Colors Flying High - Let's Play Persona 5 Royal

How can you say its nothing? Don’t you remember the scene where they said they didn’t know who they were going to mindjack next? Or the scene where they didn’t know who they were going to mindjack next? Or the scene where someone else came along and told them what to do?

…you know for being thieves our heroes don’t seem to have much agency about their targets unless someone with “I am a major league asshole” walks in front of them.

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Morgana: “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.”

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Ann: “There sure are a lot of high schoolers during the day. They must be targeting them somehow.”

timrodresized: I mean, given that most of them are going to be wearing school uniforms, I think that’d be pretty easy.

timrodresized: 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.

Yusuke: “Finding the specifics may be difficult. With such a crowd, the odds are against us.”

Ryuji: “Right! We’re gonna grab 'em by the tail!”

Ann: “You should head over to Central Street, like we planned yesterday, Akira.”

Ryuji: “Sweet, let’s get goin’! Lemme know if you find any shady people!”

timrodresized: Right away, we can find Makoto in her natural habitat - the trash.

Makoto: “Are you investigating here with your friends today? I hope something comes of it. I’ll be counting on you.”

Morgana: “Is she following us? Nah, that can’t be.”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: What we’re looking for is this guy, who is in the alley leading to the weapon shop.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: Joker just wants to go and enter the underground arena, maybe beat up on Gary Buster Holmes.

Morgana: “Hm, maybe this other person would know something…? Apparently he’s near the train station, so let’s go take a look over there.”

Morgana: “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.”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: We also have a poster of the worst girl from Persona 4.

timrodresized: The person we’re looking for is actually in the Underground Walkway and not in the station.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: Yusuke winds up in a grocery store.

Morgana: “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.”

timrodresized: I went to Yusuke first, since he was closest, but apparently you have to do these in order - first Ryuji, then Yusuke.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

Ryuji: “Arghhh, c’mon… Oh, Akira.”

Ryuji: “Sorry, my lead didn’t end up bein’ anything. That dude at the stairs… pretty misleadin’, huh? Sheesh…”

Ryuji: “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.”

timrodresized: Once I talked to Ryuji, I was able to progress the story.

Makoto: “Well… you aren’t wrong about that.”

Makoto: “It seems we didn’t have to look very hard in the end.”

Makoto: “Hm… by delivery, do you mean delivery of suspicious materials?”

timrodresized: 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.

Makoto: “So you won’t answer me? Then I was right…”

Makoto: “Oh…”

Makoto: “U-um… if you don’t want to deal with us, we could always go see your boss ourselves.”

timrodresized: The smart girl, everyone.

Makoto: “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.”

timrodresized: What traps?

Makoto: “By the way, thanks for standing up for me. I’m going to go now.”

Morgana: “That boss seems tricky… it looks like he taught his subordinates well, too. No wonder the police are having a hard time catching him.”

Morgana: “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.”

Makoto: “Thanks. For earlier.”

Makoto: “…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.”

Sojiro: “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.”

Sojiro: “Said she’s got something that belongs to you. She seemed to know you, so I gave her your number.”

Morgana: “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.”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: We have a crossword tonight, so might as well do that.

timrodresized: Clearly, no one outside of China ever changed their clothes for any reason.

timrodresized: 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).

timrodresized: 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!

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

Akechi: “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.”

Akechi: “What kind of target will they choose next? What do you think?”

timrodresized: The correct answer is “Not you, you’re trying too hard, I already have a boyfriend.”

Akechi: “…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…”

timrodresized: Someone needs to send this Jimmy Neutron-ass dipshit back to Attack of the Twonkies.

Akechi: “…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.”

Ann: “God, they suck…”

timrodresized: There’s someone singing in the other room, for context.

Ryuji: “Man, we’re goin’ nowhere with this. Hey, can’t we ask Miss President to change it up?”

Ann: “You mean… change our target?”

Ryuji: “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.”

Ryuji: “She says this is for the students, but I bet it’s just so she can brag about it on college apps.”

Ann: “But that mafia’s stealing money from kids. We can’t just accept that! It doesn’t matter who the target came from anymore.”

timrodresized: 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.

Yusuke: “Ann’s right. We want to give courage to the weak. Isn’t this the perfect target to accomplish that goal?”

Yusuke: “They really have no talent…”

Ryuji: “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-”

Yusuke: “That’s exactly why we should do it.”

Morgana: “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…”

Yusuke: “There has to be someone who has what we need.”

Ann: “…That’s right! What about that journalist?”

Morgana: “You mean the woman who was staking out Madrame’s house?”

Ryuji: “Oh yeahhhh… I completely forgot about her! Didn’t she give you her card?”

timrodresized: 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.

Yusuke: “This is for a rather major publication.”

Ryuji: “You think we can trust her?”

Morgana: “There’s no other way.”

Ann: “Okay, let’s contact her!”

Ryuji: “Happy hour’s over, yeah? C’mon, let’s just go.”

Yusuke: “How wasteful!”

Ryuji: “Anyways, guess we just gotta wait for that journalist to email us back. Let us know ASAP when she responds! Got it, Akira?”

Morgana: “The chief’s as sharp as ever… but it’s more like we’re the ones being dragged into things…”

timrodresized: It’s time to finally find out what Kawakami’s deal is.

Becky: “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?”

timrodresized: I believe we call that a “simp”.

timrodresized: Fun in the sense that to Joker, straight people might as well be aliens.

Becky: “Huh? Are you… an extreme masochist or something? You really are one strange kid…”

Becky: “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.”

timrodresized: 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).

Becky: “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.”

Becky: “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.”

Becky: “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.”

Becky: “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.”

Becky: “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.”

Becky: “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…”

Becky: “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.”

timrodresized: 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?

timrodresized: 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.

Becky: “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…”

Becky: “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…”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: I’ve said this before, but this is more or less the exact same plot line for every confidant in this game.

Becky: “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.”

timrodresized: This entire thing makes zero fucking sense.

Becky: “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…”

timrodresized: 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?

Becky: “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.”

Becky: “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?”

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timrodresized: Now we get even more free time in school that we have no practical use for other than reading books.

Becky: “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! :heart:

Becky: “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?”

Becky: “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. :heart:

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Becky: “By the way, I’ve always wanted to ask, but do you live in that cafe right now?”

timrodresized: Writers just phoning it in. Seriously, hasn’t he told her this is where he lives?

Becky: “There’s always this nice curry smell around the place. Do you get to eat that place’s curry every day?”

Becky: “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.”

timrodresized: YHVH descends and just goes “Sure, Kawakami… but only if you join the Messians and fight for my Thousand-Year Kingdom!”

Becky: 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! :heart:

Becky: “…Okay, don’t stay up too late. Night.”

Sae: “They were asking if you’ve made any lifestyle changes recently.”

Makoto: “Huh?”

Sae: “I gave them a suitable enough answer, but… is there some kind of issue at school?”

Makoto: “No… it’s nothing. I’m sorry to worry you.”

Sae: “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.”

timrodresized: 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…”

timrodresized: This also doesn’t explain why the yakuza would be targeting male students.

Makoto: “I’ve heard rumors about that as well. People have been mentioning it at school.”

Sae: “…These aren’t mere rumors. I know of a few such cases.”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

Makoto: “Calm down… they’re still targeting you?”

Makoto: “…I’ve found some clues regarding your incident. I just need you to wait a bit longer.”

Makoto: “That is not true. My goal here is to protect the students of this school…”

timrodresized: Today, we start Yusuke’s confidant.

Yusuke: “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!”

Yusuke: “Incredible! You honestly have a unique perspective on things. With that destination in mind, let us make haste!”

Fox: “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…”

Fox: “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.”

Fox: “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?”

Fox: “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…”

Fox: “And honestly… I still have yet to discover a suitable answer.”

Fox: “…What’s the matter? Have you been overcome by an urge to paint?”

Fox: “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…”

Fox: “I feel a revelation approaching. Hm… yes! Inspiration has struck! That must be it! Such brilliant composition! Ah, my heart races!”

timrodresized: So yeah, we just got into a battle during a confidant event. I think this is the only time that happens.

timrodresized: It’s here I finally figure out how technicals work, since this was something I never even used in the base game.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: First, you hit the enemies with a status effect. In this case, I had Yusuke cast Mabufu, which froze all the Slimes.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: There’s a chart on how this works, which I’ll just post here.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: Note that we still get our money bonus from Jose even though this was a cutscene battle.

Fox: “I’m glad you were here. You have my thanks. …You’re like Theo.”

timrodresized: Not pictured - Joker’s actual response of “Oh shit, that’s not your boyfriend, is it?”

Fox: “… 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.”

timrodresized: 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?”

Fox: “Van Gogh did not achieve fame in his lifetime, but found an admirer and supporter in his brother.”

Fox: “Well, there aren’t many who are willing to deal with my… eccentricity. By the way, what’s that in your hand…? A card?”

Fox: “…Whenever I see blank paper, I have the urge to draw something on it. May I?”

timrodresized: 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.

Fox: “My picture… turned into a real skill card?”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: This means he doesn’t get the useful battle skills like Ann and Ryuji have, which kind of drags down his value in combat.

Fox: “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.”

timrodresized: 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.

Fox: “I know… why don’t we act as the thieves we are and strike a deal?”

timrodresized: We’ll have him out of the closet in no time.

timrodresized: And, of course, the obligatory pointess Sae cutscene.

timrodresized: 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.

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timrodresized: 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.

Fox: “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.”

Yusuke: “Thank you for all of your assistance today. You helped me discover some truly wonderful inspiration.”

Yusuke: “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.”

Yusuke: “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!”

Yusuke: “Hah… for the first time in a long while, my brush will dance again.”

Morgana: “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…”

Morgana: “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.”

Morgana: “Wait, are you gonna go in your school uniform? It would be bad for you to stand out. You should change before you go.”

Ryuji: “Huh? No choice. I didn’t have the time to go home. People aren’t gonna notice anyways with this t-shirt over it.”

timrodresized: You’re a bleached-blonde anime boy in Anime Japan, where everyone has either brown or black hair. No shit you stand out.

Ryuji: “You think so? I thought this is normal…”

Morgana: “I’m surprised you were thinking anything… look, it won’t be my fault when the cops catch you.”

Ryuji: “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!”

Morgana: “Is this really going to be okay?”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: Note the part about the bars there being open to minors, because it’s going to make an upcoming scene make no sense.

timrodresized: Shinjuku also has a fee to viist, but for some reason it’s smaller than the fee to go to Kichijoji.

Morgana: “Stop looking around so much. You look like a tourist.”

Ryuji: “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.”

timrodresized: It’s funny he says that.

timrodresized: 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.

Ryuji: “Tch… you’re the one who was all wantin’ to talk to us.”

timrodresized: Joker has the only cute boy he needs, thank you very much.

Morgana: “Just ignore that guy, you idiot. No matter what what you cut it, he’s a shady character.”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

Ryuji: “Oh, yeah. We’re adults, y’see.”

Ryuji: “…Shit.”

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Morgana: “Shoot! This is why I said uniforms were a bad idea! Let’s run!”

Ryuji: “Hey, it ain’t our fault we had to deal with that detour! Our school’s gettin’ real famous!”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: And now we meet THE MOST IMPORTANT CONFIDANT IN THE GAME. If you do NO OTHER CONFIDANT, DO THIS ONE. Why, you ask?

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

Morgana: “Beer, whisky, wine… looks like nighttime is bar time.”

Ryuji: “Goin’ in our uniforms is probably a bad idea… we got caught last time too…”

Ryuji: “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.”

timrodresized: You see, it’s funny that Ryuji said they’d get here if they kept going straight, because Crossroads…

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

Ohya: “Sorry, Lala-chan. He’s with me.”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: Lala, by the way, is pretty clearly based off Matsuko Deluxe, a famous self-described okama who appears on TV a lot.

Ohya: “Lala-chan, I’m going to borrow the seats in the back. Go on back there. I’ll treat you to some water!”

Ohya: “I’ll respect that bravery, so I’ll listen to what you have to say. Well, what do you want to know?”

Ohya: “Oh? Why that?”

Ohya: “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.”

timrodresized: Joker looks at her and goes “Lady, I don’t know a thing about that, all I know is John Persona.”

Ohya: “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?”

Ohya: “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.”

Ohya: “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.”

Ohya: “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?”

Morgana: “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.”

Ohya: “It’s a deal then. Send me your friend’s contact info later.”

Morgana: “You better be thankful. My quick wit is the only reason we’re getting this far.”

timrodresized: Shut up, Morgana.

Ohya: “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?”

Ohya: “Oh, sorry. I have a tendency to talk to myself on occasion. Well then, you can’t exactly consider this an upfront payment, but…”

Ohya: “I think he’s probably the guy you’re looking for.”

Morgana: “Yes!”

Ohya: “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!”

Morgana: “It’ll be a problem if you stay too long. You should leave right after you finish your water…”

Morgana: “Let’s meet up with Ryuji.”

Morgana: “So we just have to go back the way we came, huh? All right, let’s go.”

Morgana: “Not so loud!”

Ryuji: “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!”

Morgana: “Let’s try tomorrow. It’ll be better when we have the whole team together.”

Ryuji: “Right. I’ll tell everyone to meet up in Shibuya. This is totally crazy though… it’s a huge catch! I’m pumped.”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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…”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: In a better game, this would be how you’d end up with the secret Maid Yusuke cutscene and fight Kawakami as a superboss.

Morgana: “We’re pretty much already in Kaneshiro’s Palace! That was surprisingly easy! Shinjuku sure was crazy, huh…”

timrodresized: Oh, Mishima, you poor dumb bastard. You poor, dumb, overly horny bastard.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: Next time, we get to see Makoto be the smart girl and also go to Kaneshiro’s palace for the first time.

Yeah, the thing about June is that it’s kind of a filler month. Persona 5 is honestly a game that’s several times longer than it needed to be - there’s a lot of days that are there purely so you have time to do all the confidant events… even though they could’ve just cut back on the number of confidant events and eliminated the filler altogether.

The entire life sim bit of the Persona games is something where I don’t think it was necessarily an improvement over the first two games.

That’s another problem with this game’s writing, especially when it dangles the bald guy as the obvious target but then we’re off dealing with some guy we still haven’t seen yet.

*squints at banner in Intro to Japanese*

Mamorou ruuru to manaa

Hm…

vlcsnap-2020-12-28-20h41m51s982
Ruuru to manaa wo mamotte
Tanoshiku dyueru shiyou!

It occurred to me that Persona 5’s basic structure is a lot like pre-card game Yu-Gi-Oh: some jerk is being a jerk, so a high schooler who usually has no super-powers punishes them with magic. Only Yu-Gi-Oh did that in 20-40 pages instead of 4+ hours. There’s a difference of scale – Dark Yugi mainly dealt with bullies, mean teachers, shady shopowners, and such – but not much else. I’m not going to say it’s worse than early YGO, because I think YGO is better with card games, but it’s definitely longer without much to show for it.

Hahaha… it’s funny that you say that, because we’re actually over 30 hours in at this point. Granted, a lot of that is because I spent a lot of time grinding to ensure that we wouldn’t run into a permafuck situation and that I have to go through dialog slower than I normally would to ensure I have a complete record of it.

The thing is, I feel like that number should be a lot lower. If you removed all the scenes that are basically duplicates and things like the extra phone calls, you’d probably shave at least six or seven hours off that.

Click Here for Update 32

timrodresized: It’s 6/19, and I’m fresh off having a household COVID scare. No one actually had it.

Ann: “What are you talking about?”

Ryuji: “Nothing! Just start it up, Yusuke.”

Yusuke: “Okay, I entered Kaneshiro’s name into the Nav - and just as expected, it’s a hit.”

Morgana: “All we need now are the two other keywords: what he thinks of as his Palace, and where it is. But we don’t have any clues other than people falling victim around here… we’ll just have to try whatever keywords we can come up with.”

Ryuji: “Urgh, that’s gonna be impossible… how many buildings do you think there are in Shibuya?”

Ann: “No complaining.”

Yusuke: “If we can figure out what the Palace is, we may be able to guess where it is by association.”

Ryuji: “Hmmm… it’s prolly somewhere he’s got complete control over… maybe a garden?”

timrodresized: The navigation app thing has a voice that plays every time someone makes a wrong guess, but it’s not subtitled.

Yusuke: “No… not even close. How about it, Akira? Can you think of anything?”

timrodresized: I like the thought of Joker just going “Wait, money bath? What the fuck is she talking about?”

Yusuke: “So, he thinks of somewhere in this city as his own bank!”

Ann: “I thought it’d be something less realistic. That’s all it is, huh?”

Morgana: “Now then, what location would Kaneshiro think of as his bank?”

Ryuji: “If we’re talkin’ about a place where he keeps his cash, maybe his own hideout?”

Ann: “How about… a real bank?”

Morgana: “His cognition wouldn’t be distorted in that case.”

Ryuji: “Dammit, we ain’t gettin’ anywhere…”

timrodresized: My problem with this scene is that it should have happened a week ago. Or more.

Yusuke: “This may be difficult to explain… but doesn’t it seem like we’re thinking a little too inside the box? Palaces emanate a passionate madness… it feels as though we’re missing that aspect.”

Ryuji: “The hell’re you talkin’ about?”

Yusuke: “This Palace is a bank for someone who extorts money with criminal acts. It’s something more…”

Ann: “But what other ways can we think about it? Oh, could it mean a place you withdraw money?”

Morgana: “Hold on! Do you think it might have something to do with the victims? He’s taking money from his victim’s wallets, right? That means his bank is wherever they are!”

Ann: “That’s terrible… but you may just be right.”

Ann: “What!? Like, the entire city?”

timrodresized: The whole city… through that door… everything trapped in one palace?

Morgana: “I see. That’s certainly where his victims are… it turns out he really is a terrible criminal.”

Ann: “But wait, is it okay for us to go into the Palace right out in front of a crowd like this?”

timrodresized: Nice self-own there. Also, they kind of totally forgot about the whole thing where they drew Ann into Kamoshida’s palace just by her being close enough to them, because the writers for this game are not at all terrible at their jobs.

Yusuke: “In that case… let’s go.”

timrodresized: There was apparently an iteration of the Persona 5 stage play (yes, there were multiple iterations) that covered this part of the story, and they actually had people in walking ATM costumes. That play must’ve been fucking riveting and I’m glad I’ve never seen it.

timrodresized: Seriously though I’m just imagining some dipshit stage director who realizes that what’s actually in the play doesn’t matter so long as it’s Persona 5 because people will go fucking nuts for it either way and going “This is the part we need to do.”

Fox: “So this is what Kaneshiro considers a ‘bank’…”

Morgana: “I never thought it would be the entire district. Look around us… the distortion is affecting the whole of Shibuya.”

Skull: “Huh? Whaddya mean?”

Panther: “Ohh, that’s right! Even when we were in the castle and the museum, the city outside looked normal.”

Fox: “He sees everyone in Shibuya as his patron.”

Skull: “No surprise for a mafia boss.”

