Colors Flying High - Let's Play Persona 5 Royal

Click Here for Update 86

timrodresized: 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.

Maruki: "Good morning. I know this is last-minute, but if it’s possible, could you come and see me during lunch today?

Maruki: “Glad to hear it! I wanted to discuss something with you, since it’ll be our last chance to do so here.”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: Failure to reach Rank 10 locks you out of the expansion content and sets you on the path to the base game’s ending.

timrodresized: 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?

Maruki: “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.”

Maruki: “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!”

Maruki: “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.”

Maruki: “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.”

timrodresized: Never do bossfights on extreme. Except Okumura, that one’s okay. But the rest? Never.

timrodresized: You know, just escape to the one place that has not been corrupted by capitalism… space!!

image

Maruki: “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.”

timrodresized: Fuckin’ magnets.

Maruki: “I’ll keep on rooting for all of you to have the best lives possible, even after I’m long gone.”

Maruki: “Ow!”

Maruki: “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!”

Makoto: “I wanted to thank him personally… but it may be best to hold off on that for a bit.”

Haru: “Mmhm. I doubt we could get a word in edgewise, anyhow.”

Maruki: “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.”

Maruki: “I’ve always passed on it due to the price - but today is special! Not only that - I ordered the deluxe bowls for us!”

Maruki: “I should be the one thanking you. All right, let’s eat!”

timrodresized: And this is why you take your glasses off to eat.

Maruki: “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.”

Maruki: “First off, I have quite big news. My paper’s done.”

Maruki: “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.”

Maruki: “Please, allow me to express my gratitude to you once more as a most helpful student of Shujin…”

Maruki: “There’s no need to be obtuse. Why don’t you take a look at the title of my paper over there?”

Maruki: “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.”

Maruki: “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.”

Maruki: “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…”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

Maruki: “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?”

Maruki: “Takamaki-san appeared to be extremely exhausted.”

Maruki: “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.”

Maruki: “I was almost certain Mr. Kamoshida’s change of heart was provoked by the three of you.”

Maruki: “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.”

Maruki: “…But, for certain reasons, this research has never been acknowledged in academia. Despite that, I continually pursued evidence that my hypothesis is correct.”

Maruki: “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.”

Maruki: “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.”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

Maruki: “But I think that’s everything I’d kept from you… does that change your opinion of me?”

timrodresized: No.

Maruki: “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.”

Maruki: “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.”

Maruki: “…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.”

Maruki: “Although it’s not like this is the last time we’ll see one another…”

Music The Path Is Open

timrodresized: 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.

Maruki: “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.”

timrodresized: The school bell rings.

Maruki: “Whoops! Looks like we’re out of time. We’ll meet again though, right?”

Maruki: “That’s right.”

Maruki: “…Kurusu-kun! …No, it’s nothing. Best of luck to the both of us! See you around!”

Ryuji: “Ain’t this place always empty though?”

Yusuke: “You’re right.”

Akechi: “Let’s just call it a hidden gem.”

Haru: “Um, we’re supposed to be discussing where we should send the calling card…”

Ann: “Considering how big the hype’s gotten, she’ll probably just think it’s a prank, won’t she?”

timrodresized: 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.

Akechi: “I could always put it on Sae-san’s desk. People know me there, so I could gain access easily.”

Morgana: “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.”

Makoto: “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.”

Futaba: “But Makoto, that’s…”

Akechi: “You’re our leader, so this will be up to you. Should we leave the calling card to Makoto?”

Yusuke: “We’re asking too much from Makoto, though…”

timrodresized: 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.”

Makoto: “I’ll be okay. I’ve already traversed far more dangerous ground than this.”

Akechi: “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…”

Yusuke: “Very well then. We’ll enter from in front of the courthouse. Does six o’clock in the evening work for everyone?”

Ann: “Yup, got it.”

Haru: “Same as always.”

Morgana: “Well then, let’s get ready for tomorrow! Dismissed!”

timrodresized: 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.

Morgana: “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…”

timrodresized: They had to repeat a sin because there’s eight dungeons (counting Mementos, which represents Sloth).

Makoto: “I found it in our mailbox…”

Sae: “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!”

Sae: “Fine… I’ll just have to catch them first!”

SMARTGIRL: “And when you do… you’re going to interrogate them, right? In some kind of underground room, was it?”

timrodresized: 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.

Sae: “Why do you ask?”

Makoto: “Oh, I just remembered you mentioning something like that before…”

Sae: “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!”

timrodresized: 200.00% HORNY

Sae: “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.”

timrodresized: 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.”

Makoto: “Sis… Um, I-I’m on your side! I won’t let anyone do anything to you!”

Sae: chuckle “What an odd girl…”

Makoto: “Do you need to make a call? I’ll head up to my room then.”

Sae: “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 -”

Sae: “Stand by!? And you’ve transferred command of the investigation to someone else…!?”

timrodresized: Keep that last line in mind for right after we re-do the tutorial.

Sae: “No, of course not… yes… I understand. I’ll remain on standby until further instructions. Please excuse me.”

Morgana: “Tomorrow’s our only chance at the Treasure, so it’s do or die. Let’s knock this out of the park!”

timrodresized: 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.

Akechi: “What of the calling card, Makoto?”

Makoto: “I showed it to Sis… she took it from my very own hands…”

Futaba: “Makoto…”

Yusuke: “I understand how you feel, but you mustn’t be so downtrodden.”

Ryuji: “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.”

Makoto: “It will be all right. I want to save my sister, no matter what.”

timrodresized: Makoto’s dialog here is practically every line from the Oneechanbara games.

Morgana: “Is everyone decided?”

Ann: “Mm-hm! All’s well that ends well!”

Morgana: “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!”

Morgana: “As she planned…!?”

Fox: “No… was the Treasure put on display to lure us here!?”

timrodresized: Yusuke’s acting like that hasn’t been the case in all of the other dungeons they’ve done.

Noir: “So that’s why we could faintly see its shape…”

ShadowSae: “First off, allow me to compliment you. I never expected you would be able to make it this far…”

Crow: “We would much rather have the Treasure than your words of praise. Where did you hide it?”

Crow: “It seems as though she wants us to pursue her…”

Skull: “Dammit, she’s mockin’ us…! Let’s go after her!”

timrodresized: 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.

Crow: “Is everyone ready to go?”

Morgana: “All right then, let’s go!”

Queen: “Sis… I’ll protect you, no matter what it takes.”

Crow: “What kind of game will it be this time? No matter what you bring out, we will emerge victorious.”

ShadowSae: “I only guided you here because this place allows me to fight to my heart’s content.”

Queen: “Sis…”

timrodresized: 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.

ShadowSae: “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!?”

Oracle: “She’s lost control…”

Noir: “This is wrong…”

ShadowSae: “Justice cannot yield to evil! I must win, no matter what!”

Crow: “This is nothing more than self-righteousness…”

ShadowSae: “All we need to do now is determine who is right… in battle.”

timrodresized: And you thought all those lyrics in the dungeon’s theme about roulette wheels wouldn’t come into play.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: Sae’s bossfight is a gimmick, just like Futaba’s was.

timrodresized: She opens up with Roulette Time, which causes one of three things to happen.

timrodresized: The bet can be HP, SP, or Money.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

Morgana: “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.”

Crow: “…I agree.”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: This one’s from an earlier take, which is why the ball is in 6 black instead of on 5 red.

timrodresized: Sae’s shadow then drains about 150 HP from Joker and uses it to heal herself.

Crow: “How humiliating…”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: I keep betting on black, and keep losing. Now for the special dialogue.

Oracle: “Sh-Shut up! You’re probably cheating! How else would we keep losing like this!?”

ShadowSae: “Hmph! Why would I cheat…?”

Oracle: “There’s no way you’re not, you liar! It’s totally obvious!”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: I like this route a lot more than the one where you go in with an actual party.

Oracle: “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!”

ShadowSae: “You only dare talk like that because you can’t beat me…”

Oracle: “Shut it! To begin with-”

timrodresized: 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?

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: Beelzebub gives no fucks.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: If she hits a weakness with her elemental attack, Sae follows up with Severing Slash, which does a shitload of physical damage.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: I bring out Uriel, who can hit her for four digits without even using Concentrate.

timrodresized: Then I accidentally trigger her third phase, which she starts at 50% HP.

timrodresized: At this point, she does one more regular Roulette Time before…

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: The good news is that in Almighty mode, she has no resistances… except physical and gun.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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?

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: We have her in an All-Out, but it doesn’t matter.

timrodresized: 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.

Queen: “This… is my sister’s true nature!? No…”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: Oh no, 49 whole damage. Whatever will I do?

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

Crow: “That’s only a Shadow. Why are you so…”

Panther: “Quiet!”

Crow: “…Sorry.”

Skull: “We’ll go grab the Treasure.”

Queen: “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?”

Queen: “Please… you have to think back to the feelings you had when you first wanted to be a prosecutor. Think about your justice, Sis.”

ShadowSae: “My justice…”

Queen: “Try to remember how you used to be…”

timrodresized: 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?

ShadowSae: “How I…”

Noir: “Niijima-san… she’s just like my father. What caused them to change like this?”

Crow: “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?”

Crow: “This deal we made… was a great experience for me. To think that I, a detective, would act alongside the Phantom Thieves…”

Crow: “Yes. And you all shall end this Phantom Thieves business… that was part of the promise, after all. Don’t forget.”

Morgana: “All right, we don’t need to stay here any longer!”

timrodresized: Say, shouldn’t the casino be collapsing right about now?

Oracle: “Huh!? Enemy readings! When did they…!? They’re gathering outside!”

Skull: “For real!? The hell’s goin’ on!?”

Fox: “Look at those numbers!”

Panther: “This doesn’t look good…”

Morgana: “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?”

Morgana: “We need to go now! Those guys in black suits are almost here. We’ll be done for if we get surrounded!”

Queen: “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.”

timrodresized: I mean, it’s not like we don’t already know what happens next.

Queen: “Joker!? Are you planning on distracting them by yourself!?”

Skull: “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.”

Noir: “Please don’t do anything reckless, okay?”

Panther: “I’ll never forgive you if you don’t make it back.”

Morgana: “We still haven’t fulfilled our deal, remember?”

Oracle: “Even more are coming!”

Fox: “This truly is a painfully reluctant parting!”

Crow: “It seems we had best hurry.”

Queen: “…We’ll see you later.”

timrodresized: Right after the scene ends, the game plays the opening anime cutscene again. You can see it in the first update.

timrodresized: The dialog is exactly the same as the first update, except the shadow effect on the portraits is gone.

timrodresized: Just like before, we jump across some stuff and get into a fight.

timrodresized: There’s exactly one change here, which… honestly, I’m not sure why they put it in.

timrodresized: Last time we fought Moloch, we didn’t know that he’s weak to ice. We didn’t even have an ice Persona.

timrodresized: Hm. It sure seems like those bonds we have with our friends are important…

timrodresized: 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.”

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: You fought one battle! One! One battle where Joker did basically everything!

timrodresized: We can break this scene hard enough for the seams to show.

timrodresized: Yes, I’m sure Megidolaon only did 116 damage on these enemies that are 20 levels lower than Joker is.

timrodresized: What? You mean this, or the giant plot-ruining asspull that’s about to happen in the next update?

timrodresized: The promise to date that Joker doesn’t give a fuck about?

timrodresized: The rest of this is shot-for-shot identical to the first update.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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?

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: At this part, we can choose a different option than we did the first time. I just… didn’t.

timrodresized: 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.

timrodresized: 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.

Joker you don’t have to tell everyone that you’re a Phantom Thief the second they ask.

And now Joker looks up at Sae and goes “Please tell me you don’t have that tattoo.”

Ah, a cleverly disguised hint at your next LP.

By the way, a couple of updates ago when the Phantom Thieves visited the courthouse, you said “Wait I’ve played Ace Attorney, doesn’t the prosecution sit on the right?”

Well I was watching an Ace Attorney LP recently, and I discovered two things. First, every remake of those GBA graphics looks even worse than the last. And second…

Phoenix is actually on the right side, and the prosecution is on the left. Their portraits are just mirrored for…some reason. I’ve played Ace Attorney but I forgot all about this.

Click Here for Update 87

timrodresized: We’re still not done with repeat cutscenes. There’s a lot of filler in this part - if you need a refresher, you can read Update 2. The only difference here…

timrodresized: Is that the SIU Director has his portrait for his lines. That’s it.

Justine: “Now that you have traversed your long, perilous recollection, you truly have entered the present.”

Caroline: “The effects of that drug are gonna wear off soon. This is your golden opportunity. You must grasp the truth that will save you from the brink of ruin.”

Justine: “The evil influence who wishes you dead is fast approaching.”

Caroline: “If you want to win this unreasonable game…”

timrodresized: I don’t know that I’d call it unreasonable. Except for the plot, the filler, and Okumura’s bossfight.

Justine: “If you wish to take back your stolen future…”

timrodresized: The game is repeating this VERY OBVIOUS HINT as to how to avoid the bad ending.

timrodresized: I also forgot to post this in the last update. You get this in the middle of the repeat cutscenes, after Joker signs his name.

Sae: “So that’s what led to your ending up here. What a disappointing end to the hero of justice. I still can’t believe it… but I now have a general idea of the methods you used for your crimes.”

timrodresized: Didn’t he explicitly tell you how everything worked? I think you’ve got more than a general idea of - oh right, this is Sae we’re talking about.

Sae: “There’s much more I’d like to ask, but my allotted time is nearly up… I do have a suggestion though.”

Sae: “I have a responsibility to solve this case. I will win, even if it means brokering a deal with you. Your operation was leaked, and you failed to change my heart. There’s no point in being obstinate now.”

Sae: “You’ve corrupted the order of this country and caused an uprising against its very existence. You’ll most likely be given life imprisonment or the death penalty… unless you accept my proposal.”

timrodresized: Wait, when did we cause an uprising?

Sae: “Going forward, I will read a list of people who are closest to you and this case. Tell me honestly whether or not the following are involved with the Phantom Thieves.”

timrodresized: I’m going to break my rule here about not using character portraits with dialog that I’ve written, because I think this just flows better.

