Colors Flying High - Let's Play Persona 5 Royal

[Timrod]

@drcakey

Prove your existence to society

what does that MEEEEEEEEAAAAAAANNNNNN???

It’s basically a very dumb thing we won’t understand until the final boss of the base game.

[SpammyV]

At first I was giggling to myself because I was imagining that every time Morgana starts getting too horny, John Persona just pulls out a water pistol and starts spraying him in the face without a single emotion on his face.

Then I also giggled because I imagined him doing the same thing with the same blank look to Tae.

[Pizuz]

: It then gives us a trivia thing about the English word “gallery”. I wonder if this was more difficult in the original Japanese or something.

The entire bar actually lends heavily to Catherine. The assets have been mostly reused from that game and the trivia segments were also a thing there (everytime you downed a drink in Catherine the narrator would give trivia about it).

[Timrod]

@Pizuz

The entire bar actually lends heavily to Catherine. The assets have been mostly reused from that game and the trivia segments were also a thing there (everytime you downed a drink in Catherine the narrator would give trivia about it).

Shit! I can’t believe I never noticed that. I only played Catherine for a bit and didn’t come anywhere close to finishing it.

@SpammyV

At first I was giggling to myself because I was imagining that every time Morgana starts getting too horny, John Persona just pulls out a water pistol and starts spraying him in the face without a single emotion on his face.

Then I also giggled because I imagined him doing the same thing with the same blank look to Tae.

Tae would need a fire hose, not a water pistol.

[LaZodiac]

@Timrod

I wonder, do people even do the whole modeling for art thing anymore, in an age where everyone has a camera on them at all times?

Yes actually! Photos are good but they lack the actual depth of a live model, lack that genuine texture that actual reality has.

There’s something implicitly gross about forcing the girl who has had to deal with sexual abuse to pose nude. Something about it just feels inherently kinda gross. If I had to rewrite it and keep this arbitrary time limit, I’d have it be Joker who is the nude subject (because it’ll set up for some nice drama in their Support and also help with the implying of our artist friend being gay).

@Timrod

It’s rare to see a gentlemen (sic) artist like him

I’d argue this isn’t necessarily a typo, since it is spoken dialogue and gentleman can be slurred into gentlemen so easily, especially with the sort of sentence he’s saying. It is, writing wise at least, a typo though, so I’ll grant it.

[drcakey]

I’d been thinking that I was onto one of this game’s writing problems - specifically that it had an issue of overly low stakes - but then I realized that while I think that’s true, that problem is inextricably tied to every other part of the story and setting and to fix it you’d have to tear out everything and start over from the beginning.

This is probably a minority opinion, but I’ve started to feel like maybe P5’s visuals are so incredibly, painfully COOL that having characters and a plot at all - not just a bad plot, but a large plot in general - are just kind of getting in the way.

[Timrod]

@drcakey

This is probably a minority opinion, but I’ve started to feel like maybe P5’s visuals are so incredibly, painfully COOL that having characters and a plot at all - not just a bad plot, but a large plot in general - are just kind of getting in the way.

: Not for Atlus/Sega it wasn’t. I actually did a thing on this in one of the updates but then took it out because I felt like it was too cynical, but now I’m not so sure.

: The thing is, Persona 5’s characters all feel like they were focus-grouped to hell for maximum merch sales, rather than to make actually good characters. Let me explain a little further.

: This is from the front page of Amiami, one of the largest “character goods” companies in Japan that will ship directly to the United States. I’ve bought things from them on a number of occasions - I think I mentioned it once but I have both a Chie and Yukiko figma as well as a couple of expensive P5 statues of Joker and a character we haven’t met yet.

: Notice that the weird horny Ann statue is #8 out of all their top sellers right now, despite the fact that the anime for P5 came out in like.. I think the same year the original game did.

: Amiami also has 1,270 results for Persona 5 merch alone - this doesn’t include P4 or any of the older games (not that P1 or P2 got figures). Let’s compare that to say, their listings for the entire Final Fantasy series.

: So yeah, P5 has more shit than the entire Final Fantasy series. It even beats out Dragon Quest. You might think this is a common thing among newer RPGs, but it really isn’t. The only series I’ve seen come close is Danganronpa, which was more or less designed the same way P5 was.

: It’s not just figures and shirts and stuff though. Persona 5 had a stage play, which I think covered only things we’ve seen already..

: It had an entire line of tea…

: It had pop-up cafes, it had crossovers with a bunch of mobile games..

: That one’s just the ones Ann’s been in, but there’s a list about as big for pretty much all of the main party members.

: Atlus and Sega have no doubt raked in loads of cash on this shit.

: What gets me though is that I feel like each character was purposely designed and made as horny as possible to attract certain types of fans, rather than because they fit with the story.

: Anyway, that’s my bit on why I don’t like any of the characters - because they feel like they were each made to sell as much merch as possible.

[Timrod]

Click Here for Update 19

: It’s 5/20. Dungeon time.

: I’ll just skip the rest of this. It’s the game hinting at you to do the beef bowl job to start Yoshida’s confidant, but we’re already well ahead of that.

: This gets us all of 3 charm points, which is honestly kinda underwhelming.

: This is just another tutorial. The Megami Tensei series wasn’t enough like Pokemon (despite the fact that Megaten came first) so they gave every Persona a passive ability.

: And now we can actually start the dungeon.

: Interestingly, most of the stealable items regenerate. There’s a few near the entrance that don’t, but most of them do.

: Meet an annoyance - lasers. They don’t really do anything but make you press X to go through them.

: “Tch.. it’s an infrared laser device. If we touch it, the security will increase!”

: It’s actually what’s called a “near-infrared” laser, which manages to be just enough outside of the spectrum considered to be infrared that it’s still visible. Unless they’re implying that having a Persona lets you see infrared.

: “Hold on, there wasn’t anything like this last time though!”
The laser towers were in fact there the first time, but they weren’t activated.

: “The rumors might slowly be making Madarame become more wary of us.. Joker! They’re not easy to see, but you should be able to do it with your skills. Be careful!”

: The gallery is now full of enemies. Let’s just grab one and see what happens.

: The museum is honestly kind of all over the place difficulty-wise. Most of the enemies in the parts we’ve already seen are way lower level than we are: some are as low as level 9. We already have Mokoi, so I just gun these ones down. They have just a bit too much HP for a clean gun-down - it’s more like a full magazine dump plus one attack.

: We also run into Hua Po. Hua Po is weak to guns, and is also of an arcana we don’t have - they’re Hanged Man. We definitely want one, but the first couple of times I tried to grab one they ran instead.

: Hua Po can also be a bomb shadow, which makes taking out the other enemies laughably easy.

: Here’s another Persona I think we had in some incarnation or another in both Persona 1 and Innocent Sin. It’s Apsaras. In this case, we want her because she’s the lowest-level Priestess persona.

Returning Persona: Apsaras

Origin: India

First Appearance: Megami Tensei II

Dancing water nymphs in Hindu mythology.

: There are impassable laser grids blocking the exit, so there’s really only one path through here.

: The next room used to be just another enemy hallway, but now it’s a laser grid.

: On the other side of the grappling hook spot, I finally got a Hua Po.

New Persona: Hua Po

Origin: China

First Appearance: SMT Nocturne

Chinese tree spirit formed when three or more people hang themselves from the same tree.

: “The security will probably get a little more fierce as well. Make sure you don’t touch anything or run into any of the displays, all right?”

: “What’re you lookin’ at me for?”

: In the room just ahead of us..

: Is our first save room. If I had been thinking when I recorded, I would’ve saved here.

: As soon as I turned the corner, I ran into something new. Shiisaa here was not an enemy in the base game - and was retuned significantly for Royal.

: Their inclusion here was a very strange choice, to say the least. For one, they’re level 15 - higher than I think the game expects you to be and significantly higher than most of the other enemies.

: Second, they’re extremely annoying to deal with - in fact, I got lucky. They’re neutral to Gun, but resist physical attacks.. and their only magic weaknesses are Curse and Psychic. Unless you kept Arsene around for no good reason, you’re very unlikely to have either of those.

: They wouldn’t necessarily be a wall that’s impossible to overcome, but it’d cost you a lot of SP to deal with them. I think the idea is that the game assumes you’ve grinded Mementos and have Kodama - which right now is the only source of Psychic spells we have access to. Thankfully, I fused Kodama earlier and then gave Psy to Kusi Mitama.

: Unfortunately, I failed the negotiation. This was very bad.

: Just down the hall from where the Shiisaa were is a red shadow. I went “Fuck it, we’re level 15, we can take it” and entered battle.

: Meet Shiki-Ouji. Shiki-Ouji is a piece of shit. He nulls Gun. He nulls Physical. He has a shitload of HP and is not weak to anything except Nuclear damage.

: Ordinarily, it would be very difficult to get Nuclear damage at this point. There’s only two Personas at level 15 that have it - one would require a bunch of money to fuse and the other is Shiisaa.

: And so I reset, not realizing that there’s actually an accessory IN THIS ROOM that gives you nuclear damage.

: Anyway, we’re now back in the room before where Shiki-Ouji is. This was where we found the map, but I forgot to take a shot of it the first run through.

: I got an Apsaras, a Hua Po, and now..

New Persona: Shiisaa

Origin: Japan (adopted from China)

First Appearance: Devil Summoner

Holy beasts from Okinawan mythology. Said to repel disasters and misfortune. Statues of them are often seen outside houses and temples.

: Shiisaa’s a pretty solid Persona. Not only does it resist Physical (which most enemies use) but it has Frei and is also only weak to Psychic and Curse. I don’t think anything in the museum can do those.

: At this point, I realize that there’s a side room, and I go to check it out.

: Inside is a fight with a new enemy: Koropokkuru. I didn’t get one here, but I did get one a bit later - they’re the lowest-level Hermit Persona and thus we want them for confidants later.

New Persona: Koropokkuru

Origin: Japan (Ainu mythology)

First Appearance: Soul Hackers

Race of tiny people in Ainu folklore. Name literally means “people below the leaves of the butterbur plant”. Believed to have lived in the Ainu lands before the Ainu, they were once friendly with humans until a young Ainu man captured one, causing the Koropokkuru to flee the Ainu lands.

