Click Here for Update 86
: Here we are. Finally, we’re about to catch up with where we were in the very introduction of the game… almost 95 hours later.
: "Good morning. I know this is last-minute, but if it’s possible, could you come and see me during lunch today?
: “Glad to hear it! I wanted to discuss something with you, since it’ll be our last chance to do so here.”
: I’ve mentioned this before, but you may have noticed coming from the last update that we only reached Rank 9 with Maruki. That’s because if you are Rank 9 on 11/18, you automatically rank up to 10.
: Failure to reach Rank 10 locks you out of the expansion content and sets you on the path to the base game’s ending.
: Fortunately, I have checked, and I do have a save file from the end of the base game… where I was 75 hours in. Have I mentioned we’re closing in on 96 hours at this point?
: “It’s quite the sad affair. I do have a farewell speech to give the school at morning assembly, but I’d also like to speak with you individually.”
: “Considering the occasion, lunch is on me. I’ll have something special waiting for you, so you look forward to that. Well, I’ll see you later!”
: “As the Vice Principal has mentioned, today marks the end of my tenure at Shujin Academy. Over the past several months, I’ve come to learn about all sorts of conflicts that you students have faced this year.”
: “Troubles with romance, with studies- in fact, some of you have financial issues that are awfully similar to my own… but before I leave here, I want to offer you a final piece of counseling.”
: Never do bossfights on extreme. Except Okumura, that one’s okay. But the rest? Never.
: You know, just escape to the one place that has not been corrupted by capitalism… space!!
: “Um, what I’m trying to say is, even if your life is full of worries, it’s best for you not to obsess over them. Your existence in this world is an amazing miracle. You deserve to spend your days in happiness.”
: Fuckin’ magnets.
: “I’ll keep on rooting for all of you to have the best lives possible, even after I’m long gone.”
: “Ow!”
: “Heheh… I guess things don’t always pan out like you expect. Well, that’s it… thank you for having me here this year. Good luck to you all!”
: “I wanted to thank him personally… but it may be best to hold off on that for a bit.”
: “Mmhm. I doubt we could get a word in edgewise, anyhow.”
: “Since this is about to be my last meal at Shujin, I’ve brought the best lunch ever. These tempura bowls are from a restaurant I’ve been curious about since I first came to the school.”
: “I’ve always passed on it due to the price - but today is special! Not only that - I ordered the deluxe bowls for us!”
: “I should be the one thanking you. All right, let’s eat!”
: And this is why you take your glasses off to eat.
: “I’m so glad I splurged on that. Upscale dishes like that really do taste incredible. I wish I could just get lost in this bliss forever. …Well, now that we’ve finished our food, let’s get down to business.”
: “First off, I have quite big news. My paper’s done.”
: “I’ve mentioned this before, but still, this is truly thanks to you, Kurusu-kun. Had you not shared your experience and insights with me, this paper never would have been completed.”
: “Please, allow me to express my gratitude to you once more as a most helpful student of Shujin…”
: “There’s no need to be obtuse. Why don’t you take a look at the title of my paper over there?”
: “You know, the Phantom Thieves’ act of changing hearts is rather reminiscent of cognitive psience in practice. They infiltrate a ‘reality’ that exists solely for their target - a reality wholly separated from the one that the public recognizes.”
: “By accessing that world, they gain the means of permanently altering their target’s condition. That is what I hypothesize as being the ‘change of heart’ you induce in your targets.”
: “Well, I did pour my heart and soul into this research for a number of years. To be entirely honest, it was all the way back in April… when I first came to speak with the principal here about providing counseling to you students…”
: April 15th, to be precise. Though… doesn’t it seem a little strange that he’d be coming to offer counseling on that day? The news about Kamoshida wasn’t public yet.
: I had to dig to find it, but you can in fact see him on 04/15 - this is the day that Ann follows Joker and Ryuji into Kamoshida’s palace and gets her Persona.
: Maruki is on screen for less than a second, and since I didn’t know about the changes to this scene at the time I recorded it, I didn’t think to get a shot of it.
