Click Here for Update 11
: It’s 4/29, and it’s the start of Golden Week. I wish I got a week off like, ever.
: Today, we first need to switch out our DVD. We trade The X-Files for a copy of “Wraith”, a reference to the 1990 movie “Ghost” with Patrick Swayze.
: While we have invitation from both Ryuji and Tae, we take Ryuji’s for now.
: “I was trainin’ for nationals back in the day… but now I totally suck balls.”
: If the yaoi doujin artists have anything to say about it, Ryuji’s been sucking balls for a lot longer than today, if you get my drift.
: This is a bit of weirdness in the writing. They were in the building… on a day when there’s no school? Ryuji even mentions in his IM that they had to use the back gate to get in.
: “Huh? H-Hell no…”
: “…”
: “That don’t got anything to do with this…”
: “… You’re right. Look, back then, I…”
: “I haven’t changed at all… but y’know, you actually helped me calm down a little.”
: “I’m glad you were here with me. Thanks, man!”
: Follow Up is a skill that every party member gets at Rank 3. It’s a relatively small chance (I can’t recall it happening too much in my base game run) but is a free knockdown if it goes off. The guides claim that the chance of this happening is higher on Safety and virtually nonexistent on Merciless.
: “Now they’re just arguin’ with each other… I should stay out of it.”
: On a side note, I started watching the LP of the Final Fantasy 7 remake and now I’m hoping the rumors about Atlus wanting to remake Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment never come true.
: “I wanted to thank you again for today. I really owe you one, man.”
: “I get pissed off so damn easily. I really gotta work on that.”
: “Nah, this one’s definitely my bad. Besides, I can’t cause a scene. Don’t wanna get you pulled into even more bad shit.”
: “Huh… I gotta wonder what they were arguin’ about.”
: Seriously though the thought of Innocent Sin getting a remake is just… no. You know they’d do what Square-Enix did and pad it out with random cutscenes of Kashihara teleporting around and taunting Tatsuya about how good it felt to plunge a spear into Maya.
: “…but hey, I’m an outsider. Nothin’ to do with me. Thanks again for today!”
: On the TV tonight is something special. Just like the older games, Persona 5 has hidden follow-ups for each of the Persona 4 characters on the TV on certain nights. This is actually about Goro Akechi, but…
: This is the only time Naoto is ever referenced - unlike most of the P4 cast, she doesn’t get a follow-up. Why, you ask?
: Because she got her own spinoff novel, that’s why. It’s never been translated, but the wiki claims it takes place three or so years after Persona 4 (in 2013) and that Naoto is in her final year of high school - it’s got issues with the overarching canon and probably is non-canon anyway.
: We spend the night studying at Leblanc. Because it’s not raining, we only get 3 knowledge points instead of 5.
: We start the morning by reading The Alluring Dancer on the train. This will get us 5 points in charm when we finish it.
: “…I wonder if Kamoshida really had a change of heart? What if we failed? That’s all I’ve been able to think about…”
: John Persona is still processing watching the entirety of The X-Files over two nights. The truth is out there.
: “We did do what we could. I guess all I can do now is believe…”
: “But how strange… I feel a bit better now. Maybe it’s because of your composure?”
: John Persona, not having listened at all, turns to Morgana and goes “I think she’s one of the aliens.”
: “What’s important is becoming someone else.”
: Okay, I can do that… oh god! What if I never really was American and I’m actually some random Japanese guy in a coma dreaming that he’s someone else?! What if this is one of those Your Name situations!? Fuck! Make it stop!
: “In this day and age, being able to swap your mask depending on the situation is a critical talent.”
: Anyway, Ms. Chouno is kind of a running joke because she’s over 30 and not married, but wants to be. The joke is that no one wants her.
: “How will you fare, Mr. Kurusu? Here’s a question. “Are you a wunderkind?” See if you can work out the answer based on what you know.”
: That… that isn’t even English! She’s supposed to be the English teacher! That’s a German loan word! I also feel like it’s kind of weird that they ask questions that a lot of English speakers would know but Japanese speakers wouldn’t when this game was intended to be released internationally from the get-go.
: “Are you a wunderkind? Well, seems to me like we need to work out what that is so we can answer properly.”
: “Well, seems to me like we need to work out what that is so we can answer properly. My German is a little rusty, but I’ll give you a hand if I can.”
