Click Here for Update 74
: We’ve seen the rise of John Persona, and now it’s time to see the fall. Welcome to the penultimate arc of the base game.
: “Bless that girl, worrying about others even at a time like this…”
: “…”
: “I wish we could prove our innocence, but we can’t afford to make a dumb mistake and get ourselves caught. We’ll just have to keep laying low and wait. Let’s not do anything conspicuous, okay?”
: There’s almost no way Hashino didn’t steal this from somewhere.
: So okay, he doesn’t know who John Persona is… but he knows the name John Persona, which only the people in John Persona know or use.
: “Mishima really does get some amazing info for us sometimes… our reputation may have taken a hit after Okumura’s death, but we can still prove our justice in Mementos.”
: Today’s the day we actually do Yusuke’s Rank 10, but we’ve already seen that.
: Sojiro’s Rank 7 requires that you have maxed out Kindness. Please remember this fact for the end of this event.
: “…Hm? You look like you have something to say.”
: And what I have to say is “Shit, I forgot to get a matching Persona, better go get one.” Unfortunately, we were full up, so I had to fuse away a useless Regent I got because I forgot Baal is an Emperor Persona.
Returning Persona: Power
Origin: Judeo-Christianity
First Appearance: Shin Megami Tensei I
Order of angels responsible for keeping history and maintaining knowledge of philosophy and theology.
: I then grab the cheapest Persona I can find and go.
: “Uncle’s bank info, transaction history, credit details… I’ve got tons of dirt on him!”
: “…How’d you get your hands on this stuff?”
: “Hacking, of course! Uncle’s in loads of debt! He’ll never win a suit against us now that we have all this data!”
: “This is a criminal offense, you idiot! There’s no way we’d be able to use this stuff in court!”
: Is Sojiro the first person to call out all the blatantly illegal shit people do in this game?
: “But…”
: “I’ve known all along how badly in debt he is. He’s not gonna try and take custody back, so don’t go doing stupid crap like this, okay?”
: “But Sojiro…! I-I only did it 'cause of all that stuff he said to you!”
: “About that… I’ve been thinking. When push came to shove, I wasn’t there to help you. So, you know… maybe there’s somewhere better for you out there…”
: “S-Somewhere better…? Am I not supposed to be here…? Am I just in the way…?”
: “No, that’s not it…”
: “You can just stay here and play with your stupid coffee beans!”
: “Makes sense though… you’re the ones who saved her, after all. …Where did I go wrong?”
: “I really did try to care for Futaba… look where that got me though. I told myself she was the reason I kept making Wakaba’s curry here… but deep down, I think that was just an excuse to stay distant…”
: “At the end of the day, the coffee and the curry people love so much are both just… excuses.”
: “Yeah… I mean, I spent more time in this cafe than I ever did trying to talk to Futaba… I’m gonna go out for a smoke, try to cool off a bit. Sorry to lay this on you, but can you go after Futaba for me?”
: “Y’know, Mom used to talk about Sojiro tons when I was little. How good he was at making curry, how interesting he was to talk to… I remember everything.”
: “I even remember how she smiled when she talked about him… Mom really liked Sojiro…”
: “I said some real mean stuff tonight. It’s not his fault Mom’s incident happened… it’s not his fault I shut myself away from the world. And because of me… Sojiro lost a crapton of money…”
: “I thought I’d be able to stay here with him if my hacking worked…”
: “Yeah… yeah, you’re right.”
: “Mm-hm…”
: “Look, I’m sorry about what I said just now. And well… if it’s okay with you… I want you to stay here, forever.”
: “Forever…”
: You’d think this would be a problem given the whole tomb thing.
: “I know it might be more fun living with people your age like Akira… but I’ll do my damnedest to see things from your perspective. So… will you stay with me?”
: “H-Hey… quit your laughing! sigh You’re as exhausting as ever.”
: “Hey, Sojiro. I know I’ve caused you a lot of trouble… but I really do wanna be here. So, let’s keep living together.”
