Well then he sounds like a man who has never done a bad or wrong thing in his life and I trust him completely now with whatever decision he makes.
Also in my head every time John Persona gets home he hesitates for a moment before stepping on the porch, wondering which person he talked to today that’s about to call him the instant his feet touch the entryway.
: And now, it’s time for the game to go to shit. You are now entering a world of ass-pulls, last-minute attempts to glue several different copies of the game script together in the style of Ni no Kuni 2, and general shit that never gets mentioned in Strikers because even the writers at Koei-Tecmo realized how dumb it was.
: “There’s definitely a lot more people than last year.”
: “Well, yeah. This place got ‘famous’ and all. The Phantom Thieves, Kamoshida, Principal Kobayakawa. On top of that, we got Akechi as a guest.”
: Thank you, Ryuji, for summing up a situation we already know about.
: “There may be police officers in plain clothes too… actually, they probably are here. We better be careful about what we discuss.”
: “Acting like normal students is going to be important.”
: “What do you normally do at a school festival?”
: “Look around at the exhibits… and eat stuff?”
: “There’s no set rules for this kinda thing. Walk around and hang out, like when we went to the beach.”
: “I think I can do it if I’ve got everyone with me!”
: “You’re so laid-back… there’s a possibility your name and Ryuji’s have come up.”
: “A number of teachers had been questioned before, and even we were interviewed the other day too.”
: That sentence is so badly localized and out of place that it sounds like Allanson dialogue. Here’s a hint, Atlus localizers: you don’t need the “too” there because the “even” implies it.
: “Don’t let your guard down too much.”
: “It’s true that the initial members have been at this for a long time, making it easier to get tracked…”
: “All riiiight…”
: I have no idea what the point of this conversation was. All they really needed to say is that the police might be around.
: “Now, now. Let’s leave it at that. We just need to be mindful about what we’re saying, correct?”
: “Oh, um…”
: “You seem to be having quite a lot of fun, Haru. You did mention that you were looking forward to this.”
: “I want to go around with everyone and eat at the refreshment stands.”
: “This’ll be a great change of pace from all the nasty stuff lately!”
: “Shall we head off to the stands then?”
: “Oh right. This is your first time at our school festival.”
: “They’re pretty good - from what I’ve heard…”
: Wait, how would Ryuji not know? He’s been here at least a year, because the thing where Kamoshida broke his leg presumably happened a year before Joker got here for the timeline to make sense.
: “I know a great one! Follow me.”
: “Maid Takoyaki?”
: “New customers! I’ll show you all to your seats.”
: “…So it’s your class’s stand.”
: “It’s still a refreshment stand, isn’t it?”
: “It’s like a deserted island here…”
: “Well, I guess it’s good for talking since there aren’t any people here…”
: “And it was all bullshit.”
: “Here she comes… act normal.”
: “Who cares? There’s nothin’ ‘normal’ about this anymore.”
: “Take my order!? What happened to the maid atmosphere!?”
: Uh, what? How is that not a maid atmosphere?
: “There are a lot of odd flavors…”
: “Stick to a normal one. I bet they-”
: “The hell…”
: “Well then… I’ll have the mentai cheese takoyaki…”
: “Then, how about the squid-”
: “That doesn’t even sound remotely possible! Ain’t this whole menu just a sham!?”
: If you replace “maid costumes” with “battles” and “octopus” with “writing and localization” you pretty much have the design documentation for Persona 5.
: “I can see that!”
: “Ryuji, you’re making a scene…”
: “Then, what would you recommend with what you have now?”
: “We’ll have that, please.”
: “…Let’s forget the octopus and get back on topic.”
: “On that note, hearing Kamoshida being almost treated like a victim makes me wanna eat my stress away!”
: “I’ve even heard conjecture that the principal was targeted for reasons like ‘he knew too much.’”
: “I kept hearing about Goro Akechi’s popularity.”
: “All thanks to the Phantom Thieves!”
: “You know, did that Akechi guy agree to show up here 'cause he believes we didn’t kill anybody…?”
: “Or, he may simply love large gatherings.”
: “Oh, true. He didn’t seem like he minded being pampered by the media at all.”
: “We plan on stealing intel, but we might fall into another trap. I’m gonna be bummed if that happens…”
: “You’re so carefree… does it mean you have nerves of steel in any situation? Still, it doesn’t change the fact that we don’t know what Akechi-kun is planning.”
: “Ooh, it’s fresh made!”
: “Lies! I heard a microwave go off!”
: “Well, it’s not like I was expectin’ crispy takoyaki at a school festival or anything. So, what makes this a ‘Russian’ takoyaki?”
: “Could there be jam in it as a secret ingredient? That sounds quite delicious.”
: No it doesn’t.
: So… wait a second. You don’t have regular takoyaki, but you have what’s basically regular takoyaki with a spicy one added in. And you couldn’t just, say… take that out?
: “Dude, don’t tell me the ‘Russian’ part means…”
: “It’s like, going for the obvious one is manly?”
: “I-Is that so?”
: “I’d prefer the most beautifully shaped one… but all of them are misshapen.”
: Yusuke fucking gets it.
: “Oh, aren’t you all going to eat? I think I’ll go for the ‘special’ one.”
: “Wait… is she honestly going for it?”
: “Do YOU wanna go for the red one?”
: Joker looks into the red takoyaki and sees Lucifer’s face staring back at him. “By the powers of hundreds of orders of fallen angels, I command this particular takoyaki to be REALLY, REALLY hot!”
: True bible fact: It wasn’t the rebellion against God that got Lucifer ejected from heaven, it was the hot sauce pranks he pulled on everyone within reach.
: “Oh, you sure? All right, then I’ll just help myself to it… NOT!”
: “Th-the panel isn’t until tomorrow though…”
: “I came to check out the venue. I can’t make any mistakes since a lot of people will be present.”
: “Someone’s eager.”
: “But, people ended up recognizing me. Everyone bombarded me with questions.”
: “That’s 'cause you were sloppy.”
: “I grew tired of the baseless rumors they kept bringing up, so I escaped to where there weren’t any people.”
: “Let’s just call this my performance fee.”
: “But-”
: “It’s fine.”
: “Mmm, it’s quite deli-”
: This scene might not seem bad, but here’s why it’s bad. As we’ve seen, Akechi is a character whose entire personality is more or less “I’m a fancy boy and also the Detective Prince”.
: What you have to understand is that in the base game, this is the only time you ever really see Akechi acting like this. There’s also the obvious slip from Update 27, but that’s less him breaking character than it is him making a mistake that just happens to be stupid.
: I feel like the writers for Royal really weren’t sure how they wanted to go with Akechi, so they did a bit of both (things like the scene in the cafe where Akechi wears Joker’s glasses) and hoped that they wouldn’t piss off his fans. You know, due to the whole Akechi ranking first in every single Japanese popularity poll thing.
: “Eating it in one bite is a bad idea…”
: “Ngh… my throat… urgh! This is…! Ohhh… oh, my stomach… it burns!”
: “Are you okay? Do you need water?”
: “I-I-I’m… I’m fine! I just love… uh… spicy-spicy stuff… haha…hah…”
: “Hey, does he sound broken to you?”
: It’s also really, really strange that they have the panel for the festival on a different day.
: “It’s like he wants to get picked up for some commercial or something.”
: “But… did he truly come to check out the venue? …This isn’t good. I keep suspecting every little thing.”
: “…I know what you mean. I’m doing the same too. I need to do my best tomorrow. We need to somehow get him to be our source of intel… I’m gonna pull this off no matter what!”
: She’s not going to pull it off.
: “That Akechi guy… when he got here, didn’t he say that everyone’s all here?”
: He did. I wonder how he’d know that? I mean, I suppose he can guess, given that he’s known since 06/09 that Morgana can talk.
: “You’re… you’re just imaginin’ things…”
: “Yes, but the associated mental fatigue was extraordinary. Being cautious takes a lot out of you…”
: “Seriously. I think I’m as tired now as I am after midterms.”
: “I didn’t mind any of that. I just loved seeing that detective gulp down the special takoyaki…”
: “I had fun as well, since I got to spend time with you all.”
: “What would you like to do now, Haru? Walk around a little more?”
: “I appreciate the gesture, but I’m satisfied with stopping here. Why don’t we go home and rest up? We’ll have to deal with Akechi-kun again tomorrow, after all…”
: “I have to agree. What will his next move be?”
: In the base game, this cutscene ends here. Keep in mind that we’ve been on nothing but cutscenes for the better part of 40 minutes at this point.
: What we’re about to see is Maruki flexing his extraterritorial rights in one of the most ham-fisted ways possible to ensure this cutscene doesn’t end. Seriously, Royal extends this and tomorrow by at least 10 or 15 minutes.
: “sigh Where’d he wander off to? Always doing whatever he pleases… think he’s still checking out the festival stalls? Well, I’m sure he’ll be fine - this is Yusuke we’re talking about. Let’s head home.”
: Wait… where’d he get that takoyaki from? Didn’t the person at the stand say they were out? That doesn’t look like the one with the red takoyaki in it either…
: “My name is Yusuke Kitagawa. I’m a student in the fine arts division at Kosei High. I do apologize for interrupting your day, but ever since Ryuji and Ann first spoke of you, I’ve grown quite intrigued… now I wish to speak with you as well.”
: “Ryu… oh, Sakamoto-kun and Takamaki-san? Well, I’m flattered that you’ve taken an interest in me. You’re here about the counseling, correct?”
: “Correct. Now, teach me how to unshackle the human heart and glimpse into its endless abyss!”
: The best part is how this scene makes no fucking sense, especially if you’ve already done Yusuke’s Rank 10.
: “Whoa, whoa, hold on there! How should I put this… your enthusiasm is appreciated, but I suspect there’s a huge misunderstanding about what I do.”
: “I apologize - I simply couldn’t contain my excitement. Would you still permit me to witness your counseling skills in action?”
: “That’s not really allowed, haha… oh! But how about this? Why not try out my counseling yourself instead?”
: “Me?”
: Man, that’s a cheap shot at Yusuke’s moveset. At least he has Charge now.
: “All you’d have to do is chat with me for a bit.”
: “Very well… you and I shall go head-to-head.”
: “I’m not sure what you think happens in counseling, but, uh, there won’t be any of that…”
: “It’s in the past. …How curious. I never imagined counseling to be like this.”
: “Well, I’d say this is less ‘counseling’ and more about building a rapport. When someone first comes to see me, we always start with them telling me a little bit about themselves.”
: “Hm, a method of self-reflection that relies on speaking with another person so as to sort through one’s own emotions…”
: “There really shouldn’t be any cross-examining in a proper counseling session, though… I just do my best to guide patients in a positive direction so they can improve their lives.”
: “At the very least, I talk them through their problems so they can make the correct choices for themselves…”
: “I see.”
: Isn’t that just the Law ending from most of the mainline SMT games?
: “In all honesty, I’m sure there are people who think that… but life in this world confines people to certain frames of mind sometimes, and without them even realizing it.”
: “If I can help lift the weight off their shoulders and free their minds, I believe the results are worth it.”
: Ends justify the means. Got it.
: “…Thank you very much for speaking with me. This has been a most valuable experience.”
: “Before you go, Kitagawa-kun - what would you say is your greatest wish in life at this moment? Would it be success as an artist?”
: Mine would be to LP an English translation of the PSP version of Eternal Punishment instead of whatever this shit is.
: “No, that’s not it. The only desire I have for my art is for it to improve through my own efforts.”
: “I see- then what would you wish for?”
: “Ah… I see.”
: “At any rate, I must be going now, so please excuse me. I hope we meet again someday.”
: We finish this day of nothing but cutscene by finishing Art of Automata, leaving us with… I think two books before Knowing the Heart.
: “Our guest of honor is Goro Akechi.”
: “I feel kind of bad, considering how many people have gathered… I’m sure you all would’ve been happier to have a singer or a mascot appear, wouldn’t you say?”
: “We’d appreciate it if you could tell us about your experiences with the notorious Phantom Thieves. It’d be wonderful if you could let us hear more about your actual investigative process.”
: “I’m not used to being the one interrogated… so please go easy on me.”
: It’s strange he’d even agree to this, given that they’re asking him to talk about an ongoing investigation. Back when I was a reporter, I interviewed cops a few times. They HATE that.
: “He talks of how the Phantom Thieves are dangerous, yet he says they haven’t committed any murders. Either he has an idea who the true culprit is, or he has uncovered the identities of the Phantom Thieves.”
: “C’mon, Makoto… you gotta get it out of him!”
: If you’re wondering what Makoto’s plan is, the answer is she doesn’t have one. I don’t really understand why she’d expect a cop to coment on a case in public like this.
: “Getting right to the point, I see. Well, if it’s as much as I’m allowed to say, then everything on TV and the internet is all of it. We don’t have any leads yet, and the methods behind their crimes are still unclear.”
: “I see… Even with this country’s power, arresting them is proving to be difficult. Is that the case?”
: Wouldn’t this be really strange for the audience? I mean, you’d think they’d be expecting her to ask him about his ideal date or something stupid like that.
: “I wouldn’t phrase it that way - but well, something like that.”
: “Thank you for answering that question. By the way, it seems you’ve denied a correlation between the Phantom Thieves and the murders… why the sudden change?”
: “Until now, haven’t you upheld your stance that the Phantom Thieves are dangerous? How are you so positive that they haven’t committed murder?”
: “Aren’t you a little too comfortable interrogating people? Why, it’s as if you’re a prosecutor.”
: “But won’t you tell us? What reason is there that you’d claim their innocence when you previously stated they were unjust?”
: “She’s pelting him with questions.”
: “Every person whose heart they changed have truly been criminals, including Okumura… why, then, was he the only one who needed to be killed…?”
: “Why is that?”
: “I must admit… I couldn’t deduce a reason. That’s why I believe that case should be thought of as if a different party is responsible. And if - this is all hypothetical, mind you.”
: “If the Phantom Thieves are the ones I know of, I can’t possibly imagine they would kill anyone.”
: “Your comment just now… does this mean the police have already identified who they are?”
: “Oh, no. The police haven’t gotten that far yet. But I have my own conclusions about the true identities of the Phantom Thieves.”
: “Pipe down!”
: “He’s lying, right…?”
: “But if it’s the truth…”
: “You’re not going to ask me who they are?”
: Makoto figures she can just SMART GIRL her way out of this shit.
: “It’s only my personal opinion, so announcing that here wouldn’t pose a problem. However… there is a possibility that everyone present will hear the truth before the police or media.”
: “The truth…?”
: “What’s he planning on saying?”
: “That’s quite the confidence you have. If you’re so certain, then very well. I’d like to ask you then: Who do you think the Phantom Thieves are, Akechi-san?”
: “That idiot!”
: “No… there’s no way he could have any evidence…”
: So, okay… did he plan that? Did he have someone in the audience planted to call him just in case this came up? How did he know Makoto would ask him that?
: “Would you mind if I step away for about… ten minutes or so?”
: “I’m terribly sorry, everyone, but we’ll be taking a break. We’ll resume the panel in ten minutes.”
: “Please don’t troll me online for this interruption, okay?”
: “There’s the PE faculty office.”
: “I want you to come too. There’s a matter I want to discuss. Your friends from yesterday are here, aren’t they? Can you bring them too, if that’s all right?”
: I mean, no shit. He’s basically Light Yagami.
: Congrats, you’ve got uh… a couple of photos that could easily be explained by Photoshop filters. In fact, I’m pretty sure you can do stuff like this with one button these days.
: I really wish they’d give Joker an opportunity to snark this. “Hey Akechi, congratulations, you saw Yusuke emerging from the Elemental Plane of Boyfriend.”
: “That’s gotta be 'shopped!”
: “I have video footage too. Please, let’s not feign ignorance. All of you can go to that other world too, yes?”
: “As I just said, I know everything. I also know that when you traverse over there, your appearance changes as well. It’s because of those mysterious powers, isn’t it?”
: An obvious lie. We already know he knows about Morgana, and that was in June.
: “Dude, it’s the Nav…”
: “When the app activated on its own, the scenery around me suddenly changed. Quite frankly, I still can’t believe it myself. But from the look of these photos, all of you seem quite used to it.”
: "We’ve been listenin’ to you blab on for a while now, but cut the delusional- "
: “All of you are acting as Phantom Thieves in the Metaverse. I can say so with conviction because I have the same power as you.”
: We could already infer this from him being able to hear Morgana, but now we know that Akechi has a Persona. We also know that he’s had it since at least June, if not earlier… and that he was in Okumura’s Palace.
: This would mean that Akechi fits all the criteria for being the killer, and it’s fucking stupid that Joker doesn’t point this out. It’s not like he’d even have to reach back that far, because Akechi is admitting this shit now.
: “I’ll take your silence as confirmation. In all honesty, I’ve been curious about you since the time of the Madarame case. But to think it would end up like this…”
: “I believe that as well…”
: “…How can you be so sure?”
: “For real!?”
: “Who was it!?”
: “I couldn’t identify his face… he had a mask on, after all. Actually, when I took these photos, I entered that world too.”
: “He shot at me the moment he noticed me.”
: That’s funny, because you’d think someone would have heard the apparently unsuppressed gunshots. Also, how do you know the shooter’s gender?
: “That’s who killed President Okumura?”
: Now, here’s the real question. Why isn’t Makoto asking these fucking questions? This would’ve been a great opportunity to make it obvious that she can do shit.
: In fact, I’m going to be real here when I say that if Makoto asked a couple of pointed questions, the plot would be resolved right here.
: You might be wondering if this is actually a trap on Makoto’s end, and… no, it’s not. At this point, no one is even vaguely aware of the possibility that Akechi could be the killer.
: “Most likely. At the very least, I was almost killed by him. ‘I can’t die here… I need to determine the truth…’ When those thoughts overcame me, I awakened to that power - a most fortunate accident.”
: Fuck you, Hashino. Fuck you. He stole that straight out of Eternal Punishment. We’ll hopefully see that when the translation is done.
: “This guy has a Persona too?”
: “Morgana. Our teammate who taught us about the Metaverse.”
: “…Really? This is unbelievable… but it IS true that you know things that I don’t… say, Morgana. Were you also the one who instructed them on how to change people’s hearts?”
: “I experienced that world too, but I still haven’t solved that mystery yet.”
: “We go in the Metaverse - we call them Palaces - to steal the core of their desires: their Treasure. And those whose Treasure has been stolen have a change of heart.”
: “Hahaha… there’s certainly no way anyone could figure out such an MO.”
: “Anyways! Back to what you were talkin’ about! Are we in this mess 'cause of that guy!?”
: “Although I don’t completely understand the method, all you do is simply reform people. Someone else is behind the murders. However, the police have decided that the Phantom Thieves did it… they’ll arrest you at this rate.”
: “Th-They’re going to treat me as my father’s murderer?”
: “I can’t overlook such a grave mistake. Which is precisely why I want us to strike a deal. I may be able to save you from this situation.”
: “A deal?”
: “I would like you to cooperate with me on investigating the truth.”
: “And if we decline?”
: “Then I think I’ll have to inform the police about all of you, along with that video I mentioned.”
: “This ain’t no deal! It’s blackmail!”
: “Say what you will. This is the method that I believe is correct. The justice I uphold will not tolerate criminals who kill people at their leisure.”
: “Justice…”
: “You’ve heard that Sae-san is the one spearheading the investigation about you Phantom Thieves, correct? The higher-ups are concerned only with settling the case.”
: “They want to capture the culprits behind the psychotic breakdown incidents and end the commotion. Those are the ones who are putting pressure on Sae-san. I can only imagine her impatience.”
: “Even if there is no objective explanation of the method, it’s over once causality is established. Sae-san can’t make rational judgments at the moment. If she were to be cornered, well… she may even make up a confession.”
: “Make it up?”
: “So they’re gonna make it all our fault!? Just 'cause they feel like it!?”
: “We haven’t killed anyone though! …And we’re still going to be arrested?”
: “You’ll be found guilty if you’re caught, and it will be treated as a very serious crime.”
: “Bullshit! None of that makes any sense!”
: “Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do alone anymore to stop the flow of things…”
: “And that’s why you want our cooperation?”
: “Yes. In return, I’ll turn a blind eye to what you’ve done. Those are my conditions. That said, I ask that you disband the Phantom Thieves after this.”
: I dunno, kill him? Dump his body in the Metaverse, where it’ll never be found? He’s already threatening murder charges - what’s one more murder when you’re already accused of at least three?
: Seriously though, Tatsuya or Jihei would’ve already lit Akechi on fire at this point.
: “I see… I thought I was making a lot of concessions myself. Well, you don’t have to decide at the moment. Considering this is you we’re talking about, I believe you’ll come to a favorable reply.”
: “I’m glad we could talk. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to spend such a meaningful time like this.”
: “Spend such a meaningful time like this?” What the fuck kind of localization is that? Oh right, I forgot, this is the part of the game where it goes to shit.
: “I look forward to your answer. It was definitely worth coming today - for various reasons. We should be getting back. … About that, I’m sorry. Would it be acceptable if we ended the panel here?”
: “The reason why you called for me in the first place is because you wanted intel, correct? My business is concluded as well.”
: A good writer would have had that last line be a plot point where Makoto was working with Akechi the entire time, which would explain why she’s so fucking incompetent. Hashino is not a good writer.
: “I’ll deal with it somehow.”
: The game then fades to a blur. This? Right here? This is where I checked out on the plot the first time I played the game, and just wanted it to be over.
: This scene sucks for a bunch of reasons. It feels stupid because it’s taking your agency away, but also because by the time we see what happens here, we’ll already know everything it has to tell us.
: This scene (and the other three like it) are trying to patch a massive ass pull that Hashino makes in late November. You’ll know it when you see it, and it ruins the entire goddamn plot.
: David Cage pulled this exact shit in Heavy Rain, and it was just as dumb there as it is here.
: Anyway, here’s how I’m going to handle these. Underneath this update, you will see a second “summary” box. That box will contain the full text of the blurred scene. You can view it if you’d like, or wait until November when they’re revealed normally.
: I will warn you that there’s a couple of cutscenes in November that will not make any fucking sense if you read the blurred scenes early… but they also won’t make sense if you read the blurred scenes afterward.
: “So, I truly apologize about this… but I’ll have to end things here today.”
: “To make up for the time that was planned for this panel, the rakugo research club will instead be-”
: Wait, what? Rakugo… what? How do you research a comedy style? Why did this need to be here at all? Seriously, why would you not just cut to the post-festival date?
: “I can’t say anything in detail regarding the Phantom Thieves investigation… but I feel another great stride will occur again soon. I hope you all continue to pay attention to what happens.”
: “Let’s have a big round of applause for today’s guest, Goro Akechi.”
: “He totally used Makoto’s suggestion against us.”
: I swear, there must have been a draft of the script at one point where Makoto was a traitor and actively working with Akechi. It’s the only thing that explains how utterly incompetent Makoto is.
: Just think about it though. What’s one time where Makoto has been right on anything, barring the handful of times where she points something out in a dungeon?
: “Indeed. We intended to get intel out of him, but to think it would play out like this.”
: “So what? We’ll just accept his deal?”
: “He’s got evidence on us. We really don’t have a choice…”
: “Dammit, what’re we gonna do!?”