Sae: “First, the friend who you’ve been with since the day you transferred to Shujin - Ryuji Sakamoto.”

Joker: “Never heard of him.”

Sae: “One of the victims of the Kamoshida case - Ann Takamaki.”

Joker: “I don’t know who that is.”

Sae: “Ichiryusai Madarame’s pupil - Yusuke Kitagawa.”

Joker: " …"

Sae: “The daughter of Wakaba Isshiki - Futaba Sakura.”

Joker: “Shouldn’t you know the answer to that by now?”

Sae: “The heiress to the Okumura foods legacy and daughter of its CEO - Haru Okumura.”

Joker: “You really haven’t been paying attention, have you?”

timrodresized: Remember, she knows that Futaba did the hack against Medjed, and unless Joker held back a lot knows that Haru was in Okumura’s palace. She also knows about Makoto.

timrodresized: Obviously, the third answer is the bad ending.

Sae: “So you won’t sell out your friends… then let me change the question. …I find it hard to believe that high schoolers could have pulled off these crimes by themselves.”

Sae: “Were there not others outside of your direct group who encouraged your crimes or lent their aid?”

timrodresized: This is where all the dumbass cutscenes at the start of each confidant go.

Sae: “Not to repeat myself, but remember that your life will be forfeit if your sentence is not lightened. …You had the cooperation of people outside your group, did you not? Can you tell me about them?”

timrodresized: Again, second option is the bad ending.

Sae: “…I see. So you won’t speak a word about either your teammates or your collaborators? Do you even understand the position that you’re in?”

Sae: “…Let’s discuss one other person - Goro Akechi. There are reports that he was acting alongside the Phantom Thieves as well. Might he be a part of your team too?”

timrodresized: There’s a reason we can’t let her know about Akechi. It’s not a good one.

Sae: “So Goro Akechi wasn’t one of you. Very well… so be it… you clearly have no intention of bargaining with me.”

Sae: “Even now, you’re still acting as though you’re a hero of justice? Your teammates have sacrificed you in order to escape, yet you wish to defend their honor? Why won’t you talk about them?”

timrodresized: This game is turning into Ace Attorney.

Sae: “…Justice? …Then tell me! What is this ‘justice’ you speak of?”

Sae: “Sticking to the right path? That’s no different from us! sigh You continue to stand firm… are you implying that we have no evidence on you?”

timrodresized: I think you just said the quiet part out loud there.

Sae: “But many people have fallen victim to this! We need to learn the truth.”

Sae: “After all this, you’re still-”

Sae: “Are you listening? The side effects of the truth serum should be wearing off. I won’t be deceived by such a poor act.”

timrodresized: I mentioned this when I did the full version of this cutscene back in Update 77, but this is the dumbest shit. Also, what connection does the “I won’t be deceived” line have to this scene?

Sae: “Hey. …Can you hear me? It seems your mind is clearing up… but unfortunately… my time has run out. Although I find your story quite interesting, I won’t be able to speak with you any longer.”

Sae: “…Huh? What are you getting at? …That’s right. No matter the results of this case, I won’t be receiving credit. I even had to call in a large favor just to conduct this interrogation…”

timrodresized: If you’ve read the second blurred cutscene, the one posted in Update 78, you’ll know this isn’t what the actual text of that scene is.

timrodresized: I’m not sure if they’re implying that Futaba hacked Sae’s phone somehow, or if they got that off Akechi’s… but if they got it off Akechi’s phone, why would Sae be talking to him about that? Wouldn’t he already know?

Sae: “Hey, are you listening? …Our time’s up. We’re done talking here. …Goodbye.”

Sae: “Planned? Why are you saying such odd things? Anyhow… there’s one last thing I want to ask you. There’s something that’s been bothering me for some time now.”

Sae: “Recently I was removed from my post as head of this investigation and was told to remain on standby. A short while later, I received word that you were caught in the act… within some bizarre phenomenon.”

Sae: “…But that was all I was told. You were told someone sold you out, correct? If that’s true, who could it have been? Don’t you have any idea?”

timrodresized: I like to think this isn’t actually how Joker reacts - it’s one of those Twin Peaks dream realm things where he’s asking Morgana’s astral projection what he’s supposed to do.

Sae: “What’s wrong? Might you have an idea as to who sold you out?”

Sae: “You’re not joking, are you!? If you know something, you must tell me! I won’t allow things to end like this!”

Sae: “I’ve been told the lock on it is quite complicated. But, it’s only a matter of time until it’s cracked. What’s so important about this smartphone? Are you going to unlock it and show me the data?”

timrodresized: As I was working on this today, I did a timeline of how the blurred cutscenes work - and really, there’s no time for this one to have taken place.

timrodresized: They kind of try to hand-wave it by not telling you what happens during that last blurred scene… except there’s another blurred scene coming up that more or less has to be right after that one.

timrodresized: Realistically, there’s at least two nights in here, if not more, that are totally unaccounted for by the plot. This sounds like a nitpick, but I mean, they went so far as to have these stupid blurred scenes to explain why the player isn’t involved and they couldn’t even keep that consistent.

Sae: “Hey… what are you trying to get at here? And what about this smartphone?”

Sae: “The traitor?”

timrodresized: This entire scene is voiced, and the voice on the recording is clearly Akechi’s.

Sae: “Please! I need you to be clear with me! Who am I supposed to show this to?”

Sae: “What do you…?”

Sae: “…You’re referring to him, aren’t you?”

Sae: sigh “What are you plotting? I can’t even begin to fathom it. …But it appears my time is up. This is as far as our conversation can go. This will be my last involvement with this case…”

Sae: “Heh… very well. I’ve listened to your whole story, so I may as well play along to the end. And that honest look in your eyes… I used to view the world the same way too, once.”

timrodresized: They changed a lot of lines in this scene (and the upcoming several days of solid cutscene) to be less badly localized, but I see they didn’t quite get all of it.

Sae: “I’ll place my bet on you. I just need to show him the phone, right?”

Music The Path Is Open

timrodresized: In the base game, this ability was just question marks.

timrodresized: Not only do we get Satan (who is a priority for fusion and who I will be fusing the second we get control again) but we also finally get the EXP bonus when fusing Judgement Personas.

Sae: “…I’ll be going now.”

Akechi: “Why do you seem so surprised?”

Sae: “I needed my director to step in to get access and I was directly responsible for this case. How did you get approval?”

Akechi: “For the same reason you did. I am heading up the investigation team, after all. It’s only natural I’d have the right to interrogate our culprit as well, don’t you think?”

Sae: “They assigned you command!?”

Akechi: “…That was a joke, of course. I’m merely here to assist with the public security interrogation. I am surprised it’s this far underground though… there aren’t any others incarcerated here, yes?”

Akechi: “Nobody would ever know if things got a little violent…”

Sae: “If I remember correctly… didn’t you say there was another culprit besides the Phantom Thieves?”

Akechi: “That was but a lie I spread to set them up. Oh, I’m sorry! I forgot that I had deceived you too, Sae-san. After all, if you wish to trick your enemies, you must first trick your allies.”

timrodresized: Game, we just saw this scene. It’s not even one of the ones that I have a problem with. I’ll just cut the rest of it, since that scene is in this very update.

Akechi: “Is there a problem?”

Akechi: “Hm? Excuse me? …? What is this phone?”

Sae: “It belonged to the leader of the Phantom Thieves. I believe you’ll need it for your investigation.”

Akechi: “Not personally. I was acting alongside the Phantom Thieves myself, remember?”

timrodresized: Did he ever tell her he was? I mean, I guess we can assume he did, but given this game’s insistence on showing every little thing…

Sae: “True. This is undoubtedly a great accomplishment. Good luck in there.”

timrodresized: Right between when she says this and the next shot, there’s a purple flash on the screen. It’s only there for a fraction of a second, but keep it in mind for later.

timrodresized: Light Yagami switch… turn on!

Akechi: “May I ask that you accompany me? Going in unarmed to interrogate a murderer makes me uncomfortable…”

timrodresized: This scene is incredibly stupid for a couple of reasons. We’ll get into that later.

Akechi: “That’s right. You and your little friends were vital to our plan. And now, it will be completed. Your popularity truly was quite stunning. That just made using you all the more worthwhile…”

timrodresized: That you’re a dipshit for not just asking the shadowy cabal to give you a gun instead of going through the risk of stealing the cop’s gun? That you’re using a suppressor on a gun that isn’t loaded with subsonic ammo, and so everyone in the building is probably hearing your gunshots?

timrodresized: Sojiro drops a plate.

timrodresized: Oh, or the part where this plan wouldn’t hold up to scrutiny because there’d be no gunshot residue on Joker’s hands or shirt?

timrodresized: GASP. Akechi works for Shido, who is behind the entire shadowy conspiracy and is the final boss of the base game!? Who ever could have guessed!?

Shido: “Regardless, all that’s left is to deal with the remnants.”

Akechi: “The continued deaths of these teenagers would be a bit much, don’t you think? I considered making it appear they had a falling out… but that would only amplify public frenzy… it would be best to have each of them meet with an unfortunate accident once the storm blows over.”

Shido: “Is there any possibility they’ll want to avenge their leader?”

Akechi: “No chance. They’re nothing but cattle anyway… they have no backbone without his guidance. I will keep my eye on them just in case though.”

timrodresized: So wait, if Shido doesn’t want Akechi saying his name over the phone, why is he letting Akechi rattle off his entire evil plan? Wouldn’t this have made more sense if they were both in Shido’s office?

Shido: “I’ll be counting on you.”

Shido: “Make sure to kill that strange cat once you find it as well.”

timrodresized: So… wait. Hold on. Shido knows who the party is, and didn’t just… I dunno, send his goon squad to abduct them all and kill them?

timrodresized: I feel like someone needs to talk to Hashino about the idea that making your villains sound like incompetent morons isn’t really compatible with the idea of your villains being masterminds behind this whole thing to take over Japan.

Akechi: “Understood, though I doubt there is anything to worry about. It’s merely a cat, after all. More importantly, they should be dealing with the suicide right about now.”

Akechi: “Things will become quite busy once the word gets out… I’ll need to prepare my comments on the matter.”

Shido: “I must be prepared to deal with it on my end as well. Beyond that… what of the director of the Special Investigations Unit?”

Akechi: “Perhaps he’ll be struck by a mysterious illness sometime soon…”

timrodresized: And here we have Hashino being inconsistent with how the whole mental shutdown thing works. Clearly, this is Death Note now.

timrodresized: I’m just picturing Joker with Yusuke as his shinigami. Sae finds the Death Note during the interrogation and bargains with Yusuke to use his shinigami powers to remove her tramp stamp.

timrodresized: Sae: “That’s totally how it works! Tattoo removal counts as a death! The tattoo is dying!”

Sae: “What was all that about, showing him this phone? …The Phantom Thief Alibaba? Who is this?”

Sae: “How do they know I have this?!”

Futaba: “Goro Akechi is evil. He didn’t come to interrogate the captured phantom thief… he came to kill him.”

Futaba: “Don’t trust the guard either. He’s an accomplice as well. Now then, I’ll tell you detailed steps to take. You must save Akira Kurusu.”

Sae: “You want me to… save him?”

Sae: “What is it?”

Sae: “…Did anyone else stop by? …Nobody?”

Sae: “So it’s all true…”

Sae: “It’s Akechi-kun. He had to take a sudden call, so he won’t be able to make it down today. …I’ve been asked to handle things instead.”

Sae: “You know… if you stay here, they’ll likely get rid of you to eliminate any evidence. I suggest you go into hiding at once if you value your life.”

timrodresized: This is one major change from the base game. In the base game, if you had Japanese voices on, the newscaster did not have subtitles.

timrodresized: This cutscene was one that I suspect may have been ordered for an earlier draft of the plot, but which Atlus had spent enough money on that they didn’t want to throw it out.

timrodresized: This right here is part of why I suspect that. We have no idea where this is, or who this person talking to Ryuji is. If I had to guess, this is probably something that would’ve been brought up in Ryuji’s confidant in an older script draft.

timrodresized: I’m wondering if this is a case where Yusuke having a bunch of girls interested in him was originally a plot point that got cut, or if the anime studio just wasn’t paying attention.

timrodresized: Also, that seems like kind of an extreme angle for a cis guy to cross his legs at while sitting. I can’t tell if that was intentional, or the anatomy’s just way off.

timrodresized: I now have a theory about Yusuke. I’ll share it at the end.

timrodresized: Oh boy! I can read this! These are all the party members - Futaba has them in her phone under their code names. From the top: Joker, Skull, Queen, Panther, Inari (or Fox), Noir.

timrodresized: Only part of this chat gets subbed, and none of it was subbed in the base game even if you were playing in English.

timrodresized: Kanamin is an idol from Rise’s idol group in Persona 4 Dancing, which I refuse to believe is canon.

timrodresized: Here’s another way you can tell that this scene was made early in production - Joker got rid of those trash bags when he cleaned Futaba’s room up.

timrodresized: They also probably didn’t know what they were going to do with Sugimura when they made this cutscene.

timrodresized: This part isn’t subtitled for some reason, but even without knowing what they’re saying, I can tell you exactly what they’re saying: “We’re receiving word now that the suspect has committed suicide in custody.”

Igor: “But why were you killed? Why did you have to die? Do you remember? It seems you forgot an important fact while your consciousness was hazy.”

Igor: “Indeed… your ‘death’ was a necessity for your escape from certain doom. What a tremendous plan. How might you be capable of executing such a feat?”

Igor: “Well then, let us rouse the memories which are missing…”

timrodresized: And now it’s time for the blurred cutscenes. I’ve already posted these earlier, but on this recording, I picked different options - not that it matters.

Morgana: “…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.”

timrodresized: Man, I love it when I can just copy-paste. I’ll also be copy-pasting some of my reactions from the previous updates.

Morgana: “Right. It was your social studies trip. We met him in the hallway of that TV station…”

image

Morgana: “There’s no way that this is the first time he’s heard my voice. This whole deal feels sketchy.”

Morgana: “Yeah. That was my plan too. Okay… let’s get everyone on the same page right away.”

timrodresized: And now for the second blurred cutscene, from Update 78.

