Click Here for Update 40
: We start the 7th off with a reminder we really don’t need. I don’t know why they didn’t code it so that if you’ve already beaten the palace, the game just skips these.
: “Not like that means I’ll put up bamboo decorations and write my wish on a piece of paper though. I’m not feeling it this year.”
: “Oh, but there’s a traditional food associated with Tanabata, just like chocolate for Valentine’s Day. All right, Takamaki-san. Tell me what is traditional Tanabata food. I’ll give you a hint - it’s based on a certain motif in Tanabata’s myth…”
: Apart from that line sounding awkward as hell (“Tell me what is Tanabata food?”) it also kind of doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for her to be asking that.
: I mean, it’d be kind of like asking a room full of American students what Groundhog Day is. Everyone knows what Groundhog Day is, but no one wants to admit it.
: For the record, Groundhog Day is the day where a bunch of designated Groundhog Wizards attempt to summon their dark gods to take over the world and bring in the end times.
: “Huh!? Oh, uh, yeah! I mean-”
: “Hey, Lady Ann is obviously panicking! Be a good guy and help her out!”
: “Traditional food? Sorry, Akira. Help me out…! So Tanabata’s about gods crossing a starry sky to reunite once every year. It might have something to do with…”
: This is the part that REALLY doesn’t make sense. There’s almost no way Joker wouldn’t know what it is outright.
: “Oh yeah! They gotta cross the Milky Way to get to each other! So if the traditional food is something inspired by the Milky Way…”
: What’s strange is that neither Orihime nor Hikoboshi have ever been demons in an SMT game. You’d think they would’ve done something with that.
: What they’re talking about is flowing soumen. I wish there was some way you could do that with burgers. I mean, theoretically you could do that with hot dogs and boiling water but boiling hot dogs is a crime against humanity.
: “Yeah, I could see that! The Milky Way’s like a long white bundle of them, right? The traditional food of Tanabata’s gotta be soumen noodles!”
: “That’s right. The traditional food for Tanabata is soumen noodles. Originally, in China they ate a baked good that we call sakubei in Japanese to appease demons.”
: As far as I can tell, sakubei is some kind of cake. It doesn’t help when trying to look it up that Sakubei is also a last name.
: “Over time, that pronunciation went from sakubei, to sakumen, to soumen - a wholly different food. Going with the theme of calming demons, soumen on Tanabata is sometimes called ‘demon guts’.”
: According to Wikipedia at least, the same thing is kind of true of the word for Tanabata, which (according to them) was originally used to describe a cloth craft made by Shinto shrine maidens.
: “Go restore your strength with some seasonal food and get ready for your exams.”
: Two points to Ann’s confidant and some knowledge.
: We then go back to the library to grab a new book. I don’t know why the guide has us do this, because we don’t wind up reading it.
: “Um, I want you to come shopping with me. I don’t know if I’d be able to handle this on my own, you know? Please help me out! I’ve got to hold up my end of our deal!”
: Another thing I didn’t really think about was how half the confidants have this weird transactional quality to them.
: You have Kawakami with the whole “maid service for secrecy” deal, Maruki with his “mental training for research help” thing, Ohya with her “headlines to help John Persona for stories” bit… and it’s kind of a wonder Joker has any meaningful relationship with any of them.
: “Now, we’d better get going. The item in question is in Kichijoji. Shall we?”
: I had to get a new pair of glasses recently. My old ones looked just like Joker’s (and no, I didn’t get them because of that) but the frame broke. I wanted to just get the same frame but not broken, but they don’t make them anymore.
: “I’ve been wanting to come here for a while, but I never had the chance to drop by.”
: “Yeah! I want to get my dad a present. You seem like a real glasses buff, so I wanted to get your advice. Could you try on a couple pairs for me? I’d like to get some visual reference.”
: “Thank you so much! Let’s see… how about this pair?”
: This entire scene is full of references to Persona 4. The glasses Joker has on are the same ones the Persona 4 protagonist wears while in the TV world.
: I’m also reasonably certain that the green glasses on the rack behind Joker are Chie’s.
: “What do you think?”
: “I know, it’s so fashionable! And it’s good that it’d help your vision, too. This could be a good one… hmm…”
: “Hmm, right - maybe a little too hip for my dad. But your input’s been really helpful so far! Would you mind poking around with me for a bit longer?”
: “Thank you! This is actually kind of fun! Let’s pick up the pace!”
: I feel like these ones are also probably a reference, but I don’t know to what. They look kind of like Baofu’s glasses when we met him in Innocent Sin.
: And now we know what Joker’s shadow would look like if this was Innocent Sin.
: And here we have a slightly less anime-looking version of the Groucho glasses that Teddie gave to Chie in 4.
