Click Here for Update 107
: “You have been imprisoned once more… this time, not by the God of Control, but a different entity… one who’s bound you through your future.”
: Read: Atlus was too lazy to make a new design for the Velvet Room that might actually reflect Maruki’s reality.
: “However, you held fast to your free will and believed in your bonds, allowing your friends to regain their own realities. You are on the verge of grasping a potential reality once more.”
: “Our meeting again now, within this place, is proof enough. It seems the time has come.”
: “We are merely beings who provide aid to humans as they carry out their will… you must be the one to determine the path and actions to take. If the will of rebellion still thrives within you, then we will surely meet again.”
: “We ought to tell everyone else that, too. Let’s all meet up after school.”
: Okay, so wait. The party knows that Igor and Lavenza exist. We know that they’re capable of pulling the other party members into the Velvet Room. Why the hell did they not just meet there?
: I mean, I’ll tell you why - it’s because that would require effort and probably rigging the Velvet Room up for the entire party, and we all know Atlus’s slogan when it comes to effort.
: “Good morning… um… I’m sorry. I can’t believe what I tried to do to you two… I genuinely cannot apologize enough for what happened…”
: “Aw c’mon, there’s no need for that. More importantly, how have you been?”
: “Physically, I’m fine… but, mentally? To be entirely honest, I’m all mixed up.”
: “My memories are still pretty fuzzy and I haven’t really processed everything yet… I’m going to need a little time to myself to think things through. I have to figure out what to do with myself from here on…”
: “Next year’s going to be all about your college entrance exams, so you’d better start preparing now. Oh, and if you cause any trouble, that’ll show up on your transcripts. So make sure you behave yourselves, okay?”
: “Now, time to turn in that homework. Let’s see, who’s on class duty today…”
: The writers had a prime opportunity here to show off how much reality has changed, and they fucking blew it. As far as I know, they do go into that a little bit as time goes on… but not nearly enough.
: “Have you been studying…? Well, not that you really had time for that.”
: “We definitely need to update everyone about Lady Lavenza… and cook up our plans for here on out, too.”
: “Akechi had mentioned that we needed to determine what we’ll do from here on out - it seems he was right.”
: “We can’t accept this reality, but… that means we’ll have to fight Dr. Maruki, right?”
: “That’s right. We have to confront Maruki and steal his desire… in a way, it’s business as usual for us.”
: And this is exactly the fucking problem! It shouldn’t be! They should have fucking taken this entire concept and run with it!
: Imagine if they had done something like Snow Queen, where the idea is that you have to rescue the party members and kill Maruki - but every day you take makes Maruki’s grip on reality stronger.
: There’d be a Thanatos First mode, which would be simply soloing him with Joker and killing him on January 4th. Otherwise, saving a party member takes a day. There would probably be a thing like the mirror shards you could use to save the adult confidants and Hifumi/Shinya.
: “That desire’s just a wish for us all to be happy, right?”
: “I admit, it’s nothing similar to the desire we’ve seen in the likes of Shido and Kamoshida.”
: “The Phantom Thieves only change the hearts of evildoers. Dr. Maruki is quite different from our past targets…”
: “Well, I think we already know what we gotta do.”
: Do we know that Ryuji isn’t still in the world where dreams come true?
: “There probably plenty of folks out there, livin’ all happy in this reality. Who knows? Maybe Dr. Maruki’s actually doin’ the right thing. But we all still feel like this reality’s wrong, right?”
: No, that’s not a typo on my part. That’s how the game does it. I think what they meant to type was “There’re prolly”.
: “We decide what’s right for ourselves. That was what we all agreed on when we went after Akira in the Palace. If changin’ Doc’s heart fixes our reality, then I’m gonna do it.”
: Okay so why the fuck isn’t Maruki here? The writers had no fucking problem inserting him in every other cutscene in the base game, but couldn’t have him here?
: “So, we’re going to change our target’s heart not to reform society, but to acquire the reality we believe in. That doesn’t sound bad at all.”