: “Calm down, Ryuji.”
: “How am I s’posed to calm down!? What are we gonna do!?”
: “What’s done is done. We’ll have to cool our heads and think more on this. We must make up our minds by the time he contacts us again.”
: “We need to give this a lot of thought…”
: Well, shit. I have to wonder, though: how would he know that’s a real one when there were places all over Tokyo selling fakes?
: There’s still the plausible explanation that John Persona bought a fake card, made it look like a real one, and then used the threat of a brainfuck to get Futaba to change without actually doing anything.
: “I knew it… she’s… oh god…”
: And now it’s time for the date cutscene, with absolutely no one else jumping in to assert their extraterritorial rights and extending this entire mess by say… another several minutes.
: “Post-festival party? I thought this thing was over… eh, nobody invited you to it, so let’s just go home.”
: Oh look, it’s Atlus’s Lightning. Are you here to sell us your custom Louis Vuitton bag?
: “Since we’ve run into each other on our own, why not go together? People say these kinds of events should be enjoyed with others, so let’s go have some fun!”
: Kasumi being here makes this scene kind of stupid. In the base game, you had the scene with Akechi and then you did the festival date and went home.
: In Royal, you instead go to the party with Kasumi, leave, go back with someone else, and then then go home. You know, instead of just making her a choice and giving the player a save point that doesn’t require them to go through multiple days of shit to get back to it.
: “Let’s get in there, Kurusu-senpai!”
: This is more or less how all of the other date cutscenes start.
: There is a long dancing animation here and I don’t know why they did it. Seriously, I timed it on one of my re-records and it’s like 15 seconds long.
: You may also notice the sign that says “Syujin Academy”. I’m pretty sure that’s how the name of the school is actually spelled, and it’s this kind of thing that makes your localization look bad.
: “Kurusu-senpai - let’s do it!”
: As you may be able to guess, this entire cutscene exists for one reason: to justify the showtime attack that Joker eventually gets with Kasumi. I believe you have to be Rank 10 with her to get it, meaning it’s basically limited to that mystery palace.
: Her Showtime Attack is called Dances with Phantoms, and is the only one where the film reference actually makes sense. It’s less a showtime attack with Joker than it is a solo attack, because she’s Atlus’s Lightning.
: In the More Like Yusu-Gay route, this scene instead happens with Yusuke. We might not see that for another update or two - Salty Vanilla is working on it.
: There’s this short scene where they’re dancing together, but it looks like crap in still shots. Fortunately, I took a video of both this and the anime cutscene we’ll see shortly.
: “Hmm… got it. I’m in!”
: “Just wait here, and watch what happens!”
: I love how whichever studio did these anime cutscenes can never get Morgana on-model. It just can’t be done.
: The way this studio can never get anything on-model, even when it’s the only thing in frame, reminds me of the 70s Lupin III anime where they had animations that played for 10 seconds or more but were only two or three frames long.
: Animation studio boss: “Shit, we need something to hide the fact that we can’t draw Kasumi on-model… anyone got any ideas?”
: Animator: “How about we just put a three or four second animation where the shot is going through people’s legs, so the viewer sees our horrible off-model animation as little as possible?”
: Animation studio boss: “Brilliant!”
: I mean, I guess I can’t blame them, given that anime creators usually don’t make all that much money, but still.
: Animator: “We don’t need to be on-model for any of these close-ups, do we?”
: Animation studio boss: “Fuck no! Just be as off-model as possible and we’ll call it an art style.”
: Animator: “Boss, how do I draw a cat? The client says they want a cat in this scene, but I’m not qualified for that.”
: Animation studio boss: “Hell if I know! Call Fred! He was on that project with the catboy, right? That’s practically the same thing.”
: Animator: “Boss, the client says they want this scene to be like a minute long and I’m already out of ideas! What do I do?”
: Animation studio boss: “Shit, if only Fred was here. Uh… you’ve got that leg shot from earlier, right? Just copy-paste that a couple of times.”
: “Ah, thank you!”
: “It’s my dad. He’s telling me to come home before it gets too late. Sorry to leave you like this, but I have to get going.”
: There should have been a line here where Kasumi goes “Oh, no, we’re all done with the scenes where I’m being harrassed and you have to step in to save me.”
: “Thank you. I’ll be all right, though. The post-festival party was so much fun! Especially with you! See you soon!”
: I… don’t know why they put this line here. The writers knew that there was a festival date thing coming up. I mean, they presumably had the game’s script to work with. You know when they have trouble keeping shit like this straight that it’s a sign of bad writing.
: Just like the Hawaii scene, we have three scenes that require Rank 9 and being on the romance route (those being Ann, Kawakami, and Makoto). Ryuji’s scene needs you to be Rank 10, and Haru is the fallback if you don’t meet any of those.
: Keep in mind that we haven’t been able to save since the night of the 25th - meaning we have to go through the entire day to get back to this choice.
: For this update, we’ll be doing Haru’s date. All the others will be filed under the “Alternate Scenes” header.
: “I’m sorry. I can’t stop thinking about what Akechi-kun said…”
: giggle “It feels like nothing bad could ever happen when you say that.”
: “Sharing…? I never knew we had such an event.”
: “Ooh, he’s going to choose? I wonder who it will be…”
: “Huh…? Is he… looking this way?”
: “He’s talking to me… isn’t he?”
: “Well, I’m going.”
: “Um, yes…”
: Haru’s version of this scene is easily the most awkward of them all.
: “Oh, please don’t worry!”
: I wonder if it’s easier to take the death of a parent if they were a moustache-twirling cartoon villain.
: “Something to share… I have too many things…”
: “Huh?”
: Now, I get that awkward moments like this happen a lot, but something tells me this goes beyond the usual degree of social ineptitude.
: “Erm…”
: “Well…”
: Yeah, you know what, let’s just take this situation from bad to worse.
: “Huh?”
: “Wait…!”
: “Th-that wasn’t what we were talking about…”
: All of the date cutscenes are basically identical to this, but with Ann or Makoto. The only one that’s significantly different is Kawakami’s, which is probably the one I like the best.
: I just wish that they had written an alternate version of it for if you’re not dating her, because it would have had a thousand times more impact that way.
: “It turned out to be more like an interview party, huh? I still can’t believe you said that…”
: “Huh…? Right… at any rate, I’m not sure what I would have done without you. Thank you for saving me. You’re a mysterious person, but you’re so reliable.”
: “Who knows what may lie ahead. For now, I’m worried about what happened with Akechi-kun… but I have to say, my first post-festival party was quite fun. Though… I guess it’s my last too.”
: “Here, I’d like you to have this.”
: The reward for all of these dates is the same - the item has a different name, but in all cases it’s an SP restorative.
: “I… bought it earlier…”
: By this, he means “I can’t wait to never use it.”
: giggle “Now then, let’s go home.”
: You thought this day would just end? Oh no.
: “You took off somewhere during the festival, huh… I tried to find you, but I gave up pretty quickly.”
: “Futaba? What are you doing here in front of the store?”
: “I needed to calm my brain. My thoughts were getting out of hand. Not just Akechi, but other stuff too. We’re in deep trouble unless we can do something soon.”
: “But anyway, I was just thinking about going inside, so your timing is perfect. Let’s go.”
: “They’re saying whatever they want. So, how’s the investigation going? Any clues yet?”
: “Nothing that leads to a firm conviction yet…”
: “What’s going on here? Didn’t you say that you were sure about closing this case? And I thought I told you that failure won’t be tolerated.”
: “…”
: “Well, this is troublesome. If this continue at this rate, never mind a promotion… we’d have to let you go entirely.”
: “I had high expectations for you, but it seems this task was too much to handle for someone so young. We may need to reform the operation as well since the selected personnel for this-”
: Has it even been a week since he put her on the case?
: “Please let me see this through to the end! This case is something that I’ve always-”
: “I know that you’ve been at this for a while now, even before the police spared us the staff for it. If you can manage an arrest, I’ve made special arrangements so that you can question them personally.”
: Here’s the game justifying the use of the secret murder room, though it’s a mystery why they’d let Sae interrogate Joker if they were planning on killing him anyway.
: “…That’s what you want, isn’t it? The leadership of this country is about to change. We can’t let this case carry over into their term. I’ll make myself clear again: failure isn’t an option. We need results.”
: And now we know who he works for. It shouldn’t have been hard to guess.
: “…I understand.”
: “You’re allowed to take some… bold measures if you need to. We need good results, no matter what. Oh, one more thing. If the unexpected happens to occur, contact me immediately.”
: If you are at all thinking about the plot, you might ask why Akechi hasn’t simply given the names of the party directly to the SIU Director. There’s a reason for that.
: “…To you, sir?”
: Could this guy be any more cartoonishly evil?
: “Sojiro?”
: “This is a calling card, right? I’ve read about it online too.”
: Sojiro saw one of those “How to tell if your teen is John Persona” segments on the local news.
: “Y-You went into my room without my permission!?”
: “I’ll apologize as much as you want later. …So, what is this?”
: “That’s…”
: “Is it something to get flustered over? I knew it. This isn’t just some game you’re playing. Why aren’t you saying anything?”
: I ask that question a lot of this game’s script.
: “Why did you keep it!?”
: “I mean… it was memorable…”
: “Explain.”
: “Explain…”
: “Can’t tell me?”
: “I’m talking to Futaba here, you know… I’ll get right to the point. Is this a ‘real’ one? Did they… trigger a change of heart in you?”
: sob
: “How about it?”
: “Futaba… here… sit down. I can at least listen to what you have to say.”
: “It’s the same as Mom’s research… they changed… my cognition…”
: Here’s what I hate about this scene. Futaba is basically two separate people - there’s the more somber one (which we see near the end of her dungeon and right here) and then the epic gamer memelord anime gremlin we see in her confidant.
: This, right here? The sort of somber, brooding Futaba? This is the Futaba I like. If she were like this the entire game, she would be the best girl with virtually zero competition. I’m not saying she has to never be happy - that’s not the point. They could’ve just dialled back the memes and it would’ve been far better.
: Now, a good writer would’ve realized what they were doing and either made it a plot point that she acts like two different people… or just give her a single coherent personality. Basically, they should’ve stuck with their initial plans to just make her a goth.
: “Seriously? …Wakaba’s research about altering one’s cognition… I wondered about it myself too, but still…”
: “When she said she was gonna go to the beach out of nowhere. Even the doctors had thrown in the towel.”
: “…”
: “At first I just chalked it up as other kids being a better support for you than any adult. But as I kept watching the tabloid shows here day in and day out, a thought crossed my mind…”
: “I thought… your case kind of seemed similar to what these Phantom Thieves were doing.”
: “…Wow.”
: “I’m still your guardian, you know. I’d never overlook such a drastic change in your behavior.”
: “Sojiro…”
: “But to think that Wakaba’s research and the Phantom Thieves changing hearts were about the same thing.”
: “She said something odd when we were out drinking… that one of these days, she might die a bizarre death. Who wouldn’t take that as a joke? I just laughed it off.”
: “But… it happened exactly as she said. If anything were to happen to you, I’d feel like I let her down.”
: “There’s something I want to ask you, Akira. Judging from your attitude, you knew about this calling card, didn’t you? You should’ve known that Futaba had a change of heart through the Phantom Thieves as well.”
: “…Is there a connection between you and them? The first incident of a change of heart was a teacher at your school. The kid who brought that painting here was a pupil of that artist who had a change of heart, wasn’t he?”
: “And then there’s Futaba… you always seem to be linked to these incidents somehow. Got anything to say?”
: The entire Japanese police force can’t figure this shit out, but one random cafe owner can.
: “…You think this is a game? You know what people call them? Criminals. Why did you introduce such dangerous people to Futaba!?”
: “I asked them! That’s why Akira saved me! He stole my heart!”
: “…Asked? Stole?”
: “Oh… uh… ummm…”
: “Wait, are you saying that he’s the one who changed your heart? He doesn’t just deal with the Phantom Thieves… he’s actually one of them? You’re pulling my leg, aren’t you?”
: “Are you serious? You… really are a phantom thief? For crying out loud…”
: “Sojiro…”
: “So basically, I’ve been sheltering a phantom thief for the last six months? And on top of that, Futaba’s involved too… what the hell…”
: “I…I want to find the culprit who killed my mom!”
: “Wait, killed?”
: “I… remember it now.”
: “Stop this nonsense!”
: “Why won’t you believe me!? Are you the same as everyone else? Didn’t you know already!? The way Mom died wasn’t normal!”
: “Didn’t you notice that her research was stolen by someone!? Sojiro…!”
: “…When she passed away, I did think it was odd. It was awfully fishy. But what could I do? …All I was able to do was run from it all. Run away, hide… and end up here, as some old guy running a cafe.”
: “To be frank, I took you in for my own good. Like it’d somehow make up for what I’d done. It’s basically my fault that you got burdened with all this crap.”
: “It’s not your fault, Sojiro.”
: “I acted all big, lectured, even yelled at you kids… and I end up getting consoled by her. God… real pathetic, aren’t I?”
: “I mean, the one who killed Mom is the one at fault!”
: “…I see. Don’t worry.”
: “Let me just say one thing though. Immediately back out of a fight that you can’t win.”
: “If by chance you pissed off the same guys that killed Wakaba… then they’re not someone that kids like you can deal with. Listen to reason, all right?”
: “We’re done talking about this. C’mon, time to eat. All that yelling’s gotten me hungry.”
: “Phew… if he turned us in, that would’ve jeopardized our operation. …Still, we should tell the others about what just happened.”
: It should be pretty obvious to everyone involved who the actual killer is. I mean, given that we already know one person who meets all the criteria.
: “We’re gonna win, no matter what!”
: I mean, yeah, Futaba could be an Inkling. She’s got the hair and general build for it, even if she’s a bit tall.
: “All this happened because I kept the calling card… it’s so late already… is Sojiro still awake? This is kind of awkward…”
: Joker has a very strict rule: no anime gremlins allowed in the bed.
: “…I’m gonna go home. Night.”
: We’re forced to go to bed tonight, which I suppose makes sense given how many people jumped in to assert their extraterritorial rights. Next time: More cutscene and a goth mom. Before I finish this, there’s an optional IM conversation I didn’t even notice until my second or third re-record.
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: I don’t have this scene recorded yet in Royal, so all of the dialog choices will be marked with Joker’s dialog icon, which I think is more appropriate given the lack of agency. Please also note that I didn’t pick the dialog choices in this scene, but will pick different ones when the LP catches up.
: “…You realized it too, then. It was our conversation about pancakes, right? There’s no way he could have reacted like that if he hadn’t heard me.”
: “We can’t trust him.”
: “My thoughts exactly. It was your social studies trip. We met him in the hallway of that TV station…”
: There’s a black-and-white shot of a scene from Update 27 here. I’ll just post the color version instead.
: This, by the way, is why so much of the fanart of Akechi has him eating pancakes. Because that’s how fucking stupid this plot twist is.
: “There’s no way that this is the first time he’s heard my voice. This whole deal feels sketchy.”
: “He’s suspicious.”
: “Yeah. It’s impossible not to think that of him. Okay… let’s get everyone on the same page right away.”
“Russia sushi yo. Umai yo. Oishii yo.”
It’s been a million years since I watched an episode of Durarara, but I see you, Atlus. I see you.
I think that’s a joke in a Woody Allen movie or something.
There’s a diner near where I live that has an early bird menu, where the dinner comes with a soda and pudding. The chicken parm isn’t on the early bird menu. But chicken parm but with a slice of ham on top of it for some reason IS on the early bird menu. I never tried asking for chicken parm with ham, without the ham.
Those ellipses are the painful irony as Ryuji realizes they’re fucked, but in the same moment knows he’s the dumb character and isn’t allowed to say anything.
This is my contribution to the LP, everybody. Tim asked me who we should date at the festival and I said “uh…da fluffy one”
Originally, I wasn’t going to do the other ones at all. It takes forever to get to the date choice (I timed it while re-recording and it’s around 12 minutes if you’re going as quickly as possible) and most of them have near-identical text with the choices re-worded slightly. Kawakami’s is really the only one that is significantly different.
Then I decided that I’d do it anyway, because it’s easy enough to just let it fast-forward in the background.
You know, I didn’t realize until the Nice Detective mentioned it off-hand in the “interrogation” but the Scooby Gang here is kind of eyebrow-raising. If you wanted to make Akechi seem smart you could have him question the group or just Joker about how the group grows whenever there’s a change of heart. Yusuke doesn’t even go to their school, and how does a kid on probation and a delinquent become friends with Sae’s sister? And none of them roll in Haru’s social circles. Then all those times he just pops up around Joker are because he was tailing Joker, which pulled him into a palace.
Basically just copy how Sojiro figured out everything on his own but have the smart person say it too.
: Let’s take a look at the other possible festival dates. I timed it, and these take about 12 minutes real-time each to get to. This includes the loading times, because it’s faster to dashboard out of the game and restart it than it is to get to a point where you can load your save.
: Don’t bother doing this if you’re playing the game yourself, because most of these scenes are word-for-word identical with only the names changed. The lines from the NPCs are always identical, so we’ll be skipping the two lines that start each route.
: Kawakami’s route is probably the best one for this particular scene.
: “That’s today’s youth for you, I guess.”
: “That includes you, because you’re still young. …Anyway, about what Akechi-kun said earlier…”
: “Wanna go someplace where we can be alone? There’s something I want to talk to you about. Enjoy the post-festival party. Just stop by the students’ association room when you’re done.”
: This is one of the two routes in which Joker gets picked.
: I like to think that if Joker took the mic, the only thing he’d talk about is how much he loves Yusuke.
: “…You know how Akechi-kun was talking about the true identity of the Phantom Thieves? Well, lemme know if you’re in any trouble, okay? I’ll be there to help you.”
: “No matter what’s going on around you… I’ll always be on your side. I know I always end up depending on you, because you’re so reliable… but depend on me sometimes, all right?”
: I like this scene a lot, though I wish there was a version of it if you aren’t on Kawakami’s romance route.
: “No, we’re at school. Remember? It’s not exactly a substitute, but I can give you this.”
: Weirdly, all of the other items you get from this event have the person’s name in them… except Haru’s, which was called a “Sakura Amezaiku”.
: It makes me wonder if there was originally supposed to be a route with Futaba (there isn’t, because I’m pretty sure you can’t have her at Rank 10 yet) and they put the item in but forgot to rename it.
: “…This is embarrassing.”
: sigh “That’s a relief…”
: “Oh, and about what you just asked me to do… I’m pretty okay with it… as long as we’re not at school. Get home safely.”
: “…Oh, sorry. I was just worried about the whole thing with Akechi-kun… we’re gonna be okay, right?”
: “It actually feels like that’s the truth when you say it.”
: “They’re really doing this again this year…? I guess this disorder really makes the post-festival party what it is.”
: To save space, Ann gets called up to the stage. The announcer refers to her as “the girl in the hoodie with the super-bleached hair”.
: “Huh? Me!? What should I do…!?”
: I wish I could find that video of Dark Souls 1 where a guy invades and there’s three people with channeler tridents doing the channeler dance in a field of prism stones to that song. I’d look it up, but given the internet’s propensity for giving me weird shit I’m sure I’d find like… a weird erotic Makoto ASMR channel.
: Fuck! No! Fuck! Bad internet! Bad!
: “Would that be okay…?”
: “I-I don’t know…!”
: “Huh!?”
: “What do I think…?”
: “Ummm…”
: “Huh…!?”
: “H-Hold on a sec!”
: “Huh!?”
: “Ugh… that was embarrassing. I can’t believe you had the courage to stand up and say that in front of everyone.”
: “Huh…? So you did it to help me… at any rate, I had really frozen up for a second there. So… thanks. You were a huge help. You know, you’re actually a pretty dependable guy.”
: “I think we’ll be good together… uh, i-ignore that! T-Talking about the future… that’s a bit too heavy for right now, huh? Ahahaha!”
: I went back after this to see if you get points if you do this with Haru, and you don’t.
: “I’m still worried about Akechi-kun… but this post-festival party actually turned out pretty fun. I, um… I-I want you to have this.”
: “I hope you like it. Wanna head home together?”
: Ryuji’s scene could be canon to More Like Yusu-Gay, and actually lets Joker declare to the world that he’s gay and in love with Yusuke.
: The More Like Yusu-Gay scene that Salty Vanilla is working on right now happens in place of the Kasumi scene, though there’s nothing saying they don’t attend this event as well.
: “They’re doin’ this again…?”
: “This guy’s got something!”
: I applaud his dunking on Mishima.
: Oh right, Ryuji forgot that Mishima is invisible.
: “What!?”
: “Exactly.”
: “Dammit…”
: “Sakamoto…”
: Ryuji says this so quietly that you can’t hear it.
: “Ummm… uhhh…”
: “Huh?”
: “Huh…!?”
: “U-Um, well…”
: “S-So uh, y-y’know…”
: Had to pick this one.
: “What was that!?”
: “That dick…”
: “Hell yeah he does!”
: Ryuji’s scene is the most useful of all of them, because it’s the only one that gives you points toward a confidant you haven’t maxed yet. But… there’s really only one option here, isn’t there?
: Because Hashino is a coward and a homophobe, we don’t get to say it… but it’s absolutely canon that Joker says it.
: “Turns out you’re just a big chicken, huh…?”
: “I’m gonna kill you if you don’t shut it…”
: “Ahahahahahahaha! No…! I… I can’t stop… laughing… snicker”
: “Dude… by the way, I woulda been totally effed if you hadn’t said something.”
: “You mean you were nervous…? But you’re the brilliant Sakamoto-kun…! snicker”
: “Dammit, I’m goin’ home! Grrr… Oh yeah, uh, this ain’t really the best way of thankin’ you, but uh, here. Take this.”
: “…Hehe.”
: “We’re knee-deep in shit dealin’ with Akechi, and he gets to just laugh his ass off… huh, I’m kinda jealous. Later.”
: Finally, we have the worst possible option.
: “…My apologies for being so distracted. I can’t stop thinking about Akechi-kun… are we really no match for him?”
: I mean, you clearly aren’t.
: “Hm… you’re right. What’s done is done. We should enjoy ourselves for the time being.”
: I was going to make a joke about the lyrics to the casino’s theme here, but I’ll save that for later.
: “This event is never very popular. The older teachers seem to enjoy it for some reason though…”
: “Oh, he’s choosing from the crowd? The MC this year is actually somewhat capable.”
: So what did they do in previous years? Just give up? “Okay, who wants to share some juicy info about their love life? Somebody? Anybody? Fuck it, I give up, I’m going home.”
: “…Do I have to go?”
: “That’s not really the proper use for that phrase…”
: sigh
: “Hello…”
: “Ummm… I… don’t really have anything to say… I’m sorry.”
: He actually asks her the whole “Are the Phantom Thieves students at Syujin” question, but I missed a line and honestly it’s funnier this way.
: “What do I think…?”
: “That’s…”
: “Huh…!?”
: “…Urgh!”
: “R-Relation…!?”
: Only took her what… three months to admit?
: “The post-festival party has never felt that long before. By the way, I’m surprised you were able to say what you did back there.”
: “Huh…? I was at a complete loss for words. You really helped me… thank you. This may be a little rude to say, but you’re surprisingly reliable in a pinch.”
