The Ma-non have started hanging out in New LA… and above New LA as well. Getting to know our new, non-violent neighbors seems like a good idea, but we don’t want to neglect our affinity missions either. There are three new characters to meet, and our first is… uh… actually, I don’t think I want this one.
We’re still on the path of learning Capoeira, and all the other moves we missed along the way. It’s pretty smooth sailing for the most part… oooooother than when a certain Master gets serious and is apparently a hard counter to my entire gameplay style.
The Rhythm Rogues have overcome nonexistence, and now all that’s left to conquer is the coliseum standing over them. Stealing the Holy Grail from within will be their toughest battle, especially since the grail thinks itself a god. And with so many people believing in it, it might as well be right.
We meet a guy who hates aliens, and then an alien. We’re, uh, not going to be inviting to the same room anytime soon.
Good news! Nobody is quite as tough as Jamie, which means we can continue our tour without being walloped several times by one guy. This time around, we’ll be in Nayshall in the day for… well, pretty much Rashid. Nayshall’s mostly about the night life, apparently.
The Phantom Thieves have saved the day, and now it’s time to celebrate! Yes, we’re ending off the game by spending some time in the new year hanging out with our friends, like Ryuji, Futaba, Wakaba… this weird bishonen boy that just started hanging around… wait something feels wrong here.
Okay, we’ve got these new characters. But what if we had… pets? That’s right, we’re finally getting past the roadblock between us and several heart-to-hearts that have been sitting there for some time. And all it took was letting a couple of animals roam New LA so that our companions could interact with them.
We’ve wrapped up with Elena, more or less. So who’s next on our list of people to learn from? Why, this very large man, of course! Sagat’s had quite the history, having been a member of Shadaloo and all. But he’s really calmed down over the years, and now’s he’s far wiser too. He’s still extremely intense, however. You cannot stand near that man without knowing he’s there and far larger than you.
Here we are, trapped in an alternate reality of Maruki’s making. Since he won’t show his face for a week, Akechi has gone to investigate. Which leaves us in the position of checking in on our friends and their wonderful new lives.
We hit the streets of NLA to cover some more affinity missions! We get a bit more background on Lao, make some Nopon connections, and solve a crime… kinda. I mean, the crime’s not going to happen anymore, but maybe not by the circumstances we’d want…
You know what time it is, right? Yeah, we’re grinding Sagat’s fighting style. And while we’re at it, we’re continuing our world tour. Thankfully, nobody hits quite like Jamie. Which is a little surprising given how much whiplash we should have from Lily’s attacks alone.
You know what time it is! The game has decided we’re going into Maruki’s Palace today to make sure Sumire is properly in the party. So we finally get to see her real awakening… when I’m not getting lost or doing fusions, anyway.
We’re done with affinity missions for now, but that doesn’t mean NLA is out of tasks for us. We spend a considerable time in Primordia, but there’s a bit of trouble going on back at home as well.
We’re finishing up learning from Sagat today, but the man has one last wrench to throw in. There’s a certain technique that anyone strong will run into eventually, and it might be a good idea to understand it before we one day kill someone on our path to strength. Though to be fair, it’s impressive we’ve managed not to considering how hard we punch some people.
So, there’s a bit of a rub to the whole “get to the end of Maruki’s Palace and figure out what his deal is” thing. As we found out, Mementos still exists. As it so happens, the Palace has a connection to Mementos that’s barring our way forward. So, until we get that settled, it’s time to hang out with friends as they make some realizations about themselves after their cognitive changes.
We may be done with affinity missions for now, but that doesn’t mean we’re doing petty cleanup work. We’ve gotta help the Nopon… kinda. Their business with the Prone isn’t exactly the safest of dealings, but we’re just here to mediate any way. In terms of stuff to deal with on our own turf, though, there happens to be someone with a little bit of PTSD. There was once a terrible slaughter over some treasure, and it’s up to BLADE to get to the bottom of it.
So uh… remember that part about helping our friends with their realizations? It’s a lot of that. Every other Phantom Thief is very sorry they got duped by the fabric of reality warping in their favor.
We’ve helped our old friends out of their ruts, but our new friend Sumire could use some time to overcome the numerous problems that her therapist did nothing to healthily address. Really, I don’t know why Maruki went with what he did when a blunt coach and a friend seem like effective help.
We return where we left off: getting bludgeoned by a trio of mechs. But once that’s resolved, it’s finally back to the main story! Indigens can normally be a threat, but today we learn that there’s a whole mess of strange beasts known as the Tainted that are massive threats to all things living. But seeing as the human race have to be crammed into artificial bodies, they’re a little safer than your average creature. And considering a different threat to NLA wants something square in the middle of the Tainted’s territory, it might be a good time to use that to our advantage.
So it turns out that not only is Mementos back, but it’s taken a new direction: up. That’s right, we hit the bottom and now Maruki’s self-actualization kraken is reaching its tendrils upwards into a new layer. And the good news is: the Shadows here are still susceptible to being run over by a cat.