: I hope everyone’s ready for the most annoying dungeon in this game. Let’s end this.
: “Is it working!?”
: Sure is Batman around here. There’s a few things about this cutscene that don’t make a lot of sense, even when you take the tiny bit of additional information the bad ending gives you into account.
: “Eeeeeeek!”
: “Holy son of a — wh - wh - wh - what the hell!?”
: The transition to the battle is just that sudden.
: You would think that being a creature made of snow, the Snow Queen would be weak to fire. Nope! She’s weak to nuclear and merely neutral to fire.
: Her main attack is casting Mabufudyne, which hits pretty hard but not hard enough.
: She has Magrydyne as a backup option, which mostly does a lot of damage to Brown. I didn’t take a single death during this fight, because the Snow Queen only got off a single Mabufudyne and a single Magrydyne and spent the rest of her turns casting Tarunda (physical defense buff) on herself… which did absolutely nothing against the chain of Megidolaons.
: Everyone gets a levelup and then some.
: We’re going to need to grind again, mostly because there’s a couple of Personas I want (namely Armaiti and Barbatos) before we fight the true final boss of the Snow Queen route.
: “Ms. Saeko! You okay? You must’ve been so cold… are you hurt?”
: So uh, this is where things kind of break down a little bit.
: “Tomomi? Who?”
: This is true, but it also isn’t. There’s kind of a plot hole here involving when certain things take place.
: “But whyever would your best friend possess you?”
: “I had no idea she thought of me that way… I guess.. sometimes you hurt people without realizing it.”
: “Our last year here, and you finally beat me out.”
: “But I’m nervous about the mask… is it true everyone who’s played the Snow Queen’s role has been cursed?”
: “Whaaaat? Hey, I’m sure that’s just some superstition. Just keep up that cheerful attitude and I bet any curse wouldn’t dare touch you!”
: “C’mon, don’t talk like that! Cheer up! You won the title role! What am I supposed to think if you’re not happier about it?”
: “Y-you’re right.”
: “Huh!? She tricked me?”
: “She withdrew… because she’s scared of the curse…? No way! Even if she did bow out, I’m sure she was just being considerate!”
: “We’re in the same year, but I’ve never gotten a better role than her, so…”
: “…”
: “Why are you hiding? Well… break a leg tomorrow! I’ll be looking forward to it.”
: “…Your… …ault…”
: “What was that? I can’t hear you!”
: “Huh!? Tomomi, what’s gotten into you!? Calm down!”
: “You… you forced the masssk onto mee…”
: “Tomomi, are you all right? What’s this about the mask?”
: “The mask… the mask… suddenly wouldn’t.. come off.. it got so hot… hot! My face started… it started… sizzzzzling…”
: So, if you’ll remember, Tomomi was the last person to wear the mask before it was sealed away. This means that somehow, the mask killed Yuriko, Kumi and Michiko before Tomomi’s death.
: “You didn’t force it on her, right? So it’s all Tomomi’s misunderstanding!”
: Honestly, I don’t think you’re going to be all that reasonable if you’ve just had a mask burn half your face off.
: “Maybe so. But… I can’t say with absolute confidence that that’s true.”
: “Maybe some part of me really was gloating over how much better I was.”
: “Maybe I was just acting like Tomomi’s best friend, when I never really cared. Maybe I was too in love with the idea of being ‘considerate Saeko’.. and I only ended up hurting her.”
: “Ms. Saeko…”
: “Enough!”
: “…”
: “Yeesh.. it’s so cold…”
: “Oh! This can’t be…”
: “What’s up?”
: “Huh. Come to think of it, the sky’s still a weird color…”
: “Wh-What’s going on!?”
: “Oh crap… oh crap…! Not cool! We just defeated it!”
: Meet Nyx. In this game, Nyx is kind of a plot hole. She’s supposed to be Tomomi’s Persona - she’ll even tell you this if you get the bad ending to Snow Queen. The problem is that doesn’t make sense, because Tomomi wasn’t around when the tower guardians died.
: There’s no real explanation for why Nyx was in the mask, or how Nyx was apparently in Mikage-cho for years before Kandori and SEBEC even showed up.
: The explanation for the mask is supposed to be that Nyx, not Tomomi, was the one killing people. The line about Nyx being Tomomi’s Persona isn’t accurate - at least, I don’t think it is. Nyx is effectively an SMT-style demon, not a Persona.
: “I shall enshroud this world in black and white; void and sorrow.”
: “What!?”
: “Foolish mortals who cling to hope… I shall teach you a lesson! I have not yet given up on the Eternal Night.”
