Click Here for Update 31
: “Oh yeah, something weird happened in food service before, right? Some employee cooking naked… with all these extortions and scams, this world’s really messed up.”
: “There sure are a lot of high schoolers during the day. They must be targeting them somehow.”
: I mean, given that most of them are going to be wearing school uniforms, I think that’d be pretty easy.
: I’ve heard (but haven’t been able to find it online) that there are places in Japan that publish school uniform listings by school so you can tell which uniform belongs to which school. I don’t know if they still do this or not, but theoretically it’d be even easier to target high schoolers in Japan than in say, the US.
: “Finding the specifics may be difficult. With such a crowd, the odds are against us.”
: “Right! We’re gonna grab 'em by the tail!”
: “You should head over to Central Street, like we planned yesterday, Akira.”
: “Sweet, let’s get goin’! Lemme know if you find any shady people!”
: Right away, we can find Makoto in her natural habitat - the trash.
: “Are you investigating here with your friends today? I hope something comes of it. I’ll be counting on you.”
: “Is she following us? Nah, that can’t be.”
: There’s some optional dialogue I ran into, but I’m not going to post it because this update will be long enough as-is by the time I’m done with it.
: What we’re looking for is this guy, who is in the alley leading to the weapon shop.
: He’s clearly part of the homeless mafia from Yakuza. Did I mention there’s a Yakuza costume DLC for P5 Dancing? Joker is Kiryu (he takes his glasses off and his model clearly was not meant for that), Ann is Majima, Ryuji is the villain from Yakuza 2 by the same name, and Yusuke is Akiyama.
: Joker just wants to go and enter the underground arena, maybe beat up on Gary Buster Holmes.
: “Hm, maybe this other person would know something…? Apparently he’s near the train station, so let’s go take a look over there.”
: “Everyone’s really going about this seriously. They’re definitely worthy of being the Phantom Thieves. We can’t fall behind either. Let’s look for that homeless man.”
: Speaking of DLC, apparently the US release of Royal came with the all the costume DLC the base game had, but unfortunately I don’t think you can mix-and-match. Otherwise, I’d probably find a way to transfer my save to my PS5.
: The reason I won’t is because Makoto gets Yukino’s uniform in the P1 DLC (Yukino is fucking leagues ahead of her on the “best girl” chart, just under Yukiko and Elly) and Atlus also made the nonsensical decision of not giving Yusuke Jun’s uniform in the P2 DLC - he gets a closed-jacket version of Tatsuya’s outfit instead.
: On the way to the objective, I found a couple of Persona 4 references I forgot about. Mashita Kanami is a (presumbably) non-canon character from Persona 4 Dancing. I have that on the Vita and never really touched it.
: We also have a poster of the worst girl from Persona 4.
: The person we’re looking for is actually in the Underground Walkway and not in the station.
: They have really gaudy-looking suits and pop their collars. It’s actually a secret code depending on what color their shirt is and how the collar is popped.
: They’ll spend hours hiding under manholes or giant traffic cones just so they can jump out and fight each other when someone comes to investigate.
: Yusuke winds up in a grocery store.
: “All right, we should do what we can do help them out. I have no idea which of these leads are real. Try going to the most suspicious-sounding place.”
: I went to Yusuke first, since he was closest, but apparently you have to do these in order - first Ryuji, then Yusuke.
: Yusuke is actually one of those Tetris Grand Master pros. Speaking of which, someone actually made a patch for TGM 1 that makes it run on a PS1.
: There’s been a lot of that lately: a different guy has been patching Atomiswave (a piece of arcade hardware made of spare Dreamcast parts) games to run on a stock Dreamcast.
: All sorts of shady activities like me mashing the “hardware reset” button on my Neo-Geo every time I fuck up a shot in Turf Masters, which is to say all the time.
: “Arghhh, c’mon… Oh, Akira.”
: “Sorry, my lead didn’t end up bein’ anything. That dude at the stairs… pretty misleadin’, huh? Sheesh…”
: “Oh, what about Ann and Yusuke? You should go check on ‘em. Hey, granny, you okay? You’re lookin’ pretty shaky, so I don’t mind givin’ you a hand.”
: Once I talked to Ryuji, I was able to progress the story.
: “Well… you aren’t wrong about that.”
: “It seems we didn’t have to look very hard in the end.”
: “Hm… by delivery, do you mean delivery of suspicious materials?”