Yusuke: “It’s best we focus on finding Kaneshiro’s location and stealing his Treasure as soon as possible.”

Skull: “Yeah, his hideout’s gotta be somewhere around here. Let’s go look for it.”

Skull: “Uh, do these guys even have mouths?”

Panther: “Excuse me, can we-”

Skull: “Whoa, cool it. We’re not tryin 'to mug you or anything.”

Fox: “Were you assaulted?”

Skull: “There’s no doubt he’s a victim, but he can’t even hold a goddamn conversation. Let’s try someone else.”

timrodresized: The writers have basically forgotten the whole “the people in the palaces aren’t actually real” bit.

Skull: “This is effed up…”

Morgana: “I don’t think we can talk to any of the ones here…”

timrodresized: What’s funny is that the game will give you a “talk to” prompt if you go near the dead ATMs. It just spawns a line of Morgana dialogue.

Fox: “Excuse me, can we have a word? We are–”

timrodresized: This is also weird, because I thought the whole point was that no one knew who the boss was.

Fox: “Hm, what could that mean?”

Skull: “Hey, you gotta tell us a little more than-”

Morgana: “Kaneshiro leaves no tracks…? Does he meant that literally, or could it be figurative?”

Panther: “Hey, why don’t we go over all the intel we have now?”

Morgana: “Wait a second… they’ve ‘fallen’ from a place where Kaneshiro doesn’t leave any tracks…? Could that mean… they were actually thrown down from somewhere high up?”

Skull: “What, y’mean like a skyscraper? Uhh, there ain’t any of those around here, I don’t think.”

timrodresized: I have no idea what the fuck he’s talking about, there are a TON of tall buildings in Shibuya.

timrodresized: I hate that they treat the player like an idiot who can’t process even the smallest plot threads without having it explained to them. There’s times when over-explaining things makes sense - like when you’re doing a story in a setting where they have stuff that doesn’t exist in the real world and the reader needs to understand how certain things work.

timrodresized: They could have cut a bunch of dialogue and just had the bank fly overhead.

Morgana: " ‘Kaneshiro doesn’t leave any tracks,’ huh? Figures it’d be floating."

Panther: “So, how do we get up there? Can you turn into a helicopter, Morgana?”

timrodresized: You’ll notice that Ann slips up on Morgana’s codename here, and even the writers didn’t realize it. This is why most writers will either use a character’s codename exclusively (see: Metal Gear Solid, Golgo 13) if they have one, because this kind of thing is a pain in the ass to memorize.

Morgana: “No… just a car.”

timrodresized: Read: He’s not Doraemon. Doraemon would’ve pulled out an F-22 from that internal compartment of his that is somehow a five-seater.

Morgana: “I mean, I’m not a cat at all!”

Fox: “This may be the limit of what we can do today.”

Skull: “We gotta find a way to get up there…”

Panther: “Let’s think about it some more tomorrow, okay?”

Morgana: “All right, we should get out of here for now! Run for it!”

timrodresized: I also don’t know why they’re going to so much trouble to introduce this palace when it’s basically a throwaway.

timrodresized: We know who she is! We met her not even a day ago! You might think this is a thing they put in for people who had to put the game down for a while, but they have a story synopsis that already exists in the menu - complete with character profiles.

Morgana: “Shady connections…”

timrodresized: We’re apparently too tired to grip and sip, but not to study.

timrodresized: This gets us to Knowledge 4, one day behind schedule - though again, I’m not sure if that’s a typo on the guide’s part or not.

Makoto: “About those Phantom Thieves, I mean. If Dad were still alive…”

timrodresized: Just like Tatsuya and Katsuya, Makoto’s parents are dead. Now if only she was half the character Tatsuya is in Eternal Punishment…

Makoto: “Sorry, I… I shouldn’t bring this up while we’re eating.”

Sae: “It’s okay. Keep going.”

Makoto: “I just wonder if he would’ve been on their side… that’s all…”

Makoto: “That’s not-”

Sae: “You don’t have to do a single thing, and you’re provided with food, clothes, and a home… I’ve had no time to think on such ridiculous thoughts. Would Dad have been happy with them? I don’t care. He died upholding some lofty sense of righteousness, leaving all his responsibilities on us.”

timrodresized: Sae is kind of a bitch.

Makoto: “A-all I was trying to say was-”

timrodresized: Have I mentioned that in the original draft of the script, Joker was meant to be staying with Sae and Makoto?

Sae: “Isn’t it about time you grew up and acknowledged our situation!? Right now, you’re useless to me. All you do is eat away at my life.”

Sae: “…I’ll be eating dinner out from tomorrow on.”

timrodresized: I miss when the cop character really only wanted to be a pastry chef and baked cakes for his younger brother.

Usami: “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.”

timrodresized: Usami strikes me as one of those people who has all of their money in an alternative cryptocurrency based around something stupid.

Usami: “…Speaking of, there’s another kind of metal that’s very valuable in its own way. They’re called minor metals, and they’re used in many electronics.”

timrodresized: I thought she was talking about rare earth metals and that this was one of those weird Katakana transliterations that got taken literally, but no.

timrodresized: Basically, all rare earth metals are minor metals, but not all minor metals are considered rare earths. As an example, titanium is considered a minor metal but not normally considered a rare earth.

Usami: “In fact, most of you probably have some on your person right now. In your pockets, in your purses… were you listening, Takamaki-san? Give me one example of something most of you have that contains minor metals.”

Ann: “Huh!? Oh, uh, yeah! I mean-”

Morgana: “Hey, Lady Ann is obviously panicking! Be a good guy and help her out!”

Ann: “Wow, I don’t know at all… sorry, Akira, can you help me out? Something that uses minor metals… and all of us have something like that on us…?”

timrodresized: As much as Ann strikes me as the kind of person who would jump for some dumb bullshit like “healing rare earth lipstick”, it’s her phone.

Ann: “My smartphone…? Oh yeah, she said something about electronics, right? So the answer must be my smartphone!”

timrodresized: Who even says “smartphone” in that context anymore? I mean, even in 2016 people would just say “my phone”.

Usami: “Precisely. A lot of minor metals are excavated in China. Some countries simply produce more than others. 90% of the minor metals used in Japan are imported.”

Usami: “But a lot of the recyclable trash we throw away contains minor metals too. In other words, a junkyard is much more valuable than someone else’s heart.”

Ann: “Phew, thanks for the help!”

timrodresized: This gives us two points to knowledge and two points to Ann’s confidant.

Ann: “Are we out of luck?”

Morgana: “It’s no fair his palace is up in the sky…”

Yusuke: “If only we could contact the real Kaneshiro…”

Makoto: “Nothing in particular. I just saw you all together here.”

Ryuji: “That so?”

Makoto: “You seem to be having quite a bit of trouble.”

Ann: “So you’re here to check up on us? You may be the student council president, but when it comes to what we do, you’re useless.”

Makoto: “Useless?”

timrodresized: Cue flashback to a scene we just got done with for… what is this, the third time now?

Yusuke: “To be frank, yes.”

Ann: “Just stay on your high horse and watch. Or do you wanna eavesdrop, since you’re so good at it?”

Makoto: “… So you wish to get in contact with Kaneshiro. That is what you were just discussing, weren’t you? It seemed you just needed to find out where he is.”

timrodresized: I like that she responds to Ann claiming she’s an annoying eavesdropper… by being an annoying eavesdropper. Also, wait a second… no one has said Kaneshiro’s name and we haven’t seen any contact between Joker and Makoto since then. How does she know his name?

Ryuji: “Hey, you don’t gotta answer her honestly!”

timrodresized: Double flashback! To the same scene, no less! I wonder if the writers got bonuses every time they stuck in pointless extra dialog.

timrodresized: What you are about to witness is Makoto being the smart girl.

Ryuji: “What was that?”

Makoto: “Fine. I’ll help you meet Kaneshiro.”

Yusuke: “What exactly is she planning on doing?”

Ryuji: “She had a dead-serious look in her eyes…”

Yusuke: “Does this mean she has an idea as to where Kaneshiro might be?”

Ann: “I highly doubt that.”

Morgana: “I didn’t like her stern face…”

Makoto: “Just stay on the phone and listen. Make sure you record the call as well.”

Ann: “Huh? Who is it?”

Makoto: “Do you guys know Kaneshiro?”

timrodresized: SMART GIRL

Ryuji: “That idiot! What’s she doin’!?”

Makoto: “I heard I could find someone named Kaneshiro if I came to Central Street.”

timrodresized: SO VERY SMART

Ann: “Central Street!”

Makoto: “He’s blackmailing the students of Shujin Academy, is he not? Tell him if he doesn’t want me talking to the police about it, he’d better agree to meet with me.”

timrodresized: She’s the smart girl.

Morgana: “It’s the guys who messed with us the other day! So they were connected to Kaneshiro!”

timrodresized: No fucking shit! Can you imagine if during the bomb sequence in Innocent Sin, Tatsuya and Maya took like five minutes to wonder whether Sudou was behind it?

Ann: “She still on!?”

timrodresized: Unlike the US, where even before the gig economy taxis were fairly cheap, in Japan they’re so expensive that high schoolers probably wouldn’t be able to afford the rates for more than a very short trip.

timrodresized: Even with things like Uber and Lyft, taxis are still incredibly expensive due to Japan having very strict regulations on ride-sharing. In fact, Uber is just now starting to offer ride-shares in Tokyo, and they’re still being forced to work with the existing cab companies.

timrodresized: I get that Ryuji isn’t supposed to be the smart one, but there’s a difference between stupidity and having no sense of self-preservation.

Ann: “Ryuji!”

Ryuji: “Hurry up and get in!”

timrodresized: Kaneshiro is fat (because of course he is, this is Atlus and fat people have to be evil) and also has a comically tiny face. The Persona 5 anime tried to fix this to mixed results. The wiki has a photo of the guy who played Kaneshiro in the stage play and honestly he’s the only one that looks like an actual yakuza and not a caricature.

timrodresized: I also don’t get why it is that the yakuza are allowed to say fuck, but Ryuji isn’t.

Yusuke: “Niijima-san!”

Ryuji: “What the hell’d you to do her!?”

Kaneshiro: “Ohh, I get it. You got followed, you dumbshits!”

timrodresized: Three million yen is a bit under $30,000 - which is way overpriced. You can get bags made of actual crocodile for somewhere between $2000 and $3000 in the US… not that you should, because you know there’s some animal cruelty going on there. Plus they’re ugly.

Kaneshiro: “Better thank those guys.”

Ryuji: “What?”

Kaneshiro: “It’s you goddamn brats sniffing around like dogs and barging in here like you own the joint! See this empty space? I’m so pissed that now there’s a three million yen gap there.”

Kaneshiro: “It pisses me off even more if I don’t fill it up. I’m a perfectionist. So, good luck.”

timrodresized: I also don’t get why people with briefcases full of money is a thing. I had a briefcase once, shit’s annoying to lug around. I just donated it to a thrift store, actually.

Yusuke: “What is that supposed to mean?”

Makoto: “That’s-”

timrodresized: Oh no, a photo of some high school kids standing by a cart with what appears to be some cheap wine and an ashtray on it! The horror!

timrodresized: I remember when I was in college I roomed with some idiot freshmen (both underage) who kept individual gallon jugs of cheap vodka out in the open. In front of a window, no less.

Kaneshiro: “Ahh… this is so hilarious. I feed on dumbshits like you… understand, pretty little student council president?”

Kaneshiro: “Now listen up. Run your mouth to the police, and I’ll break all of you, starting with your families. I want to give you the usual month, but well, you have such a large group here…”

Kaneshiro: “Three weeks. Bring three million yen by then. No less. Summer bonuses are right around the corner, you know? It’ll be easy if you beg your mommies and daddies.”

Ryuji: “What!? To hell with that!”

timrodresized: Whoa there, hold on. Fun? There’s actual fun in this game? Where?

Morgana: “Don’t bother with him. Makoto’s safety is more important right now.”

timrodresized: No wait seriously where’s the fucking fun? All I’ve done for the last probably five hours is just cutscenes and confidant events.

Makoto: “I didn’t mean to drag you in like this…”

Ryuji: “For real.”

Makoto: “I was stupid…”

timrodresized: She’s the smart girl.

Yusuke: “I must agree. You should’ve easily imagined this happening.”

Ann: “Hey, Yusuke…”

Makoto: “I was so caught up in trying to be useful…”

Ryuji: “All right, enough of the blame game! What’s done is done.”

Makoto: “I’m going to cause trouble for Sis too…”

Ann: “Sis?”

Makoto: “My older sister has a commendable job, and she’s a much more remarkable person than me… a lot happened after we lost our father three years ago, so it’s just us living together… but I’m still a child, so all I am is a burden to her…”

Makoto: “I just wanted to be useful in some way to someone…”

Ryuji: “Y’know, I might not get your whole situation, but ain’t it a bit off saying that you’re useless to her?”

Makoto: “It’s the truth though… in particular, I have to apologize for what happened to you.”

Ann: “Eh?”

timrodresized: Makoto just admitted that she did in fact know about Kamoshida the entire time and didn’t do anything, exactly as Ann suspected. Facing consequences for your actions? That’s only for “shitty adults”.

Makoto: “People like me… must really be what others call scum of the earth.”

timrodresized: But yeah, this kind of thing is why when I played the base game, I more or less skimmed the cutscenes that weren’t confidant events where I had to avoid a permafuck.

Ann: “Real scum wouldn’t call themselves that.”

Makoto: “…Huh?”

Ann: “I’m the same. It’s just like you said before: I was closest to Shiho, but I didn’t do anything… besides, Kamoshida’s the one to blame. Shiho understands that… and I do too.”

timrodresized: Here’s what I don’t get though, right? The game goes through fucking hoops to defang everything, but for some reason doesn’t defang the one thing where it would kind of make sense to do that.

timrodresized: Hell, have a thing where Makoto explains that she tried to have something done about Kamoshida, except Sae wouldn’t listen and the principal threatened her with expulsion if she ever said anything.

Makoto: “Takamaki-san…”

Makoto: “Me either?”

Yusuke: “And that’s why you were so reckless?”

Ann: “We won’t let anyone fall victim again. Now, what should we do from here?”

Makoto: “I’ll do something about the money! So can we please just drop the case with Kaneshiro?”

timrodresized: Do what, exactly? Go to your sister?

Ryuji: “No can do. We’re all caught up in this.”

Yusuke: “We can’t have you rushing things on your own anymore and making the situation worse.”

Ryuji: “If only we could do something about that bank…”

Yusuke: “Ryuji!”

Makoto: “Bank?”

Morgana: “Oh, right, the bank! She isn’t useless at all! She may be our key in! Hear me out, you guys!”

Ann: “Our key in? What do you mean?”

Makoto: “A cat? Um… are you all okay?”

Morgana: “We’ve all become Kaneshiro’s targets. That means we’ve become customers of Kaneshiro’s bank!”

timrodresized: So, okay, where does Makoto come into this? If you’re all “customers” at the bank, why do you need her?

Yusuke: “I see. The reason why we couldn’t enter before was because we weren’t considered his customers…”

Morgana: "And wouldn’t you say that she in particular is a special customer?

timrodresized: Oh, I get it! He’s thirsty for Makoto as well, because he thirsts for human women in general and not just Ann.

Ryuji: “Whoa, I don’t follow this at all…”

Yusuke: “She risked her life doing something so reckless. At the very least, she has the right to know. Won’t you come with us?”

Makoto: “What? …Wait. To where?”

Ryuji: “Yeah, where are we goin’?”

Ann: “Beats me…”

Panther: “That’s Morgana, the cat that was in Akira’s bag. This is what happens when we come here.”

timrodresized: Another slip on the codename.

Makoto: “That voice… Takamaki-san? Where are we?”

Panther: “We’re inside Kaneshiro’s… well, the ‘world’ inside his heart.”

Makoto: “…What?”

Fox: “It’s another reality in which Kaneshiro’s distorted desires have materialized.”

Makoto: “…Another reality? It’s floating in the air!? Th-this is reality!? My goodness…”

timrodresized: Smart girl switch… activate! Divert all power from Ann and Ryuji!

Makoto: “A reality that one’s heart shows… is it like the application of optical illusions in social cognitive psychology?”

Panther: “That’s something we have no idea about…”

Makoto: “That may be like overwriting their cognition… I think I kind of get the logic behind it…”

timrodresized: Makoto instantly gets everything, and I understand why - it’s specifically to avoid the kind of shit we saw in Two Brothers. I still feel like it’s kind of a characterization flaw, which this game is full of.

Skull: “Ain’t she more amazing than you?”

Morgana: “W-We’re about the same!”

Makoto: “Then, does that mean there’s an ATM version of myself somewhere in this world too?”

Morgana: “Perhaps. Regardless, we can change Kaneshiro’s heart and make him confess if we steal his Treasure… if it all goes well, that is.”

Skull: “We’ll make it go well. Everyone’ll notice us for sure if we take someone like Kaneshiro down!”

Fox: “Our justice will also become resolute.”

Panther: “Think we’d be able to give courage to those in need if it happens?”

Makoto: “For the sake of those in need, huh… you sound like my father.”

Panther: “Your father?”

Makoto: “…No, don’t mind me. You want to go to that bank, right? Let’s go then. If I’ve become a customer of that bank, then they’ll have to let me in.”

Morgana: “It’s just as I calculated.”

timrodresized: What about this was calculated? What about ANY of this was calculated? This is like that one scene in Death Note where after a whole bunch of events entirely dependent on luck, Light picks up the Death Note and does the whole “JUST AS ACCORDING TO KEIKAKU*” thing.

*TL note: Keikaku means plan

timrodresized: No, not really. I haven’t physically been to the bank in over a year, but I know they definitely don’t offer after-hours service. It’s probably different in Japan, but with every bank I’ve seen in the US they expect you to mostly use online banking unless you’re depositing or withdrawing cash or like… cashing in a physical savings bond or something.

Makoto: “I thought that I’d be able to get in since I have the same identity as such customers. I’m Kaneshiro’s source of revenue, after all.”

Fox: “Ah, that makes sense.”

timrodresized: I mean, it does, but at the same time it doesn’t.

Panther: “But wow… this place is huge.”

Skull: “I rarely gotta go to the bank, so… this’s makin’ me kinda nervous.”

Panther: “Being in a bank with costumes like these is so obvious - we’re totally robbers.”

timrodresized: I dunno, it could be one of those metaphors for capitalism.

Skull: “You got that right…”

Morgana: “It seems there will be a lot of Shadows from here on.”

Makoto: “Huh? What’s that about?”

timrodresized: I’m surprised her answer wasn’t like “Shadows? You mean like the term from Jungian psychology?”

Panther: “Enemies attack us here.”

Makoto: “I see… I’ve trained in aikido. Dont worry; I can defend myself.”

timrodresized: Someday, I want to see a character in an RPG where the party goes “Can you fight?” and the character just goes “Yeah, I got a sock full of quarters” and their entire weapon specialty is just improvised bludgeons.

timrodresized: Have a weapon upgrade mechanic where they upgrade by finding a bigger sock and filling it with more quarters. The final upgrade is a pair of military-grade carbon fiber thigh highs full of half-dollar coins.