: There’s also the principal’s line at the beginning of the route where she said Saeko was the last person to wear the mask. I’m pretty sure that’s also a plot hole, because it’s pretty clear that was Tomomi.
: “Huh!? What was that about?”
: This explanation makes no fucking sense! The tower guardians all died before Tomomi probably even attended St. Hermelin! I think the writers honestly just stopped giving a fuck when they realized they had to somehow fit Snow Queen into the SEBEC timeline.
: Anyway, I did some digging, and it looks like Nyx is basically there because Snow Queen is sort of a remake of one of the plot lines from SMT If. I really should get around to playing that, though my experience with SMT 1 kind of turned me off to the SNES SMT games. Incidentally, the LP of If on the archive was made before the English translation romhack and was done on an emulator, so maybe…
: “That’s the most likely scenario.”
: “Thanks for the explanation. I think I’m finally starting to get what’s going on here. So if we don’t defeat that Queen, we can’t go home or take a hot bath!”
: “It hasn’t been long since this started, and look how much you’ve all grown.”
: “Aww, well, I only made it this far 'cause I had everyone backing me up. There’s, like, no way I would’ve made it by myself…”
: “Yeah, thanks to these guys, well… I don’t know how to say this, but.. it’s like I understand for the first time why I’m alive.”
: “Whoa, that sounds REALLY cool!”
: “Sh-shut up! Let’s go, Jihei!”
: God dammit I knew I shouldn’t have bought that Yakuza 0 soundtrack.
You mean return to yourself with message for you, if you had to wake up, do the forever? Return to yourself, all you need is to be free? Half the lyrics to that song are in English and I don’t understand them.
: “That reflection… my heart was so awful that I couldn’t look straight at it..”
: “It’s not just you, Ms. Tomomi. I’m sure anyone’s reflection would be horrible in that mirror.”
: Moreover, why does Nyx have the mirror from the Snow Queen story in the first place?
: “Not very many people in the world with a truly pure heart…”
: “Speak for yourself! I’m innocent as a young girl, pure as an angel, and… never mind.”
: “I bet I’d look like some kind of monster.”
: Ayase is a monster.
: “If you looked right now, I know you wouldn’t see a monster.. I know! You should keep carrying the Demon’s Mirror with you. I bet it would protect you from misfortune.”
: Yeah I mean, maybe then we can cleanse Nyx with the power of Jesus just like in the story.
: The Spiegel Shield is an armor piece only Jihei can equip, because I don’t think the writers for this game actually read the original Snow Queen story. It’s also the best hand armor in the game. This is your reward for getting all 12 mirror shards.
: The costume is the “Spiegel Set”, and you can only get it (and the shield) if you’ve obtained all twelve mirror shards. I don’t know what she’s talking about when she says the hero though, given that Gerda is the closest thing to a hero in that story. Unless she’s talking about Kay, but then the “Spiegel” name makes no sense.
: “It was kept near the box with the Snow Queen’s mask, to keep the seal strong.”
: “Well, that’s one piece of good news. No idea where the storage room is in this Ice Castle, but it sounds like it’s worth hunting for.”
: “Ah… if only I’d met you all sooner.. I’ll be watching from above with the past Queens so no one else ends up like us. Thank you.”
: “It’s people like me that make it hard for others to trust the ones around them…”
: You know, it’d be nice if any of this character development carried over to the other route.
: And that’s the last we’ll see of Tomomi. There’s some optional party dialogue here, so let’s do that first.
: “You have a look in your eye that says there’s nothing you can’t do. I have a feeling you’re capable of taking care of the rest. Please sever the curse of the mask! It’s brought pain to so many students! I’m counting on you…”
: She’s not wrong. What we’re about to go into is bar none the longest dungeon in the game.
: “Does it feel a little warmer to you? Y’think the Queen’s losing her power?”
: “Oh, yeah! Maybe that door that was frozen shut up to now is open!?”
: “Night Queen? Sounds like some hostess at a Ginza club. How strong could she be? You guys’ll do just fine without me. …I’m joking! C’mon, let’s go!”
: Right across from the Cafeteria, there’s a door that was previously frozen shut. We can get in there now.
: Talking to the party member you didn’t pick will have them give you an item. Nanjo’s is the middleground: we already picked up a Phurba Dagger in Thanatos Tower. It’s a decent weapon that boosts Agility, and Elly’s currently using it. Jihei doesn’t have much of a reason to because his Agility is already as high as it goes.
: If you didn’t pick Brown, he’ll give you a Scorching Tablet (Megidolaon fusion item). Elly will give you a Full Moon Tablet, which teaches a Persona Mediarahan (party full heal). I’m pretty sure you can get Full Moon Tablets from the medicine store, so they’re the least useful.
