Click Here for Update 113
: Let’s go into the next part of Maruki’s palace. You can see a save room off to the side, which we’ll ignore for the time being. This area is kind of a mini-SEBEC building, in that it has lots of stairs.
: This area is full of enemies. What we’re trying to do is go through all of these rooms to get to the front door, which we can use to get to the second floor.
: Just like the SEBEC building, this floor has multiple disconnected staircases.
: “That room’s giving off a unique reading compared to the others in the area - it might be like the video room we found. Will you try checking that out? It could turn up some clues.”
: “Although, it looks like it doesn’t open from this side, so we’re gonna have to go the long way around.”
: “I agree with Navi. It may not be a direct route to the Treasure, but it’s definitely something. We should make that room our goal as we progress.”
: The door we need is on the side, and that means we have to go through the rest of this floor to get to it.
: There’s a will seed after the first staircase, but no obvious way to get there - the door is locked.
: Several rooms full of enemies later, we wind up at the next cutscene room. Have I mentioned there’s four of these? No, really.
: As I write this, I’ve already finished recording for the actual game content. I still haven’t done the Valentine’s Day, White Day, or Christmas Eve dates.
: You might ask “Do you have a Yusu-Gay for Valentine’s Day and White Day” and the answer is of course I do, what do you take me for?
: “I don’t like the idea of spying on somebody’s past, but we clearly don’t have a choice in the matter. If watching this is our ticket forward, then I guess that’s what we’re doing.”
: “You’ve come so far… what problem could they possibly have now!?”
: "I tried negotiating in person with the professor and the investors, but they simply wouldn’t listen… ‘due to the lack of concrete evidence, all further research and funding in the field of cognitive psience will cease.’ "
: “They told me it’s already over and done with. But, why now of all times? When they first saw my paper, they were positively beaming with excitement!”
: This is borderline Allanson dialog. “I lost all my funding - that means it’s over and done with”.
: “And the research lab in Odaiba… they’re not going through with that anymore?”
: “Yep… Dammit… to hell with their ‘concrete evidence’! How are we supposed to get any evidence if we can’t perform the research first? If we can change the cognition of trauma victims, their suffering can be eliminated…”
: “Who knows how many people could be saved with this research… how much more obvious could its benefits be?”
: “So… do you really think the lack of evidence is the reason they shut it all down?”
: “… It makes absolutely no sense to me. After all the time and money spend… to just cut off my research because it wasn’t all proven sound immediately…”
: “I see… so, what’re you gonna do now? The sponsors have backed out, so I doubt the college is gonna let you keep using their labs…”
: “I’m done with that college. They have nothing for me at this point. I’ll look for work elsewhere while I keep fleshing out that research paper. Eventually, I’ll prove the existence of the cognitive world… once I’ve done that, no one will be able to complain.”
: Maruki has drank so many beers that he can now enter the cognitive world.
: “I swear I’m going to do it. I have the power now… it cost me my life with you… so I’m going to rescue everyone from their pain… I don’t care how long it takes me…”
: “Yes, I believe so. It seemed to be a much more recent memory than the first one we saw, though…”
: “His research was cut off…”
: “So, after the incident with his girlfriend, he progressed in his research to harness cognitive psience as a healing practice… however, his research was shut down, and his career along with it.”
: Yes thank you I think we all saw the cutscene where Maruki stated the same thing twice.
: “All he had left was his resolve to prove his research valid, then use it to save people… that seems to be the message delivered by the videos we’ve found.”
: “It must have been his dream… to use his research to save people here…”
: OKAY YES I FUCKING GET IT! FUCK!
: “If that sounds good to you, would you prefer we just turn around and go home?”
: “…That isn’t an option.”
: “Yeah, what she says. If anything, we’ve gotta pull out all the stops to win this one.”
: “Well, the vote was unanimous.”
: On our way back down, we get a grappling hook sound that I was too busy running from enemies to take a shot of.
: The grappling hook brings us to an oversized rafter with a vent at the end.