: “I actually witnessed the moment when you came out of an ‘individual’s reality’ like I’d mentioned. You suddenly appeared in the back alley near the school - I believe Sakamoto-kun and Takamaki-san were with you?”
: “Takamaki-san appeared to be extremely exhausted.”
: “Beyond what I witnessed, I had also been told that you three were closely associated with Mr. Kamoshida in some way. At that point, I was already half-convinced that you were involved.”
: “I was almost certain Mr. Kamoshida’s change of heart was provoked by the three of you.”
: “Hmm, well… I’ve been researching cognitive psience ever since I was a grad student. For years I’ve been attempting to directly interact with an individual’s cognition so I can help address their pain and despair.”
: “…But, for certain reasons, this research has never been acknowledged in academia. Despite that, I continually pursued evidence that my hypothesis is correct.”
: “It was during that time I happened to come across the ‘Phantom Thieves of Hearts,’ fresh from a mission. My heart began to dance… I thought to myself, maybe I could complete my research if I were to have your assistance.”
: “That’s why I approached you and your group of friends in the first place, Kurusu-kun. I hadn’t mentioned any of this until now because, well… I didn’t want you to take it the wrong way and suspect my motives.”
: It’s kind of hard to understand why this would need to be a pre-requisite for the expansion content - or rather, why the writers couldn’t have written an alternate route to it.
: It’s not like Maruki wouldn’t know who the Phantom Thieves are without Joker visiting him, and really there aren’t a whole lot of conclusions he couldn’t have reached without Joker.
: “But I think that’s everything I’d kept from you… does that change your opinion of me?”
: No.
: “A deal, eh? Well, I’m awfully grateful you see it that way. And just so you know, I have no intention of telling anyone about this. If you don’t believe what I’m saying, you’re free to change my heart as you like.”
: “Thanks to you, I finally know what I need to do… I’m going to stand up to our current reality. I swear I’ll use my research to make our world a better place. Though, it’ll likely be through different means than how the Phantom Thieves reform members of society.”
: “…Indeed. You have a strong moral compass, never losing sight of your own definition of justice. I’m more grateful than ever to have met a young man like yourself.”
: “Although it’s not like this is the last time we’ll see one another…”
: Vohu Manah is one of the few Personas that originated in Persona 1 to make a return in any other Persona game. I am going to want to fuse him for itemization purposes - but not now.
: “I’m going to follow the path that I believe in. I sincerely hope that, one day, at the end of that path, I’ll be able to aid you as well… even if you just considered it to be meddling in your affairs.”
: The school bell rings.
: “Whoops! Looks like we’re out of time. We’ll meet again though, right?”
: “That’s right.”
: “…Kurusu-kun! …No, it’s nothing. Best of luck to the both of us! See you around!”
: “Ain’t this place always empty though?”
: “You’re right.”
: “Let’s just call it a hidden gem.”
: “Um, we’re supposed to be discussing where we should send the calling card…”
: “Considering how big the hype’s gotten, she’ll probably just think it’s a prank, won’t she?”
: I corrected the above line, because in the game, Ann says “prolly” which makes me think it was originally intended to be Ryuji talking and the developers just kinda forgot when doing the portraits.
: “I could always put it on Sae-san’s desk. People know me there, so I could gain access easily.”
: “That’s not a good idea. If you’re the only one who can get in there, it’ll be easily traced back to you.”
: “I’ll do it. I can just tell her it came for her in the mail. That would be the least risky method. No matter what she asks, I’ll tell her I don’t know anything.”
: “But Makoto, that’s…”
: “You’re our leader, so this will be up to you. Should we leave the calling card to Makoto?”
: “We’re asking too much from Makoto, though…”
: I love that Yusuke is low-key throwing shade at Makoto. That’s definitely not the writer’s intention, but it just works so well. “Yeah, I don’t know if we can trust Makoto with a simple lie. She’ll probably fuck it up like she does everything else.”
: “I’ll be okay. I’ve already traversed far more dangerous ground than this.”
