Click Here for Update 48
: This event might seem identical to the last one, but it’s actually unique.
: Joker immediately pulls out his phone and starts trying to find out how many demons he’d have to rob in order to pay for central air.
: We all know the second option is really “I am going to buy an air conditioner right now. This is going to be like that Sears commercial that came out before either of us was born, only gay.”
: We also know that Joker really, really wishes he was horny enough to pick the third option.
: “Hmm… I see. I didn’t think of that! Yes, I could go there to escape the heat and peruse some art books..”
: The rest of the scene continues the way the last one did, where we have the opportunity to ask Yusuke for coffee or a bath together. I think we all know what they actually do - go to Kichijoji and buy both that couch and an air conditioner. I mean, what else are they going to do with all that money? Buy Makoto new gear?
: I did actually stop in Kichijoji to sell all the sooty clothes we had. I actually wound up replacing the run that didn’t record with this one just because even after fusing Arahabaki and buying Lilim back, we still had significantly more money than the other run.
: Joker gives her a look that asks “Would you like me to use the air horn?”
: “No…”
: “Sorry, I’ve been turning down all such requests…”
: “Well, nothing’s been…”
: “…Thank you very much.”
: “… I really must apologize for being rude to you… it bothers me when people make such a big fuss over me…”
: “Considering that the priest is doing me a great favor by letting me play here… you see, he’s my shogi friend. And he’s very kind. He once told me that he wanted to become a professional player.”
: “…And he doesn’t laugh at my embarrassing habit when we play together.”
: Joker breathes a sigh of relief that Yusuke did not find his secret plans to mod a motorcycle so he could play 5Ds IRL.
: “So.. I did the photoshoot. I’m embarrassed just thinking about it.. did you see it? It was called ‘The Venus of Shogi’…”
: “Ever since I won the female shogi league, I’ve been getting a lot of attention. I just figured I could contribute to the shogi world… besides, my mother seems to be very happy…”
: “Whenever I win, she rejoices as if it were her own victory… so I want to live up to the expectations she has for me…”
: “…However, she’s been a bit overzealous lately. She set up the interview and the photoshoot. It’s as if she wants to be the manager of a celebrity.”
: “…A bit. But it’s fine, because it’s for my mother.”
: “Today, I’ll be showing you something very practical… it’s a tactic for using the reserved pawns you’ve taken from an opponent in a more effective way.”
: “Nevertheless, I apologize. You’re such a good listener, I feel at ease speaking with you… aside from the priest, you’re the first person I’ve spoken to about my mother…”
: Well yeah, it’s because he’s a silent protagonist.
: This is the return of an ability seen in P4 Golden where occasionally you’d have a non-active party member come in and do an automatic critical attack.
: “Now then, I will instruct you while we play. Are you ready…?”
: “Um… I ended up feeling much better after sharing my concerns with you… but this hardly seems fair. How can I teach you properly when I’m this distressed…?”
: “Oh.. are you sure? You really are a strange individual… but thank you for the encouragement. If that is the case, I can only hope to repay you through my lessons.”
: “You make for a refreshing opponent. Somehow, the more we exchange, the more I feel my world expanding… teaching you is also a great learning experience for me, as it leads to a deeper understanding of myself.”
: Today, we’re doing the boss.. and also see the game show its “seams” when we start stretching the limits of the boss’s scripting.
: “Well, I got the calling card, so lemme know what you decide.”
: “This is different from past cases. We’ll be handing the calling card directly to Futaba herself. Once we give it to her, we’ll head straight into her Palace. There won’t be any time for prep work in between, so make sure you’re ready beforehand.”
: One confirmation later…
: “Looks like it’s my turn to unlock the entrance. Forgive me, Chief.”
: “How will we convince Futaba to let us into her room though? Even Boss is forbidden entry.”
: “Yes, that is the best course of action.”
: “You know a method?”
: “I think it’s quite straightforward. Futaba doesn’t know what we’re doing inside her Palace, correct? Hence, if we tell her we’ve come to steal her heart, she’ll surely open the door and let us inside.”
: Does Ann have a spine? She’s constantly in these poses that look like they’d only work if her skeletal structure is made of jelly.
: “Futaba wants to have a change of heart. After all, she contacted us for that express purpose. That desire should lead her to open the door as well.”