: We can then smash this window, which leads us back around to the will seed.
: All we have to do from there is unlock the door from this side and go downstairs to the Maruki door.
: “Yes! It opened!”
: “Oh, come on… is the next question going to be ‘What’s Maruki’s favorite snack’ or something?”
: Now that we’re done with that bullshit, let’s go do the only good part of this dungeon, because it feels a LOT like a Snow Queen dungeon.
: “This is quite the change in environment. Where are we now?”
: “An exam room? Like… a hospital exam room?”
: “Perhaps? What an odd place. The Shadows here aren’t attacking us. Don’t they want to stop us?”
: “Strange as it may be, they do not seem hostile to us at all… furthermore, I admit I’m curious as to what this ‘exam’ entails. Joker, perhaps we can talk to these Shadows and gather some useful information.”
: As soon as I saw this room, I had an idea for a Yusu-Gay and paused recording to talk to Salty Vanilla.
: “…Allowing intruders to proceed? How odd.”
: “They must be awfully confident in their ‘exam’ techniques - at any rate, such progression should work in our favor. We should make sure we get our act straight for this.”
: There is exactly one way they could’ve made this better, and that would be by having an option to attack the shadow and fight your way through immediately.
: “And what exactly comprises these examinations?”
: I’m going to skip some of the explanation, but this is basically Tokyo Destinyland from SMT 1. You touch the panel in the center, get the question, and then take an elevator based on your answer.
: Wait, what!? A missable reward, in what’s admittedly not the easiest puzzle in the game!? Holy fuck, is this… is this game design?
: “So, all we have to do is choose the answer we believe to be correct. Although I’m hesitant to find out what they mean by ‘treatment’…”
: “Examine a person’s heart, find their pain and regret, then distort their cognition… this is just the Palace version of what Dr. Maruki does in real life.”
: “Buuut, if we make a mistake, does that mean they’re going to change our cognitions?”
: “That’s probably confined to the real world - here, they probably mess with people’s heads some other way. Like, maybe they hook you up to some machine and just BZZZZZT!”
: “Hey! Don’t scare me like that!”
: “Well, whatever form his treatment takes, I’m sure we want no part of it for ourselves. Standing here attempting to imagine it won’t do us any good, though. Let’s take the exam and see where we wind up.”
: Wait a second. Is this a reference to Persona 1? A is basically the SEBEC route, where you go with Nanjo to save Mark… and then B is Snow Queen.
: My god. Maybe there’s hope for Persona 6 after all.
: “Huh? Neither answer is wrong, though…”
: “Yeah, but this is a medical exam, not a school one. They’re trying to figure out whether or not you need treatment. So, maybe go with the answer that you think Dr. Maruki would pick?”
: “So we have to try and figure out which one Dr. Maruki would pick? Oooh, this is gonna be hard…”
: “It’s hard to be sure of anything whatsoever right now… why don’t we try asking some of these other patients around here?”
: “They may only be cognitive beings, but they still have to take the exam just like we do. Maybe they can help us figure out which answer’s right.”
: “I’m with Mona. Besides, if you try and fail, at least you gave it a shot. Although, I’m not opposed to just plowing our way through the whole exam, but… if you refuse their treatment regimen, whatever it is, they’re not gonna take that lying down.”
: Futaba sums it up. Going the wrong way gets us a random encounter, and fuck those. We’re going to do this the right way, if only because the wrong way is boring and also I accidentally overwrote the save I made before this part.
: Anyway, there’s two NPCs we can talk to. They’re not incredibly helpful, and I’m going to cut some of their dialog in the interest of time.
: “So you’re the type to ask others for help. I mean, that ain’t wrong, but don’t you ever think to yourself, ‘I wanna help them’?”
: The red text here is entirely to throw you off. In fact, this entire dialog is kinda pointless because Akechi will basically tell you what the answer is, but you’re forced to do it anyway.
: “So it’s your consideration for others that made you choose ‘B’. Well, thank you for your time.”