: “We will leave it to you then. Thank you for agreeing to this. I will need to step up my game as well to make up for it…”
: “Very well then. We’ll enter from in front of the courthouse. Does six o’clock in the evening work for everyone?”
: “Yup, got it.”
: “Same as always.”
: “Well then, let’s get ready for tomorrow! Dismissed!”
: There’s another blurred cutscene here. This one I won’t show in a separate thing, if only because we’re not far from the point where they all get revealed.
: “All that’s left is to carry out the operation that Makoto outlined earlier. Now we just need to hand it over. As long as we can get it to Niijima…”
: They had to repeat a sin because there’s eight dungeons (counting Mementos, which represents Sloth).
: “I found it in our mailbox…”
: “To think they would send me one… they brand me a criminal and plan to change my heart? What nonsense! They only care about disposing of those who are an inconvenience for them!”
: “Fine… I’ll just have to catch them first!”
: “And when you do… you’re going to interrogate them, right? In some kind of underground room, was it?”
: The only way this scene works is if you view it from the point of view that Sae knows Makoto is a Phantom Thief and just doesn’t give a shit.
: “Why do you ask?”
: “Oh, I just remembered you mentioning something like that before…”
: “That’s right. It will be in a special interrogation room underground. My time will be limited, but I will do whatever it takes to make them divulge their secrets!”
: 200.00% HORNY
: “I should probably be getting back. It’s late, but I should contact the director and let him know about this calling card… I expect things will calm down a little once this case is over.”
: Makoto’s thinking “Oh god what if she has that tramp stamp in real life I don’t think I can ever un-see it.”
: “Sis… Um, I-I’m on your side! I won’t let anyone do anything to you!”
: chuckle “What an odd girl…”
: “Do you need to make a call? I’ll head up to my room then.”
: “There’s something I need to inform you of… I received a calling card from the Phantom Thieves. It was addressed to me directly and -”
: “Stand by!? And you’ve transferred command of the investigation to someone else…!?”
: Keep that last line in mind for right after we re-do the tutorial.
: “No, of course not… yes… I understand. I’ll remain on standby until further instructions. Please excuse me.”
: “Tomorrow’s our only chance at the Treasure, so it’s do or die. Let’s knock this out of the park!”
: We can’t leave Leblanc, so I do a second thing of Power Instinct. This time the input is a QCF into a QCB. Unlike Featherman Seeker, none of the dialog in the retro games is really interesting.
: “What of the calling card, Makoto?”
: “I showed it to Sis… she took it from my very own hands…”
: “Makoto…”
: “I understand how you feel, but you mustn’t be so downtrodden.”
: “Yeah… if we screw this up, we’re done for. It’s way more than losin’ the place we belong… we could even lose our lives here, y’know.”
: “It will be all right. I want to save my sister, no matter what.”
: Makoto’s dialog here is practically every line from the Oneechanbara games.
: “Is everyone decided?”
: “Mm-hm! All’s well that ends well!”
: “So much has happened since we first started… you guys have become quite the reliable team. All right, Joker! This is the Phantom Thieves’ final heist! Give us the signal!”
: “As she planned…!?”
: “No… was the Treasure put on display to lure us here!?”
: Yusuke’s acting like that hasn’t been the case in all of the other dungeons they’ve done.
: “So that’s why we could faintly see its shape…”
: “First off, allow me to compliment you. I never expected you would be able to make it this far…”
: “We would much rather have the Treasure than your words of praise. Where did you hide it?”
: “It seems as though she wants us to pursue her…”
: “Dammit, she’s mockin’ us…! Let’s go after her!”
: We’re going in with Joker alone for this first run, because there’s special dialogue if you do. I didn’t manage to get the kill because it was like 12:30 in the morning when I recorded this and I forgot Arahabaki exists.
: “Is everyone ready to go?”
: “All right then, let’s go!”
: “Sis… I’ll protect you, no matter what it takes.”
: “What kind of game will it be this time? No matter what you bring out, we will emerge victorious.”
: “I only guided you here because this place allows me to fight to my heart’s content.”