Morgana: “Self-defense won’t do much good against Shadows, but then again, it’s better than nothing.”

timrodresized: I wound up unintentionally posting the update early, and I have to record the rest of 6/20 (due to stopping here because I thought I had permafucked) so I’ll just stop here since everyone already read this.

timrodresized: Next time, we’ll go in to Kaneshiro’s palace, do another godawful Maruki confidant, and then reload pool a bunch until I get knowledge points in order to resolve a permafuck before it happens.

Less this and more “every four years you throw out every last scrap of clothing and replace it with new ones”.

Credit where it is due; this kinda rules.

The Emperor! L’Empereur! Symbolic of everything Masculine, representing power and protection, the realization and conviction intertwined. The long white beard means wisdom, the orb’d staff means dominion, and the throne represents how the Emperor is the ultimate of male ego. The world is his.

Obviously, for a soft gay boy like Yusuke, this is a little how you say… off from how he is, but I can see it. Yusuke coming into his own and becoming the Emperor as he interacts with Joker (and as you’ve put it, getting out of the closet). It makes sense. And like with all P5 tarot, this one is a little Shadow-y and twisted… though less so than the others have been. The Emperor is smokin’, which isn’t what one would consider a wise action.

Just kinda bubbles down into a vat of bile and anger I’m glad I’m writing this post at 1 in the morning cause if I was more mentally cognizant I’d be screaming what the fuck is wrong with this writer!?

… credit where it is due, trolling Mishima about the journalist you’re sending his way is fucking hilarious.

Honestly with how meaty these games are it’s a fucking miracle that the margin of error isn’t larger.

That’s a shame because honestly this one feels pretty cool. The entire city is his and he lives atop it in a floating vault of riches. That’s pretty distorted!

This is extremely values dissonance here; underage drinking and drug use would destroy their lives. Definitely should have found a way to get that across in the localization.

Oops the update kinda cuts off at Ryuji being confused by basic “Makoto is connected to a special investigator with the police” logic pathing. Also how the fuck is Makoto considered best girl again what??? I don’t… I mean I’m AWARE of her Phantom Thief appearance and I get liking that, that rules, but she’s kind of… a miserable fuck head? And again she… explicitly knew Kamoshida was beating and raping children and didn’t do SHIT?!

Yeah, I kind of accidentally posted it early, before I was ready. I had it marked for deletion but you apparently read it before it got deleted. It should be gone soon and I’ll have the full thing out probably in a couple of days - I still have recording to do because the 20th is one of those days that never ends.

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If the characters had their Persona powers outside the Metaverse, then while Ryuji was comically failing to hail a taxi, Morgana would have been like “Shouganai na…” and transformed into the cat-bus in the middle of the road, and everybody would have piled in and had a wacky car chase to save Makoto. I can’t decide if, while spinning the wheel wildly and sending cars careening off the road, Joker should be doing his cool Phantom Thief crime boy grin or have a stoic John Persona face.

He’d start off grinning, and then go stoic when he realizes that he probably can’t apply time driving a magical cat-bus to the required training hours to get a driver’s license.

Anyway, since it looks like everyone read the last update, I just “finished” it with what I had recorded. The 20th will be split into two parts, which is fine because there’s another long cutscene coming up and then we have five days until we actually do the dungeon so it’ll split more evenly.

Oh hey since you’re the person who likes Persona most that I know; this might be of interest to you.

Click Here for Update 33

timrodresized: As soon as we enter the bank, we get met with a bunch of guards.

Panther: “I had a feeling this would happen.”

Makoto: “Come at us!”

Skull: “No no! Wait!”

Fox: “She’s one of Kaneshiro’s customers.”

Makoto: “I’d like to speak with the bank president.”

Makoto: “That voice… it’s Kaneshiro!”

Ryuji: “Yo, banks have presidents?”

timrodresized: Well yeah, most banks are what’s called a C-corporation, which mandates that there be a president, among a few other things.

Fox: “Yes, but not the political sorts - in theory.”

timrodresized: There’s nothing in this main room apart from a bunch of ATMs depositing money - not even any items to steal.

timrodresized: And here’s Kaneshiro’s shadow, which is just him but purple. I don’t know why he’s purple - in the anime, his shadow just has the moustache and the yellow eyes but isn’t purple.

Kaneshadow: “It must be quite tough gathering so much money. I’d be willing to give you a loan, you know.”

Skull: “You gonna call it off then?”

Kaneshadow: “No - a loan. The interest rate is ten percent a day.”

Panther: “Ten percent interest a day… um… uh… that means… one day is…”

Makoto: “It’s three hundred thousand yen.”

Kaneshadow: “There’s no need to be alarmed. I have a more manageable option for people like you.”

Makoto: “That was your plan from the beginning, wasn’t it?”

timrodresized: I like that he’s basically got the exact same expression on his face that Hitler did in Innocent Sin.

Kaneshadow: “Please don’t underestimate our intelligence network. My, what wonderful goods have come falling into my lap.”

Panther: “Don’t be ridiculous!”

Kaneshadow: “Young women are such great assets. They lack strength - be it social, physical, or mental. It’s as if they only exist to be devoured by the strong. That just might be the rule since the dawn of history.”

timrodresized: This is where you can start to tell that the writers probably wound up just kind of gluing multiple drafts of the plot together to meet a deadline, same as Ni no Kuni 2.

timrodresized: Originally, the bosses were supposed to be based on the seven deadly sins. This is why there’s seven dungeons in the base game, plus the final one.

timrodresized: See if you can guess which sin Kaneshiro is supposed to represent.

Fox: “You truly are despicable…”

Skull: “You better be ready, Kaneshiro! We’re gonna snatch your Treasure from you!”

Kaneshadow: “Don’t make me laugh, you petty thieves. My citadel has the highest security installed in it.”

obs64 2020-12-31 20-39-27-42

timrodresized: You’ll notice that the Sui-ki (the purple oni) isn’t here yet - instead, we’ve got two regular Oni to fight.

timrodresized: In the base game, Oni were supposed to teach you about Technicals - they’re the first enemy we’ve run into that does not have a weakness. They resist Physical and Gun, but are neutral to everything else.

timrodresized: So let’s play along with that. Joker goes first and freezes one. This opens the Oni up to physical damage, which Ryuji does for a technical… that I forgot to capture.

timrodresized: The thing is, you ultimately don’t NEED technicals to efficiently defeat them. In fact, Ann hits harder without a technical than Ryuji did with one.

timrodresized: This time, Yusuke freezes one and Joker follows up with Frei for a technical.

timrodresized: Again, here’s the problem. That last hit Ann did was an Agilao. This is a regular Agi, and she’s still out-damaging the technical hits.

timrodresized: Another two Oni. You can guess how this goes.

timrodresized: Well yeah, that’s kind of how the whole Megami Tensei franchise up until Persona 1 worked, though you paid them in Magnetite instead of money.

Makoto: “Why did the security guards turn into monsters!? And what were those supernatural powers!? Could those have been the Personas you mentioned!?”

timrodresized: Makoto somehow pulled off three interrobangs in three consecutive sentences. I didn’t think I’d ever see that outside of an Allanson game.

Morgana: “Does now really look like the time to be asking about that!? We need to retreat! Makoto, make sure you don’t get separated from us!”

Makoto: “Guys!”

Kaneshadow: “Those would be my words. However, I do thank you for providing me with such wonderful goods. …It’s time you disappear.”

Kaneshadow: “Managing a bank is tough as it is. So it’s my policy to kill clients who are more trouble than they’re worth. Having one impertinent brat disappear is enough to set an example in that other world.”

Makoto: “Please stop!”

Kaneshadow: “Oh, I wouldn’t damage an asset like you. They’re dead men walking, but you’ll be just fine. Your sister is quite a beauty though. I’ll make sure to make her my personal slave.”

timrodresized: Naturally it has to go right into a sex thing. I’m not sure that Hashino knows how to write any other kind of villain.

Kaneshadow: “Once I get bored, I’ll just sell her off. Oh, poor Sis… she could’ve been successful, if only her younger sister wasn’t so dumb.”

Makoto: “My sister has nothing to do with this!”

Kaneshadow: “Then you better start taking customers tomorrow. All you gotta do is endure it and do as you’re told.”

timrodresized: So, have you guessed which deadly sin Kaneshiro is supposed to represent?

Makoto: “Endure it… do as I’m told…”

Kaneshadow: “You’ll earn three million yen in no time. Although, your life and everything along with it will be a complete wreck by then! Gwahahahahahaha!”

timrodresized: Kaneshiro is even more cartoonish than Kamoshida was.

timrodresized: If it wasn’t already clear that Makoto is just a female Tatsuya, this should make it pretty clear. The design for Johanna (her Persona) is also pretty close to the Final Fantasy 13 motorcycle-Shiva design.

timrodresized: Even Ryuji’s like “There’s no way someone could be so boring that their Persona is a motorcycle.”

timrodresized: Naturally she also has to do the Akira motorcycle slide because I mean, why not? She’s already enough of a ripoff as-is.

timrodresized: Oh, right. What sin Kaneshiro represents. The trophy for clearing the bank is called “Bank of Gluttony: Cleaned Out”.

NEW PERSONA: JOHANNA

Origin: Medieval European Fiction

Persona 5 Original

Fictional character likely created with the purpose of harming the image of the Catholic church. Supposedly a woman who disguised herself as a man in order to become the Pope, then died shortly after her gender was revealed.

timrodresized: I should mention that Johanna has been proven to be entirely fictional in almost the exact same way the majority of the Dragonball Z movies were determined to be non-canon: basically, there’s concrete evidence of there being a pope that wasn’t her at all the times she was supposedly active within the church. She wasn’t even an Antipope, because even those have been accounted for.

timrodresized: Anyway, she’s kind of an all-rounder Persona who has a little bit of everything: she specializes in Nuclear damage but also has support skills, buffs, debuffs, and even physical skills. What stops her from being this game’s Naoto (who learned a lot of high-tier spells but not the damage modifiers for them) is that she does get Nuke Boost and Nuke Amp at higher levels.

timrodresized: I have her open with Makajama, which inflicts Persona 5’s equivalent of Silence, blocking anyone affected by it from using spells or physical skills.

timrodresized: Joker then inflicts a metric shitload of damage with Matador.

timrodresized: I was so sure I was going to get Makoto’s finisher screen on this first fight.

timrodresized: Unfortunately, no.

Panther: “But how are we getting out?”

Queen: “There’s only one exit, right?”

Skull: “So, you’re totally the Fist of the Phantom Star now, huh.”

Queen: “Do you want to get smacked?”

timrodresized: This, by the way, is the only time you’ll ever actually see Makoto use her Persona as a mode of transportation. Everywhere else, she either walks or rides Morgana.

Skull: “Daaamn…”

Morgana: “Okay, we have a path!”

Ryuji: “That was no aikido - that was some hardcore ass whoopin’!”

Ann: “I am SO not pissing her off… I feel like she’ll rip off my arm.”

Yusuke: “She does exude that aura.”

Makoto: “…Oh, stop it! This is the most exhausted I’ve ever gotten these past few years. But… it felt pretty great.”

Makoto: “I never thought I’d become part of the Phantom Thieves I was after. Sis might faint if she found out.”

Yusuke: “You mentioned her earlier.”

Makoto: “She’s a prosecutor for the district - and she’s investigating the Phantom Thieves.”

Ryuji: “Wait, ain’t that bad!?”

Makoto: “No need to worry. A normal investigation would never lead them to a world like that. Then again, it must’ve been fate for this to happen…”

Ann: “What do you mean?”

Makoto: “I can’t be like my sister. I had a feeling that there’d come a time when we wouldn’t see eye to eye anymore. I’m thankful to have a sister who works so hard, but… there are times I feel sorry for her too. And after hearing my Persona’s voice, I clearly understand how I feel now.”

Yusuke: “It appears you’re not as reserved as you make yourself seem.”

Makoto: “I was just doing whatever the adults told me to.”

timrodresized: The game is really, really trying its hardest to get you to like Makoto.

Ryuji: “Sounds good to me! We’ve needed someone like that for a while now!”

Makoto: “I’d be honored if I can help out.”

Ann: “We had way too much testosterone anyway, so I feel much better hav-”

timrodresized: We have all the male party members already. Something tells me that if he could’ve gotten away with it without being accused of making a harem anime, Hashino would’ve made Yusuke and Ryuji female as well.

timrodresized: God dammit I already did the Hotel Mario thing, and I know this because it was in my Youtube watch history when I looked it up.

Makoto: “So the Kaneshiro over here doesn’t know what happened inside the Palace.”

Morgana: “That’s right, but his Palace will be affected if the real Kaneshiro’s cognition changes. We can’t be lax.”

Makoto: “It seems it’d be best to avoid unnecessary contact with him until then.”

Ryuji: “Three weeks left, huh…”

Yusuke: “There’s that security system too.”

Ann: “But if we pull this off, it’ll definitely be great!”

Makoto: “We’ll crush him like a fly. I’ll make him regret making me angry…”

timrodresized: Funny she should say that.

Ryuji: “Anyways, let’s begin our operation tomorrow!”

Ann: “First, we need to secure a route to the Treasure like always.”

Morgana: “You guys are finally starting to get used to this.”

Makoto: “I’ll be waiting for the call to meet up.”

timrodresized: Horny anime games about boats - 2. Horny anime games about motorcycles - 0. Checkmate, motorcycles.

timrodresized: She’s right about one thing there.

Morgana: “Well, we were at odds with each other until just a little while ago… but Ryuji’s totally right. We need to work together to overcome this!”

timrodresized: We spend the night crafting lockpicks for proficiency. I’m not sure how many locked chests there are in Kaneshiro’s palace, but we should have enough.

timrodresized: By the way, this is where I’m really glad I didn’t use the “regular” 100% walkthrough, because as it turns out the regular 100% route does reload for bonus stats… and as you’ll see in a bit, I had enough of that shit by the time I finished recording for this update.

Morgana: “You know, I can turn into a car too, so it’s like… I feel a sense of familiarity?”

Morgana: “Uh, no. I’m supposed to be human! Well, motorcycles are nice too, but it can’t carry large numbers of people. I really am special after… all… huh?”

Morgana: “Carry…? No… take somewhere? Something just crossed my mind… it’s no use. I can’t remember at all…”

Morgana: “Eh. There’s nothing I can do about it if I can’t remember. I need to concentrate on Kaneshiro for now. Unlike you guys, Makoto’s clever, so we can expect great things from her.”

Morgana: “But Akira, you really do have something special.”

timrodresized: This is why I don’t use Morgana. By the time he gets any useful abilities, we’ll have already maxed out Ryuji and Ann (even on this slower route) and probably be pretty close to maxing out Yusuke and Makoto.

timrodresized: That’s kind of a problem with the way this game is designed: you get a couple of party members so late into the game that everyone else is maxed out and there’s not much of a reason to switch away from them.

Morgana: “I know! After we deal with Kaneshiro, I should consult her about Mementos too. I’m sure Makoto’s brain can-”

timrodresized: How would she even - she’s never even been there!

timrodresized: Joker having exactly the same reaction I would.

Morgana: “… We got Yusuke, and now Makoto… this guy has quite the luck… could there be some reason for it? Nah, that can’t be.”

Makoto: “Oh no, it isn’t a problem… I actually find it refreshing to be asked to the student council room. Although it’s somewhat nerve-wracking as well.”

Ann: “…I think I’m a bit nervous myself. Anyway, um… I wanted to apologize. I’m… really sorry for everything.”

Makoto: “What do you mean…?”

Ann: “You know how I blamed you for Kamoshida’s sexual harassment? Well, I wanted to apologize for that… I’ve honestly been meaning to this whole time.”

Makoto: “Takamaki-san…”

Ann: “I realized later that Shiho was calling out for me… and I wasn’t there to help her… I didn’t want to admit my own guilt… so I took it out on you, Niijima-senpai. I’m… very sorry.”

Makoto: “In fact, I think the two of us are pretty similar.”

Ann: “Huh…?”

Makoto: “I was unable to save anyone. Not Suzui-san, and not any of Kaneshiro’s victims. I kept telling myself I wasn’t at fault because I was simply following orders… but that was all a lie.”

timrodresized: Makoto’s only… what, 70 years too late to use the Nuremberg defense?

Makoto: “It felt like I would be admitting my own worthlessness had I not shifted the blame off of myself. Fear of that worthlessness was probably why I acted so harshly toward you and your friends… I’m deeply sorry as well.”

Makoto: “Even…? chuckle You’re right… how about we leave this conversation in the past?”

timrodresized: Funny, I always pictured Makoto as more of a Knuckles than a Sonic. They’ve got that same aesthetic going on.

Ann: “Mm-hm! Oh, but… one more thing. You’re not worthless, Niijima-senpai. You were a bit reckless, but you’re the reason we found a way into Kaneshiro’s Palace. And you even obtained the power to change people’s hearts. You did that all yourself, Niijima-senpai.”

Makoto: “That way of thinking is very much like you, Takamaki-san. When you confronted me about Suzui-san, I realized how dishonest and small I was. You’re always very direct… that’s what helped me finally realize the error of my ways.”

Makoto: “It turns out I’m a little slow on the uptake at times. Hey… can I call you Ann?”

timrodresized: This sentence makes no sense in English until you realize what she’s asking to do is talk to her like a friend would.

Ann: “Um, yeah! I… I’m going to do the same, M-M-Makoto… rgh, that’s so embarrassing!”

Makoto: “How about we get something to eat before we go home for the night?”

Ann: “Ooh, I know a place! There’s a crepe shop at Central Street that totally stuffs their crepes!”

Makoto: “Do you want to split one?”

timrodresized: On this day, we get good RNG for some reason.

timrodresized: We get a chalk dodge. This gives us three points to Charm, meaning that we’re now a full nine points beyond where we’re supposed to be.

timrodresized: Today, we have a lot of shopping to do. I wound up doing it in a way that wasn’t totally optimal - one thing the game doesn’t tell you is that the flower shop there is only open at night. They kind of make it seem like a 24-7 thing.

timrodresized: In addition to the flower shop, there’s also a bookstore in Shinjuku.

timrodresized: Joker just goes “That’s okay, I’m not horny.” while Morgana reaches out to try and grab the latest volume of Busty Catgirls Monthly.

timrodresized: The first book is unimportant - Flowerpedia just gives you more hints when working at the garden store in Shibuya, and I believe we’re done working there.

timrodresized: What we’re here for is that second book, The Craft of Cinema. It… I believe doubles the amount of stat gains you get from watching DVDs and watching movies at the theater, and since we’re going to be doing a lot of both we want this now.

timrodresized: We also wind up buying ABCs of Crafting, though I also grabbed Flowerpedia just in case that trophy for reading all the books is still in the game.

timrodresized: As it turns out, by the way, you have to pay twice when going to a non-Shibuya, non-Aoyama destination: once when you go and a second time when you leave. If we stop by the crepe shop (which we saw during Ann’s confidant) Ann and Makoto are in fact there.