: And here’s the NPC for Answer A.
: “Is there a reason you didn’t even hesitate?”
: This bit of red text is far more helpful, and gives us another way of looking at the problem: what if it’s not about what happens to the friend, but to you?
: “Yeah… stuff like that can make you feel totally horrible…”
: “Even if it ends up hurtin’, it’s still better to go with whatever choice you won’t regret later. ‘A’ sounds like the right answer to me.”
: “Now we know both sides of the story.”
: “But neither one’s exactly wrong, right? I kinda get where they’re both comin’ from.”
: “What matters is which one Dr. Maruki thinks is wrong. Why don’t we collect our thoughts somewhere and talk out our answer?”
: I’m going to skip some dialog here because Makoto repeats an overview of the whole test process. Of course she fucking does, she’s THE SMART GIRL.
: HOLD IT! That Rorschach thing above Akechi’s head… isn’t that Goatse? That’s totally fucking Goatse!
: We have three options. The top one is a recap of what we just heard. The second one has Akechi outright tell us what the answer is. The third one lets you immediately skip discussion. Yes, you can do that, and I’m VERY glad they let you.
: “Risking yourself to help your friend or take the time to find dependable help… determining which choice is incorrect is quite difficult.”
: It’s actually real easy if you’ve ever taken even a high school level philosophy course. Maruki’s entire point of view is what we’d call “Utilitarian”, and what he’s asking us to do is Hedonistic Calculus.
: Hedonistic Calculus is an idea coined by an 18th-century philosopher by the name of Jeremy Bentham. Bentham was… kind of a dipshit. His stuffed corpse is on display in University College London, because he wanted himself to be useful even in death. No, I’m not making that up.
: Anyway, hedonistic calculus can best be summed up as “pleasure good, pain bad”, and is (theoretically) something we’re all doing unconsciously all the time.
: “And neither choice guarantees your friend’s safety, if you think about it. Neither option seems any more successful than the other when it comes to helping your friend…”
: “Hm? Whaddya mean?”
: In this case, the hedonistic calculus isn’t about seeking pleasure, but about avoiding pain - both outcomes have a chance at giving you happiness… but only one guarantees you never experience pain.
: “Uhhh… great, Joker! You’ve totally got this!”
: “I guess he’s done thinking it over… but we should have enough information to make a wise decision. That part’s up to you, Joker.”
: The correct answer is B.
: “No bad news so far… I guess that really was the right answer.”
: “So it’s better to just run from some shit than to try an’ help? I don’t buy that…”
: “Maybe it means Maruki believes it best to find a way to avoid being hurt.”
: The rewards for the three questions are single-stat buffs in item form. They’re not useful when we’ve got Yusuke’s final ability and Thermopylae.
: “Let’s find out what we’re dealing with this time.”
: I’m going to go ahead and say that this question doesn’t really work. You’ll know what the answer is almost immediately, but it doesn’t work given the version of Maruki that made it into the final game.
: For the rest of these questions, I’m going to use Maruki’s dialog portrait to represent the computer or whatever that’s actually giving the question because these get kinda long.
: “You have a personal dream that you really, really want to make come true. You’ve worked so hard to achieve it… but it’s just not coming to fruition.”
: “It’s causing you a lot of grief, but if you were to give up now, all of your hard work is sure to be for nothing! Which would you do in this situation?”
: “A. Keep up the hard work.”
: “B: Do whatever it takes.”
: “C: Give up for a new dream.”
: “Hmm… we don’t know enough to make a decision. We should gather information.”
: Here’s the problem I have with this question. It would work fine if all Maruki wanted was “a world without pain” as opposed to “a world where everyone’s dreams come true”.
: The problem is that I knew immediately that the answer is C, but it doesn’t really make sense given that we know Maruki thinks anyone whose dreams don’t come true needs his help.
: The other problem is that we know Maruki faced this exact question when his lab funding got taken away, and his answer was B. I mean, he overwrote reality to save his girlfriend.