: This seems insultingly easy, but I’m told that they did not change this for the English release: everything is exactly the same as the Japanese version minus a handful of very controversial lines we’ll see later on at some point. This is supposedly why there’s a lot of questions about very obscure topics few outside of Japan are likely to know.
: “Right, wonder! So something… wondrous, I guess, or impressive. Next, the ‘kind’ part. That’s probably…”
: “Hm… let’s think about this again. Oh, huh. If the “kind” in “kindergarten” refers to all the kids in it… yeah, that’s gotta be it. ‘Kind’ means a child… or at least a young guy, in your case.”
: I honestly want to know how the fuck they did this in Japanese. Japanese has a word for kindergarten, and not a loan word either: it’s 幼稚園 (ようちえん) which is pronounced “yo-chien” and sounds nothing like the German/English word.
: Honestly, it would’ve been cool if they’d done this with a Japanese word and tried to walk you through it like that for the English release. Would’ve felt less insulting, too. Sure, it wouldn’t have made as much sense from a story perspective, but I mean…
: “That’s right! I was asking if you were a wonder child - in other words, a youth of uncommon talent.”
: “But I suppose if you were able to think and adapt so quickly, that proves you certainly must be!”
: “Oh, the word ‘talent’ comes from the Greek ‘talanton’, a sum of money referenced in the Bible. The more skilled a servant was, the more coins they would receive from God - their talent led to wealth.”
: “The English word ‘talent’ didn’t originally have anything to do with our modern concept of celebrity. But the ability to change one’s mask depending on the situation is surely a talent given to one by God.”
: Somewhere, in a far-off space dildo, Philemon is holding up both middle fingers. A faint “FUCK YOU!!!” can be heard on the wind, followed by the sound of Tatsuya punching him.
: “You really think he changed?”
: “Well, yeah…”
: “Mr. Kamoshida has taken the day off.”
: “He ain’t here?”
: “Don’t tell anyone that you heard this from me… but we received word that Mr. Kamoshida is placing himself under suspension. It’s such an important time before the tournament too…”
: “Principal Kobayakawa went to talk to him about it, but he supposedly wasn’t making any sense.”
: “Wait, a suspension!?”
: “Not so loud!”
: “The talks about your expulsions may be put on hold too… I don’t know too much about it though…”
: “Anyway, I’ve relayed what’s going on to you.”
: “Looks like something happened… at least it sounds different from a mental shutdown. I guess all we can do is wait…”
: Just like he says, Ann’s confidant CANNOT be advanced for about another week. We also need a base of 2 kindness just to be able to start her confidant.
: In the base game, this sucked, and let me explain why: in the base game, Baton Pass was only unlocked at level 2 and was done on a per-party-member basis. This means that you didn’t have it for Kamoshida’s palace for anyone but Ryuji.
: This is obviously a parody of the 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire, which I had to look up a plot synopsis of because I’ve never seen it - it’s about a kid who gets accused of cheating on a quiz show.
: Watching the movie gets us 5 points to guts.
: So wait, what you’re saying is… we gotta do… what? Gotta believe? Shit, how did I not do that earlier?
: Let’s just check the TV to make sure there’s nothing about Yukiko on there.
: Sound familiar? If you didn’t read my Innocent Sin LP, this is more or less the plot of Innocent Sin - Jun becomes Joker and uses that to reunite Tatsuya, Lisa, Eikichi and Maya to remember that they all knew each other as kids when they played Featherman together.
: I’d like to think that somewhere, on a couch in an apartment in Sumaru City, Tatsuya just turns his head and looks at Jun with an expression like he knows Jun did this.
: We spend the night crafting lockpicks. Fortunately, I have a shit ton of materials so crafting 2 isn’t a big deal supply-wise.
: This gets our proficiency to 2.
: It’s Sunday, and I think you all know what that means.
: Time to grip and sip. This week’s aojiru gets us 2 points in proficiency.
: It’s also time for a visit to Dr. Femdom. Note that this is why we were kind of grinding guts as hard as possible - we need a minimum of 2 to advance the confidant any further.
: “I made various adjustments to the previous drug, based on your trial results. All right, drink it down in one gulp.”
: “…Ah, your reaction to it is absolutely perfect. You feel a bit dazed, hm? Yes, I mixed in some special… components.”
: “Okay, let’s take your temperature and blood pressure. I’m also going to draw some blood. I also want to perform a few motor skill tests, but those might be to much for you right now.”