: “Sorry… I can’t decide. A lot of them are good, but none of them have really clinched it for me yet…”
: “You know, you’re right! I’m the one who has to make this call!”
: “I don’t know how to describe it. It just seems perfect for my dad somehow.”
: And she picks a pair that are very similar to Yukiko’s. They don’t have the little rainbow stripe on the side, but they’re the same otherwise.
: I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man wear red glasses before.
: “Yes, I think I can be confident in this one. In fact, I know he’ll like it!”
: “I ended up with a great present. All thanks to you, Kurusu-senpai!”
: “Hee hee… well, I’ve still got to make it up to you. Let’s go practice at Inokashira Park after this!”
: “…If I’m being honest, trying to pick out glasses was really setting off my anxiety. All I could think of was what’d happen if I couldn’t choose, or if I chose wrong…”
: “I mean, I already failed in gymnastics. And my cooking turned out bad, too. After cracking under pressure so many times, I kind of figured I’d just ruin everything again.”
: “The more I thought about it, the more… empty I felt. Like I wasn’t even me anymore.”
: “So even you know how that feels, Kurusu-senpai? It’s not just me… I think I’m starting to understand what my coach was telling me. It’s easy to say you’re in a slump, and write yourself off.”
: “But maybe ‘finding out who I really am’ is also about finding new depths to myself. It does make me feel a little down, but at the same time, I feel like I’m closer to getting my confidence back.”
: “And having your support makes me even more determined to make that happen.”
: “This is strange… I don’t know if I should be feeling like this. I want to give my best performance, but it’s like I’d be doing it for you as much as for myself… o-or something like that!”
: “I’m still working on it myself, but I hope we can keep helping each other, too!”
: If we didn’t already break the game enough, now there’s this. I don’t know what a Chaines Hook is and looking it up only gives me walkthroughs for Royal.
: Anyway, Chaines Hook allows us to not only ambush enemies from a distance, but also adds on a status effect - either Dizzy, Confuse, or Fear.
: I have kind of mixed opinions on this. Persona 5 is already a pretty easy game, and I feel like making the game even easier wasn’t necessarily a great idea.
: Even in the base game, by this point we would’ve already seen the hardest bits the game has to offer. It’s all kinda downhill from here in terms of difficulty, which I think is one reason that a lot of people hated all the dungeons after the one we’re about to go into in the base game.
: +5 max HP.
: “So I already gave my dad the glasses we picked out today. And it suits him even better than I imagined! He was so happy with them!”
: “Thank you! I think this helped me feel a little more confident! And thanks to you, I even feel like my gymnastics are going to go better now.”
: “I’m sick of wasting my time worrying. Whatever I’m up against, I’m just gonna give it my best shot. But actions always speak louder than words, right? I’ll prove I’m not all talk!”
: “Okay, I’d better go. I hope we can talk again later!”
: When we get back to Leblanc, Morgana gave me a reminder about “all the sooty clothes you have”, so I went to Kichijoji and discovered I had a bit of a collection from running over Shiki-Ouji in Mementos.
: I also discovered here that the clothing grab bag seems to restock once a day - but what I’m going to do is save the points for just before the final dungeon when the final tier of armor unlocks.
: We have a crossword puzzle tonight, and the answer should absolutely be “marijuana” but Atlus are cowards.
: This is probably in because of the Purdue Pharma lawsuit (yet another example of Connecticut ruining everything, as Purdue Pharma was based in Stamford) which had sprung up in 2007 but didn’t get a resolution until 2019.
: I like that we’re getting all these Thieves Den points which are absolutely useless because there’s nothing to really spend them on.
: And now it’s time to actually start Chihaya’s confidant.
: “Fine, let’s hear it. Please sit down.”
: “Her boyfriend stopped abusing her? I don’t believe it! But even if he did stop, her fate should still be heading down the path to misery, without changing!”
: “What!? The sequence of arcana has completely changed! ‘Death’ has moved far off into the future…”
: “Nrgh… no, no, no! This must be some sort of trick! What are you, a scam artist? You made a deal with her boyfriend or something, didn’t you?”
: I read this and I was like “Wow, this could be a Yakuza substory” and then I remembered that it kinda is. There’s one in Yakuza 3 with a fortune teller except you beat her sons up.
: “Then what did you do!? Did you plunge him into Tokyo Bay, or cram him into a metal drum and dump insects on him? You must’ve taken some sort of extreme measures!”
: He called Nishino Kanako. As it turns out, there actually is a fan translation group for that now, though it’s not quite as good as the ones released by the artist for the earlier volumes.
: “Well… you certainly do seem like just an ordinary high school kid. But there’s no way that could’ve happened… without you breaking the law. I mean, how could an ordinary high school student change the course of fate?”
: It’s like she hasn’t seen fully two-thirds of anime.
