? Even dreaming seems like a superior pastime.”

Justine: “Why do humans go so far as to spend their money just to witness fictional events?”

Caroline: “What a naive notion. Humans are such simple-minded creatures.”

Justine: “Perhaps humans immerse themselves in imaginary worlds as a means of escaping reality?”

timrodresized: Yeah, except I’d never want to live in a Persona game. Seriously, the only protagonists to make it out okay (at least so far) are Jihei and Yu Narukami. We’ll find out how Joker does.

Caroline: “Escape, you say… that sounds rather human as well… you wouldn’t happen to be plotting an escape of your own, would you, inmate!?”

timrodresized: So what you’re saying is… we’re all trying to break free? Broken pieces scattered everywhere? That deep inside, we’re all the same? Every move, every thought? Overlapping shadows everywhere?

Justine: “No matter how much you might rail against it, you shall remain our inmate. Even the very thought of such a foolish endeavor is pointless for you.”

Justine: “Or could that line of thinking be yet another avenue of escaping reality?”

Caroline: “Hmph, what a pathetic fantasy! I’ll bet you were thinking of blasting away the cell door, weren’t you!?”

Justine: “Don’t even consider such crassness, Caroline. If he were to attempt such a blatant jailbreak, either our master or ourselves would notice immediately.”

Caroline: “Oh? And how would YOU do it, Justine?”

timrodresized: So let me get this straight. They don’t really understand movies, but Justine has seen The Shawshank Redemption.

Caroline: “Blowing open the cell door seems more impactful. They used that plan in one of the movie previews, correct? They wielded a bazooka and went about blowing everything up.”

timrodresized: There’s no way Caroline doesn’t have the entire run of Seinfeld on DVD somewhere, probably in one of the other cells that Joker can’t see into.

Justine: “Any recaptured escapee is executed on the spot. Freedom or death are the only options for an inmate on the lam. Suspense and excitement are necessary elements of any escape. Did you learn nothing from the movie, Caroline? Or were you simply enjoying yourself?”

Caroline: “Shut up! The inmate’ll settle this for us! Hey - tell us how you’d try to escape! Would you blast the door open or use a spoon?”

Caroline: “Ha! Did you hear that, Justine! It’s all about making the greatest impact!”

Justine: “Very well then. At any rate, he can’t escape us, regardless of what he does.”

timrodresized: What is this, Hades? I mean, I’m sure people wouldn’t mind seeing Joker as Zagreus and Yusuke as Thanatos… apart from the fact that Thanatos is already in Persona.

Caroline: “There’s no harm in allowing yourself to fantasize a little bit, every now and then.”

Justine: “Indeed, today we learned more about the power of human imagination. No wonder such vile Palaces plague humanity.”

timrodresized: The cards are nice, but we won’t really need them. The new character for Kaneshiro’s palace is entirely nuke damage, and psychic damage is easy enough to get later on.

Maruki: "I wouldn’t mind seeing that. I like talk shows… ooh, and variety shows! Wonder if they’ll talk about the Phantom Thieves. They certainly get plenty of attention on TV and the internet. Though I’m a little worried about what might happen if the media gets people too riled up…

Maruki: “Oh, that reminds me. Have you guys covered totalitarianism yet? It’s a government structure that unites its people under a single ideology and authoritarian control of the masses.”

Maruki: “In theory, it brings the people together under one ideal. That definitely comes with logistical benefits… but it also means forcing ideals on people. Assimilating the unwilling. And that’s how wars get started.”

timrodresized: Getting a little close to Innocent Sin there.

Maruki: “All right, Kurusu-kun. Here’s a question. Where does totalitarianism take things a step further than authoritarianism?”

timrodresized: This entire question is kind of a nitpick, because as far as I understand it the difference is largely academic. There aren’t too many situations where you have an authoritarian government that doesn’t turn into full-on totalitarianism.

timrodresized: The first option is wrong because the term “totalitarianism” is meant to cover situations where there is no single dictator - things like Myanmar where they were ruled by a military junta. The second one is wrong because even a democracy can do that.

Maruki: “Wow! I’m surprised you knew that. Yes, a totalitarian government tries to control the culture, morals, and even thoughts of its people. To minimize dissidence, they try to assimilate everyone into one ideology.”

Maruki: “To minimize dissidence, they try to assimilate everyone into one ideology. Even reading the room can be seen as a form of personal assimilation. You all do that too, right? I try to, though I’m not great at it.”

Maruki: “It’s not a bad skill to have. It can even help you survive the modern world. But you can’t do it too much. If you make an echo chamber, then the people whose opinions differ might get hurt.”

Maruki: “I’d like to remind you all to keep a strong sense of self and an open mind, so we can disagree and still live in harmony.”

timrodresized: What the fuck is this, an early-90s kids TV show?

Maruki: “…I guess class is over. That’s it for today.”

Morgana: “A strong sense of self, huh…?”

timrodresized: Honestly, I think this is one of the biggest weaknesses with this plot - how no one is questioning whether the principal or any other higher-ups knew anything.

timrodresized: If this kind of thing happened in the US (and it has) there would be an immediate outcry to find out what Kamoshida’s bosses knew and when they knew it, likely followed by a demand for arrests.

Kobayakawa: “It was all for your sake. I thought the more information you had, the easier your investigation would become. And? Did any information arise about the case I asked you to look into?”

Makoto: sigh “Nothing yet. I will pass the details along if anything comes up. Right now, there is a more pressing issue… it appears there are students at Shujin who are being threatened by a criminal organization.”

Makoto: “A student who saw your posting came to us looking for help. I’d like to request a countermeasure.”

Kobayakawa: “Isn’t this some sort of mistake? I can’t believe this would happen to the students of our academy. Now is no time for such problems. There is still lingering concern regarding the Phantom Thieves…”

Makoto: “But we received a request for help…”

Kobayakawa: “I-I’m rather busy at the moment. If you wish to do something, you will need to act on your own.”

timrodresized: You can see this being foreshadowed really early in the game, but I forgot to capture it - if you go to Shibuya, there will be guys who look like they’re yakuza asking Joker if he wants a part-time job.

timrodresized: And there we have it. Yakuza problem? No problem, just send a single high schooler. Makes perfect sense. How has this guy not lost his job yet?

Kobayakawa: “If you pursue this criminal issue, you’ll surely find clues about the Phantom Thieves!”

Makoto: “But that’s absurd…”

Kobayakawa: “So… let’s say this rumor is true. Do you intend to ignore those students in trouble?”

Makoto: “I…”

Kobayakawa: “Your sister would have solved this easily if she were in your position. My expectations of you are very high. I hope you don’t disappoint.”

timrodresized: Well yeah, her sister is a prosecutor who presumably would have some level of access to the police’s organized crime unit, who would probably have something to say about yakuza preying on kids.

timrodresized: Then again, this is a clown world so I bet it’s like Yakuza where the police are 100% in the pocket of the yakuza because magic or some shit.

timrodresized: Oh, right. One thing I should’ve pointed out earlier that I didn’t know about myself. If you hit the touch pad on the PS4 controller, it’ll bring up this “assist” menu. This is how you use the Thieves Guild thing to see what people did on a given day.

timrodresized: We’re not connected to the internet, but you can still use the confidant tracker, which will show you all available confidants for any given time period and warp you to them if you so choose.

timrodresized: I’m also not entirely positive, but I think using this method to visit Kasumi (who we’re going to be visiting today) bypasses the subway fee to visit Kichijoji.

Kasumi: “At this rate, you’ll have the fundamentals down in a heartbeat.”

Kasumi: “It’s all about the harmony between the internal and external oblique muscles… I can’t get enough of it!”

Kasumi: “Thank you for understanding. Do you remember how I said I wanted to talk to you about something? I’ve been feeling like… I’m stuck in this slump.”

Kasumi: “No matter how much I practice, I just can’t get any better. I went to my coach about it, but… she told me to take some time off from gymnastics. According to her, I need to think about who I really am.”

timrodresized: Is she Elly? Is she the female Persona 3 protagonist? Which one?

Kasumi: “The idea’s not to stop doing gymnastics, just… she wants me to take a break.”

Kasumi: “I’ve never had an issue that practice couldn’t solve. But now… I have no idea what to do. So… um… I want you to help me, Kurusu-senpai.”

Kasumi: “Even if we’re not doing gymnastics, will you still keep going out with me!?”

timrodresized: Note that we have to answer this for full points, even if you have no intention of dating her. I’m starting to think Atlus didn’t learn a damn thing after how Marie was received.

Kasumi: "R-Really!? Thank you so much! I’ve heard my coach praising me. She says ‘Kasumi’s greatest weapon has always been her boldness.’ "

timrodresized: I don’t know if I’d call chasing after a gay guy “boldness” but sure.

Kasumi: “And honestly, that used to be true. I was totally fearless, confident… gymnastics was a fun challenge. But ever since I started high school, I’ve been in a slump. I got taller, for one, and there were some other… complications.”

Kasumi: “I can’t move how I want anymore. Like it’s not even my own body. I kind of fell into a depression. It got pretty bad. But when you helped me in Shibuya, something occurred to me…”

Kasumi: “When I saw how fearless you are, how confident you are… I knew you were the right one for the job! If I stick with you, Senpai, I think I can learn to be confident again!”

Kasumi: “Great! Thank you! Hee hee. You’re a strange one, Senpai. I didn’t think you’d accept. Well, I’ll try and return the favor through our deal!”

timrodresized: There’s a tutorial prompt after this, but as far as I can tell, this ability just kind of eliminates all penalties for not being stealthy, apart from the security level increase.

timrodresized: What this does is turn any encounter where you would be ambushed by the enemy into either a normal encounter or an ambush in your favor.

Kasumi: “Oh, excuse me. I should get going. I have a meeting with my coach! I need to get going for today… but I’ll make sure you don’t regret this!”

timrodresized: Gotta love how she just repeated herself.

Kasumi: “Are you feeling sore after all that? You placed stress on muscles that you don’t use very often! Please remember to massage them out before you sleep.”

Kasumi: “But I’m so glad you accepted my request! I was so relieved, I suddenly got really hungry… and then my stomach wouldn’t stop growling in my meeting.”

Kasumi: “Hee hee… thank you very much. Though I don’t know that’s really worth any praise… an excessive diet tends to make most people feel sick, but it seems to have an opposite effect on me.”

Kasumi: “But since you’re helping me out, I’ll do whatever it takes to maintain my shape!”

timrodresized: Yeah, that sounds real healthy and not at all like some kind of eating disorder. Seriously, I think that’s how Atlus intended for you to take that.

Kasumi: “I hope you can help me next time, Senpai! I’ll be reaching out again soon. Well then, I’ll talk to you soon!”

timrodresized: Shout-out to that time I called out from a shit job I had to attend a 24-hour tabletop con and the local news put me on camera for like a full minute.

timrodresized: Unfortunately, tonight’s another Mishima night.

Mishima: “Info has started pouring into the Phan-Site too. I’m gonna be a busy bee! So, you did the request I asked you to do. Thanks!”