: “Anyway, since we’re in the final stages, I should first stabilize the fundamental formula…”
: “…Must be under the orders of the Medical Chief of Staff.”
: “This kid here is my only patient today. If you’re asking for his medical expenses, I’m guessing I’m under suspicion of improper billing?”
: “But without a receipt, I’d say you’ve been sent on a wild goose chase.”
: “You’re being manipulated. That ‘report’ is fictitious. It’s nothing but an attempt to harass me.”
: We’ve actually been playing as Hisao from Katawa Shoujo this entire time.
: “He’s stressed about taking his entrance exams. I have some drugs that help with relaxation.”
: “So, is there anything else? As you can see, I’m pretty busy here.”
: “I think we’re going to get along just fine. It’s nothing to worry about. I’m sure it was my former superior who made that false report.”
: “You eavesdropped on our conversation the other day, remember?”
: If by ‘the other day’ you mean like two weeks ago.
: “He’s just trying to put pressure on me… by having the police investigate me and my practice. Anyway, I need to draw some blood. There’ll be some mild anemia, but only temporarily. You’ll be fine.”
: “It’s part of our “deal”, remember?”
: “I like kids who listen to their superiors. Enjoy your medicine.”
: And just like that, we’re femdommed into Rank 2.
: “…Only kidding. Okay, please lie down. You can go home once I’m done.”
: “You still seemed kind of dizzy when you left, so I figured I’d check in. You know how it is. Some patients get sick on their way back home.”
: “Yeah, you sound all right. Guess I’ve got nothing to worry about. I think you’ll be okay, but call me if you start feeling sick.”
: “Okay, I’m looking forward to our next clinical trial.”
: So I’m sure you’ve noticed something, and that’s that the phone calls are all kind of repetitive. I kind of wish that Atlus had just chosen to increase the number of points you get per correct twanswer rather than add these. They feel like they were written by an intern who suddenly had to come up with… just over 140 phone calls, if my math is right.
: “Let’s just believe in that while we wait for tomorrow.”
: We spend the first night of May buying more placenta water, and then going to the medicinal bath.
: I just realized that with his eyes closed, Kobayakawa has a face that is dangerously close to the Yaranaika face.
: “That is why I will confess everything to you all…”
: “…Huh?”
: “I have repeatedly done things that were… unbecoming of a teacher. Verbally abusing students… physically abusing my team, and… sexually harassing female students.”
: Note that he never confesses to raping Shiho. This is not one of those things where the writer never intended for him to have raped her and we all took it the wrong way - he definitely did, and it’ll be brought up again much later.
: “There were even students that I sentenced to expulsion, simply because I didn’t like them…”
: “I will, of course, rescind those…”
: The thing is, that’s not typically how expulsion works in the first place. It’s usually done by the local Board of Education, not even by the school’s administrators.
: “I am truly sorry for putting innocent youths through such horrible acts… I am an arrogant, shallow… and shameful person. No, I’m worse than that…”
: Way to kill the mood, Kamoshida.
: There’s something about the way the principal is looking at Kamoshida’s ass that makes me laugh at this.
: “Don’t run, you bastard! Shiho’s still alive even after all the things that made her want to die!”
: “You have no right to run from this!”
: “You’re right… you’re absolutely right… I should be punished under the law and atone for my crimes…”
: “I did horrible things to Takamaki-san as well. In return for giving Suzui-san a position on the team… I… I tried to force her into having relations.”
: Part of me thought that “Oh, maybe Kamoshida didn’t mention raping Shiho so that the students wouldn’t find out” but then he goes and announces he tried to do the same thing to Ann.
: “As of today, I will resign from my position as an instructor and turn myself in.”
: So what you’re saying is… you moved like a virus and tried to enter Ann’s skin? That we’re waking a monster that will drag us from our orioles of gold? That we should call the police, just call the police, text the cops, just call the police?
: “Seems like it. But, was this really for the best?”
: “You mean the police stuff? Well, that’s true…”
: I mean, his entire confession was kinda weak. Probably would’ve been better to off him.
: “Huh…?”
: “We all knew… but pretended we didn’t.”
: Anyway, since I don’t have much else to talk about now that the Kamoshida arc is over, let me just talk a little bit about how I’ve seen people react to Kamoshida.
: People who have played this game are usually divided into two camps: those who think Kamoshida is the best written villain in the game and those who think he’s too over-the-top.