: “You’re right… our feelings should get through if we just try and talk to her.”
: “All right, I believe in Futaba! C’mon, let’s get this done!”
: “Is this some kinda hallucination? It’s different from usual..”
: “Blaming myself for what?”
: “The truth…”
: Futaba’s voiceactress is really quite good - in Japanese, at least.
: “There’s no mistaking it. This is the same door as in the Palace.”
: “Hello, Futaba? You’re there, aren’t you? Please answer us.”
: “I doubt she’d answer…”
: “Alibaba, we know you’re there. It doesn’t matter if it’s through chat messaging. Just answer us.”
: “We can’t change your heart otherwise. Please let us in.”
: “The other you within your heart told us to have you open it. Deep down, you want to open this door, don’t you?”
: “Right. We’re trying to uphold our promise, but you’re the one resisting us.”
: “Ten seconds.”
: I went back this morning and finished the Ni no Kuni 2 LP since I got a notification that people were actually reading it. It’s kind of crazy how low-effort that was compared to this.
: “Fine. But if Boss comes home, we’ll kick down the door and enter if we must.”
: My favorite part of that LP was that back then, I thought that transcribing a couple dozen lines of dialog was hard work.
: “We need to change her cognition. Better to be completely safe than sorry.”
: “So she has to be the one to invite us in…”
: “Futaba, please open the door.”
: “All right, let’s go in…”
: Take a look behind Ann and you’ll find out where the pyramid comes from. At least it’s not a poster for Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In An Aeroplane Over The Sea” because I would hate to see what a dungeon based on that would look like.
: “Medical science, information technology, biology, psychology.. these are all technical books..”
: “She keeps herself cooped up in a room like this all the time?”
: “Where’s Futaba?”
: “Where could she be hiding?”
: Joker: “It’s okay, Futaba! I know someone else who spent the majority of their time hiding in a closet!” And then when Yusuke doesn’t move and Joker’s like “Yusuke, that’s your cue.”
: “She’ll shut herself in to the bitter end, hm?”
: “Even if that door’s opened up, we’ll get stopped again inside. I bet a fence or something formed right in front of the Treasure now.”
: “Th-This makes no sense! Explain yourselves!”
: “Whoa, she talked…”
: Ryuji thinks Futaba is a magical talking closet.
: “We needed to change your cognition. Unless we do so, we can’t steal your heart.”
: “I highly doubt she would understand it even if we explained it to her…”
: “So basically, my cognition is being a hindrance, keeping you away from the core of my cognitive world?”
: As much as the Japanese VA for Futaba is amazing, the English one is very not. Futaba is 15 years old for most of Persona 5, and her English VA sounds like she’s pushing 60.
: “Huh? She understood it?”
: You just know the writers wanted to stick another plot recap here but got shot down.
: “Why do you know about that? Who are you?”
: “Why’d you call yourself Alibaba and make things more complicated? If you wanted help, you could’ve just asked for it.”
: “Huh? M-My bad. I didn’t catch that.”
: “…'Cause I was embarrassed.”
: “I think I get it. Asking someone for help isn’t that easy…”
: “Futaba, can you tell us more? How do you know about the cognitive world?”
: “…'Cause I knew about it.”
: “Oh… that reminds me. Boss was talking about ‘cognition’ or something before, right?”
: “You think this is related to how he was gettin’ grilled by that one lady?”
: Here’s a line that’s not great in either language, but makes a little more sense in Japanese than it does in English at least.
: In Japanese, the term “cognitive science” is spelled 認知科学 (pronounced “ninchi kagaku”) and the made-up term “cognitive psience” is spelled 認知訶学 (also pronounced “ninchi kagaku”). The difference is that there’s a different emphasis on the “kagaku” part to reflect the different spelling.
: In English, the line does not fucking work AT ALL. Both Makoto and Futaba’s VAs pronounce the words exactly the same way to the point where there’s almost no reasonable way that Futaba could know Makoto wasn’t spelling it right.
: “Well that certainly got her attention… it seems we’re on the right track.”
: “So, cognitive… psience? Futaba, what was your mother working on? Please tell us. What happened?”
: “She’s not answering.”