: “My sister always says if I get married, my husband should be someone dependable like that. Oh, um… uh… forget what I just said!”
: “…Urgh! Despite everything that happened with Akechi-kun… my final post-festival party has turned out to be quite the unforgettable one. Oh right… here…”
: “If you’d accept this…”
: And that’s all of them.
Seeing how almost character’s scene is them stammering while staring blankly into space, I can see why Atlus thought a repetitive dance with no keyframes or music might help mix things up.
I’m trying to figure out what the eight dimensions are supposed to be. Or maybe 8D is supposed to be the old sunglasses emote.
: I hope you’re ready for another three days of PLOT, because that’s what you’re getting with this update. It’s funny to me how people used to call games like Final Fantasy 10 movies, because I’m pretty sure P5 has the most imbalanced cutscene-to-gameplay ratio out of any game I’ve ever played.
: I wish they had taken the time to re-do the TV graphic in English, because even I can tell that you could glean all of that just by reading the chyron… assuming you can read Japanese.
: “If I report you to the police and they arrest you, I supposedly get thirty million yen for it.”
: Like they’re actually going to pay that and not just brain-murder whoever claims it.
: “I hope you understand the situation you’re in. Even people who didn’t have an interest before will be on the lookout for the Phantom Thieves. And it’ll happen every day, even at school.”
: “…Why did this happen?”
: “That may have been true, but still… well, how do I put this? I’m sorry I didn’t realize it. It’s also my responsibility that this happened. All I can do now is give you shelter.”
: “Just don’t become desperate and do something reckless, all right?”
: “I won’t sell you out. As long as you’re here, there’s nothing to worry about.”
: “I feel bad about what we’ve done to the chief. I’m responsible too.”
: “With this, the Phantom Thieves have become public enemy number one. chuckle Exactly. …That will be when their curtain falls.”
: “And the reward’s thirty million yen? What is this, a comic book? Haha, it feels so unrealistic, I can’t help but laugh…”
: “We’re finally being treated as actual criminals…”
: “I’m positive now… remember all of those what-ifs I mentioned before? All of this was truly set up.”
: I have to wonder if Hashino realized that this could point to Makoto being a traitor, even though she’s not. I wish she was, because that might make her interesting.
: “How President Okumura ranked first, the fad before that, even Medjed… it was all to make the Phantom Thieves famous. On top of that, we were lured to target Okumura…”
: “Yeah… the enemy likely planned to lay the blame on us from the start, after we gained popularity.”
: “Then, what about everything we’ve done until now? Are the people whose hearts we changed and thought were corrupt actually not?”
: This is Hashino admitting that you could remove the entire Madarame and Kaneshiro arcs from the game and the plot would be basically unaffected.
: “Wasn’t that the case with Kamoshida too? Considering what happened with the rankings, only the previous target would have been used to lure us…”
: “What a cheap trick to use…”
: “Cheap? It’s nothing of the sort. There’s the fake Medjed and the site’s altercation. They might have even engineered the fad around us. So much time and effort has been put into this… President Okumura probably wasn’t their only target.”
: “Perhaps they intend to place all blame of past and future psychotic breakdowns on our group…”
: See, here’s what I don’t get about this entire plot. If you’re going to pin future murders on the party, why would you even try to arrest them? It’s kind of hard to continue blaming dead and/or incarcerated people for murders.
: “What, so this is my fault!? Even you agreed to it in the end! And there was that thing with Haru at the time. How’re we s’posed to ignore that, huh!?”
: “…I’m sorry. This was all because I one-sidedly decided that my father was a criminal. All I could think about was my fiance. If I had only been able to cope with it more calmly…”
: “Haru…”
: “It’s not Haru’s fault. I should’ve spoken up too when Principal Kobayakawa died!”
: Ryuji has finally realized how fucking stupid the plot is.
: “Ryuji! Taking out your frustrations on things doesn’t help anyone!”
: “Hey, what do you think, Akira? …Why did we lose? What did we do wrong?”
: “…Agreed. At the time, we only cared about the opinion of the general public.”
: “Yeah… that really is it. I was so caught up in making a name for ourselves. I’m such an idiot! I became a phantom thief because I hated those same kinds of adults!”
: “To think we had begun clinging onto fame and a place to belong that our eyes had become clouded…”
: “We were meant to be the righteous Phantom Thieves, but we lost sight of our original cause…”
: How would she know that? She wasn’t even here for 90% of the game!
: “I’m so irritated with myself!”
: “Makoto…”
: Well yeah, I’d be irritated too if I was supposed to be the party strategist character and then did nothing but act like a fucking idiot.
: “Dammit! I know that we’ve been set up, and that I was a complete idiot too. But still… it’s so damn frustrating! Of course I wanna do something about this…”
: “Yeah. We’ll be in deep water at this rate… however, we have no idea who we’re up against… and whether they’re an individual or an organization.”
: “Furthermore, they must be in a position of power, or have powerful backers, if they can go so far.”
: “Are we really a match for this?”
: “Should we… end this now? I mean, things might get worse for everyone…”
: “Hey, what should we do?”
: “Yeah… running away with our tails between our legs is exactly what they want… we’d be dumping everything we stand for just to save our own asses!”
: “…I see. I take back what I just said! I can’t let it end like this! Absolutely not like this!”
: “Looks like we’re settled on ‘what’ we want to do. All that’s left is ‘how’ we go about it…”
: “Yeah…”
: “Um… about me yellin’ earlier. Bein’ framed, and the added bounty… it all felt like such bullshit. I lost it… I’m sorry.”
: “…You too? Maybe I haven’t changed at all since that time we went up against Kamoshida…”
: Oh shit. Ryuji’s becoming self-aware. Soon he’ll realize that he’s a two-dimensional anime trope, and then shit will really hit the fan.
: “I wanted to be a phantom thief because I thought even someone like me could be a hero… it made me so happy to be depended on. Guess it all went straight to my head.”
: “I thought I could do anythin’ if it was for justice. But that’d make me no different from our targets… I called them shitbags, but I must be the shittiest of shitbags. I can’t even joke about it…”
: “Akira… heh, you’re right. I can start by changin’ who I am now. Thanks, Akira. I feel like I can think straight now. Oh - I scared Haru and Futaba, didn’t I…? I’ll have to apologize to them soon. Seeya!”
: “…We’ve reached a crucial moment. There’s no point fretting about it now though. Let’s just stay calm and wait for tomorrow.”
: Tonight, we’ll be reading Reckless Casanova, the last book we need to finish before we can buy Knowing the Heart.
: “Would the tactics of the Casanovas in this book still work today? I wonder…”
: “Only now does the government speak of taking countermeasures… but their actions are too little, too late! The government as it stands has been left behind the times. It is obsolete!”
: “We don’t have to go down with a sinking ship! We have the power to change this!”
: And then Shido spent the rest of the day blocking people on Twitter.
: "That’s a good question, but might I have a cup of coffee first?’
: I’m going to be real here when I say that I was falling asleep at this point in recording. I didn’t miss anything, it’s just that this part’s so boring.
: Even if this is your first time playing the game, this part drags. It really does. It feels like they were trying to cram the final 10 hours or so of the game full of as much plot as possible.
: “Quit effin’ around!”
: “Please keep this short.”
: “There’s a bounty for information in addition to the arrest warrant… those are quite desperate measures. I’m referring to Sae-san’s actions. I assume all of you are at your wit’s end as well.”
: “She must be considerably vexed if she’s gone that far. Make headlines with the arrest warrant, then use incentives to get testimonies. It’s not a bad method.”
: We’re over 80 hours in at this point. In that time, we could have finished both Persona 1 and Innocent Sin and probably still had time left over to get a good way into Eternal Punishment.
: “The police have nothing on us. There’s no way they can make an arrest.”
: “True. I’m the only one who’s ascertained your true identities. However, the groundwork for fabricating testimonies and concocting a culprit are underway.”
: “We don’t care about that self-gratification. Get on with it.”
: Akechi sucks so much that the other characters have to constantly tell him to shut the fuck up.
: “Huh? Really?”
: “Is this to prevent the investigation agency’s recklessness?”
: “Precisely.”
: “Still, there’s no need to change her heart just for that…”
: “Indeed. It’s hard to believe that a single person can fabricate all that.”
: “Unfortunately, that’s not the case. What if I told you that those around her would turn a blind eye to false evidence?”
: “You sayin’ the police would do such a thing!?”
: The real question is how any of this makes any kind of sense. If the police are completely in the conspiracy’s pocket, why do they even need Sae to begin with? Why not just get a prosecutor who is either part of the conspiracy or in their pocket?
: I don’t think they ever answer any of this shit either. They very well could have, but by this point in the base game I had completely checked out on the plot and was just fast-forwarding through everything.
: “It seems they’re more trusted than I thought. Their priority is settling the situation. They don’t care who the supposed culprit is.”
: “No…”
: “They’re completely rotten!”
: “My objective is to find the true culprit. That must be the case for all of you too. However, the current situation is extremely bad.”
: “If worst come to worst, someone unrelated will be set up as the culprit, huh?”
: “Our only solution to this is to make Sae-san come to her senses. If she’s in her right mind, she can stop this situation. Her sense of justice wouldn’t allow it.”
: “So what’s why…”
: “The truth will be covered up, and an innocent civilian’s life will be destroyed… I can’t allow such a thing to happen. My own ethics won’t stand for it.”
: “I mean, I guess I can understand how you feel.”
: “And changing Sae-san’s heart will be to protect her as well.”
: “How do you mean?”
: “So how about it? Will you agree to my plan?”
: “Even though you’re particular about being just, you’re willing to get your hands dirty?”
: “There is also one more merit in changing Sae-san’s heart. She’ll be a fine warning to others not to meddle with you any further. They can’t go public if someone in the investigation has a change of heart. It’d show their corruption.”
: “All that’s left from there is for me to discover the identity of the true culprit.”
: “What do you mean?”
: “You’re gonna tell us to announce our disbandment once the real culprit is arrested… aren’t you?”
: “As expected from a Niijima. So, what do you say? I don’t think it’s a bad deal for either of us.”
: “Makoto… what’s your take on all this?”
: “It’s a well-made plan… it even takes putting an end to our team into consideration.”
: “I’m flattered to hear that.”
: “Why are you willing to do all this, Akechi-kun? Why do you seek justice?”
: “Because of sickening human beings… yes. My contempt for such people drives my sense of justice. It isn’t some grand reason like society’s sake or some lofty ideal.”
: “It’s simply an absurd grudge… and extremely personal.”
: “Dude…”
: “You know, doesn’t he remind you of us?”
: “I can’t really explain it… but I guess it’s how some disgusting adult pissed him off.”
: “We’re similar, hm? Maybe that’s why I thought that I could ask this of you all… won’t you cooperate with me on the mission to change Sae-san’s heart?”
: “…Thanks. I was actually rather worried there. This mission can’t succeed without your cooperation, after all.”
: “The Phantom Thieves will be disbanded, and everything will work out… I pray it does.”
: “Mako-chan…”
: “I’m okay. I never brought it up until now… but the reason I joined the Phantom Thieves is… because I wanted to change my sister’s heart. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to resort to it, though.”
: “Why didn’t you tell us?”
: “It was too selfish of a reason. Though, I was too scared to look any further into it on my own…”
: “Why don’t we try going there now to scope the place out? A lot of this will be new to me, so I’d like to get myself accustomed to it too.”
: “I-I’m sorry. I actually have plans today…”
: “I see. That’s unfortunate.”
: “Will you tell your sister about this?”
: “Of course not. It’s just…”
: “You seem awfully evasive today. Is something the matter?”
: You might think this would be some kind of sub-plot where Makoto is planning something. She’s not, and I’m really not sure why they bothered putting these lines in when it’s obvious who the killer is.
: “I just can’t make time today.”
: “Let’s call it a day then and resume this tomorrow.”
: “I’m sorry, everyone.”
: “Well, I guess that can’t be helped… regardless, it all starts tomorrow… I hope this goes well.”
: It’s more likely than you’d think.
: “Not only that, Goro Akechi…? Then the Phantom Thieves targeted me as per his advice? And he had already experienced the Metaverse by the time of the Okumura case?”
: “That can’t be… I mean, he never said a word… although, his attitude did change suddenly around that time. Akechi-kun kept quiet about the most important details, and my own sister may be a phantom thief…”
: By the way, keep in mind that Sae knows that Makoto is a Phantom Thief and has reason to believe that Futaba is one, even if Joker never tells her outright.
: This will become a plot hole in… let’s say a couple of weeks.
: “If this is all true, I was out of the loop the entire time I led the investigation. What a joke… so you became convinced of another’s existence through the two mental shutdown cases.”
: “And if you were apprehended while falsely accused of these crimes, that villain would still be loose. That’s why you targeted me? Not for your own preservation?”
: That wasn’t really it, given that it was more about stopping the possibility of Sae accusing a random person.
: “…? No… If this villain does exist and is setting up your group…”
: “Perhaps I’m overthinking things…”
: “Hey! Kurusu-kun! You need to keep your focus! It seems you’re completely worn out… but the look on your face isn’t one of defeat… why is that?”
: This is true. It happens during the anime cutscene at the end of the tutorial.
: “Those words normally hint at the existence of a traitor… however, if your story till now is true… one reason can be concluded. It’s frustrating to admit, but at a certain point - no, most likely from the start - I was a mere puppet…”
: “…Someone set up only to bear responsibility later. Someone ‘intended’ your arrest, and the minimal staff directly involved were in their pocket. And if that’s the case, true integrity would side with you.”
: The traitor and the killer are one and the same person. You should have already figured it out by now.
: “No, I’m jumping to conclusions. I don’t believe your story yet. There’s something I need to confirm with you…”
: “What happened in the time between entering my Palace and your arrest? Tell me everything.”
: I get that they had to do these cutscenes in order for plot reasons, but it kind of doesn’t make sense that she didn’t lead with this. You’d think everything else would come secondary to “Did you and your friends brainfuck me?”
: “We’ll be going to Niijima’s Palace, so I want to look into her. Things like her work ethic and relationships. It doesn’t matter whether it’s public or private.”
: “Those would help us come up with countermeasures in case we hit a roadblock in her Palace.”
: “I can look up more, you know. Stuff like her repertoire of underwear.”
: “A girl shouldn’t say things like that! You tell her too!”
: Well well, isn’t this a case of the pot calling the kettle horny.
: “Well… like her history with men?”
: “We are Phantom Thieves! Ahem! Also, I may be overthinking it, but my voice-”
: “Let me finish first!”
: And here’s our second blurred cutscene. Just like the last one, there will be a second box underneath the main update that will have this scene in it.
: This one in particular makes the entire plot seem really, really dumb. We’re going to go one more day, if only so you can see what Sae’s shadow looks like.
: “Let’s hurry up and get started. Akechi, what did you find out?”
: “I rarely get to see Sae-san directly, but I’ve figured out her course of action. On the 20th, an investigation will likely be done at Shujin Academy… as well as the Sakura residence.”
: And that’s going to do… what exactly? They didn’t find anything the other two times they searched the school.
: “For…real?”
: “…Then that means our time limit is November 20th.”
: “Still, there’ll be quite a bit of red tape involved. I doubt it’ll take place before the 20th.”
: “We’ll take your word. For now, we need to focus on infiltrating her Palace.”
: “I concur. And we should probably get going soon. After all, people like us standing around here is quite unnatural. Well then…”
: “I’m so sorry. Until recently, Futaba was actually a… well…”
: “It’s okay, Sae-san told me the gist.”
: “Oh, right. Akechi-kun, it may be best if you exchange contact info with everyone too, not just me.”
: “That’s true.”
: “Ooh!”
: sigh “I’ll send everyone’s contacts to you later…”
: “Thanks. Well then, I hope we get along. I’ll do my best.”
: “She’s praising you… I believe.”
: “Then, shall we get started?”
: “We need to figure out what Makoto’s sis thinks this courthouse is, right?”
: “I often her her call it a ‘place of competition’ in which she must always win.”
: “A competition, huh? That sounds like Sae-san.”
: “It’d be unbearable if we were put on trial for a reason like that… although, a competition means it’s a match of some sort. Might it be a martial-arts ring?”
: The phone buzzes with the “Not found” thing in between each guess, but obviously I can’t convey that in screenshots.
: “Then… perhaps a stadium? Or maybe an arena?”
: “There are other competitions besides fighting and sports.”
: “Gambling, then!”
: “How about a racetrack for horses? Other than that, there’s pachinko, but does that count as gambling?”
: “We played cards during the school trip.”
: The phone doesn’t even chime in when Ryuji says this.
: “What else is there?”
: “I definitely see Sae-san in you.”
: “Welp, it’s time we head in then.”
: “Everywhere else seems to be a normal cityscape.”
: “Isn’t that-”
: Keep this in mind.
: “I didn’t know that the station and the courthouse were next to each other.”
: “Right… areas outside her courthouse Palace must not be worthy of her attention. …Wait, I always look like this! I’m special! Besides, I can’t do anything in my cat form.”
: “The police station’s also part of her work area though, whenever arrests are made for her cases. I’ve brought her food and belongings when she was sent on loan to the police.”
: “We got no business with the cops, right? This might be the Metaverse, but I don’t wanna go in a station.”
: “That reminds me, he’ll need a code name too.”
: “…Code name?”
: “Phantom thieves can’t go around usin’ their real names, right? It ain’t cool either.”
: “Just for reference, what is everyone else’s?”
: “Skull.”
: “Mine’s Fox.”
: “We pretty much decided on them with how we look, didn’t we?”
: Haru’s like “I had a reason for my codename that has nothing to do with how I look! It’s beautiful and elegant and… I mean, it’s just the word ‘black’ in French but still!”
: “Then… perhaps ‘Karasu’ will be best for me. You know, like a raven.”
: The joke is he’s picking this name because his outfit is tengu-themed, and Karasu Tengu is a kind of tengu. It’s also the Japanese word for a crow, so I’m not sure why Akechi would mention a raven.
: “Are your clothes all black or something?”
: This is kind of a double reference. Karasu Tengu in Nocturne wears an all-black kabuki performer’s outfit rather than being part crow. This design carried over to SMT4 and Apocalypse.
: “The reverse, actually. If our code names are to hide our identities, wouldn’t that be better?”
: “Karasu… he’d be the only Japanese-sounding one.”
: Even in the Japanese script, everyone uses an English codename. You’ll see a scene later where we get a shot of Futaba’s contacts list on her phone.
: “Why not go with ‘Crow’ instead?”
: “All right, from here on out, you’re Crow.”
: “Got it.”
: “Now then, let’s head into the courthouse!”
: For the first part of the palace, Joker stays in his normal clothes. In fact, I believe this is the only time in the game you can see Joker do any kind of acrobatics outside of his Phantom Thief outfit.
: Akechi’s costume is the dumbest fucking anything ever.
: “Dude, you plannin’ on stealin’ stuff in that getup?”
: “It just means that’s what he thinks a rebel looks like.”
: “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.”
: “That prolly didn’t make much sense ‘cause of all the fancy terms he was usin’, huh?”
: “In essence, since these look like real people, Sae-san’s view of others is surprisingly undistorted. But considering what I see before me, it’s difficult to believe it is not actually a real casino.”
: “Not all cognitions are normal though. In Futaba and Okumura’s Palaces, we had to battle them. People may look normal, but we should be careful… particularly of those in positions of power.”
: Yes, thank you Yusuke for that pointless plot recap.
: “Is this what you have to go through every time?”
: “Just don’t slow us down, Crow.”
: “I will not allow that to happen.”
: “Okay, it’s time we head inside. Our deadline for this infiltration is November 20th. Any later, and we’ll get caught in reality. Of course, we’ll need to secure an infiltration route before we send out the calling card. As always.”
: Yeah, hi, question? Why are you explaining this again!? I already know!
: “Will you please stop interrupting?”
: “M-My apologies.”
: The casino’s theme has been playing since we first got control after entering, but let me put it here because it’s both the best Palace theme and also has the most incomprehensible English lyrics since A Lone Prayer.
: Seriously try listening to that without reading the lyrics, and then read the lyrics. You won’t be anywhere close. For the longest time, I thought the actual opening lyrics were: “(incomprehensible) and dealer’s suicide, keep your bumpers away from the hidden hands”.
: There are a surprising amount of stealables around for a trial run.
: “Wh-What!? We’re not going to fall for a trick like that…”
: Joker points at her and shouts “HORNY!” Now, I know what you’re thinking. The answer is yes.
: I’ve been holding on to that picture for quite a while.
: “The Treasure is located on the Manager’s Floor, at the peak of this building.”
: Who are you, Yuriko?
: “…Why are you telling us this?”
: “It’s as I said before… I wish to go about this in the fairest manner possible. First, I ask that you come up to my location. We will continue this there…”
: No seriously though, this is the scene from the start of Thanatos Tower.
: “It seems we’ll be able to use that elevator to reach higher floors. Come Joker, let us pursue her.”
: There’s a chest we can open here with nothing good in it…
: And a door that we can’t open because Makoto won’t let us. Seriously, Joker could probably clear most of this dungeon by himself. Speaking of which, I forgot that’s actually an option.
: Sae’s shadow even has some unique dialog if you try that - I believe she’s the only boss you can actually do that against.
: There’s also a bunch of stealables around here. We don’t really need them because we’re going to be doing excessive Mementos grinding for cash, but it helps.
: “Member’s card?”
: “Perhaps it bears relation to a player’s club of sorts.”
: “I can’t handle your technical speak! Just gimme it straight!”
: I feel like once, someone tried to explain to Ryuji how to toast bread and he gave up halfway through because it was too hard to understand.
: “Casinos typically have a membership system called a player’s club. Some locations even have areas cordoned off for particular ranks of player. Considering the setup of this place, I thought things may be similar here.”
: The ones around here don’t, at least not as far as I’m aware. They don’t care who you are, so long as you have money they can take.
: My entire history with casinos is that I once won $60 at a slot machine and have never played again since.
: “That’ll make this shit simple. C’mon, let’s join this player thingy.”
: “I would agree with you, but…”
: “A shadow!?”
: “She must be daring us to challenge the security of this place to make it to her.”
: “Tch, here it comes!”
: Normally, Ose would be nothing more than a minor speed bump… and that’s actually true here.
: Wait, is he DENNISing us?
: “I promise to surpass even such lofty hopes as those.”
: The other LP claims that Robin Hood is a ripoff of All Might. He’s not. The designer specifically said that they were going for Superman.
Bandit from English folklore who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. Singlehandedly responsible for hundreds of furries.
: We’ll get a good look at Robin Hood’s moveset in a bit, but he’s evenly split between Bless and Curse damage. He also has Megidola.
: Ose is normally weak to Bless damage, but this particular Ose has a gimmick: it’s strong against everything, but has basically zero magic defense.
: As such, one Megidola cooks it. While it’s impossible to get his finisher screen in this fight, I want to show it off right now because it is my favorite one.
: He also does this stupid dance before this screen shows up.
: “And I am capable of much more. Now then, let us deal with the Shadows quickly.”
: “Wait. Doesn’t it sound like we’re gonna get ambushed based on what we heard earlier?”