: “Futaba…”
: “Sorry for not saying that sooner. Oh, and… thanks for taking in someone as horrible as me.”
: "…Are you sure I’m good enough?
: “I wouldn’t want anyone else.”
: “Heh, no hesitation… don’t come complaining to me if you regret it. …Actually, I’m not gonna let you regret it. If you ever need help, just tell me. I might not be graceful… but I’ll be there to protect you.”
: “And you can stay with me for as long as you’d like. Forever, if you want.”
: “Mm-hm, I will. …Forever. I can’t wait to keep living with you too, Akira!”
: “I didn’t stand up for Wakaba when I knew something was off… and I didn’t stand up for you either. Instead, I went on and on about how you can’t fight back against the laws of our society…”
: I feel like Hashino wrote this scene without knowing which confidant it was going to be part of, and then just flipped a coin and landed on Sojiro.
: “How you should just accept the hand you’re dealt in life… but those were mere excuses I made to keep myself in line. They gave me the easy way out I wanted so badly…”
: “Maybe instead of all that coffee crap, I should’ve been teaching you not to make the same mistakes I did. There I go, ranting again. But… I feel like I managed to put a lot behind me today.”
: Sojiro: “Instead of all that coffee crap, I should’ve taught you THE BLADE” and then out comes the katana.
: “…Thanks, for making me realize what’s really important in life.”
: “All right, I better head home too. Don’t stay up too late, okay? I don’t want you oversleeping.”
: Remember how I said at the start of this event that you need maxed-out Kindness for Sojiro’s Rank 7? Yeah, we get useless Kindness points even though there’s no way you could use them at this point.
: “…Hey, you good to talk?”
: “Don’t know how it took me so long when we’ve been so close, but… I finally had a normal conversation with her. How do I say this… it feels like we’re a real family now. Not just pretending to be one.”
: “And that’s only because you helped us connect, so… thanks for that.”
: “A real dad, huh…? Sounds corny as hell, but I can’t deny it. Heh… what am I doing? Calling some guy up and rambling about my feelings… eh, but I guess you’re not exactly an ordinary guy yourself.”
: “The games are on me today… just be sure to keep up.”
: As a heads-up, we’re intentionally fucking up the answers in this event.
: “Don’t worry, I have a lot of money on me today! Now, let’s get to it! Get into your stance!”
: This game came out years before YIIK did, but even then this was a poor choice of shirt.
: And here we have Shinya in some kind of half-Jojo pose. I like to think the cutscene director saw the script for this cutscene and was like “Fuck it, I’m gonna day-drink. No one can stop me!”
: “…The King.”
: “I didn’t take it, I earned it. That money is for my war fund, to help me get stronger.”
: “Sh-Shut up!”
: Mom says it’s my turn rule the weak!
: “If you want your money back, you’ll have to beat me!”
: “A bad guy…? Me…? R-Really? Even though I’m strong?”
: I like that he’s undergoing his own JRPG protagonist arc while Joker sits there silently.
: “I’m not a bad guy… am I…?”
: “No I’m not… I mean, I won… I got stronger, just like the Phantom Thieves did… so how am I… the bad guy?”
: “…I guess I…I already knew that… I felt bad, even when I was winning. I won’t do it again… I don’t wanna be a bad guy.”
: “…Thanks. Hey… um… do you… hate me now?”
: This is a wrong answer. The correct choice is the middle one. I was kind of hesitant on doing this now that I know what’s going on, but the problem is that Shinya has a very specific unique event that gives us a thing for Joker’s room.
: The trigger for it is to either be Rank 6 and do it on several dates in late October, or be Rank 9 and do it on 11/3. Because of how many cutscenes October has, we can’t hit Rank 9 by that point.
: What’s really dumb about the whole thing is that most of the other unique events that give you a room decoration happen after Rank 10 and don’t involve purposely fucking up answers. They could’ve fixed this in Royal, but we all know what Atlus’s motto regarding anything that might cost money is.