: No, she’s supposed to be the “smart” girl. We haven’t met the “funny” girl yet. Trust me, you don’t want to meet the “funny” girl.
: “So you won’t answer me? Then I was right…”
: “Oh…”
: “U-um… if you don’t want to deal with us, we could always go see your boss ourselves.”
: The smart girl, everyone.
: “I don’t have any proof though. I tried to trick him into saying something, but he dodged all the traps I was laying down.”
: What traps?
: “By the way, thanks for standing up for me. I’m going to go now.”
: “That boss seems tricky… it looks like he taught his subordinates well, too. No wonder the police are having a hard time catching him.”
: “Anyway, you have some serious guts. You didn’t back down at all against that hooligan. Though we still didn’t end up with any new information… let’s stop here for today.”
: “Thanks. For earlier.”
: “…I dug it up. I realize I’m apologizing after the fact, but… it just didn’t feel right, keeping it from you, so… that’s all. Bye.”
: “You talking to a woman? I heard her voice. Speaking of, some girl called looking for you around noon. Said she’s the class president.”
: “Said she’s got something that belongs to you. She seemed to know you, so I gave her your number.”
: “She must’ve looked up Leblanc’s address trying to contact you. That Niijima sure is thorough! Then again, she called you just to apologize… it’s a bit weird, but maybe she’s not so bad after all.”
: Makoto’s writing is kind of wildly inconsistent at best, and it’s one of the things that kind of turned me off to the plot when I played it the first time.
: We have a crossword tonight, so might as well do that.
: Clearly, no one outside of China ever changed their clothes for any reason.
: Tonight is one of those nights that was changed from the base game - in the base game, you just went to sleep immediately after arriving back home. There’s no available confidants tonight, because they didn’t adjust the schedule to reflect that tonight is open (the Caroline and Justine thing is another non-confidant outing).
: Instead, we’re going to watch Joker make some sick pool shots. What’s funny is how we just had an IM conversation about how the party shouldn’t meet up in case they’re being followed by the yakuza… and yet they’re meeting up anyway. Ludonarrative dissonance!
: I too would be worried about hitting myself in the balls with the pool cue. Trust me, I’d find a way. What’s funny though is that none of the positions the balls are in look particularly difficult to hit.
: My favorite thing about this is that it you look at the lines of sight, Ann and Yusuke look like they’re staring at Joker’s ass while Ryuji looks like he’s desperately trying not to and then caves in anyway.
: I should mention that I’m pretty sure this is the only trick shot you can pull off without buying the jump cue, but the next pool outing will be before the third dungeon so we’d have to buy it anyway.
: John Persona reaches Technical Rank 2, which increases damage done by technical hits. This is where I kind of wish the game had an auto-battle thing that worked like Persona 1 or Innocent Sin’s, because then I could set it to use status effect spells (which work on most regular enemies) and get tech hits instead of bothering with weaknesses.
: “Speaking of murky… there haven’t been any new developments in the phantom thief incidents. If they go so far as using calling cards to get attention, I doubt Madarame’s case will be the last.”
: “What kind of target will they choose next? What do you think?”
: The correct answer is “Not you, you’re trying too hard, I already have a boyfriend.”
: “…To be blunt, neither do I. There’s just not enough material to form any concrete thoughts. However, I’m positive they’ll soon target someone who will garner even more attention…”
: Someone needs to send this Jimmy Neutron-ass dipshit back to Attack of the Twonkies.
: “…Oh, sorry. I’m getting lost in my own head… I have to stay on top of any Phantom Thieves activity due to what I said on the air. If you hear any rumors at school, I hope you can let me know.”
: “God, they suck…”
: There’s someone singing in the other room, for context.
: “Man, we’re goin’ nowhere with this. Hey, can’t we ask Miss President to change it up?”
: “You mean… change our target?”
: “We just gotta show our justice to satisfy her, right? There are tons of shitty adults in this world. It’s not like it matters who we’re goin’ after.”
: “She says this is for the students, but I bet it’s just so she can brag about it on college apps.”
: “But that mafia’s stealing money from kids. We can’t just accept that! It doesn’t matter who the target came from anymore.”
: They’re also the worst mafia ever, because seriously, how much money are they expecting high schoolers to have? This is like the people who broke into my car a couple months ago and found absolutely nothing of value. They didn’t even steal anything because there was nothing to steal.