Mishima: “Hey, so I figured out another way I can help as your strategic image management representative. It’s a great deal for you, of course. Are you free today?”

Mishima: “Don’t worry about the price though! Come on, follow me!”

Mishima: “Phantom thieves are all about fancy stuff like this, right? That’s why we’re here! Oh, and it’s just the two of us, so don’t be afraid to go all out! What do you wanna eat?”

timrodresized: You just know they put that first option in there after that one comic about Persona 4, which they referenced in Golden as well.

timrodresized: I feel like of all the things Kamoshida did wrong, punching Mishima repeatedly was not one of them.

Mishima: “By the way, this place is all-you-can-eat, so let’s make sure we get our money’s worth. Anyway, I posted on the Phan-Site that I had connections to you guys. The Phandom really ate that up.”

Mishima: “Don’t worry though! I didn’t say anything that would point to my real identity!”

timrodresized: Seriously I’m imagining Kamoshida’s lawyer just going “Your honor, if I brought Yuuki Mishima into this room, neither you nor any of the jurors would be able to resist punching him”, and then they do it and with seconds there’s a line to beat the shit out of Mishima.

Mishima: “I did end up talking about how expensive it is to run our little organization though. The donations I got after that were pretty… generous, to say the least. But I guess our loving sponsors just wanted to show some support! Not bad for strategic management, huh?”

timrodresized: This is actually how Joker reacts to every single thing Mishima says, we just never see it except this one time.

Mishima: “What do you mean? Everyone was glad to donate if it meant supporting the Phantom Thieves. Oh, and it’s okay to consider this meal an organizational expense, right?”

Mishima: “…Wait a minute! I’ve seen on the news that using donations for stuff other than what’s publicized is a serious crime…”

timrodresized: It is, but only if you’re a politician and the funds are campaign funds. This is how a lot of charity scams continue to exist.

Mishima: “Food is definitely an acceptable business expense… but can the same be said of an expensive buffet? The more I think about this whole thing, the less I think we should use the donations here.”

timrodresized: That’s… a completely different thing altogether. Business expenses are a tax thing.

Mishima: “I mean, people would get mad at a politician for using tax money for personal affairs. The same probably applies to the Phantom Thieves. I guess returning the money would be the best choice…”

timrodresized: And that’s embezzlement.

Mishima: “Yeah. We really need to make sure we keep the image of the Phantom Thieves clean in our fans’ minds. I think I’ll return the money and thank the Phandom for their generosity. They’ll love that!”

timrodresized: Or think you’re a complete idiot.

Mishima: “It might be a waste of some nice resources, but it’s all good as long as it boosts our popularity, right? Man, maybe I was born to do this strategy stuff… I’m honestly getting pretty good at it.”

Mishima: “Don’t worry, I’m still gathering info on the forum too. I actually have a few solid leads right now. Everything so far has been close to home, but these next ones are gonna blow your socks off!”

timrodresized: Our reward? Nothing!

timrodresized: Joker has like $5,000 on him right now, not that he’d pay for Mishima.

Mishima: “I’m flat broke…”

Mishima: “As strategic image management rep for the Phantom Thieves, I wanted to splurge a little to boost morale, but… I guess it ended up being pretty good for our PR in the end, right?”

timrodresized: I wish there was a “Shut the fuck up, Mishima” option.

Mishima: “It’s all about thinking strategically!”

timrodresized: Only Maya gets to say that! Come back when you’re actually a likeable character!

Mishima: “There’s still so much I have to do for you guys. I’ll work even harder. I want to be a real asset to the Phantom Thieves! Okay, bye!”

timrodresized: Mishima strikes me as one of those people who works in an office and then is stunned, positively stunned, when he gets laid off.

Ann: “Could this get any more obvious?”

Ann: “Wow… he’s not even listening to what I said…”

timrodresized: That room in Groverhaus with the child-height window at the bottom of a stairwell is called the Defenestration Room, and you’ll never guess why.

Morgana: “Hey, how much longer does this go?”

Ryuji: “I swear, I’m not gonna last…”

Ryuji: “Hey, assho-”

timrodresized: I had a tripod fail on me in college once and I’ve never touched a video camera since then.

Ryuji: “Dammit… who does that jerk think he is?”

timrodresized: I get that people hitting on women is a problem in real life, but I feel like it’s kinda dialled up a bit far in this game.

Ann: “Uh… I’m on a school trip…”

timrodresized: Like, I just have a hard time believing that

Ann: “Uhhh, yeah…”

Ryuji: “Greatly welcome, my ass. It’s obvious what he’s after. Do these rotten adults care about anything other than looks!? I’ll yank their stupid hearts out, dammit!”

Morgana: “Will you quiet down!? You’re supposed to be acting like good students today!”

timrodresized: It’s probably obvious, but AD stands for Assistant Director. The ones on Game Center CX do everything from setting up second stations in case the console crashes, to making maps and guides for Arino, to sometimes playing the game for him to get him back to a spot if he dies and can’t continue. They also do video editing.

Ryuji: “Dammit… this sucks!”

Ryuji: “Aren’t we supposed to be guests? Why the hell do we hafta be doin’ manual labor!? This is bullshit! Goin’ to the bathroom didn’t even make me feel better!”

timrodresized: That last line is just… what?

Ann: “Quiet down, will you? I get how you feel though… that sucked for the both of us.”

Ryuji: “We gotta do more of this tomorrow too?”

timrodresized: You might. Joker’s going to be spending tomorrow giving the worst possible elevator pitch to everyone in earshot. Like Haruki Murakami, only for TV.

Morgana: “No flaking out, Ryuji.”

Ryuji: “I know, I know. I gotta be a ‘good boy,’ right? Bein’ phantom thieves ain’t easy.”

timrodresized: I seriously want to see a hack of this (once the PS4 gets actual custom firmware and people can do that) where they just remove Morgana from the game. Like that “Garfield Minus Garfield” thing.

Ann: “That reminds me, we get to go home straight from here today. We don’t spend much time in this area, so why don’t we relax and check out some shops beforehand?”

Ryuji: “Ohhh… you mean Dome Town? The round part is a baseball stadium, then along the outside they’ve got an amusement park.”

Ann: “It’s right in the middle of a business area, but they have some pretty hardcore rides there too.”

Morgana: “All right… let’s go! I’ll show you just how courageous I am!”

Ann: “Going on a scary ride doesn’t really prove any kind of courage.”

Ryuji: “Not like cats can get on anyways.”

Morgana: “Really?”

Ryuji: “Really. You might be able to sneak in if you stay in the bag, but you’d totally puke if you did that.”

timrodresized: He’s a cat. He’ll puke for any reason or no reason, especially on places it’d be hard to clean fully.

Morgana: “Uhh… I think I’ll pass on the puke rides.”

timrodresized: And now we finally meet Goro Akechi in person. As I’ve mentioned before, he’s sort of the character the BL crowd latched onto right away… which is funny when you realize which early Persona character he’s a direct ripoff of.

timrodresized: Not that anyone would realize that, of course. I didn’t even realize it at first because I hadn’t played the SEBEC route in P1 before I played the original release of P5 - if you’ll recall, I did Snow Queen and then dropped the game until I LPed it.

Ryuji: “Yeah, whaddya want?”

Akechi: “I happened to be passing by, so it seemed polite to greet you. We’ll be filming together, after all. Ah, where are my manners? My name is Goro Akechi.”

Ann: “Akechi?”

Ryuji: “Filming? What, you a celebrity?”

Akechi: “There’s a briefing for tomorrow’s recording that I have to attend.”

Akechi: “I missed lunch today, so I’m quite hungry myself…”

Ryuji: “Huh? Cake? What’re you talkin’ about?”

timrodresized: Wait a second. Morgana was the one talking about pancakes…

timrodresized: …and only people with a Persona can hear Morgana, because we know that Mishima can’t… I wonder what it could mean?

Ryuji: “This guy’s gotta be some kinda start-up entertainer or something. He’s never gonna get popular with that kinda hair though.”

Ann: “You don’t get it…”

Ryuji: “Eh, it’s fine. We’ll see him again tomorrow anyways. C’mon, let’s go to Dome Town!”

timrodresized: This background is more or less accurate to what Suidobashi looks like.

Morgana: “This is why I spoke against it.”

Ryuji: “Dude… it’s not fair… usin’ your cathood as an excuse… only at times like this…”

Ann: “Anyway, are you guys feeling hungry? How about some pancakes?”

timrodresized: Pancakes? Pancakes pancakes pancakes?

Morgana: “Let’s go home. We have another full day ahead of us tomorrow.”

timrodresized: Tonight, we’re going to Kichijoji and playing pool.

timrodresized: We’re doing this for three reasons. First is for the boost to technicals, which we unlock by doing this once. Second is because it gets you points to every party member confidant, which I believe includes Yusuke even though we haven’t started his (and the “More like Yusu-gay” route) yet.

timrodresized: It also gets us 3 points to a random social stat. Fortunately, the guide has planned ahead so you do NOT need to reload for a specific stat - I was going to reload if I got proficiency or guts (as they require the fewest points to max) but I wound up not doing that.

timrodresized: Also fuck off Morgana, no one under like, 80 uses that word.

Ryuji: “No kiddin’. He’s got the aura of a pro…!”

Ann: “Have you played somewhere before? You do seem to know some unexpected stuff…”

Morgana: “Oh c’mon! It’s that thing you’ve got in your hands! What was that about having the aura of a pro…”

Ryuji: “Heheh. I’m getting pumped now. Alright, let’s get started!”

timrodresized: Nothing gay about this at all, no sir. Completely straight.

timrodresized: Translation: It’s in the sports shop in the Shibuya Underground Mall. It and the pool cue we need to buy are a total of 51,500 yen.

timrodresized: Next time: Long cutscenes! Makoto being a bitch! Yusuke moves in with Joker!

You did, because there’s an entire series of substories in Kiwami called “Bump and Scam” where a group of scammers tries to extort Kiryu by claiming he bumped into them and then try to fight him when he refuses to pay.

So here’s the fun part. There’s an artbook for Persona 5, and at one point in pre-production they had it so that Joker was staying with Sae and Makoto instead of with Sojiro. I’m not entirely sure why they decided to change that - possibly because having the main character staying with a cop would be too similar to Persona 4.

On a side note, my PS5 got here and I immediately thought it reminded me of something. The PS5 is Thanatos Tower.

This honestly feels like a Deathnote situation where yeah, they could narrow it down to them; but ultimately they can’t PROVE anything.

Best I’ve got is that their suits and marching make them look like little solider mans. Also while looking for information I learned that there are some endangered species of penguins that are looked after by people with snipe rifles just, picking off predators when they get to close.

For the past seven years Canada has run a national dart tournament. My local team got runner up once! It helps improve beer sales by a lot because it’s something to do that is still very “lazy” for lack of a better term.

“Get your score down to zero” is the base rule set for Darts as like, a game, by the way. The fact that they’re going over this and then NOT having it be at least a minigame is… very strange.