: “…Sorry. I promise that I won’t do that again… So please don’t hate me… Sorry. I promise that I won’t do that again. So please don’t hate me…”
: “The Phantom Thieves are strong because they defeat strong enemies, right? Beating up on weak opponents… that’s bullying… that’s what bad guys do. I was wrong.”
: “Thanks, Kurusu-san… I wouldn’t have realized this on my own.”
: This as as many down shots as we’re going to get.
: “I’m gonna head home now. I need to think about what I did… I’ll see you later… bye.”
: “Hey, Kurusu-san, where did I go wrong…? I just wanted to be strong like the Phantom Thieves, but somehow I turned into a bad guy without even noticing…”
: “The more I thought about everything, the more scared I got… Kurusu-san… are you sure you aren’t gonna hate me?”
: This is another intentional wrong answer. The correct option is the top one.
: “Oh…! Yeah, you are! Haha… I won’t make the same mistake ever again. Trust me, big brother. Phew… I feel a little better after talking to you.”
: “Thanks, Kurusu. I don’t know what I’d do without you. Okay, I’m gonna hang up now. See you at the arcade!”
: Tonight, we have Iwai’s last confidant rank before we have to take his Mementos request.
: “While you and Kaoru were over at that diner, I was out gettin’ info from a reliable source of mine. Turns out I guessed right. Tsuda was the one on the other end of that Hong Kong mafia deal.”
: “Apparently he paid them off for a huge arsenal of guns. This is where things start gettin’ interestin’ though… if he was smugglin’ all that shit in, why would he come to me askin’ for modified guns?”
: “I mean, don’t somethin’ about that seem off to you?”
: “Right? That piece of shit’s tryin’ to lord his position over me… but he ain’t got shit now! What I’m really sayin’ here is… I don’t think those Hong Kong guys ever delivered on their end of the deal. They prolly just took his money and flat-out stiffed him on the guns.”
: And this is where we reach the part of Iwai’s confidant where Hashino realizes he’s written himself into a corner. This plot would make sense if Iwai was actually running guns - but he’s not.
: “Masa told me somethin’ real weird back when you and Kaoru were over at the diner though. Apparently, the clan’s been treatin’ that Hong Kong transaction like some kinda massive business success.”
: “That means Tsuda’s been lyin’ to em this whole time… and now he’s tryin’ to use me to cover up his mistake.”
: But HOW? I mean, what’s he going to do, show up with a bunch of airsoft guns and hope no one notices or tries to fire one? This is why defanging shit is dumb, because it forces ass-pulls like this.
: “Yup. Everyone’s always known he’s one sneaky son of a bitch. …Don’t matter now though. Everything’s gonna change once I tell the clan what’s up. Tsuda’s not gonna be able to keep intimidatin’ me anymore.”
: “And I’ll make sure Kaoru won’t get labeled, like I was. He’ll be a regular, respectable adult. Somethin’ I coulda never even dreamed of…”
: It’s funny because I know there’s at least one Yakuza game where the protagonist goes directly to a guy’s patriarch - Kiryu does it in Yakuza 3 if I remember right, and I think Ichiban does it in Yakuza 7.
: “Hey, I got a favor to ask you. If anythin’ happens to me, take care of Kaoru, okay? …Okay?”
: “Prolly. I know he’d be able to get rid of me no problem without a witness there, but I’ve gotta put an end to this. Besides, nobody would wanna… wait a sec. I’ve got you.”
: “I want you to come talk to Tsuda with me. He’s not gonna dare lay a finger on a civilian kid. It’d cause way too many complications for him. If you come as my witness, things’ll be miles safer.”
: I mean, not really, given that the yakuza captains in the Yakuza games kill civilians all the time, since the whole “honor code” thing is just a veneer to keep the low-level guys in line.
: “…All right then. It’s settled. Oh, and lemme think of a reward. Gotta thank you for the info, and for bein’ my witness. How 'bout I work even harder on that special menu? That should be good for you, yeah?”
: This ability sucks. What it unlocks are “stronger” versions of the existing customizations that boost one stat more in exchange for lowering another.