Morgana: "One more person has been on our mind. If it’s possible, I want to eavesdrop on their phone conversation.”

Futaba: “Hmm, that’ll be tough…”

Morgana: “Right. We really need your help.”

Futaba: “Hmmm… I’d have to plant a bug directly on the phone…”

timrodresized: 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?!

timrodresized: This? This right here? This is something Makoto should’ve suggested! So why the fuck didn’t she?!

Morgana: “So it’s impossible even for you…”

Futaba: “I didn’t say it was impossible! …Ok, I’ve got a plan!”

Morgana: “Don’t worry, I’ll tell you the details later.”

Futaba: “This is gonna be fun! I can’t wait!”

timrodresized: The other LP asks how Joker would know about this scene if he wasn’t there, and I don’t think they understood that if Philemon made an entire world, Igor can probably transplant memories.

Igor: “It seems you finally remember… this ‘game’ is not over yet. There are still things that must be done.”

timrodresized: This scene also isn’t going to make a lot of sense later. Pretend it’s non-canon.

timrodresized: Well, that was a short and kind of pointless death scene. Next time: more exposition as the game tries to justify this dumbass plot twist.

Oh god no. I’m not nearly good enough at those games to LP them. I killed one of the first bosses in Origin completely by accident.

Summary

timrodresized: As with all the Rank 9 scenes, Tae’s Rank 9 is identical up until the choice.

Tae: “Really now… why did you want to see me? …Don’t tell me you’re in love with me or something.”

Tae: “Yeah, yeah, sure. Thank you very much. Now, go on home before it gets dark. Or… I can give you a ‘special examination’ if you’d like.”

timrodresized: Femdom practitioner not so tough after being confessed to, film at 11.

Tae: “Then… I guess I owe you a serious answer too. Um… actually, I changed my mind. I mean, you’re in high school, you know? You’re my little guinea pig from the clinical trials…”

Tae: “And you’re a kid who lied about his entrance exams to get unlicensed medicine… falling in love with someone like that…”

Tae: “A-Anyway… let’s talk about it later… okay?”

timrodresized: Unfortunately, I kind of hit the fast forward button at this point and missed a couple of shots.

Tae: “Hey, it’s me… can we talk a little? Um… thanks for tagging along today. I got my drug in the hands of someone I trust. Everything’s on track for the cure to go through.”

Tae: “I should be over the moon… but now I’ve got one last problem. Turns out my little guinea pig caught a disease that’s even more annoying and persistent than Crawford-Ende’s.”

timrodresized: Crawford-Ende’s is the fake disease Miwa has. It was mentioned once forever ago.

Tae: “…Yeah. Guess it really is an epidemic. I should take my own advice. Ah, what a shame. Looks like a chronic case. Might even be incurable… guess I’d better stick around for your treatment.”

Tae: “We’re done with the clinical trials, but I’ll still be expecting you to drop by. I’m your primary physician, after all. And I’m the only one who can treat your condition, so…”

timrodresized: I think the writers forgot that her Rank 9 takes place during the day. I mentioned it before, but we need two affinity readings for Rank 10 even though we’ve done the romance route.

Tae: “I’ve been here a time or two, but I don’t remember the coffee being this good.”

timrodresized: The rest of this scene is identical to the other Rank 10 scene, right up until near the end.

Tae: “Hey… this is where you live, right? Where’s your room? Upstairs? …Is your guardian home? Then, it’s just the two of us? Really… then, would you like a ‘thorough examination’?”

Tae: “I guess I’ll start off by examining your eyes. I’ll just have to take my time examining you. …Hm?”

timrodresized: And there we go. I’m all caught up on confidant scenes.

This is why you don’t try to double cross Mentok the Mind-Taker, Akechi.

It’d be great if Joker slammed the table, pointed in Sae’s face with exaggerated foreshortening, and shouted “You call this JUSTICE?”

…but sadly Joker, like the Companion Cube, cannot speak.

This sequence neatly showcases one of the limitations of the protagonist being a player avatar. These blurred cutscenes are about Joker knowing and doing things the player knows nothing about, even though he is the player (this some Stanley Parable shit). If they were going to do…whatever it is the Phantom Thieves are doing, I can’t quite tell what’s going on yet…they should have come up with a reason for the rest of the team to come up with the plan by themselves, without input from Joker, and keep it a secret from him.

Click Here for Update 88

timrodresized: You know that moment in the Ni no Kuni 2 LP where you start realizing that the plot makes no sense whatsoever? We’re about to reach that moment.

timrodresized: Most of this update is going to be a pointless plot recap that no one has a reason to give a shit about. You can pretty much skim this one until you see the black-and-white diagrams pop up.

Sae: “…Hey, are you all right? Don’t fall asleep until we reach our destination. …Are you listening?”

timrodresized: I like to think that Joker is sitting there and thinking “My god. This is one of those things where Sae is actually Makoto from the future, sent back in time to ruin everything. I have to warn Yusuke!”

Morgana: “Anyway, we need to talk about how to get out of this situation.”

timrodresized: This cutscene also breaks the timeline. While it seems like this is the second half of the cutscene that happens on 11/18, it’s pretty clearly not.

Makoto: “Futaba’s monitoring of Akechi’s phone has confirmed it… he did indeed have an ulterior motive.”

Ryuji: “It’s on a completely different level than just that.”

Makoto: “Not only was he trying to frame us, but he was the true culprit behind the mental shutdowns… his offer to assist us was simply a ploy to frame the Phantom Thieves… and kill Akira.”

timrodresized: Game… I fucking get it. We just saw that in a lengthy cutscene.

Makoto: “If we go into Sis’s Palace as he suggests, we’ll likely be met by a large ambush of police forces.”

timrodresized: Or a large ambush of canine-themed tattoos.

Yusuke: “To think he would be this far gone… I know now what it means to feel a chill down my spine. Furthermore, he wishes to bring a police squad from reality into the Palace…”

Makoto: “If the eight of us can enter at once, it’s not inconceivable to think a larger group is possible. He may even be able to bring in vehicles or other pieces of special equipment.”

timrodresized: Okay, but then the range on the app thing is completely inconsistent.

Ann: “So this really was just a setup to shift the blame onto us…”

Morgana: “He made us go after Okumura, then once we triggered the change of heart, he killed him…”

timrodresized: How many times is this that they’ve tried to change the reason why the party went after Okumura? First it was because they were “too obsessed with popularity”, then because they were led into a trap by the shadowy conspiracy.

timrodresized: The reason they went in originally is because they were looking for Morgana. That’s why. Morgana is the one who made them commit to it.

Ryuji: “The whole time he was workin’ with Makoto’s sister, he was really just some homicidal maniac! C’mon, we gotta take the bastard down! Isn’t that recording we got enough proof to do it!?”

Makoto: “No, Akechi is merely a tool. His orders come from elsewhere… the grand mastermind behind it all. An unimaginable fiend capable of arranging the murder of a suspect inside of a police station…”

Yusuke: “Unless we find out who that is, we will continue being targeted even if we defeat Akechi…”

Haru: “But… what means do we have of learning his identity?”

Yusuke: “We’ll have to make Akechi say it… though once we do, that mastermind will likely eliminate us.”

Makoto: “I think that will be the case eventually regardless of whether or not we learn his identity. The only reason it hasn’t happened yet is because we’re an easy target to blame for his crimes.”

Makoto: “If he realizes that’s no longer possible and abandons that plan, he may opt to kill us immediately.”

timrodresized: But… that doesn’t make sense. I mentioned this before, but why would the shadowy conspiracy even need you alive in the first place? In fact, isn’t it incredibly inconvenient for them that you’re even alive?

timrodresized: I mean, they can blame crimes on you if you’re dead just as easily as they can if you’re alive - in fact, it’s more convenient for them if you’re dead because that way you can’t spread the “We don’t kill people” narrative that goes directly against their “The Phantom Thieves are serial killers” narrative.

Ryuji: “Dammit… so we don’t got a choice but to go with that bastard’s suggestion…”

Ann: “But if we go into the Palace like we’re told, Akira will get arrested and then Akechi will kill him…”

Futaba: “Palace… the Palace…”

timrodresized: Now I remember why I like Futaba. Just shuts Makoto the fuck up.

Ann: “Wh-what’s this all of a sudden!?”

Futaba: “There’s a way… a way to get past Akechi AND get the mastermind to lay off of us, all while learning his identity.”

Haru: “Really!?”

Ryuji: “You gotta be kidding me!”

timrodresized: Well, now that whole cutscene where they’re reacting to Joker’s ‘suicide’ doesn’t make any goddamn sense. They do try to explain it, which we’ll see in the next cutscene. The explanation is “We did it because we thought someone might be watching us.”

timrodresized: And here it is. The big ass pull. Apparently, the party can just create clones of people in the Metaverse, even though this has never at any point come up before and it has never been previously established that they can do this.

timrodresized: The question is, if they could do this the whole time, why the fuck didn’t they? Why would you even need Haru to get through that door in Okumura’s dungeon if you could just make a Haru clone? I mean, the reason is obvious - because otherwise you’d have to explain how Akechi didn’t notice - but still.

timrodresized: When I first played this, I thought this was merely godawful writing and a bad localization… but now that I’ve played YIIK and Ni no Kuni 2, I think I understand what happened here.

timrodresized: I think what happened is that like Ni no Kuni 2, the writers had multiple drafts of this scene. With release date creeping up on them, they cobbled together what they had and hoped it made sense.

timrodresized: I’ll talk a little more about this theory in what may turn out to be the next update. That’s how long this day is.

Futaba: “Yeah, that’s it!”

Makoto: “It seems that’s our only option. Listen close, everyone. I have a plan for how we carry this operation out…”

Sojiro: “Waiting upstairs. Go tell them to come on down. I’m gonna fetch him.”

timrodresized: The messaging here is all over the place. First you have (as we’ll soon see) their reaction of “We had to fake a reaction to Joker’s death because they might be watching”, and then you have “There’s no way they’d be watching Leblanc, we can all head there tomorrow as a group and no one will suspect anything.”

timrodresized: I mean, that’s par for the course for this game’s plot, but still.

Sae: “Makoto told me everything. Futaba-chan… I’m sorry that I caused you so much trouble this past summer…”

Futaba: “Eh, it’s ancient history now.”

Ryuji: “But man, that goddamn detective!”

Ann: “How’ve you been?”

Ann: “You must be fine if you’re joking around like that.”

Makoto: “It truly is a relief to see your face.”

Ryuji: “I bet that moron Akechi don’t even know we tricked him yet!”

Sojiro: “Still, how’d you pull this off? Isn’t this guy considered dead?”

Makoto: “You weren’t told anything? I heard my sister brought him here though…”

Sojiro: “Yeah. She came over in a taxi, dumped him off, and told me to keep him safe. It was right after they announced he had ‘died,’ too. Almost gave me a heart attack.”

Sae: “I didn’t have time to explain…”

Ryuji: “Hey, shouldn’t we tell Boss what really happened?”

Makoto: “We wanted to make our enemy believe the leader of the Phantom Thieves was dead.”

Sojiro: “What?”

Makoto: “What we did was make that enemy kill his fake in the Metaverse.”

Sojiro: “Enemy? Fake? What’re you talking about?”

Yusuke: “The true culprit behind all these incidents set us up. Our true goal here was to determine their identity.”

Sojiro: “True culprit? I see… so you guys were going up against someone else.”

Sae: “It was Goro Akechi. You knew beforehand that he was the traitor, didn’t you?”

timrodresized: Good to see Sae is clueless even after she gets out of the interrogation room. They just told you that!

Ann: “Akechi himself gave us the chance to strike back. He made one fatal mistake.”

timrodresized: The fatal mistake was being in a game written by Hashino. If Satomi Tadashi had written this, the game would have been over by now.

Sae: “Couldn’t you have just said from the beginning that Akechi was the real culprit?”

Makoto: “That wasn’t something we could simply bring up. We couldn’t have you suspect Akechi. Besides, neither you nor the other investigators would have believed something like that, would you?”

Sae: “…True. Akechi was credited with the arrest of the Phantom Thieves. Not even I would think he was the culprit… in other words, you left him alone on purpose… that was a bold move.”

timrodresized: You know your plot is well-written when you have to have two characters who stand in for the audience and ask a bunch of questions to pave over the plot holes.

timrodresized: Here’s what gets me, though. There’s two kinds of questions when you’re engaging with a story. The first is usually answered by “Because then there wouldn’t be a plot.” - this is your “Why didn’t Frodo just use the eagles to go right to Mount Doom and drop the ring in the volcano?”.

timrodresized: Most of the questions here are that first type.

Sojiro: “God, I can’t keep up with any of this stuff… uhhh, so what was this mistake Akechi made? What did he do?”

Ann: “He slipped up in regards to Morgana’s voice.”

Sojiro: “You mean our cat?”

Ann: “Yes. Morgana can talk.”

Sojiro: “…Sorry, was that supposed to be a joke?”

Haru: “Oh! Our apologies. That’s completely true.”

Morgana: “You surprised?”

Sae: “Does that mean… he said something just now as well?”

Ann: “But you don’t understand him, do you? That’s how it was for all of us at first too.”

Futaba: “When you’re in the Metaverse, Mona talks like a normal person. Once you hear that and your brain realizes he can actually talk, you start to understand him in reality. …It’s a change in cognition! Most likely!”

Ann: “Thanks to Akechi’s lame acting, we figured out something was up.”

timrodresized: They repeat the Obvious Slip here, so I’ll just cut it.

Ryuji: “Mona was the only one who was talkin’ about a pancake… that meant Akechi’d already been in the Metaverse by then!”

Ann: “And since he was lying to us about that, we assumed he had a hidden motive behind contacting us.”

Morgana: “It seemed odd upon further thought. His reaction to my pancake comment was an honest one, after all.”

Morgana: “He did approach us when we found ourselves in the worst trouble yet.”

Haru: “That’s why we asked Futaba-chan to wiretap his phone.”

Yusuke: “Even that ace detective could never have imagined a program being installed so quickly. Futaba’s quirky nature proved to be a great help.”