The good news is the manga is back as of 2014, apparently. But yeah I don’t imagine we’ll get more of the anime…

We’ve actually got some answers for Elizabeth and Margaret. But I guess since they’re adults they can just leave to have adventures, whereas the twins are children and will need to live in the sea of souls for awhile longer…

EDIT: Oh hey the Persona 5 Dynasty Warriors game just got announced for a western release.

I don’t want to keep making fun of Kusumi being wrong about what kind of story she’s in, but if the game’s going to keep laying on this thick, what am I supposed to do?

Also are the eyepatches just for show? How do Caroline and Justine use 3D glasses?

Yeah, what’s even weirder is that there is a thing we’ll see later on that has an actual minigame in it - in fact it was one of the biggest sources of frustration for me in the base game even though I had no real reason to do it: in the base game’s 100% route you were basically doing it for a trophy and nothing more.

Yeah, I saw that. What surprised me is that they’re doing a Steam release without releasing P5 or Royal first, since I know there’s definitely a subset of people for whom Strikers will be their first exposure to Persona 5.

Strikers also has this weird continuity thing where it’s a sequel to Persona 5, but not to Royal, so I can see people playing Strikers and then being like “Wait, where the hell was Kasumi” when they eventually get around to playing Royal.

As far as I know, yes. However, these outings were something that was added for Royal, and the writers for Royal were different than the writers for the base game - Hashino had nothing to do with Royal, as an example.

There’s actually a couple of weird plot errors like that in Royal. When you first start calling Kawakami she tells you use to the public phone at Leblanc so that you don’t leave behind evidence in cell phone logs… yet she calls Joker on his cell phone (ostensibly from the maid service) every time they meet. My guess is that the writers for Royal didn’t have access to whatever continuity tracker the original writing team was using.

By the way, I forgot to post this, but I commissioned an Ann and Shiho piece off Roshela just because I could, honestly.

1 Like

Ah, so cute.

Also until you brought it up I hadn’t even considered the fact that Kawakami is calling us that way. It completely slipped my mind because those conversations have an extreme “doesn’t matter or exist” layer to them… welp. That’s clearly weird.

So, a small correction here. As it turns out, there IS a darts minigame that has its own upgrades and stuff - it’s apparently done entirely with the motion controls on the Dualshock 4… you just don’t actually play it the first time you do it. What’s strange is that there is no minigame for pool.

There’s… I think a few free days at the end of November, so I’ll probably try to fit some darts in then.

1 Like

Click Here for Update 28

timrodresized: It’s 6/10, and time for another long day of cutscenes and plot dumps.

Akechi: “Hello, everyone!”

Akechi: “Even I’ve found it to be quite a surprise. It is a bit embarrassing though…”

Akechi: “Ah, yes. That would be the scandal involving the master artist Madarame.”

Akechi: “If they truly are heroes of justice, I sincerely hope they exist.”

timrodresized: I don’t think there’s a cure for how much of a tool he is.

Akechi: “But hypothetically speaking, if these Phantom Thieves are real…”

timrodresized: I am very surprised no one has done a remake of this scene where it’s Joker being interviewed and he just goes “But hypothetically speaking, if these horny people are real… (cut in) I believe they should be sent to horny jail.”

Akechi: “What the artist Madarame did truly was an unforgivable crime. However, they are taking the law into their own hands by judging him. It is far from justice. More importantly, you should never forcefully change a person’s heart.”

Akechi: “I have to say though, I would be embarrassed if it turns out these Phantom Thieves don’t exist. If that were the case, I’d summarize it into a report as a school project.”

timrodresized: It’s weird to me that it took the writers this long to have a character put forth the idea that there are no Phantom Thieves and that they’re basically just a blackmail group.

Ryuji: “Of course they do!”

timrodresized: When I was recording for this update, I saw the sign and was like “Wait… that doesn’t make sense, it only says 17” but then I realized it’s probably a sample size of 50 people (it starts near 50) and it’s counting the number of people who responded positively - 17 is 34% of 50.

timrodresized: What’s funny is that they took the effort so this would make sense, but overlooked things like Kawakami calling Joker on his cell phone from the maid service after she told him specifically not to do that so it doesn’t leave evidence behind.

Akechi: “I’m a bit surprised. That’s higher than I was expecting. I’d love to hear some more detailed opinions on the Phantom Thieves’ actions.”

Akechi: “Hahaha.”

timrodresized: He says this even though we picked just about the weakest option there is. Also… did he just wink at Joker? He does realize no one wants to date a cop, right?

Akechi: “In that case, there’s one more question I’d like to ask… If someone close to you, for example, you friend next to you… if his heart suddenly changed… wouldn’t you think it was the work of the Phantom Thieves?”

timrodresized: I don’t really get what like… the angle is for people who are into the whole Joker/Akechi ship. I’m not gay myself, but like, why? He seems like he’d be the absolute dullest person to date.

Akechi: “The matter of how they change people’s hearts. If they honestly possess that ability… it could be used for more than extracting confessions. It could be that what seem to be ordinary crimes are actually being perpetrated by these methods…”

Akechi: “Oh, please don’t misunderstand. This is all purely hypothetical… it is only if people who can use such a power truly exist. Either way though, this cannot be ignored.”

Akechi: “The existence of the Phantom Thieves would be nothing but a threat to our everyday lives. To be honest, I’m already working alongside the police to help sort out this matter.”

Ryuji: “He made it sound like we’re the baddies. I don’t like it.”

Ann: “But that stuff about the police… do you think it’s for real?”

Morgana: “He can say whatever he wants. The justice of it all is something we can decide for ourselves.”

Ryuji: “Oh sorry, I gotta go take a leak. Can you guys wait here? I’ll be right back.”

Ann: “Oh my god… I’m gonna keep going, okay?”

Akechi: “To paraphrase Hegel, advancement cannot occur without both thesis and antithesis…”

timrodresized: Joker looks him right in the eyes and goes “I have a boyfriend, and I don’t date cops.”

Akechi: “Few people around me are so willing to speak their minds as freely as you did earlier. Adults are only interested in using the young, while they simply do as the adults say.”

Akechi: “There are too many irresponsible people in these modern times. I can understand why you’d support the Phantom Thieves. It’s possible that this group is just as you believe and they are truly acting with good intentions.”

Akechi: “Since they have special talents, I assume their hearts must be burning with a sense of justice and duty. But that justice is merely a facade concealing their lack of true strength.”

timrodresized: Oh god I know what this is. He’s trying to make Joker his “project”.

Akechi: “That’s why I believe, if a truly powerful opponent were to corner them, they would flee without a second thought.”

Akechi: “Oh…? You really are intriguing. I bet you’d make for a worthwhile debate partner on the subject. If it’s all right with you, would you continue sharing your thoughts with me?”

Akechi: “Thank you, that’s great news. I sense something in you that’s quite different from other people. I guess you can call it my detective’s intuition? Haha, kidding, of course.”

timrodresized: Unfortunately, we’re forced into a confidant with him.

timrodresized: I am very, very surprised that no one at any point has made a late-80s/early 90s cop movie called LA Justice.

Akechi: “…And, registered. Well, I hope to see you again sometime soon.”

Morgana: “A detective’s intuition, huh? We shouldn’t underestimate that. On the other hand, there’s an awful lot we could learn from him. If he contacts you, try hanging out with him.”

Ryuji: “I can’t stand that high an’ mighty attitude! Just breathin’ the same air as him makes me sick. C’mon, Akira. Let’s go.”

Morgana: “That detective Akechi seems to have a lot of influence on the media. It’d be dangerous to get too close to him, but he may actually prove useful in some situations.”

timrodresized: I got a notification that the Thieves Den updated, so I went and checked on it. Nothing much new, just more Morgana being horny for Ann even in Joker’s head.

timrodresized: Anyway, tonight we’re calling Kawakami again. Get ready for another confidant event…

timrodresized: While this seems like a permafuck, it’s not. Sometimes, and we’ll see this more frequently as we progress with some of the later non-party-member confidants, you simply have to spend time without getting a rank-up.

timrodresized: Royal cuts down significantly on this by adding the phone calls - though why they did that instead of just adding more points to the regular events, I don’t know.

timrodresized: In these cases, we get a generic scene like this.

Morgana: “Looks like people still don’t think we’re real…”

Ryuji: “Let’s see him do it, then! If someone else could help ‘em, we wouldn’t be doin’ stuff as the Phantom Thieves to start with!”

Ann: “You’re being way too loud.”

timrodresized: I kind of wish the game would stop beating me over the head with the fact that Ryuji isn’t exactly tight-lipped about the whole John Persona thing.

Ryuji: “Who cares? Everybody’s talkin’ about this stuff anyways. It’d just be more suspicious if we keep whispering.”

Ryuji: “Hey, you really just gonna keep eatin’ and eatin’ and eatin’ those things all by yourself!? Gimme some!”

Ann: “Sorry, just ate the last one.”

Morgana: “You guys are too laid back. The police are getting involved now, you know.”

Ann: “So you think it’s true? We’ll be okay if we keep doing this… right?”

Ryuji: “We can’t let the cops scare us outta bein’ phantom thieves.”

Ann: “But… what about that weird guy from Madarame’s Palace? Isn’t there a lot we don’t know?”

timrodresized: There’s an audible camera shutter sound.

Ryuji: “The hell!?”

Ryuji: “Are you snoopin’ on us again? We said before, we don’t know nothin’.”

Makoto: “Why do you think I’m here to question you? Could it be that you’re hiding something? My ears are always open to the troubles of my peers, you know.”

Ann: “You’re really that hungry for a good letter of recommendation? Of course you are. Nobody would take on your annoying job if they weren’t.”

timrodresized: It means you’re a badly-written character and only get as much screen time as you do because you’re Hashino’s favorite character.

timrodresized: Seriously though, it makes sense that Yusuke could be controlled as easily as he was by Madarame - if he didn’t comply, he’d be out on the streets.

timrodresized: With Makoto, there’s… I guess a vague threat of “I’m going to blacklist you from college” and “I’m going to end your sister’s career”, but she’s supposed to be “the smart girl” and you’d think she’d realize that these are basically empty threats.

Ann: “…You’re student council president, right? Wouldn’t you have known about Kamoshida?”

Makoto: “Of course not! He honestly was a good teacher until that day…”

timrodresized: Translation: She ABSOLUTELY knew.

Ann: “Oh, but you always take the teacher’s side. That’s what a good council president does, right?”

timrodresized: Keep in mind that Makoto is supposed to be the main love interest in the base game, when she’s doing shit like accusing a girl who was almost sexually assaulted in place of her friend of not doing enough.

Makoto: “There’s no need to shout.”

Ryuji: “If those Phantom Thieves are out there helpin’ people… I’d root for 'em, no questions asked. They’ve gotta be more dependable than some people I know.”

Makoto: “… Just make sure to show up to your classes, all right?”