: The second floor of the Ice Castle is full of enemies from basically everything past Deva Yuga in the SEBEC route. We’re going to do some grinding here, but not until we reach the 9th floor. Let’s post the map.
: As you can see, the second floor is a giant conveyor belt maze.
: While the room itself is a giant mass of squares, this is what the route looks like to get to the next floor. This floor in particular is a direct callback to SMT 1 - there’s a room almost identical to this in the Messian headquarters building.
: The third floor has three distinct routes we can take - two lead to items and one leads to a room that’s just got some optional dialogue.
: Taking the southern route puts us here, in a room with.. how the hell did Mariko get here?
: The weird thing is, if Persona 1 takes place in SMT If’s universe, people should already know about demons being a thing.
: Anyway, the reason we’re here is because this closet has a Mars 133, which is significantly better for Elly than the gun we were able to buy her in Thanatos Tower.
: Next up is the pointless room in the middle.
: This room looks like the room we got the Snow Queen mask from, but it’s not.
: “Hunh? H-Hey, look… there’s something on the floor. I-I-Is it a 10,000-yen bill? 'Cause if it is, dibs!”
: I checked the guide to be sure, and there’s no items in here.
: “Dibs, you hear me!? I saw it first!”
: “Oh, Yukino, please. I would never steal money like that. In fact, I’ll offer it to you. No, no, seriously.”
: “You moron. What I’m saying is, that’s not a 10,000-yen bill!”
: “Huh? O-ohh… you’re right. Aww…”
: “Totally stupid. There’s no doubt you’ll pay the piper.”
: “U-urgh! Why’s Ayase saying that now!?”
: Correction that I learned only after I got through the worst part of this dungeon: the Spiegel gear is in here. There’s a note on the floor somewhere that you have to pick up and then you can find it. I’m not going back for it.
: On this floor, we start encountering enemies like Titania, who showed up in the Alaya Cavern in the other route.
: The four nuke strategy always pays off. Always.
: The other room just has a Crimson Tablet in it, which is a fusion item we don’t need or want. The fourth floor is.. a kick in the dick, to be honest.
: You’ll notice these stairs fairly close to where you enter the fourth floor. These are part of a puzzle.
: Just past those stairs going down is a single damage floor which marks the beginning of a maze through a room full of holes that will drop you down to the third floor. That’s what the stairs are for.
: So what’s our reward for getting to the end of this maze?
: A hole that drops us to the third floor again, that’s what!
: Hee-ho-kun is here, and he’s had the ultimate Persona fusion items on him the entire time. See? There was totally a reason I went over who he is.
: These are the items for Ayase, Brown, and Yukino, respectively. You get to choose who gets one if you do not have all 5 ambrosia, but we do. However, we’re not using any of the ultimate Personas, because I am not grinding that again (and we don’t need it). I will, however, Personalog them.
: Ayase’s ultimate Persona, Freyr, isn’t all that bad. His weaknesses suck, but at least he learns a ma-dyne spell. The Caesar Leg he can be traded in for is the best leg armor in the game. Interestingly, Freyr only shows up in the Sega CD remake of SMT 1 and not the SNES version.
: On the other hand, Brown’s Persona, Tyr, is GARBAGE. Look at that shit! He has the lowest magic stats of any of the ultimate Personas, the last move he learns KILLS HIM WHEN HE USES IT, and he’s weak to all the elements!
: Durga is honestly kind of an anomaly. I don’t understand what the logic behind her was game-design wise: she’s not great against Nyx, and that’s pretty much the only thing you’d ever use her against. Her stats are also really low (just barely above Tyr’s) for some reason. She’s also weak to most of the attacks Nyx uses.
: Finally, we have Elly’s ultimate Persona, summoned using the Judgement Contract. Michael is easily the best of the ultimate Personas - sure, he doesn’t learn a ma-dyne spell, but he makes up for that by having amazing resistances and Tarukaja. I would grind to 62 to get this for her, but Armaiti has the same resistances and can learn Megidolaon. If you do manage to grind this out, you’re pretty much guaranteed to win against Nyx even if you set the game to auto-battle.
: Just outside the room with Hee-ho-kun is another hole, which drops us..
: Back on the second floor, not far from where we started. This is where I wish I had known the Spiegel set was on the third floor, because I’d have grabbed it on the way up.
: Back on the fourth floor, shit starts getting annoying. First, Berith shows up. Berith is immune to magic and annoying to gun down. Worse, he’s higher level than the party is and we simply don’t have the negotiation technique to get his card (that’d be Nanjo) so we have to make him fuck off.