: “Yo, maybe save this for later. Seems she’s been through some serious shit so.. you know?”
: “True… she did say things like ‘die’.”
: “Hold on.”
: “Whoa, you moron!”
: “Wasn’t her death an accident? What actually happened?”
: The fun part is we won’t get any answers about that until nearly the end of the game, so most of this dialog is pointless. I mean, that’s become par for the course.
: “Ann.”
: “We saw what your heart is like, but we still can’t figure anything out. The mother that Boss told us about is completely different from your cognition. We want to hear the truth from your mouth.”
: “…M-My mom… was… the.. one who killed her… was… nngh…”
: “It’s possible that she can’t remember because her heart has become distorted.”
: “I’m so sorry, Futaba-chan. It’s just that… I went through a lot myself, and I… I’m sorry.”
: “…What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”
: “C-C’mon, hurry it up!”
: “We did come to steal your heart, but it’s not really done right here at this moment… all you really had to do was open that closet door. I’m sorry we made you jump to conclusions. You don’t have to be like that…”
: “She went back in!”
: I do like this scene, I just wish it was less wordy.
: “Wh-what’s the meaning of this!? D-Did you guys trick me?”
: “No! Please listen! There’s a reason we had to do this!”
: “She’s aware of the cognitive world, but it seems she doesn’t understand how a change of heart occurs.”
: “Um, Futaba, how much do you know about the cognitive world?”
: “Yes, that’s right.”
: “How do you do it?”
: “We use a smartphone app.”
: And of course, what dialog scene in this game would be complete without pointless repetition?
: “An app?”
: “Yes. By entering the required information, we can go to the cognitive world.”
: “A name, a place, and a distortion - those three. So in this case, ‘Futaba Sakura,’ ‘Sojiro Sakura’s house,’ and-”
: “Futaba, you don’t happen to have this app, do you?”
: We already know she does!
: “This… I don’t.”
: “Thank goodness.. okay then.”
: “Can you take me with you too?”
: I mean, assuming we’re working by Persona 4 rules as to what happens when you enter your own dungeon, she’d probably be fine.
: “I gotta agree. Just leave this to us.”
: “I’ll leave it to you then.”
: “Good. And you better not forget about our promise, all right?”
: I have some words to say about the calling card. It’s another plot fuckup that Atlus could EASILY have fixed but just… chose not to. Clearly they didn’t have the budget, given that Royal was only sold at full price.
: “Hm? A calling card?”
: “It’s the one you prepared. Read it.”
: “…I can’t read it. It’s too dark.”
: “You could just come out…”
: “…It’s embarrassing.”
: “What.”
: “I’ll make sure she reads it, so you guys go on ahead.”
: “Futaba, make sure you read it, okay?”
: “…Okay.”
: Gonna stop you right there, because it’s time for me to talk about how bad this entire thing is.
: This entire monologue was unchanged from the base game, and it’s wrong. The thing is, the writers themselves weren’t really sure what sin Futaba represented. The official explanation is that she represents wrath, as the achievement for completing her dungeon is “Pyramid of Wrath Collapses”.
: So how the fuck did this line about sloth get in there? To answer that, I went to @poop_doctor on twitter, who has been kind enough to provide me with details about the Japanese script. The answer is that it isn’t a localization failure as much as it is kind of a multi-layered failure burrito.
: That’s another thing I’d like to address. The LP of the base game incorrectly asserts that the plot fuckup doesn’t happen in the Japanese script. That’s simply not true.
: The truth of it is that the calling card graphic says “sloth” on it. The graphic is the same in both versions of the script. The difference is that Futaba’s Japanese VA doesn’t read the entire card: she reads the “Futaba Sakura has committed a great sin..” bit and then I think skips to the end of it.
: The localization team, knowing that English speakers couldn’t read the card itself, instead opted to have the English VA read the entire thing… not realizing (or not being able to fix) the fact that the graphic itself was wrong.
: The thing is, they could have easily fixed this shit (especially given that they were going for a launch at $60 price point) and instead we get Hashino and Royal’s writers just kinda shrugging and going “Guess it can’t be helped!”
: Aoi Yuki does that last line in this kind of ridiculous cat voice that pretty much perfectly encapsulates the horrible anime gremlin that Futaba is.