Ann: “I’d be ashamed to let it end now…”

Ryuji: “Hell yeah. It’s about time we find our next target too.”

Yusuke: " ‘A criminal group with unknown goals that does whatever it wants in the name of justice.’ Huh…"

Ryuji: “It’s prolly 'cause of Akechi… TV’s got some crazy sway.”

Yusuke: “He’s free to deny our actions, but being cursed by his influence is another thing entirely.”

Ann: “Just when we were starting to get people to believe in us too…”

Ryuji: “All we gotta do is take down another hot shot, yeah?”

Yusuke: “… Well, do you have any ideas who this next ‘hot shot’ could be?”

Ryuji: “I ain’t got a thing yet… dammit, this is real irritatin’… by the way, what’s up with that luggage?”

Ryuji: “What’re you gonna do then? You can’t go back to that shack, right?”

Yusuke: “I was planning on staying at Takamaki-san’s - I mean, Ann’s house.”

timrodresized: I think we all know whose house he actually wants to stay at.

Yusuke: “I’ve even prepared a thank-you gift. I hope it’s to your parents’ liking.”

Ann: “WHAT!? There’s no way that’s gonna happen!”

timrodresized: Of course not. This is a carefully-crafted gambit.

Yusuke: “Impossible…”

Ryuji: “You’re the impossible one!”

Ann: “That’s not the issue here! Seriously though, what’re we gonna do with him?”

timrodresized: “Here” of course, meaning at Leblanc and not being a kind of shitty way of telling Yusuke to be homeless (which is what sleeping at a manga cafe would imply).

Morgana: “Well, seeing as Yusuke is an important member of our team… I’ll lend a hand! Come stay at our place! It’s dirty, but at least you’ll have somewhere to sleep!”

timrodresized: Morgana is doing this because he knows that Joker is now the anime dog-boy who finally caught the car and now has no idea what to do.

Ann: “Don’t you two live in a cafe? I’ve been wondering about that for a while. Yongen’s not too far, is it?”

Morgana: “Nope! And the cafe’s only a minute walk from the station!”

timrodresized: This should be “minute’s” and I’m amazed that this is only the second typo in almost 25 hours. Not like a certain other game I’m LPing.

Ann: “How about we go there now? We can have a party to celebrate Madarame’s change of heart!”

Ryuji: “Ooh, good idea! We can make it a welcome party for Yusuke too!”

Ann: “All right, it’s decided!”

Morgana: “It’ll be up to you to convince the chief.”

Ryuji: “This place looks so outdated… I can’t say I hate it though.”

Yusuke: “People refer to that as ‘retro’.”

Sojiro: “Hm? Who’re they?”

timrodresized: How long has it been since we’ve last spoken to Sojiro for any reason?

Ann: “Hello!”

Sojiro: “A girl too…?”

Ann: “Akira has really helped us a lot lately.”

Sojiro: “Heh, I bet you’re the ones doing all the helping.”

Ann: “No, really, he’s been great.”

Sojiro: “Huh… sit down. This round’ll be on the house. You’re helping though.”

Ann: “Oh yeah, I remember now! I think I’ve seen Leblanc mentioned in a magazine before…”

Sojiro: “That was a long time ago.”

Ryuji: “For real? Gimme a taste.”

Ryuji: “It’s so bitter! This has gotta be cruel and unusual punishment!”

Sojiro: “Eh, I didn’t drink coffee when I was a kid either.”

timrodresized: I still don’t drink coffee.

Sojiro: “These’re your friends, yeah? Go on and take them up to your room. No need to stay down here.”

Ann: “Ooh, I wanna see!”

Sojiro: “It’s only an attic.”

timrodresized: Joker looks Yusuke right in the eyes and says “Yes, an attic. The kind of attic that has no closets.”

Ryuji: “Man, that bitter taste just won’t leave my mouth…”

Yusuke: “Thank you very much for the drink.”

Ryuji: “Up these stairs? Oh, and thanks for the soda!”

Ann: “Ann. Ann Takamaki.”

Sojiro: “Ann-chan, huh… that’s a nice name. You got a boyfriend?”

timrodresized: The LP of the base game on the archive insists this is Sojiro being “creepy”, but it’s pretty clear he’s trying to determine if she’s dating (or will be dating) Joker.

Ann: “Nope. Never have, either.”

timrodresized: I think we all know at this point that the only romantic interest she has is Shiho.

Ryuji: "Hey, you gotta get up here! This place’s freakin’ insane!’

Sojiro: “Go on.”

Ann: “Oh, right! Thank you for the coffee!”

timrodresized: You know, I’m starting to realize that none of the writers (or probably the art people either) ever had a cat. That bag would be covered in cat hair, even on the outside.

Yusuke: “It seems quite ordinary to me.”

Ryuji: “For real?”

Ryuji: “See? Ain’t this crazy?”

Ann: “It’s cleaner than I thought it would be.”

Ryuji: “What!?”

Morgana: “Well, sit wherever you’d like.”

Yusuke: “Even those who previously believed in us have been influenced by the comments made on TV.”

Ryuji: “This is all that effin’ Akechi’s fault!”

Yusuke: “Keep it down. We don’t want anyone hearing us.”

Ann: “At this rate, we’re just going to worry everyone instead of give them courage…”

Morgana: “We need to find a way to make our rightfulness known to society. It’s time we think about our next move. You were planning on discussing that today, right?”

Yusuke: “Yes. First, we need to search for a candidate.”

Ryuji: “It’s not like we’re just gonna stumble upon some important target though. You guys don’t know anyone, do you?”

Ann: “I don’t…”

Yusuke: “Me neither…”

Ryuji: “Whaddya think, Leader?”

Ryuji: “I’ve been lookin’. There hasn’t been anything good out there lately though.”

Ann: “Plus, it’s not like anyone ever talks about the big targets on there.”

Ryuji: “Dammit… we’re never gonna prove Akechi wrong at this rate!”

timrodresized: Loud stomach groaning noises.

Ann: “And you spent all your money on that box of sweets!?”

Ryuji: “Dude, how much did you have?”

Ann: “Anyway, we’ll just have to sit tight until we can find another target. So… how about that welcome party?”

Ryuji: “Someone’s excited.”

Ann: “Can’t we make hot pot on it?”

Morgana: “That sounds great! I’ve heard that eating hot pot together brings people closer!”

timrodresized: Nah, that’d be chicken parm, the number one dish among couples.

Ryuji: “Anything with meat’s fine by me!”

Yusuke: “I only ask that we finish it off with porridge. Extra parsley, of course.”

Ann: “So, what do you say?”

timrodresized: Joker has to set his future boyfriend straight when it comes to post-hotpot dining.

Yusuke: “Whaaaat!?”

Ryuji: " ‘What’, my ass! You don’t have any cash! C’mon, let’s go buy ingredients."

Yusuke: “Well, I’ll need gingko nuts, wonton wrappers, and…”

Ann: “We’ll take care of the shopping. Could you borrow a pot from downstairs while we’re out? We can split the cost later.”

timrodresized: Somehow I forgot to capture Sojiro’s line here.

Sojiro: “As you should be. Food always tastes better with friends. Her name was Ann, right? She’s a nice girl.”

Sojiro: “She said your friend doesn’t have anywhere to go. Asked if I could take him in for a bit. I guess she thought it’d be too pitiful for you to ask, since you’re already freeloading.”

Sojiro: “Hmm… where did I put that pot? Try looking around.”

Sojiro: “Ah, you found it. It’s almost time for the others to get back from their shopping trip, so I’ll leave you be. I’ll be down here for a while though… just be careful with the fire, okay?”

timrodresized: This cutscene-within-a-cutscene replays the segment from the TV station that we’ve already seen, so I’m going to skip most of it.

timrodresized: It tastes bland because the last time Makoto used spices you spent hours interrogating her over who had taught her to use them.

Sae: “But I’m relieved. A lot’s happened, but it seems your grades haven’t dropped.”

Makoto: “School’s been going fine. I’m more worried about you, Sis. Are you tired? You’re probably lacking sodium.”

timrodresized: Oh, I’d say she’s plenty salty, all right.

Sae: “Do I seem so?”

Makoto: “…Is it a crime to manipulate someone’s heart?”

Sae: “…Depending on the means, yes. He’s absolutely right.”

Makoto: “Even if it makes someone admit their evil deeds and helps make them pay for their crimes?”

Sae: “Why the sudden interest?”

timrodresized: Who taught you to be interested in things!? You couldn’t have formed likes and dislikes on your own! Answer me, dammit!

Makoto: “It’s nothing…”

Sae: “Do you believe that these ‘allies of justice’ exist?”

Makoto: “…Of course not.”

Sae: “You don’t need to think about such unnecessary things. …You understand what I’m trying to say, right?”

timrodresized: That you’re a badly-written, gender-reversed clone of Katsuya in Eternal Punishment, only without any endearing personality traits and a tendency for asking stupid fucking questions?

Makoto: “Study hard and go to a prestigious college…”

Sae: “Moving up in the world is difficult as a woman. Yet, you can’t do much if you don’t have the authority. I’ll use every method necessary to make it happen.”

timrodresized: Like waterboarding.

Sae: “All you need to do is remain focused on what must be done for your future’s sake.”

Makoto: “…Sorry.”

Sae: “…Oh, that case.”

Makoto: “…What must be done… justice…”

Morgana: “That was delicious, Lady Ann. I’m sure you’ll make a wonderful bride some-”

timrodresized: I was going through the screenshots I took, and for some reason Ryuji just kind of falls over and clips his head through the work desk. He’s upright again in the next screenshot.

Morgana: “What’s wrong, Yusuke?”

Yusuke: “…We haven’t finished our meal. What about the porridge, or even udon?”

Ryuji: “Just leave it for next time, man…”

Morgana: “She’s asleep already!?”

Ryuji: “It’d be weird if she wasn’t tired. We should let her sleep.”

Yusuke: “By the way, Ryuji… how do you know Ann?”

Ryuji: “Huh? Oh, we went to middle school together.”

Morgana: “What was Lady Ann like back then?”

timrodresized: She was gay. Very, very gay.

Ryuji: “Not so different from now. Once we got to high school, we ended up in different classes and stopped talkin’. I don’t think she had many friends.”

timrodresized: So… she’s Lisa Silverman?

Yusuke: “I see… so, what about you two?”

Ryuji: “Us?”

Yusuke: “You know every detail of my past at this point. It’s only fair you tell me every detail of yours.”

Ryuji: “So you got nothin’ to lose, huh? All right, I’ll tell you. It’s just a normal story about a rotten kid though. My dad left when I was young… ever since then it’s just been me and my mom.”

Ryuji: “I was actually tryin’ to get a track scholarship so I could make things easier for her. In the end, I just screwed it all up. Turns out I’m a pretty bad son, huh?”

Ryuji: “Back when I was a first-year, my mom got called out to school for me raisin’ my hand at Kamoshida. All the teachers kept houndin’ her for what I did, but she just stayed quiet through it all…”

Yusuke: “So that’s what happened… they say at school that everyone is equal, but in reality that’s a gross oversimplification… I understand how you feel.”