: “…Fine. I’m just going to have to verify your power. The very power that reversed my tarot card prediction! This is quite a serious situation for a fortune teller like me. I need to get to the bottom of this.”
: “You won’t have to do anything. Just sit next to me while I tell fortunes. And if another unopposable fate happens to appear… then I’ll test your power.”
: Translation, she has a second Mementos request that happens later. I’m not sure why she wasn’t the confidant that advances purely off Mementos requests instead of Mishima.
: “Th-this is a very serious issue on my end! Oh, I know… I’ll read your fortune! Please? I’ll even prioritize your readings over my regular customers.”
: “Besides, I’ll be able to provide much more accurate predictions once I get to know you better! How does that sound? Is it a deal? sigh Otherwise, I won’t be able to go on…”
: “You will? Really!? Okay, then, I look forward to verifying your ‘skills’! Please don’t blow me off, okay? We made a deal, after all.”
: Is she… questioning John Persona’s street cred?
: I think I said earlier that Luck Reading doubles stat gains. That’s actually incorrect - it gives you a 50% bonus. A luck reading costs 5000 yen and lasts a single day.
: Naturally, you can combine this with things like Craft of Cinema to get massive point gains from DVDs - which is why we haven’t been doing a lot of DVDs recently.
: If we were going for the reset-heavy 100% route, we’d have done this a while ago. I might still try to see if I can fit in extra readings outside of what the guide has just to get those few extra points.
: “If it’s really possible, then…”
: “Oh, it’s getting late! Let’s close up shop for today. It’s past your curfew.”
: I just got back from P5 Strikers and I’m so happy to be back.
: The PC port is borderline unplayable due to a number of known crashes and a memory leak, so I’ll be avoiding it until I can get it for around the same price as I did P5D.
: “Phew… hah… I forgot to get your contact info! Phew… there we go!”
: “I’ll be contacting you soon, so please come for the verification test, okay? I suggest you don’t try to get out of it. Or else, who knows what kind of black magic I’ll have to resort to…?”
: “Great! Now our deal is official! Sorry for taking up so much of your time. Please be careful on your way home. I’ll see you soon.”
: Instead of reading the book we just got from the library, we’re instead going to read a blatant reference to Marie Kondo. This book was in the base game, but I didn’t recognize the reference at the time because no one outside of Japan knew who she was.
: “Is this book really about cleaning? Or is it training you to become a monk?”
: Joker immediately realizes that Morgana does not bring him joy and throws him in the trash.
: “Cleaning as a way to speak to your heart… I’ve never thought of it that way…”
: Five points in Proficiency.
: The convenience store sells Soothing Soba now, which I buy only because you can trade it to the guy in Kichijoji.
: We’re spending our afternoon with Ann. Strikers establishes that Joker hates crepes, but of course that doesn’t matter because Strikers isn’t canon.
: There’s people who think it is and Royal isn’t, and they’re so very, very wrong.
: “I have the worst luck…”
: “Oh, an email. Looks like it’s from the agency. I wonder what they could want… huh…? Mika!? At Skytree…? Where’s that!?”
: “They want me to head over for a shoot now… feels pretty familiar, doesn’t it? Basically, this men’s magazine is running a Mika special to try and capitalize on her recent popularity.”
: “But apparently, she asked for me specifically to star alongside her for the shoot. I wonder why…”
: “Hold on though… why would you trick someone you admire? Well, I guess I won’t know what she wants unless I head over! Have you been to Skytree before? How do you get there…?”
: “Oh, and… c-can you come with me? Actually, I’ve already decided for you. You’re going. Come on!”
: “You asked for me, right? Wow… I barely recognize you. Did you lose weight? Or maybe change your makeup?”
: “The theme for today’s shoot is ‘the elegance of woman’. So, I conditioned my body to be more elegant.”
: “Wh-what do you mean?”
: “Controlling what you eat, how you move… that’s all. It may sound easy, but it’s pretty tough. You have to write down everything you eat, making sure to check the nutritional and caloric content.”
: “I even hired a personal trainer to take special note of my diet and oversee my exercise regimen.”
: She attempted to make the leap from Basic Bitch to Advanced Bitch. It didn’t end well.
: “Whoa… that’s amazing! Does that mean you don’t get to eat double chocolate crepes?”
: Nah, Metal Slug 3 established that it takes like six bites to get that powerup.
: “Not to mention the other stuff I do! I take herbal medication, wear warming socks, do pilates and yoga…day after day… how many squats do you think I do in a week!?”
: When I was recording this, I read the line as “herbal socks” and I was like “Shit, they make those now?”
: “Ugh, a natural beauty like you could never understand how much work I put into my modeling!”
: “You know, it’s kinda embarrassing getting complimented like that…”
: “Sorry, did I say natural beauty? What I mean was natural airhead.”