: “Futaba seemed totally up for gettin’ her heart stolen.. what’s up with this?”
: “Hm… something about this place really is unusual. Either way, there’s only one thing for us to do now that we’ve sent the calling card!”
: “Hell yeah! No matter what we gotta face, we’re gonna take that Treasure for sure!”
: I mentioned it before, but you can make it all the way to the elevator from the start of the pyramid without fighting anything, so I do that.
: I wish they’d made this a viable option for most of the dungeons. Remove all the enemies and you just run through everything to get to the boss.
: “I mean after all the trouble we went through, she damn well better’ve read it!”
: “Well yeah, Futaba-chan opened the door herself.”
: “Anyway, the Treasure is up ahead! Let’s finish this!”
: “So, this is the place that represents Futaba’s room.”
: “Anyways, where’s the Treasure?”
: “I’m getting a strong signal from above us. The Treasure has definitely manifested.”
: “There’s no knowing what may lie ahead, so let’s be vigilant as we push toward the Treasure.”
: In the base game, this area had a bunch of enemies in it you had to plow through to get to the boss. Royal lets you skip it entirely via a grappling hook point at the beginning.
: Now, I could’ve skipped this, but I said “Nah fuck that” because I know something about the upcoming boss fight - apart from the fact that we’re going to break it so hard we can see the seams.
: The grappling hook point is off to the left, but I choose to jump down. I mean, we have to pay for that air conditioner somehow, right?
: We then get immediately ambushed by an Anubis and two Andras. The good news here is that because I don’t really need to “win” this fight..
: Two quick fire spells and a Makajam/Psio combo on Anubis and we get a Hold Up.
: This is a technique you can always use if there’s a stronger enemy with multiple weak ones. Just negotiate with the weaker enemies and the fight’s over.
: The only reason to even do this gauntlet anymore is for the single chest that Anubis was guarding, which has a snuff soul in it.
: Climbing stairs, getting into fights that I win in one turn or less.
: We get around 40,000 yen or so total, which should cover the air conditioner.
: “What may await us within?”
: “No matter what it is, we need to be ready for it!”
: “We’re coming to save you, Futaba-chan!”
: “Vocal input..? Fu- Futaba Sakura. …Sojiro Sakura’s house. And then… something about ‘distortion’… distortion.. distortion…”
: “Hm?”
: The voices start picking up.
: “Not again…”
: “That’s right.. I remember now. Back when they were here, I- …I messaged ‘tomb’ in the chat, and…”
: “The hell? This ain’t what I was imaginin’!”
: “Were you expecting a mountain of treasure or something of that sort?”
: “There IS that over there.”
: “That’s it?”
: “The Treasure must be inside.”
: “There’s something here…”
: “I got a bad feeling about this…”
: Wait a second, I thought this was Persona 5, not Resident Evil Village.
: Remember how the sphinx on the map didn’t have a head? This is why. I do, however, have several questions. If Futaba’s mother is a furry, why isn’t Futaba’s shadow also a furry? Is this one of those Ni no Kuni things where being a furry is something that’s bred out in two generations?
: “Ugh, look at it fly about! We can’t reach it like this! We’ve got no other option. Let’s take it down with our guns and skills!”
: This boss fight is the only one that hasn’t really changed from the base game. The only difference is that in the base game, the mom-sphinx took 5x damage from physical attacks while being neutral to everything else. In Royal, the 5x damage multiplier is extended to gun attacks as well.
: You definitely don’t want to bring Ryuji for this fight though, because one of the sphinx’s stronger attacks is wind-element and can actually instakill him on higher difficulties.
: Gun attacks will never miss as far as I can tell. Theoretically, we could’ve fused a Persona with Triple Down (a physical skill that hits for gun damage) but there’s not really much of a point because of how scripted this fight is.
: The mom-sphinx has two attacks in this phase: slam, which is a single-target physical attack…
: And Wing Blast, which is a wind-element skill that hits the entire party and has a good chance of inflicting Dizzy. On Merciless, she will Technical anyone who isn’t immediately cured for a guaranteed instant kill.
: The first thing you want to do is immediately unload on her with guns. Fire every single bullet you have. Hold nothing back.