: “Sis…”
: Why did they do this close-up on the model if they weren’t going to make the model’s expression match the portrait’s? It is a mystery. Oh wait no it isn’t, it’s Atlus being lazy again.
: “Dying to uphold justice sounds virtuous, but the ones left behind have to clean up the mess! Can you imagine the hardships I had to endure!?”
: “She’s lost control…”
: “This is wrong…”
: “Justice cannot yield to evil! I must win, no matter what!”
: “This is nothing more than self-righteousness…”
: “All we need to do now is determine who is right… in battle.”
: And you thought all those lyrics in the dungeon’s theme about roulette wheels wouldn’t come into play.
: Shadow Sae: “Instead, let’s have a competition to see who is truly the horniest!” and then Morgana takes off his scarf and goes super saiyan.
: Sae’s bossfight is a gimmick, just like Futaba’s was.
: She opens up with Roulette Time, which causes one of three things to happen.
: The bet can be HP, SP, or Money.
: Let me show off what happens if you attack her, because when I had a full party, Sae got rolled so hard that she never went into her final phase.
: Sae only has around 8,000 HP… but as you can see, even doing over a quarter of that in one hit doesn’t make a dent in her HP bar.
: Attacking her causes her to counter with a move that reduces the attacker’s HP to 1. I don’t believe this can be dodged - not that it would help much, because we can’t even damage her.
: While we do get a turn between her using Roulette Time and the attack actually going off, we can’t do much with it. The only things you can do without her penalizing you are use items, use buffs (including Charge and Concentrate), and use healing or support spells. Debuffing her will cause her to counter, even though it doesn’t do damage.
: “I’m almost positive she’s going to try and cheat, but even if we bring that up, she’d just ignore us. We should go along with the game for now and try to gain evidence on her methods of cheating.”
: “…I agree.”
: You’re given two options to bet with. The safe bet is a choice between red and black, while the risky bet is picking between sets of numbers.
: I’d like to remind you that on a standard roulette wheel, the chance of a single color coming up ten times in a row is approximately 1 in 1,376. I bet on black every single time.
: It’s hard to get a shot of, but the ball lands on 22 black - except then it hits a transparent cover and rolls into the 5 red slot.
: This one’s from an earlier take, which is why the ball is in 6 black instead of on 5 red.
: Sae’s shadow then drains about 150 HP from Joker and uses it to heal herself.
: “How humiliating…”
: This is where the special dialogue kicks in. With all of the other bosses, you don’t ever have to do any of the “send someone to do something” mechanics - but here, you need to.
: However, the developers foresaw someone doing this, so they built in a failsafe. If you do not have anyone with you, you have to survive ten rounds of Roulette Time.
: The money bet is 6,000 yen every time you lose, and she used this a lot. The SP bet, which she used once, is 150 SP.
: I keep betting on black, and keep losing. Now for the special dialogue.
: “Sh-Shut up! You’re probably cheating! How else would we keep losing like this!?”
: “Hmph! Why would I cheat…?”
: “There’s no way you’re not, you liar! It’s totally obvious!”
: The thing with the glass lids only matters if you have someone to snipe them - I don’t know why they even included it if you don’t have someone to do that.
: I like this route a lot more than the one where you go in with an actual party.
: “More importantly, are you so weak that you have to cheat to win? And you call yourself a Palace ruler? You’re just a wimp! You should totally be ashamed!”
: “You only dare talk like that because you can’t beat me…”
: “Shut it! To begin with-”
: Meet Leviathan, Sae’s demon form. It’s basically the Statue of Liberty combined with the Patriarch from Killing Floor. Seriously though, were the armored breasts really necessary?
: In her second phase, Sae turns the roulette wheel into this. Notice that 0 and 00 have been replaced with the Almighty symbol. That’s for phase three, which I skipped entirely on the full party run.
: This is the major departure from the base game’s version of this fight. In the base game, she keeps using the standard Roulette Time that bets HP, SP, or money - only it’s no longer rigged.
: She still uses Roulette Time, but despite the name, it’s not random. In this form, Roulette Time changes Sae’s element. It will always pick an element that someone is weak to: you can actually manipulate this if you’re only using Joker.