: “…I agree. I’d like to deal with them as quick as we can… but now that we have an infiltration route, I’d suggest we return for now and prepare.”
: I mean, the only reason I agree with that is because I want to be as close to fusing Lucifer as possible before this dungeon. We also need to grind some levels to negotiate - the red shadows here are level 53.
: “Very well. I trust your experience and judgment. Let us do that.”
: “The crucial moment’s finally here! Give it all you’ve got! This is a rare opportunity! Let’s steal Niijima’s heart!”
: “So people are turning on us even in his survey? Our popularity really is at an all-time low…”
: The writers for this show are as bad as Hashino. Did they not realize that Red Eagle and Black Falcon got married at the end of Season 8?
: The plot twist winds up being that it’s a fake betrayal, but the episode gets such low ratings due to the fanbase’s love of the bond between Feather Red and Feather Black that the studio issues an apology.
: Tonight, we’re going to finish Featherman Seeker. We have a couple of train reading slots coming up, so we’ll use those to finish the books.
: “This is where we show them what Pigeon is all about. Let’s win this battle and graduate from trainee status!”
: “Over there! That must be our enemy!”
: “Here it comes! Get your controller ready!”
: “Let’s take him on! Feathernix Saber!”
: “All right! We beat Mosquiternum! But this guy said something weird before he died, just like the last one…”
: “Osagiri’s coming to see us in person? You think she’s going to give us a trainee graduation gift by hand?”
: “I guess this is our graduation exam. In which case… we have to win!”
: “Is she serious…? Well, I guess we don’t have time for questions! Blaster Shot!”
: “Yes! Pigeon wins!”
: “Who is that? Wait… I see five silhouettes…”
: I wonder if this is foreshadowing something. In the actual game, I mean.
: “Whoa, it’s the Feathermen! But something about this feels off…”
: “This is getting weird… but the game isn’t giving us a choice.”
: “Let’s fight with this! Flame Bazooka!”
: The button combos start getting kinda complex here, and so I didn’t take screenshots of any of them. They’re random anyway.
: “Executive seat? What is she talking about?”
: “I knew something was off, but I wasn’t expecting a twist like that…”
: “Whoa! Pigeon’s facing Alya now!”
: “We’ve got to take down Alya! Feather Phoenix!”
: “Did you see that? She just pressed some kind of switch!”
: “Man, she fights dirty… isn’t there anything we can do?”
: “Hey, something’s happening to Pigeon!”
: “O-Okay! Let’s awaken Pigeon’s powers!”
: “I get it! You can let the bomb blow up with just the two of you here… impressive move, Pigeon.”
: “All right, let’s enjoy this ending!”
: Each game gives you a card at the end that you can bring to the store in Akihabara to get an accessory. Next time, we’ll finally get (and finish) Knowing the Heart. We’ll also take Shinya to Destiny Land, take Caroline and Justine to see Yusuke’s painting, and finally start Haru’s confidant.
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: sigh “…There’s something else we want you to look into. One more person has been on our mind. If it’s possible, I want to eavesdrop on their phone conversation.”
: “Hmm, that’ll be tough…”
: “You can do it, Futaba.”
: “I agree.”
: “Hmmm… I’d have to plant a bug directly on the phone…”
: Wait. Hold on a second. You could wiretap Joker just fine from your bedroom! Moreover, why didn’t you just do this to Akechi instead of inviting him to the school festival?!
: This? This right here? This is something Makoto should’ve suggested! So why the fuck didn’t she?! Who gives a shit about the whole “she might be the traitor” thing, we know she can’t be the killer!
: “So it’s impossible even for you…”
: “I didn’t say it was impossible! …Ok, I’ve got a plan!”
: Futaba whispers something into Morgana’s ear. We already know what her plan is - we saw it in action.
: “…That’s perfect.”
: “What kind of plan?”
: “Don’t worry, I’ll tell you the details later.”
: Futaba turns and whispers to Joker now.
: “Futaba’s going to do something…? I wonder if it’ll be okay…”
: “This is gonna be fun! I can’t wait!”
: “What is this? Shonen Jump’s One Piece, written and illustrated by Eichiro Oda? Haha.”
Okay, this construction has appeared before in P5 and I’ve also seen it in a bunch of other things translated from Japanese. That’s now how you use the verb “lure”. It needs a preposition or prepositional phrase.
It’s also not true. My memory is hazy because of all the WORDS, but they targeted Okumura because of Haru, right? They were seriously considering Okumura because he was #1 in the online voting, but if anything they were over-suspicious of the poll numbers.
Also the whole “Palace” concept means that - Futaba’s depression palace aside - anyone with a Palace deserves (so to speak) to have their heart changed, so in that sense personal decision doesn’t even matter anyway…but that’s more meta-level.
They’re the same bird. Or the same genus. Large species of Corvus are ravens, smaller species are crows. But in practice ‘raven’ is just the more dramatic word for crow.
It’s amazing how the singer can simultaneously purge her Japanese accent while remaining completely incomprehensible.
I don’t love the song. I think I just don’t like whatever jazz subgenre most of P5’s music is.
The only winning move.
I absolutely do not blame you for having no memory of it, because I’m not sure the writers understood why the party went after Okumura. There are several contradictory scenes explaining it, so much that I had to go back and look it up.
First, you have the scene where the party is looking for a new target and Makoto steals the data off Sae’s laptop that suggests Okumura has some kind of connection to the killer. At that point, the party sort of kind of makes the decision to look into it but Makoto spends a lot of time grousing about it.
Then you have the scene in Hawaii, several days later, where Mishima says that he updated the site to add the target poll. Remember though, at this point the party thinks that Okumura knows something about the killer or is the killer himself.
The polls come in over the next couple of days, but before they can have any real impact, you have the scene where Morgana runs away with Haru and the party goes after him. Ultimately, they go after Okumura because Morgana dragged them into it.
: This is the first time we’ve gotten to play the game in any capacity in probably an hour and a half.
: “There’s no need to get too worked up about this, right? Take as much time as you need to get ready. Anything goes as long as it helps out our mission. You have our trust. You’re our leader, after all.”
: Boy, it sure is important that we get this mission done, so let’s instead do what P5’s plot would want us to do and go take Shinya to Destinyland.
: “I think it’s in some amusement park that has a huge castle…”
: “Really? You’ll take me there!? Today’s perfect because I don’t have school! I’m good to go right now!”
: “What do you do at an amusement park by yourself? Doesn’t it get lonely?”
: “You come here alone too, Kurusu-san!? So, it’s that fun of a place, huh…”
: “Coming alone isn’t bad,” says the person who has never been to Destinyland alone. I suppose you could assume Caroline and Justine are invisible, which is practically the same thing.
: “Is there anything you wanna ride, Kurusu-san? There’s a few I’m curious about. You sure? Okay, then it’s settled!”
: “I wonder if we can ride them all in one day. There are lines, right? We better hurry up!”
: “…Um, actually… I’ve wanted to come here for a long time…! They gave me this. It’s… something they only give to kids, right? I’ll give you one too, Kurusu-san!”
: This scene is something I hold up as one of the reasons why this game’s writing is shit. Not because this scene is bad - it’s not. It’s a great scene. The problem is that it’s optional.
: Shinya has gotten more characterization out of this totally optional (and easily missed) scene than he has out of the ten fucking confidant ranks specifically designed to give him characterization.
: We never see him outside of his “kid who acts like what he thinks adults act like” persona in his confidant, and it’s fucking stupid. What’s even dumber is that the writers realized this was a problem going in and just did nothing about it.
: No, seriously. A big complaint about Persona 4 was that your party members only really got characterization in their social links, meaning that you could go through the entire game and learn almost nothing about them.
: By the way, there are special loading screens today for the subway on account of it being Halloween. That top one is the first time we’ve seen a zombie nurse since Persona 1.
: “Well, how do I put this… I’m glad you made it home…”
: “He doesn’t have any clues, but he’s confident enough to say he can definitely catch the guy… no wonder he’s a star detective. Even the way he talks about these things is different from us.”
: I take a quick detour to put the balloons up. They’re some quality balloons - they’ll stay inflated for the rest of the year and then some.
: We can trade that worthless healing item from the capsule machine in Akihabara for an Angel Badge. It’s a useless accessory that doubles your evasion against elemental magic (so no status effect spells or Megido/la/on).
: If we walk around Kichijoji, all of the random faceless NPCs are now dressed in costumes.
: Tonight, we’re doing another Caroline and Justine outing. This one is the second one that’s time-limited, and is not required for the big reward at the end.
: "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.”
: “Autumn is supposedly referred to as ‘the season of the arts’ in your world, so it is especially appropriate timing. Art is an expression of the heart. It echoes the soul of both artists and viewers… or so I’ve heard.”
: “The strength of one’s heart is the strength of their Persona… I am certain this place shall aid in the inmate’s rehabilitation. Does this location sound familiar to you?”
: “Ah, so you do know it! Take us there immediately, inmate!”
: “What is it that humans call art? We shall see for ourselves.”
: “Are these all art exhibits? I’ve heard of them before - apparently they involve humans’ aesthetic senses or something. Let’s go inspect the premises.”
: “Are you even capable of appreciating art properly?”
: “What do you mean by that!?”
: “Stop shouting so loudly. The signs prohibit it.”
: “Art sure does take many forms, though. Some of the work was downright photo-realistic. Actually, wouldn’t it be easier to just take photos in those situations?”
: “And what’s with those ‘portraits’ or whatever they’re called? What’s the point of painting a giant human face?”
: “Those ‘landscapes’ are even more incomprehensible. What is so interesting about paintings of some dull terrain? Where is the fun in painting living humans or scenery just so that other humans can look at it?”
: They really should’ve had Yusuke in this scene. I mean, the Persona 1 and 2 cast got to meet Igor.
: “Ah, I see now. There are paintings of flowers and noble women here that would certainly fit the description.”
: I just want a scene where Yusuke is here and he’s whispering to Joker “Can we adopt that one? The one with the braid. Not the other one.”
: “But there are paintings of things like empty mountains and wrinkly old men, too. Is there also ‘true beauty’ in those, too? I don’t get it…”
: “Speaking of, there was one exhibit that just looked like a bunch of scribbles. Why would something like that be displayed? I can understand different art having different levels of craftsmanship, but wasn’t that simply on par with a child’s?”
: “No, if anyone is the child here, it’s you. Even I could sense something special from that painting.”
: “What are you on about? It’s scribbles, any way you look at it! The face is all screwed up. The nose and ears are wrong.”
: “That painting is an accurate depiction of the darkness within the human heart. How unfortunate, Caroline. It seems you lack even a shred of aesthetic sense.”
: “Perhaps you lack any sense at all…”
: “Sounds like you need a good shock to the brain.”
: “The same could be said for you.”
: “Hey, Inmate - are you going to tell me that mess-of-a-sketch is actually art?”
: “I get what you mean… at least, I think…”
: “And I think you’re merely evading the question. I suppose we will call this one a draw, for now.”
: Is that the first pun in this game?
: “500 million… that makes no sense whatsoever.”
: “I wholly agree with you on that. This requires further study. Let us continue to inspect the premises.”
: “But that last sculpture we saw… that was nothing but a tasteless reproduction of a naked body. Are you really gonna tell me that THAT counts as art too?”
: Oh great, Joker’s going to have to explain to her what horny is.
: “I thought this human concept of beauty simply took many forms, but it has spread all the way into the realm of the bizarre. Why do human even pursue this ‘beauty’ in the first place?”
: “Do you also waste your efforts striving towards beauty, inmate?”
: “But anyway, we’ve seen the art that humans are so fond of. This assigment is officially complete.”
: “Here is your reward.”
: “I still haven’t learned why some of the humans call autumn the ‘season of the arts,’ though… well, whatever. How about we head back and try to make our own paintings?”
: “A fine idea. What shall we paint?”
: “A guillotine?”
: “…The master?”
: “…Eh, we’ll figure it out when we’re back. Hey, Inmate! Get to stepping.”
: We get a free reading slot thanks to Kawakami, so let’s go ahead and finish Reckless Casanova.
: “So, you’ve finished reading Reckless Casanova. Casanova? Psh… seems to me he was more like a shameless pervert than a stud. Well, at least you’ve learned about the nuances of sex appeal.”
: Knowing the Heart is very much worth it.
: There’s also a thing I haven’t shown off yet that we could have done weeks ago, which is drawing on the blackboard.
: This gets you two points to Guts the first time you do it… but why would you need that? You’ve got maxed stats.
: “They’re treating us like villains or something… damn it…”
: Today, we start Haru’s confidant. In the base game, you wind up maxing her maybe two weeks before the end of the game. The good news is that most of our existing confidants will be maxed by the end of November, so we can focus almost entirely on her.
: “It’s all good. Not like I have customers to deal with. So… this is what you grew?”
: “Yes. I’d like an honest opinion from a culinary professional.”
: “Let me see…”
: Sojiro just ripping into this girl’s vegetables.
: “I see.”
: “But, it’s impressive you managed to grow anything at all up on a rooftop of all places.”
: “I’m honored to hear you say that.”
: “Y’know… I can’t say it tasted good, but it was actually somewhat refreshing. Kinda like how you feel good after taking bitter medicine.”
: “Hmmm… I first came across the plant in my house… it’s possible that it’s an experimental breed created for use at Okumura Foods… thank you very much for the input, Sakura-san. I’ll take note of that.”
: You know, that joke I made about Okumura Foods being an Umbrella front makes a lot more sense now.
: “…He’s right. That was the same thought I had. I think I understand what Sakura-san meant when he said they were refreshing.”
: Haru’s entire confidant is a mystery from a design perspective. Getting higher ranks makes the vegetables restore more SP… but I’m pretty sure growing them takes time and you already have Sojiro/Kawakami for that if you really need it.
: “I agree! …I’m so happy. I didn’t expect this hobby of mine to provide value to the Phantom Thieves. This is actually the only thing I can honestly say I’m good at.”
: “Thank you for worrying about me, but I find the work relaxing. Hey, um… do you think you could help me out again sometime? Like you did today.”
: It sounds like there’s another choice here, but there isn’t. Joker just nods his head.
: “Okay, I’ll do my best from now on!”
: Here’s the thing about this. You can’t start Haru’s confidant until 10/30, long after Okumura’s palace is already over. Why doesn’t she just say Okumura Foods?
: “Still, he was right… the taste leaves much to be desired…”
: “Oh! If there are any vegetables you’d like in particular, just let me know. I certainly have plenty of seeds, so if you have a preference, I’ll prioritize growing those first.”
: “Of course. I won’t let you down. I may not be very good yet, but I’ll contribute to the Phantom Thieves in my own way. All right, I’m going home for the day. See you later.”
: Tonight, we’re going to pick up Sojiro’s Mementos request, which is very different from all of the other confidants.
: I’m pretty sure that doing this event locks both Futaba and Sojiro’s confidant until you’ve cleared the Mementos request, which can be a bit tricky if you’re underlevelled or if Joker can’t heal himself.
: “Hmmmmmmmmm… maybe curry spaghetti! And curry udon! Oh, and curry croquettes, and curry pizza!”
: “You really like curry that much…? Well, I guess it’d be pretty easy given the current menu. I’ll give it some thought. How about you? Anything you’d wanna add to the menu?”
: “You’re hooked too, huh?”
: “Of course he is! That stuff’s super addicting, man!”
: I mean, I only picked it because it’s the answer that gets us the most points.
: “…Leave now, or else I’ll be forced to contact the police. I’m not giving you a penny.”
: “Stop it! Sojiro didn’t do anything wrong!”
: “We can take it to court if you really want. Don’t underestimate how hard I’m willing to fight.”
: “Not only do you have massive debt, but I heard you failed in your most recent business venture. How do you think the court would respond if they knew how wasteful you were with your money…?”
: I think the writers realized how ridiculous this entire thing is, and that’s why they don’t give Sojiro a real Mementos request.
: “What are you talking about? You clearly fell down on your own.”
: sigh “God damn… what a pain in the ass. Don’t you have enough problems already?”
: “Nobody said you did anything wrong. To be honest, it should’ve been me trying to stop him. Are you okay, Futaba?”
: “But Uncle said he’s gonna sue…”
: “Don’t worry… no matter what ends up happening to me or this store, I won’t let them lay a finger on you two. I’m your guardian, after all. I have a duty to protect the both of you.”
: “So don’t go doing anything like that again, you hear? I appreciate the spirit you showed though.”
: “Anyway, I’m done for the day. Take care of closing up for me. Let’s go, Futaba.”
: So much for the whole Chronicle “Everyone has to agree to the target” bit.
: Dammit, I forgot the date change thing again.
: “We’ve gone through pretty much all the school events now, so that frees you up for studying. It’ll be getting colder from now on, so wrap up warm and don’t get sick.”
: “I mean it. If you even THINK you’ve got a fever, then go see the nurse. Oh, speaking of the nurse’s office… Dr. Maruki’s going to be leaving us on the 18th. If you need to talk to him, now’s the time.”
: We’ll be finishing Maruki’s confidant on the 17th.
: “He was kind of a quiet guy, but it was nice having him around… I’ll be kind of sad to see him go. So if he helped any of you feel better, make sure you thank him before he’s gone.”
: “…Anyway, time to start class.”
: “Man, time really flies… a whole year’s gone by already.”
: “About my uncle, um… I wanna head into Mementos right now.”
: If you want an easy time with this, you want to go in with Shiki-Ouji - or the “picaro” version of Izanagi if you have the DLC enabled. Or you could, you know, just go in with Baal.
: “This is a family issue, so I wanna do it alone with you. Oh, and I sent my uncle an anonymous letter, so the calling card part’s taken care of.”
: “He’s saying ‘money, money’… he forced Sojiro to pay back his debts. He made me go through horrible things, too.”
: “Joker, make him have a change of heart!”
: “I’m not getting destroyed by someone like him! Let’s go, Joker!”
: Shadow Isshiki is not a standard Girimehkala. He’s neutral to everything, and as such lacks the Wage War -> Reflect instakill. The bad news is that he has boss HP.
: Isshiki will only spam a single physical skill at you, and if he gets a knockdown via crit will then Tarukaja himself to increase his damage.
: The reason you want to go in with Shiki-Ouji (and not Arahabaki or a Persona that reflects physical damage) is because if you reflect physical at any point (either naturally or via Tetrakarn), Shadow Isshiki will stop using physical skills and start using Megidola.
: Status effects are also a non-starter (outside of maybe Shock) due to Shadow Isshiki having a skill that cuts their duration, making it harder to get technicals.
: “You were thinking about Mom…?”
: “Uncle…”
: Another useless Morgana weapon. This one is one of those “low damage, high crit” weapons that have never been good in any game ever.
: “Now he won’t sue anyone, right? Sojiro’s safe now!”
: We’ll check in with Sojiro tomorrow. Right now, it’s time to get the single best ability in the game at this point.
: “The chairman turned himself in! It’s even shown up on the news!”
: “I expected nothing less! It all happened so suddenly too. He confessed all of his crimes… the police came to question me after that, but they ultimately concluded that I’m innocent.”
: “Apparently the chairman took full responsibility for the ADP and admitted he was brainwashing all of its members. Oh, and speaking of members, some of them said they’ve stopped using the Holy Stones because of my advice.”
: “It was all the clients you sat in with, Kurusu-san! You know, I never saw this as a possible outcome in my readings. Not only have the fates of the ADP members improved, but even my own has begun to shift…”
: “Me…? Right, I remember. Strong conviction is the only way to change fate. That reminds me, my readings told me that I would accomplish my objective with the aid of the Trickster…”
: “But I’m not sure what exactly that was supposed to mean. It’s such a mystery… that aside, the ADP is finished. Nobody else will be deceived.”
: “Oh, I just realized something… remember how I told you how the chairman knew I was a runaway? Well, I was wandering around the city with luggage at my side. Anyone could have figured that out, huh…?”
: “I know how fragile I was back then… but it’s still embarrassing to think I let myself believe he was a psychic! But… I guess some men are good at knowing when a woman is vulnerable.”
: “Are you one of those men, Kurusu-san…? The truth is, there’s actually something else besides the chairman that I want to talk to you about.”
: Joker reflexively pulls out his air horn. “No.”
: Unfortunately, this is the ‘correct’ answer. Yes, this can happen after Joker declares his undying love for Yusuke on stage.
: “I-I mean, how interesting… oh, sorry! If we have time to waste talking about nonsense like that, we have time to read fortunes, right?”
: Oh yes. Before, I had to farm alarms. No longer. As I understand it, this boosts the alarm rate to the point where as long as you are in Mementos or a dungeon, you will always have an alarm available.
: We will be using this on our next Mementos trip to get most of the ultimate guns in one go.
: “Even though the chairman turned himself in, there are still some things left unresolved. Most importantly, the other members of the ADP are still confused as to what exactly is going on.”
: “So… I need to set things straight. This is partially my fault, after all. Right… the real battle starts now.”
: “It’s getting late. I should close up for today. Good night, Kurusu-san.”
: “I’m only a country bumpkin who ran from her hometown. What can I really accomplish…? And then I realized something. I could’ve easily ran away from the chairman, like I did back then…”
: “But I didn’t. I stood firm. And I think that’s thanks to your influence.”
: “Nonsense. I’m not that strong of a person. I only got this far because I had you at my side. In other words, I think this was all part of our fate!”
: “I’ll do my best to give them hope. The same hope you gave me. I can’t turn my back on the ADP members any longer. I hope you’ll keep watching over me through it all. Until next time!”
: And now, time for all that reading to pay off.
: “Even the smallest sound can seem frightening, depending on the situation…”
: “So, you’ve finished reading Knowing the Heart. I saw on the back that it’s banned from being sold… I’m not surprised though, given what we just read.”
: I did some digging to find out if this is based on an actual book, and as far as I can tell it’s not. Japan’s government (at least, post-war) has never banned a book as far as I can find.
: There’s also no comprehensive resource detailing books that might be banned specifically in Tokyo, but I did find a couple of results… one of which has direct ties to SMT 1.
: In 1998, a court banned sales of the book “Yukio Mishima: The Sword and the Red Pigment of Winter”, which contained a series of letters between Yukio Mishima (who Atlus based Gotou on in SMT 1) and Jiro Fukushima detailing a gay affair they had.
: The book was banned because Mishima’s kids asserted copyright over the letters (read: did not want to admit that their dad was gay or bisexual) and won a lawsuit over it.
: As you can see here, this just makes technicals easier to achieve, particularly with Confuse, and makes them less dependent on having Haru in the group.
: “I trust you haven’t forgotten about the deadline? I’m going to give it everything I have, for your sake as well. Also, once the Phantom Thieves finish this final job, I don’t think I’ll be seeing you privately like this anymore.”
: “Don’t get me wrong, it was time well spent. A part of me is sad to see it end. But once you’ve disbanded, everyone’s going to be busy looking for the culprit behind the psychotic breakdowns.”
: “Until that happens though, let’s continue to work together. Now then, I’ll be going.”
: “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.”
: “Perhaps you’re wondering why I used such hip terminology, hm? Now then, Kurusu-kun. The word ‘wack’ was originally part of a code used by ancient thieves. Can you tell me the meaning of the word ‘wack’ in Thieves’ Cant?”