: “Then it’s unanimous!”
: “Well, that means our next step is pretty clear.”
: “Right. Maruki said that he’d be willing to fight if we are, too. It’s safe to assume he’s expecting us to infiltrate his Palace.”
: “That reminds me - you know that, uh… reality-bending stuff? Why’s Doc able to do that anyway?”
: “I’ve been wondering the same thing. Even if he was the top cognitive psience expert, that wouldn’t be enough for him to do all of this.”
: “If we’re going to fight Maruki, we’d better dig up some more intel on him first.”
: “This is Lavenza speaking.”
: Metal Gear!?
: “Huh?”
: “Your will of rebellion has reached new heights. We would like to aid that will, if you find it agreeable.”
: “Wait, how is she even calling you?”
: Joker: “Well, uh… I may have paid Caroline and Justine several million yen to fuse Lucifer.”
: “And how’d she know how high our wills are? Did she tap your line or something?”
: “Her timing was just too perfect… maybe she actually did!”
: “I’ve performed no form of electronic surveillance whatsoever.”
: “…Apparently she can hear you.”
: “There’s something I wish to tell you regarding your current situation… however, I’m reaching the limit of my communication ability with this method. Let us meet in person tomorrow.”
: Joker’s saying that not to do the Solid Snake thing, but because he’s surprised Lavenza didn’t buy a better phone plan with all that money.
: “Yes. Of course, your friends are also invited. As for the location… let us convene at your school.”
: “At Shujin?”
: “Wait, she’ll be at the school? Lavenza will?”
: “In that case, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
: “She hung up…”
: “Is she really gonna go to our school? Just, walk through the front gates like nuthin’?”
: “I’m not sure what to make of it… but since we’ve determined our goal, and Lavenza’s offered to help us… I’d call that progress of some sort.”
: “All we have left is whatever we discuss tomorrow at school, plus whether or not we’re going to team up with Akechi.”
: “Considering what Akira told us, it really does seem like we share an end goal with Akechi, but…”
: And here’s how we know the writers for Royal did not fucking read the base game’s script.
: “Mmhm, me too.”
: “Are you sure?”
: “Dr. Maruki’s strong enough to change reality itself. If we’re gonna fight him, we’re gonna need Akechi’s help.”
: “Plus, if he does betray us again, we’ll just take him out too.”
: “I guess that settles that.”
: “Let’s all meet at Shujin tomorrow. I’ll take care of figuring out how to get Yusuke and Futaba into the school.”
: “I appreciate the effort, thank you.”
: “All right, let’s head home for now.”
: “Why would Lady Lavenza want to meet up at the school? It’s not like she just wants to check out the place… right?”
: There’s no reason for it. No, really.
: I don’t think I explained how confidants work in the expansion, but we’re about to see how.
: As of today, any party member you reached Rank 10 with prior to The Last Day becomes eligible for a hidden 11th confidant rank. The exceptions are Sumire and Akechi.
: Akechi’s Rank 11 is unlocked based on how you answered the questions at the end of his Rank 7 and Rank 8 events. Remember how I said those were permafucks? That’s why.
: “…Hey. Sorry… it’s nothing.”
: “I was just… remembering what happened that night. You remember, right? The night before we went into Mementos to erase it… before we’d dealt with Shido…”
: “Remember how I said I’d finally found the place where I belong? Even though I said that - and really believed it - I still fell right into Maruki’s hands. I know I’ve made it obvious how much I want to be a human…”
: “More than once, I thought it would give me a chance with Lady Ann, but… what I did was just so lame. I can’t believe I was off having a blast while you were busy trying to help us.”
: “Quit being so nice to me! If you try excusing something this big, I’d be more disappointed than anything. Now that I think about it, you’ve been helping me from the very beginning.”
: “Hell, I was locked up in a prison when we first met. sigh I’m nowhere near cool…”
: “Quit buttering me up! You don’t have to tell me twice, though - I’m going to be super cool from here on out!”