Ann: “Oh, how about some pudding a la mode? I’ll give you my tip on the best way to enjoy it!”

timrodresized: Joker already knows the best way to enjoy pudding. It’s with Yusuke.

Ann: “Oh, Akira? Did you come here to eat some crepes too?”

Makoto: “Really? You guys sure love going places like this…”

Ann: “I’ll be here spending time with Makoto today, so just let us know if we’re meeting up! We’ll head over as soon as we finish eating our crepes!”

timrodresized: We also have to borrow a bootleg of 1990s TV drama ER, which I imagine is a lot like that Turkish version of The Sopranos I saw on my Twitter TL a few days ago.

timrodresized: Unfortunately, today’s another Maruki day.

Maruki: “Or will it!? Today’s your lucky day! Please take a look at what’s on this table!”

Maruki: “I thought I’d get a surprise for you, since you’ve been kind enough to indulge me all this time. Go ahead, enjoy!”

timrodresized: Unfortunately, we have to pick the “nice” answer because confidant points. Honestly, I feel like confidant points for dialog was just kind of a bad idea.

Maruki: “Go on, don’t be shy! I’ve got enough for seconds, too!”

Maruki: “Oh, I know. As long as we’re talking about cookies… they actually reminded me about this psychological experiment.”

timrodresized: Fucker thinks he’s Professor Layton now.

Maruki: “The scientists prepared two containers, and put the same kind of cookies in both of them. In one container, they put only one cookie. But the other one was filled with cookies - ten of them.”

Maruki: “Which container’s cookies were marked as tasting better? Any guesses?”

timrodresized: What he’s talking about is a 1975 study by Stephen Worchel, Jerry Lee, and Akanbi Adewole out of the University of Southern Maine. That study was significantly different than how Maruki describes it.

timrodresized: In that study, the researchers ran three groups: one who got a jar with ten cookies, one that got a jar with two, and then a third group where they gave them ten cookies and then removed eight of them from the jar. I don’t know if there was a reason for this, but all 200 of the participants were women.

timrodresized: In the actual study, this was… sort of true. The group that got the two-cookie jar rated the cookies higher than the group that got the ten-cookie jar. However, the third group - the one that got ten cookies and then had eight removed? They rated theirs the highest.

Maruki: “Correct. Easy to guess, huh? There’s something called the ‘law of scarcity’. It’s about what you’d imagine from the name: people are drawn to things that are more scarce.”

Maruki: “You can see this law in action just by observing how excited people get over limited-edition merchandise.”

timrodresized: If you want a good story about Connecticut ruining everything, Wikipedia actually mentions this on the page for the law of scarcity. In 1983, the Connecticut Leather Company put out this line of dolls called Cabbage Patch Kids.

timrodresized: Cabbage Patch Kids were the hottest toy of 1983 - everyone wanted one, and there wasn’t enough supply to go around. As a result, there were riots at stores. There’s first-hand accounts of it as well.

timrodresized: By the way, the Connecticut Leather Company was the same company that made the Colecovision and Coleco Adam, both of which were contributors to the 80s video game crash. Like I said, Connecticut ruins everything.

Maruki: “Ahaha, I know, right? Don’t you think it’s really fascinating? In becoming aware of scarcity, we trigger our own desires, and cause a change in our cognition…”

Maruki: “Not only that - the effect spreads to our senses, and creates a subjective, observable difference in our reality. Basically, your perceptions can be changed by your cogition or preconceptions.”

Maruki: “It’s all below the conscious level, but it’s really incredible! Incidentally, now that you’ve heard that story… how do you feel about that idea? That your unconscious desires may have changed the taste of the cookie?”

Maruki: “That’s definitely not the usual response. But it’s one I can understand. It probably sounds like an exaggeration, but something about that seems so beautiful to me.”

Maruki: “Maybe the human heart can falter, or be unreliable sometimes… but if this experiment proves anything, it’s that even a simple preconception can be enough to bring someone more joy.”

Maruki: “For example, take that story I just told you… what if you’d eaten that one cookie, and it had been the best cookie of your life? Say I never revealed the trick behind it. That cookie would have remained more delicious than usual. It would have been a subjective truth of your reality.”

timrodresized: See, I don’t know about that. I kind of had this way back in the mid-90s when I had an N64 but a lot of my friends had the PS1 - I remember seeing a friend’s older brother playing through Parasite Eve and being absolutely floored by it.

timrodresized: I specifically remember him playing through the end sequence, and being like “What the hell there’s this crazy floating zombie lady? AND she can light people on fire just by being near them? Holy shit what is this game?”

timrodresized: Now, younger me could never have bought a PS1 - I was too young to have a job yet. In fact, older me has never been able to find a PS1 with a working disc drive and never had any success with the replacement drives. That’s why I have the PSP Go I used for the Persona 1 and Innocent Sin LPs.

timrodresized: Under Maruki’s logic, I’d probably be one of those people who think Parasite Eve was the best game ever. In fact, I’ve never finished it, or even come close.

Maruki: “Right, I’m glad to hear you say that. Basically, what I wanted to say was… if this idea of preconception could be studied further, and actually applied to treating people… I feel like it could help a lot of people. Maybe even more than I could help through counseling.”

Maruki: “Then again, it relies so heavily on perspective. Some people might call it a lie, or see it as running from problems. Still, even if that’s true, I believe that method could save a lot of people.”

Maruki: “Oh, yikes! I’m so sorry! We wound up getting into an academic conversation after all… I really need to watch myself. Whenever I’m talking to you, somehow I always end up going back to my research.”

Maruki: “I truly am grateful for everything you’ve done. Not just because I can get your opinion on these things, either… it’s more like… it’s as if I’m talking to an old friend. Ah, but maybe that’s too personal. After all, this is for the sake of our deal, right? So we say, anyway.”

timrodresized: I have no idea how well this ability works, but I’m confident it is something we will never see unless I run out of SP spamming Megidolaon at the final boss.

Maruki: “Now then, I’d better show you another way to mentally train yourself! What I’m going to teach you today is…”

timrodresized: We know the drill by now. Extra five max SP for Joker.

Maruki: “It was supposed to be a chance for us to relax, but it ended up being another big academic discussion.”

Maruki: “You’re always so kind. You might be a better counselor than I am… I’ve always been like this. I get so hyperfocused on my research, I don’t notice anything else.”

Maruki: “Back when I was a student, people kept warning me about that… oops, there I go rambling again. Sorry, sorry. All right, see you soon.”

timrodresized: The first thing I do is go back to Shinjuku and buy six Mega Fertilizer. This is why we didn’t feed the plant again even though we could’ve - because Mega Fertilizer is that much better. Six is all we’ll need in order to max out Kindness.

timrodresized: Unfortunately, I kind of missed capturing a few lines because I had to reload this part until we got the extra points in Knowledge.

timrodresized: As you can probably tell, it took me six reloads to get the points we needed to avoid a potential permafuck. Because there’s no stopping point, this meant dashboarding out of the game and restarting the entire thing.

timrodresized: Yeah, I did, and we’re going to see her as soon as we’ve done Kaneshiro’s palace and grinded another fuckton of money. This is basically just an announcement that she’s available, so I’ll skip the rest of it.

timrodresized: There’s also some throwaway dialog with Makoto where she asks us if we want to go to the Palace or not. We don’t.

timrodresized: Here, we’ll get to see what the difference between “100%” and “All Confidant Events” is.

timrodresized: I forgot to grab a shot of my actual choice. You could pick “Let’s have some tea” and still get 100% - this would basically be just like the time we had Kawakami over but did not rank up.

timrodresized: However, if you pick the first option…

timrodresized: We can choose where to go. Most confidants have a special non-rank up scene that happens if you bring them to a specific place without ranking up - and for many of them, that involves going to a place unlocked by a different confidant.

timrodresized: In Ann’s case, her special cutscene happens in Harajuku.

timrodresized: I should mention that the reason the other 100% route doesn’t do all of these is because some of them require a specific confidant rank (sometimes with more than one confidant), meaning you’d have to delay certain confidants and not go for 100% as quickly as possible.

Ann: “But all the people are such a pain… what gives them the right to be here!?” Anyway, let’s get through quickly so we don’t get caught by the salespeople!"

Ann: “In any case, there are so many different types of people here. It’s fun just watching them. People might think I’m weird if they see me staring at them alone… but I’m sure it’s fine as long as I’m with you.”

timrodresized: Staring at random people was another Lisa Silverman thing.

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timrodresized: I remember when Persona had a writer who was only very horny for idols as opposed to being a total hack. They should’ve put a Legendary Weapons sidequest in this game and had Ann’s weapon be with Reiji.

timrodresized: Conversation would be Reiji going “Why the fuck would I have a legendary whip, I only use gloves! This doesn’t even make any sense!” and then Ann discovering that someone stuck a legendary whip in Reiji’s back pocket.

timrodresized: Also a scene where Ann meets Lisa and both of them simultaneously go “My own clone! Now both of us will be thirsty for a gay guy!”

timrodresized: We also get some extra points for answering correctly in this scene that we wouldn’t get if we did the generic one.

Ann: “I mean, things are half as fun if you don’t have anyone to share that fun with, right? I wonder what all these people are thinking about right now… some of them might even be sad beneath those happy exteriors, and we’d never even know…”

Ann: “Hey, don’t you get fired up when you’re thinking about helping them out!? Oh, um… never mind. That’s not what we were talking about… oooh, that couple’s in a big fight! The girlfriend’s totally going for the knockout punch!”

timrodresized: This also gets us the first decoration for Joker’s room. You get one from each confidant.

timrodresized: We have the request from Ryuji to go spy on Yamauchi now - and we’re going to do it, but we have some other stuff to do first.

obs64 2020-12-31 21-40-23-02

timrodresized: We also have to feed the goddamn plant. I’m not forgetting this time.

timrodresized: …Wait, what? We weren’t supposed to rank up Kindness for another week or so, and yet here it is. This means we’re also an indeterminate amount of points ahead on Kindness, and I have no idea how.

timrodresized: I’m starting to wonder if this is an intentional typo by the guide author to stop people re-posting their guide… or if it’s a Gabriel Knight 3 scenario where the guide author missed some points.

timrodresized: We can also put up the Rise poster we got by interacting with the shelf next to the plant… and then promptly take it down and toss it in the trash where it belongs.

timrodresized: Accepting Ryuji’s request unlocks Tsukishima on the map.

timrodresized: This entire segment is a kind of long conversation between two characters who don’t have official portraits, and since I’ve already done a couple of big screenshot dumps this update, I’m just going to do it in full text.

Yamauchi: “Mmm, I’ve had some experience. Back in my college days, we’d rent a yacht for the weekend and have massive parties. I must say though, the sake’s been tasting particularly sweet lately.”

Fellow Teacher: “No surprise there. Things have been much calmer without Kamoshida. Those were some real dark times for Shujin though, huh? But now that he’s gone, you finally get the chance you deserve, Yamauchi!”

Yamauchi: “Don’t flatter me, haha. He had his strengths, sure… but because of him, our volleyball team will be forever scarred. The only real option now is to abandon it completely. There has to be a way to bring Shujin back into the limelight though. That’s where I come in…”

timrodresized: That’s been the UConn football program’s only option for years, but they keep throwing money at it hoping that some day, they’ll win a game.

Fellow Teacher: “You mean with the track team, right?”

Yamauchi: “The students who went through so much hardship under Kamoshida rise again with a caring new advisor… it’ll be the rebirth of a team that found themselves in the depths of despair. The public will love it. Despite my lack of track and field knowledge, I’ll form a tight bond with the students. I’ll be the protagonist of my very own tear-jerker…”

Yamauchi: “And of course all the praise for reviving them will go to me, their incredible, loving advisor. I’ll have to hire a great coach if I want to pull this off though.”

Fellow Teacher: “So you’re gonna pretend to coach them while someone else does all the legwork? Amazing, Yamauchi!”

Yamauchi: “Such stunning achievements will look great when it’s time to hand out bonuses… but I’m not gonna stop there either. I’ll publish books, give motivational speeches…”

Fellow Teacher: “What about all the troublemakers on the team? I’ve heard that Nakaoka kid is especially bad.”

Yamauchi: “Nakaoka? Oh, you mean the one who asked them to bring the pre-Kamoshida coach back? Don’t worry, I’ve already taken care of him… there’s this other boy on the team… Takeishi. Doesn’t really excel in much of anything. Well, I said I would make him the new captain if he could get rid of that troublemaker Nakaoka. I might’ve mentioned something about how Nakaoka was working with Kamoshida too… subtly, of course.”

Fellow Teacher: “And? What ended up happening?”

Yamauchi: “Apparently, Takeishi chased him away… the plan worked perfectly! And the best part is, not only are Takeishi’s parents loaded, but his mother’s the president of the PTA.”

Fellow Teacher: “I see… he’d make a great pawn!”

Yamauchi: “Perhaps, but a nothing like him could never captain a successful championship-winning team. He may have to have an unfortunate ‘accident’ at practice one day. But until then, he can show the others the value of obedience.”

timrodresized: Well, that escalated quickly.

Ryuji: “Yeah. This ain’t our problem, it’s the track team’s. So… they’re just gonna have to decide on their own.”

Ryuji: “Y’know, track ain’t a team sport. At least, sprintin’ wasn’t. You’ve got teammates, sure… but you’re really just lookin’ out for your own time. That’s why I never thought about askin’ people for help or tryin’ to solve our problems together.”

Ryuji: “But… I can’t ignore the stuff they’re goin’ through now. I mean, even though we had our own goals n’ shit… we were still runnin’ together. They suffered with me, gritted their teeth with me…”

Ryuji: “…Honestly, I think it was only 'cause of them I was able to run at all. So I can’t just go and turn my back on 'em now, right? I know that ain’t the coolest thing to say, but it’s how I feel.”

Ryuji: “Huh? …For real? Thanks, man!”

timrodresized: This ability was added for Royal, and I believe it works even if Ryuji isn’t in the active party.

Ryuji: “Anyways, I’m starvin’! Let’s eat some monja while we’re here. So far, all I’ve seen of this place is the goddamn toilet!”

timrodresized: Why didn’t he just stay outside?

Ryuji: “But goddamn it… Yamauchi! That dick! Just thinkin’ about him pisses me off! At this rate, the track team’s screwed. Yamauchi’s just gonna take advantage of them!”

Ryuji: “But I also don’t wanna make a huge scene. I can’t let myself mess up their chance to start the team again… besides… I doubt those guys are gonna listen to anything I say.”

obs64 2020-12-31 21-47-31-12

Ryuji: “That’s true. I gotta have faith in them. Anyhow, at least we know the truth about him. We just gotta figure out our next move. That bastard Yamauchi, munchin’ on monja like he’s got us all figured out… he won’t get away with this!”

timrodresized: Next time, we’ll be meeting Yusuke for his confidant, then establishing a new one with Ohya. We’ll also finally rank up to 7 with Dr. Femdom and spend all of our money.

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If they get that to run on the PSP I’d try it, if only to see what the original game was like. The PS1 versions of the early Persona games are vastly different from the PSP versions.

I would try to buy another PS1 and try the whole PSIO thing, but those are expensive (not that that’s ever stopped me before) and probably wouldn’t be compatible anyway.

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Every JRPG should have a motorcycle summon so I’m not complaining.

You’re confusing Hashino with me.

Can’t believe the Catholic Church is covering up the truth about Pope Joan The Pope Who Was A Motorcycle.

Also as hard as it is to give this game much credit I sort of like Makoto’s presentation as being the smart one who’s supposed to be a leader and an example being stuck and unable to help people, derided as useless, until she finally snaps under the strain.

Except she snaps for like two seconds because all our party members snap for two seconds and suddenly they’re back to normal again.

Click Here for Update 34

timrodresized: I had the site eat my update… what is this, five times now?

timrodresized: We have a seat on the train, so we get a free reading period. Today, we’ll be reading The Craft of Cinema. I’m not entirely sure why the guide starts The Gallant Rogue and then never finishes it. I actually looked, and there’s nothing that boosts the point you get from reading books, so it’s not like we’re waiting for that.

timrodresized: In the span of one train ride, Morgana has gone from “Donnie Darko makes no sense” to “Donnie Darko is the peak of human achievement in cinema” and then back to “Donnie Darko makes no sense”.

timrodresized: I was also wrong when I said that Craft of Cinema doubles stat gains from movies and DVDs. What it actually does is add a flat two extra points, so DVDs are now worth five points per session and movies at the theater are worth seven.

Inui: "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.’ "

timrodresized: Teru Teru Bozu are little ghost-like dolls that kids hang up outside to wish for good weather. It seems like the association of the male gender is something that weakened over time, because when I image searched for them I found plenty that looked like girls, or cats, or in some cases catgirls.

timrodresized: On a side note, you can apparently hang them upside-down to wish for rain, and now I’m just picturing Morgana making a catgirl one and hanging it upside-down in an attempt to call down an apocalyptic rain of catgirls.

Inui: “When it came to Japan, it looked like a monk praying for sunny weather, and became male. In the history of the world, it’s not uncommon to twist people’s genders for politics or religion. Now then, Kurusu-kun, please look at this picture.”

timrodresized: Here, we get an early look at Makoto’s tarot card. We can’t start her confidant until after Kaneshiro’s palace.

timrodresized: Of course we know, she’s a motorcycle.

Inui: “That’s correct. Pope Joan was a significant figure from the medieval ages. You’re quite the history buff. Joan - or Johanna as some historians argue - was the pope of Rome, even though women couldn’t be priests.”

Inui: “As such, she was a legendary figure, sometimes thought of as an anti-church symbol. According to the legends, Joan was a cross-dressing girl brought from Athens to Rome.”

Inui: “Praised throughout the city for her wisdom, she was chosen by the people as pope. However, when it was discovered that she was a woman, she was stoned to death.”

Inui: “This incident was regarded a taboo by the church. As a result, Joan was stricken from the history books.”

timrodresized: It’s time to see Yusuke’s new painting.

timrodresized: In public, he calls it “Shadow the Hedgehog Performing a Spindash”. In private though, I think we all know he calls it “My Boyfriend’s Colors”.

Yusuke: “I would like your honest opinion… if you would.”

Yusuke: “…Hmph, as it should be. I do not paint for the sake of others’ comprehension. Regardless, this is how I choose to interpret the idea of ‘desire’. It is a foul charm held deep within the abyss of the heart.”

timrodresized: Joker looks at him with an eyebrow raised and goes “Really? That’s what you think of when you think of desire? That, and nothing else?” and Yusuke starts sweating profusely.

Yusuke: “To be honest, I believe my ability to capture desire so elegantly is all due to our Mementos foray. I have grown to understand the intricacies of the heart in a way I had once thought impossible…”

Yusuke: “Akira, I intend on submitting this piece to an upcoming public art exhibition. Nobody has seen the abyss of the heart in such a raw manner before… the discourse will be fascinating.”