: Ah yes, the famous “my head itches” pose.
: “I see now… this is a test… well, I’m not gonna lose!”
: And of course, Ann counters with the “Mime in an invisible box” pose. Someday I hope to win a fight by just going completely silent and pretending I’m in a box.
: What the fuck are these poses?
: “M-Mika!? Why are you doing this? I thought you looked up to me!”
: “You should have known that was a lie… but I guess you’re just as naive as you look. Anyway, stupid amateurs like you really piss me off. You better not drag me down, okay?”
: And now the “I dropped my contacts and can’t find them, could you please not move?” pose.
: What I hate is that if this was Persona 1 or Persona 2, Mika would absolutely be a boss fight. I mean, she kinda is given Chisato and Kama Palace in 1.
: There’s also a boss fight in Strikers that is basically Mika only she’s Ann’s age and has this whole stupid pastel Alice in Wonderland thing going on.
: It offends me because at no point does the Alice boss ask anyone to die for her, at least not out of what I saw before I stopped playing.
: “Grrr…!”
: “Introduce me, pleeeeease? 
Mm-hm, mm-hm! The owner even invited me to dinner! Y’know, working with all of you just makes me so… happy! ”
: “Um… I’m heading home…”
: “Is that why she was mad at me? Wait, so the real reason she requested me was just so she could be mean… If that’s the case, I probably deserved everything she did…”
: “… I’m… I’m so pissed off! Mika had to work super hard every day to get to where she is now. She worked out, watched her diet, made friends with everyone…!”
: “She couldn’t rely on connections like I did… she didn’t become a model just for the heck of it. Her resolve, her knowledge, her fashion sense… they’re all on a totally different level from me!”
: “Mika is amazing. Mika is… Mika is strong! But me? I’m nothing! Just thinking about that makes me so angry… I feel like I could explode!”
: “This whole time, I’ve just been pretending to model. It was like the clothes were wearing me… I mean, that’s what I always thought being a model meant! …But I was totally wrong.”
: So one, this cutscene is like twice as long as it had any right to be. Two, I think Ann has modeling confused with the plot of Kill la Kill.
: “A real model draws out the beauty of the clothes they wear… casts a stunning magic on them… a real model is flexible, beautiful… and strong. Well, I’ve had enough pretending!”
: “Right! I’ll give it my all! I’m gonna take the world by storm… just you watch, Akira!”
: “This is the perfect time for sweets! But no, I won’t eat them! I mean, I will… but not today! You eat some for me, Akira! Later!”
: This is starting to feel like an Allanson Monologue. She’s talking a lot, but saying very little.
: “Well, I’ll say it again! I’m taking the modeling world by storm, and I don’t care what I have to do to get there! Obviously that means dieting, cutting back on food, and no matter how tough it is, I’ll do any workout!”
: “Yup! I’m so sick of feeling how I did today! …This is a first for me, actually. Feeling this pissed off, I mean. Usually, even if I have a crappy day, I just get over it by having snacks, watching TV and sleeping it off.”
: “But this time, it’s different… I want to change. Tomorrow, I want to be better than I am today. Okay, gotta start my stretching session! I’ll talk to you later. Bye-bye!”
: Before we do Kawakami’s upcoming Rank 10 cutscene, we first want to do a couple of things to avoid a permafuck.
: First, we need to go to Chihaya. She gives us an early look at who our next opponent is. Medjed is the Persona 5 universe’s equivalent of Anonymous.
: One thing I neglected to mention about the Luck Reading is that it only boosts one stat at a time. You’d basically need a guide to make full use of it, because there are days where you’ll get stat boosts and not know ahead of time that you’re going to get them.
: Next, we need to use the Luck Reading (picking Kindness) and feed the plant.
: In this case, we get seven points to Kindness from feeding the plant as opposed to the five we usually would.
: And now it’s time for our first Rank 9 confidant event. This will give you a pretty good idea of how the rest of them go… at least for the dateable ones.
: “Takase-kun’s guardians came to my house today and apologized to me! They told me I won’t have to send any more money! And that they’ll return everything I paid them.”
: She knows. She absolutely knows.
: “Anyway, it’s such a relief. They apologized about Takase-kun… and admitted that what they did was terrible. They even told me that I am a good teacher. And so, I decided to reall quit my part-time maid job today.”
: “I’ve been talking to my boss about it ever since I was hospitalized. It took a while to work out who would cover my shifts. I didn’t want to inconvenience anyone.”
: “Now I can finally make a fresh start as a teacher. I can take care of my students and earn their trust. That’s the ideal teacher I aspire to become. I bet I’ll be an old woman by the time I achieve my dreams.”
: Kawakami is now midway through her metamorphosis into Ms. Saeko.