: “Ann’s right. We want to give courage to the weak. Isn’t this the perfect target to accomplish that goal?”
: “They really have no talent…”
: “I never thought it’d be this noisy if you weren’t signin’… anyways, I’m sure we’ll shut Akechi up if we pull this off, but-”
: “That’s exactly why we should do it.”
: “It all comes down to intel in the end… if we don’t start finding tips on that front, we’ll never get any further than this…”
: “There has to be someone who has what we need.”
: “…That’s right! What about that journalist?”
: “You mean the woman who was staking out Madrame’s house?”
: “Oh yeahhhh… I completely forgot about her! Didn’t she give you her card?”
: I thought this was some kind of Innocent Sin reference before I remembered that before I got frustrated and stopped learning Japanese, I learned that “Maiasa” means “Every Morning”. I really should get on that again.
: “This is for a rather major publication.”
: “You think we can trust her?”
: “There’s no other way.”
: “Okay, let’s contact her!”
: “Happy hour’s over, yeah? C’mon, let’s just go.”
: “How wasteful!”
: “Anyways, guess we just gotta wait for that journalist to email us back. Let us know ASAP when she responds! Got it, Akira?”
: “The chief’s as sharp as ever… but it’s more like we’re the ones being dragged into things…”
: It’s time to finally find out what Kawakami’s deal is.
: “I told you that the story about my sick little sister was a lie… you know you’re being used for money, and you still request me?”
: I believe we call that a “simp”.
: Fun in the sense that to Joker, straight people might as well be aliens.
: “Huh? Are you… an extreme masochist or something? You really are one strange kid…”
: “I’m a mediocre teacher and a mediocre maid… and yet, you listen to everything I have to say… you’re the complete opposite of me. I don’t even properly attend to my students’ needs.”
: Note that I never said her entire deal was good or well-written. I’ve seen this exact plot line in several different pieces of Japanese media. Yakuza 7 even has a character who has a near-identical backstory (granted, he’s a cop instead of a teacher).
: “There was a student named Takase at the school I taught at before Shujin. Takase-kun was considered a problem child, since he had the lowest grades and skipped school a lot.”
: “So I was put in charge of guiding him… or rather, pushing him to transfer to another school. But when I got to know him, I realized that he wasn’t a problem child after all.”
: “In fact, he was working several part-time jobs just so he could cover his living expenses. His relatives took him in when his parents died, so he had to make money to support himself.”
: “He couldn’t attend school every day, but he was motivated to study. That’s why I decided to tutor him. After I started working with him, his grades started to improve, slowly but surely.”
: “But I was told that it was wrong to only help certain students and not others… then a strange rumor about him being a juvenile delinquent began to circulate. And on top of that, I got called into the principal’s office… he threatened me… saying that I’d be dismissed if I continued to tutor Takase-kun.”
: “Yeah… but you could say the same about me. I got scared… of losing my job, and of having rumors spread about me. So… I canceled our upcoming tutoring sessions…”
: “Takase-kun was on his way to one of his part-time jobs when I told him… out of all days, it was New Year’s Eve and it had been pouring rain all day. And… he died in a car crash.”
: So, here’s my thing about this. Apart from being slightly darker and more flawed, how is Kawakami functionally different than Ms. Saeko was in Persona 1 and Innocent Sin?
: The worst part is, this isn’t the first time Hashino has done this. There’s a character in Nocturne who also has some striking similarities to Ms. Saeko, because Hashino is a hack.
: “He sounded so depressed when I told him I couldn’t tutor him anymore… but then he said that it was no big deal because he had to work anyway, so I wouldn’t feel bad. If only I had kept my promise to him…”
: “Takase-kun was exhausted from the tutoring sessions and working at all his part-time jobs… his guardians blamed me for the accident, saying it was all my fault that he was so tired…”
: I’m not sure if the idea is that he was driving, or that he got hit by a car on foot. From what I understand, personal cars aren’t that big of a thing in Tokyo because of the insane amount of traffic and presence of things like the trains… unless she taught outside of the city.
: I’ve said this before, but this is more or less the exact same plot line for every confidant in this game.
: “I wouldn’t have been accused of a crime, but if word had gotten out, the school would’ve been done for. I wanted to continue teaching, no matter what. So I ended up paying them the ‘apology’ money so they wouldn’t sue me or say anything.”