: Unfortunately, the wiki doesn’t have the stat block for Royal’s version of Koropokkuru. They removed his gun resistance for Royal.

: On a side note, the Koroks in Zelda are based on the Koropokkuru.

: In this room is a chest with the Atom Ring, which lets any Persona use Frei. I gave it to Ryuji.

: We can then open a door going back to the room with the giant sculpture in it. This is useful if we want to bypass the Shiki-Ouji entirely.

: Up the stairs is a security room we can’t do anything with.. yet.

: I like that he’s looking directly at Ann’s ass when she’s walking away, and then tries to disguise it by being horny for gold instead.

: “I know it might be tough to take with us, but don’t you think it’d sell for tons?”

: “Hold on, you’re steppin’ on something!”

: “Isn’t this bad!?”

: “Urgh, and you were the one makin’ us be careful too… So, whaddya wanna do? Run outta here?”

: “No, passing through all of these lasers will draw far too many enemies to our location!”

: “Oh, hold on! Joker’s not trapped!”

: “Sorry Joker, but we’re going to need you to search for a way to turn off these infrared lasers! This is a museum, so there has to be some switch to let the workers avoid these lasers. Find it!”

: The first thing we need to do is use this stack of boxes to climb over the glass wall near Ann.

: There’s a fight with a single Shiisaa here, but thankfully Joker has Psy so it’s not hard to deal with.

: And now we have Ann back. There’s also a brief cutscene showing a catwalk lowering between the two glass walls.

: On the other side is another single enemy (it’s a Shiisaa) and a mysterious painting with footprints going toward it. How neither of these guards noticed the lasers activate is a mystery.

: This one lowers the wall so Ryuji can get out.

: It’s okay, we can just leave him there. That’s his home now.

: “There has to be a control room for them! I don’t know if it’s nearby though…!”

: “…We just gotta trust him. C’mon, let’s try lookin’ for it!”

: There’s a vent on the side of the room where Ryuji was that’ll take us to the security room we passed on the way in.

: “But… it looks like we need a password to use it.”

: “Uh, they probably ain’t gonna just leave it lyin’ around.”

: “Then what are we supposed to do…? Look for someone who might know it?”

: “Did you hear that?”

: “Sure did. C’mon Joker, let’s go say hello to that terminal thing!”

: This is where I picked up the Koropokkuru I mentioned earlier.

: “It looks like it worked!”

: “Sweet! Let’s go grab that stupid cat and get movin’!”

: “Sheesh… weren’t you the one tellin’ us not to go around touchin’ shit in the exhibit?”

: “Urgh, that is true.. I can’t believe I made such a novice mistake, even for solid gold… but something was drawing me to this vase.”

: “What do you mean? Isn’t it just an ordinary gold vase? I wonder if there’s something special about it. Should we take a closer look just in case?”

: The rest of this is a tutorial, and it doesn’t really explain the mechanic well. This is a Treasure Demon - they’re the P5 equivalent of the Metal Slime in Dragon Quest.

: Treasure Demons are strong against most attacks, and usually have one uncommon weakness. In this case, Regent is weak to Psychic and Nuclear but resists everything else.

: Because this is a scripted encounter, I don’t use SP and just let Ryuji do a follow-up attack for an instant crit.

: All of the Treasure Demons are named after actual treasures - in this case, the Regent Diamond, which was at one point mounted in Napoleon Bonaparte’s sword pommel.

: Unlike regular Personas, Treasure Demons can’t actually be used (which is kind of dumb). They’re part of a long-standing tradition going back to the original Megami Tensei games (where you could fuse two demons of the same family to get an elemental).

: When they’re used in a fusion, Treasure Demons will boost certain arcanas of Persona to the next rank of Persona in their arcana. As an example:

: If we used it on the Agathion we had but tossed for Koropokkuru, we’d get a Slime. If we used it on the Slime, we’d get Shiki-Ouji. This is mostly useful for getting Personas that you’ve out-levelled.

: The good news is that Regent still counts as an Emperor Persona, and we need one of those for an upcoming confidant.

: There’s another save room past the laser trap.

: Note the hole in the wall on the right side. It’s kind of hard to see, but if we kept going we’d run into a laser grid.

: There’s bathrooms off to the side which have treasure. Bathroom treasure. The men’s room has a stealable item in it, while the women’s room..

: The Chakra Choker is easily the best pre-Tae accessory. It boosts max SP.

: There’s a hallway here with a female shadow. They’re easier than the regular guards in that they’re almost always two Hua Po and an Apsaras.

: As soon as we go into the room on the other end of the hallway, a bunch of laser barriers shoot up.

: The two Shadows in this room are the easiest way to grind money. They usually spawn in one of three configurations: either the two you see above with a Disaster Shadow, or a third one with a Shiisaa, a Hua Po and an Apsaras.

: I actually grinded the party to 18 in this room on stream. It took me about an hour, and by the time I was done I had over 180,000 yen.

: Keep in mind we’re basically at the halfway point. The enemies in this room also frequently drop dirty armor that we can start selling in early June for full price.

: I didn’t capture it, but there’s a really obvious grapple point you can use to get to the button that lowers the barriers.

: Now, there’s two ways we can go from here. One way goes upstairs, and the other (which you see here) goes to the point at which we’ll be forced to stop.

: Upstairs, there’s a Shiki-Ouji and.. hey, wait a second.. we’re level 18!

: Shiki-Ouji is an asshole to fight, mostly because he has one ability that can and will oneshot people if they’ve taken any damage whatsoever.

: The trick here is to give the Nuke Ring to Ann, and then have Shiisaa on Joker for a second nuke. Cast Frei, do an all-out, repeat until he’s at a sliver of health.

: Just like Berith, Shiki-Ouji will not negotiate unless he is at extremely low health.

NEW PERSONA: Shiki-Ouji

Origin: Japan

First Appearance: Devil Summoner

Paper doll used by Onmyo mages to capture Shikigami (an invisible demon). Shikigami can possess animals and people and are known for flipping out and killing their summoner.

: Shiki-Ouji fucking rules for several reasons. First, he has an innate skill that halves the cost of Psychic skills.

: This can also stack with Ann’s passive skill, which has a chance of lowering the SP cost of any spell cast by a party member. In addition, he nulls physical attacks.

: In case you’re wondering, Ryuji’s passive is like Ann’s but has a chance to increase damage on physical attacks (and only physical attacks) and Morgana’s is.. something to do with healing, I forget.

: From upstairs, we can hook up to a catwalk to get to…

: The first Will Seed. There’s also a chest down there with some crap in it.

: Now that we’ve got Shiki-Ouji and have probably enough money, let’s go to the end of the dungeon.

: You’ll notice that there’s a very obvious save room on the minimap. Unfortunately, we get railroaded into going away from it - I actually wanted to use it to make respawns faster.

: “It definitely looks like something important would be hidden away in there…”

: “Let’s go find out!”

: “This level of security only proves there’s something worth protecting up ahead.”

: “Wait, there’s something written on the sign..”

: “All personnel: This door can only be opened via the security room that lies beyond it…please be cautious, as it is impossible to open from the outside.”

: “So it’s never gonna open!? How’re we supposed to get past!?”

: “Wait.. that door.. I think I’ve seen that pattern somewhere.. oh right! There’s no mistaking it! That’s the same door I saw earlier! Guys, let’s head back!”

: “Huh? Why!?”

: “I think I know what real-world door that’s based on. There may be another way to open it! In any case, I’ll explain later! Come on, let’s go!”

: This is the only time the game ever pulls this. I mentioned earlier that Madarame’s dungeon takes four days to clear. The first day is getting to the door, the second day is just opening the door, the third day is actually reaching the treasure, and then there’s the calling card and the boss.

: On the way out, I figured out the best way to grind money. What you want to is have Shiisa on Joker, have the Atom Ring on anyone else (preferably Ann) and then fight Shiki-Ouji a lot. Hit him with Frei, do an All-Out, repeat until he’s at a sliver of health, and then ask for money.

: This will get you anywhere from 5500 to around 8000 yen per negotiation, making this by far the most efficient money grind spot.

: I went until I ran Morgana’s SP dry, and yielded nearly 237,000 yen. Keep in mind we still have another full day in here, and my plan is to grind as much money as possible because we are going to need a FUCKLOAD of it.

: To get an idea, about a week from when we finish the museum, we have to spend 51,000 yen playing pool. I don’t think we actually have to in the sense that it’s a permafuck, but that’s what the guide does.

: We also have two very expensive confidants coming up. One costs 5,000 yen every time you meet with them, the other has an up-front payment of 100,000 yen before you can do anything. They’re also the two best confidants in the game for the perks they provide.

: In the process, the entire party hits Level 19, which is higher than the boss is. We are very overlevelled right now, and the problem is that it’s a result of me needing to grind money.

: “I dunno.. you think there’s some kinda off switch somewhere?”

: “Looks like this is where I come in.”

: “Mona?”

: “I have a suspicious place in mind. Remember? This shack is the basis for Madarame’s Palace. I actually scouted it out the last time we were here.”

: “Whoa.. so this was your plan from the start?”

: “Correct.”

: “..You only went ‘scouting’ because you were bored.”

: “So? Where’s this suspicious place?”

: “It’s on the second floor. I noticed an unnaturally hefty lock on a door up there.”

: This is on the border of being another “fun things are fun” or “people die when they are killed”.

: “But don’t we wanna be openin’ the door in the palace?”

: That last sentence sounds like something you’d hear in a Youtube Poop.

: “Yes, and we’re going to do that by opening the real one in front of Madarame’s eyes. Basically, we’re going to change his cognition that the door is unopenable.”

: “In other words.. when we open the one in Madarame’s house, that area in his Palace will open on its own?”

: “I’m not really gettin’ it… is that gonna work?”

: “Trust me! There’s no chance it won’t open! …I think! You understand, don’t you, Joker?”

: “Well yeah, but..”

: “Why don’t you trust me!? It’s worth a try!”

: “But even then, there’s still that hefty lock we have to deal with in reality, right?”

: “Oh, that’ll be a breeze. Just give me a hairpin and I’ll handle it. It will take some time though. Doing everything by myself in front of Madarame would be impossible.”