: “Know what? I’m going to make you a promise right now. From here on, I’m going to be more independent! I just kept relying on your for everything because deep down… I thought you could figure everything out for me.”
: That “relying on your” is not my typo. That’s the game. The expansion content seems to have more typos than the entire base game did.
: “But that’s all changing! I’m going to stand proud on my own four feet… and I’m going to be the one to protect you. I promise I will!”
: These events are as low-effort as possible. There’s no special music, no text screen, no nothing.
New Persona: Diego
Origin: Novel by Johnston McCulley
Persona 5 Royal Original
Don Diego de la Vega is the real identity of Zorro.
: The third Personas for each character gain three new things over their second forms: first, they gain a new resistance (in Morgana’s case, it’s to Bless). They also get an upgraded trait (Morgana’s trait previously boosted healing, but now also has a chance to decrease the cost of healing spells) and a final super ability.
: Morgana’s super ability is Miracle Rush, which hits all enemies for physical damage and has a high crit chance. It’s not bad if you need extra press turns, but it’s not great as final abilities go.
: “Anyone who tries to pull one over on us like that is asking for it!”
: “Hrgh! I mean, it’s true, but… let’s just forget that part! Let’s reject Maruki’s world together and fight for our REAL reality! We’re gonna be even greater partners now!”
: Unfortunately, we can’t go right into confidants because there’s two more days of fucking cutscenes. The game gives you almost exactly enough time (plus a day or two) to get all the Rank 11 events and get Sumire to Rank 10.
: The screenshot pop-up is because we unlocked a trophy for “Evolving a party member’s Persona”… even though we already did that eight times.
: Why isn’t Inui off being a CEO and hunting poor people for sport?
: “You all look sleepy. What, did you doze through the new year? Was Shogatsu one big excuse to laze around? Good grief… Shogatsu’s not supposed to be an excuse to relax, you know.”
: “We decorate with kadomatsu, kagami mochi and shimenawa in order to welcome the Toshigami deities… it’s one of the oldest traditions in Japan.”
: There’s a lot to unpack here. Shogatsu is the Japanese New Year celebration, which runs from January 1st to January 3rd. It’s a big deal because it’s one of the few days everyone has off.
: Kadomatsu are decorations made from bamboo, with pine branches and plum branches thrown in.
: Kagami Mochi is kind of like a snowman made of mochi with an orange on top. They’re used as a decoration around the new year and get eaten a week or so later.
: Shimenawa are those rope decorations that get wrapped around trees and buildings.
: “By the way, cherry blossom viewing and even Children’s Day are meant to commemorate deities and spirits. Japan’s got a lot of gods, so naturally there ended up being a lot of events and rituals to accommodate them all.”
: “There’s a phrase referring to all the Shinto gods as a collective… anyone know it offhand? All right, Takamaki-san! I’ll bet you slept through Shogatsu…”
: “Huh!? Oh, uh, yeah! I mean-”
: “Hey, Lady Ann is obviously panicking! Be a good guy and help her out!”
: I do not know why the game does this. Stats are kind of pointless, since if you have all the possible Rank 11s you have them maxed anyway.
: “Akira, are you awake? Can you give me a hint? It’s some phrase about the gods… but it’s kind of abstract, right? What’s this phrase supposed to illustrate about the gods of Shinto?”
: “Yeah, I think that’s right! They use a specific number, right? What’s that phrase again? The one about how many gods there are in Shinto…”
: “Yeah, I think that’s it! So people call the gods of Shinto… the Eight Million Gods!”
: “That’s correct. We call them yaoyorozu, or ‘the eight million gods’. Though that number’s not meant to be taken literally. ‘Yaoyorozu’ is essentially shorthand for myriad gods. An uncountable number.”
: “In olden days, the Japanese believed that gods dwelled in everything. What with all these traditions, you could say these beliefs still affect our lives today… It’s a wonderful thing, really. We really need to cherish our history.”
: If Golden Kamuy is right, it’s not just a Shinto thing - the Ainu have a very similar belief system.