Yusuke: “More importantly, it shall be the spark that revitalizes my slumbering career!”

Yusuke: “Indeed. I expect you to accompany me for the moment it is finally revealed to the general public. Hm, I’m sure this will be a most sensational experience for those who choose to undergo it.”

Yusuke: “A raw, unbridled look into the depths of the human psyche… and I was the one who was able to bring it to life, all thanks to your assistance. You have my sincerest gratitude.”

Yusuke: “Hm… I deeply anticipate the public reaction at the exhibition. But for now, I should be going. My apologies for disturbing you.”

Yusuke: “I was even able to come up with a new interpretation, thanks to your help. I’m on a roll right now. I shall keep up this momentum and apply it to the Phantom Thieves as well!”

Yusuke: “No, I can guide us to even further greatness! Hah… your very presence amplifies my ambition. What a strange fellow you are.”

timrodresized: There was a Persona 5 thread on /v/ (4chan’s videogame board) a few days ago that I saw where someone went “Yusuke was maybe a nudge from being a full-on gay romance route” and I’m like “Wow, even they can see it.”

Yusuke: “I can hardly wait to hear back about the public exhibition, so I can share the joy with you. I will contact you again later. Expect good news!”

timrodresized: Joker, professional IM troll.

Morgana: “That article… do you think the reporter we met at Crossroads could have written it?”

Morgana: “Just as I thought. The author is listed as Ichiko Ohya. …I see. This article might end up being useful for us.”

Morgana: “If the Palace ruler sees it and his cognition of the Phantom Thieves changes… hey, Akira. We’d be missing out if we didn’t use this to our advantage.”

Morgana: “If we have her paint us in a positive light, public opinion of us will change for the better! You should go try and get her to write some more articles about the Phantom Thieves!”

timrodresized: Before we do that, there’s a TV quiz we have to do for knowledge points.

timrodresized: How would you even… you can’t even talk! You don’t even have hands!

timrodresized: I think Morgana assumes he’s still in Innocent Sin, where he can get Ohya to spread a rumor that he can just kinda Strong Bad his way around objects.

timrodresized: On the way there, we run into everyone’s least favorite offensive stereotype.

timrodresized: Don’t worry, it’s perfectly okay for them to be horny for Akechi. He just turned 18 on June 2nd.

Ohya: “Hey, where’s my glass…? Didn’t I order a refill? How much did I drink today? What time is it? Ah, who cares. …Wait, I care.”

Morgana: “She’s so drunk that she hasn’t even noticed you’re here. If we have her write articles, it’ll have an effect on the Metaverse. We might be able to use her if we do it right. Should we try forming a deal with Ohya?”

Morgana: “Keep in mind that she’s drunk. Now, do a good job negotiating, okay?”

Ohya: “So… what’s up? Got anything new on the Phantom Thieves? Or maybe… you’re just falling in love with me, hm?”

Ohya: “For real? You came all this way just to tell me? Thank god… my publisher just assigned me to be the beat reporter for the Phantom Thieves. Man…this will reaaally help me out.”

Ohya: “Oh, don’t be such a killjoy. These kids nowadays know about things we adults don’t have access to. Besides, what’s most important is that I now have a reliable third-party source for my stories.”

Ohya: “So, what do you want from me this time? Information about someone? Cold hard cash?”

timrodresized: What he needs is for her to spread a rumor that the grocery store in Yongen-Jaya has a Legendary Katana for sale.

Ohya: “Now I can take it easy… maybe I’ll take a little vacation, with all my free time.”

Ohya: “What do you want? Just tell me. Last time it was info on Kaneshiro, right? The office has been abuzz lately… I think it’s Kaneshiro related. Something’s fishy…”

timrodresized: And then Lala pulls out a plate of spaghetti topped with kusaya.

Ohya: “…Support the Phantom Thieves? But I see what’s going on here. A hardcore Phantom Thieves fanboy, huh…?”

Ohya: “A vacation? Oh, I was just kidding. I’m conducting a private investigation during my off hours. No one at work knows about it.”

Ohya: “Hey, how 'bout we do this… you supply me with info on the Phantom Thieves… and I’ll write articles based on what you tell me about them. You know, the Phantom Thieves who you love oh-so-much.”

timrodresized: Joker then spends the entire night trying to explain the John Persona / John Persona duality.

Ohya: “…All right then. It’s a deal. I can create a lot of positive PR for the Phantom Thieves, so be sure to give me some good scoops.”

Ohya: “Oh, don’t tell anyone about this, okay? I don’t want people to know my source is a high schooler. Okay, Lala-chaaan! Time to celebrate our agreement! Bring out my bottle! And two glasses, please…!”

Ohya: “C’mon! Please…? …Whoa, her silence is golden. Fine, fine FINE! I won’t make the high schooler drink! Ugh, I gotta use the bathroom…”

timrodresized: I like to think that Joker hears alcohol and opens his jacket to reveal a “Be Gay, Do Crimes” shirt underneath, and then Lala opens her kimono to reveal a “Be Gay, No Crimes” shirt in response.

timrodresized: One thing I’m not going to show to conserve space is that you get points to Charm when visiting Ohya in the same way you get Guts while visiting Dr. Femdom.

Ohya: “Lala-chaaaan!? Where’d you gooo? Hey! Lala-chaaaan! C’mon, where are you!?”

timrodresized: I don’t know how it is that the game treats Lala so well but has offensive stereotypes at the same time.

timrodresized: We get another cutscene with Ryuji where he tells us to go to the palace. We won’t be doing that just yet, because we need to break the game in half first.

timrodresized: Instead, we’ll do a confidant event with Ann.

Ann: “And you know what she did? Laughed! She couldn’t stop talking about how tough she thought Mika sounded. Honestly though… it was kinda refreshing. I’m not even mad anymore.”

Ann: “I guess you really just need someone to laugh at you if you want to feel better.”

Ann: “I mean, they always say laughter’s the best medicine, right? I’ve seen the truth of that saying firsthand… but anyway, even though I’m trying to strengthen my heart, Shiho’s the real strong one here.”

Ann: “So I agreed without thinking much of it, but it ended up being… pretty overwhelming.”

Ann: “Yeah… she was dripping with sweat, teeth clenched… she was clearly in a lot of pain. Apparently, she can’t even move her feet. She said it feels like her legs are filled with sand… but she dragged them along, legs swollen with blood…”

timrodresized: You know what would’ve been interesting? If we’d actually gotten to see this instead of just having Ann tell us about it.

Ann: “I wanted to just make her stop… by the time it was all over, she was in tears. It was really tough on her… she said she just wanted to give up.”

timrodresized: The overuse of ellipses we saw in Persona 1 and 2 is really starting to make a comeback here, and not even to connect thoughts between dialog boxes.

Ann: “And that’s why she asked me to come… to keep her motivated. The whole time she was complaining about things in ways she normally never would… but even with that… she finished her session…”

Ann: “I…I don’t know why I’m crying… I didn’t have to go through that… is it because I’m weak?”

Ann: “Then why… can’t I stop crying…? You know, even through all that pain, I thought Shiho was so cool… beautiful, even. Despite all her complaining… she still tried really hard.”

Ann: “Strength is more than just not getting fazed… it’s the power to fight through adversity. So I was thinking, and um… what can I do to help Shiho?”

Ann: “My strength…? …Yeah, I’ll do just that. I’m gonna give it my all! You know Akira, being with you really helps me see things clearly. What I should do, the true meaning of strength… well… thank you for that.”

timrodresized: And now we have two people with Harisen Recovery.

Ann: “Ugh, my nose is all runny… wh-what are you looking at me like that for? Pretty girls get runny noses too, you know!”

Ann: “I feel better now that I got to talk to you about everything. I’m going to try my best to help Shiho out… in my own way. Maybe our relationship won’t ever be exactly the way it was before…”

Ann: “But now that I saw her crying, I know I’ll find something I can do for her!”

Ann: “Thanks! I can’t let her leave me behind. Watch me. One day, I’ll be cool and strong - just like Shiho!”

timrodresized: We have another Kawakami event tonight, and this is the last one we’ll be doing before we go to the dungeon.

Becky: “You listened to… my secret. I’ve been feeling more at ease since then.”

Becky: I’ve never been able to tell anyone about it, so… I figured I should actually do some housekeeping today, to say thanks…"

Becky: yawn “Sorry… I need to take a break…”

Becky: “I’m so touched to hear that you care for my well-being, Master… ugh… I’m at my limit. Sooo exhausted…”

Becky: Cough Cough “I’m beat… I can’t stop coughing…”

Becky: “Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks…”

Becky: “I mean, there’s nothing left for me to hide from you, so the truth comes out, you know? Now that I think about it… I’m glad you’re the one who found out about me being a maid.”

Becky: “Are YOU going to be all right in this dusty room? And have you been eating well? You need to eat fresh vegetables, and none of that instant stuff.”

timrodresized: Joker looks at her and goes “So wait, what do you mean by that? Horny? There’s no way eating ramen makes you-”

timrodresized: And then the camera cuts to Morgana sitting atop a throne of noodles heating water on the portable stove.

Becky: “I guess I should get more sleep. I feel all achy… Takase-kun’s guardians said they need more money, so… I had my boss give me more shifts. I had to beg him for them, but…”

Becky: “Oh, it’s fine! Nothing you should worry about. I feel more at ease, now that I have someone who knows about what I’m going through. …I’m talking about you.”

timrodresized: This ability is kinda meh, and if you were a trophy hunter in the original game could lock you out of getting the trophy for crafting every item.

Becky: “Uh-oh, time’s up… cough cough I have to get to my next job, so I’m going to head out. Thank you for using our service…”

Becky: “So I guess it’s a good thing I splurged at the doctor’s. I finally got some cough medicine that works.”

Becky: “Hey, you gotta do some cleaning and ventilating on your own even when I’m gone, okay? If you neglect stuff like that, it makes you more likely to get sick.”

Becky: “Who, me? I mean, I’m tired, but that’s nothing new… wait a minute, we’re supposed to be talking about you! Don’t change the subject.”

Becky: “Oh, but if you do get sick, I’ll look after you aaanytime! So please don’t forget to request me! :heart:

Becky: “Urgh. I finally get rid of the cough, and now I get these headaches and shivers… times like these are why we invented energy drinks… I just gotta chug one and push through!”

timrodresized: Today’s the day we begin the process of breaking the game in half.

Morgana: “That voice… hey! Wasn’t that Kawakami on the PA? There’s no way that announcement was real… it must have been the signal!”

timrodresized: I’m not entirely sure how Ushimaru wouldn’t recognize Kawakami’s voice, but whatever.

timrodresized: The guide has us read ABCs of Crafting, and I’m not entirely sure why. It might be a holdover from the base game’s 100% route.

timrodresized: In the base game, you wanted this book because it doubles the bonus from Proficiency when determining how many items you can craft.

timrodresized: What you could do is use this to mass-craft an item called Reserve Ammo, which is not in Royal. Reserve Ammo fully refilled the party’s ammo count, which could be used with this one confidant ability that allowed you to spend a certain percentage of the party’s ammo (something like 15% at max rank) to instantly knock every enemy in a fight down.

timrodresized: That ability was HEAVILY nerfed in Royal - it now only works three times per day at max rank.

Morgana: “Tell everyone to meet at the hideout. Let’s discuss our next move.”

Morgana: “Nyahaha… curious, eh? Well, I’ve come up with a super cool idea. Lady Ann will surely swoon for me if I-”

Ann: “Sorry for the wait. So, what’s up, Morgana?”

Ann: “You were talking about… me?”

Morgana: “Now that we’ve all gained some experience in battle, I think it’d be good for us to work on our finishers.”

timrodresized: Joker wants an acrobatic knife dance with Yusuke where they hug at the end.

Ann: “Our finishers? Yeah, I guess if we’re going to keep fighting, we ought to do it with style.”

Morgana: “Right? Right!? So, I came up with just the idea… it’s maybe my best one yet! And we can definitely pull it off if you play a part in it, Lady Ann!”

Ann: “Me? Well, okay - what do you need me to do?”

timrodresized: What he had in mind is called a Showtime Attack. They’re special finishing moves that use a combination of two party members (only one has to actually be in the active party) to do what’s basically a cinematic takedown.

timrodresized: Showtimes have a number of things that can trigger them, which include:

  • A party member is baton passed to
  • A party member falls below 50% HP
  • A party member dies
  • A party member recovers from a status effect, knockdown, or is revived
  • Joker is knocked down
  • Joker is at critically low (something like 10% or less) HP
  • An enemy is downed or becomes critically injured
  • An enemy is afflicted with a status debuff (rare)
  • A party member is given a status buff (rare)

timrodresized: There are eight Showtime attacks, and each one is time-gated. The wiki claims we should have the second one (between Ryuji and Makoto) but we don’t. Unfortunately, Joker does not get one with Yusuke - the only two he gets are with Kasumi and a second party member and both only unlock past where the base game ends.

timrodresized: If you decide to look them up on your own, know that the Joker/Kasumi and Joker/??? ones are massive spoilers for the new content in Royal and will reveal what Kasumi’s entire deal is.

timrodresized: Each Showtime attack has a name which is different between the US and Japanese versions, but I don’t think the name ever actually shows up in-game.

timrodresized: This one is called “Gun With the Wind” in the US version, and “Phantom Suit and Machine Gun” in the Japanese version. The latter is a reference to an 80s Japanese action movie called “Sailor Suit and Machine Gun”.

timrodresized: Personally, I call it “What if Ann was horny for Morgana?”

timrodresized: KILL IT WITH FIRE

timrodresized: Showtime attacks do a metric shitload of Almighty damage, based entirely on the level of the two characters participating.

Ann: “Really?”

Morgana: “So, is that a no?”

Ann: “Well, it’s not that I don’t want to… it’s more like, isn’t your idea sorta impossible? Even in the Metaverse?”

timrodresized: I love that Joker has just been carrying that star in his pocket for what, a month?

Ann: “Huh? What was that?”

timrodresized: And here’s our third showtime attack, which is between Ryuji and Yusuke. Yusuke also has one with Ann.

Makoto: “Things would get interesting if my sister ever found out…”

Morgana: “There’s no time to be getting sentimental here.”

Makoto: “Yes, I understand. I do have one request about all of this though. Can you teach me how to be a phantom thief? Like… about the Metaverse, for example.”

Yusuke: “Simply put, that world is formed of a person’s cognition. There, you can change people’s hearts.”

Makoto: “Yeah, I’ve gathered that much just from going there once. But the method of transportation still eludes me… I mean, it’s a smartphone navigation app…”

Yusuke: “You only need a name, a location, and a distortion. After the first entry, the Palace is bookmarked.”

Makoto: “You really just make it sound like an ordinary app… aren’t there any dangers associated with it?”

Ryuji: “Don’t worry 'bout that! We’ve already been a bunch of times and -”

Makoto: “That’s not what I mean. It’s a navigation app, right? Couldn’t someone easily access our history on the server?”

timrodresized: I like that she’s worried about this, but not about the whole Phan-site thing.

Yusuke: “I…”

Ryuji: “Now she’s catchin’ me off guard too…”

Makoto: “And we don’t know where it came from, right? It showed up on my phone without any input from me… do you know anything about it, Akira-kun?”

Makoto: “What…?”

Morgana: “… I don’t fully understand, but I don’t think we have to worrya bout people accessing our data. From what I can tell, this app is incredibly special. It wasn’t made by any ordinary means.”

Makoto: “True… an app that allows you to enter another world isn’t exactly commonplace. Well, Sis doesn’t know who the Phantom Thieves are, so I suppose our information is safe for now.”

Morgana: “We’re still learning things ourselves. I hope your sharp wit can help us with that.”

Makoto: “Thank you. I’ll do my best.”

timrodresized: This is what’s on Joker’s “Be Gay, Do Crimes” shirt. I mean, he’s even posing for it.

timrodresized: Oh man, this picture. So this picture leaked in Japan I think before the base game even came out, and people were in a fucking UPROAR about it because they thought you had to save Makoto from an abusive relationship, but also that Joker wouldn’t be her first and only boyfriend.

timrodresized: Our last pre-dungeon visit is to Dr. Femdom, so that we can start breaking the game.

Tae: “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…”

Tae: “…Chief Oyamada.”

Tae: “He’s a part-time staffer. I’m having him handle some miscellaneous tasks for me. So, do you have some business with me?”

Tae: “…Bronchitis, you say? Well, I had no intention of taking her from you. I certainly didn’t encourage her to visit my clinic.”

Tae: “…You’re right.”

Tae: “Heh… don’t worry about it.”

Tae: “Don’t lie to me…! She should still have some time! She was slowly recovering… her condition couldn’t have deteriorated that quickly!”

Tae: “No, no no… but she’s all I’ve been working toward, all this time… curing her was my only… there’s no way…”

timrodresized: And now we know what her actual deal is. Can you guess what her Mementos request is?

Tae: “…What have I been doing all this time? What was even the point…?”

Tae: “…Yeah, you’re right. I feel better now… thanks for your help, my little guinea pig…”

timrodresized: And there we have it. We have almost no reason to progress further with Dr. Femdom. This is all we need. Discount reduces the prices of everything in Tae’s shop by half.

Tae: “Ugh. I wish I hadn’t shown you that side of me…”

timrodresized: Joker just goes “I can never take your femdom seriously again.”

Tae: “Hehe. You are? …Well, I suppose it’s fine. As long as it’s you. Go on home for today. We will continue this another time.”

timrodresized: And now we’ve officially begun the process of breaking the game. SP Adhesive 3 restores 7 SP per turn, meaning that all of the single-target first tier spells are basically free to cast. From now on, everyone in the main party will be using one of these.

timrodresized: I then head to Iwai’s and spend the rest of our money on guns and armor. I also got new melee weapons for everyone in order to boost damage on technicals.

timrodresized: I didn’t get a shot of it during the first day (it’s kind of hard to get a shot of it without it being obscured by the menus) but Makoto uses revolvers as her gun of choice. They do a bit more damage than Joker’s pistols but have a lower ammo count and are less accurate.

timrodresized: Finally, to round out the night, we have another generic non-rank-up event with Kawakami.

timrodresized: Next time, we’ll go into Kaneshiro’s palace, cheese the game for loads of money, and try to level to 26 (not 29) to match the red shadows.

On the one hand I do love the old school manga style cut-in. On my other four mutant hands, I’ve got black market super soakers to hose Morgana down.

“No, Makoto’s an S”…is what someone, somehow didn’t say in response.

I think it’s because Lala is basically a Magical Negro / gypsy fortuneteller / etc.

Credit where it is due; this cutscene, like all the others, is extremely good. I also strongly love this design. She’s a Kamen Rider and it rules.

This might seem like a swerve but Gluttony isn’t necessarily about food. It is about excess. Greed is “you have something I want” and Gluttony is “I want more and more”, and he does seem to fit the latter; also purple is a colour associated with Gluttony, which would explain the face.