: “If only there was someone who could distract him for a while…”

: “…Huh?”

: “Oh… Ohhh! Man, how are we even gonna get into his house? We’d get reported for sure if we force ourselves in..”

: “What?”

: “I guess the only way is.. havin’ you go nude.”

: “WHAT!?”

: Dammit, cat!

: “This isn’t funny!”

: “We’re not sayin’ you should really get naked.”

: “It’s simply the best excuse for you to enter Madarame’s house without raising suspicions… so, we’d like for you to play the role of decoy, Lady Ann.”

: “This is way too sudden.. I mean, I don’t even know where the locked door is.”

: “Don’t worry, I’ll accompany you.”

: “But that’s still technically only me.. worst comes to worst, what if I get found out?”

: “We can run into the Palace.. or something?”

: “Is that really gonna work!? I mean, you’re not giving me much confidence in this plan! Do I have to be the bait?”

: I like to think that Joker knows that Yusuke is gay, and that sending Ann in on a horny decoy mission is not going to work.

: “Hey! Why aren’t you saying anything!?”

: “Lighten up. It ain’t gonna be so bad. All you gotta do is trick Yusuke, have him take you to that room, then just open the door.”

: “You make it sound so easy! But if there’s no other way… I don’t.. I don’t… I don’t have a choice…”

: “Urghhhhh! God! Fine, I’ll do it! For justice!”

: “Seriously, you better pull this off!”

: “If it’s for your sake Lady Ann, I won’t stop scratching even if all my claws were to break!”

: “We’ll be countin’ on you, Morgana! Dont let Yusuke notice ya, all right?”

: “If he tries to force my clothes off.. I’ll tear that house down! I’m really gonna lose it if we do all this and the Palace door doesn’t open. Got it!?”

: “We’re workin’ to get dirt on that guy’s crimes either way. It won’t go to waste. All right, let’s get down and dirty tomorrow.”

: “Tomorrow!?”

: “Earlier the better.”

: “Um, b-but… will Kitagawa-kun agree?”

: Even though none of the choices matter (apart from the ones in confidant events) I wanted to point this out.

: We spend the night period studying once again. Next time, we’ll see what’s probably the best scene in the game, laugh off a couple of mini-bosses, and recruit Yusuke.

[andromeda]

It really skeeved me out when in this part, the only way to actually get the story to progress is to force a teen girl who was sexually harassed to pose naked for a random dude they just met off the street instead of just having her be a normal model that just poses for him a little. Not all models have to be nude models to be drawn, it just feels weird. An earlier commenter stated that they would’ve made Akira John Persona strip naked instead for Yusuke and honestly, I would’ve done the same too.

The thing that got me into persona 5 was Yusuke’s design, because I had recently beaten Innocent Sin and was vaguely excited for P5 (Even though I had severely disliked P3P/P4PS2 when I first played them) because Yusuke reminded me of Jun.

before i even got to the third palace of the game i started skipping cutscenes because i was losing my patience. Seeing the changes in the royal version actually makes me glad I didn’t buy royal when I heard it was announced, but also kinda upset because I’ve permafucked myself really hard on my playthrough of the OG P5 because it’s not great.

It’s just extremely disappointing that a lot of the characters accidentally come off as queer coded even though the game wants to desperately convince us that, no, they are straight and we don’t have to worry. Like I just want the protag to be as queer as I am but we’ll never get that in P5 despite how much it would’ve made sense for Yusuke to be interested in Akira because of how he comes off, and for Ann to be seen as in love with Shiho. I wish Yusuke was gay, or at least a little bicurious.

but no hashino said thats too ghei. thanks hashino.

[Timrod]

Click Here for Update 20

: It’s 5/21, and now we’re in for our second day in the museum. We start by finishing The Alluring Dancer, which gets us five points in Charm.

: This is more or less here to let us know that the penalty for studying at the school library (where we used to get guts and a lower amount of knowledge due to people talking about Akira) is now gone.

: “The golden ratio used in the Mona Lisa and the Parthenon is a famous example. But a different ratio has been used in Japanese art and architecture since ancient times.”

: “I’m sure you’ve all heard of the silver ratio. Now then, Kurusu-san. Take a look at this.”

: This question at least isn’t too bullshit because it’s easy enough to look up as long as Google doesn’t think you’re a stock trader because then it’ll give you results for the gold-silver price ratio.

: “That’s correct. You can see it’s closer to a square than the golden ratio, right? One theory says it’s because Asians have rounder faces than Westerners, so they prefer a similar shape.”

: I feel like we need a ratio for Groverhaus. The Trash Ratio. The “I Don’t Know What the Fuck I’m Doing” ratio. The “Mismatched Windows” ratio.

: “This ratio was used in things like ukiyo-e paintings and the pagodas at Horyuji Temple.”

: “One you should all be familiar with is B4-size paper. Those proportions are the silver ratio.”

: “Oh yeah, I hear that mascots that are seen as cute have faces that are close to this ratio. In other words, if you use this ratio, you can make cute things.”

: “It is true that mascots tend to have round-ish faces.. huh? Why’re you looking at me like that?”

: “Me and Akira’re banned from goin’ there, so all we can do is wait here.”

: “No, you two have something different you’ll need to do.”

: “Whaddya mean?”

: “You have to wait inside the Palace. Once that door opens, sneak in and look for some kind of control room. We need to make sure the door can’t close anymore after it’s open.”

: “Ohhh, I get it. Mkay, you can leave that to us!”

: Pay attention to the camera here.

: “I’m sorry it was so sudden.”

: “Oh, it’s not a problem. But as I told you yesterday, Sensei will be returning in about twenty or thirty minutes. So um.. I’m sorry if that causes some anxiety on your part.”

: “That’s why I’m here today, dammit.”

: “What was that?”

: “Oh no, it was nothing!”

: This is one of the only scenes in this game I actually like.

: “So, then… can you, um… get ready here?”

: I like to think that Yusuke is just looking at her like “Holy shit am I glad I’m gay. Dodged a fucking bullet on that one.”

: “Phew, that was tight…”

: “Tight..? No, I’m doing this for art!”

: “Don’t look over here, okay? Hey, your sensei’s coming back soon, right?”

: “Hm.. do you think we could do this somewhere else then? A little more atmosphere would be lovely..”

: “This should be good enough.”

: “But wouldn’t a room with a lock be a bit better?”

: Somewhere in Sumaru City, Lisa tries one last-ditch attempt at getting Tatsuya to love her. “Hey, chinyan?” she asks, as she throws off 14 layers of clothes, “Why don’t we go somewhere.. with a lock?”

: “A lock?”

: “Must a girl say more?”

: “Wha!? But the only one with a lock is.. Sensei’s room..”

: “Then why not there?”

: “I can’t intrude… Besides, I don’t have the key…”

: “It’s okay. That’s why I’m here. I’ll just use this hairpin…”

: “D-Don’t you think it’s cold today?”

: “I suppose so? The sun is starting to set…”

: “Riiight? That’s why a change of location would be nice.. I mean, I’m gonna take it all off.”

: “True.. it might make for a better picture if I can brighten my model’s mood..”

: “Uh-huh! That’s right!”

: “She may even be willing to try out various expressive poses for use in a dynamic composition…”

: “Wh-what kind of poses!?”

: I like to think that he’s just too polite to tell her to fuck off, so he keeps coming up with increasingly harder to deal with situations hoping that she’ll get the hint, and she just won’t.

: “Lady Ann! You have to act! Get back in character!”

: “Let’s gooo… I was just starting to get in the mood.”

: “Wait! If you wander around, Sensei will..”

: “She was sayin’ stuff like, “I’ll just seduce him with my acting,” but that sounds out of her league..”

: Yeah, I’m sure the gay guy will be very receptive to her seduction techniques.

: “Plus we ain’t got one sign this place is gonna open… isn’t Madarame comin’ home soon?”

: “On top of that, even if Mona’s able to unlock the door, how’s he gonna show it to Madarame? And then even if they do show it open, any normal person’d just close it right up again.”

: “Doesn’t that mean we only got a few seconds to get in? To be blunt, won’t it be a miracle if this works?”

: “I wanna think that too, but.. it’s almost time.”

: “That’s…”

: “So the door Mona mentioned is up ahead…”

: “I keep telling you, you can’t…”

: “Oh, umm… Sooo, what is this room?”

: “It’s a storage area for old paintings.”

: “Storage.. hey, Kitagawa-kun.. why don’t we.. do it in here? I won’t be embarrassed if we go somewhere nobody can find us…”

: I feel like I should’ve done a Yaranaika Counter for every time someone asks “Why don’t we do it?”

: “Only Sensei can go in there.”

: “Pleeeease? I wanna be alone with you. Somewhere like, quiet. You know, where we won’t get interrupted.”

: “Is he really going to buy that terrible act!?”

: “Stay focused!”

: “Hm?”

: “Ohhh, it’s just sooo frustrating that my feelings aren’t getting through to you! Kitagawa-kun, do you not like girls like me?”

: “N-no, that’s not true…”

: I hate that you can read this as Yusuke being in the closet, and Ann just picking away at it anyway because she’s clueless.

: “How is that working on him!?”

: “Please? We can continue this.. inside.”

: “S-sure.. I mean, no! We can’t go in there! It’s locked anyway, so…”

: “Fine! This is too embarrassing.. I’m leaving!”

: “But…”

: “Let’s just do it in here! Okay!?”

: “S-Sensei!?”

: “Yusuke?”

: I feel like this is some kind of metaphor for bisexuality or something.

: Not in there! That’s the gay VIP lounge! The bisexual one is down the hall!

: “…It’s off! They seriously did it!”

: Honestly though, how shitty was that lock that a cat could pick it using only a hairpin?

: “Yeah, for real! Let’s go!”

: “Yeah, I’ll be countin’ on you!”

: We are about to fight a mini-boss who can’t even hurt Joker, due to a combination of being overlevelled and having Shiki-Ouji.

: “Yeah.. the real problem’s the fact that we gotta handle this with just the two of us. Anyways, I’ll leave the timing up to you, dude.”

: “You guys ain’t got nothin’ on me! I’m more scared of screwin’ up and havin’ Ann yell at me!”