: “Nice! Lady Ann seems really relieved!”
: “As for myself, be sure to order some jelly-filled bread and- hm?”
: “That’s…”
: “Yeah, let’s go!”
: This is pretty much the same route we took in Joker’s dream, only backwards.
: “It even showed up in your dreams? That’s strange… well, never mind that. There’s no point in thinking about that right now. Let’s get inside the nurse’s office, quickly.”
: “Hello. Thank you for coming.”
: “…I see. Exchanging common expressions upon meeting like humans do… it has a rather pleasant feeling. But, that is irrelevant - let’s turn to the matter at hand.”
: “As I told you yesterday, there’s something I wish to tell you. But first, please gather your friends here.”
: “Here? You wanna meet in the nurse’s office?”
: “This place is filled with the cognition of ‘bedrest’. Maintaining my existence in a reality controlled by someone like Maruki is no simple feat… but the exhaustion that it induces is limited by this place’s cognition, so I may converse with you all in person here.”
: “I… see…”
: “Until that time, I will provide my eyes with a much-needed rest…”
: “Wait, ‘rest’ - uh, Lady Lavenza?”
: “Considering how I don’t have an adequate excuse for the school to approve your being here… we’re lucky it went as well as it did.”
: “Well, it’s just as we said before - we’ve accepted your offer to work together.”
: “Now’s not the time to let personal stuff get in the way of our goal… BUT if you ever betray us again, we’ll make sure you regret it.”
: I have no fucking idea how the writers for Royal got Futaba’s characterization this wrong. They work for the same company as the original (non-Hashino) writers and could probably contact them at any time.
: “…All right then. That’s no concern of mine, anyway. Remember what I told you all before? We share a mutual interest. Until Maruki is defeated, we have a deal to uphold.”
: “Does this mean… you’re ready to begin?”
: “Uh, ain’t that our line?”
: “Yes, I wished to speak with you about the circumstances that led this Maruki to alter reality as you know it… as well as the true nature of his power.”
: “You know all of that?”
: “I admit, there will be a degree of speculation involved - but, only to a small extent. First, I will explain the situation with the current reality. I believe that Maruki has altered the cognition of the masses…”
: “In other words, it’s thought that the alterations he’s made are the result of his meddling with Mementos.”
: “He changed Mementos? How is that even possible?”
: “Wait - don’t forget about our experience with the Meta-Nav and Maruki’s Palace. It seems like this kind of thing has a habit of sticking around despite our expectations.”
: “Mementos is the cognition of the masses given form. If that man is truly capable of controlling individuals’ cognitions… and that man were also to gain access to Mementos… it would be no surprise that he could impact everyone’s cognitions and affect reality itself.”
: I remind you again that “cognitions” is not a word. “Cognition” is its own plural.
: “Ah… could he really have done all that? I mean, it’s assumed that Dr. Maruki has the power to control cognition, right?”
: “Exactly. That man’s controlling of cognition - let’s see, why don’t we refer to his power as ‘actualization’? Most likely, that actualization is a power unique to a Persona. In other words, this man named Maruki is…”
: “That’s impossible… there’s no way to have a Persona and a Palace at the same time!”
: “Determining when Maruki first awakened to his power is wholly impossible. However, by the time he crossed your paths… there’s no doubt that he was making use of his actualization - although, he may have only been doing so subconsciously.”
: “Even if it IS just his subconscious, he’s using a Persona in the real world…”
: Can he also shoot lasers from his eyes and travel through time? I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised at this rate.
: Just like Akechi with his “I can make things go crazy” powers that Hashino pulled out of his ass and then never mentioned again, Maruki is also an ass pull. Writers never learn anything.
: “So, his ability to make Yoshizawa-san think she was Kasumi-chan…”
: “It was most likely through the use of actualization.”
: “Still, though… even if we assume that Maruki has unique Persona abilities, such as the case with Akira and myself… we still need to determine how he used that power on Mementos as a whole, rather than just a single individual.”
