Colors Flying High - Let's Play Persona 5 Royal

[Timrod]

Click Here for Update 3

: I don’t know why, but these thought bubbles make me think of the Milkman level from Psychonauts. “I am John Persona. My Personas are delicious. I have school starting today. I hope I do not get lost.”

: I only got this shot because I wanted to mention that if you ordered the overpriced collector’s edition of Persona 5, you got a Shujin bag like that one. I wound up getting “upgraded” to it without asking when I preordered, just like I did for Sonic Mania on the Switch. That’s why I have a gigantic statue of Sonic on a Model 1 Genesis on my shelf.

: By the way, I should mention I had to re-record this four times because I forgot that AmaRecTV and FRAPS only play nicely together when the stars align. Some of the early shots in this update will be a little weird because of that. Apparently, I have to do this exactly like Persona 1 and Innocent Sin where I take screenshots at my native 2560x1080 resolution and crop the black bars off. This is why we don’t buy ultrawide monitors.

: We could watch the TV (and I did in the video) but it gets repeated in a cutscene just a few minutes from now.

: “Here, I’ll feed you. Just make sure you finish it before the customers start coming in.”

: Yes. Curry for breakfast. I am John Persona, my breakfast is curry. The curry is delicious. I must leave now for my job on the road crew.

: “What’s that reaction for? Just eat it.”

: “It’s time for you to go.”

: “Huh, turns out you do have manners after all. Hurry over to school. You’ll end up late if you get lost on the way.”

: “Don’t forget to do that for me, all right? Now, you better hurry on out. You’re gonna be late if you get lost, country boy.”

: I guess this confirms my theory that moving wasn’t actually part of Joker’s probation, he just had to move because there were no other schools that would take him.

: The station is down this street, which looks like it’d be an invisible wall in a Yakuza game.. or in Innocent Sin.

: The game does this neat thing to mask loading where it’ll have outlines of people doing different things - the one on the train is different from the ones you get going between screens in the city. Like I said in the OP, this game is amazing in absolutely every way but the writing.

: All of a sudden, the door to the conductor’s area opens and looking back is Hitler wearing sunglasses and a jetpack.

: The entire subway is kind of a maze, with lots of dead ends. By the way, the sign on this platform corresponds to the real-life Tokyo subway system. At least, I’m pretty sure it does.

: This sign is actually relevant. Big Bang Burger is Persona 5’s equivalent of the Chinese restaurant Aiya in Persona 4. I also only just realized that Aiya in P4 is a reference to Lisa in IS.

: I don’t know why I capped this other than that it sounds like a motivational shitpost on Twitter.

: There’s some optional dialog here I want to get real quick.

: This is Ichiko Ohya. We will not know her name for quite some time. She looks kind of like a hybrid of Maya and Yukino.

: Right behind Ohya is one of THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS for an all confidants run. This is the Aojiru stand. We will be spending a lot of money here.

: The exit we need to use is the Hachiko exit, hence the dog. If you don’t know who Hachiko was, Hachiko was a dog who belonged to a professor teaching at Tokyo Imperial University. You might’ve heard of that school if you’ve ever watched Love Hina - that’s the school the main character is trying to get into.

: Anyway, Hachiko lived from late 1923 to March 1935. Every day, he’d meet his owner at Shibuya Station on his way home from work. Hachiko’s owner died at work on May 21, 1925 of a brain hemorrhage. Even after his owner’s death, Hachiko would go to the station every day to wait for his owner to return. He died on the streets of Shibuya on his way to the station.

: When Hachiko died, all of his organs were preserved and he was stuffed and mounted for display - he’s now in a museum somewhere. People thought he had died from having a meat skewer rupture his stomach, but scientists from the University of Tokyo did an autopsy in 2011 and found out that he actually had terminal cancer and worms. He died with four meat skewers in his stomach, but they had actually done no harm to him.

: There’s also a statue of Hachiko near the station that is a popular meetup spot to this day. It’s in The World Ends With You.

: Here’s a video of the upcoming cutscene, which catches a few things I missed.

: Oh shit, it’s that guy from Assassin’s Creed!