: I tried it with Joker’s pistol, and it adds something like 100 attack while cutting the accuracy to 50%. It’s a garbage trade-off.
: “Well, I’ll hit you up when it’s time. Let’s do this, kid. Thanks for today.”
: “But I’m obviously gonna look out for you. If it comes down to it, I’ll personally take responsibility for protecting you. But considering who we’re dealin’ with… we can’t afford to take any chances.”
: “Heh… you really do have guts. But guts alone isn’t enough to get by in this world. Remember, nothin’s that simple. …Look, I know I shouldn’t be getting a minor dragged into this shit. But you’re the only one I can rely on…”
: “Haru… she’s the one who should be in pain right now, yet she’s still trying to cheer us up…”
: There’s a new thing in the crane game we can win.
: The guide tells us to do this, and I’m telling you don’t. The capsule machine gives one of… I think five or six figures, which can be traded to a guy off to the right for… worthless fucking garbage.
: If you get the Girimehkala figurine, you can trade it to the guy in Kichijoji for a sword for Morgana.
: Other than that, today’s going to look a lot like the last two days. We’re doing Futaba’s confidant in the morning and then switching to Iwai at night for his Mementos request.
: “But before that, there’s something I wanna show you, Akira. Come to my room.”
: “See, everything on here is marked off as being done. But that’s kinda… wrong. There was one promise I lied about doing… one promise I never actually finished.”
: What Futaba’s saying is that she’s a Nippon Ichi protagonist.
: “It was ‘get along with Kana-chan’. This all started back when I was in elementary school. I used to get bullied pretty hard for how weird I was…”
: “The other kids always accused me of cheating because I’d get perfect scores on my tests. Then one time I turned in a test with nothing written down instead… but the school ended up yelling at my mom.”
: “My life at school was horrible. Sometimes during recess, I’d lock myself in the bathroom and cry… I didn’t have a single friend… I was always alone.”
: “But then a girl named Kana transferred to my school… she was absent a lot at first, then when she was there, the other kids bullied her… like they did to me.”
: I have to wonder if this is supposed to be a reference to Kana Little Sister. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s an h-game that tried to be more of a legit VN - it even got a PSP release with no porn in it.
: The game is kind of famous for being an h-game that turns into this very depressing VN about a girl dying of a mysterious anime disease and how she deals with that.
: “But one day, she said something to me: ‘Good morning.’ She started saying it every day from then on.”
: “Totally! I mean, literally nobody wanted to talk to me back then. To be honest… I completely ignored her the first few times. I thought the bullies had put her up to it.”
: “But without fail, she’d come over to me to say good morning… then eventually, I decided to say it back. It felt like my heart was gonna shatter into a million pieces…”
: “But apparently, she’d been saying it to me that whole time because she thought we could be friends. She was the first person who didn’t mind how weird I was…”
: “I was so happy about making a friend that I told my mom. That’s when she added something to my promise list. ‘Get along with Kana-chan.’ B-But… I couldn’t do it.”
: “One particularly windy morning, Kana-chan dropped her diary and the pages flew everywhere. I didn’t really mean to look… but I ended up seeing everything she had written down. And… once I see something, I can’t forget it…”
: This sounds less like dialog and more like she’s writing a book out loud. The worst part is, I can’t tell if the writers did this as a “Futaba has a photographic memory so she remembers things differently than most people” kind of thing or because they just suck at writing.
: “Kana-chan’s diary was full of stories like that… then when I asked her about it… she got really defensive. I felt terrible, but she just kept yelling at me for reading it.”
: “Yeah… but I couldn’t really tell her that… I just… froze up. And then… I ran. I ran… and ran… I wanted her to stop yelling. I wanted to go back to how things were before.”
: “…Kana-chan ended up moving away pretty soon after that. I haven’t talked to her since. So… I lied to my mom. Even after Kana-chan left, I would tell her we were best friends.”
: And then she went to Iwai and got a life-size cardboard cutout of Kana that she tried to pass off for the real thing hoping no one would notice… wait no, that’s the other plotline.