: This entire thing makes zero fucking sense.
: “It was my indecisiveness that backed him into a corner, and I blame myself every day. I know paying them isn’t going to bring him back, but it’s the only way I can atone for my sins. It seems like his guardians are satisfied with our arrangement, so…”
: I’m trying to make sense of this whole thing and just failing. She paid the guardians off so they wouldn’t sue the school, then left the school anyway, and now pays because she feels guilty even though they were extorting her?
: “I have to keep my distance to avoid hurting others, so I don’t meddle in my students’ lives. I’ve been coming here because of a random twist of fate, but we should say goodbye as well.”
: “Kurusu-kun… you’re not really the type to back down, are you? Haha… I guess we’re in this together, now that I told you the whole story, right?”
: Now we get even more free time in school that we have no practical use for other than reading books.
: “Oh my, this room is sooo dusty! Even though I wipe the place squeaky clean every visit… well, I guess it’s all for you, Master! I’ll work hard to earn my keep! 
”
: “cough Oh, uh, wooow! It’s so dusty! If my cough is already this bad… maybe we’d be better off tearing this place down than trying to clean it?”
: “Well, the shabbi- I mean, chicness of this room is truly its charm, so let’s keep it as is! All right, I have to go. ”
: “By the way, I’ve always wanted to ask, but do you live in that cafe right now?”
: Writers just phoning it in. Seriously, hasn’t he told her this is where he lives?
: “There’s always this nice curry smell around the place. Do you get to eat that place’s curry every day?”
: “Ooh, then I can serve it to you. Imagine it was cooked by your own maid, with lots of love… okay, that was a joke, but… God, I could really go for some homemade curry right now.”
: YHVH descends and just goes “Sure, Kawakami… but only if you join the Messians and fight for my Thousand-Year Kingdom!”
: Cough Cough “Sorry. Can’t seem to shake this cough. I’ve been so busy lately… but I’ll aaalways be ready and waiting for Master to request me! ”
: “…Okay, don’t stay up too late. Night.”
: “They were asking if you’ve made any lifestyle changes recently.”
: “Huh?”
: “I gave them a suitable enough answer, but… is there some kind of issue at school?”
: “No… it’s nothing. I’m sorry to worry you.”
: “I doubt you would do such a thing, but try to avoid wandering around Shibuya late at night. I’ve heard stories of girls your age throwing their lives away out there.”
: This line was changed quite a bit from the original, which was kind of poorly translated. The original line was “They got involved in criminal acts and were blackmailed into working at illegal sex establishments…”
: This also doesn’t explain why the yakuza would be targeting male students.
: “I’ve heard rumors about that as well. People have been mentioning it at school.”
: “…These aren’t mere rumors. I know of a few such cases.”
: Hoo boy, we made it here. Today is the day where “the” cutscene comes into play. You might’ve heard about it - it sparked a lot of controversy over how Atlus (and specifically the writers for Persona) have issues with their portrayal of gay people. It also outed Hashino as a massive homophobe.
: Ordinarily, I’d have ended the update on the 17th, but the next three days are all basically solid cutscene because honestly, the entire month of June in this game is basically a filler arc.
: “Calm down… they’re still targeting you?”
: “…I’ve found some clues regarding your incident. I just need you to wait a bit longer.”
: “That is not true. My goal here is to protect the students of this school…”
: Today, we start Yusuke’s confidant.
: “A dream world… the abyss held within one’s unconsciousness… ah, I see! Mementos! The desire that emanates from that place is the root of humanity!”
: “Incredible! You honestly have a unique perspective on things. With that destination in mind, let us make haste!”
: “The same thing which brought forth the beauty of the ‘Sayuri’ can also create such morbid fabrications… but I actually find that aspect to be quite fascinating. The heart is akin to an abyss…”
: “Now, regarding the source of my slump… I actually have an idea. In that other dimension, I saw the perversion of Madarame’s heart. At that moment, the art realm I had so much faith in was distorted by greed and unchecked desires.”
: “And from that point forward, my brush has been stayed by crippling hestitation… does pure beauty truly exist? And if so, can hands tainted by Madarame’s depravity capture it?”
: “Considering such intense questions only served to distance me from reality. Doubt filled my mind. I struggled to find a reason to move my brush again…”
: “And honestly… I still have yet to discover a suitable answer.”
: “…What’s the matter? Have you been overcome by an urge to paint?”