: Meet this game’s obligatory Lisa Silverman clone, Ann Takamaki.

: I’d like to think that in a better-written game, she’d look at Joker and think the word “chinyan” for reasons she can’t quite understand. Joker would start having flashbacks to killing a giant bondage-suited dadmass in a Mayan ruin. What I’m saying is that Joker would actually be a reincarnation of the “other side” Tatsuya Suou and this would be a direct sequel to Innocent Sin.

: Gotta love that Ann has the 4chan logo on her hoodie.

: I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone who has a face that square.

: When you roll up to the club only you realize you’re sitting in the passenger side because this is actually the US and no one’s been driving the car but the car is still moving and you realize you’ve been ghost riding for the past hour and a half.

: I missed a shot of him asking Joker if he wants a ride. It’s in the video, but Joker waves him off.

: This is Ryuji Sakamoto, our designated Mark/Eikichi/Junpei/Yosuke for Persona 5. In terms of ranking, he’s definitely below Eikichi (at Rank 1) and Mark (at Rank 2) but higher than Yosuke (Rank 4) or Junpei (Shit Tier).

: When Joker says “pervy teacher”, the app on his phone starts responding. Fucked if I can read any of that though, apart from the numbers. The only kanji I even recognize is the one for train station.

: It’s hard to notice unless you’re running a video of the original game next to it, but they completely re-did Ryuji’s portraits for Royal. I also found out that apparently, the P5 cast have made appearances in a lot of mobage: Chain Chronicle, Granblue Fantasy, Identity V, one of the Sword Art Online mobage because the wiki has a fuckload of art for Ryuji from those.

: “Huh? In that car just now. It was Kamoshida.”

The game does a black and white flashback to an event that happened like, ten seconds ago. Just in case you forgot.

: “He does whatever the hell he wants. Who does he think he is - the king of a castle? Don’t you agree?”

: “…Wait. You don’t know Kamoshida? Are you for real? You’re from Shujin, right?”

: No, I am John Persona. I work on the road crew. My milk is delicious.

: “What? No other high school’s got a uniform that looks like this.”

: I mean yeah, very few schools have a uniform that looks like you frontlined for a ska band called something like “Awestruck at Third Base” between 2001 and 2003 before ska stopped being cool again and retreated back to the primordial ooze from which it will probably emerge again in 2031.

: “Never seen you before though. Oh, you a transfer student?”

: “Then no wonder you don’t know him. This rain ain’t too bad. We better hurry up, or we’ll be late.”

: Oh no, a broken film reel cut!

: Remember how I said Sae was the most awkwardly written character in the game? Every time we meet someone or are about to start a new dungeon, she’ll pop in like this. Sometimes it’s not bad. Other times, she’ll be asking questions that make no sense for her to ask.

: “I assume you know of the uproar that the public calls the ‘psychotic breakdown incidents’.”

: “You say that like it’s none of your business. It was all over the news, and one of the victims included a teacher at your high school.”

: Can you guess who the next villain is going to be?

: “I’ve no doubt you’ve heard about it. On that day.. were you still an ‘ordinary’ student?”

: I didn’t capture it but Joker asks her “What do you mean?”

: “Let me change the question. You transferred to Shujin Academy, correct? An ordinary prep school that could be found in any city..”

: “…that’s what it should’ve been.”

: The way she says that just sounds.. off. I’m getting flashbacks to HALF LIFE: FULL LIFE CONSEQUENCES for some reason. Shit, is it too late to go back and name Joker John Freeman?

: Has anyone ever spoken like this? I’ve watched depositions of things like the OJ Simpson trial where they had an attorney ask OJ Simpson where he’d been every five minutes for like three days. “And where were you between 12:00 and 12:05? What about 12:06 to 12:10?” and even the attorneys weren’t talking like this.

: This is the second time in the series the protagonist’s high school has turned into a castle. Technically the third if you count SMT If. The first was Snow Queen in Persona 1.

: Yeah I mean, I know if I went to work and the building was replaced with a gigantic Japanese castle the first thing I’d do is go in. And by that I mean I’d stand in front of the gates, shout “FUCK THIS, I QUIT” and leave.