The thing here is less that his logic is flawed, and more that you learned to see above the noise. There can never be a moment in time where that specific cookie can be eaten again, to reveal it was just a regular cookie. You can have similar cookies, but you’ll never replicate that one. Meanwhile with Parasite Eve, you can easily go back and see it exactly as it was, but as a different, grown person. You can see how your initial experience with it influenced the seeming quality of it all.

LE DIABLE! The Devil himself! A card representing extraordinary efforts- often in the realms of violence and raw force. Typically considered a fairly evil card, in so far as these cards can be evil. It can also represent obsession with material things, a fitting friend when going against the Glutton. There isn’t really much to say about this one, it’s right up there with Tower as a “is that good?” card. If it shows up, expect some bad stuff.

Artwise, this is basically a perfect rendition of the Marsielle tarot Devil. Upper body of a human woman, lower half of a goat man, with branch like horns and tangled hair, with two fawn like demons in her binding. Standing, not sitting, for this Devil can see the fullness of things. There’s basically no changes for this to make it fit P5’s style, it just works as is!

What’s funny is that the two Devil Arcanas from the past two games are some of my favorites. They’re quite well written, and are pretty fun. I wonder if this media personality obsessed with getting the scoop, no matter what, will be a good Devil for us…

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Update 35

timrodresized: This entire recording session was fucking cursed. First, the site ate my last update like five times. Then I got halfway through the dungeon and realized I permafucked. Now, I realized that on my re-recording run I forgot to open my screenshot tool.

timrodresized: It’s Sunday, so the first thing we want to do, as usual, is grip and sip. What happened was that on my first recording run, I went to the dungeon and forgot to buy new equipment… and on the second run, I forgot to grip and sip.

Queen: “You were all using code names, weren’t you?”

Fox: “You’re quite perceptive.”

Skull: “This time’s a hard one… maybe somethin’ like ‘Shoulder Pads’ ?”

Morgana: “Why in the world did you focus on that?”

Queen: “I refuse to be called that.”

Fox: “What about ‘Rider’?”

Queen: “Sounds too much like a smuggler. Next.”

Panther: “Fixer?”

Queen: “I’m not a mastermind though. Next. Won’t you give me something better to work with?”

timrodresized: Funny he says that, because we do get an Empress-arcana as a party member.

Morgana: “You got anything, Joker?”

obs64 2021-01-10 19-39-25-41

timrodresized: Unfortunately, I picked “Witch” on the recording where I forgot my screenshot tool. If you do, Yusuke agrees with you.

Queen: “Do you want to be smacked?”

Morgana: “Guys, she’s clearly a ‘Queen’.”

Skull: “That’s it!”

Queen: “Queen… it has a nice ring to it. I like it. Let’s go with that. Now then, could you explain to me the strategy for this mission?”

timrodresized: God dammit now she’s trying to be Donte from the shitty Ninja Theory “Devil May Cry” game.

Skull: “…Strategy?”

timrodresized: Makoto reminds me of this one lady at work who spearheaded a weekly “training program”. She sends out an email every Monday, including holidays, with a link to an online training course.

timrodresized: Every week, without fail, the training course consists of a button that reads “PRESS THIS BUTTON FOR COURSE CREDIT” and nothing else.

Morgana: “Uhh… we pretty much look around the area, I provide navigation when needed, and then…”

Skull: “If we run into Shadows, we beat the shit outta 'em!”

Queen: “Very well then. I feel like I’ll be useful for sure. It seems my role is to be the brain of this team. I’ll analyze Mona’s information and give out orders. Any objections?”

timrodresized: Joker gives Makoto a thumbs-down because of his highly complex relationship with Makoto’s brilliant military mind. Later, he has a breakdown because Makoto won’t authorize use of the Varia Suit to get through a lava pit.

Skull: “N-None, Queen!”

Panther: “I bet Skull’s definitely the type that’ll be under a girl’s thumb.”

Queen: “Mona, will you begin navigating us?”

Morgana: “Y-Yes, Queen!”

Fox: “Him too, it seems.”

Fox: “Apparently we are acknowledged as customers who can be extorted.”

Queen: “…That’s fine. We can take advantage of his negligence.”

Panther: “Though I will say, it’s a little scary every time.”

timrodresized: We actually have to examine the front door to proceed, even though we can clearly see it in the last shot.

Fox: “It seems as though they didn’t want to leave that gaping hole…”

Panther: “But… we can’t get in now…”

Queen: “Sorry… I… think I might have taken it a little too far…”

Skull: “C’mon, it’s not a big deal. Plus it was super cool, Queen!”

Queen: “Th-thanks…”

Fox: “The details are no longer important. Let us search for a new infiltration point, Joker.”

Queen: “Wait. I can feel a draft coming from underneath the statue… doesn’t this seem strange to you, Joker?”

Panther: “Why don’t we check it out?”

Queen: “Let’s head inside… after we’re adequately prepared, of course.”

timrodresized: The new entrance drops us off just to the right of the reception area, where we were last time.

timrodresized: There’s a tutorial here for Showtime Attacks, which I already covered in the last update. Let’s just move on.

Music Price

timrodresized: The first area is now full of enemies, and they’re kind of annoying to sneak up on due to the long corridors of benches.

timrodresized: In the original recording run, where I permafucked, we got a fight with the new Treasure Demon as our first encounter.

timrodresized: The new Treasure Demon is weak to Psychic damage, so I just take advantage of that.

timrodresized: The Queen’s Necklace was an actual piece of jewelry that was commissioned by Louis XV of France for a lover, but wasn’t finished before he died of smallpox.

timrodresized: Ultimately, it got used by a con woman who convinced a high-ranking cardinal to buy it in the name of Marie Antoinette, and was one of the contributing factors to Marie Antoinette’s execution even though she never had anything to do with it.

timrodresized: I say it was an actual piece of jewelry because what happened is that the con woman hired a lookalike to pretend to be Marie Antoinette in order to get the necklace from the cardinal, and then took it apart and sold the diamonds it was made of on the black market, so the necklace no longer exists.

timrodresized: It was also the subject of an Arsene Lupin story.

timrodresized: In the second fight, we run into a Nekomata and have Akechi’s ability proc. Thankfully, we have Ame no Uzume with Mazio and a passive that cuts the cost of Mazio from ten SP to five.

Returning Persona: Nekomata

Origin: Japan

First Appearance: Megami Tensei I (NES)

Yokai born from extraordinarily long-lived cats with various supernatural abilities. Sometimes portrayed with a split tail.

image

timrodresized: Nekomata is basically just here to be fusion fuel, and not even particularly good fusion fuel at that. The one thing I find really amusing is that one of the criteria in mythology for a cat becoming a nekomata is “reaching a certain size” in which case I absolutely want to see a Garfield nekomata.

timrodresized: We also get a Thieves Den thing for negotiations.

timrodresized: With that room cleared, we can go down the hallway to unexplored territory. Just in case you’re wondering, you can’t go back into the room behind the counter - it’s blocked off.

Fox: “Hm, but that elevator is lacking a control panel.”

Morgana: “They probably control it from a security room. It’s a simple, but effective measure of screening.”

Queen: “That must mean they really don’t want anyone going down there…”

timrodresized: High Pixie here is weak to both Nuclear and Gun. In the base game, there was a good reason to use Makoto here due to the whole “guns have limited ammo” bit. Here though? Not so much.

timrodresized: I do grab one, but only out of habit. They’re Fool arcana and don’t really have any great skills… nor are they really a mythological figure so much as they were a palette-swap in the older games that just kind of persisted.

timrodresized: I swear there’s like a million random encounters in this area. Anyway, we have an Orobas surrender to us.

New Persona: Orobas

Origin: Ars Goetia

First Appearance: Megami Tensei II (Kyuuyaku ver. only)

image

Prince of Hell who gives conjurers perfect information about past, present, or future. Apparently incapable of lying. Can also bestow honors and protect from temptation by demons.

timrodresized: Orobas is another kind of useless fusion fuel Persona. I suppose if you fused him and got Marakunda that might be worth it, but I’d rather have the single-target version, given that 24 SP is a very steep cost.

timrodresized: Before we move on, there’s actually a treasure chest by the reception area with a Portable Battery in it, which gives you a higher chance of inflicting Shock. It’s garbage.

timrodresized: The elevator is on our right, and as you can see on the map there’s a bunch of stuff on the left we haven’t explored.

timrodresized: The left side just has a small office area with a couple treasure items, and this door, which leads to a chest.

timrodresized: We need to go up those stairs.

timrodresized: There’s a dog shadow here that is going to allow me to show off the greatest weapon in the John Persona arsenal.

timrodresized: See how the text there is red? That’s Yoshida’s ability, which gets you a significantly larger amount of money when it activates.

timrodresized: By the way, dog shadows will always be an Orthrus, which are a pain in the ass to negotiate with.

timrodresized: We may have already gotten a full Shiki-Ouji’s worth of money from a random encounter… but that’s not enough. To take things over the top, we will need to employ the greatest weapon in the John Persona arsenal.

timrodresized: Yoshida gives you a second ability that allows you to ask for money a second time… or actually, as many times as you want. What happens is that the demon either gives you more money (which will always be identical to the first amount they gave you) or they get pissed off and start fighting again, summoning more demons if they can.

timrodresized: That’s three times.

timrodresized: On the fourth, he gets angry… only Ann uses her ability to simply cancel his attack.

timrodresized: He then summons a second High Pixie, which I kill before holding him up again. I initially thought that you got more money depending on how many enemies were on the field, but that’s not the case: I’ve gotten drops of 7,000 yen from a single enemy and half that from a big group.

timrodresized: You’re starting to get the idea. Now, you might ask “If the demon summons other demons when you fail to get more money, can you do this in an endless loop since you now have regenerating SP?” and the answer is yes, yes you can.

timrodresized: Unfortunately, this isn’t the best fight to do this in because of how weak the High Pixies are. If you leave them alive for a bit they’ll eventually heal the Orthrus, but the Orthrus has a couple of very high-damage attacks (including one that can potentially instakill) and I didn’t want to game over.

timrodresized: Yes. Money will never be a problem again… at least, not until we finish Caroline and Justine’s confidant. Then it will be a problem.

timrodresized: There’s a room off to the side here, but it’s locked. Instead…

timrodresized: We want to climb up here.

timrodresized: We get a mini-boss fight against four Orobas. The reason they’re not named is because this footage is from my third recording where I didn’t get any Personas and just ran through.

timrodresized: Unfortunately, Yusuke only hits three of them, so Joker has to follow up with a regular Bufu.

Queen: “This appears to be some kind of monitoring room. I hope we can find clues in here…”

Morgana: “I’d bet that’s where the Treasure is…”

Fox: “Unless we can obtain another map, we won’t know for certain…”

Morgana: “It would probably make sense to head there first…”

Fox: “Shall we go on that elevator we found earlier then?”

Queen: “That should be our last resort. First, let’s see if there is anywhere to use this keycard.”

timrodresized: Personally, I preferred Melty Donut Dough Again Frosting Code, the updated 2010 re-release.

timrodresized: Naturally, we need the keycard to leave the room.

timrodresized: To the left is a giant metal gate we can open from this side.

timrodresized: It leads back to the start of the palace. The reason there’s so many shortcuts is because Kaneshiro’s palace only has something like four save rooms.

timrodresized: Instead, let’s go back to that locked door we passed by.

Morgana: “Yeah, it has to be the one they’re controlling externally. So this is right above it…”

Skull: “So what, this is the control room or something? What’s the point of comin’ here?”

Morgana: “Perceptive as usual, Joker. We should be able to ride on top of the elevator.”

Fox: “I see. We sneak atop it, then wait for it to move on its own.”

Queen: “It does sound like that plan will take us further down.”

timrodresized: The way they set this up is kinda dumb, because instead of going with the “service hatch on top of the elevator” they go with, uh…

timrodresized: A magic vent in the side of the wall that has no reason to be there and lines up perfectly with the top of the elevator. Makes sense.

timrodresized: Instead, we come out atop a replica of the cathedral rafters from Dark Souls 1. There’s nothing special to them - you just jump down to the floor below.

Queen: “Is that Kaneshiro…!?”

Kaneshadow: “It looks like some rats have infested this place! Under no circumstances let them further down! Strengthen security as much as you can! Understood?”

Fox: “It seems painfully obvious where the Treasure is now…”

Panther: “But the map from earlier doesn’t show that much… I wonder if there’s another one somewhere.”

Morgana: “In any case, heading down should be the best move. Let’s keep our eyes out for a map while we explore!”

timrodresized: There’s a save room here, which makes sense from a gameplay perspective but not really from a plot one. Unlike the other palaces we’ve been to, where they used the excuse of “it’s places where the palace owner doesn’t have total control”, Kaneshiro’s palace isn’t based on a real building the way Kaneshiro’s and Madarame’s were.

timrodresized: Let’s just go down the other hallway.

timrodresized: Cameras add 10% to the security level if they spot you. I believe they’ll also alert any shadows who are close enough.

Morgana: “Joker, can’t you use your observation skills to see the camera’s range? Make sure it doesn’t catch sight of us!”

timrodresized: Wait, what’s that blue glowing thing?

Queen: “The word ‘camera’ is written on it.”

Morgana: “Oh, this must be for the surveillance cameras! Let’s destroy it, Joker!”

timrodresized: Most of the cameras in the palace can be turned off, and it’s usually mandatory to do so. I think you can skip one of the power boxes if you really want to, but it’s on the way to an objective anyway.

timrodresized: At the end of the camera hallway, there’s a door. Let’s just open it.

timrodresized: This is a new thing for Royal, where they outright tell you that Oni has no weaknesses and must be hit with a Technical to be knocked down.

timrodresized: This is a nice addition actually, given that I got through the entire base game without even knowing technicals existed - I assumed that Oni was like the demons in the mainline SMT games who are from demon families that cannot be negotiated with and must be fused to use.

timrodresized: So anyway, I went to the other LP to check if this was in the base game and I just somehow forgot about it, but it’s not. What I found is that the guy who did the LP of the base game was… not very good at it and I think that’s part of the reason he hates this game so much.

timrodresized: Seriously, he grinded to level 26 (we’re at like, 23-24 at this point) before even going through the first room. Now, I will admit that the base game was slightly harder than Royal is… but the thing is, the demons in Kaneshiro’s Palace were barely touched. The only difference is that they added a single new demon (replacing a level 12 Angel) and changed Orobas’s weakness from Bless to Ice so that Yusuke wasn’t a liability here.

timrodresized: Kaneshiro’s Palace is a step up difficulty-wise. The enemies hit hard and some of them can oneshot Joker or use extra press turns from hitting the party members to kill him before he can move. In fact, I game overed at two different points in this palace, but one of them was absolutely my fault.

timrodresized: Oni has a skill called Rampage that does multiple physical hits at random, and can do a lot of damage to one person if you get bad RNG.

timrodresized: There’s a staircase here, but it’s blocked off by a pair of security cameras that will trigger a barrier behind them if they’re set off. You can see the barrier in the background - it looks just like the one in Madarame’s palace.

timrodresized: There’s another way we can go, and on that route we meet Black Ooze, another kind of generic demon that doesn’t really have a mythological background. Black Ooze was added to this dungeon’s enemy list in Royal.

timrodresized: We also have Akechi’s ability kick in to let us know it’s weak to Electricity. Let me just post their stat thing, since I grabbed one as a Persona and promptly tossed it for something better.

timrodresized: Black Ooze is here solely as a means to counter Oni, if for some reason you don’t have a Persona capable of using status effects and decided to remove all the status skills on your party members.

timrodresized: If we go out the other exit from the room with the stairs, there’s a hallway with more security cameras in it. This one you can honestly bypass fairly easily - there’s a room off to the left of where I am here that shuts them off.

timrodresized: The guard you could see in the last screenshot gives us our first Disaster Shadow in the form of Nekomata. High Pixie can also be a Disaster Shadow.

timrodresized: It was here (on my first run) that I discovered how Disaster Shadows are actually meant to work. What happens is that they still drop an item even if you kill them in a way that does not give them a chance to explode - such as an All-Out that ends the fight.

timrodresized: The idea is that if you knock all the enemies down and get an All-Out, the Disaster Shadow will explode on any enemies remaining for damage roughly equivalent to what the All-Out did to it, which is usually going to be a guaranteed kill.

timrodresized: The Disaster Shadows here mostly drop Black items.

timrodresized: The room at the end of the hall here has a power box that shuts off the staircase cameras, allowing us to proceed.

timrodresized: There’s also a small side room near the switch that has a Black Rock in it. I remember having way more of these by the end of my base game run than I could ever possibly use.

timrodresized: I also stop by the other camera switch on the way back. Not really much of a reason to at this point, but I figured I’d show it just in case.

timrodresized: Here’s the top of the stairs from earlier.

Morgana: “According to the map, we should be able to head down from here…”

Morgana: “Hm? Everyone, quiet down! I hear someone talking!”

Skull: “Hmm? Keys? What’re those Shadows talkin’ about?”

Queen: “I wasn’t able to pick up everything they said. If only we could get closer…”

Panther: “There are Shadows in there. It’s probably too dangerous to get any closer right now…”

Queen: “I’m curious about the conversation they were having, but there’s nothing we can do about it at the moment. For now, let’s just focus on finding a way down.”

timrodresized: There’s also a locked chest near the switch we just broke.

timrodresized: It’s got a good mace for Ryuji, but we’re not using him.

timrodresized: This is down below where the cameras are.

Queen: “According to the map, there’s a great deal more beyond here…”

Fox: “Then this is not a vault, but a partition of sorts. The terminals there must be how you open it.”

Panther: “B-But both of them have keyholes.”

Queen: “Meaning we’ll need two keys to get beyond this area…”

Skull: “For real? Ugh… it’s such a pain in the ass how secure this place is.”

Fox: “It would seem that’s correct. This may lead further down, just as Kaneshiro had mentioned.”

Queen: “Hey, perhaps the key that those Shadows were talking about goes here.”

Morgana: “Hmm, that sounds likely to me… all right! Let’s go back to that room!”

Skull: “Hold up - don’t forget about them security cameras.”