: “Please, do not rush me. I only need a little more time… hm, the lingering uncertainty present in this place seems to be sharpening my senses…”
: “I feel a revelation approaching. Hm… yes! Inspiration has struck! That must be it! Such brilliant composition! Ah, my heart races!”
: So yeah, we just got into a battle during a confidant event. I think this is the only time that happens.
: It’s here I finally figure out how technicals work, since this was something I never even used in the base game.
: Here’s how it works. Say you’ve got an enemy that resists or nulls everything. This is apparently something Royal does - the base game never really had enemies like that.
: First, you hit the enemies with a status effect. In this case, I had Yusuke cast Mabufu, which froze all the Slimes.
: Different status effects effectively open up a new weakness on the enemy: in the case of Burn, Freeze, or Shock, it opens them up to Nuclear damage.
: There’s a chart on how this works, which I’ll just post here.
: This is part of why I never used technicals in the base game, because it effectively depends on you having a lot of nuclear and/or psychic damage… and you don’t get the one party member that does psychic stuff until near the end of the game.
: The other reason is that technicals in the base game only added a 1.4x multiplier to damage, which I believe is significantly weaker than a weakness hit.
: The Slimes respond by exploding, doing something like a third of their max HP to each other every time they blow up. The explosion knocks them out of freeze.
: Note that we still get our money bonus from Jose even though this was a cutscene battle.
: “I’m glad you were here. You have my thanks. …You’re like Theo.”
: Not pictured - Joker’s actual response of “Oh shit, that’s not your boyfriend, is it?”
: “… I worry that you may not get what I mean. It was a figure of speech. I was referring to Van Gogh’s brother, Theo.”
: Joker goes from alarm to “Oh fuck is this him friendzoning me? He’s not even out of the closet and he’s already friendzoning me?”
: “Van Gogh did not achieve fame in his lifetime, but found an admirer and supporter in his brother.”
: “Well, there aren’t many who are willing to deal with my… eccentricity. By the way, what’s that in your hand…? A card?”
: “…Whenever I see blank paper, I have the urge to draw something on it. May I?”
: Okay, so Yusuke’s also in the “Like Sonic” camp. Anyway, there’s like eight black screens of Yusuke making various Yusuke noises that I’m just gonna cut.
: “My picture… turned into a real skill card?”
: This is part of why I never used Yusuke in the base game. Yusuke is essentially this game’s version of the Demon Painter, in that all of his confidant abilities involve using blank cards to duplicate skill cards.
: This means he doesn’t get the useful battle skills like Ann and Ryuji have, which kind of drags down his value in combat.
: “Indeed… Akira. Would you mind helping me further? If I can overcome this slump, I should be able to aid our group like earlier - perhaps even more so.”
: I should mention that Yusuke’s card duplicating ability is less bad than it was in the base game in that eventually you can just have him instantly dupe cards, but there’s not much of a reason to since I don’t think cards for skills like Megidolaon exist.
: “I know… why don’t we act as the thieves we are and strike a deal?”
: We’ll have him out of the closet in no time.
: And, of course, the obligatory pointess Sae cutscene.
: Sae is not a fan of Magic the Gathering. Neither am I, to be honest. Collectible card games are the OG microtransaction-filled pay to win mobile game.
: The game gives us a tutorial - basically, you can find blank skill cards as drops in Mementos. You can then drop them off with Yusuke, who will take a day (at first) to duplicate them.
: “We’ve done enough for today; I’ve completed a rough sketch. I’ll finish this back at the dorm. I’ll contact you once it’s done.”
: “Thank you for all of your assistance today. You helped me discover some truly wonderful inspiration.”
: “I must say… I never expected my art skills would ever prove useful for the Phantom Thieves. I have to hold up my end of the deal, so I’ll perform to the best of my ability. You need only ask.”
: “I should be the one thanking you. Without your help, I could not have finished today’s piece. Now, we should be heading back. I have to apply the finishing touches as soon as possible!”
: “Hah… for the first time in a long while, my brush will dance again.”
: “This is from that journalist, right? She wants to meet you there now? Looks like this Crossroads place is in Shinjuku. A meetup in Shinjuku…”
: “Let me see… I guess to put it simply, it’s a nightlife district for adults. You should send everyone a message and let them know what you’re up to.”