Ryuji: “Well, when it comes to gettin’ labeled, nobody’s got it worse than Akira.”

Yusuke: “Is this about his past?”

Morgana: “Now that I think about it, we never have heard the details.”

timrodresized: This guy’s basically a Yakuza villain.

timrodresized: I don’t like that they basically retcon the entire thing from Joker pushing this guy to it actually being that he just kinda fell over.

timrodresized: Here’s my real problem with this scene though. In things like the Yakuza games, this kind of thing works because Yakuza takes place in a fantasy world where every single cop is receiving millions of yen a day from the yakuza.

timrodresized: That this entire scene is kind of badly written?

Ryuji: “Goddammit! You got an assault on your record just for that?”

Yusuke: “The woman sounds quite horrible as well. She’s stayed quiet this whole time…”

timrodresized: He’s a blatant ripoff of a character from Eternal Punishment, so probably wherever Satomi Tadashi left the script for EP.

Morgana: “You can’t remember, huh? Well, it was at night, and I’m sure you were in shock after getting arrested. I understand all too well the pain of not being able to remember important details of your life.”

Yusuke: “The victim’s personal information is always kept secret. Identifying that man will prove difficult… besides, the courts already made their ruling, didn’t they?”

Yusuke: “Even if we manage to get revenge, Akira’s past record won’t go away.”

timrodresized: Seriously I want to know who was in charge of doing animation for Ryuji for this cutscene. Did they accidentally mocap a piece of spaghetti or something?

timrodresized: I’m just imagining a mocap tech bursting into an office somewhere. “Shit! Boss! I accidentally mocapped spaghetti!” “Again?”

Morgana: “And those in power don’t do anything to help the situation.”

Yusuke: “Can’t we fix this though? Nobody would even know… we just need to show the world what true justice is. We’ll make them come to their senses.”

Ryuji: “You’re right, Yusuke! That’s gotta be what our powers’re for!”

timrodresized: Someday, I want to make an RPG with a status effect just called “spaghetti” where it replaces the mocap feed with one taken from a pile of spaghetti being dropped on a plate.

Morgana: “Sounds good to me. The flashier our missions are, the cooler we end up looking!”

Yusuke: “You’ve all taught me so much.”

Ryuji: “Oh, sorry… did we wake you up?”

Ann: “Nah, not really. I’ve been up for a while now.”

timrodresized: I swear that Lisa says this exact line in Innocent Sin at one point… and she kinda does, except she’s talking about Maya. It’s in Update 3 of the Innocent Sin LP - I’m not going to copy it here because this update is long enough as-is.

Ann: “Do you think it’s because our backgrounds are so similar?”

Ryuji: “Well, it sure ain’t 'cause of anything good.”

Morgana: “Similar, huh… I’m the only one who doesn’t fit in…”

Ryuji: “Hm?”

Morgana: “I don’t have a past to look back on… no memories…”

Ryuji: “Whaddya mean? We could search the whole world and we wouldn’t find a bigger misfit than you. And the reason we’re goin’ to Mementos is to get your memories back, right?”

Yusuke: “I’m sure your past will be just as troubled as ours.”

Ryuji: “No doubt.”

Morgana: “Hmph, we’ll see about that!”

timrodresized: Yeah, I remember when he was a bear and also named Teddie.

Morgana: “Look, I’m helping you guys out for my own sake. Don’t get me wrong! If you don’t get stronger, investigating Mementos won’t be anything but a pipe dream!”

Ryuji: “That sure was a quick turnaround. One second you’re depressed, the next you’re actin’ all tough…”

Ann: “All joking aside… let’s take this seriously. We should go as far with it as we can… I want to punish those corrupt adults and give courage to people in trouble… only we can do that!”

Ryuji: “Ha! You can say that again!”

Yusuke: “Being a member of the Phantom Thieves will surely help me grow, both as an artist and as a person.”

Morgana: “Of course. You’re under my tutelage, after all. There’s nothing we can’t accomplish!”

Ann: “Well… I hope we can keep this up. We should be all right with you as our leader.”

timrodresized: This is easily the longest day we’ve had in a long time, and while we’re close to it being over… not quite.

Ann: “Oh, that reminds me! The owner said you’re free to crash here, Yusuke.”

Ryuji: “That’s… very kind of him.”

Ryuji: “You convinced him, didn’t you? You go, Miss Older-Dude-Charmer!”

Ann: “What kind of nickname is that!?”

Yusuke: “Hm, I won’t be able to sleep unless I take a bath…”

Morgana: “There’s a bathhouse nearby, so you can go there. I won’t be able to join you though.”

timrodresized: If there’s no shower at Leblanc, does this mean Joker has to use the bathhouse to bathe? That just seems… I dunno, inconvenient.

Ryuji: “Ooh, that sounds great! I wanna come too! How 'bout you, Ann?”

Ann: “You guys go on ahead. I should get going. Well, good night, Morgana!”

timrodresized: No, don’t…

timrodresized: Encourage him. Dammit.

timrodresized: The old guy in the background just continually cranks the hot water, to the point where the valve should’ve broken before this conversation is over.

Yusuke: “It’s a bit hot though…”

Ryuji: “Old guys like it hot, for some reason… I’m sure he’ll stop eventually. You know, I’ve been wonderin’ for a while now… but what do you think about Ann? As a girl, I mean.”

timrodresized: Noncommittal gay response.

Ryuji: “No, that’s not what I meant… c’mon, can’t you act a little more like a guy our age? Doesn’t she at least look better than a celebrity?”

Ryuji: “Please don’t. Seriously…”

Yusuke: “That aside, we need to hurry and find our next target.”

timrodresized: How many times have they repeated this exact fucking line in just this cutscene alone? WE KNOW ALREADY! FUCK!

Ryuji: “About that though… is targetin’ famous people enough? Seein’ people’s reactions these days has been makin’ me think twice about what we do…”

Yusuke: “…True. Pursuing only what’s best in the short term may end up becoming fruitless for us. We need a strategy to appeal to the public…”

timrodresized: One problem I have with the characters in this game is there’s a lot of moments where they stop feeling like actual people, and this is one of them.

Ryuji: “Oh? Whaddya got in mind?”

Yusuke: “Do I look like someone who could come up with such a thing?”

Ryuji: “Hmm… Hmm… Still…”

Ryuji: “…Ughhhhh! It’s frickin’ hot!”

Ryuji: “…I can’t stand it anymore! Anyways, let’s meet up again early next week. I’ll contact everyone!”

timrodresized: We can’t do anything tonight, since it’s an all-day cutscene.

timrodresized: Apart from listen to Morgana be horny for Ann.

timrodresized: Next time: more confidants. More overly-long cutscenes. More of me wondering if this is a game or a movie.

Oh, right.

I pre-ordered a copy of P5 Scramble as soon as I could. I probably should’ve done this on PS4 instead as there are some minor save extras - namely you get the original version of Last Surprise and Take Over for having P5 and P5 Royal save data… except for all I know, they’re going to force a PS4 update to play it and I’m not updating my PS4.

This was absolutely a mistake, as the game is being released at a full $60 price point and is just as much of a cash-grab as Royal is.

I will be streaming this on launch day, and will likely stream my way through it, since it’s a Musou/RPG and would probably make for a bad LP.

Wait what? Do they actually make it so the dude just tripped over his own feet and fell on his own? I hope none of the fangirls after John Persona’s mysterious bad boy past learn about it.

Wonder how much art Yusuke will get done now in the same room as John Persona and Morgana watching bootleg dubs of American movies and shows.

Yeah, they do. It’s one of those things I’m not sure how I feel about. I kind of liked the idea of Joker hitting him, and it feels a little over the top that they really needed to make it so that Joker was completely blameless.

Aah, Justice. La Justice. A card representing Right and Good and Law and all that fun stuff, which perfectly fits Goro from what it seems. We don’t know much about him just yet, but I have a feeling this fits him quite well; our Zenigata, our Javert, our foolish cop who truly believes he is on the side of Justice Itself. Fitting for us to have a confidant that represents the right side winning… or the bias and corruption of the law if reversed.

Art wise, I feel like I don’t need to say much. Beyond the Shadow eyes, Justice’s scale is literally weighed down by money overpowering the heart. Like what the fuck else do I need to say? That’s kinda blatant!

Eeh, I’m not sure how empty the threat of “I will personally tell the college of your choice not to accept you” actually is. Like that feels like a reasonable thing that could happen.

I don’t think that is what they are getting at here. This is Joker saying that he “tripped and fell down the stairs” after beating the shit out of a guy. If he’s gonna lie about what happened, he will too.

The scene later makes it clear he didn’t do anything which… yeah, sucks, a lot, especially since the initial framing made it seem like something WAY worse than an “argument” was happening, and Joker was doing the right thing. It’s an example of this game de-fanging itself at every opportunity, which sucks!

What exactly do you quantify as cash-grab? I don’t know all the deets on this game but from what I’ve heard it’s pretty good.

It’s not that the game is bad - it’s more the fact that they’re still selling it for $60 even though it’s been out in Japan for a full year, is for last-gen consoles (no PS5 release) and we’re only getting it after it’s been thoroughly spoiled by Japanese streamers. It’s the same kind of BS Nintendo has been pulling for years.

1 Like

Click Here for Update 29

timrodresized: On the night of 06/11, we get another Igor cutscene. These are basically just glorified “Hey you got a new ability” scenes. Incidentally, this is more or less exactly how I felt after that last update.

Igor: “In other words, they all have been unfairly labeled by society and are standing up against such fates.”

timrodresized: To the point where almost every character in this game has an identical backstory.

Igor: “Have you noticed? They seem to have influenced you.”

timrodresized: I suppose we can now put Igor into the “Like Sonic” category of Sega characters. As opposed to the “Unlike Sonic/Doesn’t Chuckle” category.

timrodresized: “Picaresque”, by the way, refers to a Spanish literary genre that’s apparently about showing the lives of common people through the daily adventures of a roguish hero.

timrodresized: Atlus misuses this word a lot in that the DLC that adds the older primary party member Personas adds “Picaro” after their name for no apparent reason - “Orpheus Picaro”, “Izanagi Picaro”, etc.

Igor: “Those will become the strength behind your rehabilitation… I look forward to it. I shall grant you an ability befitting of your newfound growth. Consider it a gift. May you continue devoting yourself to further rehabilitation.”

timrodresized: The reason I didn’t just skip right to the new ability (which will make it much easier to keep all the Personas around we’ll need for confidants) is that there’s a lot of “nothing” dialogue like this in the game.

timrodresized: This is one of the reasons I got turned off to the plot when I played the base game. Sega as a whole has a lot of problems with this: the Yakuza games do the same thing.

Akechi: “May I talk to you for a moment?”

Makoto: “Is it about the Phantom Thieves… Akechi-kun?”