: “Correct. You know a lot about this, do you…? I daresay you must be pretty wack, yourself. …I’m joking, of course. Still, you must be quite diligent in your studies.”
: “Thieves of olden days might have worked in groups, but at the end of the day, they all expected to get their cut. If you wanted your part of a haul of riches your group stole, you would demand your wack, you see.”
: “If today’s youth are freely using Thieves’ Cant to each other in broad daylight… then truly, we live in wack times indeed.”
: This feels like Hashino channeling his complete lack of understanding of how teenagers behave into a single scene.
: “…I’ve been listening to a lot of teenagers, but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard them say that… still, he’s trying so hard, it would be a shame to correct him.”
: “I didn’t realize we take the same train.”
: “Haru… what a coincidence - I was just thinking of you.”
: “Oh, were you?”
: Boy, those sure are some gay undertones. I wonder if the writers for Royal did this to spite Hashino.
: “Yep. How should I put this… our battles from this point forward are only going to get tougher, right? So, I’ve been reflecting on our approaches to combat in the hopes of finding some new tactics.”
: “In the end, I came up with something, but I realized I’ll need your help with it.”
: “Me? Sure! If I can be of any help, I’d love to work with you on this!”
: “I appreciate it. So… what I’m thinking is…”
: “Mako-chan?”
: “Heh… now that I think about it, this is probably going to sound rather absurd.”
: “Don’t worry. If it’s your idea, Mako-chan, I’m sure it’ll be great.”
: “I’m glad to hear you say that. Well, ready to hear it?”
: “…Huh?”
: Time to borrow footage. This is the last Showtime we’ll unlock until after the base game ends. It’s called “PTE Thwackdown” in English and “Last Countdown” in Japanese.
: I have to wonder why they didn’t name the Japanese version after New Japan Pro Wrestling instead of a totally unrelated movie that was basically propaganda for the US Navy.
: Wait, hold on… it’s because just like The Final Countdown, Makoto takes up a lot of screen time and doesn’t accomplish very much.
: “So, any thoughts?”
: “What a great idea! I’d be honored to help.”
: “Oh, thank you. Well, I hope it works out.”
: “Mmhm, just leave it to me! But wow, Mako-chan. You come up with some pretty bold moves sometimes. I really look up to you for that.”
: “Do you? I’m not sure how that makes me feel, but thank you.”
: “The star will grant us our wish if it’s based on such a great plan. I’m positive!”
: The game then forces us to go to the hideout. Nothing new happens there (there’s a brief exchange about the deadline, but we don’t care). Instead, we’ll do Futaba’s confidant and pick up her Mementos request.
: “But… she never continued on to high school. I decided to do some digging into why that might be, and… well… the more I dug, the worse it got…”
: “Her parents are in heavy debt due to a gambling addiction. So… instead of sending her to school, they make her work and help try and pay it off.”
: “…Apparently, they’re still having her model in strange clothes. They’re even selling the pictures now… that’s right. They can’t just use Kana-chan like some tool!”
: This is one of the few times where I can tell the whole thing with them re-using the “biological family has a gambling addiction” bit is intentional, rather than just lazy writing.
: “Actually though, Kana-chan herself made a request on the Phan-Site. Based on the IP and other tracking data, I’m 99.9% sure it’s her.”
: “The post was basically just her asking us to make her parents have a change of heart… but she didn’t put their names. She might be a little hesitant. Or… she doesn’t totally believe in the Phantom Thieves yet.”
: “Either way, I have a solution. I found her parents’ names in the address book we got way back in elementary school. Kouta Magario and Asami Magario.”
: It’s a-me, Magario! Wait… is that what they’re having her dress like?
: “I got a hit for them from the Meta-Nav too… we can fix them. I’ve decided, Akira… I wanna go to Mementos and change their hearts. We can’t let them keep treating Kana-chan so horribly, right?”
: “Please, help me save her!”
: So… what Joker’s saying is that he’ll save her life, not for honor, but for you (snake eater)? Is there going to be a ladder involved? Is Futaba still in a dream where she’s eating a tree frog?
: “Akira…! Thanks! Oh, and since you’re gonna help me with this, I’ll have to return the favor. Hmhmhm… I’ll look extra hard for valuable stuff when we’re in the Metaverse! Well? Pretty good, huh?”
: In the base game, Treasure Reboot was an AMAZING ability. If you were farming in a palace, you could use this to get extra money while doing so.
: The problem is that farming is largely a Mementos thing now due to Insta-Kill giving you money and EXP as well as because of Jose’s ability that gives you extra items every time you hit an item pickup.
: “Welp, I’ll be counting on you! Let’s save Kana-chan!”
: “…Oh shoot, it’s getting late. Let us adjourn for today!”
: We’ll finish this update with Akechi, and avoid a MAJOR permafuck while doing so. Seriously, this entire event is a potential run killer if you’re a speedrunner.
: “You can’t simply strike the ball you’re aiming for. You have to be indirect, but precise, to land it in the pocket…”
: “Precisely. And the most interesting part is that it has so many parallels to a theoretical ‘perfect crime.’ You eliminate your target without ever directly connecting yourself to it. I don’t suppose that rings any bells?”
: God dammit, he’s really going to just keep hinting at it, isn’t he?
: “That’s right. Even in the cases of criminals’ hearts being changed, too. Everything happening around us, every inconsequential event, may be one ball striking another.”
: Akechi hits the green ball and it simply bounces off the side without going into the pocket.
: “And despite the player’s best intentions, the ball may strike many unrelated obstacles in its path. Even then, do you still intend to play this game?”
: Joker effortlessly sinks the yellow ball. I mean, what was Akechi thinking? Joker knows how to do the Masse Shot.
: “That was quite a heated match. Shall we cool off in the evening breeze for a moment?”
: “I see. So we even share that perspective, do we…? You truly are fascinating. Remember when I said before that you and I are similar? We’re both victims of unjust adults. And now, we have the will and power to rise up against them.”
: “Yet I’m doing so as a detective, and you’re acting as a phantom thief. Our stances couldn’t be more different.”
: “…For now, yes. But even that united front will soon end. And after that, everything will return to the way it was, no? Why not join me instead…? All you’d have to do is abandon the teammates you have now.”
: “How about it?”
: It is VERY IMPORTANT that you pick the bottom option here. Supposedly, the top one will still work, but every source I’ve seen (as well as knowing how the bad ending works in the base game) says you need to pick the bottom one.
: Picking the middle option (and possibly the top one) is a permafuck. It will lock you out of content, including a confidant event.
: “Ahah… you truly are intriguing. I agree. I think a relationship of equals suits us better than being co-conspirators, anyway… no matter what else may change.”
: “In any case, what you just said carries great weight. Remember what you decided, and don’t run from it. All right? That said, as long as we’re working together, you’ll have my strength.”
: “Rest assured, I’ll do my part. You’ll find me very useful indeed.”
: “Ah, that reminds me. I did say that if you ever beat me using my right hand, I’d face you with all my ability… well. I’ll keep that in mind. Well then, farewell for now.”
: “You never cease to amaze me. It wasn’t against my dominant hand, of course, but I still can’t believe you beat me. Your competitive spirit definitely deserves praise.”
: “You really were terrible at first. But you caught up to me in no time… I have to ask - why do you get so competitive against me?”
: “…! Haha… yes, that’s right. Neither of us can afford to lose, because we fight in service of our principles. And that is precisely why… I cannot allow you to change.”
: The writers really, really wanted to appease the gay Akechi fanbase. There’s one person I saw on Pixiv who did an entire More Like Yusu-Gay but for Akechi. Speaking of which, Salty Vanilla is almost done with that piece for the school festival.
: “As you are now, as you think now… I cannot allow you to win over me. …Well, perhaps that’s a bit much. I’ll let you go for now. Good night.”
: Next time, we’ll unlock the final Mementos request we need to 100% the game. We’ll also kick Akechi’s ass, see Chihaya’s Rank 9 (and Rank 10) and finally get our money back for that holy stone.
: Here’s the More Like Yusu-Gay piece for the school festival… which also doubles as the final shot of the Showtime attack Joker and Yusuke have together.
: This is, of course, by Salty Vanilla.
: We start off today by going to the arcade in Akihabara to start the process of getting Shinya’s Mementos request… but first, there’s a new thing we can get from the crane game.
: I could’ve sworn Lexy was from something, but I guess not. This is another thing we can put on top of Joker’s work desk.
: “But my mom told them that it was the kid’s own fault for having his money taken… she just told them to leave without hearing what they had to say. Something’s wrong… with my mom.”
: “The other day she called my school to complain that the cost of lunch is too high. I begged her not to do it, but she said it’s for my own good… I doubt it was really 'cause of me though.”
: She was actually complaining that they gave him lunch at all, because the only thing he should be eating is the weak.
: “Once everyone finds out, I’m gonna get made fun of again… but… she told me that once you stop fighting, you lose. And that those who complain, win.”
: Or she’s just a super-Karen.
: “My mom was never like this before… she never used to care about stuff like winning or losing…”
: “Wh-what?”
: “S-Stop it…!”
: Joker: “Uh… get a coffee without calling the police?”
: “M-Mom! Kurusu-san is…”
: “Stop it… Mom…”
: “But…”
: “…Y-Yes.”
: “I just wanted to say, I’m really sorry about earlier!”
: “Ugh… already!? Crap, I gotta go… I don’t like the person my mom’s turned into. She won’t listen to anything I say…”
: “That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about today… um, do you think the Phantom Thieves can turn my mom back into her old self…?”
: “Please tell the Phantom Thieves… to change my mom back… to the way she used to be…”
: I like this specific part of this scene, because like that optional scene, it’s got Shinya breaking character.
: “Her name? It’s Hanae… Hanae Oda… I gotta go. Let’s play again sometime. Um, and please don’t hate me…”
: Strangely, even though we know what his request is, we don’t actually get it from this event. Shinya is great in that we don’t need to waste a night solely to get his request: instead, we get it during his Rank 8 event.
: “And we’re gonna do it by changin’ his mom’s heart? …I bet that was a real tough decision to make.”
: “I mean, he’s only in elementary school, right? This is a lot for a little kid to be dealing with…”
: “You’re right… we should try to help him as soon as possible. As for the calling card, let’s have him deliver it himself.”
: “So I guess this counts as a unanimous decision?”
: Joker’s room is going to start filling up with stuff pretty fast from this point onward.
: “…You’re not to blame. I’ll chase out anyone who says otherwise.”
: “Thanks. I’m letting you handle today’s curry.”
: “N-No… we didn’t make it… Uncle sent his report to the police before we could make him have a change of heart…!”
: “…Fine by me. I’ve got nothing to hide. Please, take a seat.”
: “It’s true that Futaba was living as a shut-in, but she overcame that weakness under her own power. And… I would never abuse her. She’s like a daughter to me.”
: “You’re wrong…!”
: “The kid never laid a finger on that guy. He just stood in the way to try and protect Futaba.”
: “Well… there you have it.”
: “I… I’m okay. I couldn’t go out for a while… but everyone helped me get better. I’m not afraid anymore. Th-that’s why… I’m really happy living with my d-dad!”
: While I was writing this, I found out that the person working on the fan translation for Eternal Punishment PSP has released a new video. There is progress being made on it.
: Atlus also made a number of announcements about Persona as a series, including a possible tease of Persona 6 or a PS5 version of Persona 5.
: Interestingly, this included new official artwork of both Jihei and Tatsuya, which has not been done in… some time.
: Let’s be real here, it’s going to be some merch and a couple of drama CDs or other shit that will never be released in the US. My hopes are currently on the fan translation of Eternal Punishment.
: “It’s not just her, idiot. There’s another pretty important person living here too.”
: “Yeah, yeah! He’s talking about you, Akira!”
: sniff “This is 'cause you punks just had to go and say all that cheesy stuff…”
: “It wasn’t cheesy! It was the truth! Anyways, I hungerrr! Gimme some curry!”
: “Heh, so much for the sentimental moment. All right, sit your butts down. This is where you two belong.”
: “Mweheh! C’mon, Akira! It’s time to eat!”
: Unlike the confidants that have romance routes, I’m not going to do Sojiro’s Rank 10 immediately. I could have because we have a free night coming up due to finishing Yoshida early… but we’re going to use that to finish Chihaya instead.
: The reason for this is that Chihaya doesn’t have a lot of nights where you can do her Rank 9 and Rank 10 in close proximity, and we’re coming up on one of the last chances to do that.
: The other reason is that while Chihaya does have a unique non-rankup scene we haven’t seen, it doesn’t happen until after she’s hit Rank 10.
: “Oh, and uh… Futaba. What you said before… when you called me your dad… do you, um, think you could say that again?”
: “Sorry, I didn’t catch that. My stomach was too grumbly! What’d you say?”
: “I just wanted to talk. It’s hard to say some things right in front of Futaba… so… she called me ‘dad.’ Hell of a title. Not one I thought I’d ever get, but…”
: “It’s kinda nice having someone to sit and eat with. Especially when she’s such a big fan of my cooking. God, I’m a joke. Getting all sentimental like this? At my age?”
: “She really did. I’ve never seen her that confident in front of a total stranger… whoa, it’s pretty late already. Sorry to make you listen through all that.”
: “Still, I guess there’s nothing wrong with a little sappiness now than then. Even from an old grump like me. Alright, I’m gonna head to sleep. Don’t catch a cold, okay? See you.”
: We get a reminder from Haru about the palace, but I’m not going to bother showing it.
: “The Phantom Thieves should target somewhere bigger, more global - not this tiny island country. Like… oh, I don’t know, the casino city of Las Vegas or something.”
: “It was like a dream when I went there… hehe, I might not look it, but I’m good at card games.”
: This is how you know she’s never been to Vegas. When I went, I had trouble finding anything that used actual cards - most of it is slots and electronic versions of card games.
: “The four suits of cards all symbolize something. By the way, Mr. Kurusu. Look at this.”
: “Excellent! The spade is a sword. Almost looks like one if you squint, right? And the heart is the Holy Grail. The heart was originally drawn as a cup.”
: “However, there are cards that belong to no class. In other words, they have no suit. The only card without a suit is the joker.”
: Why would you say ‘cards’ plural when there’s only one?
: “Some theories say it originates from the Fool in tarot decks, but no one knows where it really came from. However, both are trump cards that can bring about unexpected effects. How you use them is critical.”
: “You heard her, Joker. Pretty good name, if I do say so myself. I kinda wish I’d given myself a cooler name.”
: ‘Hanae Oda’… my mom!? The Phantom Thieves are targeting my mom…? So she IS bad after all…"
: “Thanks… but my mom just isn’t herself. She used to be so nice… mom… do you think they’ll actually be able to change her heart?”
: “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. They ARE the Phantom Thieves, after all! So… someone has to give this to my mom, right? …Okay, I’ll do it.”
: “I… It IS kind of my fault… that my mom got this way… she had to deal with a lot, raising me on her own… she had to get stronger, 'cause I was so weak… but that’s not an excuse to hurt the people around her…!”
: “She fights with everyone, about everything, and ends up getting hurt… at this rate, my mom’s gonna break… I want my mom to realize that she doesn’t have to be strong for me anymore.”
: “But she won’t listen to me when I tell her that… that’s why I wanna help the Phantom Thieves. I wanna stop my mom.”
: “Kurusu-san… okay, I’ll give her the calling card. She’s my mom, after all. I really want to help her! The next time you see the Phantom Thieves, please tell them I said thank you.”
: “And thanks for talking to them about this, Kurusu-san. I’m going to teach you my best, strongest move…”
: The bad news is that Bullet Hail actually does meaningful damage now, and if we get one that makes it harder to reach a negotiation. The good news is that we won’t need to negotiate anymore.
: “Hey, do me a favor… don’t tell anyone you saw me crying earlier, okay? Oh, and say hi to the Phantom Thieves for me. Later.”
: Before we move on to the next scene with Akechi, we have a crossword puzzle to do.
: Just like Akechi’s Rank 7, his Rank 8 also has a permafuck in it. This event will also kind of spoil who the killer is and also make the plot make a lot less sense. This scene is also why I chose to include the blurred cutscenes as they happen.
: “Do you have some time? I want to talk to you about something… it’d be best if we went somewhere where there aren’t many people around. How about, let’s say, Mementos? …Nobody can get in our way there.”
: “He wants the two of you to go to Mementos alone? Well, you guys are strong enough that you should be fine, but… be ready for anything, I guess.”
: Before you go in, you’re going to want a Persona that is not weak to Bless or Curse.
: This scene feels like it was supposed to happen at some point after the casino but before the part where Joker gets caught, but instead it happens here. No, really, it has to be done before you finish Sae’s palace.
: But yeah, if it wasn’t obvious enough, this scene makes it clear that Akechi is the killer. The thing is, no one in the party knows this for sure yet - so this will make a lot of scenes later on seem stupid.
: It creates this void where Joker knows Akechi’s true identity this early… but just doesn’t tell anyone or take any kind of action on it.
: "Remember what I told you? If you ever won against me using my right hand, I’d take you on with everything I’ve got.
: “That wasn’t enough to satisfy me… it’s your own fault, though. Your insight allowing you to determine my dominant hand, your quick wit, and most of all, how fast you’ve grown…”
: “You’ve exceeded my expectations in every way. Thus, I’ve built up this urge to duel you without holding anything back.”
: There’s also the question of “If Akechi has a real gun, why doesn’t he just use it?”
: “Thank you for indulging my selfish request. No need for pleasantries at this point, correct?”
: We couldn’t really see it earlier, but Akechi’s choice of melee weapon is a toy lightsaber. His usual gun is a toy laser pistol. The answer to “Why do these things work when they’re clearly toys” is “Because Akechi is badly written”.
: In fact, that’s going to be the answer to a lot of things involving Akechi.
: Akechi uses all the skills we’ve seen him with: Megaton Raid (single-target physical), Megidola, Eiga and Kouga.
: I have Baal use Ayamur. It does something like 1500 damage and nearly ends this fight in one go.
: At low HP, Akechi switches to Megidola… which still barely registers damage. Joker is pretty overpowered right now.
: This only does 103 damage because the fight is scripted to end when Akechi reaches a certain HP threshold.
: “You’ve caught up to me on this front already, too…”
: “Of course not… but if we go any further, we’d both go beyond the point of no return, wouldn’t we? In all honestly, I’d love to see just how far we can go…”
: Joker: “Look, I have a boyfriend.”
: “But we have an important mission coming up. Until that’s finished, you’re a vital ally to me. …We’re done here. Let’s go.”
: “In all honesty, it’s to the point that I’d be relying on you in a pinch.”
: “Is that so? Well, that would please me greatly. I’m sorry I asked you to indulge me, but I do feel a bit better now.”
: “By the way, about that duel - if we had fought to the end, do you see yourself winning?”
: I mean, we would’ve killed him had the game not scripted the fight to end. He’s just lucky we haven’t gone to Mementos yet. Seriously, that update’s going to be some shit.
: “I had a feeling you’d say that.”
: Oh wow, Akechi knows how I feel about this game’s writing and Hashino. Oh, and my feelings about YIIK.
: “Your deft handling of your unfortunate circumstances, your uniqueness, your ability to surpass me - all these irritate me. …You’re the one person I refuse to lose to.”
: “Without a doubt. Even I was unaware that it was this severe. I’ll let you have this win today - but next time, I will be victorious. Let this be my proof.”
: “There’s a tradition in the West to throw one’s glove at their opponent when demanding a duel. Should the opponent accept the glove, the duel is also accepted.”
: How is there not an equivalent of that in Japan?
: This is the other permafuck in Akechi’s confidant. If you don’t accept the duel, you get locked out of content.
: “Make certain that you never forget: I am the one who will defeat you. Ah, look at the time. Let’s call it a day for now.”
: We have a reading slot on the train, but we don’t have anything worth reading… except Jun’s book. I refuse to believe he didn’t write this.
: We then get a second reading period. Oh well, let’s read about a pope that doesn’t exist. We’ve had that book for months now.
: “A legendary female pope, huh? Do you think she really existed?”
: We’ve been over this, Morgana.
: “So, you’ve finished reading The Illusory Popess. Maybe the people of that era made up this mysterious female pope, but she’s still an inspirational figure.”
: “Pope Johanna, loved by so many… reading about her must have taught you the value of forgiveness…”
: The after-school period is spent doing Makoto’s Rank 10, which we’ve already seen. We’ll just go right to doing Mishima’s Rank 8.
: “Let’s go somewhere close then!”
: “Sorry, one sec. That was from Akiyama-kun. He said he wants me to stop by. Apparently he’s pretty close. It sounded serious… I don’t think we should ignore him. Can you come with me?”
: “F-Friends?”
: Oh look, it’s another scene straight out of Yakuza. Hooray.
: Seriously though this is the most cliched yakuza bullshit there is. I don’t think you can have a yakuza story (Way of the House Husband doesn’t count) without this exact scene.
: “A-Akiyama-kun…”
: “Kurusu…run.”
: “A-Are you sure? I don’t want to get you involved… though having you here is definitely reassuring. …I think I have an idea. It’s risky, but it might just work.”
: “If anything happens to me, take care of Akiyama-kun, Kurusu.”
: “C-Crap, I bit my tongue…”
: “U-U-Ummm… you’d better lay off Akiyama-kun! I’ve been taking a video of this whole conversation!”
: “If you do anything to Akiyama-kun or his girlfriend, I’ll bring it straight to the police! Oh, and don’t get any ideas about breaking my phone. It backs up to the cloud automatically.”
: That line doesn’t work when this is a fucking anime game!
: “Urgh…”
: “Kurusu… you’re right.”
: “Look, I know you guys are supposed to be tough and all… but are you sure it’s really worth getting arrested again over something like this? I mean, this video is definitely enough to get you guys busted given your previous criminal records.”
: “It doesn’t matter how. Just leave Akiyama-kun alone and we’ll be even! Then if you keep your word, I’ll delete the video. The backup too.”
: “N-No!”
: Mishima is going to cry. Then they’ll be sorry.
: “My whole act would’ve broken down if they didn’t back off when they did. Hahaha… I really suck, huh?”
: “Yup, the whole thing. The truth is, I’ve dealt with enough bullying to know guys like that have probably been arrested at least once. Oh, and… thanks for sticking by me, Kurusu. We can’t let injustice like that go unchecked.”
: “I think I get it now… this feeling is what made me want to help you guys to begin with. That’s why I started the Phan-Site… to make sure nobody has to go through stuff like this again!”
: I like that Mishima makes a turnaround in the last part of his arc, but I feel like it’s too late.
: “Huh?”
: “S-Sorry. It looked like you were really in trouble though… so I stepped up.”
: “Anyway, can you walk? Do you need us to call an ambulance?”
: “All right. Come on, Kurusu…”
: “Th-The panic is finally kicking in… I’m shaking so bad - I need to talk to someone… h-hey, you think I’ll be okay!? What if those guys secretly followed me home!?”
: Why. Just why. Why did this phone call need to be here? Mishima gets some actual character development but nope, can’t have that.
: “Oh! B-But I have the model gun I got for self-defense! And my security system’s top of the line! So I’m safe, right?”
: “Wh-where does all that confidence come from…? Oh, but… I do feel a little calmer, now that I got to talk to you about it. Anyways… ugh. I’m so exhausted.”