: The world briefly flickers, showing the entrance hall for Shujin replaced by the castle interior. It’s very Silent Hill.

: If this was their school this would be a romance VN called something like Moderne Gothique Mysteria in which all the students are actually reincarnated European royalty from the 14th century.

: “This SHOULD be the school… I think..”

: “The sign was for the school, right?”

: Meet our first enemy. Persona 1 and the Persona 2 duology both had demons as enemies. Persona 3/FES and 4/Golden changed that, instead opting to have “shadows” as enemies that are separate from the traditional SMT demons. 5 kind of takes a half-stance. Outside of combat, the enemies are shadows, but once in combat they reveal themselves as demons.

: “Geez, you freaked me out.. who’re you? You a student?”

: “Man, your costume’s impressive. Is that armor real? C’mon, don’t just stand there. Say somethin’.”

: “We gotta run!”

: “Stop standin’ around and run!”

: Notice how Ryuji’s footsteps leave pink splashes in the ground. There’s no plot reason for why it happens, it’s just a neat stylistic choice.

: It’s kind of hard to see, but one of them nudges Ryuji with their shield and he goes crashing to the floor. It’d be kind of hard to call it a shield bash.

: “Oww.. y-you’re gonna break my bones, dammit! The hell you think you’re - aagh!”

: Dude gets nudged with a shield and he’s just out. Meanwhile, Eikichi took like what, six guys beating on him in Innocent Sin and was still standing?

: The thing is, I don’t think this works quite as well as it did in Snow Queen. In Snow Queen, you already knew what St. Hermelin looked like before shit started going down and you could make the comparison to what it looked like after it turns into the Ice Castle. We haven’t even really been inside Shujin yet.

: “Yeah, more or less. Looks like this ain’t no dream…”

: “Hey! Let us outta here! I know there’s someone out there!”

: “Dammit, where are we? Is this some kinda movie set!?”

: There’s a stock scream sound effect playing in the background.

: “Whoa… whoa whoa whoa whoa.. you’re shittin’ me, right?”

: “This is real bad…! Isn’t there some way outta here!? C’mon, we gotta do something!”

: Just like Snatcher or Policenauts, we have to examine.. I believe it’s any three out of the four hotspots in this room to progress.

: “Say what!?”

: And here we have our first villain, the cartoonishly evil Kamoshida. I’ve seen people call him the only well-written villain in this game, but personally I think he’s kind of over the top. You’ll see what I mean later.

: “Huh? Wait.. is that you, Kamoshida?”

: “This ain’t funny, you asshole!”

: I’m only posting full images here because Shadow Kamoshida’s expressions are just.. something else. Half of them look like he’s the smuggest motherfucker alive, the other half like he’s in the middle of taking a shit.

: “S-stop it!”

: “Just go! Get outta here! These guys are serious!”

: “Oh? Running away, are we? What a heartless friend you are.”

: “He ain’t a friend.. c’mon! Hurry up and go!”

: “What’s the matter? Too scared to run away? Hmph. Pathetic scum isn’t worth my time. I’ll focus on this one’s execution…”

: This entire scene is very reminiscent of Eikichi’s scene in Innocent Sin.

: Only instead of just sitting there and letting him take it, Joker does something.

: While Atlus was definitely going for the whole Emperor’s New Clothes thing with Shadow Kamoshida, he’s actually got a pink speedo on underneath the robe.

: I have to hand it to them, visually this cutscene is good. It’d be better if the plot here wasn’t generic shounen battle anime.

: Joker gets hit and you can hear his glasses shatter when he does.

: And there’s the mask.

: I didn’t realize it because it wasn’t really that popular in the west (not to mention the newest iteration came out after the original game) but this is Devilman as fuck.

: Oh man it really doesn’t get much more Devilman than this.

: Honestly though, Joker also looks a little like Tatsuya Sudou as a teenager, who we briefly saw in Innocent Sin.

: Here’s Arsene, Joker’s starter Persona. There is actually a Persona info thing for each Persona in this game, which I didn’t find until near the end of the original. I’ll still be Personalogging like I did in P1.