Futaba: “That was just an act! After a few days of listening, this confirmed his betrayal.”

timrodresized: They play the phone call between Akechi and Shido here, so I’ll skip that too.

Sojiro: “Is this for real?”

Sae: “I knew he was acting strangely, but to think he was this far gone…”

timrodresized: If you’re wondering what the point of this entire exchange is, the answer is I don’t know. Maybe they did this expecting people would clear the casino and then drop the game for months?

Haru: “He’s no ace detective… Akechi is the perpetrator behind the mental shutdown crimes.”

timrodresized: Remember when I said the game is going to beat you over the head with the fact that Akechi is the killer?

Makoto: “On top of that, there’s someone else commanding Akechi… someone with great authority… so great that they can order an assassination in a police station. That’s why we had to make a move before they did.”

timrodresized: You just said that! You said it almost word for word in that last cutscene! Fuck!

Sojiro: “I see…”

Makoto: “We baited Akechi into Sis’s Palace, making him dispose of our leader’s fake but think he killed him.”

Sae: “Could you elaborate on that in more detail? What exactly happened in my cognitive world?”

timrodresized: You don’t fucking need to say “in more detail” after “elaborate”! That’s what the fucking word “elaborate” means! Fuck! This is Allanson dialog!

Haru: “We’re sorry for using you without your permission. Your Palace had all the conditions we needed…”

Sae: “What conditions?”

Makoto: “First, we required a place inside the cognitive world that was the same as in reality.”

Ryuji: “That place’s based on the real world, after all. Anywhere that’s not warped looks just like normal.”

Ann: “That’s why nobody but the person who uses the Nav even realizes they’re in the Metaverse.”

Ryuji: “Back with Kamoshida, we came in from the station without even noticin’…”

Morgana: “And it was absolutely the best decision we could’ve made.”

timrodresized: Putting in a plot recap after a plot recap… and then following it with another plot recap?

Yusuke: “Makoto is normally so calm as well… but once her mind is set, she gets oddly impulsive…”

Makoto: “I did have a bit of a rivalry forming with Akechi… but I just couldn’t contain myself anymore once you became a target, Sis. The reason I joined the Phantom Thieves was to heal your heart, after all.”

timrodresized: What rivalry? You basically rolled over and let Akechi take over on the casino, and then rolled over and let Futaba handle the stupid fake death plot!

Sae: “My own achievements were all that mattered to me… I was desperate. I wasn’t myself at all. I’m sorry I couldn’t see that.”

timrodresized: No shit! That’s why your entire dungeon arc existed! It was literally written on the goddamn walls!

Haru: “We heard from Mako-chan that you were going to do the interrogation, Niijima-san.”

Sae: “And regarding its location… I take it you used the data from my laptop?”

Makoto: “I’m sorry.”

Sae: “Go on.”

timrodresized: Okay, you can start paying attention again now. It’s time for them to justify the big ass pull.

Makoto: “First, our clothes didn’t change when we were down in the interrogation room.”

Ann: “Once we heard that from Makoto, we secretly went to check it out without Akechi knowing.”

Makoto: “There was also one more thing we absolutely needed to make this work…”

Yusuke: “Since he had yet to be caught though, there obviously wouldn’t be anyone in that room.”

timrodresized: This line sounds irrelevant, but I think what happened is that in one of the earlier drafts of the plot, Sae had a clone of Joker and a clone of Akechi somewhere in her palace - and they used that instead of asspulling the ability to make clones.

Makoto: “They looked no different than actual people.”

timrodresized: Wait, what police officers? There were no cops in Sae’s palace - unless you mean the security guards, who are dressed differently from the cops who come in with Akechi.

timrodresized: Anyway, this probably made more sense in the original plot draft where they probably did have cops in the casino and the party presumably took one of those to act as the guard that Akechi kills.

timrodresized: The thing is though, if you go with the given explanation of “we can create clones”, this part makes no sense. What would have stopped them from making a clone cop if the clones in the dungeon were like the ATM people in Kaneshiro’s palace?

Ryuji: “After that, we just had to work our way into the Palace like usual while keepin’ Akechi in the dark.”

Makoto: “However, it was then that we were met with a terrifying, unexpected police ambush. As a result, even though we managed to grab the Treasure, we couldn’t get it out of the Metaverse…”

Makoto: “…Except that was all an act. We had prepared an empty briefcase beforehand and merely acted like we were taking the Treasure. This was because we knew the police would be coming for us.”

timrodresized: I kind of forgot it existed, but while working on this update, I went and watched the Persona 5 anime to see how they handled this - because there’s no way in hell even the most patient of TV audiences is going to sit through all this. It’d be torture.

timrodresized: The answer is… they don’t. At all. In the anime, they skip any explanation whatsoever and go right to Akechi killing Joker, then it cuts to the credits. That’s the final episode.

timrodresized: I also watched the promotional OVA for Royal, and found this piece of sage advice from badly off-model Morgana about trying to analyze Persona 5’s plot:

Ann: “We made sure before the operation that the police would be waiting to ambush us. And just as expected, he totally took the bait.”

Makoto: “Akira getting captured by the police went exactly how we planned it.”

Sae: “And I had been interrogating him with no knowledge of this. But, how did you lure Akechi into this… cognitive world’s interrogation room?”

Futaba: “All I needed were the coordinates. Hehehehehe…”

timrodresized: No, Hashino, this conversation started dragging like fifteen minutes ago. But yes, the game tries to patch over the rest of the plot holes in an entirely optional conversation. No, they don’t do any better job of it than they did here.

Yusuke: “It must have been truly hilarious for our leader who sat idly in the real world’s interrogation room.”

timrodresized: Here’s another reason that anime cutscene made no sense. Remember how you see the dead cop melt into black stuff and Joker looks up with the grin on his face? There’s no way Joker could even have known for sure the plan had worked!

Sae: “So that’s why you gave me your phone… I only took it because of what you told me.”

Yusuke: “It’s a shame I didn’t have the opportunity to see that for myself.”

timrodresized: Wait, what? Why would you want to see… you know what, chalk this line up as non-canon.

Sae: “All I could do was try to handle the messages that started coming to me on his phone. Huh… so in other words, I’ve been to the Metaverse, albeit for a brief moment.”

Yusuke: “In our experience, there is little danger when someone enters their own Palace for so short a time.”

Haru: “That’s the other reason we had him give it to you. We needed you to listen to Alibaba, deceive the guard, and ultimately aid in his escape. By having you head back to the interrogation room, we could return you to the real world as well.”

Futaba: “I mean, I had to think of some way to keep you from running into Akechi mid-assassination.”

timrodresized: What Futaba will explain in the optional conversation is that she had a locator on both Joker’s phone and Akechi’s - which makes me wonder why they even needed to send Sae to the Metaverse at all.

Sae: “…Astounding. I hadn’t the slightest idea that such a grand operation was taking place within me.”

Ann: “I’m so glad Akira was able to persuade you during the interrogation. Even though we all knew Akechi’s plan, we were pretty worried about that part.”

Makoto: “True.”

Sojiro: “Why’s that?”

Makoto: “Without Sis on our side, Futaba’s plan and subsequent breakout would never have been possible. That persuasion was easily our greatest gamble. We couldn’t consult Sis beforehand. It was absolutely the make-or-break moment of the entire plan.”

Sae: “Still, I’m surprised you could convince me in such a short time. Were you confident you could do it?”

Sae: “Understandable… either way, I can’t believe you went for such a risky idea…”

Makoto: “If we could just tell you the true culprit’s plan, I knew you’d realize the bigger picture… realize that Akira was telling the truth, and that there was a greater evil to pursue.”

Yusuke: “As a result, we emerged victorious.”

timrodresized: Basically, their plan was “Let’s hope Joker doesn’t get drugged too hard.” I think Makoto is the real villain here.

Sae: “Then the reason you kept this a secret from me was so you could catch the true culprit, correct?”

Makoto: “Yes. Plus, you had lost control of yourself at the time…”

Sae: “This is stunning. All I can really do is laugh.”

Sojiro: “Huh?”

Sae: “They had a coroner working to ensure Akira-kun’s death was reported as a suicide. That coroner didn’t take one look at the scene, and just passed along a falsified death certificate.”

timrodresized: Okay, but like… surely Akechi told someone that there’s a dead body in the interrogation room. Were they planning on leaving it there?

Sojiro: “…The bad guys have that much influence?”

Makoto: “Murder in a police station would be reckless otherwise. We also knew of a possible conspirator.”

Sae: “Thanks to Futaba-chan’s messages and the guard’s demeanor, I eventually came to understand… and since the higher-ups at the police knew nothing of this, they were thrown into disarray.”

Sae: “As a result, Akira-kun’s suicide during imprisonment was reported on the news, just as Akechi planned.”

Ann: “And with that confusion, he was able to escape with Niijima-san’s help.”

timrodresized: That would have been the interesting part! Fuck! Why did they not just do that instead? Have a whole action scene with Joker and Sae escaping police headquarters.

timrodresized: Shit, they could’ve done this whole thing where you’d be stealthing around and Joker doesn’t have his Persona powers, so no motion-blur jumping and crazy acrobatic shit. Have it so every so often, they have to duck into a side room to avoid a guard and then have plot happen there.

timrodresized: But no, this is Hashino’s Atlus, and we all know their slogan: “If it would require effort, it can’t be helped.”

Sae: “I made sure nobody would check the morgue for his body, and thanks to that, nobody knows he survived.”

timrodresized: Cop 1: “Hey, did you hear about that body Akechi said was in the underground interrogation room? Did anyone go clean that up?”

timrodresized: Cop 2: “Oh, that? I think Niijima took the body to the morgue.”

timrodresized: Cop 1: “Well, we have no reason to go clean up the blood that’s no doubt all over the interrogation room from someone being shot execution-style at point blank range or dispose of the body, so that’s that then.”

Makoto: “Thinking back to the interrogation though… I can’t believe what they did to Akira. The callous use of violence and even drugs is utterly abnormal. If he had lost consciousness and hadn’t been able to tell Sis about the phone, he would’ve died…”

timrodresized: At this point, I don’t think Hashino knew what he was doing anymore. He’s undermining his own plot by pointing out how dumb it is. Let me tell you what this reminds me of, because there’s a much better writer who was in a similar situation but didn’t shit his pants like Hashino did here.

timrodresized: There was an interview I read a couple years ago with Jeremy Blaustein, the guy who localized the first Metal Gear Solid game. He realized pretty quickly that the idea of Snake (or really, anyone) agreeing to infilitrate a heavily-guarded nuclear facility without even being issued a gun was necessary for the core gameplay to work, but dumb from a plot perspective.

timrodresized: That’s where the “Weapons and equipment OSP?” line came from. That wasn’t in Kojima’s script, it was something Jeremy Blaustein added because it sounded enough like actual military jargon that no one was going to question it. That decision worked out brilliantly. I never even really thought about that until he pointed it out.

timrodresized: That line is also brilliant because it gives the fewest possible details about the situation and doesn’t invite the audience to think about it too much. Instead, you’ve got Hashino shitting his pants and putting in a 30-plus minute cutscene that overexplains everything and is practically screaming at the player to analyze it.

timrodresized: You know what would have made a lot more sense here? If Makoto was a traitor and working with Akechi. That’s supported a lot better by whatever this shit is than the actual plot they’re trying to support with it.

Sae: “Don’t. You shouldn’t have to remember such things…”

timrodresized: Joker looks her in the eye. “I still remember the tramp stamp.”

Ann: “It still freaked me out when I saw the suicide on the news though.”

Haru: “We made sure to live normal lives while he was being interrogated to avoid drawing any suspicion. Even with that, I couldn’t help but worry for him in my heart…”

timrodresized: It was one day! Not even one day, given that he was out on the night of the 20th!

Ryuji: “Well, I knew right away that our plan worked out.”

Yusuke: “I wanted to believe… but considering what we’re up against…”

Morgana: “Ryuji’s a bit on the dense and carefree side.”

Ryuji: “Can it, cat!”

Ann: “I had to be patient and avoid this place until things settled down. I finally feel relieved…”

Yusuke: “We knew he was alive, but… it was difficult to not worry until we could confirm it in person.”

Sae: “Now that I think about it, my interrogation was just a formality for the head commander. What a joke letting me interrogate someone who was meant to die. They just wanted to avoid backlash…”

timrodresized: Backlash for what? The whole point was that no one would give a shit because they were pinning a bunch of murders on the Phantom Thieves.

Sae: “Very well. From here forward, I will do my utmost to assist you. …You saved me, after all.”

Ann: “That’s reassuring to hear.”

Sojiro: “I’ll do whatever I can to help too. Just let me know. Let’s take a break for now though. This old brain is pooped.”

Ann: “Are you sure?”

Sojiro: “It’s not like this place is the liveliest joint in town. It won’t be a huge loss for me.”

Yusuke: “Let us accept his offer. What a great man…”

timrodresized: The game cuts to black, and you’d think that you’re finally done with this godawful fucking plot dump. But are you? Fuck no you’re not! We’re at the halfway mark… of this day. Oh, did I not mention? This plot dump goes on for another three days.

Shido: “…That sounds familiar…”

Shido: “No. Nothing in particular. More importantly, you’ve done well with regard to the prosecutors.”

Akechi: “The cause of death for the SIU director has been settled as a ‘stroke’.”

Shido: “I had him work quite substantially on forging evidence. His loss should be mourned.”

Akechi: “It was thanks to his efforts that I could enter the phantom thief’s interrogation room.”

timrodresized: Hashino, please. You’re having two of your villains talk to each other about shit they already know, and for what purpose? We already knew the SIU director was working for Shido!

Shido: “The SIU is in disarray with his death. I’ll take my time choosing a successor after the elections…”

timrodresized: Come to think of it, how would they explain away that death? The SIU director died either at the same time as (or slightly after) they announced Joker’s death. They can’t pin it on the Phantom Thieves at that point.

timrodresized: I mean, I know how, and that’s because this is a Hashino plot. This is what happens when you can’t write and then invite people to think about your writing.

Akechi: “At any rate, I’m now praised as a hero, and I owe it all to the Phantom Thieves.”