: “Right. Even if there were some kind of power that could affect Mementos… it’s on a whole other level from what we’ve seen so far. A single person just shouldn’t be capable of all that.”
: “That’s true. Changing reality just by thinking about it isn’t something humans do, it’s something that like, gods do.”
: “And what if he became such a god?”
: “Wha-?”
: gasp “The God of Control!”
: There’s something about the way she says this that reminds me of Grace in Gabriel Knight 3 with her dumbass jangly key man geometry management bullshit.
: “Indeed - the being in Mementos that you all defeated was a false deity that the masses deludedly clung to… it is easy to conclude that Maruki simply took over the false god’s position when it disappeared.”
: Maruki simply reached into his ass and pulled out a new Mementos and then pasted it over the old one.
: “Took over his position? Whaddya mean? So you’re sayin’ society thinks of Doc as a god now or somethin’?”
: “Now, the Phantom Thieves are the ones who gained the masses’ support after defeating this so-called God of Control… so it would follow that the masses would turn to the Phantom Thieves next as their savior.”
: Wait, how does he know about that? He admitted a few days ago he didn’t know about anything that happened after he died, and there’s no way the writers wouldn’t force us to watch Joker telling him.
: “In that case, why did they instead turn to Maruki, who did none of the work the Phantom Thieves did?”
: “It’s most likely because…”
: Remember all those dumbass cutscenes the party members had with Maruki? This is why they exist.
: That’s what… some 40 minutes of cutscenes just to explain how Maruki knew what the party wanted? This is like that fucking scene from YIIK with the dial-up modem, only five times longer.
: There’s no reason for them to exist, either! You have a fucking setting with brain magic, why could you not have just said “Because Maruki is a brain wizard” and called it a fucking day?
: In fact, I’m going to coin a rule that probably already exists, which I’m going to call the “Hashino-Allanson Rule of Explanations”. The rule is this: if your plot allows you to plausibly explain something in fewer words, why the fuck aren’t you?
: “Wha-!?”
: “After we defeated the God of Control, we wished for reality to be like Dr. Maruki described it… and it happened?”
: “Uh, I don’t remember doin’ any wishin’ with you guys and Doc! I mean, when would we have even had the chance to?”
: “…! What about our counseling!?”
: There’s five screens worth of flashbacks I’m going to cut.
: “Looks like you all walked right into the spider’s parlor.”
: “There’s no way of knowing how many of those situations were intentionally orchestrated by that man… however, the result is the same - a desire for his actualization was seeded within your hearts.”
: “Thus, I have no doubt that it was your own desires that led to their actualization.”
: “So this is all our fault, huh…”
: “We’re the ones who told him the cognitive world really exists, too…”
: “Right - let’s fight! If this is our own fault, we’ve gotta be the ones to fix it!”
: “Yes. This realization changes none of what we must do.”
: “Very well - then allow me to proceed. This world is in a very unstable condition currently. On the day that the God of Control fused Mementos with the real world… the merging was undone through your efforts, and the two worlds are now attempting to return to their fused states.”
: “So what you’re saying is,”
: That this is what it’s like when worlds collide? Eat shit, Akechi! Nobody steals my gimmick!
: “This world has reverted to a state where the fusion with Mementos hasn’t been totally undone. That explains why Maruki’s Palace was visible in Odaiba.”
: “Even as we speak, Maruki is still influencing this world in places where its boundaries are blurred… as slow a pace as it may be, he still continues to actualize the world of the masses as a whole…”
: “Should this continue, reality shall merge with Mementos once more. The two worlds will again become one… when that happens, anyone trapped within the actualized world can never again awaken to the original one.”
: “No…”
: “This issue goes beyond the masses as well. Although you are all Persona-users… it would be next to impossible to defy Maruki in a world completely under his control. To be clear - once the two worlds conclude their fusion, there will be no chance of your success in this mission.”
: “And… I believe this fusion will conclude in one month’s time.”