: Nue mostly uses three attacks: Skull Cracker (single-target physical), Rampage (multi-target physical) and..

: Maeiha, which is a full-party Curse damage spell. Since Shiki-Ouji nulls physical and Curse, Nue is incapable of hurting Joker. You might ask how he took damage, and that’s because..

: I was trying to use Double Shot and missed. Double Shot does two hits for Gun damage on an enemy, and costs HP to use. See how much health Nue lost? That’s from one out of the two hits from Double Shot.

: “Phew.. things’re real tough when it’s just me and you.. it’d be a pain in the as if we got spotted again. Anyways, let’s turn off that security system!”

: “Isn’t this Sayuri? Why are there so many of them?”

: “I have no idea…”

: “Get out!”

: “Sensei, what is the meaning of this?”

: “I suppose I can’t keep quiet now that you’ve seen this.. truth be told, I’m in severe debt. I handmade these Sayuri copies and have been selling them through a special connection of mine.”

: I’d like to talk about this particular line for a minute. In the final script, Madarame is lying about being in debt - he’s actually rich. However, this wasn’t always the case.

: There were apparently several drafts of the script, and there’s three un-used scenes that were meant to play when you picked up the Will Seeds in each dungeon. In fact, the audio for them still plays when you get near a Will Seed room.

: A dataminer managed to find and retrieve Madarame’s Will Seed cutscenes. There’s also an entire set of these for Kamoshida - I’ll post both at the end. The one for Madarame will contain spoilers, so only watch the first part for now.

: Anyway, in the original script, Madarame actually WAS in debt because his paintings wouldn’t sell, and he was only barely making a living as an art professor.

: “But why?”

: “The real Sayuri.. was stolen by one of my pupils long ago. I assume they begrudged my strictness.. that moment was quite a shock for me. Since then, I’ve been mired in a terrible artist’s block.”

: “…”

: “I knew I couldn’t keep that up, so I attempted to recreate the Sayuri a number of times. However, it resulted in nothing more than replicas.. that’s when someone came to buy the paintings, knowing well they weren’t original. It’s all my fault. I couldn’t pay the price of being famous.”

: I’d also like to talk about this just a bit. What Madarame is doing here is based off a highly sensationalized story from the 1930s which is most likely untrue.

: In 1911, an Italian by the name of Vincenzo Peruggia stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in Paris. The official story is that he just kinda walked in dressed like a worker (he had formerly worked at the Louvre), took the painting to a secluded area, and then took it from its frame and wrapped it up before walking out with it.

: He eventually returned to Italy with it, and then tried to either sell it or return it for reward money - it’s not entirely clear what his actual plans were. He claimed that he had done it to repatriate the painting to Italy.

: In 1932, a writer for the Saturday Evening Post claimed that Peruggia stole the painting at the behest of an Argentinian con man who had commissioned multiple forgeries of it from a French art forger. The idea was that he’d sell the forgeries to collectors, claiming that the forgeries were the real Mona Lisa.

: No one’s been able to prove the con man existed, and the source was the reporter saying the con man had told him in private and wouldn’t allow him to publish the story until after his death.

: “As expectations for me rose, it reached a point where I had no choice but to keep making them.”

: “Please don’t…!”

: “Hold on.. something doesn’t add up. If the original got stolen, how did you make copies of it?”

: “I..happened to find a finely detailed photograph of it in an artbook.”

: “So you managed to sell copies of a photo of the original? I’m not sure how this works, but.. don’t people who buy paintings generally have a keen eye for the fine arts? This sounds like a lie to me.”

: If every art website out there plus Twitter counts, then no. No they do not.

: “What would you know!?”

: There’s a guy I saw on Patreon at one point who does nothing but re-draw hentai manga done by other people, and he rakes in like $20,000 a month. Seriously, dude makes six figures plagiarizing porn.

: “Something just doesn’t feel right!”

: “Sayuri? This.. this is the real Sayuri! But you said just a moment ago that it was stolen!”

: “No, it’s nothing of the sort! This painting kept me going… it’s the reason I made it this far! Sensei.. don’t tell me…”

: “It’s fake.. yes, a counterfeit! I heard there was a counterfeit spreading around, so I bought it!”

: “So you’re telling me the actual artist behind the painting bought a counterfeit? That’s pushing it.”

: “You’re lying, Sensei.. please just tell us the truth.”

: “You too?”

: “What!?”

: “I had it set up to deal with some problematic paparazzi, but I never thought it’d come in so handy.”

: “Please, wait! Let’s talk about this!”

: “You can talk all you want to the police.. that includes you, Yusuke.”

: “Lady Ann, let’s run!”

: “Sweet! Now the lasers in the courtyard should be off for good. Well, that’s mission complete! C’mon, let’s get outta here!”

: You can see what Madarame’s shadow looks like in the background.

: “Crap..! Let’s make a run for it!”

: “All right, looks like the security’s totally off! I hope those two managed to get away…”

: “Aaaagh.. Owwwww!”

: “I thought I was gonna die.. hey, will you let go already!?”

: “Who are you all!?”

: “Calm down, Kitagawa-kun! It’s me!”

: “…Takamaki-san? That means you two are.. I don’t recall ever seeing this cat costume before though… what is this place?”

: “We’re inside Madarame’s heart.”

: “Inside.. Sensei’s heart? I’m sorry, Takamaki-san.. but are you sure you’re feeling okay?”

: “She ain’t lyin’. This is what that bastard truly feels. He’s nothin’ but a greed-filled money-grubber.”

: “Enough of this rubbish!”

: “Kitagawa-kun! Didn’t it cross your mind that something wasn’t right about Madarame!?”

: “That’s…”

: “…You may not want to believe it, but this is another reality as viewed through Madarame’s eyes. This is his true nature.”

: “This repulsive world? Just who are all of you!?”

: “I guess you could say… we’re a group that changes the hearts of rotten crooks.”

: “If everything you say is true, then the sensei I know doesn’t exist…”

: “You gotta snap out of it.”

: “Still… he has kept me safe these past ten years. My gratitude for that won’t just disappear.”

: “You’re gonna forgive him!? At this rate you’ll…”

: “Sorry, but we don’t have time to dawdle. The security level’s gone through the roof! We need to get out of here at once!”

: * pant * *pant *

: “..No, it’s all right.”

: There’s actually no encounters between here and where we need to go.

: “Do you recognize it? We were thinking these might be his past pupils or something.”

: “But.. why are there paintings of them here?”

: “Technically, those aren’t actually paintings. They’re the pupils themselves.”

: “Madarame saw 'em as objects, so that’s what they are in here.. oh, and uh.. we found yours too.”

: “…”

: “We’ll talk more later. For now, let’s get out of here.”

: “Huh? Sensei? Is that you? That attire..”

: “Disgusting.”

: “This.. this is all one big lie, isn’t it?”

: “My usual ragged attire is nothing but an act. Besides, a famous person living on that shack? I have another home.. under a mistress’s name, of course.”

: “Hahaha! Don’t make me laugh!”

: “If the Sayuri was stolen, why was it in the storage room? And if you had the real one, why make copies!? If it’s really you, Sensei.. please tell me!”

: “Foolish child. You still don’t see? The painting being stolen was just a false rumor I spread! It was all a perfectly calculated staging!”

: I wanted to post the screenshot of his cut-in anyway because his face looks like that one Flash meme with the “Remember that time you shit your pants, Barry? It was me! I shit your pants!” thing.

: “What do you mean!?”

: “Let me see… how does this sound?”

: “Haha! How that’s for preferential treatment!? Art snobs’ll eat it up, and pay good cash at that!”

: “No!”

: “The value of art is purely illusion. What’s the matter with providing that illusion to eager customers? Though I doubt a brat like you would ever come up with such a brilliant scheme!”

: “You keep goin’ on and on about money this, money that.. no wonder you ended up with this disgusting museum!”

: “You’re supposed to be an artist, right!? Aren’t you ashamed of plagiarizing other people’s work!?”

: “Art is nothing but a tool… a tool to gain money and fame! You helped me greatly as well, Yusuke.”

: “God.. pisses me off.. that’s your teacher.”

: “But what about the people who believe in you? Who think you’re a master artist!?”

: “I’ll tell you this alone, Yusuke. If you wish to succeed in this world, I’d advise you don’t rise against me. Do you believe anyone could find success with my objection holding them down? Hahahahaha!”

: I’m not entirely sure this conversation makes any sense. Madarame’s response has nothing to do with the question, and it feels like he’s in an entirely separate conversation with someone who isn’t here.

: “To think I was under the care of this wretched man!”

: “You thought I took you in out of the goodness in my heart? Plucking talented, yet troubled artists allows me to find promising pupils and take their ideas.. after all, it’s much easier to steal the futures of children who can’t fight back.”

: “I can’t believe this…”

: “Livestock are killed for their hide and meat! This is no different, you fool! …But I tire of this little chat. It’s time that I -”

: “You are unforgivable.”

: “Hm?”

: “It doesn’t matter who you are… I won’t forgive you!”

: “So, you repay my keeping you around for all these years with ingratitude? You damn brat! Men! Dispose of these thieves!”

: “Huh?”

: “It seems the truth is stranger than fiction, hm?”

: “Kitagawa-kun?”

: “I wanted to believe it wasn’t true… I had clouded my vision for so long.”

: I didn’t even realize I captured this, but boy does this sure make it seem like Yusuke is gay and in the closet.

: Naturally, being heavily modeled on Goemon Ishikawa from Lupin III, Yusuke’s Persona is Goemon.

: Holy shit that face. He looks like the main character of SMT 4 Apocalypse.

: We get to fight an Ippon-Datara and four tengus - I forget if these are Koppa Tengu or Kurama Tengu. Either way.

: Yusuke is entirely Ice-based, with a side of physical skills and buffs/debuffs. He’s better than Morgana.. except for one tiny little problem. The rest of the party is level 19.. and Yusuke is 15.

: Ann melts the Tengus with Maragi, which does a metric shitload of damage because of how overlevelled we are. Seriously, it nearly takes them out in one hit.

: Meanwhile, Akira uses Double Shot and finally gets it to connect after like three attempts, wiping out half of Ippon-Datara’s HP in one go.