Shido: “All possible hindrances are now gone. There’s no doubt that this election is mine.”

timrodresized: Naturally, 12/18 is the deadline for dealing with Shido.

Ryuji: “Elections, huh? Eh, don’t matter to us. It’s not like we can vote in 'em anyway.”

Makoto: “Why don’t we resume our conversation?”

Ryuji: “Well, the Phantom Thieves’re back together! We can finally take it to Akechi and the bastard backin’ him!”

Futaba: "Akechi accidentally let that slip after the murder. He said, ‘Shido-san.’ "

Ryuji: “Shido… feels like I’ve heard that somewhere.”

Yusuke: “He is unmistakably a man of power if he has such strong connections to the police.”

timrodresized: You’re… not going to have Makoto chime in and tell us who Shido is, even though everyone already knows?

Ann: “…Who?”

Makoto: “I believe he’s a politician… remember, Ryuji? You said his speech was too loud.”

Ryuji: “For real!?”

Sae: “It’s certainly possible that Shido is the mastermind…”

Yusuke: “Huh?”

Haru: “Do you have some kind of evidence?”

Sae: “Nothing material. However, there are various conditions which align with that possibility. First, he would profit from damage done to the current administration by the psychotic breakdowns.”

Sae: “On top of that, he’ll most likely become the next prime minister if he wins this upcoming election.”

Ann: “No…”

Yusuke: “Did he set us up with that election in mind?”

Sae: “If he is behind all this, that would be in stark opposition to his honest public image.”

timrodresized: That’s kind of a “duh” statement there, Sae.

Makoto: “So his current position and popularity is just him benefiting from the mental collapses…”

timrodresized: Here’s a question I’d like to posit to you, the reader. By this point, we’re well over 15 minutes into this cutscene - not counting the ones from 11/19 or 11/20.

timrodresized: What is it that we’ve learned from this cutscene (apart from that Hashino is a terrible writer and the writers for Royal could have cleaned this up but didn’t) that we didn’t already know by the end of the last update?

timrodresized: I ask this because I genuinely do not know. As far as I can tell, the only thing we learned is the bit with the diagrams about the details of the plan to fake Joker’s death.

Haru: “We’ll make him have a change of heart, no matter what it takes.”

Futaba: “Mom…”

Sojiro: “Shido, huh?”

Yusuke: “What is the matter?”

Sojiro: “I had a feeling he was wrapped up in all this.”

Sojiro: “From the moment Wakaba died… I had a hunch he was involved. But there wasn’t anything I could do, so I chose to protect Futaba and went into hiding.”

timrodresized: “Oh yeah, that’s just how Shido is, makes his enemies disappear.”

Sae: “Originally, I was looking into the mental shutdown cases. It was then that I accidentally stumbled upon government research regarding the psychotic breakdowns.”

Sae: “So, I tracked down the whereabouts of that research data and met with the associated parties. Boss was one of those parties.”

Sae: “I would never have imagined all of this was connected… the mental shutdowns, psychotic breakdowns, Shido, and even the Phantom Thieves’ actions…”

Sojiro: “Way back when, Shido kept saying he was going to be prime minister one day. Nobody believed him though…”

Ann: “What’s going to happen to this country if Shido becomes prime minister? What about the world?”

Yusuke: “The issue is simpler than that. This is nothing more than yet another selfish adult trying to impose his will on the public.”

timrodresized: Hashino, why is the party not over this already? The whole “adults bad” thing probably should be dead by now. This game has a lot of problems with messaging, in that I don’t think Hashino knew what message he was trying to convey.

timrodresized: The game DOES have a message… which we’ll see about five minutes before the end of the base game, because that’s how you should do that kind of thing (it’s absolutely not how you should do that kind of thing).

Ryuji: “We gotta expose that rotten bastard!”

Morgana: “Yeah, we’ll do it like always!”

Haru: “Then let’s check the Nav!”

Yusuke: “Where would the location be?”

Ann: “…What kind of things go through a politician’s head?”

Futaba: “I always think of dirty money and shady actions.”

Ryuji: “What does he do? And where? We don’t got a clue about this guy’s life.”

Makoto: “His Palace must be somewhere that politicians frequent. Any ideas, Akira?”

Yusuke: “How arrogant must he be to see himself as the ruler of the Diet Building?”

Ryuji: “Our next target’s the big-shot politician Masayoshi Shido. We’re gonna do this, right?”

Ryuji: “No need to waste time with him. We just gotta hit the head. Nobody against it?”

Ann: “Of course.”

Yusuke: “He will be a worthy opponent.”

Haru: “Let’s win this, together!”

Futaba: “Time for revenge!”

Morgana: “Then it’s unanimous!”

Ryuji: “All we gotta do now is figure out what he thinks that Diet Building place is.”

Sae: “So, that’s the app that allowed me to enter the Metaverse.”

Sojiro: “An old fart like me can’t wrap his head around all this stuff…”

Makoto: “We’ll have to deal with this before election day, December 18th. That means we need it done by the 17th.”

Yusuke: “It’s best we hurry before they discover there’s no body in the morgue.”

timrodresized: Given the competence level of the villains, I would not be surprised if one of them opens the morgue, fails to find a body inside, and then decides that Joker was “one of them Draculas” before going out to buy some garlic.

Ann: “Should we start tomorrow then? We can meet at the Diet Building after school.”

Ryuji: “That reminds me, what’re you gonna do about school? You can’t show up if you’re supposed to be dead.”

Sojiro: “That’s what I told the school.”

Ryuji: “Don’t let ‘em find out you’re alive then, all right? This whole thing’d be for nothin’!”

timrodresized: I’m also just now realizing how incompetent this whole thing makes Akechi look.

Sojiro: “What do you mean?”

timrodresized: I’m going to cut some dialog here for my own sanity. Makoto recaps the entire thing about Shido being the real enemy. Again. Again.

timrodresized: The writers for Royal could’ve fixed this. They just fucking didn’t, and that’s why Royal sucks.

Haru: “We’ll be making use of the police statement that the leader of the Phantom Thieves committed suicide. Our leader who is presumed dead will come out of hiding to deliver a grand statement.”

Haru: “He’ll say he has escaped prison, not committed suicide, and was in fact almost killed by a criminal.”

Futaba: “Everyone’s gonna flip.”

Sojiro: “You guys thought through all this stuff too?”

Ryuji: “We’re intellectuals, y’know!”

timrodresized: You and Makoto have a single brain cell between you!

Makoto: “But the true battle has only just begun. We won the first round, but we must stay on our toes.”

Ryuji: “Yeah, this ain’t the time to be celebratin’.”

Yusuke: “These people tried to trap and kill us. There is no end to their inhuman, conniving nature. We will need to be prepared for whatever may come our way.”

timrodresized: This is clearly it, right? It’s going to cut to black and then go to Joker alone in his room. There’s no way Hashino could possibly fuck this up any worse than he already-

timrodresized: Do yourself a favor. Skip the rest of this update. It’s just going to be me screaming at how bad this fucking writing is. Next time… more plot dump, followed by even more plot dump.

timrodresized: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

Akechi: “Back then, you earned the media’s attention as a young politician who could rise up against bureaucracy. Because of that, those who wanted to preemptively deal with problems tried to tie you up in scandal.”

timrodresized: Shut the fuck up! Shut up! Fuck! No one gives a shit! This entire conversation doesn’t make any fucking sense! You’re telling each other shit you already know! Fuck!

Shido: “To think I would fall for the ruse schemed by those decrepit fools in power. I recall that’s when you came to me. You promoted yourself, saying you had ‘special powers’. If it wasn’t for the research on cognition that I dabbled in, I would have thought you insane.”

Akechi: “I made those troublesome opponents psychotic, and erased any trace of that scandal.”

timrodresized: If you put this exact dialog into YIIK and used YIIK’s character portraits, I would have no idea it wasn’t from YIIK.

Shido: “Who’d think that tampering with a person’s heart could trigger a psychotic lapse or a mental shutdown. And when someone like that said he’d support me, I had suspected there’d be an ulterior motive.”

Akechi: “It’s because I sympathized with your aspiring ideology. I believed that your ideals needed to be achieved for the sake of the country’s future.”

Shido: “Well, my faith in you was precisely why I pulled the plug on that research. I only need you using that power. It’d be troublesome if someone else uncovered how it works.”

Shido: “Any suspicions should be snubbed out. Even the smallest doubt must be severed at the root. After all, we had an active Public Prosecutor’s Office director on our side until recently.”

timrodresized: Hashino, I think everyone understands at this point that Director Evil was working for Shido.

Akechi: “Astounding, isn’t it? To think the director himself often forged evidence to secure his promotion. He was quite surprised when you confronted him about it. He didn’t know who leaked that information.”

Akechi: “Well, I got that out of his Shadow, so technically speaking, he did it himself.”

timrodresized: Why does it even matter? Seriously, he’s already dead, who gives a shit?

timrodresized: When did this become Deus Ex?

Akechi: “I must agree.”

Shido: “There’s no need to be ruined along with such incompetent fools. I will lead this country to its revival. Those who get in the way must be eliminated at times - that’s the correct way to use the Metaverse.”

Akechi: “Still, it would stand out if there were continuous deaths and scandals with your political rivals. Which is why I made them ‘suspects’.”

timrodresized: WE ALREADY FUCKING KNOW! FUCK! SHUT UP! FUCK!

Akechi: “Prosecute the targets that I turned psychotic… and solve them as cases unrelated to you.”

timrodresized: There’s another 30 textboxes of Hashino’s trash plot shitting itself, and going through it, I feel just like I did when I was doing the YIIK LP.

Shido: “Thanks to your efforts, my clean image remains untarnished, and I’ve monopolized public opinion. Once I gained public sentiment, collaborators from all sectors began approaching me on their own.”

timrodresized: And here’s Hashino’s lame excuse for why the principal was part of the shadowy cabal.

Shido: “The police were no exception. With their management in my pocket, keeping them in check was easy.”

Akechi: “When the Phantom Thieves emerged, I thought things might become somewhat troublesome.”

Shido: “And they were just brats once we looked into it - all we needed to do was lay the blame on them…”

timrodresized: How many times has he fucking repeated this in this conversation alone? Two? Three? I cannot bring myself to give enough of a shit to count.

Akechi: “When you told me that, I knew then that you were the better man.”

Shido: “Their popularity was a bit beyond my expectations, but flipping it made the negative press stronger. After that, all I had to do was openly berate them; I’ve been gaining more supporters since.”

timrodresized: I like to think that this scene was the straw that broke the camel’s back that was Hashino’s employment at Atlus. This is the moment when Sega’s executives realized that this game worked despite Hashino, not because of him.

timrodresized: The only pleasure I take from this scene is knowing that it’s likely that this is where Hashino realized how horribly incompetent and out of his league he was. The moment where he realized that he fucked up, and now it was too late to fix the problem.

Shido: “The current administration is dead with ongoing scandals… never mind the fact that they’re my doing. Even the government parties have begun splitting up… and they’re dissolving just as planned.”

image

Shido: “The time has finally come… just a little more, and I will take the seat of prime minister. However, inauguration isn’t my goal. That’s when everything truly begins.”

timrodresized: At the very beginning of the LP, I mentioned a spot where I would have to spoil Eternal Punishment. This is that spot, but I’ll be as general as I possibly can.

timrodresized: Shido is a direct fucking ripoff of a villain from Eternal Punishment who has a very similar MO and a character who is basically Akechi but written by someone competent (and also not a high schooler).

Akechi: “In other words, you’re creating a more powerful country that can compete with the world.”

Shido: “The public resonates with my ideals and follows me. And for that, some ‘sacrifices’ can’t be avoided. That is my duty as the chosen one. Your assistance has been very influential in making my plans proceed smoothly.”

timrodresized: You know what I would pay money to see? How Satomi Tadashi would’ve salvaged this plot.

Shido: “When I become prime minister, I’ll grant you whatever wish you want.”

Akechi: “With this most recent case, my name has become known across the country, perhaps even the world. Surely my story will be passed down as a hero who won against monsters that could control people’s hearts.”

timrodresized: This line is… probably a reference to Eternal Punishment. I wonder if Hashino put this here himself, or if one of the other writers did it after they caught on to what he was doing.

timrodresized: I may get a bonus Yusu-Gay done based on it, because it involves Jun being a ninja and the concept of samurai Joker with a ninja Yusuke amuses me.

Akechi: “I believe I’ll lay low and devote myself to my studies.”

timrodresized: Right after this is an ENTIRELY OPTIONAL scene with Futaba where Hashino tries to fill in some plot holes. We’ll do that in a separate update, because I am done with his bullshit for now.

timrodresized: Next time - more plot dump. Three more days of plot dump.

Yeah. I have to wonder if at any point, anyone told Hashino that having a plot that requires the player character to have agency is incompatible with a silent player-insert protagonist with no agency of his own. I’m sure someone probably did, and Hashino’s response was “I’ve got this, I can make it work,” because he’s too much of a fucking idiot to have realized that he was in way over his head and was waking a monster that he was not fully prepared to deal with.

Okay so if I have this right… the Scooby Gang figured out Akechi was up to something. So they split up after fake taking the Treasure so Joker would run off on his own and get captured while everyone else runs off with Akechi who just lets them go. Then… they planned for Sae to do a interrogation? And hoped that Joker would be aware enough to convince her to show Akechi the phone, which instantly popped him into a perfect Metaverse copy of the interrogation room with a copy Joker and a copy guard so Akechi shoots the copies while Sae sneaks real Joker out of the police station and no one realizes there’s no blood and no body.

And then despite Shido coming up several times especially in this last chapter they listen to the call where Akechi name drops Shido and don’t realize that he means THAT Shido.

And also Shido is the dude Joker punched for trying to assault a lady and is the reason he’s on probation.

Funny thing about that, I went to record Futaba’s optional dialog just now and as it turns out they cut about half of it out - including a bunch of details that I think were references to an earlier draft of the script. In doing so, they also cut out the entire explanation for how they managed the switch. You’ll see it next update, but you’ve more or less got it.