: “We only have a month!?”
: “If memory serves me correctly, February 3rd was the date Dr. Maruki gave us, right? Could he have possibly chosen the time limit based on when his actualization will be completed?”
: “…It’s possible.”
: “If that’s the case, we don’t got another choice except to steal his Treasure by then.”
: “We’ll need to secure our route to the Treasure by the 2nd so we can send our calling card… then, on the day of… we’re most likely going to have to fight Maruki.”
: “Allow me to produce the calling card. This is certain to be our final card… I’ll pour my heart and soul into its creation.”
: “Be that as it may, there are still some unsolved questions.”
: “Right.”
: “What’s the deal with the Palace’s name? It doesn’t seem to affect the app’s functions, but…”
: “That must also be a product of Maruki’s cognition. He most likely learned that you could somehow infiltrate the Metaverse. As long as he permits your existence, your method of infiltration will not entirely disappear, either…”
: “However, in his heart, he must have feared you would learn his identity as the Palace’s ruler. Perhaps such a feeling took the form of hiding the Ruler’s name from you.”
: “But in that case, why didn’t Dr. Maruki just… actualize us out of existence entirely?”
: “Maruki told us that he wants us to accept his world. It may be hard to believe, but since we mutually benefit from his actualization, maybe he really does want us to submit.”
: “…Sorry, even if it does fix shit for us, I just can’t accept the world gettin’ treated like that. Let’s start the infiltration tomorrow, yeah? And you? Sound good?”
: “You’re willing to ask me as well?”
: “Duh, dude! The Phantom Thieves don’t act unless it’s a unanimous vote.”
: Akechi was never John Persona, though.
: sigh “Fine then. You know I have no intention of accepting Maruki’s world, anyway.”
: “Then that settles that.”
: “Wait - what about Yoshizawa-san?”
: “We may not have summoned her as one of the Phantom Thieves, but this definitely involves her as well.”
: “Maybe we should fill her in on our situation once she comes to terms with her own. What she does with that information, though - that’s up to her.”
: “Right.”
:“If that concludes matters, I shall continue to watch over you, Trickster. Please show me the path that you choose for humanity…”
: “Hey, once you’re done washing that, you can go ahead and call it a -”
: “Yoshizawa?”
: “…Have a seat. She’s here to see you, right? Don’t worry about finishing up - I’ll take care of it later.”
: “Would you mind if I… got something off my chest?”
: “Thank you. So, to tell the truth… I saw you all go into the nurse’s office today… and, um… I sort of eavesdropped on your conversation.”
: About how really, Sumire could not have been in this game at all and the plot would be basically the same?
: “You’ve all found the paths you want to take and are following them with such confidence… whereas I’m simply… like Dr. Maruki said before, I ran from the truth.”
: “I couldn’t handle the fact that Kasumi died because of my actions. My memories are still a bit hazy, but even when I remembered that I’m really Sumire, I didn’t want to accept it.”
: “I was still running from reality, where Kasumi is gone… where I had to live for Kasumi instead of as her.”
: The writers are already resorting to recaps and filler to make Royal seem like a worthwhile purchase, when it isn’t at all. This was maybe a $15 or $20 expansion DLC, not a $60 full-price re-release.
: “No… like I said earlier, I realized something when I saw you all striving to push onward… I can’t keep running like this. But now that Kasumi’s gone, I have no idea what to do with myself… Akira-senpai… what should I do?”
: God dammit. Yes, Sumire, we know what your fucking character motivation is.
: “…! You can be awfully firm sometimes, Akira-senpai. But you’re absolutely correct. I must thank you for allowing me to unload all of this onto you.”
: “I’m still not completely sure what I should do, but… I plan to think more on it. I’ve got to figure out what to do with my life now.”
: “One month to go, huh? We’d better come up with a plan. That time is gonna go by fast…”
: Next time, we’ll do Maruki’s dungeon in a single day - not because we want to, but because we’re forced to. It’s boring. We’ll also lose our 100% status.