Morgana: “Good point. They’re a pain, but we should deactivate the security cameras first.”

timrodresized: We’re going to head right first, because…

timrodresized: There’s a red shadow up here, so let’s take care of that first. From what I’ve noticed, red shadows are a lot less common than they were in Kamoshida or Madarame’s palaces.

timrodresized: The red shadows are Take-Minakata, who is far less useful than Shiki-Ouji. He is the only enemy in this dungeon who truly got nerfed in Royal: in the base game, he was level 29 and had higher stats.

timrodresized: I’m not entirely sure why they nerfed him - from what I remember, there weren’t all that many of him even in the base game’s version of Kaneshiro’s Palace.

timrodresized: What’s also weird is that at level 29, Take-Minakata was five levels higher than the second-highest level enemy in the dungeon. Shiki-Ouji is six levels higher than the second-highest enemy in Madarame’s palace.

timrodresized: Normally, he’s weak only to Psychic, but Ann managed to burn him. This is probably why you want Makoto if you have Ann, because burn opens the enemy up to both Nuclear and Wind.

timrodresized: The reason I’m not doing as much damage is because this was my third recording and I didn’t bother to stop for new Personas. We’ll switch back to the save I used for my second (lost) recording soon.

timrodresized: Just like Shiki-Ouji, Take-Minakata is a “tough guy” who won’t negotiate unless he is critically low on HP… not that there’s much of a point to doing that. Doing the Greatest Weapon in the John Persona Arsenal technique on groups of regular enemies is a much more efficient way to farm money.

timrodresized: Take-Minakata does not fuck around. If he gets a lucky shock off, he can and will follow up with a technical on his next turn. This didn’t happen on my canon recording and I’ll explain why once we pass the vault door.

timrodresized: Okay so, uh… does that mean the armor is sooty, or does it mean that only sooty men can wear it? Or was it made by sooty men and that’s why it’s called that? I have questions.

timrodresized: There’s a locked door here you can open to make a shortcut back to the main room, useful in case you want to come back and pick up a Take-Minakata later. We probably will at some point - I’m doing that thing where I record like 3/4 of the dungeon and do the writing and then go back and finish it again.

timrodresized: Oh, right. Kaneshiro doesn’t have an unused Will Seed cutscene the way Kamoshida and Madarame did. As far as I know, Atlus cut the idea after recording those two.

timrodresized: I also didn’t know this, but Kaneshiro’s original Japanese voiceactor died right after the base game released. His name was Kazunari Tanaka and he died of an unspecified illness in October 2016. Atlus completely replaced all of his voice lines in Royal.

timrodresized: This was one of two voiceactor deaths related to this game. Miyu Matsuki, who voices the fortune teller we met in Shinjuku, died in October 2015 of lymphoma. Her voicelines were also replaced in Royal.

timrodresized: Honestly, I think Persona as a franchise has some horrible death curse associated with it.

timrodresized: Before we leave, there’s a very sneaky chest up on a… I’m not even sure what you’d call it, it’s just kind of this platform that exists for no apparent reason.

timrodresized: You can get to it by jumping up here and then jumping across and going through the tiny vent that also seems to serve no identifiable purpose.

timrodresized: Having a source of psychic damage for knockdowns is nice, even if we only have three of them. They’re a good backup in case Joker gets stunned or silenced.

timrodresized: The other side leads up some stairs to a hallway with a dog and some cameras.

timrodresized: There’s another optional power room at the end.

timrodresized: In addition to turning off the cameras in the hall we just ran through, it also turns off the cameras on the other side of the wall.

timrodresized: There’s a card reader we can use to open a shortcut back to where the save room is. This is helpful for farming once you’ve cleared the dungeon out.

timrodresized: The next three rooms are just kind of there to be there. You go into the first one, jump through a vent in the wall to the next one, and go down to the bottom.

timrodresized: Like the other side, there’s a shortcut back to the main room.

timrodresized: During the fight with the shadow in here, I got Maruki’s “Flow” ability to activate. This raises Joker’s attack by an insane amount - I was doing 300+ damage with single spells.

timrodresized: We can open this door to go back to the main area.

Skull: “Wait… you think they’re talkin’ about those two keys!?”

Fox: “Hm, just as expected… those are highly likely to be what opens the partition.”

Skull: “What’re we gonna do then? Beat 'em up and take the keys?”

Morgana: “Really, Skull? Just look at 'em. They’re not your average Shadows. Anyone in charge of such important keys must be extremely strong.”

timrodresized: This is where the rumor thing from P2 should have made a comeback, and you could argue that they’re “really strong” or “probably not that strong” and the fight would change based on your choice.

Panther: “And there’s two of them; dealing with both of them would be tough. Plus, they could go and sound the alarm…”

timrodresized: Funny she says that, because we’ll actually wind up fighting both of those shadows (plus a third one) at the same time as a miniboss in the next area.

Skull: “They don’t really look like they’re goin’ anywhere, though…”

Queen: “…Then why don’t we split them up and beat them individually?”

Fox: “And how will we do that?”

timrodresized: By using the dumbest fucking idea that shouldn’t work.

Queen: “Remember that monitoring room upstairs - the room we got the map in? There was some communication equipment there as well. We can use that to lure one away.”

timrodresized: I didn’t want to pick the second one because on the canon run, I had two Personas that absolutely fucking devastated them.

Panther: “I agree. It sounds a lot safer than fighting them both at the same time!”

Morgana: “Okay, let’s leave this part to our resident intellectual!”

timrodresized: I don’t know why no one has suggested just, I dunno, shooting them through the door. Especially given that the door has holes big enough to fit a gun through.

Queen: “Thanks! So, first we need to head to the monitoring room!”

timrodresized: The game then offers to simply warp us right to the communications room. We’ve already picked up everything, so there’s no reason not to do it (especially given that it’ll warp us back here afterward).

timrodresized: After playing SMT 1 I’m surprised they didn’t make you walk back to the communications room only every other floor tile is now a damage floor.

timrodresized: Why the hell would this work? Why would they not just send both guys just to be sure?

timrodresized: Wait a second… is this Loss?

timrodresized: Meet Fuu-Ki. He’ll show up as a normal enemy later in the dungeon. We will definitely want him because he’s a Star arcana Persona, but also because his moveset is… surprisingly good.

timrodresized: He hits pretty hard, but that’s only because I was too lazy to look up the weakness chart. He’s very weak to lightning.

Morgana: “Oooh, he had a key!”

Skull: “Guess that went pretty well, huh?”

Queen: “That means there should only be one Shadow in the security room! Let’s snatch the other key from it while we can!”

timrodresized: The game offers to warp us right back there.

timrodresized: Sui-Ki promptly gets his ass handed to him, even on this run.

Fox: “Perfect, we’ve now obtained both keys!”

Queen: “Oh, just one moment! Doesn’t this map have a little more information than our own?”

Panther: “Maybe it can tell us what the bank is like further down.”

Fox: “This map seems to indicate that the area beyond the partition is rather large as well…”

timrodresized: We’re about halfway through the dungeon right now. The vault door is kind of a natural stopping point if you’re not going for 100%… but we are.

Morgana: “I’m sure security will keep getting more intense from here onward too. We need to be careful.”

Panther: “On three! One, two…!”

timrodresized: Something tells me that had Final Fantasy 7 Remake come out before this game, this would be a minigame.

Fox: “This took some time, but we managed to force it open.”

timrodresized: You would think this would be a confidant point thing, but it’s not.

Queen: “Yes, I agree. The cooperation of our whole team is what helped us through this particular ordeal.”

Morgana: “So he took all of this from the weak…”

Queen: “…He’s going to pay for this.”

timrodresized: We’re in another two-staircase situation, but the one on the right is totally pointless, as indicated by the door being white instead of yellow. You can’t even unlock it - on my lost recording, I got on the other side.

Morgana: “Hm!? Wait, Joker! Hide!”

timrodresized: Basically, you can just run right through these cameras without giving a single fuck provided that your security level is low enough since there’s no way to turn them off.

Queen: “It might be a surveillance system that switches between multiple cameras for efficient coverage…”

Skull: “That just means we gotta pass by when it’s not recordin’, yeah?”

Morgana: “That should work… but there are guards to watch out for too. We should proceed with caution!”

timrodresized: For the most part, you can just jump between cover to avoid the cameras.

timrodresized: The second half of the dungeon has new enemies, and one of those is Leanan Sidhe here. On my second run (which we’ll be catching up to in a bit) I fused one of these as soon as I got a Queen’s Necklace. Since we’re here, let’s talk a little about the Personas I fused on the canon run.

New Persona: Leanan Sidhe

Origin: Ireland

First Appearance: Soul Hackers

Irish fairies who seek out human lovers and give them inspiration, usually resulting in madness and/or death for the artist.

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timrodresized: By herself, Leanan Sidhe is pretty good: she’s got Psio and Marin Karin is actually pretty okay… though as far as I know it can fuck with the Greatest Weapon in the John Persona Arsenal because brainwashed enemies don’t trigger Yoshida’s abilities.

timrodresized: Man, a Persona game where Marin Karin is actually useful. Never thought I’d see the day.

timrodresized: The real reason I wanted Leanan Sidhe, though, is because we can fuse her with the Kodama we’ve had sitting around in the party (which, strangely enough, none of the fusion calculators list as a valid fusion but I swear I did it) to get Feng Huang.

New Persona: Feng Huang

Origin: China

First Appearance: Shin Megami Tensei I

Mythological king of birds in Chinese mythology. Originally divided into a male (Feng) and female (Huang) gender, but now exists as a feminine counterpart to the Chinese dragon. Often confused with both Suzaku and the Phoenix, both of which are distinct mythological figures. Persona 4, Persona 5 and Royal incorrectly translate this Persona’s name as “Phoenix”.

timrodresized: The reason that people can tell the translation is off, by the way, is that Joker will shout “Ho-oh!” when he summons it if you’re using the Japanese voices. “Ho-oh” is the Japanese name for Feng Huang… though you’ve probably heard that name if you’ve ever played Pokemon Gold or Silver. The encyclopedia entry for it in P5 and Royal is also a dead giveaway.

timrodresized: To the best of my knowledge, Feng Huang is the only mythological figure to be both a Persona and a Pokemon under the same name.

timrodresized: Anyway, Feng Huang fucking RULES. It starts with Atomic Bloodline, reducing the cost of Freila to 4 SP… in addition to learning Nuke Boost for even more Nuclear damage. In the base game, you could trade him in for a Nuke Boost card, but unfortunately that was removed in Royal.

timrodresized: Oh, and of course we also need it because it’s the first available Faith Persona and we don’t want to permafuck.

timrodresized: There’s a door we could go through, but also a vent.

timrodresized: To get the Will Seed, we want to face away from where the Will Seed room is.

timrodresized: This would’ve been way cooler if they had Joker just kick his way through the doors from the grappling hook.

timrodresized: There’s another route you can use to find a second grapple point.

timrodresized: Just like the other “Black” items, the Black Kogatana isn’t a weapon by itself, but a trade-in item for returning Personas.

timrodresized: Oni are now a regular enemy, and here’s where I want to show why All-Outing a Disaster Shadow is the best way to deal with them.

timrodresized: We get an All-Out, which kills both High Pixies easily but doesn’t kill the Oni.

timrodresized: That does though.

timrodresized: You might notice that there’s red areas behind us on the map. This is because going through the vents effectively bypasses a couple of hallways. There’s nothing really in those, so they’re safe to skip.

timrodresized: There’s another lock at the top.

timrodresized: Right after this hallway, we’ll be going back to the canon save file.

timrodresized: Here we have Yaksini, who I didn’t grab even on the canon file because they’re kind of a pain to negotiate with.

timrodresized: Yaksini is kind of useless anyway. They have one useful skill - “Attack Master” (formerly Auto-Tarukaja) which gives you an attack buff at the start of every battle. Unfortunately, they don’t learn that until level 23 - meaning you’re either grinding with a Persona that only knows physical skills or waiting until October to be able to level one up automatically from fusion… at which point there are other options.

timrodresized: Yaksini is also very weak to nuclear.

timrodresized: And now we get Makoto’s finisher screen.

timrodresized: The elevator leads into this long hallway with nothing interesting in it.

timrodresized: And now it’s time for us to rejoin the canon file.

New Persona: Nigi Mitama

Origin: Japan

First Appearance: Devil Summoner

Aspect of the human soul that represents calmness and functionality. Opposite of Ara Mitama.

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timrodresized: Nigi Mitama is garbage for a reason I only discovered after I fused it. First, Relief Bloodline only works in combat. If you heal out of combat, you pay the full SP cost.

timrodresized: I’m also pretty sure that Divine Grace only works in combat. The only reason I fused it is because I had a Queen’s Necklace to get rid of and my Persona roster was full… and because we still need a Councillor Persona for Maruki.

Returning Persona: Orthrus

Origin: Greece

First Appearance: Megami Tensei I

Two-headed dog born from the titans Typhon and Echidna. Brother to Cerberus (but not Pascal the Dog), the Sphinx, and the Chimera. Belonged to the titan Geryon, and was slain by Heracles during his labors.

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timrodresized: Orthrus is basically set up to be an enemy, and his skill set as a Persona is kind of questionable.

Kaneshadow: “Y-You bastards… how did you get this far!? What about my security!?”

Skull: “Sorry, that shit was a piece of cake for us!”

Fox: “…Well, I wouldn’t say it was that simple…”

timrodresized: And now, not even ten minutes after fighting Sui-Ki and Fuu-Ki separately, we fight them plus a Kin-Ki in the same battle.

timrodresized: Joker knocks down the Fuu-Ki and Baton Passes to Makoto, who wipes out nearly half of Sui-Ki’s HP in one go. Kin-Ki is also very weak to Psychic but I couldn’t change Personas due to the “one change per turn” rule.

timrodresized: Instead, I have Ann light the Kin-Ki on fire.

timrodresized: Then Makoto gets bullshitted to death. This is not the first time this happens in this dungeon, nor will it be the last. Giving enemies the ability to technical was kind of a mistake because it potentially allows any enemy to pull a Mot and bullshit their way into six or seven press turns at a time if they get lucky.

timrodresized: Sui-Ki down, and Kin-Ki at low HP.

timrodresized: Fuu-Ki gets a faceful of lead, and dies from the Showtime.

timrodresized: And then Yusuke finishes off the Kin-Ki with a physical attack.

Skull: “Grrr, he took off while we were busy fightin’…”

timrodresized: This is what the rest of this dungeon is going to be - finding bits of this substitution cypher and using it to open doors.

Queen: “The pages afterward have been torn out as well. Could it be a code of some sort?”

timrodresized: I should mention that Kaneshiro’s Palace is one of two dungeons that were the source of a lot of complaints about the base game. There were some changes made, which you’ll see coming up.

Skull: “If we’re not gonna figure this shit out now, we should just keep goin’ forward, yeah?”

Morgana: “Considering Kaneshiro’s reaction, this elevator should lead us to the innermost part of the bank. If so, it’ll be the most secure area as well. Let’s make sure we’re ready for whatever awaits!”

timrodresized: I did a little bit of grinding here because Joker was very close to level 26, and I wanted to hit that in order to get a Take-Minakata.

timrodresized: This is what Harisen Recovery looks like - Ann pulls out a giant paper fan and hits Joker with it.

timrodresized: I’ll log Oni (and Yaksini) at the end of the update, since they were only in the party long enough for me to add them to the compendium. That’s one thing I re-learned in this dungeon: if you negotiate with a demon but don’t actually add them to your party (ie; because your party was full and you chose to not take them) you don’t get them in the compendium.

timrodresized: This is what happens if you try and negotiate with a brainwashed enemy. I can only assume Oni is a cultured Elly and/or Yukiko fan.

timrodresized: The options even change, which is kind of amusing. The only downside is that you can’t ask for more money, and this also won’t work on enemies that are weak to Psychic because being hit by a weakness clears Brainwashed.

timrodresized: With that, I immediately went back out to the Velvet Room, because there were even more Personas I wanted to fuse. This is a mistake because of something we unlock after we’re done here.

New Persona: Take-Minakata

Origin: Japan

First Appearance: Shin Megami Tensei I

Son of Okuninushi who lost his arms in a sumo battle with Take-Mikazuchi. Fled to Suwa, where he became the guardian god of Lake Suwa.

timrodresized: Take-Minakata is pretty good. He covers the total lack of lightning damage I had, plus he eventually learns Elec Boost. The only downside is that he’s Hanged, and we don’t need that until after the next dungeon when we can get better options.

New Persona: Isis

Origin: Egypt

First Appearance: Majin Tensei I (SNES)

Egyptian mother goddess. Sister of (and also wife to) Osiris, mother of Horus. Associated with nature and magic.

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timrodresized: We need Isis for one reason and one reason alone: the fact that she’s a Priestess persona.

timrodresized: I could’ve just summoned Apsaras, but there wasn’t much of a point when I could have a half-decent Bless-element Persona.

timrodresized: Just to get it out of the way, there’s one other Persona I fused while still in the dungeon.

New Persona: Clotho

Origin: Greece

First Appearance: Nocturne

One of the three Fates, daughter of Nyx and Erebus. Spins the thread of life and is responsible for determining when things are born.

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timrodresized: Clotho is another Persona I fused for one reason: we need a Fortune Persona to not permafuck and there are no better options. If you’re playing online and have the DLC, you can fuse Ariadne at 30, but she’s only marginally better.

Skull: “Wh-what the hell!? Are these all vaults!? How messed up is this guy!?”

Panther: “We’re supposed to check all of these for the Treasure!?”

timrodresized: And then Persona 5 was Payday 2.

Queen: “Hold on, this distinct shape… could it be…”

Fox: “What’s the matter?”

Queen: “If my prediction is correct, we won’t need to check every single one of these small vaults.”

Panther: “For real!?”

Queen: “That is, I hope. I’ll explain why once I’ve confirmed my theory.”

Morgana: “I seriously hope so too…”

Skull: “PIN…? So is this gonna open one of the vaults?”

Queen: “Hm, there’s something written above the number pad on here. ‘RICH’… this is disgusting. How obsessed can one man be with money?”

Panther: “Wait, there might be something more than that! Do you think this is connected to that journal…?”

timrodresized: I am getting serious Bioshock Infinite “Wait a minute, that card!” vibes here.

Panther: “See? It has all of the letters in the word ‘RICH’!”

timrodresized: The strange thing is that they have Yusuke repeat the whole cypher before you get a chance to do it, but they don’t just… show it on the screen while you’re entering it.

Skull: “What the!? The whole vault moved!?”

Queen: “So my deduction may be correct…”

timrodresized: I wish actual ATMs had the ability to play custom voice clips when you enter your PIN, because I’d set mine to four minutes of silence followed by a voice going “Hey! I’m a magic ATM! Gimme some coffee and I’ll give you money! Just pour it right on me, it’ll work!”

Panther: “That voice… it’s Kaneshiro! Is he watching us!?”

Morgana: “That doesn’t seem to be the case. It sounds more like the voice of his heart… I guess all he really thinks about is money, after all.”

Skull: “So he blackmails people outta their savings and that’s still not enough? What a douche…”

Panther: “More importantly, the message in the journal was the PIN code!”