: A lot of people in the first camp point out that Kamoshida is suspected to be based on a real person who is also an Olympic gold medalist by the name of Masato Uchishiba. Uchishiba was arrested in 2011 on rape charges shortly after being released from the Kyuushu University of Nursing and Social Welfare (where he was a women’s judo coach) due to complaints of sexual harassment.
: The main difference is that Uchishiba was thrown out of the school pretty much the second they learned about it, and was arrested not long after that.
: The people in the second camp tend to point out that Kamoshida is a little too over the top and that he’s kind of a cartoon character. You can’t hear it, but in Japanese, Kamoshida’s voice is very high-pitched and he sounds kind of like Snidely Whiplash. You wouldn’t notice it in the dub because they got DC Douglas to do it.
: “No, it’s okay. The same goes for me too… besides, that’s all in the past now.”
: “I can’t apologize enough for what I did to you. …I swear I’ll make it up someday.”
: “Looks like Kamoshida ain’t the only one that had a change of heart.”
: My personal thought is that he’s just a poorly-written clone of Principal Hanya from the earlier Persona games. Hanya pretty much had the exact same motif that Kamoshida does - seeing the school as his castle - except he didn’t need to beat or rape anyone to make you want to kill him.
: “Man, I’m glad for you. Looks like those rumors are gonna go away.”
: “My thing doesn’t really matter. We made Kamoshida apologize about Shiho. That’s more than enough for me.”
: “You should hurry and tell her about it then.”
: “…Yeah.”
: I thought about it, and I think there were ways they definitely could’ve made Kamoshida work better without being a clone of Hanya.
: One example I thought of would be what if they had focused on the whole “disbanding the track team” thing. Have Kamoshida be a narcisstic type who thinks he’s really great for winning gold in volleyball when in reality no one outside of the school really gives a shit - and that pisses him off.
: What he really wants is to be an Olympic coach or something where he could build a legacy, but instead he’s at Shujin. At some point, he crosses a line where his job stops being about his students and starts being about him, and then he fabricates evidence to get the track coach fired because if the track coach made nationals at the same time he did he might not get as much attention.
: Have him be the kind of person who tries to destroy anything he sees as a threat to his goal, to the point where he starts gaslighting the best athletes on the other teams to get them to leave so they don’t distract from his volleyball team - and if they don’t, he makes their lives hell. He hates Joker for more or less the same reasons (student with a criminal record is a bigger story than he is) and hates Ann because she’s a model who gets regular media attention that he clearly deserves more.
: “I see… so we need to persuade the Shadow without killing it, and then send it back to its real self. Our targets won’t undergo a cognitive collapse if we do that.”
: “So, we can get 'em to confess with no bad stuff? Hey! That works for me!”
: “Do you have to be so loud?”
: “Don’t worry about it. So… how’d it go? With Shiho, I mean.”
: “She’s regained consciousness!”
: “For real!?”
: “It was only for a little bit, but I got to talk to her! I was able to tell her that Kamoshida admitted to what he did!”
: “Shiho, she… she told me she was sorry. Looks like she found out that I was flirting with Kamoshida for her sake… and here I was, wanting to apologize to her.”
: “Kamoshida’s at fault for all this.”
: “I know… Shiho’s mom is thinking of transferring her to another school after she recovers. The whole sexual harassment and attempted suicide… people will label her after that.”
: Oh right, so one thing my better-written Kamoshida doesn’t take into account is Shiho - and really, the answer is simple. Kamoshida tried to get rid of Ann by spreading rumors, and when that didn’t work started using Shiho as a wedge to force Ann out.
: “Sounded lke Shiho had the same idea too.”
: “It’s gonna get lonely…”
: “But I think it’s for the best… I’m sure it’ll be hard if she stays here.”
: “She’s alive. You can see her anytime.”
: “…I need to change too.”
: “That aside, I was surprised you could hold yourself back against Kamoshida’s Shadow.”
: “It wasn’t like that… I just wanted Kamoshida to apologize himself.”
: “You’re so kind, Lady Ann.”
: “No matter how much of a shitbag he was, finishing him off woulda left a bad aftertaste, huh?”
: "Huh? That’s not it. I think revenge is better served if I make him repent. Realizing what he’s done, he’ll grovel for forgiveness for the rest of his life, you know?
: “A-Anyways, that’s all settled… but you know, there was one more thing I was wonderin’ about that castle.”
: “Why was Kamoshida the only one who had that Metaverse thing?”