: “Yusuke, you’ve just thrown your bright future down the drain. I’ll destroy every chance you’ve ever had of becoming an artist!”

: “Madarame!”

: “You’ll forever rue the day you dared defy me.”

: No, Yusuke, you’re swooning the wrong way to fall into Joker’s arms. You want the other way.

: “Why can’t I move!?”

: “Listen, you’re totally drained. You can’t do much, even if you wanted to!”

: “What a disgrace I am!”

: “C’mon, just listen to her.”

: “I’m no fool. Strange people have been coming by for years, and the plagiarism was an everyday affair. But.. who would want to admit that the man they owed their life to was doing such terrible things?”

: “Why didn’t you leave, Kitagawa-kun?”

: “Well, he is the one who painted the Sayuri. On top of that, I owe him a great debt..”

: “You mean 'cause he raised you?”

: “I… never knew my father. I was told my mother raised me by herself, but she died in an accident when I was three. That’s when Sensei took me in. I heard he helped my mother while she was still alive.”

: “Heard…?”

: “To be honest, I don’t remember much about my mother either. I did everything I could for Sensei. I thought of him as a father.. but he changed.”

: “To think he would treat the Sayuri, the very foundation of his art, like that!”

: “…A lot’s happened to you, huh?”

: “When you had mentioned plagiarism, deep down I knew you were right. That’s why I so vehemently denied you.. I was simply running from the truth. I’m sorry.”

: “I’m grateful for the chance to face what I have been denying all this time.”

: “You’re way too serious, man. That’s why you’re always gettin’ stuck in your own head. Look at me! I just go with the flow.”

: “For real.”

: “What are you going to do now?”

: “I don’t know..”

: “We can’t help the fact that Madarame’s gone and changed. But.. we can change his heart. We’ll make him pay for his crimes.”

: “That reminds me, you mentioned something about that ‘change of heart’ earlier…”

: “Have you heard the rumors? The ones about the Phantom Thieves that steal hearts?”

: Yusuke just stares at him and goes “You mean John Persona?”

: “Oh, crap!”

: “We’ll talk later! We need to scram!”

: It’s only what, four groups of shadows? The party could probably destroy them even with only Ann and Joker fighting.

: “When did my clothes change?”

: “And because of that, this PE teacher’s had a change of heart… the Phantom Thieves who steal hearts.. to think they truly exist.”

: Yusuke just looks at him, confused, and goes “No but seriously, which one of you is John Persona?”

: “Indeed. I have to believe your words. Especially after seeing a world like that.. so your plan with Madarame-sensei - with Madarame - is to force a change of heart, correct?”

: He then looks at Joker and is like “So am I John Persona now? Or is it Yusuke Persona, or what? Do I have to get my name legally changed?”

: “Had I faced reality sooner, this may have been avoided. I must put an end to this for the sake of the others whose futures as artists were robbed, as well.”

: “That.. is the most civil thing I can do for the man who was.. in some manner, my father.”

: “…Civil, huh.”

: “Sounds fine to me. We’re gonna deal with Madarame anyways.”

: “He may have a mental shutdown if we screw up. We have ways to prevent that, but they aren’t fail-safe. Remember how we mentioned this on our way here?”

: “Madarame is a man who has the art world under his thumb. He has connections to many organizations. If someone like me raises my voice, it’ll only be snubbed out… we have no option but this.”

: “Kitagawa-kun..”

: “It’s a deal then.”

: “We have a new member in the Phantom Thieves now! I hope we get along, Yusuke!”

: “You better not slow us down.”

: “I’ll do my best.”

: “Thank you. I ask that you coach me well.”

: “Oh, that reminds me.. I wonder what’s going on with the real Madarame. Yusuke and I were in a pretty tight situation…”

: “Actually, I contacted him before we came here. He believes that I continued pursuing Takamaki-san. And, just as you all explained, it appears he knows nothing about his Shadow.”

: “What did he say?”

: “He was complaining to the security company how they couldn’t even catch one high school girl. However, he’s still furious about it, and said that he’s going to take legal action against everyone.”

: “Talk about bein’ completely on guard…”

: “Legal action.. he’s acting way too desperate. Maybe he still has more secrets.”

: “If he were to act, it’d be after the exhibit is over. Any scandal during the show would be his loss.”

: “Right when I think the talk about being a nude model is over, this happens!?”

: “We’ll have to force a change of heart before then, if we’re to dodge this ‘legal action’ thing. Looks like our plan must be accomplished while the exhibit is still open!”

: “By the way… what is this?”

: “Huh? A cat.”

: “But it’s talking.”

: “You have a problem with that?!”

: “No, not really.”

: “He’s just on a different wavelength than other people.”

: “I bet he got that idea from a ‘black cat’…”

: “Oh! I didn’t bring any money.”

: “…Never mind. He’s just weird.”

: Before Joker goes to bed, we make sure to water the plant and finish watching Beverly Hills on the TV. Next time, we’ll spend a day dicking around before we actually finish Madarame’s Palace. I’ll probably see if I can manage to grind 300,000 yen.

: Here’s those two unused content videos I mentioned. They use a couple of default models, and in Madarame’s case use his old man portrait instead of making a new one.

Unused Kamoshida Memories - Persona 5 Royal

Unused Madarame Memories - Persona 5 Royal

[LaZodiac]

@Timrod

I hate that you can read this as Yusuke being in the closet, and Ann just picking away at it anyway because she’s clueless.

Mona isn’t the only one having a hard time getting a door open, I see.

@Timrod

Oooh, I get it now. Fox is the best character.

[Timrod]

@andromeda

It’s just extremely disappointing that a lot of the characters accidentally come off as queer coded even though the game wants to desperately convince us that, no, they are straight and we don’t have to worry. Like I just want the protag to be as queer as I am but we’ll never get that in P5 despite how much it would’ve made sense for Yusuke to be interested in Akira because of how he comes off, and for Ann to be seen as in love with Shiho. I wish Yusuke was gay, or at least a little bicurious.

Yeah. I think he’d be a more interesting character if he was outright gay - or at least, if his s-link was about Joker getting him out of the closet and into his arms (or optionally, someone else’s arms if you choose to be straight). Instead, we got something that I honestly remember none of even though I did the 100% route in the base game.

@LaZodiac

Oooh, I get it now. Fox is the best character.

You have no idea how many shots I had to throw out because for about half the frames his face is on screen he looks like a total doof.

[LaZodiac]

@Timrod

You have no idea how many shots I had to throw out because for about half the frames his face is on screen he looks like a total doof.

The curse of between-frames strikes once more v_v

[andromeda]

@Timrod

I loved Yusuke’s transformation when I played the OG P5, it was raw as hell. His expression here is also amazing - makes me wish they kept up with the whole ‘aggressive’ tone that Yusuke’s transformation had. Instead, he just… becomes weirdo, I guess.

@Timrod

: Here’s those two unused content videos I mentioned. They use a couple of default models, and in Madarame’s case use his old man portrait instead of making a new one.

I had no idea these existed, but man. It really does feel like a ‘what could have been scenario’.

Watching the videos, it kind of makes me wish that they were in the game but perhaps presented better than being part of something that you have to find as a collectible or something? It just feels like they give the villains a lot of character (not as in it forgives them) and it would’ve been cool! That Kamoshida one especially, because it grounds his character and makes him even more despicable.

[SpammyV]

Yeah with the whole “We’re gonna break into people’s minds” plot and the idea that they’ve got security around their memories I thought this is where the game would already be going. Not that it would forgive them, but at least to me it’d be more interested to show the little steps and unresolved issues that twisted them. Not just break into their mind but steal those memories of who they used to be.

Also imagining Yusuke’s first mission being “Okay I need you to pick up some horse steroids from Tae. Tell her you’re here to pick up the order for John Persona. You’re John Persona. If she comes on too strong hit her with this super soaker.”

[Timrod]

Click Here for Update 21

: It’s Sunday, and I think you all know what that means.

: This week, we get Onsen Aojiru, which is absolutely just Gamer Girl Bath Water.

: With our grips sipped, it’s time to buy Yusuke some equipment.

: From what I remember, Yusuke is the best gunner in the game - he uses assault rifles, which have hefty magazine sizes but aren’t random like Ann’s SMGs. The downside is their low accuracy.

: I also realized I forgot to do a thing that happened a few updates ago, so let’s do that now.

: “You just gotta show us the Persona we ask for!”

: “First off, we would like for you to bring us a Jack Frost.”

: “That’s too easy, Justine! It should be a challenge. Hmm.. I want it to have Mabufu too! You got that, inmate? Bring us a Jack Frost with Mabufu.”

: If you’ve played Persona 3 and Persona 4, you’ll remember Elizabeth/Margaret’s social links. Caroline and Justine’s work exactly the same way - they want to see a Persona with specific skills on it.

: Because this does not take time to do, most people opt to do it on the last day: this is because a lot of their requests require transferring skills from Personas that have levelled up several times, and the easiest way to do that is at the end when you have all or most of the confidants maxed out.

: We could actually do this in two ways. We could just fuse a Jack Frost, who will automatically learn Mabufu because of the bonus experience from Morgana’s confidant, or we could get one in Madarame’s dungeon and level it up manually.

: We can meet Ryuji in the arcade in Shibuya. I actually found out that the one arcade we had in Connecticut (which was attached to a mini-golf place that closed down years ago) just got a new owner. I might go there and try it someday.

: “You wanna grab some ramen? I’ll show you my go-to place. It’s kinda far, but it’s totally worth. The flavor’s outta this world.”

: We now have access to Ogikubo, which is Ryuji’s special hangout spot.

: “This shit’s the best, man! Ramen is life! Light soup like this really gets your body goin’ again after a good run, y’know. We used to come all the way out here after practice and…”

: “Uh, I guess that’s all in the past. By the way, I’ve seen Nakaoka around a few times.. but for some reason it don’t look like he’s gettin’ along with the others.”

: You might be asking who Nakaoka is. He’s one of the ex-track team people we met way back when we did Rank 3 of Ryuji’s confidant.

: “Yeah… kinda. I’ve been thinkin’ about what he said.. how the whole track team was puttin’ up with Kamoshida’s shit.. and how I effed it all up for 'em. I think he was right.”