: “I wish I could just crash, but I’ve gotta do some research on these guys… ugh, and I have to mod the Phan-Site too! it’s looking like another all-nighter…”
: “Hahaha… thanks for listening through all that, though. Okay, see you…”
: This event is one of the harder ones to get, unless you know it exists. It requires that Ohya be at or under Rank 8, or on Rank 9 but with no additional points on the romance route.
: For reference, her Mementos request takes place in the part of Mementos representing Futaba’s palace, meaning we could have done it months ago. Most people going for 100% do.
: “A festival, huh? I want to eat some takoyaki. I can’t wait until tomorrow!”
: If you don’t know what a kumade is (I sure didn’t) they’re bamboo rakes that are decorated with different things to represent good fortune. You can see one on the banner above Haru’s head.
: The festival in Asakusa is also a real thing - it happens every year in November and is a major tourist draw.
: “Thank you for helping me out. …And, sorry.”
: “Oh, I’m glad to hear. This festival is really bustling with people, huh? It’s nice. Anyway, wasn’t the kumade heavy? Father always bought huge, elaborate ones for good fortune. They even reported it on TV.”
: “We can’t… get a new one for this year though. I’m thinking of buying one for the Phantom Thieves instead. If we set that up in the hideout, I feel like something good will happen.”
: “And with that Prince Boring I’ve seen so many times before, no less! I think this means we will need an interview!”
: If this seems completely out of character for Ohya, that’s because it kinda is.
: “Oh, how chivalrous! She your girlfriend?”
: “Are you… an acquaintance of his? What’s this about an interview?”
: “I’ve interviewed him before. I would have thought a high-class lady like yourself would be out of his league.”
: “Hmm, I see… well, it seems like I’m intruding, so I’ll get out of your way, hmm? Be wary of the mass media! …Especially when it comes to men.”
: “Oh, um… okay…”
: “I sure hope so.”
: “Um… that was an interesting acquaintance. Ah, so she cooperated with you too… Maybe I should have asked her to take a photo of us as a memento. Well, let’s regroup and buy that kumade.”
: “Well, then… please put this up in the hideout.”
: Let’s go put the kumade up.
: I didn’t even think about this when I was recording, but of course they went with a visual pun. It’s a “kuma”-de.
: “Apparently, rakes bring good luck to businesses. Maybe Leblanc will serve fancier food if they make more money…”
: Just one more thing left before we go into Mementos, that being to do Chihaya’s Rank 9 and 10.
: “They didn’t really believe what I was saying at first, but the truth of the matter settled in eventually… however… it seems like the members from the executive class are still brainwashed.”
: “I’m in talks with a lawyer right now though. We’re going to get refunds and outpatient care for all of them. I’m going to give back all the money I made from selling Holy Stones too.”
: Wait… does that mean…
: “It’s the least I can do to atone for the ignorance I showed back then. That’s why… I want you to accept this, Kurusu-san. Think of it not only as an apology, but as a sign of gratitude, for helping me see the truth.”
: We got our money back! Not that it’s going to matter much, because we’ll hit a new record for cash on hand tomorrow.
: “Yokoda-san!? What are you all doing here!?”
: “N-None of it was made up… as for the chairman, I need you to listen to me. Everything he told you in those seminars was a lie! The promises of a great future, the power of the Holy Stones, the need for donations… all lies.”
: “Doesn’t it seem strange that he kept asking members for money, even through times of financial stress? And beyond that, you guys should have known better than anyone where those ‘donations’ were ending up…”
: “…Even I knew how horrible the ADP’s scheme was. That’s why I had to come forward…”
: “Please, stop this! He has nothing to do with your situation! I’m the one who sold you those rocks! If you’re going to get upset with anyone… it should be me!”
: “L-Look, the only way you can change that is with your convictions! Neither I nor one of those worthless stones will be able to help you…”
: I play with Japanese voices on, but I imagine that in English she sounds like Sandy from Spongebob. Don’t ask me why I think that, it’s just the first thing that comes to mind.
: “Whether yer gonna be miserable or not’s all on yer own damn shoulders! You don’t need some divine power mumbo jumbo to be changin’ yer fate!”
: “Y’all got that strength in yourselves! Fortune tellin’ can’t hold a candle to honest-to-goodness willpower! And heck, even if things’re bad now, it’ll all be fine so long as you keep yer heads up!”
: “O-Oh, I’m sorry about that. All this stress caused me to lapse into my country dialect… but… I stand by what I said. Nothing will ever change if all you do is rely on orders.”
: “Take me for example. I thought I was destined to live as a monster… but I had the strength to reverse that fate. If you want to control your future, that’s all you need… strength.”
: “The only way forward is through the fortitude of your own heart!”
: “It might not be the easiest to accomplish at first. After all, your willpower has been constantly suppressed by all those seminars and donations… I’m partially to blame for that.”
: “But that’s why I need to show you the light now and help you push on!”
: “No. I’m not your Maiden anymore. I’m just Chihaya Mifune, the fortune teller that guides fate!”
: “I know how they feel though. They want to cling onto the Holy Stones, just as I clung to my role as the Maiden. All any of us ever wanted was to be happy… to avoid our fates…”
: If you took this last line out of context, it could easily be Chihaya talking about a different JRPG altogether.
: “Right. I did it, so I’m sure Yokoda-san and the others will be able to as well! No matter how many times I have to try, I will talk to them until they understand.”
: “And when they realize the difficult truth… I will be there to help them recover. Back in my village, people called me a monster. Here, they revered me as the Maiden.”
: “Even now my heart continues to wander, yet you somehow saw the real me. Not the Maiden… not a monster… just Chihaya. Kurusu-san… thank you.”
: Joker’s like “What? Me? Even though I’m the equivalent of one of those old ladies that browse local Facebook groups just to be able to gossip more efficiently?”
: “I mean, normally someone wouldn’t think to involve themselves in such a strenuous ordeal. S-So, um… there’s actually something I’ve been wondering for a while now…”
: “Is… fortune telling the only reason you come to see me? I-It’s not… is it?”
: “Kurusu-san… why do you come here?”
: Well, there was the extra social stat points… the the extra confidant points… and then the money readings, and now we can make alarms at will. I’m not kidding when I say in the next update, we go through like 14 alarms to get all the stuff I wanted.
: “O-Oh, I see… sorry, I suppose I was just feeling a bit self-conscious… But there’s nothing better than knowing my readings help others! Please come have your fortune read as often as you’d like!”
: “After all, we’ll forever be joined in our quest to oppose fate! Anyway, I should be going. Good night!”
: “There’s something I really wanted to tell you…”
: Yep, looks like a quality proofreading job on the Royal script.
: “I plan on doing all I can to support everyone at the ADP for a while. If you’re in any trouble, please feel free for a consultation any time!”
: Did the Allansons proofread this part? That’s a 2x typo combo the likes of which I have not seen since the Two Brothers LP.
: “Great! Please, I want to help you carve a path to your future! As Chihaya Mifune. Fortune teller and emissary of fate!”
: They really rushed this one out the door, didn’t they?
: “…Whoops! I guess I sounded a little too full of myself just then. Maybe I’m not a monster or a maiden. I’m just Chihaya. So if you’re ever in trouble, remember you can always come to me. Okay?”
: “Well, good night and sweet dreams…”
: Anyway, let’s get her Rank 10 done while we’re at it.
: “I do a phone consultation with them from time to time, and they’re all very cheerful… that goes for my fortune teller customers as well.”
: " I’ve been getting thanked a lot more lately. Even by the people who get bad fortunes! Particularly when I tell them they can alter their fate!"
: “That’s very true… all I used to say before was that they were going to face misfortune. I had a best friend in the town I used to live in… she was the first person I read a fortune for.”
: So wait, hold on a second, back up. You started telling people the equivalent of “everything I just said is bullshit” and they like you more?
: “When she started avoiding me, I read the fortune of our fate. It was a terrible result, but I prayed that it would somehow work out. However… that never happened. That’s when I started to believe that fate couldn’t be changed.”
: “No surprise though, right? Because I didn’t take action on my part to try and change it. I haven’t talked to her in years… maybe I’ll try contacting her sometime.”
: “Yeah, you’re right! …Oh, could this be!?”
: “The power of conviction is amazing. Her fate and mine are connected! I will no longer be swayed… by names like Monster or Maiden… I am simply a fortune teller who provides advice to people with broken spirits.”
: Yeah, uh, you’ve said that like ten times already. Chihaya really feels like Hashino had maybe half a confidant written, got to release and went “Fuck it, just start copy-pasting. No one’s gonna know.”
: “So that they will have conviction and face their future without getting pushed around by fate. …That’s the fate I’ve chosen for myself.”
: giggle “Thank you. Now, it’s your turn to speak. What would your conviction be… as a phantom thief? Sorry, I used fortune telling to find out your identity.”
: This is the one bit I like of this confidant rank. She’s such a dumbass that she didn’t get the hint when Joker asked her for the chairman’s name - she just did a fucking tarot reading.
: “I couldn’t help but think that you had something to do with the chairman’s confession. Then I discovered that you’re the Trickster who causes a sensation in the world.”
: “It was the same card as the figure who helped me take down the chairman. giggle It finally struck home for me…!”
: I remembered not liking Chihaya’s confidant in the base game, and now I’m remembering why.
: “Well, you may interpret the cards however you like… but I don’t care what your true identity is. As long as you’re around… I can always be my true self. So it’s fine.”
: “This is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like it.”
: “I’m sorry. I really can’t read this sequence. However… I’ll be by your side! As the fortune teller who changes fates, I will guide you so that you can avoid misfortune!”
: Lakshmi is the lowest-level Persona that requires a maxed confidant to fuse. I want to log her at the end of this update because I want you to see how bad she is compared to non-ultimates like Mara or Baal.
: “Still, what a strange sequence the cards were in when I read the fortune about your true identity. Several cards with strong personalities gathered around the Trickster.”
: “It’s quite improbable… it was almost as if it were trying to connect them together. You either have amazing charisma, or you’re a trouble magnet.”
: “The verification tests are over, but don’t forget about me, okay?”
: Okay, let’s do that log quick. Next time, we’ll pay Caroline and Justine gobs of money to break the game, fuse ultimate guns for half the party, and make it so Ann can win encounters by herself.
: Lakshmi is… trash. She doesn’t learn Diamond Dust (the fourth-tier ice spell) and Climate Decorum is a waste of a skill slot. Sure, she learns Life Aid - which is great in the base game where you don’t have those special fusion accidents… except Trumpeter learns it and is not an ultimate.
I’ve gotten some minor P5 spoilers when browsing the wiki, so I think I know why this fact is worded the way it is, but it’s still a translation error. The Japanese word must be seihai, which can mean either the Holy Grail or a communion chalice. If the four suits represent the classes of old European society, then the clergy (not ‘saints’ like in the picture) would be represented by a chalice – because as everyone knows, the Holy Grail is in Japan. (Also, Wikipedia makes no mention of the four suits representing social classes or anything at all for that matter, but I’ve heard it before and it sounds real.)
Incidentally, while I was thinking about this, I realized that if the Heart is a chalice then the four playing card suits are the same as the four tarot suits: Hearts (Cups), Spades (Swords), Diamonds (Coins), Clubs (Wands). It turns out this isn’t a coincidence: according to Wikipedia, all playing card suits have the same source–they’re all ultimately derived from old Chinese game suits.
: This is the final Mementos request we can do on this run, and is also why we waited this long to go in.
: “Wow, this is some good info, even for Mishima!”
: Before we go in, we’re getting a money reading. This will pay for itself when we get to that one boss we couldn’t kill last time - the invincible hacker one.
: We also get a Celestial Reading, which costs 20,000 yen. It is worth every single one. If you have one of these up, you will have an alarm any time you want one, and we’ll need a bunch.
: The area that represents Okumura’s palace is now open, and let me tell you, it’s a pain in the ass if you want to get all the stamps.
: “It looks like Mementos has expanded even further…”
: “Hm? I thought public opinion of us determined Mementos expansion… and that has plummeted lately.”
: Yusuke just pointing out those plot holes.
: “Our notability must still be on the rise, even if it’s because of our currently bad reputation…”
: “So we’re like a celeb who gets more famous because of scandals? I don’t like the sound of that…”
: “Either way, the further we go, the more powerful enemies we’ll meet. We need to be cautious in here. Let’s go see where the change has occurred, Joker!”
: We’ll get there… eventually. The game kind of assumes that we’ve done a couple of Mementos requests way earlier than we actually have.
: We also have an alarm waiting for us, so let’s make the most of it.
All-Father of Norse mythology. Associated with… actually, pretty much every aspect of Norse culture. Traded his eye for knowledge from the Well of Mimir. Father of most of the Norse pantheon.
: I believe this makes us three for three on fusing Odin. He’s just that good.
: Odin learns both Thunder Reign (fourth-tier single target elec spell) and its multi-target equivalent, Wild Thunder. Bargain Bolts is his signature ability, which cuts the cost of elec spells by 75%.
: Bargain Bolts can be passed down in fusion, which makes Odin just that much better. We do wind up replacing Gun Boost with Elec Boost later, but we have to itemize him first - so doing it now would be pointless.
: I then itemize Baal into Haru’s ultimate gun, Yagrush EX. Most of the ultimate guns had their stats changed from the base game - in this case, Haru’s gun had its accuracy cut by ten or fifteen percent.
: A lot of these stat changes were due to the ultimate guns having an upgraded version obtained during alarms.
: “Somethin’ about this guy tells me he’s nuts. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”
: “He’s threatening Iwai… he’s doing this because he’s getting desperate, right?”
: “He seriously intends to kill someone. We’d better change his heart immediately.”
: “It’s scary, but we gotta do it!”
: We are going to kill Tsuda in one hit.
: Here’s the important thing about Concentrate, at least as far as Joker is concerned. If you Concentrate with one Persona, you can switch Personas on Joker’s next turn and it’ll carry over.
: Because Concentrate is typically going to be the last action of your turn, it’s best to have one Persona with it so the rest of your lineup saves a skill slot.
: Tsuda wastes his turn casting Bufudyne on Yusuke, who is immune.
: Just to make things easier, Futaba gives us a full-party Tarukaja. Using it in conjunction with Charge or Concentrate is really the best way to use Tarukaja.
: Oh yeah. That’s 5 SP for Thunder Reign, thanks to Ann’s ability kicking in at the same time. This is how you’re meant to use the fourth-tier spells: there’s a 75% SP reduction skill for each element.
: By the way, this was without Elec Boost.
: No shit they do! You were trying to give them toy guns!
: Give me a Yakuza spinoff where Kiryu is a college professor in yakuza studies. The final exam is performing the tiger drop.
: I made a quick trip back to get Odin Elec Boost, and then went on to the next target.
: “He looks so suspicious.”
: “Well, he is obstructing a new investigation to keep some incident hidden under the rug.”
: “People died in that incident. He should be ashamed to call himself a journalist.”
: “We’ll have to make him see the truth!”
: Honjo is another one of those minibosses where they took a regular enemy and shuffled its weaknesses around. In this case, he nulls Psychic.
: That’s fine, because Odin can kill him in two hits. Supposedly, he’s weak to wind, but I didn’t bother to check.
: You just know Hashino made them add the bit about the wife.
One of the four named major archangels in the Bible who represent the cardinal directions. Name means “Flame of God”, as he is usually seen carrying a flaming sword. Guardian of the gates of Eden.
: We have another alarm, so let’s use it. Uriel is a component of Michael, who is a component of Lucifer and also a component for Metatron.
: He’s also our first source of Megidolaon, which isn’t as great as it could be with Almighty Boost and Almighty Amp, but is still pretty okay. More notable is that he has Spell Master to pass down.
: I then itemize Odin into Gungnir, Ann’s best gun. I’ve talked about this before - it can end encounters in one attack, which we’ll see later.
One of the four named archangels. Does not appear in the Bible by name, but performs several miracle healings in various stories in it. Name means “It is God that heals”. Responsible for signalling Judgement Day by blowing a trumpet.
: Raphael is a pure physical Persona, and so I built to his strengths. He has Charge, Heat Riser, and Arms Master, which is Spell Master but for physical and gun skills.
: I then itemize Uriel into Providence, which is Yusuke’s best gun. Unlike Ann and Haru’s guns, his is a stat stick that increases his Agility. I believe this makes him the fastest non-Joker party member.
: “All right! We have a plan this time!”
: I’m going to skip most of the dialogue here, because it’s just the demon going “haha I’m cheating” again.
: “Joker, you’ve got a plan, right? I’m countin’ on you! We’ll get 'em this time!”
: This fight is a tutorial on how to use Down Shot.
: Down Shot is Joker-specific, and is done through his gun menu. Remember, we can only do this three times per dungeon.
: We finished that fight in one turn (thus getting double money from Hifumi’s ability) and with an All-Out (thus getting double money from Chihaya) on top of the 180% stamp bonus.
: “Don’t do this again! You better make amends for the wrong you’ve done!”
: “I get chills just looking at him.”
: “He’s an ex-mercenary who is now a professional assassin. He’s no ordinary person.”
: “If even the police can’t handle him, then it’s up to us to take care of him.”
: “Let’s approach him with caution.”
: “We can’t just let someone dangerous like you go around, killin’ people.”
: Why is this guy the only person to ever question what the party is doing?
: “Evil? Don’t be ridiculous! We’re doing our best to do what’s right!”
: I’m really, really surprised they let that last line through after how far Atlus went to defang shit in this game.
: Kiritani has no weaknesses and a boatload of HP.
: He also likes to use full-party physical attacks that do a shitload of damage.
: Fortunately, Ann gets a burn off on him and Joker follows up with a technical.
: Yusuke and Ann then decide to Showtime to finish it off.
: Sorry, but we’re not the same. The Phantom Thieves would never murder people.
: “How can you say that after you murdered so many people!?”
: “You better accept that you lost already. Prepare yourself.”
: “We’ll destroy evil in a way that’s different from yours. You can disappear without worry.”
: This is the other way to get a High Counter skill card, if you haven’t already finished Caroline and Justine’s confidant.
: “Wow… this place is a lot bigger than what I’d heard.”
: “I expect the Shadows here will be strong, too. Be careful!”
: In the base game (and to an extent, in Royal as well) this was pretty much how you learned what Haru’s personality was.
: Adyeshach is where you should stop collecting stamps. There’s 30 of them, and you will need to grind to get them all - I spent something like two hours just reloading floors for stamps.
: What I found out the hard way is that once you have your money maxed and have items at x7 or so, there’s not much of a point to stamps.
: Going any further with items just means this will happen sooner. The cap for any one item is 99, any any further items of that type picked up are lost. Granted, this was after like four hours of grind.
: Bullet Hail does damage now. Of course, so does Uriel.
: Jose sells Nirvanas now. I probably should’ve picked a few of these up for Lucifer, since theoretically we can fuse him as early as about three weeks before the final dungeon of the base game.
: By the end of the run, this is how the stamp bonuses looked. There’s not really any point to putting points into EXP, because money is just so much better.
: This is Ann’s new gun in action. Despair locks down an enemy for three turns, draining their SP and killing them after the third turn. This is a great way to regenerate SP if you need to, since you can sit there and regen 7 HP a turn.
: “Why are there so many parents who try to control their children?”
: “Don’t overthink it. Let’s worry more about helpin’ their daughter.”
: “We have to change their hearts if we want to save Futaba’s friend!”
: “L-Let’s go!”
: “You call yourselves parents!? Kana-chan’s suffering so much because of you!”
: “…I knew it. These two are rotten to the core! Joker, please save Kana-chan!”
: I get Joker charged up, and then Haru actually manages to hit with her gun.
: Sure, I could go for the Technical hit… but why bother? We’ve got Odin.
: Haru then uses Triple Down, which is actually a really good gun skill even once you have One Shot Kill. The reason is that Triple Down will give you three Technical hits which are likely to hit for a higher amount, which plays nicely into her gun’s AOE shock.
: “You HAVE to! Don’t hurt Kana-chan ever again!”
: “Thank you, Joker. I think Kana-chan’s going to be alright now.”
: At this point, there was a rest area, so I went back and used another alarm or two.
: I needed King Frost to fuse one of the other archangels, who also happens to be the best one despite being the lowest level of them all.
Archangel who serves at the left hand of God. Name means “God is my strength”. Scholars believe that Gabriel may be non-binary, as they generally have an androgynous appearance in early art. Appeared before Mary to announce the conception of Jesus, and also appeared before Muhammad to reveal his role as Islam’s prophet.
: Gabriel is easily the best of the named archangels, simply because they’re one of the two Personas in the base game (and three in Royal, not counting DLC) to learn Ali Dance.
: The description in the game states that it “Increases evasion against one opponent”, which is incorrect. What it actually does is sets your evasion at 50%, regardless of the number of enemies.
: The only limitation on it is that Ali Dance (and evasion in general) does not work against status effects. Either way, this is an ability we’re going to want on everything.
: I should mention that when you’re fusing the named archangels, you are going to want to pay attention to what skills you carry over, especially if you’re planning on fusing Lucifer.
: With Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel, we can fuse one of the two harder ingredients for Lucifer.
Archangel who serves as the right hand of god. Name means “Who is like God?”, which has been interpreted as a symbol of humility. Field commander of the Army of God who leads it in the war against Lucifer.
: Michael is kind of hamstrung right now by the fact that we don’t get an EXP bonus from Sae’s confidant. He learns his best skill at level 92, that being Cosmic Flare, the fourth-tier all-target Nuke spell.
: Ordinarily, passing down Spell Master is a waste because Lucifer starts with it. Ali Dance is also not as good for Lucifer as a different defensive skill we’ll get on Sandalphon.
: The reason I put those on Michael is so he can pass them down to Metatron, who is the best Bless Persona in the game. Metatron is another Lucifer ingredient, but I’ll probably keep him around just for bless damage.
: On a side note, I’ll probably fuse a second Michael once we’ve maxed out Sojiro’s confidant and turn him into a Nuclear/Psychic hybrid caster type. This one is here just to pass down skills to Metatron.
: By the way, fusing Michael is not cheap. Neither is summoning him from the compendium, which sucks, because…
: Michael itemizes into Makoto’s best gun. +11 to all stats is an amazing bonus, and it’d be even better if it was on someone who isn’t Makoto.
Demon based on a pun involving the fact that the name “Jack” sounds like a Japanese word for “evil” or “wicked”.
: Black Frost is a special fusion between Jack Frost, Pyro Jack, and King Frost. While he’s hardly a bad Persona, we can do much better.
: The real reason we want Black Frost is because he itemizes into the best whip for Ann.
: “It looks a little anxious.”
: “I hear he’s been repeatedly changing his name and face with plastic surgery to escape debt.”
: “The police will never catch him, so it’s up to us.”
: “Yeah. Let’s go!”
: “Hey, we’d never accept any help from a guy as bad as you.”
: “You’d better return all the money you stole!”
: So… wait, we’re fighting a guy because he’s embezzling money from banks? Why do we care again?
: “I disagree. You’ve been running away, always hiding behind a new name and face.”
: Even after fusing Gabriel, I was still using Odin… despite the fact that Gabriel had Odin’s entire moveset plus Ali Dance.
: This entire dialog feels like that dub of School Ghost Stories. It feels like they asked an intern to write a sidequest and the intern went “You know what, fuck it.”