: “Wait, are you gonna go in your school uniform? It would be bad for you to stand out. You should change before you go.”
: “Huh? No choice. I didn’t have the time to go home. People aren’t gonna notice anyways with this t-shirt over it.”
: You’re a bleached-blonde anime boy in Anime Japan, where everyone has either brown or black hair. No shit you stand out.
: “You think so? I thought this is normal…”
: “I’m surprised you were thinking anything… look, it won’t be my fault when the cops catch you.”
: “Don’t worry about it. That place ain’t so different from Shibuya. C’mon, I’ll guide ya. If we’re goin’ to Shinjuku… we should probably hop on the JL. Just gotta get out of this building and then the ticket gate should be on the right. It’s go time!”
: “Is this really going to be okay?”
: For some reason, the game makes us walk to the subway gate even though once we do this we’re never going to do it again because of fast travel.
: Note the part about the bars there being open to minors, because it’s going to make an upcoming scene make no sense.
: Shinjuku also has a fee to viist, but for some reason it’s smaller than the fee to go to Kichijoji.
: “Stop looking around so much. You look like a tourist.”
: “I-I was just tryin’ to find that place we’re lookin’ for. Crossroads Bar’s right ahead. I’m sure we’ll get there if we keep goin’ straight.”
: It’s funny he says that.
: Joker looks him straight in the eye, goes “That’s never stopped me before.” and pulls a flask out of his overshirt, draining it in one go.
: “Tch… you’re the one who was all wantin’ to talk to us.”
: Joker has the only cute boy he needs, thank you very much.
: “Just ignore that guy, you idiot. No matter what what you cut it, he’s a shady character.”
: Unfortunately, we can’t go to the second-most important place in Shinjuku: this flower shop. The shop here sells better plant food that increases Kindness by 5 instead of 3. We will be back.
: I didn’t know Tokyo had the same law that Connecticut does where we all have to be in bed by 8 or the gods will curse the harvest.
: “Oh, yeah. We’re adults, y’see.”
: “…Shit.”
: “Shoot! This is why I said uniforms were a bad idea! Let’s run!”
: “Hey, it ain’t our fault we had to deal with that detour! Our school’s gettin’ real famous!”
: The other weird thing is, you’d think that especially in an adult entertainment area there would be people doing something like what Kawakami does only pretending to be high schoolers.
: And now we meet THE MOST IMPORTANT CONFIDANT IN THE GAME. If you do NO OTHER CONFIDANT, DO THIS ONE. Why, you ask?
: Let’s look at her abilities. At Rank 1, you can pay her 5000 yen and she will give you a buff that increases your social stat gains by 50% for an entire day. We will be using that frequently.
: At Rank 3, you can pay her 5,000 yen and she gives you a buff that DOUBLES the amount of money you get from battles provided you end them with an all-out attack. We will be using that every single time we go into a dungeon or Mementos, especially once we can confusion farm.
: At Rank 5, you can pay her and she’ll give you a single point toward any confidant (other than the auto ones and things like Mishima or Yoshida). This means she can potentially avert a permafuck. By the way, you can do any or all of her buffs on the same day.
: Her later rank abilities are why you really want her though. In the base game, her later abilities were shit - she could tell you some or all of the abilities a confidant would give you and it was bunk because guides and the Megami Tensei wiki exist.
: At Rank 8, she can trigger what’s called a Fusion Alert. This is how you get fusion accidents, along with a couple of other perks that let you abuse the hell out of the Velvet Room.
: Finally, at Rank 10, you can pay her to automatically reveal the correct answers during any confidant events for a single day. This is still bunk.
: The only thing that sucks about her confidant is that there’s a 100,000 yen entry fee and you have to visit her… I think twice… before you can even get to Rank 1.
: Oh, we will be back. In fact, if you’re not doing the 100% route, the first thing you wind up doing (more or less) after finishing Kawakami is her confidant until it’s done.
: Now we’re at the bar, and I’m going to have to start explaining a lot of shit. We’re almost at “the” cutscene.
: “Beer, whisky, wine… looks like nighttime is bar time.”
: “Goin’ in our uniforms is probably a bad idea… we got caught last time too…”
: “I came all the way to Shinjuku and I can’t even go in? Fiiine. I’ll kill time somewhere nearby. Just lemme know when you’re done.”