: “Who the hell are you!? Guards! Start by killing that one!”

: Unfortunately, we don’t have a gun yet. Persona 5 is a game of endurance, and if you can wipe an enemy out in the first turn by shooting them, that’s going to reduce your SP usage a lot. Especially now that guns regenerate ammo.

: Pyro Jack has been relegated to trash enemy, and all we need to do is use two physical attacks to kill them. There’s no point wasting SP because while Eiga (single target curse damage) does more damage than a physical attack it still needs two hits to kill. Speaking of which…

NEW PERSONA: Arsene

Origin: Arsene Lupin novels

Persona 5 Original

Gentleman thief from the Arsene Lupin novels by Maurice Leblanc.

: Unlike the earlier games, levelling up is not a full heal.

: Instead, you get the difference between your old max HP/SP and your new max HP/SP added to your total.

: “What was that just now?”

: “You like that, you son of a bitch!?”

: "Damn you!’

: “Hey! What was that just now!? And.. your clothes…”

: “Waaaah!”

: “You bastards!”

: “God, this’s effin’ nuts!”

: “Anyways, let’s scram! You lead the way!”

: And there go the keys. Too bad we don’t just have, you know, a gun. To shoot Kamoshida in the cell.

: “Goddamn thieves… after them! Don’t let them escape!”

: “You bastards! You think you can get away with doing this to me!?”

: “I don’t give a shit! I ain’t down for any of this! C’mon, let’s get outta here!”

: “On the other hand, there’s nowhere else we can try… alright, let’s get to hoppin’.”

: Crawling segments are in first person, just like the old days of Persona 1.

: “Hey, we gotta hide!”

: “Over there.. they’re lookin’ for us, right?”

: “I ain’t playin’ along with this anymore! We gotta find a way outta this goddamn place!”

: This feels exactly like the opening to Ni no Kuni 2. Next thing you know, it’ll be revealed that Joker is the US President.

: “Hey, let’s get the hell outta this place!”

: “This ain’t the exit!? What the hell is this place!?”

: “H-hey… look…”

: “Is, uh.. is he okay?”

: Unfortunately, we can’t do anything with the bridge or the statue yet due to plot-induced stupidity.

: Meet Morgana. Morgana is the most fucking annoying piece of shit character in this game. He’s somehow worse than Teddie in Persona 4, and that’s saying something. I think a lot of that has to do with the bad localization.

: About half of Morgana’s portraits were re-done for Royal.

: “Look, the key’s right there!”

: "We’re trying to get the hell out of here! I mean, you obviously look like an enemy too!’

: “I’m locked up here, so how can I be your enemy!? Help me out!”

: Yeah yeah, that’s what Yurt the Silent Chief and Knight Lautrec said.

: For the rest of this update, Joker is more or less going to be Solid Snake circa MGS1.

: Spoiler alert, he’s a fucking cat.

: “They’re catchin’ up already!”

: “Shit, there’s still no service. Ain’t there any way to contact someone outside!? How the hell do we get out!?”

: “Hey, you two! You want to know where the exit is? Let me out and I’ll take you there. You don’t want to get caught and executed, right?”

: “I never go back on my word!”

: “This thing sounds like it’s all talk..”

: Honestly, he sounds like another Yurt. Better run him through with the scraping spear through the bars.

: “What do we do? Are you seriously not messing with us!?”

: “If you don’t hurry, they’ll catch you.”

: “F-fine..”

: “Shuddup and hurry it up! You wanna be locked up again!?”

: “Follow me, and stay quiet!”

: If you feel like this day takes forever, you’re not the only one. I checked my in-game time at the end of this update, and over an hour passes between when you leave Leblanc in the morning and the end of the day.

: “Sakura-san said that Kurusu-kun left the house this morning. Should I contact the police?”

: "No, that’ll just be more of a hassle. *sigh * What did I do to deserve this?

: “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m lowering the bridge. You, Frizzy Hair. It seems like you pick up on things faster than our Blondie over here.”

: “Try checking around the mouth of this statue, okay?”

: “How were we supposed to know how to do that!?”

: “Hmph, amateur. Come on, let’s keep going.”