: “So, you were saying the Phantom Thieves are hypocrites?”
: “From now on, live your life with an open heart and nothing to hide.”
: I had another alarm, and the final request is near the bottom of this area, so I did some last fusions before leaving. In hindsight, there’s one Persona I should have fused here, but I’ll do that in the casino.
Death.
: Pale Rider’s skills are a hodgepodge because we just need him to fuse Trumpeter, who is a component for Lucifer.
Angel from the Book of Revelations that is said to sound seven trumpets to herald the end of the world.
: In the mainline SMT games (well, Nocturne and 4/Apocalypse anyway) Trumpeter is one of the best obtainable demons. Here, he’s pretty mediocre. With him, we now have four of Lucifer’s six components - the other two being Satan and Metatron, who we can’t fuse yet.
: Trumpeter gets us over the 50% mark for compendium completion.
: No, Haru! Don’t encourage him! He’s horny for humans!
: “She looks like she would bite us if we even tried to speak to her.”
: “I heard she’s the definition of a helicopter parent. She’s really selfish too.”
: Gotta love the values dissonance of “We have to stop this guy because he’s killing people!” becoming “We have to stop this lady because she’s kind of a bitch!”
: “We gotta do somethin’ about this! Kids really look up to their parents, you know?”
: Shadow Oda is a Dakini, an enemy we last saw in Persona 1. This was where I wished I had fused Asura, because Joker has no fire damage, and that’s what her weakness is.
: Even with Debilitate and hitting a weakness, Ann is barely registering damage.
: The fight is mostly Ann and Yusuke chipping away at her health… at least, until she starts putting people to sleep.
: Once she gets enough people asleep, Oda follows up with Vorpal Blade, which hits extremely hard and will get Technical hits off people who are sleeping.
: Shadow Oda is on Floor 11 of this area, which has a total of 13 floors. As I mentioned before, this area sucks to get all the stamps for. That’s because there’s a good chance each floor will only spawn one stamp pedestal (the fixed one) and Floor 10 doesn’t spawn any at all.
: Futaba really has a thing for Ann’s outfit for some reason.
: As I mentioned before, I spent two hours searching for stamps.
: I honestly don’t know what possessed Atlus to go with this instead of having each floor spawn a fixed number of stamp pedestals so you can get them all in one run provided you fully explore each floor.
: As we’ll see in the next update, this game has kind of a problem with scaling, in that it’s quite common for people to be high enough level that they can insta-kill the enemies in the casino.
: Tonight, we get what is quite possibly the longest IM conversation in the game.
: He’d know, wouldn’t he?
: “I also think the killer is extremely handsome and smart, and I’m definitely not him despite me showing Joker that I own a silenced pistol.”
: “He’s right. If we get caught now, all our hard work will amount to nothing.”
: We call Kawakami for a massage, and then go to Iwai and the clothing store in Kichijoji to sell clothes, raking in a total of nearly two million yen.
: We have so many clothing points that I use a few to get new armor for everyone. Even though we have a shit-ton of money, I’m not going to buy anything new for the casino because we’ll have everyone’s ultimate weapons pretty soon.
: “He said he’s been concerned for my health… which is actually kinda creepy, now that I think about it. Anyway, that’s not all. He said he’s letting me re-open my investigation into what happened to Kayo!”
: “He told me he wants me to do everything I can to pursue the truth. I think… he was serious. I wonder what happened to make him change so suddenly…?”
: “…What, just out of the blue? The whole thing’s too convenient. It seems a little fishy, you know? I mean, you… asked me for the chief’s name the other day, right?”
: “Hmmm…”
: “I… I know where Kayo is. That was part of the chief’s apology to me. Apparently he did some investigating on his own. So, he followed up on my journalist friend’s source and… it turns out she really is alive after all.”
: “That explains why she hasn’t been able to contact me this whole time. I really wanna go see her, but to be honest… I’m afraid. I’m afraid to know the truth. Not just about Kayo’s current state… but about what happened to her that night too.”
: You know, just in case someone has sent a bunch of Taiwanese mafia guys to kill her. Kayo being in a mental hospital in the countryside is taken straight from Eternal Punishment.
: “That’s really considerate of you, but the hospital she’s in is far out in the countryside. But… thank you. You give me the courage I need to do this.”
: “I’m… going to go see her. No matter what happens, I need to see this through to the end. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be Ichiko Ohya, journalist extraordinaire!”
: “I’m really glad I talked to you about this. I never would’ve made my mind up without your help. You know, you’re way more than just some high school kid. You’re almost like my guidance counselor.”
: Oh, right. I just remembered about the final Devil Persona, and realized I forgot to explain something earlier.
: You know how all the elements have fourth-tier spells? Bless and Curse do too… only they suck. They’re called Divine Judgment and Demonic Decree, and instead of doing damage they reduce an enemy’s HP by 50%. This counts as a weakness hit if the enemy is weak to it.
: It sucks because in most cases, you’ll get more than 50% of an enemy’s HP in damage using an elemental spell (or hell, even Eigaon or Kougaon) and doesn’t work on bosses.
: “Oh, by the way… everything with the chief worked out okay, but the higher-ups are still keeping an eye on me. So I’ll need you to keep the juicy tidbits coming! I can’t stop writing about the Phantom Thieves now!”
: “…All right, let’s see what you have for me today!”
: “Thanks for pushing me… to go see Kayo. I’m a journalist. From now on, I’m always gonna chase the truth.”
: “Thanks. You really are a weird kid, you know that? Whenever I talk to you, I get this… heightened sense of duty, for some reason. I’ll come back with some awesome stories, so let’s meet up again.”
: “Okay, I’m gonna hang up. Gotta pack for my big trip. See ya!”
: Next time, we’ll see what happens when the game stops railroading us, but also doesn’t provide for a non-linear level structure so you’re basically railroaded just with worse signposting. Link to the Past or Super Metroid this game is not.
I guess Joker’s just got a real “I’m John Persona The Phantom Thief” vibe considering every confidant seems to have realized what’s going on.
: “What? You’re asking if the Phantom Thieves would be given a trial if they get caught? Of course they would. All they would need to do is prove a link between the deaths and their activities.”
: “In short, they would be put on trial for murder. Hey, Kurusu. Tell me how old you have to be to listen in on a trial.”
: “That’s right. No age restrictions for listening in on a trial - you can get in whether you’re 0 or 85. Youth crimes are an exception, but it’s basically open to the public. Meaning you can all go attend.”
: This is also true for the United States, although that’s becoming less and less necessary with the courts modernizing and allowing cameras in the courtroom.
: “Well, I imagine the visitors seats will be full if the Phantom Thieves were put to trial. Everyone is dying to know who exactly the culprits are and how they did it.”
: “However, their method and how it connects to the murder must be proven in order to sentence them. The methods that the Phantom Thieves use far exceed human knowledge.”
: I know Japan’s gun laws are among the most restrictive in the world, but I’m pretty sure people there know how a gun works.
: “I’d imagine in order to prove it, they’d have to catch them in the act. Hmmm…”
: We have two confidants we need to do before we can go to the casino. Originally, I was going to put this after the casino instead, but that would put it in the same update as her Rank 9 and Rank 10.
: “Yes?”
: “The hospital on the news?”
: “…Wh-What’s going on?”
: “I haven’t… seen it…”
: “What? Um… it’s something that shouldn’t be allowed to happen… I guess.”
: “Is this all some elaborate joke? Oyamada surrendering himself… at such a convenient time… why? …It doesn’t matter. It’s too late. It doesn’t change the fact that I couldn’t save her.”
: “What…!? There’s… no way…”
: “So she’s… she’s alive…”
: “…Yes, of course! You’ll help me, right? I take back what I said. We’ll resume development right away.”
: “We’re going to move quickly today, so you may experience some pain during the examination. …Sorry. Just hang in there, okay?”
: “Thank you. You’re… a good guy. Once the medicine is perfected, I’ll introduce you to Miwa-chan and tell her how much you helped. All right, into the examination room you go.”
: “I pushed you way too hard today. Really, I’m sorry… but I won’t waste the opportunity you’re giving me. We’re going to make up for our lost time.”
: “God, what was wrong with me…? I can’t believe I spent all that time moping. Feeling sorry for myself. Miwa-chan was fighting all that time. I have to fight for her too.”
: “Thanks… it’s honestly encouraging knowing I’ve got you supporting me. We’re so close to making this drug work… I just have to perfect it. Anyways, get some good rest today. Remember you can call me anytime. Okay, goodnight…”
: I like a lot of these post-request cutscenes, and I wish more of the game was written like that.
: We’ll also be seeing Iwai’s Rank 9 immediately after the casino.
: “Tsuda rang me up a while back. Told me to forget everythin’ he was threatenin’ me with. I honestly thought it was some kinda joke at first, but I ain’t seen or heard from him since.”
: “Y’know, it almost felt like I was talkin’ to the old Tsuda somehow. My sworn brother… Hey, you think a guy can really go through a drastic change that quick?”
: Your friend is a total dumbass, so yeah probably.
: “What kinda answer is that? I ain’t really one to talk, but you should prolly think about takin’ this a little more seriously, kid. Anyways, somethin’ fishy is still goin’ down… but Tsuda changin’ is a real load off my shoulders.”
: “Oh, and this prolly means our deal’s through with, huh? I mean, your end of the bargain was drivin’ Tsuda away… and you did that and then some.”
: “One more thing… I know I kinda fired you n’ all, but d’you think you’d maybe wanna keep workin’ here with me? I understand kids these days have all sortsa commitments, so I get it if the answer’s gotta be no…”
: Were the localizers trying to set a new record for number of vestigial apostrophes in a sentence?
: “Heh, don’t gimme that attitude. I know you wanna come back. Don’t go expectin’ me to make the job any easier for you though, y’hear? I’ll be countin’ on you, kid. I mean, uh… Akira.”
: “All right, first order of business is takin’ out the trash. C’mon, we gotta get rid of these prototypes. Disassemble 'em and wipe the prints off before we toss 'em though, okay?”
: You’d think that if the garbage people saw a bag full of model guns next to a shop that, well, sells model guns they probably wouldn’t ask too many questions - and it’s not like they’re illegal anyway.
: “Oh, and I’m not lettin’ you leave 'til they’re done.”
: “About Tsuda… let’s keep an eye on him for a while. Seemed like he was on the level, but… can’t be too careful.”
: “Good. If anything bad happened, it’d already be too late. I’m just gonna hang back and run the store for a while. Safer that way. And that means…”
: “I’m gonna teach you all you gotta know about the business. Hope you’re ready for it. Okay. I’m countin’ on you, Akira.”
: And now it’s casino time.
: I got a money reading and a celestial reading for alarms, but I never wound up using any. We can’t clear the casino in one day anyway, so it’s not a big deal that I didn’t.
: “And for that, we will need to have a member’s card.”
: “Where’re we gonna get one though? There’s not too many places we can go right now.”
: “Hm… I doubt we will find one simply lying on the ground in the main hall. I suggest we head for the backroom.”
: “Huh…? But why?”
: “I will explain later. In any case, let’s try to find an entrance.”
: We have to go the same way we went the last time we were here - there’s a save room on the ground floor, but the game won’t let you open it the first time you’re here.
: Going through the vent puts us on the ledge where we first met Sae’s shadow earlier.
: The first floor has enemies that we’ve already fused as Personas several dungeons ago. Even if we hadn’t done any extra grinding, I think we’d still be high enough level to insta-kill these.
: Joker oneshots anything he hits, and the rest are taken out quickly by a combination of Haru’s gun and a follow-up by Ann.
: Speaking of which, you can customize the ultimate guns from the get-go in Royal. Most of them you want accuracy on, especially Haru’s (which goes from 70% to 77%).
: The human NPCs will comment on Joker’s appearance (and some other things) if you get close enough.
: Also present on the first floor are Ose and Kikuri-Hime, who I had actually fused to get… actually, I can’t remember why I fused them, I just kinda did. There was a reason.
: Now, let me show you why it’s so hard to get Akechi’s finisher screen.
: The reason is because he has already learned Eigaon, which does enough damage to oneshot most of the enemies here. He starts at… I think level 44, which we had already surpassed in Okumura’s palace.
: “Then let us check around. We may find something useful.”
: “Like… what?”
: “Mwehehe… I get it. You mean some kinda customer data terminal.”
: “Haha, I am glad you’re so quick to understand. Though even if I were to find such a terminal, there is nothing my meager skills could do about it…”
: “That’s where I come in. Leave it all to me!”
: The back room is a Persona 1 style hallway maze, only without any of the things that made Persona 1 interesting. The casino as a whole is basically a defanged Thanatos Tower.
: The problem with the casino is really that the map sucks - it wasn’t really designed for dungeons with overlapping floors. It also has a lot of rooms that serve no purpose.
: There’s a box about halfway through that you can climb to get to where the first will seed is.
: I think it’s technically possible to get this without backtracking if you know what you’re doing, but I kind of had very few memories of this dungeon beyond the general structure and what the boss fight is.
: In the back rooms, we find a second kind of stealable.
: This one contains a new treasure demon, Orlov. The real stone it is modeled after was supposedly stolen from a Hindu temple by a French soldier, but that’s not actually true.
: The Orlov started out much in the same way the Koh-i-noor did, in that it was mined in the Mughal Empire and was later taken when the Mughals fell - in its case, it wound up in Persia and was then lost when the king of Persia was assassinated.
: It was traded around for a while, and then ended up in Amsterdam, where it was purchased by a Russian count by the name of Grigory Grigorevich Orlov. It was then set into a scepter belonging to Catherine the Great, and is stored in the Kremlin today.
: Orlov is weak to curse, so we let Akechi handle it and then grab it for compendium purposes.
: There’s another save room at the end of this area.
: Right outside the save room, we run into a group of Ose. Now’s our chance to get Akechi’s finisher screen so I can stop using him forever.
: “That thing really doesn’t want anyone gettin’ past there, huh… you wanna try attackin’ it?”
: “What do you want to do, Joker? We’ll go along with whatever you decide.”
: There actually is a way around fighting this encounter, but it’s INCREDIBLY badly signposted. First, let me show you the map of this area.
: The thing is, there’s no indication on the map that you can even sneak around the enemy. There actually is a way to do it… that I had to look up a guide to find. I want to re-record part of the casino anyway, so I’ll show the alternate solution after this.
: For the record, you still do this same fight in the alternate path, it’s just that you get an ambush on the enemy instead of facing them head-on. Consider this my equivalent of intentionally pinching Kumi in Hypnos Tower.
: The fight is against two Queen Mabs, who are weak to wind. Unfortunately, I couldn’t fit Wind Boost and Wind Amp (it really whips the llama’s ass) onto Michael, so this merely does 60% of the enemy’s HP in damage rather than killing her outright.
: I tried negotiating just to see if I could do it, because this is realistically the only chance we’re going to get. Getting Personas from auto-winning fights is kind of a crapshoot because (with some exceptions) you can’t really tell which one you’re going to get.
: “Hey, it dropped something… is this some kinda keycard?”
: “Nice find! Maybe this’ll let us open that barred door.”
: Your other option is to go up these boxes over to the right, which for some reason are not marked on the map.
: The boxes lead to a vent, which you can crawl through to get to the other side of the door where that shadow is.
: Now, here’s why I think this entire thing is dumb. Let’s say you do this, and try to continue onward after skipping that fight.
: The only thing past that door is a door we can’t open because we don’t have the keycard for it. If we go down even further…
: “Talk about bein’ heavily guarded. They’re practically screamin’ 'bout how there’s something important in there.”
: “It would be foolish to overlook this, though perhaps even more foolish to meet them head on… what is your call, Joker?”
: Let’s pretend we don’t already have the keycard, and do this fight head-on as well.
: You get two fights against a Unicorn and a Valkyrie. Both will die very quickly to Akechi, but Joker can also straight up oneshot either of them at this point.
: Behind them is… an empty room with a door we can’t open because it’s locked from the other side. This fight is truly skippable.
: If we go through the keycard door instead, there’s a vent that will take us to where we’ve been trying to get to this entire time.
: “Okay then, let’s hurry up and take that guard down!”
: The guard is a single Ganesha, not even close to a challenge at this point. I think I managed to kill this one using only guns - Haru got a shock off with hers and then Ann followed up with a Technical.
: Having ultimate equipment this early is great.
: “Ah, aren’t those what we’re looking for? Oh, there are no names on them. They’ll be unusable if they remain unregistered.”
: “Mweheheh! I can handle that!”
: “I wasn’t sure what name to give it, so I just thought of a random one: Taro Tanaka.”
: “That’s way too simple! Aren’t they gonna figure that out?”
: Admittedly, if this were me, I’d probably have named them after the aliens from Buckaroo Banzai. That movie is a fucking experience.
: “Um, they already know what we look like, and that we’ve intruded into the Palace… then again, it’s prolly better to be safe than sorry.”
: It would’ve made a lot more sense thematically for Sae’s shadow to give them the player card at the start, the way Kaneshiro gave Makoto the bank card in his palace.
: The whole idea, as we’ll see in a bit, is that the courthouse has become a casino where Sae always wins and the goal is to fuck over the people playing - the defendants in the court.
: You can even hear this in the music for the casino, with the whole “roll the dice, spin the wheel” bit being stand-ins for the criminal justice system.
: It just would’ve made more sense because they’d be “customers” of the court the same way Makoto was a “customer” at Kaneshiro’s brain bank. Though what would I know, I’m not a JRPG writer.
: “Okay, the fake name for this card is a little more elaborate this time: Shinji Nakanomatsu.”
: “Joker, you can hold on to this card and the map. Don’t lose them, 'kay? As for the Taro Tanaka card… hmmm… Crow, get rid of it next time you see a garbage can.”
: “Hm? Why me?”
: If I was writing this, I absolutely would’ve had Futaba say something like “Because the trash is where you belong.”
: “These kinds of chores always fall to the newbie.”
: “…Oh.”
: “We can also use that elevator now, right?”
: “According to the map, it would be quicker to use this path than to go back the way we came.”
: As usual, Makoto is wrong. I’ll show you why, but first…
: Okay, so now let’s assume that you’ve already backtracked for the will seed and you’re in the control room we were just in.
: Going through the vent takes you to this room, which has a keycard door (and nothing else) in it. This will take you past where those two enemies were that we fought earlier.
: There’s a few more staircases and a lot of pointless bullshit. By the way, I realized I haven’t shown off Megidolaon yet.
: Just imagine if I’d gotten Almighty Boost and Almighty Amp. Problem is, that’d take a lot of effort at this point to get and then fuse onto something I could fuse into Uriel. I’d then have to make a Michael specifically to carry those to Lucifer.
: At the end of this hallway is another keycard door. If we take this, we wind up…
: Back at the top of the main area, right across from where we came in. There’s a vent just off to the right you can use to get back down.
: Or you could, you know… backtrack less than half that distance down the stairs to the save room, and then use that to warp to the one on the ground floor right next to the elevator.
: “It didn’t say nothing about the one for the manager…”
: “Well, the floors we have access to are limited by player ranking. That must mean the members floor is the highest we can go for now.”
: “Heh, members floor. I’ll fit right in.”
: “It’s impossible to mess with the data on the card too. It’s nothing like the ones I’ve seen before.”
: “So we can’t go directly to the manager’s floor… in that case, what exactly should we do?”
: “Our first move should be to head upward. Either way, we have no more business on this floor.”
: Sae’s shadow has a tramp stamp of a doberman. Somehow, I don’t think that gives off quite the message that Soejima intended it to. Then again, Soejima might’ve just been horny.
: “You wanna just get this over with right now, huh? That makes this easy. Bring it on.”
: “Do not speak to me as though you are my equal. I am the manager of this casino, as well as its number-one player. At the moment, you lack the qualifications to fight me.”
: “It would seem she looks down on us.”
: “And what if we would like to battle you, no matter what?”
: “I had to win time and time again in order to reach my number-one rank. If you want to face me, you must continue to win as well.”
: “Continue to win?”
: Metal Gear!?
: “It must have to do with the fact that this place is a casino.”
: “Correct. Do you have the confidence to win?”
: “We might just pull the rug out from underneath you if you aren’t careful.”
: What the fuck is that facial expression.
: “It’s going up…”
: “I wasn’t expecting to come all the way to a Palace only to end up gambling…”
: Clearly Yusuke never did Snow Queen.
: “What about you guys?”
: “Looks like this is going to take longer than expected.”
: “We don’t got time to waste!”
: “No need to worry. Leave this to me.”
: “You know how to do this?”
: Well yeah, of course I do. First you start Code Breaker, you make a savestate, and then find out what the code is and reload to get a million casino coins so you can skip the grind.
: “I’m well-informed on what it takes to win. In any case, we need to hurry and change her heart. If she acts recklessly, both her chances of promotion and reputation as prosecutor will drop greatly.”
: “Sae-san didn’t use to be like this, did she?”
: “My sister must have lost her sense of justice because her desires became distorted…”
: “Do you think there was a particular event that triggered her Palace’s creation?”
: It was when she realized she was an inferior ripoff of Katsuya Suou.
: “My sister took on all the responsibilities of dealing with it herself. Trying to earn a living wage, gain a promotion in a male society, and uphold justice at the same time… those things may have weighed her down and led to the distortion within her heart.”
: This game uses the word “distortion” like Kingdom Hearts uses “darkness”.
: “…My apologies, but we don’t have time to be sentimental. The longer we wait, the more people will learn about us. The investigation will advance as well. Hence, we must infiltrate this Palace as quickly as possible.”
: “She did challenge us to reach her, after all. Niijima’s Treasure must be at her managerial base of operations. Either way, we have to get there!”
: “It should be quite clear. We must play in the casino and win. Customers are divided into the different floors based on the rank of their play. If we wish to enter a higher floor, we will need to increase our rank.”
: I think we know that. Also, you might want to cool it on the red text or people will think this is Umineko.
: “And as I kinda mentioned earlier, a different kinda member’s card is used depending on your rank. We’ll have to obtain a card for the high limit floor somewhere around here.”
: “For real!? Ugh, what a pain!”
: “Why don’t we begin by walking around this floor? That should be a solid approach for acquiring intel.”
: The game will make us stop at the cashier before we do anything.
: “So all of this is going according to her plan… I cannot help but feel we’re being manipulated here.”
: The chip tracker will stay with us for the rest of this dungeon.
: “He’s just giving them to us!?”
: “Perhaps this is a show of confidence. It seems she truly has no intention of losing.”
: I hate that the way they word this, it makes it seem like the dungeon is non-linear and you can complete the slots room first, but you can’t. This is a totally linear dungeon.
: “That means we should probably start with the dice game… right?”
: “Prizes? What kind of things can we get?”
: Nothing great. This counter has a Soma (full SP restore) and a Bead Chain (full party HP restore) in addition to the item we need to progress.
: “I see… I believe I have figured out Sae-san’s intent behind this. She wants us to obtain that card by winning coins in the casino.”
: No fucking shit!
: “That’s absurd! 50,000 coins!?”
: Come to think of it, wasn’t 50,000 about the number of casino coins you need to have a chance at doing Thanatos Tower first?
: “I don’t wanna do that! Owin’ cash to a weird-ass casino in someone’s head is way too weird!”