: “Yeah, you’re right. I’m still within the demographic age range of what’s considered ‘young’.”
: “I was always able to rely on you, Master. You helped me come to a lot of realizations, because you were such a good listener. Thanks again.”
: Where’s the “Never do that again” option?
: “I could always become your personal maid, riiight? …Just kidding.”
: On Rank 9 events, at least with the female confidants, you will always rank up midway through the event. Once you’ve reached this point, it’s safe to discard your same-arcana Persona.
: I believe that once you hit Rank 9, you automatically hit Rank 10 the next time you meet the confidant. We are now unable to permafuck on Kawakami’s confidant.
: “Can you handle the cleaning on your own? I’m pretty worried about the state this place is in. I feel like you don’t put much thought into your diet either… besides, won’t you be lonely? Hm?”
: “giggle …I take it you get lonely easily? …But you shouldn’t say stuff like that so casually, okay? Some women may misunderstand your intentions.”
: This thought will always pop up immediately before the split between the “friendship” route and the “romance” route. We are doing the “friendship” route first.
: The top option sets us on the “friendship” route. Let’s pick that.
: “That was pretty honest of you. You’re quite the problem child, but you’re still a good person. I’ll protect you, as your homeroom teacher.”
: “Oh, and of course I’ll keep my initial promise too. The one about slacking off in class.”
: “On my way home, I remembered everything. All the old memories from when I decided to become a teacher. Like when I was going through the courses for it, or my first year as a teacher…”
: “Back then, I would’ve done anything for my students. I felt like I was capable of anything. But somewhere along the way, I forgot about all that. Reigniting your original resolve is easier said than done.”
: “Thanks. Somehow, when I hear it from you, it makes me feel like I can do anything… weird, huh? From now on, I’ll support you as your teacher, so you can rely on me as much as you want, okay?”
: You might ask where Kawakami’s other Rank 9 scene is. What I’m going to do is make a separate update for that, because I understand there are people who do not want to see it.
: I will also put her Rank 10 romance route cutscene in there, so that if you don’t want to see that, you don’t have to.
: I’ll do the same for any romance cutscenes between Joker and an adult, because again, I understand that can be unsavory to people. Any updates with content like that will have a red “CW” on the header so that you can avoid them.
: “And yet he simply turned himself in - even confessed all his crimes. The Phantom Thieves…”
: “I hope she hasn’t fallen under their influence…”
: “It seems like some of our students had been victimized by them, so we can breathe easy for now. I’m thankful to the police for arresting the perp, even though they’re just doing their job.”
: “By the way, ‘perp’ is police slang. You might have heard the stars in police procedurals say it. It’s short for ‘perpetrator’.”
: “Speaking of stars… can you answer this question, Kurusu-san?”
: What the fuck is this, Professor Layton? Are you going to make me rearrange matchsticks next?
: “That’s correct.”
: “By the way, there are rumors that the Phantom Thieves took down the perp this time - Kaneshiro. I remember their name with that bit on Madarame, as well as the incident in May. Is this a new urban legend?”
: “Anyway, please prepare for your tests starting Wednesday, and don’t be distracted by rumors like that.”
: “Looks like we succeeded in changing Kaneshiro’s heart! A lot of people are talking about the Phantom Thieves too!”
: This scene will always happen the day after you do Kawakami’s rank 9 event. It is the same regardless of which route you chose.
: “I saw a lot of errors on the previous test, so please be more careful in the future.”
: “Excuse me! No sleeping in class! Today’s examples will be on your entrance exam, so make sure you know them.”
: “People’ve been makin’ a huge deal of it since the police announcement!”
: “This is quite the turnaround. All of a sudden, people are expressing their long-standing belief in us.”
: “So this is why Makoto told us to post the calling card anywhere that might stand out.”
: “Pretty smart move on her part. Oh… where is our amazing Miss President?”
: “I’ve been called into a meeting with the principal. There’s no need to worry though. More importantly, there is a special on TV about the Phantom Thieves!”
: “Huh? What did it say!?”
: It was an hour of people being very confused as to who John Persona is.
: “They were talking all about our calling cards.”
: “For real!?”
: “Anyway, my apologies about today. I’ll have to see you all another time.”
: “Who was that?”
: Joker tells him it was John Persona calling to order a pizza.
: “I hope all this excitement doesn’t place us on the police’s radar.”
: “It’ll be fine! No way they’d find out about that weird other world!”
: “True, but… do you remember what the fake Kaneshiro said towards the end?”
: “Yeah, he said we’re not the only ones doing it…”
: “Eh, not gonna let it bother me. Far as we know, he was just pullin’ that shit out of his ass.”
: “I hope that’s the case…”
: “Anyways, in your face, Akechi! Now whaddya wanna do about our next target!?”