: “They don’t even got a club room anymore, so they’ve been storin’ all their stuff behind the gym. They can’t use any school gear either, so they just run laps around the block for practice.”

: “There ain’t really a place for outcasts like that. I should know that better than anyone.. It’s good they’re keepin’ their heads low now though. I don’t want ‘em endin’ up like me.”

: “Y’know what? You’re right. I guess now that I’m thinkin’ about it, tryin’ to fit in is a real pain in the ass. I mean, I’d never’ve met you guys if I wasn’t an outcast, right? So, uh.. it’s all good.”

: Ryuji gives us a new ability, which is only kind of useful but helps in situations like farming Shiki-Ouji (which I am definitely going to do more of).

: “…I just hope there’s something I can do to help those track guys. Though it’d probably mess ‘em up if I tried to butt in. Oh yeah, we still gotta find a new spot for our trainin’.”

: “Hm.. I’ll think about it. No slackin’ off 'til then, mkay?”

: Somehow, there’s no phone call, so we just go right to the bathhouse for five points to charm.

: “Madarame was talking to a lawyer. I suppose he’s serious about suing. I think we should advance our plans. Why don’t we go to the Palace today?”

: I rarely do this, but this time I go ahead and commit to the dungeon after school - it’s on the schedule anyway.

: “Artists with that good of an eye are rare in Japan. I wonder if he has synesthesia. Yes, regarding synesthesia.. one of many English terms that come from Greek root words.”

: “Haven’t you heard of it? It’s a condition where your senses can cross over each other, like seeing music as color.”

: “There are all kinds of varieties, though some sense combinations are more common than others. We call people who experience this phenomenon ‘synesthetes’.”

: I’m not gonna lie, I read that at “synth-testes” the first time I read it, which sounds like something you’d hear in a sci-fi novel where they build a giant robotic dick to fight crime.

: “Mr. Kurusu. You were staring off into space, weren’t you? Well, your number’s up. The root words of synesthesia are “syn” and “aisthesis”. What do they mean?”

: “She wants to know what the root words mean..? It’s all Greek to me, but I can give it a try.. here, let’s think about this. It’ll be easier if we put our heads together.”

: “Okay, so.. let’s start with ‘syn’. I think that’s in a lot of other words, too. Like.. synergy, and synchronicity, and synthesis. If we think about what those words have in common, then maybe ‘syn’ means..”

: I somehow forgot to capture the answer, but it’s “together”.

: “That’s it! ‘Syn’ means ‘together,’ or a combination of something. And ‘aisthesis’, huh? That’s a little like the word aesthetics. I wonder if it means..”

: “Yeah! That’s it! Sounds like we know the definitions of the root words. So that means the full word basically means…”

: “Yeah, that’s it! Phew.. we really gotta stay on our toes in this class. I could use a snack after all that brain power.. let’s get a treat after this!”

: Dammit cat, no. You’re not getting the goddamn dry food, stop sitting outside the cabinet and meowing. The vet says you’re fat.

: “You’ve been studying! Unfortunately, synesthesia’s something you have to be born with.. you can’t learn it.”

: I’d almost argue you can. Let me ask you this: what does purple taste like? What about green? Orange? Not everyone is going to have the same answer, but I’m willing to bet everyone has an answer.

: In order: that artificial grape flavor they use in Life Savers, Asparagus, and either the Mexicoke version of Fanta (the kind with actual sugar in it that comes in a glass bottle) or the Turkish knockoff of it I got at a bodega one time.

: “Some of the geniuses over the course of history have had synesthesia. The composer Franz Liszt instructed his orchestra to play the color purple.”

: While I don’t know exactly what purple would sound like, I have a pretty good idea - it’s one of the lower notes on a French horn.

: “The poet Arthur Rimbaud was also said to see colors in letters. Seeing colors in sounds and letters, and feeling shapes in flavors and numbers.. geniuses and common people see the world differently. Were you able to understand that?”

: “Synesthesia, huh.. that’s fascinating. Although, the reason Madarame sees the world differently is because of his distorted desires.”

: There’s a segment I’m going to skip entirely, because it’s a recap of things we already know - like what a Palace is.

: “It has to be Kitsune. You know, with that kitsune mask and everything.”

: “Hell yeah. That really leaves an impression.”

: “Are you talking about me?”

: “What do you want your name over here to be?”

: “I’d say ‘Da Vinci’.”

: “Nope. Well, you’ve got that mask like Ann said.. and then there’s that weird tail.. all right! You’re Abura-age!”

: This is a kind of nonsensical culture reference that will take me a minute to explain.

: Abura-age is a kind of thin, deep-fried tofu. It’s primarily used in a dish called Inari-zushi, which is vinegar-soaked rice wrapped in abura-age.

: The Japanese harvest deity is a fox called Inari, which has shrines everywhere: this is why the fox is a thing in Persona 4. The legend is that foxes like deep-fried mice, only that’d be gross so people made offerings of Inari-Zushi instead.

: This is also why you can ask Tamamo for fried tofu in Monster Girl Quest in the infamous “thin fried tofu/touch fluffy tail” scene. Let me LP Monster Girl Quest, you cowards!

: Anyway, there’s one character who will repeatedly call Yusuke “Inari” so that’s why.

: “Snrk…”

: “Very well.”

: “He’s agreed to it!?”

: “It’s decided then! Abura-age!”

: “Nuh-uh! Not happening! Do you have any ideas, Joker?”

: Joker immediately wraps his arm around Yusuke’s shoulder and goes “Boyfriend”.

: “Ohh… just keep it literal, huh? Sounds good to me.”

: “What do you think, Fox?”

: “It’s acceptable.”

: “It’s set then. Let’s go.”

: I had to take my cat to the vet today, and basically had to wrestle him into his carrier because he started running the second I brought it out. The entire time, I was just picturing Morgana in the pose my cat was in, legs splayed out as far as they’d go to stop me putting him in the carrier.

: Anyway, we can pick our party now.

: By default, the game puts Joker alone, so I take Ryuji, Ann, and Yusuke.

: I did a very brief run that ended in a reset because I ran into another Regent, forgetting that you can just compendium summon them, and couldn’t capture it because I already had one. So instead, I fuse the nightmare of everyone who has ever played Nocturne, using Mokoi and Regent.

New Persona: Matador

Origin: Spain

First Appearance: Shin Megami Tensei II

Not an actual mythological figure so much as a cultural one. Name of the performers in bullfighting events in Spain who ultimately kill the bull, having one of the riskiest and most life-threatening jobs of all the performers. Nocturne re-imagined him as a Spanish equivalent of the Reaper.

: Regent lets us choose a few extra options for traits - I picked Mighty Gaze, because Regent also comes with every basic multi-target spell except Mafrei. I wind up giving him Maragi, Mabufu, Maeiha and Makouha (bless damage).

: We start back at the room before the barrier.

: “* sigh * Thanks to all my hard work..”

: “..What do you mean by that?”

: “Don’t worry about that! C’mon, let’s keep going!”

: Not far past where the barrier was, we find the second map.

: “Ooh, do you think that could be another pamphlet? Let’s take it with us, Joker!”

: “Now we can use it to figure out where the Treasure is, right?”

: “I suspect it’s in the innermost point of this place. If that’s the case…”

: “Hm, we will need to pass through the lounge and the gallery in order to reach it..”

: “The deeper in we go, the tighter security’s going to be. We need to advance carefully, okay?”

: This is another laser grid puzzle, which is mostly just there to force you into some new encounters.

: One of those is Onmoraki. Never let these fuckers get a turn. They will always open with a spell that causes Fear. Fear makes anyone hit with it randomly run away from battle, meaning they won’t get EXP.

: The other is Jack Frost. Ideally, you probably don’t want Ann in your party for this room, since you can switch on the fly and I believe this is the only room in which Jack Frost can spawn.

: This is because they can spam Mabufu (which she’s weak to) and get an extra press turn to spam it again.

: Past the laser room is a box with nothing good in it, and then…

: “His stance conveys the notion that he is no ordinary foe.”

: “I think the control room’s behind him. He’s probably guarding it to make sure nobody gets too close. However, we’ll need to disarm the security if we want to ensure we have a safe infiltration route. Forcing our way through seems to be our only option…”

: And now we’ve got a mini-boss battle against a Kurama Tengu and two Koppa Tengu.

: Ann nearly kills the two Koppa Tengu in one go. This was kind of a waste.

: As I found out, Matador does like 200 damage with Makouha, and the Koppa Tengu are weak to Bless damage. This would’ve wiped them in one hit.

: We get enough EXP to get Yusuke to level 16, as well as a skill card. If you’ve read the Persona 1 or Innocent Sin LPs, you’ll know all about these - you can use them to make a Persona learn new abilities.. but only on Joker’s Persona.

: “It really was on a totally different level from the other enemies though..”

: “Hm, he dropped some sort of card.”

: Yusuke’s thing, once we establish his confidant, is that he can duplicate skill cards. It takes time and blank skill cards, and it’s pretty useless because we can’t do anything crazy with it like the old 5-Megidolaon strategy in Persona 1.

: The security room the tengus were guarding has a locked box on one side with a new sword for Yusuke. This is why I didn’t bother getting him one at Iwai’s.

: God dammit.

: “Ugh, another one…?”

: “We’ll just have to look for someone else who might know it..”

: This shutter, by the way, is right outside the security room. I’m pretty sure you can’t miss the cutscene trigger, because it’s in the hallway you’d need to take to go back to the laser room.

: “Maybe.. his shoe size?”

: “Yo, Fox. You know that bastard’s shoe size?”

: “Unfortunately, I have never heard him mention it. Are we sure that is the proper password..?”

: “Madarame’s feet.. what do you think that could mean..?”

: It means we need to go back to the statue near the barrier control room.

: Unfortunately, there’s an encounter with a Nue and two Onmoraki on the way.

: Joker gets inflicted with Fear, which sucks.

: And then this happens, because I forgot to equip Shiki-Ouji after farming him a bunch the last time we were here.

: By the time I got the situation under control, Joker was almost dead.

: There’s a Shiki-Ouji who patrols right in front of the statue, so you’re probably going to have to take him out to do this. I already did it on the way in.