: After two attacks, the mom-sphinx will use Rapid Ascent and fly off screen. If this was the base game, or the party was any lower level, I would have had Joker heal everyone instead of shooting.
: You have exactly one turn before the boss uses Sphinx Dive. You want to set everyone to guard.. except Joker, in this case. Why, you ask? Because he has Arahabaki.
: This attack does a FUCKLOAD of damage, and because he’s not guarding, Joker reflects back the full amount times five. This means he returns over 2,000 damage without doing anything at all.
: Now, I’d like you to pay careful attention to how much HP the boss has right now. I’d say it’s between 45 and 49 percent. The developers didn’t quite anticipate that you would have Arahabaki for this fight.
: Does it matter? We could win this fight by doing absolutely nothing and letting the boss reflect damage onto itself!
: I really should’ve tested this on Merciless, because on Merciless weakness hits do more damage. I actually turned the difficulty up for a bit while grinding, and what happened was that Joker was hitting enemies for several times their max HP.
: “This is the suicide note… the men in black suits read it right after Mom died…”
: “This… this is… when Mom jumped in front of that car…”
: “No…”
: “…It’s me complaining. Mom scolded me for bothering her…”
: So wait, what happened to shadows being homicidal and trying to get you to say the magic words to allow them to kill you?
: “I knew it. It was me who killed Mom. I was a bad daughter.. I weighed her down, and she hated me for it… it’s just like I remember..”
: “Huh?”
: “Just a little before Mom died.. I whined about wanting to go on a family trip… but she scolded me and said no.”
: "Mom said… ‘I’m too busy right now. I need to finish my cognitive research as soon as possible.’ "
: “I threw a tantrum. Told her she thought her research was more important than I was. That’s when she scolded me…”
: This entire exchange is far too reminiscent of YIIK and that scene with the fucking panda. This is also where Futaba’s character arc starts to take a shit.
: "… Did she say…? ‘My research is almost over. Once it’s finished, we can go wherever you like. I’m sorry I’ve left you alone for so long, Futaba. Please try to understand though. This research is really important. I need to complete it, even if it costs me my life.’ "
: “She didn’t…?”
: So either she knew the entire time that her mother didn’t kill herself because of her, or she was too dumb to realize it? Either way, it feels like Futaba is 8 instead of 15.
: “Which is true?”
: “Huh…? It’s calling me…?”
: Wait, what? By this point it should already by dead from having repeatedly tried to divebomb Joker.
: “You came into your own cognitive world!?”
: She acts like that didn’t happen in Persona 1 or Persona 4.
: “Mm-hm…”
: “The person themselves coming into their own Palace? If that happens…”
: “That’s…”
: “No…”
: “It’s my fault.. it’s my fault that Mom…”
: “Wait, is that monster her mother!?”
: “Futaba’s desires and guilt must’ve distorted her cognition of her. The wish that her mother was alive again is mixed in as well, along with those eerie jeers…”
: “What does she mean by that?”
: “Could she be talking about cognitive psience?”
: “Nobody cares about me…”
: Wow, I didn’t know that Vincent Adultman was ever seen outside of his trenchcoat. He looks a lot less like three kids standing on each other’s shoulders than he usually does.
: “Futaba-chan, look! There’s no way that monster is your mother! It’s just an illusion you created!”
: Joker: “Wait, are we sure of that? Have you checked to make sure she’s not a furry in some kind of elaborate suit?”
: “B-But…”
: “She never abused you, did she!? Boss told us! He said she did her best to raise you alone!”
: “Isn’t this a false memory that’s been imprinted upon you?”
: “A false memory? Aagh…”
: “M-Mom… I-I…”
: I think the problem here is that they made Futaba a little too much like Maki.
: “…Because of the note.”
: “All of her complaints… about me.”
: Futaba strikes me as the kind of person who listens to drive-time radio shows and believes all the dumb shit they say, which kind of ruins the piercing “Nai!” that Aoi Yuki does here.
: “She scolded me whenever I had tantrums, but she cared for me!”
: “A total lie!”
: “It’s because I couldn’t face myself, or Mom’s death… even then, why did they have to yell at me like that!?”
: I also feel like maybe having a giant story cutscene in the middle of a boss fight wasn’t the best decision. At least they stopped the fight to do it - Strikers has plot that happens during fights and is shown in the top-right corner when you’re trying to not die.