: “Oh well… standing around here won’t get us anywhere. So, should we head to this dice game?”
: “Actually, do you mind if I speak to you all beforehand? There is something on my mind.”
: “It would not surprise me in the least if all the games here were somehow rigged.”
: You know what, I’m going to call it. Akechi/Makoto ship. They deserve each other. We’ve already seen they’re rigging shit, dumbass!
: “You think she’s cheatin’!?”
: “Remember, this is a courthouse in the real world. Sae-san is quite particular about ‘winning’ here. To compound that, defendants in Japan are prosecuted at a 99.9% success rate - defendants are nearly always found guilty.”
: Hashino, let’s be real here. I’ve played all of the Ace Attorney games. I’m seriously considering doing an LP of Great Ace Attorney Chronicle when it comes out. I’ve had that on pre-order for months.
: Shu Takumi is a far better writer than you could ever hope to be. Please leave the critique of the Japanese justice system to him.
: “What!? How can a rate like that really be possible? Are all those verdicts accurate?”
: From what I’ve heard, yes. However, I’m not sure where people get that specific statistic from. It’s also hard to make a comparison to the US because of the US’s tiered court system, and the fact that there are 50 separate state court systems.
: “No… the investigators are merely human.”
: “Then…”
: “You are not the first to point out the rigged nature of this system. The prosecution is nigh-unbeatable. That’s why cases of false accusation cause such a stir: they are exceedingly rare.”
: That’s kind of a questionable statement. The Innocence Project in the US estimates that around 4% of defendants in capital cases (read: death penalty) are wrongly convicted. That number becomes higher for non-capital cases, somewhere around 6%.
: “But it’s total bullshit gettin’ arrested even when you’re not guilty!”
: “Indeed - and if we do not hurry, the Phantom Thieves will fall victim to a similar fate.”
: “We’re going to win this, no matter what.”
: There’s some gift boxes lying around that give you either 100 or 200 casino coins. If you want all the prizes, you’re going to want to grab these.
: There are rule tablets for the dice game and the slots, which… why do these exist? The entire point of the dungeon is that the games are rigged - you can’t actually play them anyway.
: “Y-Yeah, I guess… that’s not really how a normal high schooler would describe it though…”
: “In any case, we should proceed further in.”
: I’m going to show you the easiest way to do this, which comes from my second run.
: See all those rooms on the map? Ignore them! I don’t even know why they’re here. There’s lots of stealables here though, so you might as well grab those first.
: If you take a left from the door where you enter the area, there’s a vent. This is where we want to go, though we can ignore about half the maze behind it.
: “Super convenient, don’tcha think?”
: “Oooh, so we’re gonna catch 'em in the act! I guess that’s easy… c’mon, let’s get to it!”
: Let’s talk about why this area sucks. See the map here?
: These two areas in white are actually connected - but they’re not connected on the map. One other thing I’d like you to notice is that if you look in the top-left, you can see a little thing representing the vent we crawled through to get in here, with an arrow to indicate that it goes somewhere else.
: That entire area in red? Pointless bullshit! There’s some stealables in there, and a chest with a weapon for Makoto…
: Which isn’t even better than the dumbass bear fists that we itemized off Bugs. By this point, most people are going to be within level range to fuse Bugs without needing to max Caroline and Justine.
: Anyway, let’s go back and take a look at some of the pointless bullshit, because I spent a while in here.
Battle maidens of Norse mythology who bring the souls of dead warriors to Valhalla, where they spend eternity preparing for Ragnarok.
: Valkyrie is a pure physical Persona who we have no real reason to use at this point. She’s not that great even if you’re not using overpowered bullshit like we are.
: I’d make a Valkyrie Profile joke here, but the only one of those I’ve played is the DS one, which is fucking garbage. It’s a game that forces you to “overkill” enemies or you die even though you’ve cleared the stage.
: It also commits the cardinal sin of being a game about “do not do the thing” and then forcing you to do that thing because the AI cheats so hard that you can’t win any other way. Fuck that shit!
: There’s some game coming out which is basically that but with furries (where it’s apparently about a bunch of furries in a tank that has a gun that requires a human sacrifice to fire) and I know they’re going to pull the same shit there.
Lesser goddess who was to be a sacrifice to Yamata-no-Orochi until she was saved by Susano-O. Comb imagery comes from Susano turning her into a comb to hide her from Orochi. Later became Susano’s wife.
: Personally, I prefer her appearance in Okami. Kushinada’s moveset kind of sucks, given that she has no offensive skills whatsoever, but she comes up in a lot of fusion lists for end-game stuff.
: Okay, so back to the second run. This door right here is the one you want. Notice that although it goes to a different area, it doesn’t have the arrow next to it the way the vent does.
: “So this is the cheating control room… what should we do, Joker?”
: “Very well. Let us dispatch it swiftly.”
: The guard is a Nebiros, which is exclusive to the area of Mementos covering Sae’s palace. It’s also part of a special fusion for Alice, the final Death Persona.
: Nebiros is weak to Bless, and given that we have all four of the canonical archangels, this isn’t much of a challenge.
: “C’mon, we should stop the rigging.”
: “Hold on a moment, I have an idea I’d like to discuss.”
: “Whaddya wanna talk about?”
: “I’ve devised an easier way of doing this… a way to get all the coins we need.”
: “All of them in here?”
: “Is that even possible?”
: I had to check the base game LP briefly to see if I had missed a line here (I didn’t) and they pointed out that everyone except Makoto and Futaba disappears when the camera turns.
: Now, you can call this bad cutscene direction… but it’s my firm belief that Ryuji got bored and went to go find tacos, and just took everyone else with him.
: They make it back before the scene ends because that’s how long-winded Akechi is. Futaba didn’t go because she spends most of her time in palaces playing video games on her headset and didn’t notice everyone else leaving, and Joker didn’t go because he had to cover for everyone else.
: “You can do that!?”
: Ryuji is actually reacting to the person at the taco place telling him he can, in fact, order a burrito the size of a newspaper and then have that burrito dipped in crushed doritos.
: “Wait, this is a job for me! It’ll be a breeze!”
: “Cheating seems somehow wrong though…”
: “The odds here are stacked against us. We would never win if we stuck to normal methods. We do not have any time to waste either. It would be best for us to focus on our objective.”
: “…You’re right. Changing my sister’s heart is the ultimate goal here.”
: “I feel bad asking this, but may we borrow your expertise yet another time, Oracle?”
: “I’m game! But man, you sure give a lot of orders for a noob!”
: Meanwhile, Haru and Yusuke are running down the street trying to order curry for Futaba. Ann is buying out the cream puffs at the bakery.
: “Okay, I rigged one of the rooms in our favor, just like Crow said. The other rooms should at least be back to normal honest gambling now too. Anyway, I marked our special room on the map. Make sure you use that one!”
: “Perfect. Now, let us head into the fray.”
: There’s a door right around the corner from the control room you can use to get back to where the dice games are.
: I like to think that at this moment, Joker’s phone rings. It’s Ryuji. “So, uh… can you do me a favor and ask Morgana what happens if you spill nacho cheese in someone’s brain?”
: The game explains the rules, which don’t matter, but I’ll explain them briefly. You roll three dice and guess whether they’ll be over or under 10.5. Getting the over/under right doubles your bet. Getting three matching dice triples it.
: If you get three sixes, you win five times your initial bet regardless of what your prediction was. The usual bet amount is 25 coins, but as we’ll see…
: “There is no need to worry. We will most certainly win.”
: I have no idea why they even have you do this, because the result is the same no matter what you pick.
: We repeat this three times.
: “We’ve got what we need - our next move’s up to you, Joker.”
: “Have we reached our goal?”
: “It still may not be enough.”
: “Are you seriously planning on taking every last coin in here?”
: “Ahaha, it was a joke. However, it would be nice to have a little more coinage on hand, would it not? Everyone wait here. Skull, I would like you to come with me.”
: This scene is not going to make any sense when we get to the slot room.
: “Why me?”
: “Because I am the ‘brains’ here, am I not?”
: “Huh? Oh, sure.”
: “…Time to see what he’s made of.”
: “That was amazing! It was like magic!”
: “I could totally get addicted to this!”
: “Where are Crow and Skull?”
: There’s a scene in the slot room where the party wins this gigantic pool of chips, and Makoto goes “Oh, they don’t matter, the total gets added to the player card when you win.” Presumably, Akechi knows this as well.
: “Whoa…”
: “So… heavy…”
: “Amazing… we managed to get our hands on 6800 coins…”
: “We still have a long way before we reach our goal though. Now then, on to the slot machines.”
: Ignore the chip counter, I took this shot earlier.
: This is just like the dice room in that we never actually have to play slots. In fact, there is no slots minigame.
: “We’re here to make money, not to play your games!”
: Atlus’s slogan for Persona as a franchise past Eternal Punishment. “We’re here to milk money from our fanbase, not make games!”
: In the base game, this fight was against three Kumbhandas. Instead, we get a fight against one Jatayu, who is significantly higher level.
: Joker gets a shock off using Gabriel, and then Haru finishes it before it can move. Haru’s gun can do some serious damage on a technical.
: “Wait, why didn’t the guests around us react to that battle?”
: “Perhaps as she sees it, they only care for their own victory, while ignoring the needs of others.”
: “That reaction is certainly different from what we saw on the lower floor. I wonder if that trend grows stronger the higher up you go in the court system.”
: “It is possible. In any case, we can now freely access the Slot Room. We should go look around… although I doubt we will find a fair fight waiting for us in this scamming casino.”
: I originally came in here to grab any gift boxes lying around, mostly because I wanted to experiment and see if Futaba’s thing that replaces the stealables works on them. It doesn’t.
: “I would expect they’re all rigged to prevent us from winning.”
: “Then should we deal with that first?”
: “No, I believe it would be prudent to examine this slot area further. Casinos hold their higher-limit slots somewhere in the back. If we were going to circumvent their trick, would it not be more efficient to do so on those?”
: This statement is kind of confusing, because the high-limit slots are actually in another room that we have to go through the maintenance area to get to.
: “That’s assuming we’ll even be able to solve the problem.”
: “I trust in your ability to handle such a matter.”
: “A-aight, let’s go look for that sweet, sweet slot machine!”
: First though… you see that thing on the wall? That’s important. You can examine it to have it added to your map.
: “Can you mess with it and figure out how they’re cheating, Navi?”
: “Welllll… this one’s on standby. Uh, basically I’m gonna have to activate it remotely from a main terminal somewhere else.”
: “So this one is useless unless we can access the main hub. Oh well. We should at least commit this place to memory for now.”
: The back door leads to the maintenance area, which has a very obvious path that is not the one we want to take. All this does is loop you back to the slot room.
: Instead, you want to jump down here to make this entire process as painless as possible.
: This area has the green terminal, which is the other one we need. There’s two dummy terminals - the yellow and one the blue one - which we don’t need.
: Right across from the green terminal is this pile of crap we can climb up to get to where the second will seed is.
: On the same platform as the will seed room is a vent that will take us right where we need to go. The rest of this area? Fuck it! You can skip it! There’s nothing in there except some chests with shit you don’t need.
: There’s a door nearby you can open with the keycard that provides a shortcut back to the main slots room and that other terminal we saw.
: “This must be the main hall of the slot room.”
: The slot area has bunnygirl shadows. They’re in the first part too, but I couldn’t get a good shot of them without getting spotted.
: “Wait, all cherries wins you 5,000 coins, BAR gets you 10,000, while a 777 gives you 50,000!? Whoa! That’ll get us all the coins we need in one fell swoop!”
: “Assuming we can win, that is. If the reward’s high, the risk will surely be high as well.”
: “Either way, our goal here is to gain a member’s card for the high limit floor. It would make the most sense for us to utilize this slot machine in some way, shape or form. However…”
: “Lemme guess, ‘We will need to stop their cheating first’? There’s no doubt this one’s rigged too.”
: “Haha, I’m glad you understand. Now then, let us search the area. Hopefully we will find something that can give us a little more information about this slot.”
: “There’s prolly a terminal for info back behind the thing. Try looking there, Joker.”
: There’s a chest on one side of the machine. The control panel is on the other side.
: “Mweheheh… let’s see… wow, they’re going really hard on this whole cheating angle. We wouldn’t have won a penny here.”
: “Do you think you’ll be able to disable their rigging of it?”
: “Not from this terminal. It looks like there are multiple different-colored control panels throughout this area. Out of those, I’ll need the red and green ones. I should be able to control things from there.”
: “Do you know where we can find them though?”
: I’ll just cut this short because we already know where they are. Futaba will explain that one’s near the entrance to the area and one’s in the back room.
: “Gotcha! We’ll be done after this!”
: “…Hold on.”
: “C’mon, what now?”
: I like to think that everyone realized they were in for Akechi overexplaining the obvious, so they went out for ice cream. Ann stayed behind because Ryuji offered to pay for her and bring it back if he didn’t have to wait instead.
: Ryuji orders a cone because he wanted a waffle cone, and gets ice cream dripped all over the carpet in the member lobby. The carpet is forever ruined by ice cream and nacho cheese.
: “So you want to take advantage of the system, just like we did for the dice game.”
: “Essentially. My aim here is the giant slot machine.”
: “You mean the one that’s 5,000 coins a play!? I don’t know if that’s really possible…!”
: “Oooh, sounds like fun to me. Just gimme a sec.”
: “The giant one’s still only on an 8:2 ratio though. There’s honestly no guarantee it’ll work properly.”
: Couldn’t you just borrow 6,000 chips or whatever first? That’d give you two shots at an 80% chance of winning.
: “Does that mean it will still miss two times out of ten? That’s somewhat concerning…”
: “It should be fine. Nothing the Phantom Thieves do can ever be considered truly risk-free, after all. If we want to succeed, we simply have no other choice but this.”
: Yes, putting all of your chips into a slot machine that has an 80% chance of giving you a 33% chance at getting the amount of chips you need is a solid plan. Wait, no it isn’t.
: Anyway, the game will offer to warp you right to the big slot machine, so let’s do that.
: “I-I wonder if we’ll actually manage to score that 50,000…”
: “She’s right. There’s a 20% chance the rig won’t work, and even if we win, it might not be enough.”
: “This is a big gamble, Joker. Are you sure about this?”
: “50,000 coins, hm? …You truly are special, Joker.”
: “It is no surprise the customers are reacting to this commotion. We should leave for now.”
: So yeah, that scene earlier? The only reason I can think of it for it to exist is because Akechi wanted to feel superior by making Ryuji push around a thing full of chips.
: “I wonder if we’ll be able to use that slot machine again…”
: “You wish to win more coins? I’m pretty sure we have enough.”
: “More is always better than less. Then again, I suppose we are already good to go.”
: “That’s right… we have 50,000 coins now! Let’s go exchange them for a member’s card to the high limit floor!”
: The game offers to warp us back to the cashier, so let’s do that. I realized I forgot to get shots of the red shadow here as well, so let’s grab one quick.
: The red shadows here are Skadi, and they only show up in the dice game area as far as I know - I cleared the rest of the palace without running into one. Like all red shadows, they will not negotiate until they are at very low HP.
: Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to negotiate with one because I kept accidentally shocking them, which prevents negotiations. I’ll just log it anyway, because her origin is kind of interesting.
Skadi (also called the “Snowshoe Goddess”) is a ice giantess in Norse mythology. She is the mother of Freyr (who was Ayase’s ultimate Persona in Persona 1) and Freya (who was added to Royal) and is associated with skiing and winter.
Her design in the Megami Tensei games is based on a false interpretation by an author named Barbara Walker, who re-interpreted her as a Celtic goddess of shadows - essentially turning her into a Celtic Scathach. Walker’s writing also influenced the design for Mem Aleph in Strange Journey.
: Basically, the lesson here is never trust anyone named Barbara. It’s a lesson that has served me well in life.
: Now that we have the coins, we can just buy out the store.
: “We finally have the card! Let’s do our best on the next floor as well.”
: “I hope I was able to contribute in some meaningful way. Come, let us head over to the elevator.”
: “This must be due to the instigation of Sae-san. We should be prepared to fight.”
: “We merely followed your rules.”
: “Hmph! I am the manager of this casino, and the rules deem that I am the victor!”
: “It appears both the Sae-san of the real world and that of this world are at their wit’s end…”
: “…I think our guests will be leaving now.”
: “You’re the only one who’s gonna be leaving, black suit!”
: “Things would’ve been so much simpler if we could do this from the start!”
: This time, we’re up against a Norn, which is a common encounter in the second half of this dungeon. I opt to go for a good old-fashioned devil busting by means of shooting it until it dies.
: Norn is a significant downgrade from Innocent Sin, when all three of the major Norns were individual Personas (Verdandi was Maki’s ultimate Persona in 1).
: Like an increasing number of enemies, Norn has no weaknesses. This one will Diarahan itself for a full heal, but we can still gun it down.
: “Criminal trials are but a gamble to be won, and us prosecutors arrange the gambling table. Hence, losses are unacceptable! We must win, even if it has to be on false charges!”
: “Are you serious, Sis!? Why won’t you answer me!?”
: “Mako-chan…”
: “Don’t think such a petty trick could defeat me. I may have to acknowledge your skills - if you can make it up to the manager’s floor, that is.”
: “She thinks the trials which shape the outcomes of people’s lives are nothing more than gambles? I wish I didn’t have to hear that from Sae-san herself…”
: “Sis is completely distorted! We have to stop her, quickly!”
: “We all feel the same way.”
: “There’s no time to waste. She mentioned something about a manager’s floor, right? Let’s try heading up there. We’ll change Niijima-san’s heart for sure.”
: “Huh, the manager’s floor still isn’t showing up…”
: “But she’s so close I can almost smell her! The next floor’s prolly gonna be the last one.”
: “I said, outta the way!”
: “We shouldn’t cause a scene.”
: “It seems there is some kind of requirement we must meet before we can access this high limit floor.”
: “Even though we got the coins?”
: Sae’s Palace is the first one since Madarame’s where we can’t clear it in one day due to there being a barrier… even if thematically, the barrier doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
: “It must be related to my sister’s cognition in some way…”
: “I can’t imagine how though…”
: “Her cognition? Essentially, Sae-san needs to think of us as being allowed to enter, correct? Hm. This casino is the courthouse in reality… so that floor must be a place only authorized personnel are given access to…”
: “… I would say it has to be the courtroom.”
: The idea of a courtroom as being a “restricted area” makes a lot less sense for a game that takes place in 2016. Remember, Japan’s justice system had started reintroducing juries in 2009, which would probably account for a good part of Sae’s legal career.
: There’s also the whole thing with people being able to observe trials, but according to that article, it rarely happened due to trials in Japan being very boring to watch, even compared to trials in the US.
: “You really are an ace detective.”
: “He’s come to understand the workings of the cognitive world so quickly.”
: “I was just like that too, right?”
: “I just understood it right away though. No need for that logic stuff.”
: “That aside, how are we going to get into the courtroom?”
: “Ryuji! Go piss off the police!”
: “Hell no!”
: “We just need to attend a trial. Still, how are we supposed to know which trials my sister will be attending?”
: “Leave that to me. I have some connections in mind. I will contact you once I manage to arrange a time.”
: I wound up leaving without even using the fusion alarm.
: “It feels like we’re fairly close to the Treasure now. There’s no doubt we’re nearing the end.”
: “It seems we have a solid overall understanding of this place. I assume this is simple for you? Either way, please let me know when we are meeting next. I will be eagerly awaiting your call.”
: “We really can’t fail this time. Let’s go about this carefully. After we go to the courtroom tomorrow, we should head straight into the Palace.”
: Just like Morgana says, we’re being launched directly into the second half of the dungeon with no time in between. This means no money reading or alarm reading.
: After getting a massage from Kawakami, we’re doing Mishima’s Rank 9 tonight.
: “Let’s talk at the diner then. It’ll probably surprise you… but we can talk some more over there.”
: “Well, it turns out they were really dangerous. I looked them up… and found some seriously scary info. Apparently they’re part of a gang that’s involved in extortion stuff like that all the time.”
: “I wish I had known that going in… one slip of the tongue in that act I pulled, and I would’ve been dead.”
: “Me too! Now I really know the true joy of life. Honestly though… you’re amazing. You weren’t afraid in the slightest. Maybe it’s only natural after all the nightmares you’ve been through…”
: “H-Hi there…”
: “U-Um, not yet…”
: The Zero wasn’t a stealth fighter though. Stealth technology didn’t really exist in World War II.
: “Akiyama-kun…”
: “Um, ‘before’? I don’t really know what you’re talking about.”
: “Huh…?”
: “It looks like Akiyama-kun’s gonna be just fine. He’s a pretty strong-willed guy. And… I really have changed, huh? Do you think maybe now I’m starting to be like the Phantom Thieves…?”
: “I’m gonna work even harder now to make sure I live up to your legacy!”
: “You know, I always used to think I couldn’t amount to anything. But I somehow managed to step up and help Akiyama-kun with those thugs. It made me realize… there really are things I can do to save people.”
: “That’s why I’ve started writing a documentary on the Phantom Thieves. The research I did on that gang Akiyama-kun was wrapped up in was actually what pushed me to do it.”
: “And now I’m basically putting together a massive log of all your activities from the Phan-Site.”
: Clearly, Mishima has learned nothing.
: “Oh, don’t worry! I’m coming up with aliases for all of you. If you guys have code names you use, those would work too. At any rate, we should celebrate today! My treat!”
: “Screw the fountain drinks… let’s go straight for the fancy fruit juice! It’s three times the price, so it’s gotta be three times better!”
: “Fancy fruit juice”, aka “Let’s order wine with a fake ID”.
: “But I only have so much money… if you wanna order anything else, it’ll have to come out of your own pocket, okay? Anyway… let’s party until we have to go catch the last train!”
: Yes, partying until the last train with ‘juice’. Got it.
: “Uh… sorry. I don’t know the right thing to say after coming home from a party. Ahaha… but that was so fun, right? I’ve never stayed that late at a diner before.”
: “You think it’s the power of that fancy fruit juice? I mean, it did cost three times the usual price! …Okay, I’ll stop joking around. I think I’m just really happy to hear that one comment from Akiyama-kun…”
: “You heard what he said about me… but do you really think some part of me’s changed?”
: “Wait, really? You mean… I actually look confident now? Eheh… gosh, man, you’re gonna make me blush… but thank you.”
: “…That documentary I mentioned? Starting today, I’m going to start writing it seriously. And once it’s finished, I want you to be the first one to read the script! It’s our promise! A vow between men, okay? See you!”
: Next time, we’ll go to court to see an unfitting visual metaphor and then finish off the casino.
There are some repeated images at the start of the fight with Shadow Honjo.
Akechi…what are you talking about? She wants you to not obtain that card by not winning coins in the casino. Because it’s a casino. She wants you to lose.
Just went back and fixed that. Thanks for pointing it out.
So do you think Joker’s telling Sae what the shadows look like? I’m having a chuckle imagining him telling her that her Shadow has a mountain of eyeliner and a tramp stamp of a dog.
Mostly I’m just weirded out that they needed to slam together two different metaphors (Running the casino and never losing vs. the dog fight with the collar and tattoo) into one goofy less coherent than either mess.