: “Pffft! He’s really puffin’ his chest out here, ain’t he…?”

: “Hold on a moment… could this be the spot of ‘Madarame’s feet’ that the security guard mentioned?”

: “It’s at his feet… oh, right! But isn’t the password supposed to be a number of some kind?”

: “Hm, I do believe there are numbers here though.. ‘one’ ray of hope stands ‘alone’ with ‘two adept hands’. ‘None’ shall match him. That means..”

: “Yeah, that must be it!”

: “Sweet! Let’s head back and shut down the security!”

: On the way back, I hit the other encounter where that Nue was. Inugami is another annoying demon - they’re immune to guns.

: I’ll be honest, I wasn’t planning on getting either Inugami or Jack Frost - Inugami is Hanged Man, and we won’t be going anywhere near Iwai’s confidant until July.

: Ann killed the Jack Frost in one hit, so I had to negotiate with the Inugami. This was probably for the better, seeing as we’ll need to fuse a Jack Frost later anyway.

New Persona: Inugami

Origin: Japan

First Appearance: Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne

Japanese animal spirit (usually a dog, hence the “inu”, but can also be raccoons, weasels, wolves and other similar animals). Often associated with Onmyo mages, and capable of possessing humans. SMT Imagine’s entry states that they were once a thing that was checked for during marriages, because once an inugami possesses a family, they won’t leave it.

: I should note that the skill list is from the base game - I believe it was changed in Royal, but I tossed Inugami before I realized this.

: There’s a locked chest we couldn’t get to in the laser room which has a Bead Chain in it - these restore full HP to the entire party.

: “Indeed. It bears such a bizarre texture as well. It’s as though I could simply slip inside..”

: “Wh-What the-!?”

: “M-My hand.. it actually entered the painting…”

: “So we can go inside of it…? Well, I don’t see any other path for us to take. Let’s give it a try!”

: “What the heck was that…!?”

: “We’re probably just hearing Madarame’s thoughts. There’s no need to panic.”

: “Madarame…”

: “Hm… so this space is not merely one, but a multitude of paintings.”

: “You tellin’ me they’re all connected? Which one goes where?”

: “That, we will have to continue walking to find out.”

: “Hey Joker, can’t you spot the connections with your skills?”

: “The one who has sullied the very nature of art itself has no right to accuse us of such a thing..!”

: “Save your emotions for later. We have to keep moving!”

: There’s a vent here we can use to progress, and a kind of interesting dialog that happens inside.

: The vent opens up into a disappointingly huge room that is really just a hallway - there’s a bunch of screens here and absolutely nothing hidden behind them.

: “There is something off about these though…”

: “Why don’t we go take a closer look?”

: “Ain’t this just like last time? Y’know, with the secret passage inside and everything.”

: “Hm… it looks like these ones are all completely different.”

: “There are even frames with no paintings at all…”

: This game just loves repeating itself.

: “That is strange.. but we don’t have a choice. Let’s go, Joker.”

: “So he’s gonna blame the world for his declinin’ skill? Heh, that bastard never had any real talent to begin with!”

: “Huh!? Even if that’s true, that doesn’t give you the right to be deceiving people!”

: This painting is the only one with an actual trick to it. The trick is that there’s two exits - one from going through the Torii gate, and one from going to the right. We want to go through the gate.

: “What the heck? He’s basically saying he’s jealous of young talent… look at me! I was turned into a cat, but I’m still fighting. Age isn’t a valid excuse.”

: You can go two ways in the jungle painting - the right side (rather than going up) takes you to a button.

: “Look! Another painting!”

: “So passing through one hidden route leads to the formation of another… what an elaborate ruse. It’s highly likely there is a new path through the paintings. We should investigate, Joker.”

: “So they’re not connected exactly as they seem.. we’ll have to keep trying until we find the right way.”

: I could’ve gone back through the jungle on the left, but going to anywhere that would take you to an empty frame sends you back to the camels.

: “So he’s usin’ all those pretty words, but he’s basically sayin’ people are like steppin’ stones. That’s just like what he did to all those kids - crushed 'em for his ‘art’! What a piece of shit!”

: Game, I feel like maybe we’ve heard this twice already.

: This kicks us out of the painting, but there’s a reason I wanted to do this - there’s stealables down here.

: Oh, and a Shiki-Ouji spawn. I should mention I still haven’t finished recording this day as I write this, mostly because I farmed a LOT of money at the end - something like 370,000 yen, all off Shiki-Ouji.

: Instead of running into the octopus, we instead want to go down.

: This puts us by another button we can use to open the last painting.

: Unfortunately, we can’t go back through here, so we have to go all the way down and start over. The order is Desert → Mountain (going through the gate) → Jungle (climbing the rock) and then to the final painting.

: “So running your atelier out of a shabby, run-down shack was simply an act after all… how foolish I was to have been deceived for so long…”

: “Fox…”

: “How despicable.. we have encountered so many of his paintings, yet not once did he mention a love for art. These are no ‘paintings’… they are just meaningless self-assertions placed into picture frames!”

: “I’m excited to see how the change of heart alters him. Now, let’s hurry!”

: The second you walk into this box maze, you can hear a will seed room.

: Before we do that, there’s another female shadow in this room, which I believe is unique to this particular room.

: I had to spend some SP on this fight because of the Inugami, but once I did..

Returning Persona: Ame-no-Uzume

Origin: Japan

First Appearance: Shin Megami Tensei I

Shinto goddess of dawn and revelry. Lured Amaterasu out of a cave.

: Ame-no-Uzume is good for exactly one thing, and that thing is lightning - she can cast Mazio for just over what a regular Zio would cost.

: The will seed door is accessed by going through a giant… is this a vent? I’m not entirely sure what this is.

: You can then drop down to where the room is..

: Only it’s barred, so we have to find a button to open it.

: The button is at the top of a very finicky grappling hook point on the other side of the room.

: “There’s so much gold…! It’s hurting my eyes…”

: “The distortion is especially bad here. It’s barely holding up. Plus, it’s not even on our map…”

: “So we must ascertain the truth through our eyes alone.”

: Welcome to the MC Escher room, where we have to do a teleporter maze. I remember the old days when “teleporter maze” meant “better break out the guide, fucker” but this one’s super simple.

: “So, like, which way are we supposed to go? I didn’t see any other ways forward, did you?”

: “I see. So it was camouflaged. We may have been trapped in here for eternity had you not noticed that.”

: The game’s kind of inconsistent about how it handles entry and exit from the palaces. We saw Yusuke and Ann just kinda fall in near the barrier point, and presumably there’s a way to exit from the app while in a palace that we just never see. It seems like it’d be hard to get stuck forever.

: “Ooh! Nice work, Skull! You did it!”

: “Uh, sure… you know I just got lucky, right?”

: There’s a chest up here with an accessory in it. Any “black” items are used for this game’s equivalent of returning Personas - the same way we did in Persona 1 and Innocent Sin.

: “It’s probably some kind of illusion. We’re in a Palace, after all. Well, I guess the painting itself might be correct though.”

: “You say ‘correct’ but aren’t they all counterfeit? Although maybe the real one’s here too…”

: This part, and the next few, are kind of weirdly designed. The idea is we’re supposed to look for the real Sayuri, which will open up the next teleporter. You might think that what you’re supposed to do is go to the exit nearest the real Sayuri, but no - you have to actually confirm it’s real first.

: “Isn’t that a fake? I mean, this is Madarame’s Palace…”

: “There are obvious differences if you look closely. It shouldn’t be too difficult to tell them apart.”

: “Yeah, maybe it’s obvious for you… what do you think, Joker?”

: This one’s the fake - the real Sayuri is red, not blue.

: “Indeed, this is a fake. The real Sayuri is cloaked in vibrant crimson garments.”

: “O-Oh, right.. now that you mention it..”

: The thing is, there’s something they could’ve done here that would’ve made more sense, but they didn’t. We’ll see what that is when we get to the boss fight.

: “Some fools would pay a fortune and never know it was a fake.. but you are quite impressive, Joker.”

: “…I’m thinkin’ I might be one of those fools.”

: I try going in the door near the real Sayuri, but it just warps you back to the start.

: “That is correct. It seems you have quite the eye for detail, Joker.”

: “For real…? That’s amazin’…”

: “The vibrant crimson clothes, her beautiful hair, the sublime balance between subject and background.. this may only be an illusion, but it is without a doubt a spitting image of the true Sayuri.”

: Hitting the real one causes it to turn into a spark..

: Which turns the door we’re supposed to go through orange, because Portal.

: He’s incredibly wrong, but I can’t explain why until the boss fight. It has to do with the painting.

: “And here, just as in reality, he entraps those who cannot see through his lying facade..”

: “You might be right.. no wonder the distortion is so strong here.”

: “Hey, so… what does that mean?”

: That boy needs therapy. Psychosomatic.

: “I think it means finding the real Sayuri should break through the distortion and open a path.”

: “So do we just gotta check all of 'em?”

: “Why would we do that…? Let’s just look for the real one.. assuming we can differentiate it.”

: Both of the paintings on this platform are fake - there’s no cherry branch behind her head.

: The real one is obvious - it’s the only one with a branch.

: The hidden room on the first platform has an SP recovery item. What I probably should’ve done is burn all of the SP items in this dungeon, since SP will largely stop being a concern after this.

: The next room has four paintings, but if you look, you can probably figure out where the real one is (the third one from the left is a convincing fake).

: The real one is, of course, hidden because Madarame. I think we get it already, game. This feels a lot more like something you’d see in Paper Mario.

: The new orange portal is the one down the stairs and to the right of where Joker is.

: “Just be careful, okay? The distortion is growing much stronger the deeper we go..”

: Down the stairs is a blank skill card, which we can either give to Yusuke to duplicate a card, or use in returning a Persona. I had to use it to return a Persona, because unfortunately there’s no way to just delete a Persona and I kind of fucked up when doing fusion a little. We’ll see that later.

: “Then is the Treasure behind him?”

: “It’s kinda hard to tell from here. Let’s get a closer look!”

: “Doesn’t it look a bit hazy?”