: Eventually, we reach the gate to Hell. Just trust me on this, the next four floors are going to be the worst thing in this game.
: This room has Raiho and Reiho in it, and the first thing we want to do is open the closet and get a Kouma Staff for Brown.
: Raiho is an asshole, and here’s why. Let me just.. I’m just gonna show you the map. I can’t for the life of me describe the route you take through the next area.
: Yeah. It’s a giant staircase maze. The trick to this is following the two Stanley Parable Adventure Lines and never, ever deviating from them even slightly. The orange one gets you to most of the items, while the blue one is the one you want to follow to make progress.
: Here’s what makes this part suck. Most of the encounters are going to be this. If you’ll remember, Dakini (in front with the swords) reflects nuclear damage. Dominion (in the back) reflects all spells. Therefore, our only recourse is gunning everything down.
: Our first stop is on the 5th floor after going up to.. I think the 7th and then going down a ways. This is honestly kind of like navigating the Zero in Kentucky Route Zero - you don’t.
: Wait.. what? How? How did Maki get here?
: “Check out that painting.. it’s all black. Freaky…”
: “Be careful! This could be one of the Queen’s traps!”
: What is this, some kind of
reverse Genki Rockets song?
: “How can you withstand the pain? You have each other… Ms. Saeko… your family… people you can rely on. But I’m always alone. I can only watch the happiness of others.”
: On a side note, what little the manga shows of Snow Queen actually has Maki as the Snow Queen rather than Tomomi.
: “Wait a sec, are you…?”
: “You can never understand how I feel! I’ll destroy this place… I’ll destroy the whole school!”
: Our next stop is on the 7th floor, after about half an hour of stumbling around because I didn’t understand what the Stanley Parable Adventure Line ™ was trying to tell me. By the way, the one guide on Gamefaqs to this is wrong.
: “Hey, have you seen my Daddy?”
: “Your Daddy? Huh, maybe she’s lost.”
: “Hey little girl, what are you doing here? You should go home. It’s, like, really dangerous.”
: “Ayase! Won’t you please try to be more cautious? Your carelessness has gotten us into a lot of trouble! I’d appreciate if you made more of an effort to learn from your mistakes.”
: “Sh-shut up! Get off my case! What if she’s really looking for her dad? Are you really gonna leave her by herself!?”
: “Sorry, but nobody I know wears a mask.”
: “Oh. Okay then.”
: There’s a sword in this room for Nanjo if you have him, but we don’t.
: Finally, there’s this room. There’s technically two others, but they’re way out of the way and only give kinda mediocre rewards.
: The Justice Coin isn’t great attack-wise, but it makes a decent stat stick.
: “Excuse me. Have you seen me?”
: “Huh? What’s she trying to say?”
: “Hey little girl, what are you doing here? You should go home. It’s, like, really dangerous.”
: “Ayase! Can’t you think rationally for a change? How could a small girl be here? She clearly must be a monster!”
: “Sh-shut up! Get off my case! I thought she was in trouble, so I talked to her, that’s all! I’m not mean like you.”
: “I’m wearing clothes like yours, and I have a white mask on.”
: “You’re looking for a student from this school? Sorry, but nobody I know wears a mask.”
: God dammit, Brown.
: Here’s the other reason this area sucks. When you’re not fighting Dominion, you’re fighting Succubi. They’re not nearly as dangerous as they were in Alaya Cavern (mostly because it’s a lot harder to put 5 characters to sleep) but they still absorb magic.
: I spent probably the next half hour following the Stanley Parable Adventure Line ™ to the ninth floor.
: At the end of the 8th floor is a room very much like that room at the end of Deva Yuga with the light-up floor.
: “It would have been easier if you had just waited for the Eternal Night to fall. But if you insist… I shall grant your wish with despair. You won’t find me as easy as Tomomi… hmhmhmhmhmhm…”
: Kandori offers an elevator ride, but he’ll only send us down - and once he does, he won’t be there at the bottom to bring us back up.
: Floor nine is where I’m probably going to do a lot of grinding. The thing is, we could cheese Nyx down really easily, but only Jihei would survive. Let me post the map, just so you can see that the Damage Floor Guy at Atlus finally got his wish.
: Anyway, I’m going to have to spend a considerable amount of time grinding: the problem is that most of the enemies on the higher floors are from the final dungeon of the SEBEC route - and if you’ll recall, the enemies in that dungeon didn’t give as much EXP as just doing random encounters on the street. I might also need to go back in order to get spell cards. Next time, we’ll kill Nyx and finish Snow Queen.