: You see, it’s funny that Ryuji said they’d get here if they kept going straight, because Crossroads…
: Is what’s called an okama bar - at least, that’s the term the Yakuza games use for it. Usually, okama bars are gay bars. Not always (sometimes they’re geared towards trans people) but from what I understand, that’s usually the case.
: The proprietor is presumably either a crossdresser (something akin to a drag queen but not quite) or trans - the word “okama” has a really, really broad meaning that can be anything from “gay” to “drag queen” to a less-polite version of “trans” to outright slurs.
: Apparently, the term “okama” used to be hurtful, but now things are a little different and people are starting to move on to a different term (“one”) and I don’t think anyone really knows what the deal is. Trans men in Japan use the similar term “onabe” to refer to themselves so I’m just going to stick with “okama” for now.
: “Sorry, Lala-chan. He’s with me.”
: One thing that’s going to make “the” cutscene make a lot less sense is that this bar clearly has a clientele that are not necessarily gay men or people who are into crossdressing.
: Lala, by the way, is pretty clearly based off Matsuko Deluxe, a famous self-described okama who appears on TV a lot.
: “Lala-chan, I’m going to borrow the seats in the back. Go on back there. I’ll treat you to some water!”
: “I’ll respect that bravery, so I’ll listen to what you have to say. Well, what do you want to know?”
: “Oh? Why that?”
: “Well, I do happen to know something about that. I could tell you, but… do you know the Phantom Thieves of Hearts? You know, that case the public has been focused on lately.”
: Joker looks at her and goes “Lady, I don’t know a thing about that, all I know is John Persona.”
: “I was pursuing the issue of people randomly entering into a shut-down state, but I’m lacking intel… that’s why I’m looking for new material to write about. So, do you have any info on these Phantom Thieves?”
: “You’re a Shujin kid, right? I remember you wearing their uniform the last time we met. I thought maybe you might have some insider knowledge on the Phantom Thieves because of it.”
: “Their first incident was that of Kamoshida, you know? Ideally, I’d like to get some exclusive coverage from a student who suffered Kamoshida’s abuse.”
: “I would love an introduction if you know of someone who fits the bill. Seems both you and I can’t really do our stuff out in the open, so… whaddya say?”
: “Hm, a student who suffered from abuse… oh! What about that Mishima guy? He always seems to be on the side of the Phantom Thieves.”
: “It’s a deal then. Send me your friend’s contact info later.”
: “You better be thankful. My quick wit is the only reason we’re getting this far.”
: Shut up, Morgana.
: “Now that I think about it, those mental shutdowns and the Phantom Thieves both seem supernatural… could they be related? Or am I just hoping for a coincidence?”
: “Oh, sorry. I have a tendency to talk to myself on occasion. Well then, you can’t exactly consider this an upfront payment, but…”
: “I think he’s probably the guy you’re looking for.”
: “Yes!”
: “You should check him out further if you’re curious… but I’m not responsible for what happens next! Lala-chan, can I get a refill for this kid? We need to make a toast to our new acquaintance!”
: “It’ll be a problem if you stay too long. You should leave right after you finish your water…”
: “Let’s meet up with Ryuji.”
: “So we just have to go back the way we came, huh? All right, let’s go.”
: “Not so loud!”
: “Junya Kaneshiro… aaand enter. There we go! Mkay, now we just gotta get some info on the distortion. Once we know that, it’s Palace time!”
: “Let’s try tomorrow. It’ll be better when we have the whole team together.”
: “Right. I’ll tell everyone to meet up in Shibuya. This is totally crazy though… it’s a huge catch! I’m pumped.”
: Only Dante (from the Devil May Cry series, who is not featured in this game) gets to say that. Anyway, we’re at “the” cutscene now.
: So, let’s talk about this cutscene a little. You might’ve heard about this because it was one of the big controversies in both the original game and Royal.
: One of the few changes to this scene is that the NPCs have names where they had generic descriptors like every other non-portrait NPC in the base game.
: The big complaint people had about this scene is that it not only uses gay stereotypes, but also portrays gay people as predators - in the original, they start talking about how attractive Ryuji is even though they know he’s a minor.
: There’s a lot of problems with the writing here even in the old version. For one thing, Crossroads isn’t necessarily a bar for crossdressers or drag queens. Second, even if Ryuji did go near it, that doesn’t mean he’s into drag, given that okama bars also cater to gay people who aren’t into that.