: “So… I lied to my mom. Even after Kana-chan left, I would tell her we were best friends. Every month, she’d write that promise on my list… and every month, I’d lie about it.”
: “I… I wish I could apologize to Kana-chan somehow. I really wanna say I’m sorry. Sorry for not helping her, though she was going through even worse stuff than I was. Sorry for reading her diary… sorry… for running away.”
: “I hate being such a coward… but I think I might be able to face my fears now that I’m a promise-setting phantom thief!”
: This kind of thing is why I feel like the Persona 3 format was a mistake. It feels like they wrote a lot more for Futaba, but then had to pare it down to fit the 10-rank format.
: “Y-You have to help me now, got it!?”
: “This is another part of our deal!”
: This is kind of misleading, because I believe it works like Flow does - it’s Charge and Concentrate at the same time.
: “Welp, I’m gonna get on that right now! Time to go look up Kana-chan’s deets! Oh, and… sorry I wasn’t more hospitable today. That’ll have to wait for next time!”
: “When I try looking up Kana-chan’s contact info, my fingers suddenly start trembling… I know I promised myself that I’d do this… but when I remember how angry Kana-chan got, I get so scared…”
: “…! What am I doing? Freaking out at the most important moment…? If I can’t do this, then what was my training for? I don’t want to run away anymore. I won’t give up on Kana-chan.”
: “…Thanks, Akira. Talking to you about this helped calm me down. I’m going to do a little more research on Kana-chan! Oh, and please don’t tell anyone else about what we discussed today! Not even Sojiro, okay!?”
: “Haru… I’m not surprised she seems down. You should keep her in your thoughts, Akira. Still, despite how she looks, Haru has quite the backbone. I’m sure she’ll be okay.”
: Our shelf of corporate logos grows.
: “I’ll do my best to protect you. But… I can’t guarantee your safety. You can say no.”
: We need maxed-out Guts to get Iwai’s Mementos request.
: “S’that right? I appreciate it. It’s gonna be under the girder bridge. It’s close by, so follow me.”
: “He’s here as my witness today. Now listen. I’d be glad to keep my mouth shut about your failed deal… if you stay away from my family. That includes me, Kaoru… and this kid here.”
: “Rules ain’t meant to be broken.”
: I was going to make a joke about Monster Girl Quest here, and in the process of looking for an image found an entire page of Danganronpa shipping pics where half the characters are mermaids for no reason. That line of enquiry was promptly closed.
: " chuckle Thanks, kid. Tsuda-san, I gotta be honest with you… this whole thing has been a real goddamn pain in the ass. But it’s over. You’re finished."
: There should’ve been a fucking intelligence check here like it’s Fallout 1 where Joker goes “Wait a second… you couldn’t even buy guns from the triad. That gun’s a fake.” and then you don’t have to do the Mementos request.
: “The hell’re you doin’…!?”
: “You bastard…!”
: “I’m such a freakin’ idiot… that guy ain’t the Tsuda I know…! Based on what just happened here, I’m done for the second I give him the guns he’s lookin’ for. God dammit…”
: Joker: “What’s he gonna do, shoot you with a fake gun?”
: “…Look, kid. You should prolly go. I don’t got any more tasks for you. Just forget all of this…”
: “Good. This ain’t nothin’ a kid like you can handle. I… I’m gonna make those guns for him. I gotta do what I can to protect Kaoru… if it means helpin’ out that psychopath, so be it…”
: "Tsuda… when did he turn into such a heartless bastard?
: I think this is the only time we see Iwai make this expression.
: “…Actually, it’s prolly best that you know. It’s Akimitsu Tsuda. He was famous around here for being an incredible martial artist back in the day. If you see him 'round town, run. Go to the police if you hafta.”
: “They’ll keep you safe so long as you tell ‘em who’s after you. …Anyways, we’re done here. Thanks for all you’ve been givin’ me. And… take care of yourself, kid.”