: “Futaba-chan!?”
: “…That’s right. I knew, but I…”
: Kinda bold of them to mention Your Turn To Die, which as I understand it is a pretty okay freeware Danganronpa clone.
: “I won’t let those distorted lies deceive me anymore… and I won’t be led astray by other’s voices either… I’m going to trust my own eyes and my own heart to distinguish the truth from the lies.”
: “There’s no way you’re my mom! You’re just a fake created by those horrid adults! I’ll… I’ll never…”
: Meet Futaba’s Persona. I probably should log it, but it’s like Rise’s Persona in 4 in that it’s not an actual Persona. Its name is Necronomicon - the book of the dead from the Cthulhu mythos.
: Yusuke turns his head. “Joker.. is this what happens to horny people who get a Persona?”
: It took me up until this scene to understand how you say that phrase in Japanese. You hear the demons say it after a successful negotiation, but it’s “Nanji wa ware, ware wa nanji.”
: I don’t know how I never caught on to that before.
: Futaba has been sent to the Horny Void, where all horny people are destined to end up.
: Joker now realizes how the Phantom Thief outfits work. They’re like that Jane Jensen novel in that they’re entirely reflective of how horny you are.
: Speaking of which, I’m almost finished with it and it’s kind of like Gabriel Knight 3 in that it turns into an isekai before isekai blew up.
: If you look, you might notice that we’ve been healed to full. The party’s gun ammo has also been restored, hence why it’s a good idea to unload on the boss right away… and why it didn’t matter if we blew through some SP on the way up.
: Absolutely nothing! We can win this fight by not doing anything!
: This is the one major change to the sphinx fight. In the base game, you went right into a phase we’ll see in a minute. Instead…
: Now, I’d like to draw your attention to something. Remember where the boss’s health bar was before? If not, I’ll do a quick paste of it.
: The game did not expect that we’d be reflecting fuckloads of damage back at the boss, and so the boss just gained a bunch of HP back. Worse, Futaba actually did less damage with her shield than Joker would have if she’d just let it hit him. Basically, we’re now seeing the “seams” of the scripting.
: I’m trying to picture a scene where Joker is pleading with the party: “No! Run away! It’s more efficient if I just sit here and reflect the hits! We don’t even have to use SP, I can just sit here!”
: Joker: “You mean we’re going to start extorting her for money? Or that you’re going to unlock the party’s Personas so I can change them out for ones that reflect physical?”
: Joker: “God dammit.”
: In the base game, you go right to the ballista instead of doing the shield part. That would have been more efficient (well, not really due to the scripting) because Arahabaki was the same level and had the same abilities in the base game.
: The ballista takes two turns to fire, and you’re required to fire it twice. We’ll send Yusuke because he’s the only one who believes Joker when Joker says he’d be better off by himself.
: I make a minor tactical error here in that I use Ziodyne instead of immediately unloading Joker’s gun again.
: 216 damage is actually really good given that Makoto is doing less than 100 with Freila.
: Ann and Makoto unload their guns, which quickly piles on damage.
: This part is the other difference from the base game fight. The sphinx will ask you two questions - answer both correctly and Futaba will shield you from her next attack. Technically, we don’t want this (as Joker’s reflect does more damage) but I do it anyway.
: “Mom is gone. No matter how much I wish for her to be with me, it’ll never come true. That’s why I’ll live in the real world, even if she’s not there with me anymore! And I’m gonna live my life as free and happy as I can!”
: That line will be important much later on.
: Now, I understand why they did this. There is a reason beyond simply making the fight easier. However, it feels kinda dumb.
: “Listen, my mom is so precious to me, and I still love her a ton.. but, you’re not her! And I’ll never live a life where everything gets decided by someone else!”
: Sphinx Swipe is another attack that hits the entire party for physical damage, and would be the perfect opportunity for Joker to reflect some damage back.
: In the meantime, we keep hitting the sphinx with spells.. but notice how her HP didn’t decrease at all between Joker hitting her and Ann hitting her. That’s the scripting.
: Still not moving.
: The thing is, the shield takes a lot out of the fight. I don’t have to worry about Ann and Makoto because I know they won’t be divebombed again.