: “Don’t get ahead of yourself. Still, people might expect a lot from our next move considering how excited they’re getting.”
: “We can’t just pick any old schmo now.”
: And then they basically picked any old schmo. No, seriously.
: “There is no need to hurry though. Counting Kamoshida, we’ve claimed three consecutive victories, right? We should just lay low and wait for all this excitement to blow over.”
: “Good idea! We can make it a welcomin’ party for Miss President too. By the way, that briefcase? It’s pretty damn expensive! Let’s sell it and drop the cash on our party!”
: “Wow… seems like the ‘lay low and wait’ idea has gone completely out the window.”
: “So we can count you out then, Morgana?”
: “Uh… what are you talking about? I was just saying we should try and keep our party on the down low.”
: “Hahaha, that’s the spirit. Well, I’m gonna let Makoto know!”
: “…Hi, Makoto? There’s something we forgot to tell you! So- Oh…”
: “What’s wrong?”
: Joker tries to figure out the best way to signal Ann to turn off speakerphone so he can tell them not to let her know he brings Morgana to his exams.
: “If you wish not to stand out, you had best not get bad grades, okay? That is something I simply would not be able to overlook as student council president!”
: “For now, behave and concentrate on your studies. We can have fun once finals are over… understood?”
: "I believe in what I wrote. ‘The Phantom Thieves are just.’ "
: What she doesn’t talk about is that the original sentence was “The Phantom Thieves are just four high schoolers and a cat.”
: “Have you figured out who they are?”
: “No, I’m nowhere close. However, after considering all the facts, I concluded there are no errors in their acts or principles.”
: “Thus, upon deeming them to be on the side of justice, I have decided to end my investigation.”
: “But that’s impossible!”
: “Impossible? May I see the evidence you have that leads you to believe so?”
: “There will be no need for that. I intend on getting into a good college by my own merit. Please excuse me.”
: “About that… yes, I am making progress. However, I have stumbled upon some difficulties. Still, why would someone as important as you be interested in a petty case like this?”
: “N-no! That’s not what I meant! I will investigate with all the resources available to me. Of course… um, I should be able to let you know relatively soon. Yes, I will bring good news…”
: “Hi, Sis. You look tired… is everything okay?”
: “Don’t worry about me. How about you, Makoto? Have you been keeping up with your studies?”
: “Yes, of course. Though… what is the point of studying?”
: “… What do you mean?”
: “I mean, you studied and you’re not even a romance route, and then you spent an entire night asking a high school kid stupid questions.”
: “I was just wondering what will be waiting for me at the end… even if I manage to push through tough entrance exams, I’m still thrust into a competitive society…”
: Hmm… could this be foreshadowing? I feel like we saw a place where the word “Success” was plastered all over the walls… but where was that again?
: “Isn’t this the man the Phantom Thieves sent a calling card for? I heard he confessed all his crimes.”
: “Even the police couldn’t figure out why. It really… was out of nowhere. This would only make sense if his personality changed… but that would be impossible.”
: “Why does it matter? The police still caught him in the end, right?”
: “I had plans set for a promotion, but no one can take credit for his arrest now with that confession. …Not that a child would understand.”
: Who are you talking to? Is it me, because I already know what the plot is. Seriously, by this point I had kind of figured out most of the remaining plot.
: “Promotion… You’ve changed, sis. But I’ll be okay. …I finally found a place where I belong.”
: “This new teammate of ours is pretty promising! We’ll be able to do even more now!”
: Before we do the canon version of events, we’re going to do the non-canon version. Ordinarily, we’d be doing this on the 27th, but I’m going to do it early. This is so that I can record both versions of the cutscene without having to play through three in-game weeks multiple times.
: I also want to do this to explain the third item on my list of things I hate about this game. The first is the thing that caused me to not finish the plot, the second is that the writing is very repetitive and dull in spots.
: “That’s actually been happening a lot lately… I wonder if they see me in a new light now…? I need to work hard so I can make up for all the times I let my students down in the past.”
: For the record, none of the answers in the Rank 10 scenes matter - this includes the party member Rank 10 scenes, which is surprising given that the max rank for party member confidants is now 11.
: “Oh, do I sense some jealousy? Haha… that’s really cute. So, um… now, this is coming from me as your teacher…” an awful thought occurred to me the more I spent time with you."
: Oh shit. She knows.
: Joker grabs his stash of cup noodles and jumps out the window.
: “And the state of your room! You need to stop slacking. I mean, look at how dusty this place is. I put up with the mess because you were my client, but you need to thoroughly clean in here!”
: “I’m currently in the process of eating better myself. I only have cup noodles every other day now! There are just some things you have to prioritize over your studies, you know?”