The dissatisfaction from the payoff of the opening cutscene is savage. I was actually pretty excited to find out what was going on. Once you know about the Metaverse, the opening cutscene becomes very tantalizing, because it seems like the real world is colliding with someone’s Palace. Or there’s some other kind of grand escalation. But Akechi just did a group huddle with the Tokyo PD.

It was the second-best solution to the problem. The best would have been to not mention it at all, like the original script did.

Though now I want the next Mario game to start with Mario saying “Toad, I assume all Fire Flowers are-a on-site procurement-a?”

You know Hashino is still employed at Atlus, right? He’s the head of Studio Zero.

"Then the only value left is dollar value - the economy. So we’ll do whatever it takes to keep it humming along! Even war. Especially war!

Ergh, please no. I’m still holding out hope that Eternal Punishment will be satisfying, but I’ve seen P1, Innocent Sin, and Digital Devil Saga and games are just not his medium (and P5 probably isn’t his genre).

Also I’ve seen him ‘salvage’ someone’s plot before. It was called Digital Devil Saga 2 and aaaaaaaaaaa its so bad.

I did not know that. I assumed he had left Atlus to form that studio. I looked it up and it looks like Re Fantasy is probably vaporware (and if it comes out will probably have a lot of the same problems P5 did) but at least it stops him from ever laying his hands on Persona as a series again.

Oh yeah, it totally sucks. When I played the base game, I knew about Akechi due to people spoiling it and had seen the opening casino segment in promo videos, so I assumed that the casino was Akechi’s dungeon. I think that’s a large part of why I hate the plot - they had hyped the shit out of it during development and when you actually get there it’s just… meh.

I was also hoping the game would take the kind of adversarial stance that Persona 4 did to the player - things like the scene with Nametame where the party is encouraging you to just fucking kill him (even though they should have, he was too dumb to live) or the part at the end where it keeps asking if you’re really sure you want to go back to Junes and not spend your last day with your friends. That was one of the reasons I really liked Snow Queen - it offers you the option of doing Thanatos Tower first and then dangles the extra ambrosia in front of you. And then it just… doesn’t, despite this being the perfect game to do just that.

Click Here for Update 89

timrodresized: This scene had a lot of changes in Royal for some reason. In the base game, Sojiro isn’t in the room at this point.

Sojiro: “The police report on your death isn’t gonna show up at your school. No need to worry. Seems Prosecutor Niijima worked out some kinda deal with the higher-ups or something.”

timrodresized: …And how exactly did she do that without Shido finding out, given that the “higher-ups” are mostly in his pocket - at least, if what he says is true.

timrodresized: Now, I’ll admit that I do this sometimes, but come the fuck on! Proofread your goddamn script!

Sojiro: “And I guess if they reported your death now, they’d basically be saying you were a phantom thief. They can’t really go around announcing what the Phantom Thieves are, so I’m sure they’ll avoid that.”

timrodresized: Futaba’s dialog here was cut significantly - it was originally about five minutes of text. Royal adds voiceacting to it as well. I wasn’t aware of this, which is why I didn’t just put it in the last update.

timrodresized: To avoid confusing anyone, I’m only going to post the dialog that actually shows up in Royal. You can see the entire thing from the base game here, if you’re interested.

Futaba: “Well, remember how I put that wiretap app in Akechi’s phone? Basically that let me see GPS info for two phones: yours and his. I’d be able to tell the precise moment Sae Niijima, who had your phone, ran into Akechi!”

Futaba: “That’s when I saw my chance and beep - sent the signal to activate the Metaverse Navigator. But there was the chance they’d just pass each other without saying a single word.”

Futaba: “That’s why we needed you to tell Sae Niijima to show the phone to Akechi!”

timrodresized: You might be wondering why she keeps referring to Sae by her full name - I think it’s because in Japanese, everyone refers to Makoto by her last name.

Morgana: “This plan still surprises me no matter how many times I hear it…”

Futaba: “Still, I couldn’t just directly hack into the Metaverse Nav. It’s a mysterious app, after all. But you know how it has that bookmark function? All you have to do is push the button.”

Futaba: “Making the phone think he was pushing that button was totally doable. Mwehehehe… pretty good, huh!?”

timrodresized: I do want to post a couple of excerpts from the base game’s version of this scene, because I want to show you just how much of a confusing clusterfuck it was. For this, I’ll use Futaba’s phantom thief portrait.

Oracle: “Lemme see, another problematic thing was… oh yeah! Tying Akechi up! That was really tough. Uhh, I obviously don’t mean the real Akechi. Even if we could do that, it would ruin our plan.”

Oracle: “The one we had to tie up was Sae Niijima’s cognitive Akechi… this part’s really complicated. I know you’re tired. You sure you wanna hear all of this now?”

timrodresized: This is where my theory about the multiple plot drafts comes from. There is no cognitive Akechi in Sae’s dungeon. I saw this my first time through and thought I missed something, but I didn’t.

Oracle: “Well, since the rest of us didn’t get captured, we had to act. We had to pretend we never wanted you to get arrested… pretend the suicide news was a real shock… basically we had to act like we didn’t know anything, 24/7.”

timrodresized: I’m pretty sure this is also from the initial plot draft that had the cognitive Akechi in it. In the initial draft, there was probably a longer period between when Joker gets arrested and when Akechi ‘kills’ him.

Oracle: “The enemy knows who we are, so we couldn’t let our guard down even once while you were gone. If they had people watching us and realized what our plan was, they would have killed you immediately.”

timrodresized: There’s one last bit of optional dialog, and that’s with Morgana.

Morgana: “But even that’s putting it too lightly. You had it rough in there, didn’t you?”

Morgana: “Akechi was after you all along. I knew it was risky, but we had no choice but to depend on him… but thanks to your tenacity, you were able to fool him.”

Morgana: “It’s payback time. Let’s make him regret underestimating the Phantom Thieves!”

timrodresized: And now, let’s do the only thing we can do and go to bed.

Morgana: “Don’t worry about it. This’ll be a breeze compared to what we’ve had to face so far. And we’ll have all the time to come up with the plans together!”

Morgana: “To be perfectly honest, I don’t really care what happens to Shido one way or the other. But when I consider the fact that he’s your enemy, I naturally think he’s my enemy as well.”

Morgana: “I’m going to stay with you until the very end. Well then, we should get to sleep.”

Morgana: “When you were in a pinch in the Palace, she picked up a reading of someone who came to your rescue. Was that…?”

Morgana: “So it was Yoshizawa… then we’d better let her know you’re safe now. And, I’ll even lend you a hand with that.”

timrodresized: There’s scenes each day for the next few days where we’ll get IMs from the various non-party member confidants. I’m not sure what the criteria to get them are - I heard it was Rank 10, but we get Shinya’s even though we’re only at Rank 9.

timrodresized: This means we miss out on Iwai’s and Chihaya’s.

Ushimaru: “I swear, you’re like monkeys in a zoo. …Hm? Oh yeah… I received word from Kurusu’s family that he’ll be absent for a bit. Geez… what do you people think school is, anyway?”

Ann: “It’s almost time…”

Sojiro: “You don’t need to worry about it in here, but try not to do anything to draw attention. Anyway, today’s a day off, so eat your curry and take it easy.”

Sojiro: “You can take your time with it too. It’s not like any customers are gonna be showing up.”

Morgana: “Let’s try and think of the keyword once the chief’s curry has energized you.”

Morgana: “All right, let’s head to the Diet Building. Make sure you aren’t discovered, okay?”

timrodresized: You might be wondering how it is that Joker can go out if he’s supposed to be dead, and the answer is…

timrodresized: A hood. Clearly, Joker is a descendant of that guy from Assassin’s Creed.

Sojiro: “You gotta be kiddin’ me… you realize you’re done for if you get caught, right? …Sheesh, the stunts you pull sometimes. Just don’t stay out too late.”

Makoto: “Let’s begin at once. Police cars are making rounds, so we can’t stay here too long. We already have ‘Masayoshi Shido’ and ‘Diet Building’. All we need is ‘what’ he thinks of this place.”

timrodresized: Why would they even need to be here? The game showed them guessing the keywords just fine in Leblanc.

Ryuji: “Maybe ‘Mt. Fuji’ since it’s the highest place in the country?”

Ann: “What about a ‘mansion’?”

Haru: “Since he’s going to subjugate everyone as prime minister… perhaps a ‘school’?”

Yusuke: “What about an ‘arena’ like the Colosseum?”

Futaba: “Imperial palace?”

Makoto: “…It’s no good.”

Haru: “I thought we would’ve gained entry by now… maybe we shouldn’t have called Akira-kun here…”

Ryuji: “Shido stole the cognitive psience research, right? Maybe it had some special move written in it.”

timrodresized: Shido did a quarter circle back and punch and now his palace is impenetrable.

Ann: “Is that even possible?”

Morgana: “Who knows? I’ve got no idea.”

Futaba: “There was nothing like that in the notes I saw.”

Ryuji: “Anyways, what kinda person is Shido? I can’t figure him out…”

Yusuke: “I did some light research on him last night, but I couldn’t get a grasp on the type of man he is.”

Ann: “What kind of person is Representative Shido? What’s he think about the National Diet?”

timrodresized: “You know, what’s his shadow see his personal brain realm as?”

Futaba: “An exemplary answer.”

Ann: “It makes sense he wouldn’t tell teenagers anything unnecessary.”

timrodresized: The guard’s radioing in and asking “Hey control, is anime real? Because I see a bunch of teenagers with off-color hair and modified school uniforms sitting outside, and I can’t tell if they’re anime protagonists or just teenagers.”

Ann: “Wait, is it about us?”

Ryuji: “That doesn’t look good.”

Makoto: “We should leave at once. Tomorrow’s a day off, so let’s have an early strategy meeting. Meet at Leblanc, okay?”

Haru: “We should all think about this tonight…”

timrodresized: “I’m saying this even though it would make more sense not to, because now I’ve got no one to pin all my murders on.”

Shido: “However, I believe that this country’s citizens are still living their days in anxiety. These scandals only increase our distrust of the current government. As a citizen myself, I am enraged!”

Morgana: “Look who’s talking.”

Shido: “What does it mean to be a politician with responsibility? Working toward personal gain without consideration of the country is outrageous!”

Sojiro: “The election’s public notification is tomorrow, but no matter where I go, people are cheering for Shido.”

timrodresized: I’m not exactly sure what he’s talking about. If I had to guess, it’s probably Shido being announced as the candidate for prime minister even though it’s kind of a foregone conclusion at this point.

Futaba: “Everyone’s being deceived so easily.”

Shido: “In order to save this country that has been tainted by villains, social reform is essential!”

Futaba: “Ugh…”

timrodresized: While Joker was gone, someone put up a Phantom Thieves flag in his room.

Morgana: “I get no one knows the truth about him, but it still creeps me out…”

timrodresized: We have time tonight to do something, so let’s try another game.

timrodresized: Sarutahiko is a demon that has not made an appearance since Nocturne. He’s the husband of Ame no Uzume.

Morgana: “Oh, there’s a practice course. Let’s try that one first. All right, time to practice a normal-distance shot.”

timrodresized: I miss the QTE the first time by a single bar.

Morgana: “Your ball’s in the rough now. That wasn’t the best shot… oh, the screen changed. It looks like you’re stuck in the sand now.”

Morgana: “Not bad! You managed to get yourself out of the bunker. Oooh, you’re near the flag now! It looks like this is practice for getting your ball on the green.”

Morgana: “Hey, you did it! The ball’s on the green now. Looks like that’s the end of the practice course. I guess we’ll finish here for today.”

Sojiro: “Oh, that’s right. Aren’t you all supposed to be gathering here today? Make sure you finish eating before everyone shows up.”

Morgana: “It’s almost time for our meeting. I wonder if anybody has figured out the keyword…”

timrodresized: No, that’d be Elon Musk, and also an emerald mine.

Makoto: “…No good.”

Ryuji: “How many’d we miss?”

Yusuke: “Perhaps he truly does have a barrier up.”

Ryuji: “Right!?”

Ann: “That’s not something to be excited about!”

Morgana: “We know all the way up to ‘Diet Building’ too…”

Sae: “…So you enter keywords into the Metaverse Navigator.”

Ryuji: “Boss, can you turn the TV on? Shido might be on it.”

Sojiro: “Sure thing.”

Futaba: “Him and his stupid, composed face!”

Akechi: “I truly apologize for causing such a stir. Honestly, it required a lot of courage to openly oppose them when their popularity was at its peak. I mean, people often lashed out at me online and whatnot.”

Akechi: “That was to catch them off guard. I could say I applied my profiling knowledge. Once they lost public support, someone they thought was their greatest enemy lent a hand…”

Akechi: “That’s the same strategy used in romance, wouldn’t you agree?”

timrodresized: Joker and Yusuke look at each other and reflexively go “No.”

Haru: “Why is he being treated as an ‘ace detective of justice’!?”

Sojiro: “It’s not just on TV or online. Newspapers, magazines… I see his face everywhere.”

Ryuji: “On the other hand, no one’s hoping for our comeback on the Phan-Site, like at all!”

Haru: “The Phantom Thieves are ‘evil’. Shido and Akechi are ‘just’… it should be the other way around.”

Ann: “They’re manipulating information using the media!”

Yusuke: “Leaving Akechi aside - we’ll get back at him later - our main issue is Shido.”

timrodresized: What the shit kind of dialog is that? That sounds like something you’d hear out of the narrator in a book.

Haru: “Were there any instances before when you didn’t know the Palace keywords?”

Ann: “Well, there was the time with Futaba.”

Makoto: “We didn’t know anything about her, so all we could do was make conjectures.”

Futaba: “Then, why don’t we just go directly and see Shido?”

Haru: “That’s impossible. He’s surrounded by bodyguards and followers all the time.”

Yusuke: “There’s no way high school students can get an appointment with him either.”

Ryuji: “Well, we do have an adult with us…”

Sae: “No, that’s still impossible. Besides, that’s too dangerous a method.”

Ann: “Well this is a problem…”

Sae: “Isn’t that an election-campaign car?”

Haru: “Oh right! The candidates are currently campaigning!”

timrodresized: Hold on… you recognize Shido’s voice in person, but don’t recognize his voice from the multitude of times he’s been on TV?