: "For the time being. Once we send the card and make Madarame aware it’ll be stolen, it’ll materialize like ‘Yoohoo!’ "

: I don’t know what kind of fridge Morgana has if Yoohoo just materalizes in it. I can’t believe they still make that stuff - I’ve never actually had it, but I know kids used to bring it to school for lunch when I was in middle school.

: “I wonder what form it will take..”

: “Who knows? Bet it’s something like a self-portrait.”

: “The source of what distorted Madarame’s reality this much..”

: “So what now? Think it’s safe to say we got our route set?”

: “Hmm.. we know where the Treasure is, but I’m not sure that we’ve necessarily secured the route..”

: “Huh? Why’s that?”

: “You must be talking about the infrared lasers surrounding it.”

: “That, and the outer perimeter is swarming with guards. Forcing our way through will be difficult.”

: Morgana fails to realize that the entire party is nearly level 20 at this point, and will be 21 by the time I leave the museum (except Yusuke). The boss is level 17.

: “So we’ll need to find a way to steal it too.. this is tougher than it was with Kamoshida..”

: “We just have to make one final push. Let’s check this floor!”

: “Hm.. could this also be..? Hey, someone!”

: “Yes, and the infrared lasers remained active even during the power outage.”

: “So we’ll only be able to turn the power off in there for a few seconds..”

: “Wait a second.. arent’ those guards that just ran out headed this way!? What else should we try? We might be in trouble if we don’t hurry…”

: “The heck? There was no point in even comin’ here then!”

: “Hm, it seems disabling the infrared lasers is not within the realm of possibility for us.”

: “All right!”

: “Now there are more places we can explore..”

: This is Makami. We ABSOLUTELY NEED a Makami or it will be a permafuck - Makami is the only Temperance Persona we can get right now, and we need that for an upcoming confidant.

: Unfortunately, I mis-read the weakness chart. Makami is not weak to fire, Makami is weak to lightning.

: Makami is also a “tough guy” demon like Shiki-Ouji and Berith, where they won’t negotiate until their HP is below a certain level.

: Unfortunately, I was in a bad spot - after the Maragi from Ann, they were too high on HP to negotiate with after being knocked down, but too low to survive another knockdown. I had to kill them.

: “All we really managed to do was open the shutters.”

: “On top of that, we can only turn the lights off briefly, while the lasers remain unaffected.”

: “Oh well.. guess we just gotta go see what’s past those shutters.”

: The last Will Seed is here, and we definitely want it - not only for the SP recovery, but also because the accessory it makes is kind of amazing.

: The Zen Outfit is a really good armor that boosts Agility by 3. I equip it on Yusuke because he has the lowest agility.

: The vent also leads to the grappling point we can use to get to the Will Seed. I went to check the archive LP because I forget how this room originally worked before the grappling hook.

: In the original game, there was a whole room up here with a couple of Shiki-Oujis in it. I wish it was still here, because that would’ve made the grind a lot faster.

: Madarame’s Palace as a whole was actually nerfed pretty significantly from the base game.

: Arahabaki here is weak to Nuclear, so this fight is basically a Shiki-Ouji wth more HP: use Frei, use an All-Out, use Frei again, repeat until dead.

: It uses a move that causes Brainwash, which is this game’s equivalent of Charm.

: Fortunately, Joker has like a 50% chance of just outright removing it because of Maruki’s confidant ability.

: The entire party is now level 20.

: The Crystal of Vanity is actually a pretty great accessory early on, as it nulls any weaknesses the user has. All of our party members will eventually have their weaknesses mitigated via abilities, but for now it’s pretty good for boss fights.

: We then have to go all the way around to reach this button, which opens a door to progress.

: On the other side, I almost immediately run into two Makami and a Nue. We’re actually high enough level that we could get Nue as a Persona - Nue is level 20 - but he’s Moon arcana.

New Persona: Makami

Origin: Japan

First Appearance: Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne

Japanese wolf god who protects the good and punishes evil. Known for eating people. Often drawn on prayer boards, where it is believed to protect against fire and thieves - possibly in exchange for crops. “Makami” is a romanization of its actual name, Oguchi-no-Magami.

: Magami isn’t as good at nuclear damage as Shiisaa - it doesn’t have the passive Shiisaa does that reduces the cost of nuclear spells. However, this means we can get rid of Shiisaa entirely.

: This is also the last of the four arcana we need for upcoming confidants: Emperor, Justice, Councillor and Temperance.

: “No, it is most likely where all of the mechanisms in the exhibition hall are controlled from. Given the number of hanging works, it would make sense to have a room dedicated to controlling them.”

: “The observational skills of an artist are out of this world.”

: “It looks like Fox’s deduction was on point!”

: “Oh, look! There aren’t any lasers above it!”

: “This is quite a large hole in their security.. but what do we do? Jump down to retrieve it?”

: “We wouldn’t be able to get out if we did that though. Look up.”

: “Didn’t we see something earlier that looked like it could be a set of controls for that crane? Let’s go back and check it out!”

: “Do you plan on descending on that hook? Would they not spot you the moment you were lowered down?”

: “No… not necessarily. There’s something I can do to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

: “Exactly! That’s our Joker!”

: “Oh right.. we were able to turn the lights off over in that other control room!”

: “Only for a few seconds though. There would not be enough time to make it all the way here.”

: “That’s why we’re going to split up the tasks and work together to pull off this heist! One person will shut the power off here, one person will lower the crane, and I’ll grab the Treasure!”

: “You sure that’s gonna work? Seems like they’d realize what’s goin’ on at some point.”

: “Sometimes bold moves have the greatest payout. Unless someone has a better idea?”

: You’d think that they could just use the hook as a distraction - lower it so that Madarame sees it and then run in once all the guards go up to the hook control room.

: “Well said, Joker! You understand what being a phantom thief really means! All right, it’s settled. Our infiltration route is secured!”

: “You gotta be kiddin’ me..”

: “Now then, it’s time for the calling card!”

: There’s just one little problem. We don’t have nearly enough money. I did the math, and we need something like 340,000 yen until the next dungeon - not counting equipment.

: I’ve mentioned this before, but here’s the breakdown: Dr. Femdom has three different accessories she sells which are absolutely vital for this run. We want the best ones, which are 100,000 yen each (50,000 with the discount we’ll get one day before the third dungeon) for a total of 200,000 yen

: We also need around 140,000 for confidants. This means I still have a lot of farming to do.

: Back at the Velvet Room, we get a tutorial on how returning Personas works. I’ll explain it myself since it’s faster.

: Basically, it works the same way it did in the old games - except now, we have to pay in “black” items of the appropriate type to get the item from returning. I had to blow the blank card on Shiisaa to get him out.

: Here’s where I made a dumb move. Instead of just buying another Regent, I fused Eligor.

New Persona: Eligor

Origin: Ars Goetia

First Appearance: Megami Tensei II

Demon lord from the Ars Goetia, a fallen angel known as the Great Duke of Hades. Usually depicted as a knight riding a skeletal horse. Knows everything about warfare, but also love for some reason. This is technically not his first appearance in a Persona game - he was an enemy in Persona 1.

: This meant I had to buy back Angel and one other Persona (I forget which) and it was a pain in the ass all around for a completely useless Persona.

: So yeah, that’s what the electric chair looks like.

: I also found out while grinding that Yusuke apparently has unique lines of dialog for some of the portraits in the portrait gallery, if you bring him back that far.

: After copious amounts of grind, I get everyone to level 21 (Yusuke to 18) and grind out a total of around 450,000 yen (after selling the vendor trash, which I do in the next update). This should be plenty for what we need.

: We spend the night crafting. I was kind of worried that I’d have to buy more lockpick materials, but… yeah, we’ll have enough lockpicks to probably bring us past the next dungeon.

: Next time, we’ll send the calling card and take on Madarame - without any time skip in between, because that’s how the routing is.

[Timrod]

Oh, right. Small addendum to my last update - when I was working on it, the news came out that Persona 5 Scramble is likely not going to see a release in the West. This is after people looked at Koei-Tecmo’s financial statements and didn’t see anything about P5S on there.

There’s probably a number of reasons for this. One is that Scramble is supposed to be a sequel to Persona 5.. but doesn’t feature Not-Elly or any of the content added in Royal, so it introduces a giant plot hole given how much of an impact the extra scenario has on the overall plot. This is kind of surprising given that Scramble released in Japan in February 2020, a full four months after Royal did.

I was looking at importing a copy.. but it’s like $90 to do so. I can still do that if people really want to see it, and I might do it just because it’ll probably be a pain in the ass to get down the line - not that I really give a shit about the P5 spinoffs. I don’t even really like Persona 5 all that much.. expensive statues nonwithstanding.

If I do buy a copy, I’d probably stream it a few times assuming people can find an alternative to Twitch, because fuck Twitch and their dumbass mid-roll ads, but wouldn’t do a full LP of it - I think you have to actually be able to speak Japanese for that and I don’t.

[CommanderKeene]

@Timrod

I had to use it to return a Persona, because unfortunately there’s no way to just delete a Persona and I kind of fucked up when doing fusion a little.

You can delete Personas, just not in the fusion menus. You have to go into the status menu to do it. I had to use it a few times in my playthrough of vanilla P5. It’s kinda dumb that they don’t let you delete from the fusion menus, and you think they would’ve fixed that amongst the Royal changes, but I guess not!

@Timrod

Persona 5 Scramble is likely not going to see a release in the West. This is after people looked at Koei-Tecmo’s financial statements and didn’t see anything about P5S on there.

Honestly, that “evidence” is kinda worth jack shit. My guess is that the localization got delayed due to Age of Calamity releasing soon, so Scramble isn’t coming out this fiscal year. Don’t panic-buy an import copy yet.

[LaZodiac]

@CommanderKeene

Honestly, that “evidence” is kinda worth jack shit. My guess is that the localization got delayed due to Age of Calamity releasing soon, so Scramble isn’t coming out this fiscal year. Don’t panic-buy an import copy yet.

Yeah, agreed on this.

[SpammyV]

I’d like to imagine after Fox spends so much time praising John Persona’s keen artistic senses that he’s able to remember which color the lady’s clothes are in the painting, John Persona just looks at him confused and goes “What do you mean the paintings were different?”