: Now, you could argue that this is a subtext thing where the writers are trying to say that Maruki thinks he’s fucked up, but I don’t think they were going for that - nor do I think they’re competent enough to.
: Anyway, let’s get on to the NPC dialog. As before, I’m going to try and cut it down to the salient points.
: “What do you mean? Don’t you want to make your dream come true?”
: It’s like this is the developers trying to explain why Royal sucks so much.
: GOD DAMMIT! FUCK! Yes it would have! If the goddamn developers had put the bare fucking minimum of effort into this content instead of “here’s half a dungeon followed by hours of randomly-generated filler” this might have actually been a good game!
: “I personally believe that pursuing something is a wonderful thing… I suppose it depends on the person.”
: “So, he’s avoiding dreams that might not come true because it’s easier? It’s not the worst advice, but still…”
: Let’s move on to the NPC for Option B.
: “So you’re doing it for the money…”
: I feel called out.
: “Oh, so he’s flame baiting - saying outrageous stuff just for the attention.”
: “Sooo, all this stuff you’re goin’ on about… basically, it boils down to you talkin’ shit about other people for money, yeah?”
: “I don’t know how I should feel about all this - you spread negativity, but it’s not entirely for personal gain.”
: I mean, I spread negativity because all the good games have already been LPed.
: “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just go already.”
: And now on to the NPC for Option A. Something I didn’t find out until the next question is that you can cheat here if you want - there’s a thing you can climb that lets you see into a window that leads into where the elevator for Option A goes. There’s a shadow there, so you’ll know it’s the wrong answer.
: “Does that mean you have a dream already?”
: “But, but - working hard towards your dream is healthy!”
: “Thank you so much! I hope you make it big soon!”
: As before, I’ll do the second option.
: “So the question is, what do you do when you’re working hard but still can’t make your dream come true? Let’s think from Maruki’s point of view.”
: “Well, in that case… Dr. Maruki isn’t just caring - he’s willing to speak up when something’s not right, too. When one of the higher-ups at the school threatened my honors status over my tournament results…”
: Yes, we know. We were there.
: “Dr. Maruki had my back the whole time. So, I don’t think he would be okay with using a method that would bring harm to someone else.”
: “Even now, he’s trying to save everyone by giving us a reality where we’re all happy…”
: “With that in mind… that would leave us with either 'A: Keep up the hard work,” or "C: Give up and find a new dream.’ "
: “If the last question is anything to go by, the correct answer’s the one where you don’t risk hurting yourself. It may help to bear that in mind.”
: “Keep pursuing the dream or give it up… which one would hurt more?”
: “I guess we were right, but… I’m not sure how I feel about that.”
: “It’s not that we agree with you - we were just trying to avoid the wrong answer.”
: “Dr. Maruki thinks people should give up on their dreams?”
: “More accurately, he thinks people shouldn’t cause themselves pain in their pursuit of dreams. Something to that effect. This exam is likely intended to filter out people who are inclined to do such a thing.”
: That kind of logic is how you get things like the Big Bullshit Puzzle in Gabriel Knight 3.
: “My brain can’t take this shit anymore… can we just pick a random elevator and be done with this shit?”
: “I understand how you feel, but we can’t give up before we’ve even tried. Come on, let’s see what our question is.”
: “Welcome back yet again! Let’s move on to the third question. You’ve gained the power to steal people’s hearts! Thoughts, emotions, information… you can steal all of it from anyone in the world!”
: “Not only that, you can use this power without fear of ever getting caught! In this scenario, which sounds closest to what you would do?”
: “What the - ? Is this question about us? Well, obviously, it’s D! Let’s roll.”
: This question is kinda bullshit. The first two answers set a precedent that the goal is to avoid pain at all costs, but this one’s using a different kind of hedonistic calculus - specifically the kind that’s been used as a justification for torture. I don’t know if there’s a name for it, but I call it the “Jack Bauer” interpretation of Utilitarianism.