NEW PERSONA: Zorro

Origin: United States

Persona 5 Original

Masked swordsman who fought corrupt officials and bandits in California while it was still under Spanish rule. Name means “Fox”. Created by Johnston McCulley in 1919 as part of a series of pulp fiction stories.

: Zorro looks like the Heavy from TF2 cosplaying as Silver Chariot. I have to question which of the TF2 cast would cosplay Polnareff and really it’s down to the Sniper and the Scout.

: On the left, we’ve got an Incubus. On the right, another Pyro Jack.

: This is why using SP offensively is a bad idea. Look how much of Joker’s SP bar drained from that. We’ve got maybe five or six casts of Eiha before we’re out. Unlike Persona 1 and Persona 2, each move has its own SP or HP cost now. By the way, the Eiha doesn’t even oneshot the Pyro Jack.

: You can’t see it in the screenshot because it happens too fast to capture, but the Pyro Jack gets a giant “WEAK” over its head and falls down. Like every SMT game since Nocturne, hitting an enemy’s weakness gets you an extra Press Turn (they simply call it ‘1 More’ in P5) that you can use to get a second attack in.

: Both Joker and Morgana level up, and Arsene does as well. Only Joker’s Persona can be a different level than he is - for all of the other party members, their Persona will always be the same level they are.

: “Not bad. Your Persona’s pretty powerful.”

: “Persona? Y’mean that thing that comes outta you guys all dramatic-like?”

: “Yes. You saw how Frizzy Hair here ripped off his mask when he summoned it, right? Well, everybody wears a mask deep within their heart. By removing that..”

: So yeah, as you can see, they’ve tossed Jung out the window at this point. I mentioned it in the Persona 1 LP but in Jung’s school of psychology you can’t ever “take the mask off” because the mask (or persona) is a construct you use to deal with the outside world.

: “Hm, it looks like you don’t have full control over your power yet. The transformation shouldn’t normally dissolve like that. After all-”

: What we have instead is that everyone is now Sailor Moon.

: Even Ryuji realizes that substance has been entirely sacrificed for style.

: “Can’t you just sit still and listen for once, Blondie!?”

: “Don’t call me Blondie! My name’s Ryuji..”

: Don’t call him Blondie, he prefers Funky Winkerbean.

: “Actually, there’s no time for me to lecture you! You wanna escape this place in one piece, right? Let’s go!”

: Morgana then hands us three Medicines, which are more useful in this game than they were in Persona 1 and 2, where you could buy Rattle Drinks almost immediately that healed several times the amount.

: “Come on, we should hurry. It’s not much farther to the exit. Just make sure you’re still good on HP, okay? There’s still a chance we’ll end up having to fight in here.”

: “Dammit! I’m too flustered! I can’t remember anything right now!”

: “Come on, let’s go!”

: “Hold on, dammit!”

: "What is it? We need to go, fast!’

: “But.. who are these guys?”

: “Do you really think you have time to worry about other people right now!? Besides, they’re-”

: The Pixie here goes down in two hits. Morgana blows a Garu on it, which I was kind of surprised at because in the earlier games Pixie reflects wind. Persona 4 and Persona 5 typically leave reflects and absorbs until late game.

: “Finally! We’re saved!”

: “D’you trick us, you jerk!?”

: “This is the most basic of basics.”

: “That’s right! As I thought, you’re a natural at this. It leads all the way outside.”

: “I see.. then we just gotta get that metallic mesh off!”

: “Seriously, we’re finally gettin’ outta here!”

: “You should wait on celebrating until you actually get out. Now get going.”

: “But.. what about you?”

: “There’s something that I still have to do. We’re going our separate ways.”

: “Huh? Returned? Does that mean we got away?”

: “I dunno what to think anymore.. what was all that anyways? That castle, and Kamoshida, and that weird cat! The hell’s goin’ on!?”

: “Huh? No! We were tryin’ to get to school, and we ended up at this weird castle!”

: “Why would you think that!?”

: "Like I’m tryin’ to say… I don’t know what’s goin’ on either!’

: Only trust your fists, police will never help you.