: “Shut up! You’re not my mom! You’re just a monster born from my own weakness… everyone keep attacking it! Don’t let up!”
: Translation: Free All-Out.
: That HP bar really isn’t moving, huh? The thing is, we’re not even that overlevelled anymore - it’s just that things like the shield and Arahabaki make it really obvious that the fight is scripted.
: After the All-Out attack, the HP bar starts moving again, but the damage is kind of already done.
: The thing is, the developers should’ve anticipated this better. I’ve seen HP walls on bosses done properly - Kulve Taroth in Monster Hunter World is a great example, where I don’t think people knew the walls were even there until it came out on PC and was discovered in a datamine. I certainly didn’t know until I watched a video on it.
: But the problem is that once you know where the seams are, it takes a lot of uncertainty out of the fight. That’s one of the reasons I liked Earthbound a lot - it was a game that did a really good job of hiding them.
: Once the ballista hits, you have a few turns to just beat on the boss. Since it’s weak to physical and there’s not much of a point to using skills because of the HP walls, I just opted to leave the game on Rush mode.
: I don’t know why the auto-battle system underwent such a regression between the PSP versions of Persona 1 and Persona 2 and now, but it might have something to do with Japanese players not liking the remade combat system in those games. I know that people working on the Eternal Punishment PSP translation have said they don’t consider the combat in the PSP version to be as good as the PS1 original.
: In all the post-EP Persona games, auto-battle gets renamed to “Rush” and has everyone do a basic physical attack on their turn.
: When the boss gets back up, it uses a move that attempts to hit everyone with Despair. Despair drains SP for two turns and then is an instant kill on the third turn.
: This was how you beat the Reaper easily in the base game: the Reaper could be hit with Despair and would die provided you could last three turns in battle.
: Fortunately, Joker simply Detoxes his way out of it. Harisen Recovery could also work if we had more than one person with it - and on the reset-heavy route, we would. Unfortunately, I don’t believe Harisen Recovery works if the person who has it is under a status effect themselves.
: Fortunately, we have a couple of these for just this kind of situation.
: The boss also chooses to attack Joker, reflecting some 400 damage back.
: We then have to send Ann to do the ballista. I think the way it worked in the base game was that the ballista took an extra turn to fire if you sent the same person twice, though I’m not sure that’s still the case in Royal.
: That reflect brought us to another HP wall, so now we just have to sit and wait.
: “That’s a lie. Mom told me herself! She said no matter what, she could keep working so hard because of me… the one who decided my existence was a burden on her - is myself! No one else!”
: This fight also reminds me of Kulve Taroth because of how bad the G-rank “Arch Tempered” version was. People determined very quickly that the best way to fight it (because of how the mechanics worked) was to basically join a lobby for it, ignore it for 5 minutes so it’d fuck off, and then do the fight over (because it got easier as the progress bar went up).
: “No! With them, even the impossible can be made possible!”
: The fight continues for a bit, and then the ballista goes off again.
: At this point, the fight’s over. I don’t think the sphinx will get back up.
: One last gunshot.
: If nothing else, you can tell the HP wall is there because the final shot will always do 113 damage, even in the base game.
: “Damn, you’re freakin’ incredible!”
: So here’s a fun fact that’ll come up… soon-ish. In the English translation, Futaba’s codename is “Oracle”. It’s not the same in Japanese. Why, you ask?
: In Japanese, her codename is “Navi” - it’s a commonly-used abbreviation for “navigator”. I’m pretty sure they changed it specifically to avoid her being connotated with Na’vi from Ocarina of Time (whose name is a play on the same word).
: Futaba is the only party member to have a different codename between the US and Japanese versions.
: “Huh…?”
: God dammit! This is just Ni no Kuni 2 all over again! And I just finished that LP (again) this week! Fuck!
: “I’m sorry for being so selfish. Mom…”
: “But I finally got to see you again..”
: “Um, I.. I love you, Mom…”
: Futaba: “I’m going to build a kingdom where everyone can live happily ever after, even if I have to displace and murder thousands to do it!”
: “Where are you going?”
: “Home. I know how to use the Nav now.”
: “Huh? Oh.. right.”
: “She left…”
: “That girl marches to the beat of her own drum, doesn’t she?”
