Click Here for Update 81
: 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.
Returning Persona: Odin
Origin: Norse Paganism
First Appearance: Megami Tensei I
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.
New Persona: Uriel
Origin: The Bible
First Appearance: Megami Tensei II
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.
New Persona: Raphael
Origin: Judeo-Christian Mythology
First Appearance: Megami Tensei II
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.
New Persona: King Frost
Origin: SMT Original (Probably)
First Appearance: Shin Megami Tensei II
: 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.
New Persona: Gabriel
Origin: The Bible
First Appearance: Megami Tensei II
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.
New Persona: Michael
Origin: The Bible
First Appearance: Megami Tensei II
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.
New Persona: Black Frost
Origin: Atlus Original
First Appearance: Nocturne
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.
New Persona: Pale Rider
Origin: The Bible
First Appearance: Nocturne
Death.
: Pale Rider’s skills are a hodgepodge because we just need him to fuse Trumpeter, who is a component for Lucifer.
New Persona: Trumpeter
Origin: The Bible
First Appearance: Nocturne
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.