: When she picks an element, her resistances change as follows: she repels whatever element she picked, becomes neutral to the opposing element, and resists everything else.
: In this case, because I had Beelzebub out, she picks Bless. I’m not sure what her rules for edge cases like if you have Lucifer (who resists, nulls, or repels almost everything) but I never got the chance to find out.
: With Bless activated, Sae becomes neutral to Curse, repels Bless, and resists everything else. She also starts using an element-based attack, which is just called (Element) Strike.
: Beelzebub gives no fucks.
: I try a Blazing Hell on her, forgetting that Beelzebub is weak to Bless and does not have Ali Dance. Again, I was recording this at like 12:30 in the morning.
: If she hits a weakness with her elemental attack, Sae follows up with Severing Slash, which does a shitload of physical damage.
: Because her elemental attack isn’t actually that strong, you could take a Persona that has a weakness but repels Phys and Gun (see: Arahabaki) and abuse the shit out of this.
: I then switch to Gabriel, because Gabriel absorbs Bless. While we’re still hitting surprisingly hard, I can’t pull off four digits like this.
: After I absorb a couple of hits, she switches to Curse to hit Gabriel’s weakness. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything that nulls or repels Curse but that can also use Bless attacks.
: I bring out Uriel, who can hit her for four digits without even using Concentrate.
: Then I accidentally trigger her third phase, which she starts at 50% HP.
: At this point, she does one more regular Roulette Time before…
: She lands on Almighty. This gives her an attack that is basically Megidolaon, as well as a couple of very strong physical and gun attacks. I could have won this if I switched to Arahabaki, but again, I forgot I had him.
: The good news is that in Almighty mode, she has no resistances… except physical and gun.
: She also starts attacking twice per turn. If I had two more turns, I could easily have killed her. Unfortunately, I can’t keep up with healing while also doing damage, so I die. Let’s go to my other take.
: The other LP thought it was ridiculous to have Haru snipe it, but to me, it kind of makes the most sense. It doesn’t actually matter who you send, but what if the glass is bulletproof?
: At the next Roulette Time, you want to choose the risky bet. In the base game, this actually mattered - not so much here. You’ll always win the first spin after you send the sniper, and then it goes into the next phase.
: We have her in an All-Out, but it doesn’t matter.
: Sae’s shadow repeats the same dialog we saw when we did this in the first take, but this time, Makoto has something to say.
: “This… is my sister’s true nature!? No…”
: This time around, she goes Ice. This is exactly what we want her to do, and she will not get to go into her third phase as a result.
: Oh no, 49 whole damage. Whatever will I do?
: Just over a quarter of her HP in a single hit, that’s what. Just imagine if I’d gotten Fire Boost on Beelzebub somehow.
: I can’t prove it, but I’m pretty sure that if she can’t hit a weakness with her attacks, Sae’s shadow is less likely to switch elements. She never did in this fight, but she had the time to.
: And with that, Sae’s shadow is down before she even gets into her third phase. I’m pretty sure I killed her on the last turn before she would have gone into it, but without the attacks in her third phase, Sae isn’t even really a threat.
: “That’s only a Shadow. Why are you so…”
: “Quiet!”
: “…Sorry.”
: “We’ll go grab the Treasure.”
: “I don’t think it’s wrong to bring light to evils which can’t be judged by law. That’s all the Phantom Thieves have been trying to do too. But these aggressive investigations? Twisting the truth for your own personal gain?”
: “Please… you have to think back to the feelings you had when you first wanted to be a prosecutor. Think about your justice, Sis.”
: “My justice…”
: “Try to remember how you used to be…”
: So what you’re saying is that she’s not crazy, she’s just a little impaired? That you feel like she’s headed for a breakdown, and you don’t know why - but stay a while and she’ll think of you and how she used to be?
: “How I…”
: “Niijima-san… she’s just like my father. What caused them to change like this?”
: “Hm… even though their own desires were the cause, succumbing to such distorted thoughts is strange… is there another reason they don’t know of?”