: “C’mon, say somethin’!”

: “Uh, that’s not what I meant…”

: Truly, this is the day that never ends. There are entire weeks later on that will go by faster than this.

: “I’m sure we came the same way.. what’s goin’ on here…?”

: “That damn cop snitched on us after all!”

: “Uh… a ca- a castle?”

: “Quite a difference from when you did morning practice at the track team.”

: “Shuddup! It’s your fault that-”

: “What!? This is bullshit!”

: “Come now. I should have been more considerate, too. Let’s just say that we were both to blame.”

: “By the way.. you’re that new transfer student, correct? Akira Kurusu?”

: “That’s right.. I remember now. Well, I’ll overlook this just for today.”

: “I’m sure you’ve heard from the principal, but cause any trouble and you’ll be expelled. Understand?”

: “At any rate, hurry up and go to the faculty office. I’m sure Ms. Kawakami’s tired of waiting. Good luck trying to enjoy your new school life.”

: “A talking cat? …are you hallucinating from an overdose? I won’t put up with you if you’re simply joking around.”

: “I’m going to have you continue the story. The one who received a ‘calling card’ from the Phantom Thieves was an Olympic medalist.”

: “It all came out in his confession. He was guilty of everything - the abuse, the… violations…”

: By “violations” she means “sexual assault”. I said Kamoshida is cartoonishly evil and I meant it.

: “But there should’ve been no connection between the two of you sicne you had just transferred. Why did you target him?”

: “That’s unacceptable! Try and recall it once again!”

: The game keeps a summary of the story, which is usually a sign that either your game is way too fucking long or that you have no idea what pacing is.

: “Being over half a day late on your first day? Can you explain yourself?”

: “It’s true the train schedules are a mess due to the accident, but you’re still way too late. Will you pull yourself together? You were given fair warning yesterday.”

: “More importantly… I heard you were caught along with that Sakamoto-kun?”

: “Don’t get involved with him, okay? He’s nothing but trouble. He wasn’t like that when he was devoting his time to track and field, though..”

: “Anyway, break’s almost over. Classes will end after fifth period today because of the subway accident. I’ll have you introduce yourself when class resumes. Follow me.”

: “Be serious about it even if you’re lying to the class, okay? Do NOT say anything unnecessary.”

: God this day should’ve been over forever ago.

: “Settle down. …Well, I’d like to introduce a transfer student: Akira Kurusu.”

: “Today, we… had him attend from the afternoon on since he wasn’t feeling well.”

: “All right, please say something to the class.”

: I kind of wish there was a NG+ option where you could just go “I have an announcement to make.. Kamoshida is a bitchass motherfucker”.

: “Uhh.. so… your seat will be… hmm.. over there. The one that’s open. Sorry, but can the people nearby please share your textbooks with him for today?”

: Meet the character I hate the second most after Morgana. I forget what his name even is. Seriously, I draw a blank every time I look at him and I’ve played this before.

: I looked it up. His name is Yuuki Mishina, and not only does he suck but his last name is similar to Eikichi’s and that makes it worse.

: I’m sure people caught on from the way Ann looked getting into Kamoshida’s car, but yeah. This game starts out way darker than Innocent Sin did, and Innocent Sin was supposedly the “darkest” Persona game.

: “Everyone’s just changed classes, so make sure you use that time to get to know each other.”

: “Well then, let’s get class started. Who’s on duty today?”

: “Hm? What’s wrong?”

: “Are you sure you’re okay? Also.. it seems like people are already talking about you, but I’m not the one who told them.”

: “You should head straight home without stopping by anywhere. Sakura-san sounded pretty angry. Oh, and about Sakamoto-kun. Don’t get involved -”

: “What do you want? I heard the police caught you cutting classes today.”

: “Ugh.. it was nothin’.”

: “And you haven’t dyed your hair back to black either…”

: I don’t get why it matters. I mean, look at Eikichi. Dude walks around with skunk hair.

: “Sorry 'bout that.”

: “See? That’s why I don’t want you getting involved. Understood?”

: “A student with a criminal record, and the culprit of an assault case. At this rate, it’d be pointless how much I contribute to the school.”