Akechi: “…You’re quite perceptive. I was wondering if there were any points in common between Kamoshida and Madarame’s cases. There have been victims, after all. The Phantom Thieves need to be pursued.”

timrodresized: Okay, Hashino? We ALREADY FUCKING KNOW THIS! There was a giant fucking cutscene two days ago! We don’t need to hear more about it, especially when it does nothing to advance the plot!

Makoto: “You criticize the Phantom Thieves, yet you don’t doubt their actual existence.”

Akechi: “Oh, you saw that show on TV.”

timrodresized: Yes, TWICE in fact! TWICE! Shut the fuck up already and let’s get to actual fucking gameplay!

Akechi: “Common sense can get in the way at times when pursuing the truth. Many details become logical if I think on the premise that they do exist.”

Makoto: “Is this… because my sister told you to do so?”

Akechi: “It was just a coincidence.”

timrodresized: The worst part is, this is basically one of the Adachi cutscenes in Persona 4, and it’s pretty clear they’re going for the “assistant cop as adversary” thing again, because Hashino is a hack.

Makoto: “Why do I get the feeling that you’re enjoying this?”

Akechi: “…You may be right.”

Makoto: “Huh?”

Makoto: “You have such high self-esteem. So the Phantom Thieves are evil, and you are just?”

Akechi: “Compared to people who manipulate others’ hearts as they see fit, I believe I’m on the side of justice.”

timrodresized: There’s a line from Psycho Killer by The Talking Heads that goes: “You’re talking a lot, but you’re not saying anything / When I have nothing to say, my lips are sealed / Say something once? Why say it again?

timrodresized: What I’m saying is that someone should’ve written that on a whiteboard in the writing room for this game, and then tasered anyone who repeats dialogue like this.

timrodresized: Someone also should have done that for the Allansons, except instead of the taser going off every time they repeat dialogue, it’s just constantly going off. All the time.

Akechi: “Besides, I’m only using my natural-born talents for the sake of serving the world. Don’t you think the same about yourself too?”

Akechi: “…Looks like it’s starting soon. See you later. Give Sae-san my regards.”

Sojiro: “You could stay here until you find a place, you know. I can’t promise it’d be comfortable here though.”

Yusuke: “Thank you, but I’ll return to the dorms. I realized something after talking with everyone last night. Perhaps it’s due to my upbringing, but I don’t know anything of the world, let alone other people.”

Yusuke: “If I’m to depict people in my art, I need to learn more about them; I must interact with them more.”

Yusuke: “I’ll return to the dorms… and start over by talking with the people closest to me.”

timrodresized: So what you’re saying is… you always kept it safe inside, where no one ever had a chance to penetrate or break in? That some have tried, but you slammed the (closet) door so tight that they could never get in? That you kept a chain upon your door that would shake the shame of gay into a blind submission?

timrodresized: And now you’re gonna give it all you got, start to knock, shout for Joker to open the lock? Just gotta knock a little harder, break through the door?

Sojiro: “I see. Good on you for realizing that yourself.”

Yusuke: “There’s no need to exaggerate. May I come again sometime to enjoy your coffee?”

Sojiro: “My doors are always open.”

Yusuke: “Akira’s been through a lot too, from what I’ve heard… are you related to him?”

Sojiro: “Huh? Oh… how would I describe it… we’re just acquaintances. Not family or anything.”

Yusuke: “I may be overstepping my bounds, but why did you decide to take him in?”

Sojiro: “My reason, huh… probably because… he reminds me of my old self.”

Yusuke: “That’s all?”

Sojiro: “Your art instructor - um, ‘former’ art instructor… he must’ve felt something for you too, besides just stealing your talents.”

Yusuke: “Truth be told… I cannot hate him from the depths of my heart either. I should probably get going…”

Yusuke: “Even if I kept it at the dorms, it’d only be met with skepticism. I doubt it would want that. Adding a hint of color to an otherwise ordinary day… I’m sure my mother would’ve done the same.”

timrodresized: I hate that we had to suffer through a shitload of nothing dialogue to get to actual plot/character development.

Sojiro: “…I see. I’ll hold on to it for you then.”

Yusuke: “Thank you for the coffee.”

timrodresized: Inside, Joker is disappointed, yet relieved that he no longer has to deal with the metaphorical car.

Sojiro: “That kid ended up going back to his dorms.”

Sojiro: “And this painting is amazing. Not only is the mother stunning, but the expression on her face… the regulars will probably freak out when they see it in here.”

Sojiro: “Still… I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere. It’s a bit different from how I remember it, though… well, if you’re up for the day, go on and get dressed. I opened shop hours ago, so go take the cat out somewhere.”

Morgana: “So, Yusuke went home, huh? Oh well, I guess that’s best.”

timrodresized: This Mementos request unlocks from working at the convenience store three times.

timrodresized: And as if that wasn’t already enough incoming IMs, there’s even more.

Morgana: “Plus it would be bad if the chief knew you were out in the middle of the night.”

Morgana: “There’s no way… who would go after a shop like this?”

timrodresized: Well, that’s over.

timrodresized: Can’t forget to grip and sip.

timrodresized: We also need to head to the sports store in the Underground Mall and buy some stuff for pool.

timrodresized: The first is the “Expert Billiards” book, and the second is the Jump Cue. This totals 51,500 yen of expenditures, and is why we grinded so much money in Madarame’s dungeon.

timrodresized: Ann’s confidant has this weird thing I kind of forgot about where a lot of it is about her visiting Shiho in the hospital… which can still happen like, six or seven months into the game.

Ann: “Oh, but I probably can’t take a crepe into the hospital, huh…”

timrodresized: Fun story about this, my grandfather had to go to the hospital once (nothing major) and he filled his pockets with pound cake so he’d have something to eat after he woke up from the procedure. I figure if you can smuggle in two pockets full of pound cake you can probably smuggle in a crepe.

Ann: “I… really want one though… do you think maybe Shiho would want one too?”

Ann: “R-right… it might be half off, but I should try to control myself… Shiho might have rehab today too. They probably wouldn’t even let her eat it.”

Ann: “Oh yeah, I forgot to mention - Shiho started her physical rehab. She pushed it up ahead of schedule. I think it’s because I told her about how I want to get stronger.”

Ann: “She said she was gonna start working hard too… I haven’t actually seen any of her rehab sessions yet though…”

Ann: “Uhhh, that’s not good!”

Ann: “Sorry, something just came up! That was from my agency. One of the models didn’t show for a magazine shoot they’re doing. They’re looking to wrap up soon, so I’m gonna head over now to fill in.”

Ann: “…It’s pretty close though. Wanna come with? Actually, let’s just go! I’ll race you there!”

timrodresized: Joker can never attend a photoshoot for fear that he’ll end up on the cover of a magazine and become a teen heart-throb.

Mika: “After I saw you in last year’s show, I just… sniff… Oh, I think I’m gonna cry…”

Ann: “U-Um… it really wasn’t a big deal. That fashion show was tiny…”

Mika: “By the way, I’m Mika. And please, no honorifics. I might be older, but you have loads more experience, Ann-senpai.”

Ann: “All right, M-Mika… haha, it feels a little weird saying it like that…”

Ann: “Oh, and you don’t need to use ‘senpai’ with me. A-Anyway, uh… it’s nice to meet you?”

Mika: “Likewise, Ann-chan. giggle You’re so nice. Hey, can you teach me how to be a better model? You know, your everyday routines, stretches…”

Ann: “Routines? You mean like… singing in the shower…?”

Mika: “O-oh, is that all you do? Then, what kinda stuff do you eat? I’ve been looking all over for a place to import some organic green almonds… plus I’m getting suuuper tired of eating quinoa. Do I need to like, boil it in hard water or something?”

timrodresized: Gotta activate the almonds.

Ann: “Um, almonds? I only ever eat those when they’re covered in chocolate… and hard water? Isn’t it kinda tough to boil ice?”

Mika: “… Do you weigh yourself?”

Ann: “Oh, of course! Once a year for the health examinations at school.”

timrodresized: She’s made of a substance more dense than a black hole.

Mika: “So… you’re gonna keep it all a secret from me, huh?”

Ann: “Th-That’s not it! I just don’t really think about that stuff…! It has nothing to do with not trusting you. It’s more that modeling is a hobby for me.”

timrodresized: Has anyone seen Yuriko since Persona 1? Do we know that she actually died (again) in Thanatos Tower and didn’t escape somehow?

Ann: “W-Wait, I…”

Mika: “I love this magazine! Everyone tries so hard to make sure their product is the best…!”

Mika: “But… you guys work so much harder than me… and I’m still the one getting comforted… sniff

Ann: “H-Hold on…”

Ann: “H-Hey, I didn’t…”

Mika: “Don’t worry. I… I can do it alone! I read the concept docs on my way here… sniff

Mika: “Y-You’re so mean, Ann-chan! Do you really hate me that much!?”

timrodresized: So wait, they really think Ann showed up to a photo shoot just to… not do it? Who even does that?

Ann: “But…”

Ann: “Yeah… but maybe it’s because deep down, I’m not actually that invested in modeling… she sees straight through that.”

Ann: “Anyway, I totally ruined the shoot… but still, wasn’t Mika’s fake crying pretty incredible?”

Ann: “Oh, maybe that’s what I’m missing…! I-I dunno though, I think I’m pretty good at fake crying myself. I know the perfect technique.”

Ann: “Either way, I think I’ll be able to use that ability to our advantage in the Metaverse! I’ll turn my failure today into positive energy going forward!”

timrodresized: This is easily THE most useless ability in the game. In order for this to ever come up, you’d have to be in a very specific situation, where:

  • 1: You got ambushed by an enemy and Kasumi’s ability to turn ambushes into not-ambushes doesn’t trigger.

  • 2: An enemy managed to use a weakness attack before you do and uses that to take someone hostage.

  • 3: You aren’t connected to the internet and can’t just use the Thieves Guild “automatically un-hostage me” button which works every single time, up to 3 times per dungeon visit.

  • 4: You’re willing to give up money instead of just letting the enemy kill your party member and reviving them, which doesn’t cost money.

timrodresized: Considering the last time this happened was in Kamoshida’s dungeon before I got the ability to use stealth… yeah, no this isn’t ever going to happen again unless there’s some scripted shit in the stuff Royal added in.

Ann: “Speaking of the Metaverse… I’m gonna try super hard in my work with the Phantom Thieves too! But for now, I should go stop by and see Shiho at the hospital. Thanks for today! Bye!”

timrodresized: Before we go on with our evening plans, we can stop and talk to this guy in the back alley in Kichijoji.

timrodresized: This guy’s name is Sakai, and he’s basically Snuggly the Crow (from Dark Souls 1) in human form.

timrodresized: On certain calendar dates, Sakai will show up here and offer to trade items. Usually, he wants stuff that’s only available to buy on certain days - like the imported protein we picked up a few days ago.

timrodresized: I should mention that most of his trades are kinda pointless… except for one which is a near-requirement for 100% and would more or less be a permafuck if you don’t get it. I will point out which one that is when we get to it.

timrodresized: The Decorative Whip is surprisingly strong for this point in the game, even though by the next dungeon we’re never going to be using physical attacks or guns again, unless something is weak to one of those.

timrodresized: Oh christ that’s disgusting.

timrodresized: I’m not sure which is worse, this or the reindeer in The Snow Queen.

timrodresized: Tonight, we’re doing Yoshida again. We have a very good reason to do this before the third dungeon - you’ll see why.