Shido: “I apologize for the commotion! I am Masayoshi Shido!”

Ryuji: “Wait, did he just say ‘Shido’!?”

Ann: “Yeah, he did!”

timrodresized: Has this happened to anyone ever, where you recognize their voice almost a year later but not their face? I mean, unless you’ve got prosopagnosia or something.

Morgana: “…!?”

timrodresized: Haru runs after him because Haru thirsts for blood. That’s not even a joke - there’s a couple of Metaverse lines that confirm it.

Morgana: “This way. Hurry! By the way, did something happen? You didn’t seem well a moment ago…”

timrodresized: Gee, I wonder what his palace could possibly be. What’s funny is that this isn’t even the line that makes Joker realize what it is.

timrodresized: Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, this will not raise Japan’s declining birth rate.

Shido: “Let us all set sail toward a happy future together! I hope to continue serving you all!”

Ryuji: “You guys wait here! I’ll go get intel for us!”

Haru: “Wait!”

Ryuji: “I just wanna talk to him for a sec!”

Ryuji: “The hell!? Ain’t he s’posed to hear a citizen’s comments!?”

Ryuji: “You’re that asshole we met at the hotel before! At the elevators!”

timrodresized: For the bodyguard, it was… actually, what day was that? Oh, right. For the bodyguard, it was Thursday.

Haru: “Come on, stop!”

Ryuji: “But, these guys-”

Shido: “Hey kid. You don’t want to know what happens when you cross me…”

Shido: “What are you looking at? This country is filled with clueless children… I worry for Japan’s future. Let them go. My next appointment is coming up.”

timrodresized: Shido looks right at Joker and somehow doesn’t realize who he is. You’d think he’d be racking his memory like “Wait… I was supposed to do something if I saw a bunch of teens…”

Ryuji: “Wait… he’s the jerk you told us about before!? The same guy!? For real!? Seriously!?”

timrodresized: Penalty, offense, number sixty-three, overuse of the interrobang. Five yard penalty, game remains on third down!

Haru: “You’re sure… aren’t you?”

Morgana: “Shido’s the one who ruined your life…”

Ryuji: “Holy shit… I don’t believe it…”

Morgana: “…”

Haru: “…Let’s get going, okay?”

Makoto: “Talk about a destined connection…”

Morgana: “Shido was involved in the cognitive research too, right? This can’t be dismissed as just a coincidence…”

Sojiro: “God… what the hell’s going on here?”

Sae: “Shido was already a politician then, yet he sued a student and ruined his future? He must’ve pulled some strings so that his name wouldn’t be mentioned…”

timrodresized: Shido pulls a giant rope hanging from the ceiling with a sign on it reading “DUMBASS HASHINO PLOT”.

Sae: “Furthermore, he also would’ve had to force that woman into making a false statement.”

Yusuke: “He would do anything. We’re talking about a man who ordered a hit inside the police station.”

Sojiro: “He can’t sit still until he crushes whoever opposes him, no matter how trivial. He’s always been that way.”

Ryuji: “What a piece of shit! ‘Children are the future’, my ass! What he’s sayin’ and doin’ are completely different!”

Ann: “But now that we found out who did it, can’t something be done about Akira’s record!?”

Sae: “Once the courts have made a judgment, overturning that decision will be difficult. It’d barely be possible even if proof of innocence is presented and Shido admits to his crimes.”

timrodresized: I’d say this sounds ridiculous, but it’s really not.

Yusuke: “At any rate, we need to trigger a change of heart in him.”

Makoto: “Be that as it may, Shido’s outer appearance and his true face are wholly different. It’s beyond hypocritical. It’s as if he’s an entirely different person.”

timrodresized: Way to say exactly what Ryuji just said, but in different words. Quality Hashino writing.

Haru: “He speaks about the good of the country… it makes me wonder what really is on his mind.”

timrodresized: How many villains has this been now where their motivation is “strong eat the weak”? Oh right, all of them.

Ann: “He treats himself as an elite man while looking down on others… that’s the worst.”

Yusuke: “I assume the keyword for what he believes the Diet Building is will be despicable too.”

Ann: “It must be something self-centered and completely different from politics.”

Haru: “Someone like him needs to be punished as soon as possible!”

timrodresized: How many times has someone said that over the past couple of updates? I’m sure you’ve noticed it by now, but Hashino has a lot of trouble keeping the party members plot-relevant.

Makoto: “Stewing over it won’t get anywhere. We have to do this…”

Morgana: “Oh, yeah, those clothes… you’d stand out if everyone else is wearing their school uniforms. It might be a good idea to wear your uniform when you head out.”

timrodresized: Translation: The anime cutscene animators fucked up again.

timrodresized: This is another night where we can’t do anything. Fortunately, tomorrow is the last day of cutscenes for a while.

Morgana: “Huh? Is this a gym? Oh, and there’s a weird old guy standing over there.”

Morgana: “Ohhh… so there’s a practice stage before you get to the real action.”

timrodresized: The inputs are fixed, but this is basically Featherman Seeker without the memory bit. Of course, this was in the base game and Featherman Seeker was added for Royal…

timrodresized: I also realized I forgot to mention something. Featherman Seeker is basically Akechi’s backstory. If you have the paid DLC that adds the Featherman costumes, Akechi’s is Gray Pigeon.

timrodresized: Wait, isn’t that screen ripped straight out of Punch-Out? It even says W.V.B.A. on it.

timrodresized: Next time, we’ll see the inside of Shido’s palace in the mandatory plot test run. After that, we’ve got a week or so of finishing up confidants before we go in for real.

Click Here for Update 90

timrodresized: Today’s the last day of cutscenes before we get to play the game again.

Sojiro: “It feels pretty weird seeing you around on a weekday… you’re taking off tonight, right? Sheesh, you’re such a risk-taker… listen, make sure nobody notices you, okay?”

Morgana: “We have to do something about the keyword for sure this time…”

Futaba: “But we still have no hit…”

Ryuji: “Think it’s a barrier after all?”

Yusuke: “Where’d your enthusiasm from yesterday go?”

Ryuji: “Aw shuddup. The real game starts at two outs!”

Ann: “Enough chatting. You should only be thinking about the keyword!”

Haru: “The citizens are secondary. He only cares about his own well-being and that of his lackeys…”

timrodresized: I sure love all these cutscenes in a row with lots of repeating dialog.

Makoto: “He wants to become prime minister even if it means trampling on others…”

timrodresized: I sure love all these cutscenes in a row with lots of repeating dialog.

Futaba: “Fortune… rich people…”

Morgana: “Hey, Akira, can you think of anything based on what you’ve heard from him? Just try saying anything. It doesn’t matter if you guess.”

timrodresized: Wait… how did Morgana hear Joker’s internal monologue?

Ann: “What? The Diet Building’s a ship!? What kind of scenery will that be!? The actual building’s on land!”

Makoto: “I can’t even begin to imagine what it will be like…”

Futaba: “Well, whatever it is, looks like there are no barriers!”

Ryuji: “Sh-Shuddup! Let’s hurry up and go in!”

Yusuke: “Are we clear of the guard’s sight?”

Morgana: “Get closer to the wall, just in case. All right… do it, Akira.”

Makoto: “The security guards seem to be gone, but it’s difficult to tell for certain… this seems to be similar to what happened with Sis’s Palace.”

timrodresized: Read: The character designers didn’t have the time to make new NPC designs.

Yusuke: “But this time, the Diet Building remains unchanged…”

Haru: “Ah… the gate wasn’t open earlier though.”

Ann: “Wait, look! Mona’s appearance is different.”

Ryuji: “C’mon, let’s go take a look.”

timrodresized: I told Salty Vanilla that they’re probably more qualified to do a Persona 5 anime at this point than the actual animators are, and I’m totally right.

timrodresized: Seriously, this cutscene is what, maybe a minute or two long? I can count the number of on-model frames on two fingers, those being my thumb and index finger making a zero.

timrodresized: This looks like the CG cutscenes from Persona 1’s PSP port… which is not a good thing.

timrodresized: This looks like they’re on a pier staring at an Excel spreadsheet. End of Excelvangelion v2.0+1.1, You Can (Not) Be On-Model.

timrodresized: Joker and Yusuke at the same time: “We have to do the Titanic thing!”

timrodresized: Futaba: “You mean T-posing? I love T-posing!”

timrodresized: Joker: “It’s not T-posing! It’s an incredibly romantic scene where…”

timrodresized: Futaba: “Where Kate Winslet T-poses! She was so ahead of her time!”

timrodresized: Joker: “You know, Titanic sucks.”

Ryuji: “A country that children can be proud of, my ass! It’s completely sunken in his head! If a guy like this stands above everyone, we’re seriously done for!”

Ann: “This is beyond ridiculous!”

Yusuke: “The same goes for Akechi. He should’ve seen this scenery as well… yet he still aided Shido.”

Makoto: “What in the world is he thinking?”

Haru: “Whether it be for glory or for simply a reward… my father died because of someone like this!”

timrodresized: I mean, admittedly, your dad pretty much WAS this. Wasn’t his entire plan basically the same thing with the whole “Escape to Utopia” bit?

Morgana: “A Palace with not just the center of the distortion, but the entire country sunken… I can’t believe there’s someone with this tremendous of a desire… be careful! This will be completely different from past Palaces!”

timrodresized: It’s not. It’s exactly the same as all the others, just far longer. I remember that the guide I used to 100% the base game scheduled four days to do this dungeon because doing it in one day kinda sucks.

Ryuji: “We’re definitely gonna take his Treasure!”

Ryuji: “All right!”

Makoto: “We must put an end to this by December 17th, the day before the elections!”

Morgana: “Let the infiltration begin! Time to pay him back for setting us up into a trap!”

timrodresized: If the game would let me clear the palace today, we absolutely could.

Ryuji: “Speakin’ of that, shouldn’t Akira’ve been disguisin’ himself on the way here?”

timrodresized: That might require effort on behalf of the cutscene animators, and we all know what their stance toward being on-model is.

Ann: “Uh, seeing someone in a disguise with a bunch of kids in school uniforms would be super weird…”

Morgana: “Well, we won’t have to worry about any of that once we steal the Treasure… let’s do this!”

Makoto: “Let’s go find out. It’s time we begin our infiltration.”

Panther: “But why are even the passengers wearing masks?”

Skull: “You think they’re tryin’ to be phantom thieves, like Noir was with that Beauty Thief stuff?”

Noir: “Th-That’s quite enough!”

Fox: “Whatever the reason, it reflects Shido’s mentality. Surely he doesn’t view others normally.”

Queen: “Given the insane nature of his distortion, I’m surprised they even look like people.”

timrodresized: Unlike Sae’s palace, you can talk to the NPCs here.

timrodresized: Oh hey, a chest. Let’s go grab it.

Skull: “Urgh, it’s attackin’ us with all these people 'round!?”

timrodresized: Oh look, it’s Pascal the Dog.

timrodresized: I couldn’t remember what his weakness is - it’s Ice - so I wasted turns letting Makoto do something. I promptly replaced her with Yusuke after this fight.

timrodresized: Psycho Force is probably my favorite spell in the game, if only because it shows what Ness’s main PSI skill would look like in 3D.

timrodresized: My mistake here was not pulling out Beelzebub.

Queen: “It seems they think no harm will come to them because they’re here on Shido’s ship.”

Skull: “They’re not even sensin’ the danger… c’mon, let’s make 'em see what this ship really is!”

timrodresized: There are enemies roaming around here, and I thought I was within Insta-Kill range of this one but I wasn’t, so I got ambushed.

timrodresized: Cerberus shows up with Sarasvati, who was a low-level support Persona in 4. She was mostly notable because she learned Invigorate and was a good early source of SP regeneration.

timrodresized: Of course, in Golden she’s kind of pointless because of how easy it is to get Victory Cry.

timrodresized: Sarasvati fucking sucks because she does nothing but spam full-party confusion, which causes this bullshit to happen. I had someone throw out an incense, which was grounds for a reset.

timrodresized: The stealables this time around are darumas.

timrodresized: The humanoid shadows here are low enough for me to insta-kill. We inadvertently grab both a Dakini and Cerberus this way.

Returning Persona (Technically): Dakini

Origin: Tibet

First Appearance: Shin Megami Tensei I

Tibetan deity re-purposed by Japanese buddhism. A fox spirit that is part of a goddess called Dakiniten.

timrodresized: Dakini was an enemy in Persona 1 - you mainly saw them in the SEBEC route after Deva Yuga. I saw a lot of them after grinding Mark for like eight hours.

Returning Persona: Pascal the Dog

Origin: Shin Megami Tensei I

First Appearance: Shin Megami Tensei I

Protagonist’s dog from SMT 1. Merged himself with a demon at the start of the game, and was later picked up by the protagonist at Destinyland. Pascal the Dog is here.

timrodresized: We pass some very obvious stuff on the way there, including a save room…

timrodresized: And the map stand. Why is it that every dungeon has a map stand?

Oracle: “There’re slots to stick something like a keycard… whoa, there’s five of them!”

Morgana: “I hear something.”

timrodresized: Voice: “Congratulations, Prime Minister Shido, T-posing is now illegal in all prefectures of Japan.”

timrodresized: Futaba: “You goddamn monster!”

Skull: “Passed? What’s goin’ on? Was that Shido’s voice?”

Queen: “If this truly is the Representatives Chamber as written, beyond here must be the main assembly hall.”

Skull: “…The what now?”

Queen: “It’s that large conference room that’s usually seen on the news.”

Skull: “Ohhh, that thing. Gotcha. …So, what’re they doin’ inside?”

Queen: “Most likely a meaningless vote… one in which whatever Shido proposes will always go unopposed.”

Noir: “So he’s doing whatever he wants by keeping only his supporters in there.”

Fox: “What do we do to get in, though? Should we find these keycards?”

Morgana: “Maybe we need some kind of qualification, one that vows to be his follower or swear loyalty.”