: The reasoning goes like this. Jack Bauer arrests a bad guy (as opposed to immediately shooting them and everyone else in a 5-mile radius because Jack Bauer is a psychopath) who is planning on blowing up a building full of people.
: Under this interpretation, Jack Bauer is perfectly justified in torturing the bad guy because the bad guy’s unhappiness at being tortured is outweighed by the people in the building not being bombed - and if you take it to an extreme, this is still true even if the information gained from the torture wouldn’t necessarily directly save anyone; so long as there’s a chance that it would, it’s justified.
: The answer is D, because in this case the potential pain of a small group is worth it if it saves society. It works for hedonistic calculus, but doesn’t really fit with Maruki’s MO - especially given that the key thing in the prior question is that causing someone else pain is unacceptable.
: “Actually USE your brain! You’re not even trying!”
: “So, the conditions this time are that we won’t be caught, and that we can only choose one use for our ability. We should bear those in mind as we consider our answer.”
: “Hey! Raggin’ on Mona ain’t cool!”
: “Yeah, thanks, but uh, I don’t think I was the one being insulted there…”
: There are only two NPCs here you can talk to - and a third one you can spy on.
: We can grapple up here to cheat.
: “That’s where the elevator leads, right?”
: “Well, they did call it an Exam Room. They could very well be monitoring the psychological state of every ‘patient’ in the room.”
: “You mean they might’ve been watching us this whole time!? That’s so creepy…”
: " ‘Creepy’ is right - I just wish there was some way we could benefit from this…"
: "I don’t think this this is the right one. She answered, ‘E: Steal the one I love’s heart.’ "
: " ‘Happiness gained by depriving others of their own is unhappiness…’ I have no idea what he means by that."
: There’s two more NPCs we can talk to, one for Option A and one for Option B. I’m going to skip the one for Option A because it’s exactly the same logic as Option E as to why it’s wrong.
: “You must care quite a bit for them.”
: “Family’s important n’ all, but don’tcha wanna like, do something big with your life?”
: “It doesn’t do anyone any harm, and on top of that, there aren’t any big risks involved. If those are all the relevant factors, then this guy seems to be on the level - but it all depends on what Maruki would think.”
: My main problem with this question is that I can’t figure out why B would be the wrong answer, other than that this question operates on Jack Bauer logic.
: I don’t know if I missed something or what, but there’s no “Let’s find an answer” option here.
: “I guess we passed without them finding any abnormalities… what a relief.”
: “But, what’s he mean, ‘fulfilled’? He doesn’t even get that we just picked all the answers we knew they’d wanna hear!”
: “Shut up, Skull…!”
: “Whoooa, so sci-fi!”
: “Well, had we failed the psychological exam, they would have ‘treated’ us… since our answers were satisfactory, I suppose we were brought to this passageway instead.”
: “Uhhh, okay, just… be careful.”
: So… wait. What was the whole point of the quiz if they have a brain detector hallway?
: “What!? Who’re you callin’ ‘abnormal’ here!? We passed your stupid test an’ everything!”
: “Buuuut, we weren’t answering honestly. We’re gonna be seen as abnormal no matter what, considering we’re here to stop Maruki and all.”
: “But that means we can’t get past here no matter what! Agh, dammit! I’m findin’ a way past this thing even if it kills me!”
: The way past is, of course, a vent not even five feet from the hallway.
: “Whooooa, look at those freaky machines they’re wearing!”
: “Well, we came here from the Exam Room, so… it logically follows that this is the Counselling Room, and those people are…”
: “THAT’S what ‘treatment’ is!? It sure as hell don’t look like it to me!”
: And of course it’s a fucking Clockwork Orange thing because the writers are fucking lazy.
: "Eh, don’t sweat it too much - they’re all cognitive beings. Let’s just keep moving.’
: Beyond the Clockwork Orange room is another cutscene room, except…
: This area has two ways you can go - you can take the stairs to where the video is, or go straight on the lower level to get to the Plot Door. Let me just say that I fucking HATE this part of the dungeon.