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “To make your decisions based simply on loss and gain is to act like a heartless machine. The reason so few people care about their fellow man is because so few have the energy to do so.”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “We politicians have fallen short of our goal to change society. We need your support more than ever!”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “Again, what I’d like to say is-”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “You made a great comeback, though. You’re truly an inspiration.”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “Oh, there’s no need for false praise to impress the boy here.”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “…And what might that mean?”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “Without honesty and good arguments, there can be no political justice!”

timrodresized: This is like the time I met Ralph Nader and all I wanted to do was get out of the room as quickly as possible. He’s not a bad guy, just… yeah.

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “I intend to teach him everything I know. That’s what we agreed on.”

timrodresized: Yes. Since we still can’t effectively confusion-farm for money, this ability is a godsend. From what I remember of my base game run, this ability was how I was able to afford Tae’s accessories.

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “We’re still not on speaking terms.”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “Very well.”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “Why did he have to mention that? Ah, my apologies. That’s all for today. Good job…”

timrodresized: Oh boy, more nothing dialog.

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “What a mess… past mistakes can really come back to bite you. It’s hard to feel like you’ve ever truly escaped them. Some people can fight their way back up, like Matsushita… but many end up suffering under the weight of labels.”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “Even after twenty years, I’m still nothing more than No-Good Tora… but I will not give up! It’s true that I lost a lot, but… I did learn a great many things along the way.”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “Somewhere in the middle of it all, my old stubbornness was tempered into conviction. My one redeeming quality. That is why… I want you to use your experiences to forge your own conviction.”

P5_portrait_of_Toranosuke_Yoshida: “Yes. You’re still young, after all. You have a great deal more learning and growing to do. …Ah, I ended up talking longer than I expected. Well, until next time.”

Akechi: “Oh, right. I guess Shujin was in this direction too… still, I wouldn’t have expected to run into you at this time. Perhaps it really is fate…”

Akechi: “How are you doing?”

Akechi: “Haha. Relaxed as always, I see. I’ve been getting interviewed a lot lately, so I’ve been wondering how to answer such questions…”

Akechi: “I see now that there’s no need to be so roundabout with my responses. Talking with you helps me realize many things. If it isn’t too much trouble, may I speak with you again sometime?”

timrodresized: He’s like fucking Anime Jimmy Neutron. Anyway, there’s a glorified tutorial about Sakai coming up which I’m skipping.

Hiruta: “It’s the only month of the year with no holidays, and it’s filled with rain - truly a season of hell. I’m exaggerating, you say? Haha. You’re all just ignorant. After all, what’s falling from the sky is acid rain that can melt metal.”

timrodresized: A bit of clarification on this. For a long time (since the early 1970s) Japan has had a massive problem with acid rain. Part of the problem was that Japanese companies were putting out a lot of air pollution - but even once they cut down on emissions, the problem persisted. Why?

timrodresized: The answer is actually a sensitive political issue, largely because of China’s involvement. China was (and still is) the largest producer of sulfur emissions in the world, even after taking steps to reduce them.

timrodresized: Sulfur emissions from China get into the atmosphere and then cause acid rain to fall on Japan, meaning that to a large degree, Japan is dependent on its neighbors reducing their emissions to stop acid rain. The Japanese government has spent a ton of money in China trying to do that. As I understand it, South Korea is also an element, but to a lesser degree than China is.

timrodresized: That’s not to say the Chinese are the only ones doing it - from the 1980s to 1990, one of the biggest issues between the United States and Canada was sulfur emissions from the US causing acid rain in Canada. I didn’t know until I started looking it up, but the Northeastern US used to be a hotspot for acid rain - the environment is largely recovering from that now.

Hiruta: “Kurusu-kun. Let’s test your knowledge and imagination. When washing your hair with dissolved copper, your hair color changes. …What color do you think it turns?”

timrodresized: If you’re curious about what it looks like, you can find a picture here.

timrodresized: I should note that this question is kinda bullshit, because the only people that experience the green discoloration are typically blondes and people with bleached hair. In people with darker hair, you typically can’t see it.

timrodresized: Oh, right. The place you’re mostl likely to have that happen (provided the copper pipes in your house aren’t fucked) is either if you have hard water and fill your pool with it without filtering out the minerals, or if you use copper as an algaecide.

Hiruta: “That is correct. By the way, magnesium turns your hair white, and rust will turn your hair red. However, acid rain can’t melt gold or silver. If you want to dye your hair gold, use bronze coins.”

Hiruta: “Thinking you could save money by skipping a visit to the hair salon? …It seems you still don’t understand the horrors of acid rain.”

Hiruta: “London once had acid rain on the level of stomach acid. More than four thousand people died.”

timrodresized: Goddamn, I’m talking more than he is for this one. This is only partially correct. What he’s referring to is an event known as the “Great Smog of London” which happened in early December of 1952.

timrodresized: The Great Smog was not actually acid rain - it shares the same root cause (sulfur in the atmosphere) but was caused by a couple of completely windless days over London that caused emissions from people burning sulfur-rich coal to stall over the city.

timrodresized: The resulting smog may have killed as many as 12,000 people, but it wasn’t from the acid so much as it was from fine particle matter in the air exacerbating existing respiratory issues.

Hiruta: “Perhaps one day such a deathly rain will fall on Japan… my heart, too, is overcast, just like the rain that falls on the city… ah, rain!”

Kawakami: “Niijima-san’s looking for you. Could you head to the student council room right away? She says there’s no report of a lost item, so she wants you to start filling out some paperwork.”

Kawakami: “Telling me that isn’t going to get you out of this. The student council room is on the third floor, next to the library. Got it?”

Morgana: “What could she want…?”

Makoto: “…Have a seat.”

Makoto: “Mr. Kamoshida and Madarame. Won’t you tell me the truth behind the Phantom Thieves’ incidents?”

Makoto: “Can’t answer that? Ah, of course. There’s no way you would admit to such things. Have a listen.”

timrodresized: What is she, Chris Hansen? I still remember when he got arrested in Connecticut because he wrote a bad check. Good times.

timrodresized: This is why I’m glad Connecticut is a two-party consent state for recording.

Makoto: “…What could all this mean?”

timrodresized: Couldn’t they like, just say they’re LARPing or something?

Makoto: “Was it blackmail? Hypnosis? How do you corner someone into making them confess? Won’t you tell me how you did it?”

Makoto: “…You want to say that this doesn’t prove anything, don’t you? I believe that you three are the Phantom Thieves. Now, what would the police think if they heard my recording?”

Morgana: “It’d be bad if we’re put under police surveillance. There’s no telling what’ll happen to you, too!”

Makoto: “If you confess the truth, I don’t mind just leaving this between the two of us. You’ll tell me, won’t you?”

Makoto: “That’s the same as admitting to it, you know.”

timrodresized: This is so contrived it’s funny.

Morgana: “That idiot!”

Makoto: “As loud as always… but his timing’s perfect. I’d like everyone else to hear this as well. Won’t you take me to your friends?”

Morgana: “I guess it can’t be helped now…”

Ann: “What’s the meaning of this?”

Makoto: “I had him lead me here. Ryuji Sakamoto, Ann Takamaki… and you’re Kitagawa-kun, correct? Second-year at Kosei High and former pupil of Madarame?”

timrodresized: She plays the clip of Ryuji again, only the game (mercifully) doesn’t subtitle it again.

Makoto: “An extremely similar technique was used for both Kamoshida and Madarame… while those affected by their acts were just coincidentally meeting up. How could that not raise suspicions?”

Yusuke: “What do you intend to do? Have you come just to say you’re going to report us?”

Ann: “I bet someone told you to find us. The school can’t have ties to criminals, after all! And yet they turn a blind eye when it comes to suicide and sexual harassment.”

Ann: “Huh?”

Ryuji: “What?”

Makoto: “I’m the only one who knows about you. If you prove what you’re doing is just, I’ll erase this.”

timrodresized: Classic mistake there, now they can kill you knowing that you have the only copy of the recording on you.

Morgana: “She wants to make a deal…”

Makoto: “There is someone whose heart I’d like you to change.”

Yusuke: “Who?”

Makoto: “Hm, so you’re not saying it’s impossible. However, I cannot tell you that just yet. Let’s continue our talk after school tomorrow. On the roof. Assuming you accept my offer, that is.”

Ryuji: “This is turnin’ into a real pain…”

Yusuke: “Anything to say, Ryuji?”

Ryuji: “Why’re you singlin’ me out? Ann got recorded too, y’know!”

Ann: “I’m so sorry…”

Ryuji: “Hey, what should we do? That girl’s got dirt on us…”

Yusuke: “A recording seems to be insufficient evidence though. And even with that, there’s no way they could prove our methods.”

timrodresized: Joker is attracted to Yusuke because Yusuke is the only person in the party who isn’t a complete idiot.

Ann: “Considering who we’re dealing with, I think it might be a trap.”

Morgana: “Regardless, Akira would be in real trouble. He’s on probation, after all.”

Ryuji: “Things’d get rough if we didn’t have our leader… and I totally don’t wanna deal with the police…”

Yusuke: “Then… we have no other choice but to go along with it.”

Morgana: “Yes, it’s best we agree, at least for the time being. We made a crucial mistake… but not a critical one. We’ll just have to recover from here on out.”

Ryuji: “Yeah, yeah. My bad. So… we doin’ this?”

Ryuji: “All right. We’re meetin’ on the school rooftop tomorrow, yeah?”

Yusuke: “What about me? I could always sneak in if necessary.”

Ann: “That’d draw too much attention. You should just wait outside, Yusuke.”

Ann: “What could she be scheming?”

Morgana: “Be careful. She’s a shrewd one. We’d best be prepared for anything.”

timrodresized: I actually checked afterward, and the devs apparently didn’t think to charge you for the trip to Kichijoji if you warp there via the confidant tracker.

timrodresized: You might be asking why Akechi’s confidant scenes take place in Kichijoji - after all, Kichijoji wasn’t in the base game and Atlus didn’t re-write any of the original confidant cutscenes from the base game.

timrodresized: The answer is that a lot of the locations in Kichijoji show up in Akechi’s confidant in the base game - so they were already fully modeled, you just couldn’t visit them outside of the confidant scenes. Man, Royal really is a cashgrab.

timrodresized: I totally forgot about this, and when I looked something up involving the ability we’re going to get at the end of this cutscene, I realized WHY I forgot about it.

timrodresized: The reason is that Akechi’s confidant was changed in Royal. In the base game, his confidant was an auto-confidant that progressed with the plot, like Morgana’s or Igor’s. Now he’s an optional confidant just like the rest, and is thus able to be the cause of a permafuck.