: We’ve got exams for the next couple of days. I forgot that this is Royal, so we’ll end just before the last day of exams due to them inserting another long Maruki cutscene on the 20th… in addition to the two cutscenes that happen that day in the base game.
: The school festival is where I started hating this game’s plot, and I think is also the reason why they straight-up revealed that new palace so early.
: “Let’s see… an essay question? This looks tough, but let’s calm down and think it through.”
: These are really easy to remember when you fact-check most of them while doing an LP.
: “Soccer balls… didn’t the teacher say that the number of colors used to be different? Do you remember?”
: “Right, it was only one color. But that wouldn’t really grab your eye. Oh yeah, I remember. I think she said that unlike now, soccer games were broadcasted with…”
: “Right. A single-colored ball would be hard to spot in black and white. So they changed the color of the ball to make it easily identifiable on TV.”
: “This is the second day of your exams. Please begin.”
: “That sounds about right.”
: Let’s be real here, it’s the third one. That or they don’t hate the cormorants enough.
: That’s it for now. Next time, we’ll go through two days of long cutscenes. After that, three days of confidants… followed by five more days of cutscene.
: “Ah, you’re the third-year Okumura-san, correct? So good to see you. Please, have a seat.”
: “I’m sorry… I did come here because I wanted to, but I’m not exactly adept at saying what’s on my mind.”
: " sigh I think I’m screwed for real this time. I couldn’t concentrate at all…"
: “More importantly, what’s this you want to talk about?”
: “What do you mean?”
: “But aren’t there multiple people across the world that are part of Medjed? Couldn’t it have been done by someone that joined recently?”
: “I was told you recommended this reassignment yourself, sir. Why would you choose someone as inexperienced as myself?”
: “When the case of the Shujin principal was ruled a suicide, you thought to reopen it… and you proved its connection to the Phantom Thieves. This is based primarily on that achievement.”
: “The police are here at the school, so be sure not to get in their way. Oh, and… for various reasons, the school festival got moved to the 25th. There was talk of canceling it, but we couldn’t just do that.”
: “Even though my opinion has been met with criticism, I’ve held fast that the Phantom Thieves are not just. However… I believe the recent series of suspicious deaths is unrelated to their actions.”
: “Thanks to my quota… and that shithead chief. But I made some progress on my personal investigation. I did some research on the Phantom Thieves. I’m starting to get the impression they might actually be the real deal.”
: “Did you see his press conference yesterday? One of his comments defending the Phantom Thieves stood out to me. ‘There is more to this.’ I think he said that knowing for certain that the Phantom Thieves would be watching.”
: “Huh!? W-Well, actually… I was just gonna say the same thing. I mean, going after him wouldn’t even help you guys get famous. It’d practically be pointless.”
: “…Senpai, have you been sleeping well? You look kind of tired… it might not be my place to ask, but… are you okay?”
: “And because they’ve targeted only prominent figures, our government leaders have been hesitant to act. I apologize for any concern they may have caused and will henceforth search for an apt countermeasure.”
: “We can’t trust him.”
: “Dude, you plannin’ on stealin’ stuff in that getup?”
: “No, this is my mental image of a person who sticks to their justice.”
: “Well, I think your mask is more apt for piercing rather than sticking…”
: “But we’re in a flashy casino. There’s no doubt this is a Palace.”
: “…Oh right, Crow doesn’t know too much about cognitive beings, does he?”
: “Ah, yes. In addition to similar topography, cognitive people exist based on the ruler’s perceptions.”
: “Will you please stop interrupting?”
: “The Treasure is located on the Manager’s Floor, at the peak of this building.”
: "Listen closely: the place we wish to evaluate for your rehabilitation is… a repository for so-called ‘art exhibits.’ "
: “Apparently, such places collect many objects solely for the purpose of displaying them.”
: “The chairman turned himself in! It’s even shown up on the news!”
: “There were those incidents in April, then the Phantom Thieves and the principal… sigh. Yes… as you young folk might say, the situation is indeed quite wack.”