: There’s so many badly translated lines that I’ve just kind of given up. It’s easier to pretend Persona 5 doesn’t have a plot. Skip through those cutscenes, fast forward through the dialog. Enjoy the visuals and the music.

: “Your troubles never seem to end, do they, Principal Kobaykawa? All right, I understand. I’ll continue to do my best to answer your expectations of me.”

: We can ask Yuuki about where the rooftop is, but there’s no point. We still have.. like 150 screenshots before this day is over.

: On the third floor, we can run into this girl. Her name is Haru, and she’s probably the second best girl in this game.

: “Sorry for callin’ you up here like this. I bet Kawakami already told you stuff like ‘Don’t get involved with him’, huh?”

: “Figured as much. Then again, we’re in the same boat. I heard you got a criminal record. Everyone’s talkin’ about it.”

: “No wonder you were so gutsy. …What was all that that happened? You know, how we almost got killed at a castle…”

: “It wasn’t a dream… right? You remember it too, yeah?”

: “Well, just 'cause we both remember it doesn’t mean much though.. I mean, even if it was a dream, you saved me from Kamoshida.”

: “So yeah… thanks, Akira.”

: My name is John Persona. My milk is delicious. I must go now to my important job on the road crew.

: “But man, that Kamoshida we saw there.. you prolly don’t know about it, but there are some rumors about him.”

: Is the rumor that he’s actually Hitler? Or that he sells a legendary refrigerator if you walk up to him and order ramen with luncheon loaf on top?

: Seriously there’s a local brand that makes this stuff and I have never to this day seen anyone order it at the deli. There’s no way it’s not a coverup for something but I’m scared to order it just in case.

: “You know, the guy you met at the school gates. The ripped one. That asshole who was all full of himself at the castle.”

: “No one says anything against him 'cause he’s some medalist who took the volleyball team to nationals.”

: “The way Kamoshida was king of that castle felt crazy real 'cause of that. I wonder if we can go back to that castle again…”

: “Ugh, forget it. Must’ve all been a dream! It has to be! Sorry to drag you out here like this. That’s all I had to say.”

: “I feel like we’re gonna get along just fine as “troublemakers”. I’m Ryuji Sakamoto.”

: “I’ll come talk if I see you around. Don’t ignore me, all right? Seeya.”

: So are we done? No, no we’re not.

: “I hear you ditched half a day on your first day of school.”

: It’s funny because when I was in high school, no one actually bothered to listen when the school called your house because of how inaccurate the reports were.

: “Look, just behave yourself. One wrong step and your life is over. You do know what probation means, right?”

: “Good.”

: “…Yeah, I just closed up shop. I’ll head over in half an hour, as promised.”

: “…no, it’s a guy. I just hired a part-timer.”

: “Don’t forget to lock the door and turn all the lights off, okay?”

: “..Yup, I’m leaving now. I told you, he’s a part-timer.”

: I seriously should’ve titled this LP “You can’t make me go to sleep”.

: “On your feet, inmate! Our master wishes to speak with you. It’s for your own sake that you take his words to heart.”

: “Oh…? You’ve awakened to your powers - and special ones at that. Your rehabilitation can finally begin.”

: “There is no need to understand it for the time being. You will be training the power of Persona, which you have awakened to. Personas are, in other words, a ‘mask’ - an armor of the heart when confronting worldly matters.”

: “I have high expectations for you.”

: “There is no need to worry. You will learn when the time comes. By the by… have you come to appreciate the Metaverse Navigator? Using it will allow you to come and go between reality and Palaces.”

: “I bestowed it to you as a means to train you as a thief.”

: “The Metaverse Navigator is a gift from our master! You better take care in using it, inmate!”

: “It must be disheartening to make use of the Metaverse Navigator alone. Should there be others who would prove beneficial to you, I will grant it to them as well.”

: “This is all for you to grow as a most excellent thief..”

: I get that this is supposed to be a commentary on how prisons don’t actually rehabilitate people, but the localization is killing me inside.

: Thank fuck that’s over. We’ve only got… six more days of this, but I don’t think any of them are quite as long as this one was.