: “Hey, those are some scary-lookin’ Shadows - make sure we don’t get caught.”
: “Looks like we’ve got Shadows patrolling the area… make sure no one sneaks up on us while we hunt down that videotape.”
: I’m not sure if this is randomized or not, but given that nothing else in the game is, I doubt it. Anyway, this area has a bottom ring that’s full of Fafnirs and a top catwalk you can use to get over them.
: This is supposed to be a stealth segment, but because we have a near-guaranteed run chance due to Hifumi’s confidant, we can just ignore most of that.
: Each one of these rooms has a single blue box. All but one of them contain a useless support item. Naturally, the video was in the last room I checked.
: For reference, it’s the first room to the left from where you enter.
: There’s an SP recovery item in this chest, reached through a hook point in the Chamber of Bullshit. We’re going to do the miniboss next instead of going right to the video room, just so you can see why I hate this fucking area.
: The miniboss is Surt, who we fused earlier to get… was it Sandalphon? I forget. Anyway, he’s another annoying blob of HP with no weaknesses.
: This fight sucks because Surt is either immune or resistant to everything the party members can do to him. Having bosses that resist physical in a game where half of the party members are either pure physical or hybrid physical is fucking terrible design.
: Surt drains Fire, nulls Elec, and resists Physical and Nuclear.
: I didn’t even bother changing party members, because at this point the party members are kinda obsolete. The only things that are going to do damage here are Sumire and Akechi, but even they’re not going to help much due to most of their damage being physical.
: Joker does nothing but use Concentrated spells with Satan while everyone else empties their guns into him.
: “Whew… we did it! Everything going on here is… so bizarre, though.”
: “Changing people’s cognitions and rewriting their realities as happy ones… he may consider this a form of treatment, but I would assuredly decline such a procedure for myself.”
: “…Let’s move out. We need to stop Dr. Maruki.”
: Now that we’ve done this dumbass fight, let’s see what question the Plot Door has for us.
: Let me tell you EXACTLY how this should have worked. There should’ve been a thing where if you come right here and fight the miniboss, Sumire steps forward and answers this for you.
: Make it like the cheating bit in the last segment, where they can ignore the videotape altogether (or maybe have it spawn beyond this door if you really want to see the cutscene).
: “I’ll wager this much: it won’t be pleasant. Regardless, we should watch it sooner rather than later.”
: I also hate this cutscene because there is one really dumb moment in it.
: Maruki’s like “Hello, you’re my new replacement girlfriend-wife since I broke my last one.”
: “First of all, thank you for coming to see me.”
: “Thank you for seeing me… um… I’m sorry, I’m not sure what to discuss… I only came here today because my parents wanted me to.”
: “That’s fine. So, do you wanna just chat until our time’s up, then?”
: “Oh, you don’t want to be my girlfriend-wife yet. That’s okay, we can work on that.”
: “Chat, huh…”
: “Of course. It’s not really possible for us to talk about things you don’t want to discuss, anyway. I’ve also got some sweets and some salty snacks there - feel free to have at them.”
: “They were for my first girlfriend, but she’s brainwashed - sorry, I meant dead. She’s dead and never coming back. The snacks had nothing to do with it, I assure you.”
: “Oh, yes… thank you so much.”
: “So let’s start with… ah. How about, what’d you eat for lunch yesterday?”
: “…”
: “I’ll go first. The other day, a friend of mine gave me a ton of apples. I’ve grown tired of just eating them by themselves - yesterday, I thought, why not try using them as a meal ingredient?”
: “So, I tried making an apple dish for lunch, but that didn’t turn out too hot… what do you think I ended up making?”
: “I… have no clue.”
: “Shrimp in chili sauce - with apples. You know how sweet-and-sour pork can have pineapple in it? I was going for that, but…”
: “Sounds like it didn’t work for you. Apples do make for good ingredients, though. If you grate them, you can make a surprisingly versatile sauce. I use it in plenty of my food. It’s pretty nutritious and good for digestion.”