Fox: “Yes, it seems so… but I doubt it will be that easy from this point forward. The rest of the pages were torn out of the journal. Who knows what clues they may hold…”

Morgana: “Well, let’s not get pessimistic. We should look around and try to find some other clues. Time to head further in and find those PINs!”

timrodresized: I love how they only put in one save room for the entire first half of this dungeon, and then there’s two right next to each other.

timrodresized: For reference, there are zero enemies between the last save room and this one - in fact, I don’t think it’s even possible for the enemies on the stairs to see you so long as you stay on the lowest level.

timrodresized: One thing I wanted to point out is that unlike the save rooms in the other palaces, the ones in Kaneshiro’s don’t have that effect where they fade into what the room actually looks like, because this building doesn’t actually exist.

timrodresized: The first part of this area is a loop with a bunch of cameras in it.

timrodresized: Fortunately, the switch for them is right across from the place we need to go.

timrodresized: Here, we meet the final new enemy of this dungeon: Rakshasha.

timrodresized: Fortunately, I gave Isis a regular Kouha (tier 1 bless, single-target) and use that to exploit Rakshasha’s weakness to Bless. They’re also weak to Wind, so if you fuse Fuu-Ki you can use him to wipe these out.

Returning Persona: Rakshasha

Origin: India

First Appearance: Megami Tensei II

Wicked spirits in Hindu and Buddhist mythology that feed on human flesh. Known for possessing humans. Capable of shapeshifting and magic.

timrodresized: Rakshasha is another trash-sona I promptly returned to get a Regenerate 1 card.

Queen: “We may have found the controls we’ve been looking for. Anything we can do here?”

Panther: “Oh, look! The shutter’s gone! We can keep going now!”

Morgana: “Man, he seems really worked up…”

Fox: “He must truly not want us gaining access to this ‘Golden Pig’.”

Skull: “Well, pretty sure that one there’s the one he mentioned. Pretty suspicious, if you ask me.”

Queen: “Hm? There’s a note here… it says ‘P=I’.”

Skull: “…The hell’s that supposed to mean?”

Queen: “Wait, the edge of it is torn. Maybe it came from Kaneshiro’s journal?”

Morgana: “Oh, so it’s the continuation of the code we found in there! This should be useful!”

timrodresized: There’s a second code lock down the hall, but we can’t open it yet. The combination is the same every time, and I already over-wrote my save file so I don’t know if you can just open them if you know the combination.

timrodresized: There’s a chest in an alcove down the stairs from the code lock (marked by the ! on the minimap) with a Model Gun in it.

timrodresized: The Model Gun is an item that allows you to return certain Personas for guns, but most of the ones that can do that are at or near the end game.

timrodresized: There’s a little staircase loop that has the second pig we need in it.

timrodresized: There’s a lot of samey “This must be a clue!” dialog so I’m just gonna cut it.

timrodresized: I feel like Atlus missed the opportunity to have a dumb Squaresoft thing where you could enter 1930 for “PEAR”, which would give you an unripened pear you could then bring to a different machine and enter “0119” for RIPE to ripen the pear, and then you have to feed the pear to something at the end of the game for Makoto’s ultimate weapon.

Skull: “All right, it worked!”

Kaneshadow: “Tch… this isn’t anywhere near your quota for this month. Don’t gimme your excuses. Just go reap every last penny!”

Fox: “This voice again…”

Kaneshadow: “I’ll make you understand if you don’t get it… people who can’t earn money are worthless to me!”

Panther: “He’s completely distorted…”

Queen: “It looks like he really believes money is more important than human life… what a pitiful man.”

Skull: “Yeah… let’s finish this qucik. The door’s prolly opened up, so we should head back and check it out.”

timrodresized: The game asks us if we want to warp back to the start of the vault area, but I didn’t because there was one door I wanted to check.

timrodresized: All this door does is act as a shortcut between the first room and where the last pig is. It’s meant to be a way to get back to the code input thing from the pig, but because I had already cleared this area out I just walked back the long way.

Skull: “Oooh, it’s open!”

Queen: “This is the second one… I wonder how many more there are…”

timrodresized: Just like before, we have another sub-area to go through in order to progress.

timrodresized: This room has barriers all over it. One side is completely impassable.

timrodresized: The other has a dog.

timrodresized: Anyway, the solution to this room is to jump up on these shelves full of money.

timrodresized: At the top is a switch.

timrodresized: This area introduces a new stealable in the form of these suitcases. It’s a nice touch.

timrodresized: There’s a locked chest up here we can get with a Golden Vest in it. It’s a slight upgrade for Makoto.

timrodresized: You can kind of see the path we have to take on the minimap, but notice that golden door up there.

Morgana: “Hmm… and there’s also this weird pig. Maybe we should do some recoinassance first.”

timrodresized: I don’t remember these being in the base game, but they let you skip parts of the vault area by paying.

Queen: “I get that employees would have to show their keycards, but…”

Skull: “They gotta pay too!? And that definitely ain’t cheap!”

Fox: “So, Kaneshiro even views his own employees as exploitable resources.”

Queen: “…I’m sure it’ll make him a little money, but I doubt it’ll amount to anything substantial.”

Morgana: “What should we do? I don’t think we should have to pay Kaneshiro…”

timrodresized: This door can actually be opened from the other side. There’s another one in the next area that can’t be, at least as far as I know.

timrodresized: We’ve seen this before - another hallway full of cameras.

timrodresized: I feel like they could’ve cut a lot from this dungeon without really making it any less difficult.

timrodresized: After a quick stop to grind money, I keep going.

timrodresized: There’s a pig surrounded by cameras. Notice, however, that there’s nothing for a barrier to come out of. So what do we do?

timrodresized: Simple, we just walk right through and take it. It’s like, a 20% penalty to security level that we’re going to erase the next time we get into a fight.

timrodresized: Eventually, we come to the other side of the golden door. This place is pretty much a straight hallway.

timrodresized: Joker’s just like “Hugs? I can do that.” and then proceeds to embrace Yusuke.

timrodresized: I would post the “You don’t even know English” thing but technically they’re all speaking Japanese.

Morgana: “So we’ll need to transpose this one into numbers too. I hope we can do it with the hints we have…”

timrodresized: Before you can even attempt it, the game repeats basically the same dialog again… even if you already have all the information you need to solve it.

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timrodresized: I should mention that I’m skipping the unlocking animation, but it plays in full every time you solve one of these.

Panther: “Great, it looks like the vault opened up even more now.”

Morgana: “Well then, we should keep-”

Kaneshadow: “This isn’t enough… I need to have a huge presence!”

Skull: “What now?”

Kaneshadow: “I’m done having other people walk all over me… it’s my turn now…”

Fox: “He is beyond redemption… it seems he cares not for those he tramples upon himself.”

Queen: “Every step we take is strengthening my resolve. Let’s push onward.”

timrodresized: Instead of taking the warp out, I decided to bust down the gold door, just to see what would happen.

timrodresized: There’s really no point to doing this.

Skull: “Check it out! This one’s open for us now too!”

Queen: “This movement… there can be no doubt.”

Fox: “Hm? Did you notice something?”

Panther: “Wh-what do you mean…? Can you explain that a little more?”

timrodresized: Specifically, it’s a giant disc-detainer lock with six discs, but the last two are false discs that don’t actually work.

Queen: “The cylinder is the mechanism that judges if a key is the proper shape. If you use the correct key and all the discs align, the lock opens.”

Fox: “Now that you mention it, while the walls rotate, the path forward has remained facing the same way…”

Morgana: “So you’re saying the whole floor is just one giant lock…?”

Queen: “That’s right. All the smaller vaults in here aren’t important. There has to be an area further in, locked away by the room itself.”

Skull: “And that’s where the Treasure’s gotta be! Sweet, let’s get goin’!”

timrodresized: Of course, it’s not quite that simple.

timrodresized: This is Khumbanda. Normally, he’s a mid-40s trash Persona.

timrodresized: The wiki claims he’s weak to Nuke and not Bless. They’re wrong.

timrodresized: This is when I went out and fused Clotho, and also did some minor Persona shuffling to get everything in order.

Panther: “I guess that’s why the Shadow was protecting it?”

Queen: “Hm, it doesn’t seem to require any keys, but there are buttons on the left and right of the box…”

Morgana: “There must be a reason that thing was guarding it. Let’s try and figure out why.”

timrodresized: Anyway, there’s two control panels, one way goes to progress, but we’re not doing that yet.

Fox: “There are Shadows here as well, perhaps they are protecting something.”

Panther: “That one seems pretty tough… we’ll have to make sure we’re good and ready.”

timrodresized: Oh no. That’s not…

timrodresized: It is. It’s Cerberus, though I doubt this one is Pascal the Dog. He opens with Vajra Blast, which fucking HURTS.

timrodresized: That’s the only attack he gets off the entire fight. Cerberus is weak to Ice, meaning we can use both Nigi Mitama and Yusuke to get two All-Outs per turn.

timrodresized: On Makoto’s turn, I have her use… I forget which spell it is… to make Cerberus forgetful. Forgetful is this game’s equivalent of silence, and Cerberus will ONLY use skills to attack - meaning he’ll just waste his turn as long as it’s on him.

timrodresized: The will seed is right behind him.

timrodresized: The Crystal of Gluttony is useless.

timrodresized: One more area of kicking power boxes and we’re done.

Queen: “Not to worry - we just need to deal with the power to the bars like we did before.”

Morgana: “Based on how this looks, we’re going to have to find a bunch of power boxes…”

timrodresized: There’s a bunch of stealables at ground level, but at this point we don’t really need to care about those. This is where I wound up getting bullshitted to death, but I didn’t capture that.

timrodresized: One of the boxes we need is in the corner here.

timrodresized: We can then grapple up to the top of the shelves and access the rest of the room.

timrodresized: You can see both of the remaining boxes up here. This one disables the cameras.

timrodresized: In the middle is this locked box, which I think in the base game had a gun for Makoto, but in Royal just has a Bead Chain.

timrodresized: I knew it! Ohio was the real villain all along!

Morgana: “So we’re getting into calculations now… good grief.”

timrodresized: There’s a platform we can’t reach that just has a couple of stealables on it, and the weird thing (from a design perspective) is that you’re not likely to find where that vent leads until after you have the last clue and can warp back to the main area.

Skull: “Daaamn! This is nuts…!”

Fox: “Safes everywhere… Kaneshiro must have gained an obscene amount of money. Though, walking around the Palace, I don’t see anything that he seems to have spent it on…”

timrodresized: I feel like the game has a hard time making the distinction between the shadow and the actual character. We saw Kaneshiro give some random hostess $30,000, so chances are the real Kaneshiro is spending it.

Queen: “Perhaps all he wants to do with it is hoard it… now’s not the time for this discussion, though. Let’s keep going.”

Panther: “Hey, look at that!”

Morgana: “And isn’t that the power for the bars?”

Panther: “Oh. You’re right - we can’t go this way. I guess we’ll just have to look for a different path.”

timrodresized: There’s another gold door down the hall from the barrier. Unlike the other one, I don’t think you can open this one from the other side because it’s a one-way trip.

timrodresized: There’s two camera boxes you can break in here, and honestly this whole dungeon has been kind of repetitive ever since they introduced that mechanic.

timrodresized: At about the 3/4 mark through this hallway is a spot you can jump up to get a chest with three Luck Incense in it. Unfortunately, incense is nowhere near as good in this game as it was in Persona 1 and Innocent Sin.

timrodresized: This is because your character’s stats are now derived entirely from their Persona, and since we change Personas frequently there’s no reason to use this on any of them.

timrodresized: On the way down, I get ambushed by an Orthrus and two High Pixies - what I want to point out is that when Joker is in the “surrounded” formation, he can shoot enemies behind him without moving.

timrodresized: And that’s level 28. Unfortunately, all of the Personas at level 28 are kinda trash. At this point, we are now in or past negotiation range for all of the enemies in the next dungeon except the red shadows.

timrodresized: We probably wouldn’t have hit 28 except that because I got bullshitted to death, I had to re-do this entire area. Getting a game over keeps all of your EXP and money but resets chests and objectives.

timrodresized: Another hallway full of cameras, because we haven’t had enough of that yet.

timrodresized: The last code machine is down here, along with the vent that takes you to that platform in the other room we couldn’t reach.

timrodresized: To get into where the pig is, there’s a room right across from the code machine with these safes that magically open when we get close.

Panther: “Ugh, it’s like, algebra or something! I’m getting confused…”

Morgana: “Panther… this is really just simple addition…”

timrodresized: Kicking the box opens up a grappling hook point on the other side from where the barrier is.

timrodresized: All it does is bring you up to a chest with an SP restoring item in it.

timrodresized: One round trip across the entire room later…

timrodresized: Gonna cut some repeat dialogue here.

timrodresized: And now we have access to where the Treasure is. Dungeon complete, apart from the fact that I still want to farm money a bit.

Fox: “Again?”

Kaneshadow: “This… this is the fruit of all my hard labor!”

Skull: “He thinks robbin’ people is something to celebrate? Tha guy needs to get his brain checked…”

timrodresized: Says the kid who technically robbed two people and celebrated it both times.

Kaneshadow: “With this much, I will be invincible! Omnipotent! I’ve changed… I’m no longer the person I used to be…”

Panther: “The person he used to be…? What could have happened to make him so distorted?”

Morgana: “I don’t know, but no matter what kind of past he had, his actions are unforgivable.”

Queen: “That’s right. Now, if my deductions are accurate, that should’ve been the final mechanism.”

Morgana: “All right then. Let’s head back and check out the vault! We know where it is, so going back should be easy.”

Skull: “You’re like some kinda prophet, Queen…”

Queen: “It’s mostly thanks to that notebook. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for that. More importantly, did you hear all those things Shadow Kaneshiro was saying?”

Panther: “Oh yeah, I was wondering about that! Didn’t he seem kinda… insecure or something?”

Queen: “Exactly. He kept bringing up how rich and powerful he wants to be.”

Skull: “So if he’s insecure about that shit… he thinks he’s really just some poor weakling, huh?”

Queen: “Maybe by thinking he was going to be a strong, wealthy man, he convinced himself it was true.”

Fox: “I wonder… well, we will discover the truth for ourselves when we change his heart. Let us hurry, Joker.”

Queen: “I don’t see anything.”

Skull: “Once we get this far, we need this callin’ card thing.”

Queen: “A calling card… I see… making the target believe that the Treasure is in danger will cause it to materialize. That’s quite a bold trick.”

Panther: “Huh? She understood?”

timrodresized: Ann wants to be the smart girl.

Fox: “Joker, we’ll defer to you regarding its timing.”

timrodresized: The good news is I won’t have to do a cut, because we send the card out tomorrow and then do the boss on 06/27.

Skull: “In the end, that Kaneshiro bastard only showed his stupid face once…”

Morgana: “That doesn’t matter. As long as we steal the Treasure, we’ll change his heart.”

timrodresized: I actually did grind more. I had about 400,000 yen by the end of the dungeon, but I wanted to get at least half a million to make sure we’re covered on expenses.

timrodresized: While we’ve already done pretty much the single largest expense we’ll have (that being the SP adhesives) we still need to pay 100,000 yen to start the confidant with the fortune teller. We’ll also be spending somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 yen a day on confidants.

timrodresized: Actually, I calculated it out. We need a BARE MINIMUM of 200,000 yen just to not permafuck. That amount would be higher if we hadn’t bought the Famicom from the recycling store already.

timrodresized: One fun thing I discovered while grinding is that High Pixies basically can’t hurt you. Their AI seems to always cast Dormina to put people to sleep and then never follows up, so you can just use them to take a nap for SP.

timrodresized: On the way out, the Velvet Room door starts glowing red and we get a tutorial. I’m going to do my own instead because I think my way shows it off better.

timrodresized: The red lighting signifies a fusion alarm, which is a new mechanic added for Royal. Allow me to explain how it works while I fuse a disgustingly overpowered Persona with it.

timrodresized: During a Fusion Alarm, several things happen. One of them is that the reward for returning a Persona is improved - skills will either get upgraded to the next tier or made into a “ma” version (as an example, Take-Minakata usually returns a Zionga card but under a Fusion Alarm returns a Mazionga card).

timrodresized: I should mention that the Treasure Demons all have unique accessories which also improve under an alarm.

timrodresized: We had a low-level Angel sitting around, and I had reached level 29 while grinding, which opens up the third Justice Persona. I fuse the Angel we had with a Regent and go for an Archangel.

timrodresized: Fusion Alarms increase the stats of any Personas you fuse, as well as opening up more slots to inherit abilities and potentially upgrading some of your skills.

Returning Persona: Archangel

Origin: Abrahamic Mythology

First Appearance: Shin Megami Tensei I

Angels who serve as the ministers and messengers between the Judeo-Christian God and mankind.

timrodresized: Archangel gets a pretty significant stat boost.

timrodresized: Dazzler and Magaru both flash red, meaning they’ll potentially change. If the fusion isn’t an accident, you can choose whether or not to change. I said yes.

timrodresized: Dazzler gets upgraded to Nocturnal Flash, which attempts to inflict Dizzy on all enemies. Magaru gets upgraded to Garula.

timrodresized: You’ll notice that Archangel is now marked in yellow. This means that if we use him to fuse something else, there is a near-100% chance for a fusion accident. If an accident doesn’t occur, you instead get a stat boost.

timrodresized: I’m pretty sure the alarm will cancel if you leave to save, so let’s just do it and see what happens.

timrodresized: Principality is a rock fucking solid Persona. It gets half SP cost on Bless spells and learns Bless Boost, which both increases Bless damage and also the chances that the Hama spell line instakills.

timrodresized: Just like in Persona 1 and 2, the “skip” prompt disappears if you get an accident.

timrodresized: The guillotine blade sparks and skids to a halt.

timrodresized: We get an Eligor instead, which at first I was kind of pissed off about. Just wait for it.

timrodresized: During an accident, all the skills change and… oh shit. That’s Agidyne and Garudyne. We’re not supposed to be able to get those for… quite a while.

timrodresized: Getting an accident will cause Caroline to kick you out. So now we’ve got two amazing skills stuck on a trash-sona. What do we do about this?

timrodresized: Well… it just so happens that if you fuse Eligor and Incubus, you get Principality. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Returning Persona: Principality

Origin: Abrahamic Mythology

First Appearance: Shin Megami Tensei II

Angels tasked with overseeing groups of people and bestowing blessings upon them. Associated with the Sephirah Netzach.

timrodresized: By itself, Principality is a solid Bless-element Persona. With these skills? This thing is going to murder the hell out of Kaneshiro.

timrodresized: See that? That was a Rakshasha. We have now broken the game in two. I did get a second fusion alarm (they occur randomly after winning a battle) but it didn’t go as planned and I had to spend a bunch of money to re-summon stuff.

timrodresized: You might ask if I saved that Eligor to the compendium, and the answer is yes, so I can use it to fuse some even more disgusting stuff down the line. The next time we get a fusion alarm, my goal is to get Megidolaon around level 34.

timrodresized: We leave the palace with 580,000 yen. Considering we haven’t sold any of the treasure items and still have a Mementos visit before the next dungeon, we should be more than fine.

timrodresized: I check the TV shopping thing and buy this. It gives you two Black Rocks (useless) and a Black Robe (yes.)

timrodresized: We spend the night crafting, because we need Proficiency 4 to get the final Technical upgrade. Not that we need it.

timrodresized: The game acknowledges that I have broken it by giving me the extra two points.

timrodresized: Next time, we’re going to send the calling card and introduce Kaneshiro to our new angel friend.