Panther: “So basically, we need to prove that we’re on his side.”

timrodresized: There was a speedrun marathon going when I was working on this update, and one of the runs they did was Persona 5 Strikers - New Game+ Any%.

timrodresized: The only thing more boring than several hours of Hashino cutscenes is watching some guy hit Square-Square-Triangle for Megidolaon for FOUR HOURS… with the English voices on. It probably would’ve been less terrible in Japanese.

Queen: “You sure move on quick…”

Skull: “But what’s this qualification thing about?”

Noir: “Why don’t we ask the guests on this ship?”

Oracle: “That thought never crossed my mind.”

Morgana: “Asking around doesn’t sound like a bad idea.”

timrodresized: Clearly, the people doing that second localization pass must’ve fallen asleep. Can’t say I blame them.

Queen: “True. You have a point.”

Fox: “That said, the ruler here is that evil Shido. It wouldn’t surprise me if they did turn hostile.”

Panther: “Right… yeah, wouldn’t they attack us?”

Morgana: “We should prepare for the worst, of course, but I think we’ll at least be able to talk to them. This ship is most likely an ark loaded with those that Shido believes are worth keeping alive.”

Morgana: “It’d explain the luxury cruise ship. I doubt idiots who can’t even hold a conversation would be here.”

timrodresized: Ryuji and Makoto start sweating at that last statement.

Queen: “We can at least gather information. It helps that everyone’s wearing masks. We’ll blend in even with our attire.”

Morgana: “He must believe that no one shows their true face to anyone else… just like him.”

timrodresized: Well no shit, this is a game that is ostensibly still about Jungian psychology, though now it’s more about dumbass anime tropes being glued together to make something that resembles a plot if you don’t look at it too closely.

timrodresized: I mentioned this in the Persona 1 LP, but Jung’s entire theory hinges on the idea that showing your “true face” to someone is not achievable - even for someone who totally accepts themselves.

Noir: “Well then, let’s split up and ask around.”

Morgana: “There’s no doubt… I can sense the Treasure behind this door. Looks like we’ve already hit the jackpot. Let’s go talk to the others!”

timrodresized: This segment consists of finding all of our party members and talking to them. I’m going to cut this part because there’s a recap that goes over everything immediately after it.

timrodresized: Yusuke is the hardest one to find, mostly because he’s in a side passage. All the wrong routes are blocked off by shadows that Morgana won’t let Joker demolish because Morgana sucks.

timrodresized: After we talk to the last party member, Morgana will suggest going back to the incredibly obvious map stand and getting a map.

Panther: “Not great, but not bad either.”

Fox: “I was able to get a bit of intel as well. We should sort through what all of us gained for now.”

Morgana: “Well, I took a look at the map we obtained earlier and found what appears to be a safe room.”

timrodresized: This is the save room we had to walk past because Hashino thinks that railroading is the best aspect of game design.

Skull: “Oooh, it’s close.”

Morgana: “The casino earlier looked pretty real too, but talking with these guests was a whole 'nother story.”

Fox: “You have that right…”

Morgana: “This ruler’s observational skills and insight are off the charts. Shido’s a formidable foe…”

timrodresized: A formidable foe who didn’t just kill you all even though he knows who you are.

Skull: “C’mon, no need to freak out!”

Morgana: “I’m not freaking out! I was just thinking it’ll be easier to make a plan since they can talk normally. All right, let’s put together the information we gathered.”

Skull: “…So, we gotta get a ‘letter of introduction’ from the five VIPs?”

Panther: “And those letters become the keycards?”

Queen: “Exactly. Now, let’s go over what all of us have learned. First, according to my intel… one of the VIPs is an influential politician by the name of Ooe. He’s supposedly seen at the restaurant at night and sits at a table near the window.”

Panther: “Um, I’ll go next. I heard about a prominent VIP who used to be… nobility? They said he’s usually by the pool.”

Fox: “Next is my intelligence. It seems the president of a television station is also a VIP. He always plays slots at night. It would seem he spends his money quite lavishly.”

Skull: “Crap, I’m startin’ to forget people already…”

Oracle: “Next is my turn!”

Skull: “For real!? Even you got info?”

Oracle: “Of course. I eavesdropped. Supposedly one of the VIPs is the president of an IT company. He’s always in his room and reportedly enters from an exclusive hallway.”

timrodresized: That would be the fake Medjed.

Morgana: "Well then, I’ll close us out!

Skull: “How the hell’d you get info with your looks?”

Noir: “Cleaner? I wonder what they mean by that.”

timrodresized: You know, Mr. Wolf. Solves problems.

Panther: “Wait a minute. After all the VIPs we listed, this one’s a cleaner? Is he really a VIP?”

timrodresized: How have none of these people ever seen a mafia film? I know yakuza movies are an entire genre in Japanese film, and there’s no way the yakuza don’t have cleaners.

Morgana: “…Supposedly.”

Noir: “I’m sorry… I couldn’t get any information.”

Skull: “Me neither! So don’t worry about it, okay? Let’s just work harder during the battle.”

Noir: “You’re right… I’ll do my best!”

Skull: “But there’s a bigger problem, y’know… my memory’s, uh… not so great. Anyways, who was who…? Uhh…”

Skull: “Ugh, it’s no use! I can’t keep the profiles of five people straight in my head…”

timrodresized: Let’s be real here Ryuji, they’re going to be generic minibosses that Joker will steamroll with Satan, since we’re fusing him tomorrow.

Panther: “I can only remember about two of them… what about you, Joker?”

timrodresized: Now, you’re probably wondering - are we at any point going to have to memorize this as a mechanic? The answer is no, we’re not. I’m sure at some point in development they might’ve considered it, but it’s not in the base game or Royal.

Panther: “Really!? Wow!”

Oracle: “But only go for the cleaner after the other four have been dealt with. Right?”

Panther: “Whoa! Now that’s impressive! You go, genius!”

Queen: “If we can’t remember the details on the VIPs, let’s reconvene inside a safe room.”

timrodresized: I fucking hate when games do this. The thing is, even if you don’t know that the game isn’t going to make you remember this shit, you can kinda tell they’re not going to.

Morgana: "All right, let’s get this done quickly!’

Queen: “We know how to get into the main assembly hall now… should we head home?”

timrodresized: We’re forced to go back at this point, so it’s not like we can grind. Speaking of which, we have a free daytime period coming up on the 4th that I may use to grind in Mementos.

timrodresized: We’ll see why in just a minute.

Skull: “Huh? You wanna go back already?”

Morgana: “There are people in here with special letters. That means Shido trusts them to a certain extent.”

Fox: “It would be best to consider them as powerful individuals… we do not want to get too hasty. Let us take our time here.”

timrodresized: I wasn’t sure if the Velvet Room was out here on this trial run, but it is. I actually fused Satan tomorrow, but could just as easily have done it today without the alarm. That’s how good Satan is.

timrodresized: I opted for the easiest path to fuse him: that being Michael and a treasure demon. Satan has a solid moveset by himself, and Michael just happens to have the skills he wants but doesn’t learn himself.

New Persona: Satan

Origin: The Bible

First Appearance: Megami Tensei II

Demon from Abrahamic folklore whose lore is kind of all over the place. The Old Testament potrays him as a demon who tempts humanity from God, while the New Testament portrays him as a demonic general who will lead an army of fallen angels against Michael and the army of God.

Satan is linked to several figures in different Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic religions, including Seth, Hades, Ahriman and Mara. Judaism links him to both Samael (the angel of death) and Mastema. Gnostics refer to him by the name Yaldabaoth.

May or may not be the same entity as Lucifer.

timrodresized: Satan is good. Satan is my pal. Satan is probably the third-best Persona in the game, tied with Yoshitsune and is definitely the best ice-element Persona. His trait reduces the cost of ice spells by 75%.

timrodresized: Black Viper in particular is a VERY interesting spell. It’s essentially a super Megidolaon that only hits one target. Because multi-target spells generally do less damage to any given target, it actually has a bit of an edge over Lucifer’s signature spell in situations where there’s only one target.

timrodresized: I tossed Ice Boost on over Concentrate, since we have other sources for that.

timrodresized: This right here is why I want to grind. Satan itemizes into the best armor for male characters - there’s one that’s technically better (in that it gives you +8 Magic instead) in the expansion dungeon, but it’s a rare drop from those dirty armor things and a pain in the ass to get.

timrodresized: We also have access to the Persona that itemizes into the best armor for female characters. I really should get around to fusing that, since it shares some components with Metatron.

Sojiro: “So, this is it, huh?”

Sojiro: “…Thanks. Do what you need to. I’ll try to help any way I can. Just don’t be reckless, got it?”

timrodresized: I missed one line in this IM, it’s Ryuji saying “We gotta pay him back for what he did to Akira too.”

timrodresized: Tonight, I figured we’d read Game Secrets. Personally, I think this game is already as easy as it can possibly get.

timrodresized: This from the company who put out a game so full of bugs that they had to include a thing in the game case that told you how to avoid them. That game was SMT II.

Morgana: “Secret technique, huh? Sounds like something phantom thieves would use… I think.”

timrodresized: I wish there were major glitches in this game and not just a couple of minor out of bounds clips (most of which are useless unless you’re speedrunning).

Morgana: “So, you’ve finished reading Game Secrets. It was full of secret techniques for a bunch of games… we could beat any video game we want now!”

timrodresized: Joker climbs onto the counter, jumps off, saves and quits in mid-air and then warps to the credits.

Morgana: “Although, I guess it’s up to you whether or not you actually want to use any of those cheats.”

timrodresized: Remember kids, it’s not okay when other people cheat and they deserve to be brainfucked - but it’s perfectly okay when you do it.

Ryuji: “I’ve decided what I want to do with Shido after goin’ into his Palace. We can’t let him run free. If there’s a heart we gotta steal, it’s definitely gotta be his.”

Ryuji: “I really get it now. I want to avenge you, that’s a no-brainer, but that’s not it. If we let him run the country, the weak will be totally effed. Isn’t it our duty to protect them?”

Ryuji: “Remember when I told you that heroes who lurk in the shadows are boring? Well, forget what I said. Those heroes are way cooler.”

Ryuji: “…Hey, Akira - once we change Shido’s heart… no, never mind. Forget it. Let’s do it. Let’s steal that bastard Shido’s heart. I’ll do everythin’ I can to make it happen.”

timrodresized: I’m going to cut this update here, because we have another long cutscene before we can play again. Next time, we’ll introduce Sojiro to Caroline and Justine, finish Iwai’s confidant, and maybe finish Futaba’s confidant too.

Yeah that’s mostly what I’ve been stumped on these past few updates. Why let everyone go? Akechi knows who everyone is. The only reason I could think of is that he thinks having the gang could be useful but obviously he’s not planning on taking control of the Phantom Thieves.

Also they knew Akechi was lying to them from the start right? Why not change his heart?

They can’t change Akechi’s heart because he has a Persona, and because Joker already has a boyfriend.

There is a plot reason why Akechi hasn’t killed the entire party, but there isn’t one for why Shido didn’t order him to do so.

When you said Shido’s Palace was going to be a ship I was imagining something a little…cooler?

Oh yeah, a couple weeks ago my friend and I played some Revelations: Persona and the literal first line of the game is priceless.

Summary

timrodresized: Boy did I forget about this. Seriously, I went to record 11/27 (which is when we actually do her Rank 10) and realized I never recorded her Rank 10 romance scene. Then I panicked because I wasn’t sure I had recorded her Rank 9 non-romance scene. I did, it’s in Update 80 along with her Rank 10.

timrodresized: Telling Chihaya you love her causes her to revert to being Sandy the Squirrel.

Chihaya: “I-I mean, ‘course I like you too! Hearin’ you say that was just so gosh dang sudden though…”

timrodresized: I feel like the writers maybe overdid the whole kansai accent thing a little. Just a bit.

Chihaya: “Sorry, I slipped back into my country dialect… but, um… I’m really looking forward to getting to know you better… the tarot cards might be shocked about this though. My love fortune has been at zero for ages now.”

Chihaya: “But… I guess we’re pretty good at changing fate, huh? giggle

Chihaya: “Oh, it’s getting late…”

timrodresized: Glad to see her Rank 9 romance is just as poorly proofread as her other Rank 9.

Chihaya: “Th-The thing is… well… um… I-I… w-well, I really wanted to hear your voice, and, um… I-I mean, just kidding! I got you! Ahaha…ha…”

timrodresized: That text was painful to transcribe.

Chihaya: “W-Well, same here! But you prolly figured that already! I mean, what with the declarin’ love and everythin’…”

timrodresized: What’s weird is that as far as I can tell - and again, this is with my very limited knowledge of Japanese - her kansai accent really isn’t all that strong, at least not with her current VA.

Chihaya: “Oh my gosh, again with the accent! Phew… if I listen to you any longer, I think my heart’s going to burst… but I should probably get used to that, right!? I mean, I’m supposed to be the older one here…”

timrodresized: Chihaya’s Rank 10 romance starts out completely differently than her non-romance event does.

Chihaya: “As a country bumpkin, I’ve always admired it…”

Chihaya: “No. I somehow felt like I wasn’t allowed to… because I was a monster.”

timrodresized: At this point, the scene becomes word-for-word identical with the friendship version. Honestly, I think this version is better because it makes Chihaya seems like less of an idiot.

timrodresized: I’m just skipping around a little bit to show you the context of the next part - there’s a few lines between this one and the next one I’m going to show.

Chihaya: “Ku ku ku… I got you good, didn’t I? I don’t care what my boyfriend’s true identity is. As long as you’re around… I can always be my true self.”

timrodresized: They translate the “ku ku ku” bit as a giggle, but it’s very clearly not. Anyway, there’s more identical text until after the rank-up screen.

Chihaya: “Are you okay with your girlfriend being a country bumpkin…? It’s become a habit of mine to hide my native tongue… and I’m not used to fancy places like this.”

Chihaya: “Huh…!? I-I ain’t sure… how to respond to that… ah… I’m speaking in my country dialect again. Um… the thing is, I read our relationship fortune today. And it was really, really good!”

Chihaya: “So, um… if you don’t have any plans to steal anything tonight… um, perhaps you can stay…”

timrodresized: And that’s that. We’ve only got two more romance cutscenes in the game - Haru’s and Kasumi’s.