: This cutscene doesn’t add anything to the game. It’s not advancing the plot one iota, it’s not doing anything but just taking up space. The thing is, if there was a gay route in this game, this could’ve been used for that.
: I should mention that a lot of the uh, usual crowd cried censorship when Atlus announced this scene was being changed, because of course they did. It’s a bad scene and should’ve just been removed entirely.
: Like, imagine this scene being something where the gay guys approach Joker and Ryuji because they don’t often see young gay couples out in Shinjuku, especially not ones that are (apparently) underage.
: If you tell them you’re straight and they’ve got the wrong idea, they’d say something like “Oh, we just saw you going into Crossroads and assumed since you were going into a gay nightlife hotspot that…”
: You could then use it as an indicator for which romance route Joker would plan on pursuing - you could tell them Ryuji’s your boyfriend and that’d set you on his gay route, or tell them about Yusuke or Akechi and it’d set you on that route instead.
: This scene is like, the epitome of the problems that Persona’s writing has under Hashino and is a very good example of the reasons why Hashino no longer works for Atlus.
: In a better game, this would be how you’d end up with the secret Maid Yusuke cutscene and fight Kawakami as a superboss.
: “We’re pretty much already in Kaneshiro’s Palace! That was surprisingly easy! Shinjuku sure was crazy, huh…”
: Oh, Mishima, you poor dumb bastard. You poor, dumb, overly horny bastard.
: Anyway, tonight, we study at Leblanc… only something doesn’t happen that should. We should be ranked up to 4 on Knowledge, but that doesn’t wind up happening until tomorrow, meaning we’re a day behind.
: The guide CLAIMS that it doesn’t take the bonuses from pool into effect, but I think the main 100% guide on Gamefaqs is actually just a translation of a Japanese guide, and the original guide author may have reloaded on those days we did pool to get the bonuses into Knowledge. It could also be a typo.
: Most likely, this is NOT a permafuck. Because we’re only about three points behind on Knowledge, I can just reload the next pool event to catch us back up. We should also be six points ahead on Charm (since I got charm from pool both times) and can probably re-arrange things to make that work.
: For reference, this happened to me in both runs of Persona 4 I did and in the base game run of Persona 5, and none of those were permafucks. I don’t think there are even any confidant events that require Knowledge 5 until the end of the game anyway, and by that point if we need to take a free night to study that’s not a huge deal.
: If you were watching the stream, I had a bit of a panic because I thought we were also somehow behind on Charm. We’re not, I just mis-read the 2 we have in Kindness as being in Charm instead. It also doesn’t help that the guide I’m using kinda sucks.
: The problem with the guide, and I didn’t understand this at first, is that it has two routes: one is a modified version of the base game 100% route which would have us significantly further ahead on confidants than we actually are.
: The one we’re doing is different because it purposely holds back on a couple of confidants (while still getting 100%) because there are certain confidant events that don’t happen if you progress other confidants too far by the time you get to them. I thought for a minute I was somehow following the other part of the guide, but I’ve checked and we’ve done everything right.
: Next time, we get to see Makoto be the smart girl and also go to Kaneshiro’s palace for the first time.
: “Not only are there victims, there are even rumors that some are involved with such crimes… I’ve even received inquiries from their guardians. Why is this happening?”
: “But what I gave them was a bona fide Japanese bank note. Don’t tell me young people these days don’t know who Hirobumi Ito is.”
: “You’re looking for something, right? I want to help you out, so please ask me anything.”
: “Yeah, but not as good as Yusuke would.”
: “Huh? Whaddya mean?”
: “Ohh, that’s right! Even when we were in the castle and the museum, the city outside looked normal.”
: “I just wonder, why bother stealing hearts? You can’t do anything with them. They have no monetary value, either. If I were them, I would go for something with a concrete, clear value - like gold.”
: “Ohh, I get it. You got followed, you dumbshits!”
: “It must be quite tough gathering so much money. I’d be willing to give you a loan, you know.”
: “There’s only one exit, right?”
: “Or will it!? Today’s your lucky day! Please take a look at what’s on this table!”
: "Speaking of rain, did you know the teru teru bozu was originally female? According to one theory, it came from a Chinese paper doll of a girl - the ‘Sao Ching Niang.’ "
: “Oh, are you going home already? If you have some time, why don’t you stay and enjoy an apple? It’s a gift from one of my elderly patients. She gave me a lot…”