: “It isn’t necessarily limited to him. It’s something anyone could have if their heart became warped from their desires.”
: “Anyone…”
: “Wanna check it out?”
: “N-Not right now. We better lay low for a while. People are still gonna be talkin’ about Kamoshida. Then again, it’s totally impossible for someone to find out what we did at his Palace.”
: “Yeah, about that… weird rumors about you guys are already going around. Stuff like, you got together and threatened Kamoshida with something close to physical violence…”
: “The hell!?”
: “People aren’t going to easily believe that phantom thieves really exist. The calling card’s being treated like it was a prank by someone who knew what Kamoshida was doing.”
: “Makes sense… we’re the ones who did it, and I still don’t completely believe it myself.”
: “Let’s wait for things to settle down for the time being.”
: Okay so here’s my question. Could you abuse the shit out of this if this was a real thing by just going full on Snidely Whiplash for the sole purpose of generating a palace so people could “steal” your treasure and just repeat until you’re rich? I’m just imagining Joker pushing around a wheelbarrow full of cash and Igor pointing and yelling “That’s not how it works, asshole!”
: Anyway, this part about an Olympic gold medal only being worth around $300 is accurate. I looked it up, and as it turns out the medals aren’t made of gold - they’re mostly silver with a bit of gold mixed in. This is presumably because they don’t want the athletes to cash the medals in for money.
: Silver has a spot price of around $27 right now, and that’s on the high end. The highest I’ve seen it go recently is around $30 an ounce. Silver is stupid cheap compared to gold…
: As you can tell, today is not a good day for precious metals. Today is not a good day for anything. Still, that medal would probably be worth a bit more today than it was in 2016.
: Someday, I’m going to do a Let’s Play of the stock market. Just as soon as I find a good paper trade thing that lets you do it without paying and without having an actual brokerage account.
: “There’s no way I borrowed thirty thousand yen from you!”
: “Wouldn’t it be around that much with compounded interest?”
: “Interest my ass!”
: Fun fact, because Japan’s interest rates had basically been zero since the 1990s, assuming Ann was charging prevailing rates she’d basically get nothing.
: “I’m not saying that I’m taking all of it. I mean, it’s your fault for not paying me back all these years! It’s just common sense!”
: “Dammit…”
: “I agree on laying low and keeping an eye on the situation. However, you dragged me into this. It would be nonsense not to celebrate a successful mission.”
: “I guess we could blow this dirty money on something fun.”
: “Discussions among phantom theives are to take place over luxurious food. How about it?”
: “Hey, wait- …nah, I guess it’s fine. There’s somewhere I want to go then.”
: “Where’s that?”
: “It’s a place Shiho and I have been wanting to go for a while.”
: “I owe money, so I can’t complain… you good with that?”
: Joker’s thoughts immediately drift to how he could buy a new anime gun with that kind of money. Maybe even two. Get Ann an MP5 with Hatsune Miku all over it and he can get a gold-plated Desert Eagle with Rin Kagamine carved onto the barrel.
: “I’ll leave it to your discretion as well, Lady Ann.”
: “I’ll call and check the prices later then.”
: “When should we go? Wanna do it soon, like tomorrow?”
: “Why don’t we go on the last day of the holidays? It’ll help energize us when school life starts up again the day after.”
: “Then… the 5th, on Children’s Day.”
: Oh god, that last line. That gives me horrible flashbacks to Tales of Zestiria.
: If you haven’t played that, ToZ was both total shit and also very controversial among Japanese players. Why, you ask? One of the female characters who was originally intended to be playable got sidelined. She was a fan favorite among Japanese players.
: From what I heard, it was because the guy directing it was dating someone new and wanted them in on the project, so he got rid of the character and replaced her with one his girlfriend could voiceact.
: The new character was probably the worst-written anything ever - she’s a merchant who is actually the leader of the assassin’s guild, but don’t worry she’s totally a good guy because, in her own words “I only kill bad people.”
: There’s nothing interesting on TV and we can’t do Sojiro’s confidant tonight.
: What we do have is a new crossword!
: Clearly, Golden Time is the “just after midnight” time slot when Game Center CX airs on Fuji TV.
: Finally, we end the night (and the last day of the Kamoshida arc) by studying.
: This gets us the much-coveted second rank in knowledge.
: Next time, we’ll do more stat-raising and confidants until the next plot arc rolls around and I have to grind a metric shitload of money so we can see some of the new features in Royal.