: All of the adult confidants will eventually figure out that Joker is part of John Persona. Even in the canon we’re setting, Kawakami is actually not the first to do so.
: See if you can guess who it is. We’ll find out when we hit their Rank 10 in a few months.
: “That whole thing with Takase-kun’s guardians worked out way too good for me. And you’re the only one who knew about my situation.”
: “Hm, well… don’t worry. I have no intention of telling anyone. There are a lot of stories about the Phantom Thieves but in the end they help people like me, right?”
: “I just thought you were a problem child with a criminal record… but now I know better. I’ll support you 100 percent!”
: “You’re not just a student to me. You’re someone special who helped me realize my path as a teacher. A new path where I’ll never abandon any of my students…”
: “Right!? For my students… and for you!”
: Please make sure to click the next music link before reading on. I don’t normally suggest that, just please do it. I’ll tell you when to close it.
: Shoji Meguro made this song for Persona 3, and it was so good that it stuck around in both Persona 4 and Persona 5. Even Hashino couldn’t fuck that up. I’ll even post the final text thing real slow so that you can get the full effect.
: “The ultimate secret of Temperance, aka straight edge.”
: Okay, you can turn it off now. Like all confidants, reaching Rank 10 with Kawakami unlocks one of the Ultimate Personas. Ardha is level 84 and is a very solid physical/nuke Persona… though at that point you’re not far off from just fusing Lucifer.
: Now, I’ll need to apologize, because I’ve lied just a little bit. The Path is Open isn’t in Persona 5.
: You have NO IDEA how pissed I was when I found out that it wasn’t in P5 - not even a jazz version of it or something. They kept it for both Persona 4 and Golden.
: The worst part is that they didn’t replace it with anything. There’s just fucking nothing there. They turned the Rank 10 events from a special thing into… just another fucking confidant event.
: What fucking killed me about it was that they had all this really good music and then just completely dropped the fucking ball on this even though THEY HAD A SONG THEY COULD’VE USED.
: What kills me even more is that they didn’t fucking fix it for Royal, because this game’s a goddamn cash grab!
: “I don’t want you to flunk your exams. I’m going to go the distance with you!”
: “This new ally you gained was Makoto!? Just tell me the truth!”
: This scene makes less sense when you realize that there’s a good chunk of the player base that wound up dating Makoto and Sae somehow doesn’t know by this point.
: “Makoto… that’s preposterous. If what you say is true… was Makoto also running from the police when you were arrested!?”
: “Now that I think about it… she did start talking a lot about the investigation from summer onward…”
: “Makoto aside, you mentioned one other important detail. Did Kaneshiro really say there was someone using the Metaverse besides the Phantom Thieves?”
: “Those words could just be taken as you shifting blame to this other person, you know.”
: “There are two possibilites: either you’ve simply been trying to confuse me with your lies… or everything you’ve stated is true. Have you been telling me the truth from the very start?”
: “Does that mean you’re placing your trust in me? …Then again, I am investigating a ‘thief who steals hearts’. Very well. No matter how absurd it may seem, I’ll reevaluate my stance on believing you for now.”
: “In return, speak the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It’s a fair deal… is that acceptable?”
: And now we’ve got one of the only two confidants we actually need to fuse Lucifer. Judgement gets us all the ingredients we need, and then we need to unlock Lucifer himself through a different confidant.
: “We’re running out of time. Let’s move on to your next target… actually, I should rephrase that; they targeted your group first, didn’t they?”
: “We have no pictures. Even their names and identities are unknown. If what you told me is true, then this ‘Nav’ thing you’ve mentioned wouldn’t have worked in this case. How did you target them?”
: “Tell me everything.”
: Believe it or not, we’re still not quite done with this update. We have the canon version of the events that transpired on 07/09 to go through still. Let’s meet the other confidant we need to fuse Lucifer.
: The guide I’m using doesn’t tell you to do this, but I get a Luck Reading on Knowledge. The reason for this is that most visits we’re going to make to this new confidant get us two points to Knowledge.
: At 5,000 yen per, it’s kind of a high price for one extra point… but that’ll add up and we have the money.
: Meet Hifumi Togo. I used to think she was the best girl in the game, and I have no idea why.
: “Strange, hm? I did receive approval to do so though. Experimenting with new tactics is best to do alone in a place like this. …Well, I suppose that doesn’t sound terribly plausible to someone who doesn’t play…”
: Joker replies with “Whoa, are you saying I don’t have game? I totally have game. I’ve got like five different women trying to date me and none of them realize I’m gay.”
: “Don’t mind me; please go ahead and pray.”
: Joker pulls open his jacket, revealing his “Lucifer Is My Homeboy” T-shirt.
: Hifumi Togo is a chuuni who is like, borderline Haruhi Suzumiya territory. She’s about two seconds from becoming a Yu-Gi-Oh character at any given moment.