: “You cook, Yoshizawa-san? I’m impressed that you care so much about nutrition. You must be really on top of things.”
: “…I’m just active, that’s all. I’m a gymnast. My coach has told me more than once to be conscious of everything I eat.”
: “I see… how’s practice going for you? Has it been rough lately?”
: It’s like someone told the writers about show don’t tell, but fucked up and turned it into tell, then show, then show again for good measure. Can anyone tell me what the fuck the point of seeing this again is?
: We’ve already seen Maruki brainfuck someone, and we already know what’s going to happen, so… why.
: “It has been rough… I mean, it’s nothing I can’t handle. But, it’s… not going well. I don’t even know what I want to do anymore.”
: “Sorry to hear it. Do you enjoy gymnastics?”
: Maruki’s extraterritorial rights are too powerful to let this cutscene end."
: “…I’m not even sure of that. My… older sister and I made a promise. We’d both compete and win the biggest gymnastics awards in the world. But… she… passed away. She protected me from a car…”
: “If Kasumi were here instead, I know she’d make her dream come true… only Kasumi could have done it. No matter how long I try to compete, it’s not going to change anything… I’m sorry…”
: “There’s no need for you to apologize in here. If there’s something you need to get off your chest, please do so.”
: “…Sometimes, I can’t help but think things would’ve been better if I were Kasumi Yoshizawa. After all… just wishing to make her dream come true does nothing for her in reality…”
: “Making dreams come true, huh… Well, I don’t think your train of thought is strange at all, Yoshizawa-san. In fact, wanting to become somebody else isn’t necessarily an entirely bad thing.”
: “You could become my girlfriend-wife, just like my last girlfriend-wife, only not dead.”
: “You… you think so?”
: “Everyone is capable of changing themselves - your imagination’s your only limit. That’s why, if you aspire to be more like another person, it’s actually possible.”
: “Thought exercises like ‘Would that person do this?’ or realizations like ‘That person wouldn’t do that…’ these sorts of thoughts can lead people to change themselves in ways that more closely mirror the target person.”
: “Hashino wouldn’t have an original thought here, that’s too much for him. I should replace this with something dumber and maybe rip off an anime or something.”
: “…”
: “Can you still imagine what your sister was like?”
: “Yes…”
: “If your sister were in your shoes, what do you think she’d do?”
: She’d probably die because that’s how this dumbass sports anime trope works.
: “Well… she wouldn’t cry. If she had the time to do that, she’d just practice more instead. Dr. Maruki, I… I want to become Kasumi.”
: Kinda wild how this escalated from “I don’t really have much to talk about” to “Hi Maruki, here’s my hopes and dreams” in like five minutes.
: “…I know. And, I’m sure you can, too. Just… believe in yourself.”
: Is… is that subtext? Oh my god.
: “…”
: “How about it? Are you feeling any better now?”
: “Yes… I feel like a weight’s been lifted off of me! You’re amazing, Doctor!”
: “Haha, it’s no big deal. Still, it does seem like my counseling approach does some good after all.”
: And now, I hope you’re ready for this scene to take an immediate dive into the dumpster.
: Of course Sumire carries around a magic “become my sister” ribbon at all times, why wouldn’t she?
: Those glasses being prescription would explain a lot about why she sucks at gymnastics as Kasumi.
: “Really? I’m very glad to hear it. Feel free to drop by again sometime should anything come up. We can even just have a chat, like today.”
: “Thank you. Then we could pick up where we left off talking about - hmm…”
: “Something the matter?”
: “Now that I think about it, I’m not any good at cooking. I don’t know why I said those things earlier… my younger sister’s the one who was really great at it.”
: “… That’s right, ‘Kasumi Yoshizawa’.”
: “…Yes? What is it?”
: “Oh, nothing. I’m so glad I was able to help you. Good luck with your training.”