: “This deal we made… was a great experience for me. To think that I, a detective, would act alongside the Phantom Thieves…”
: “Yes. And you all shall end this Phantom Thieves business… that was part of the promise, after all. Don’t forget.”
: “All right, we don’t need to stay here any longer!”
: Say, shouldn’t the casino be collapsing right about now?
: “Huh!? Enemy readings! When did they…!? They’re gathering outside!”
: “For real!? The hell’s goin’ on!?”
: “Look at those numbers!”
: “This doesn’t look good…”
: “We defeated the Palace ruler and even stole the Treasure, yet the Shadows are still restless… it doesn’t make any sense… what’s going on here?”
: “We need to go now! Those guys in black suits are almost here. We’ll be done for if we get surrounded!”
: “A team this large would be discovered immediately. We had best split up for our escape… although, we’ll need someone to act as a decoy… no, that’s too dangerous.”
: I mean, it’s not like we don’t already know what happens next.
: “Joker!? Are you planning on distracting them by yourself!?”
: “Let him do it, Queen. He’s quiet, but once he’s mind’s made up, he’s not gonna take no for an answer. …I’m sure you ain’t gonna die. It’s you we’re talkin’ about here.”
: “Please don’t do anything reckless, okay?”
: “I’ll never forgive you if you don’t make it back.”
: “We still haven’t fulfilled our deal, remember?”
: “Even more are coming!”
: “This truly is a painfully reluctant parting!”
: “It seems we had best hurry.”
: “…We’ll see you later.”
: Right after the scene ends, the game plays the opening anime cutscene again. You can see it in the first update.
: The dialog is exactly the same as the first update, except the shadow effect on the portraits is gone.
: Just like before, we jump across some stuff and get into a fight.
: There’s exactly one change here, which… honestly, I’m not sure why they put it in.
: Last time we fought Moloch, we didn’t know that he’s weak to ice. We didn’t even have an ice Persona.
: Hm. It sure seems like those bonds we have with our friends are important…
: The game even makes us go through the sneaking tutorial again. You know, game, you can do this thing where you just hand-wave it and say “Oh, the first time was the drugs.”
: We have the scene where Kasumi comes in and is Cutscene Dante, and it’s funny because none of the dialog in this part makes any fucking sense when you know what’s going on.
: You fought one battle! One! One battle where Joker did basically everything!
: We can break this scene hard enough for the seams to show.
: Yes, I’m sure Megidolaon only did 116 damage on these enemies that are 20 levels lower than Joker is.
: What? You mean this, or the giant plot-ruining asspull that’s about to happen in the next update?
: The promise to date that Joker doesn’t give a fuck about?
: The rest of this is shot-for-shot identical to the first update.
: Here’s a question you’re probably asking: are these cops shadows? No, they’re not… and that’s kind of a plot hole. The interrogation room Joker gets taken to? That’s the real world.
: I believe the canon explanation for how the cops got here is that Akechi left his phone with them, and they used it to warp in… actually wait, how did they warp all this shit in?
: Seriously, that’s several hundred guys. Even if they packed in real close, they probably would’ve needed at least a few trips to get all that (plus the cars and other equipment) through. It’s a goddamn logistical nightmare.
: So anyway, the cops enter the Metaverse with Akechi’s phone… and then none of them question why there’s a casino where the courthouse normally is. They then set up a perimeter on this magic casino because Akechi told them that John Persona was inside.
: Now what you have to remember is that at this point, the police know about the Metaverse. They know more or less how it works (because otherwise, how could they have gotten in and out?) and that weird shit like the courthouse becoming a casino happens there.
: I’d also like to remind you that canonically, I’m pretty sure the interrogation room is right next door at the police headquarters. Please remember this for next update.
: At this part, we can choose a different option than we did the first time. I just… didn’t.
: The only difference here is that we don’t get to pick our name again, which is kind of a drag. Joker just automatically signs it.
: And that’s how we got here. Next time, we’ll move beyond the intro cutscene, finally find out what was in all those blurred scenes (provided you didn’t read them already) and get introduced to the plot-ruining asspull.