: So anyway, let’s talk about Hifumi. There’s an art book for Persona 5 that outright states she was initially intended to be a party member.
: The idea was that she was supposed to be a sort of foil to Makoto and that Makoto wasn’t supposed to be THE SMART GIRL, but then they walked that back for some stupid reason.
: I know for a fact that there was a significant portion of the fanbase that was quite upset that Hifumi didn’t make it in as a party member in Royal, but that would require downgrading Makoto from SMART GIRL status and we can’t possibly nerf Hashino’s dumbass girlfriend character.
: Oh, right. The Megami Tensei wiki claims that Hifumi is in the church because she’s named after an actual shogi player by the name of Hifumo Kato, who is a Catholic.
: “…Huh? Um, you don’t necessarily have to learn from me, you know… there are other options… such as playing online.”
: “Well then… um… so… you like shogi?”
: By this, he means he wants a motorcycle so he can play 5Ds IRL. He’s gonna roll right over Kaiba.
: “Like me…? You’re a bit strange… but thank you. Um… okay, just a quick game then. Twenty seconds per move… if that’s all right with you.”
: “…I’ll start. …So this is your skill level, huh? The dragon which governs the blue sky has fallen into my hands. How do you intend to survive this?”
: “I play whatever the most recent ‘buy me, I’m overpowered’ card is that hasn’t yet been banlisted.”
: “To concede is an act of admitting that you have lost, with grace. If you aspire to become a shogi player, I recommend that you take your study of the game to heart.”
: “Thank you for playing… well then, that will be all for today. If it’s all right with you, may I request another match sometime?”
: This part I don’t quite understand. She wants to play shogi against a guy who has no idea what he’s doing?
: “I feel… a gambler’s spirit emanating from you. Which is strange, since your style of play is that of a complete novice…”
: “Huh…!? Oh, I-I’m sorry… however, I will instruct you under one condition. You become my playing partner so that I can research new moves. Is that agreeable?”
: I’m not sure how you’d “research” moves in a game like shogi. As far as I understand it, shogi is one of those “solved” games like chess where every possible move has been analyzed by a computer.
: “Thank you very much… well then, it’s a deal. I’ll teach you how to play, and you’ll assist me with my new moves.”
: Wait, what? The palaces are basically the definition of “going loud” except that combat is magically silent because it takes place in a separate screen.
: All of Hifumi’s abilities are named after concepts in shogi. As far as I understand it, Koma Sabaki is this idea that every piece has a role and your strategy builds around that.
: We get three points to knowledge - two base plus a third from the luck reading. I’m honestly not sure why the guide doesn’t have you do a luck reading, since we do it for aojiru a few times for the same cost-point gain ratio.
: “Before you head home, would you like to exchange IDs with me? There’s no obligation, of course…”
: “Thank you. All right then… let’s see… ah, yes, it went through. I’ll let you know if I come up with any new strategies.”
: And that’s it. Next time, we’ll spent two days going through a bunch of big long cutscenes that I would probably just skip if I could because they exist solely to justify the plot of the new content in Royal and kill the pacing.
: “A variety of heroes battling for dominance - truly an epic time. Charismatic rulers and warlords with the command of a thousand men may have their own appeal…”
: “I was just about to close up shop, but I forgot to turn the stove off. I guess you start forgetting things more the older you get…”
: “I, Toranosuke Yoshida, will someday find a way to address your concerns in Nagata-cho… oh, Kurusu-kun. How’s your schoolwork?”
: “It’s so… peaceful here. I should bring a girl here sometime.”
What!? That’s impossible! He hasn’t shown any interest in Takamaki or Makoto…
: “That doesn’t seem to have stopped Morgana. Have you told him about Takamaki-san and Suzui-san yet?”
: “That aside, I must thank you for your help today. This is the ideal location for my next motif.”
: “The humidity is what kills me about Japanese summers. I miss the dry heat of California. Not to mention, July and August both have thirty-one days. Summer is long…”
: “Listen closely: the place we wish to evaluate for your rehabilitation is… where one hones both the body and spirit.”
: “Trainees gather there to test and push their limits using various pieces of equipment.”
: “Really? It seems the same to- hold up. It looks like the Nav’s reactin’ to something…”
: “What’s this?”
: “It sounds like we can go further down now. It’s because we made Madarame’s Palace disappear, right?”
: “But to think the Phantom Thieves would honestly attempt an absurd idea like social reform… you’re absolutely right. I’m not pleased about the general public’s support of them either.”
: “The question is what the Phantom Thieves actually did. If they tampered with a suspect’s heart, it casts doubt on the authenticity of any confession.”
: “I know some of you rely on all-nighters, but I can’t recommend it. That really messes up your information retention.”