: “Yes. It was a counseling session I had with Dr. Maruki. It was just after Kasumi… after my sister passed away. From that moment on, I lived my life really believing I was Kasumi.”
: “It was all due to the rewriting of your cognition - his ‘actualization’, as we’ve started calling it?”
: “Okay, but I’ve been wondering something… so it was only Sumire who believed that she was Kasumi, right? I assumed someone in your family or one of your friends would’ve noticed you going by the wrong name right away…”
: “Well, I can certainly remember being called ‘Kasumi’ by everyone else, too…”
: “It might be more accurate to say you misheard or misunderstood the name you were being called. Like, everyone kept callin’ you ‘Sumire,’ but your cognition made you hear it as ‘Kasumi’.”
: “So that’s why nobody thought it was weird, including her folks and herself… damn…”
: “This must be part of the whole ‘salvation’ nonsense Maruki’s trying to pull over on us.”
: “That memory may have been kept here in video form because he truly does wish for Violet to be happy with life.”
: “I admit, I really did feel saved in that moment when I became Kasumi… but at the same time, I ran from my life as Sumire… I’m genuinely grateful for what Dr. Maruki did for me, but I’m done running.”
: We just did all that dumb shit to answer a question Sumire could’ve answered herself.
: “…We did it. I never thought I’d be the password to someone’s security…”
: “Where… are we?”
: “What a change in scenery. We were just in a science lab, and now…”
: “Quite. It’s almost as if we’re in…”
: It’s almost like we’re in Nanako’s dungeon in Persona 4, because the development team figured “Hey, it worked for P4 and everyone liked it, why not do it a second time except without the good theme music”?
: “Whoa! Look over there!”
: “What on earth is going on!?”
: “Whatever it is, it most likely has to do with Maruki’s cognition in some way. I’d say he believes anyone who undergoes his ‘treatment’ winds up feeling downright rapturous.”
: “So he actually thinks he’s sending them to paradise? Hmph. Maruki must really be convinced he’s doing the right thing.”
: The writers are patting themselves on the back for creating such a great villain.
: “Dr. Maruki… Mona-senpai, the Treasure’s above this room, right?”
: “Yeah, I think we’re pretty close.”
: “The real problem is actually getting up there.”
: “They got thick-lookin’ vines growin’ outta both sides, too… think we can use those somehow?”
: “We don’t know if they’ll support our weight - I’d rather not take any unnecessary risks. The steps do extend partway upwards, so there should be some method to turn them into safe passageways. At least, that’s what prior Palace experience makes me think.”
: I’m going to skip the game’s explanation of how this stupid puzzle works. It’s essentially a slightly more complex version of the airlock puzzle from Okumura’s dungeon.
: The idea is that each walkway has a color, and is activated so long as its color is turned on. The one thing to know is that combining two colors count as activating both colors AND the combination color.
: In the shot above, I turned Red and Blue on to make Purple. This activates the Red walkways, the Blue walkways, and the Purple ones.
: The second part of the puzzle is vine walls, which activate when their color is activated. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t just kinda fuck around until I got through this. It was like 11 at night.
: We also get introduced to multi-color bridges.
: Shut up, developers.
: The staircase is the end of the area, but there’s a will seed here.
: The will seed miniboss is blocked by three vine walls - meaning you have to turn off all three colors and be on that platform to get to it.
: The blue switch is just off-camera, but you turn off the blue switch, then green, then red.
: Seeing the shadow say that makes me glad I made this a few months ago. I posted it on Twitter but I don’t think I ever posted it here.
: Surprise, it’s a generic-ass fight against a Fafnir.
: Thankfully, the game springs Sumire’s showtime on me and we win the fight pretty quickly.
: Going up the stairs to progress is a matter of turning all the colors on. Anyway, I’m going to cut the update here because we still have a dialog-heavy scene and my PC is starting to lag from how many images are in this thing.
: Next time - more cutscene, the last room decoration, and the last two Mementos requests.