Akechi: “Well, I wouldn’t say I’m unoccupied, but I’m not busy all the time either. If anything, it’s my policy to spend my spare time in meaningful ways.”

Akechi: “Oh, my apologies. A break ace.”

timrodresized: This is why I feel like pool is kind of a dumb game, because it’s possible to lose without ever doing anything.

Akechi: “Well, the 9-ball’s been sunk already, so…”

Akechi: “But that was just a coincidence, of course, so we can start over. That won’t count.”

timrodresized: This choice matters and I have no idea why.

Akechi: “I win. That was a close one, though. I suppose it would have been embarrassing to lose as your senior, huh?”

Akechi: “Huh… I’m honestly impressed you noticed. That’s right, this one’s my dominant hand. I switched hands during the game. It’s not anything against you. Going all-out against a junior just seems a bit gauche…”

Akechi: “But I confess you’ve surprised me. I’m rather dextrous with my right hand. I can even use chopsticks with it. Frankly, I didn’t expect you to see through it.”

timrodresized: Akech is a discount Light Yagami and it totally shows.

Akechi: “Oh, so those glasses are just for the aesthetic, then? Or were you being metaphorical? You’re a hard one to read sometimes.”

Akechi: “In any case, you truly are interesting. You never cease to amaze me.”

timrodresized: This is a new ability added for Royal - in the base game, Akechi’s confidant had no rewards associated with it, probably because it was automatic.

timrodresized: It’s not super-valuable because soon we’ll have SP regeneration and can freely experiment with weaknesses (or, you know, use the wiki) but I guess it’s nice to have.

Akechi: “Well, see you.”

Akechi: “Our little game turned out to be more interesting than I expected. Barely anyone notices when I don’t use my dominant hand. I can only commend your powers of observation.”

Akechi: “I think you’d be an interesting influence on me. If you’re so inclined, we could go out again sometime.”

timrodresized: I think we all know the correct answer is “I already have a boyfriend”.

Akechi: “Haha… whatever works for you. As long as I can spend some time with you, think of it as you please. Well! I suppose I’ll reach out the next time something comes up. See you.”

timrodresized: I tried looking up where we’d be at this point in the base game with Akechi, and the answer is I couldn’t find it - none of the guides mention it because it was an auto-confidant.

timrodresized: The routing for the base game is wildly different: at this point in the base game, we’d be maxed out with Ryuji within a couple of days and nearly maxed out with Ann. We would’ve hit Rank 7 with Dr. Femdom weeks ago, before the end of Madarame’s dungeon.

timrodresized: The reason this route is so different is because there’s more confidants, but also because of things like the outings with Caroline and Justine that weren’t in the base game.

Ohya: “Morning! Going to school now? I’m just heading home! The morning sun is too bright…”

Ohya: “I pulled an all-nighter. Journalist Ichiko Ohya works around the clock, you know! Well, you work hard on your studies.”

Ann: “So, whose heart do you want us to change?”

Makoto: “A mafia boss.”

Ann: “Mafia!?”

Ryuji: “What’re you talkin’ about!?”

timrodresized: The writers kind of wrote this like Makoto already knows that there’s supernatural shit involved, but at this point she doesn’t. Because she’s assuming they’re going to what… blackmail a yakuza captain?

Makoto: “That’s what they call themselves. This group seems to be the cause of the rise in phishing scams. What’s worse, once you’re in their sights, they won’t stop threatening you until they get what they want.”

Makoto: “They’ll force you to take part in their scams, threaten your family, and ultimately destroy your life.”

Ryuji: “Holy shit…”

Makoto: “It appears that their victims include some of our students.”

Ann: “No!”

Makoto: “They primarily target juveniles.”

Ryuji: “What’s their boss’s name?”

Makoto: “Nobody knows. The victims are being threatened not to testify, so even the police can’t get a grasp of the situation.”

Ann: “That’s where you want us to start!?”

Makoto: “You should be able to pull it off… if you’re really the righteous Phantom Thieves. Or is Akechi-kun correct when he says you act without justice?”

timrodresized: I mean, what was he expecting? This is the guy who named his supernatural crime group John Persona.

Makoto: “Their main hub of activity is in Shibuya… that’s all the information I have. You have two weeks. Once that has passed, I’ll submit all the evidence I have to the police and to the school.”

timrodresized: “Hello, police? I have this recording of a couple of high schoolers… what do you mean blackmail is illegal?”

Ryuji: " ‘Don’t let me down…’ Dammit, she was just bossin’ us around."

Morgana: “Come on, we should get in touch with Yusuke.”

Sae: “…! Why would Makoto… bringing up my sister to upset me, are you? It seems there’s no limit to your duplicity.”

Sae: “Fine. I’ll listen to everything you have to say before I decide the truth of your statements.”

timrodresized: This is maybe the one time a Sae cutscene actually has a point.

Yusuke: “The mafia? Hm…”

Ann: “Can we really do this?”

Ryuji: “…”

Morgana: “Either way, we have almost no information on the target. This guy’s a crime boss, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a Palace. Still…”

timrodresized: Wait a second. Kazuma Kiryu was a Yakuza boss for like… a day. I bet he has a palace wherein he imagines himself actually committing a crime or killing a man.

timrodresized: Actually no, let’s be real here, his palace is the 80s version of Serena and his treasure is the record with Baka Mitai on it.

Yusuke: “Isn’t this a prime opportunity, though?”

Yusuke: “Even after we punished an evil man who seemed to be good, the public did not acknowledge us. However, if we take down an actual criminal, let alone a target the police don’t have answers for…”

Ann: “Oh, right! That might make people believe in us!”

Ryuji: “I get it! That means even Akechi’ll have to acknowledge us as the Phantom Thieves! Whaddya say, leader?”

timrodresized: I’d say you haven’t learned a goddamn thing.

timrodresized: Joker saw someone wearing a “be gay, do crimes” t-shirt once and now he’s getting ideas.

Ryuji: “Well yeah, it’d be a pain if they came after you. But we don’t hafta deal with 'em directly! We just gotta do what we always do!”

Yusuke: “Our time limit is two weeks, correct? We can’t afford to waste too much time. I’ll ask around Kosei and see if there are any victims.”

Ann: “Okay, I know some girls who go to Shibuya pretty often. I’ll check with them about it.”

Ryuji: “All right, and I’m gonna see what I can find on the net. That leaves our school up to you and Morgana. You figured out what to do during the whole Kamoshida thing, right?”

Morgana: “I’ll back you up.”

timrodresized: Translation: He’ll be thirsty for Ann.

Ryuji: “All right, let’s get back together at the end of the week once we’ve got all our info! I’ll get in touch with you guys later!”

Morgana: “We’re meeting in front of the school tomorrow, right? Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll find something new!”

timrodresized: Joker puts his hands on Yusuke’s shoulders, looks directly into his eyes, and goes “Yusuke, we need to start our own yakuza. The only rule in our code of honor will be that no animals will be allowed to thirst for human women.”

timrodresized: Feeling a little lonely in that closet, Yusuke?

Yusuke: “So if you’re heading homeward, I’ll accompany you.”

Yusuke: “I’m glad I chose to leave it here.”

Yusuke: “To put it bluntly, I am in need of your assistance… please, listen to what I must say. Throughout my artistic career, there have been moments I’ve struggled with particular motifs or techniques. However, each of those struggles did eventually fade.”

Yusuke: “Yet now I find myself in a similar situation… but the more I try to escape it, the worse it becomes. It seems I am trapped in what we in the art world call a ‘slump’.”

timrodresized: That’s a funny way to pronounce “closet”.

Yusuke: “Are you aware that I am attending Kosei on an art scholarship? Such coveted grants are not given as charity. I must continually achieve within my field to remain eligible.”

Yusuke: “Were I to lose my scholarship… I would likely have no choice but to leave the school as well.”

Yusuke: “In the earlier days of my career, I would exclusively paint what I desired, when I desired it. The only goal I had in mind was the pursuit of true beauty… that goal is what drove me onward.”

Yusuke: “I wanted nothing more than to attain the lustrous allure of the ‘Sayuri’ in my own work. Yet what reason do I have now? Holding on to my scholarship? Keeping a roof over my head?”

Yusuke: “Worldly desires are all that spur my brush to move… and the resulting work reflects such impurity of mind. To be honest, I am unsure as to whether I can call myself an artist anymore.”

Yusuke: “…My apologies. It seems I got somewhat carried away there. But… I simply cannot accept this lack of purpose in my work. That is why I am so upset with my own indecision. Such vague ambition is, in essence, a sin of sorts.”

Yusuke: “Though I suppose allowing my young career to come to an end here would be even more sinful. I only wish to create a work I can be genuinely proud of…”

Yusuke: “Yet no matter how hard I try to replicate it, an elegance so sweet remains elusive to me! Why is that, you ask? It is surely because the painter behind the work differs… because the soul differs!”

timrodresized: This entire conversation, by the way, is a very long-form way for the game to tell you that Yusuke is now available as a confidant.

Yusuke: “But if my estimations are correct, the ‘soul’ is nothing but another way to speak of the human heart. What, then, is the heart? How does it bring forth such beauty? I must understand!”

Yusuke: “What, then, is the heart? How does it bring forth such beauty? I must understand! …To be perfectly frank though… I am unsure of how to do so.”

timrodresized: Joker just looks at him and goes “I thought you’d never ask.”

Yusuke: “You would!? Wonderful. At the moment, my art teacher has yet to notice any drastic changes in my work… but I cannot hide forever. Impurity of the heart will undoubtedly seep onto an artist’s canvas eventually.”

Yusuke: “I must go now. My curfew approaches.”

timrodresized: Tonight, we’re supposed to go to the bathhouse. That is exactly what we do, and we’ve all seen it enough times to know the cutscene is the same every time.

timrodresized: I stopped by the recycle shop and found out the game system was already in-stock, so let’s take a (non-canon) look at that. Remember, we do the bathhouse tonight and not this if you are following this for 100%.

timrodresized: There’s a store that sells games in Akihabara, but we can’t get there yet.

timrodresized: There’s a button mashing minigame I didn’t get to capture because both of my hands were on the controller. I’ll show it off when we actually do this later on.

timrodresized: The game console increases your social stats just like watching the DVDs. The old 100% route for the base game never actually used it: you did it at the end of the game if you wanted a trophy for it.

timrodresized: I looked at the current 100% guide, and it looks like we’ll have maxed out social stats sometime in September, meaning that around then we’ll start having a lot of free nights. I’ll probably do darts and the game console at that point.

timrodresized: That isn’t to say the game’s schedule isn’t incredibly tight: even though our nights will be free, we’ll be doing confidants until more or less the last day.

timrodresized: Next time: More cutscenes. More Kawakami. Still no actual gameplay!

Please, Kiryu is a pure soul who doesn’t have enough twisted desires to make a Palace.

Also move the camera over when it’s game time you cowards I’d award this game bonus points if you showed me a cat playing an SNES game.