: “Like you’re one to talk.”
: “But if we have her on our side.. wait, what about her Treasure!?”
: “Oh yeah! We almost forgot.”
: “What’s goin’ on!? Wasn’t it supposed to be here!?”
: “Futaba herself was the Treasure! And she’s gone, so of course it’s empty!”
: Joker tells Yusuke to get in the box, because the real treasure was Yusuke.
: “Shoot.. this is bad!”
: “What’s the matter?”
: “Not only did the real person come into her own Palace, she awakened to a Person while she was here! This place could collapse any second now!”
: “We’ve accomplished our mission if her Palace is crumbling. We should hurry back to reality.”
: “That would be wise.”
: Hold the fuck up. Did Morgana just.. goatse the entire party? What dipshit animator thought this was a good idea?
: I think we all know this scene is wrong and Yusuke is actually holding Joker.
: “Hey.. you guys still alive?”
: “I thought I was gonne die in - HEY! Will you let go already!?”
: “N-not again…”
: “What was that sound? …Hm? What’re you guys doing out here?”
: “Oh, ummm…”
: “That reminds me, where’s Futaba?”
: “What about Futaba?”
: “Oh, um…”
: “Ah, yes! We came all this way, so how about we enjoy some coffee?”
: “Oh! That’s a great idea!”
: “That’s fine, but…”
: “I’m not thirsty though.”
: Makoto walks over and punches him in the side, because she’s the worst character in this game.
: “Oh, I almost forgot! I have some business to take care of, so you guys go ahead.”
: “O-okay, gotcha!”
: “Please…”
: “Could this be our fault? Is it because we defeated her monstrous mother?”
: “No, that was nothing more than a cognitive being created in her mind. Destroying it wouldn’t cause memory loss or put a physical burden on her…”
: “What should we do?”
: “Hey, don’t you know a doctor?”
: “Morgana, I don’t even think Dr. Femdom is a real doctor and besides, my air horns aren’t fully charged.”
: “You do? Can you contact them?”
: “How much will it be?”
: “…That was a joke.”
: “So, um.. how is her condition?”
: “Her pulse, breathing, temperature, and blood pressure are all normal. No ocular abnormalities either. I’m not sure why, but it seems this girl is in some kind of light stupor.”
: “Furthermore, she lacks muscle for her age. I doubt she has much stamina either.”
: The real question is how much we’d have to pay her to femdom Futaba back to consciousness.
: “I see. The rebound from her awakening was too strong.”
: “There may have been too many abnormal circumstances…”
: “We simply cannot keep quiet about this. We should let Boss know.”
: “Wouldn’t he figure out our identities?”
: “That’s not gonna solve anything. Letting him know is really the only option we have.”
: “I guess it can’t be helped now.. just keep the circumstances that led up to this a secret, okay?”
: “…”
: “…”
: “Oh dear…”
: “…”
: “Um… about Futaba…”
: “Hm? Why do you guys look so down?”
: “Futaba-chan’s condition…”
: “What, this? It happens every so often.”
: “Huh?”
: I love how he’s just “Oh, Futaba? She just kinda goes comatose for no particular reason sometimes.”
: “What?”
: “She stays like this for a few days whenever this happens. I’ll make sure she gets plenty of rest. Here, keep an eye on her. I’m gonna go close the store.”
: Translation: Futaba is going to be in a coma until the end of her plot arc.
: “Yeah, I’m feelin’ pretty frustrated…”
: “I’m glad she’s okay.. but what are we gonna do about Medjed?”
: “She’s up!”
: “Medjed.. tired. Gonna sleep for a bit.”
: “She feel asleep again!?”
: “Futaba-chan! For a bit? How much is she planning on sleeping? We probably shouldn’t wake her up either…”
: “What to do…”
: “It’s too late for us to find another hacker…”
: “All we can do is wait for her to wake up…”
: This update got posted early due to me playing Monster Hunter in the background and forgetting that AmaRecTV’s “get out of fullscreen” shortcut is the same one for “post the update” on this site, and I didn’t record the night segment, so we’ll just do that next time.
: 08/02 marks the last time we will see actual gameplay until 09/19, when we next go to Mementos. That means the next.. month and a half.. will be nothing but confidant events and stat raising.