Persona 3 Portable 15 - October 1

[surgeworks]

September 3 | Table of Contents | October 2
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Alternate Title: Fuck.

Another Alternate Title: Fuck feelings.

Prepare yourselves, everyone. Last post was all over the place. This post is a sugar shop in script, containing a lot of character development and beloved Shinjiro moments. This is our slice of Heaven before we descend to Hell. Next post, that happens.

9/29. As per the guide, we head over to the police station. We talk to Officer Kurosawa, who's happy to hear we have something he can actually help with besides buying ridiculous medieval weapons. We tell him we're looking for an old pocketwatch, and it just so happens he has one right now in the lost and found. With that secured, we spend our afternoon with Saori. She's off suspension, and there's a committee meeting today.

She's not very popular in the library, as ever, and now it's starting to get to her. Knowing now might not be the time to tell her to chin up and bear it, we ask if she's alright. She repeats again that we shouldn't talk to her, as her bad reputation might rub off on us, though of course, we tell her ‘fat chance’. Afterwards, she tells us she might transfer to another school. We ask if that's what she wants, and she doesn't answer. Her parents have told her she's an ungrateful child and a shame to her family, and they're sending her to a private school far away. She says this alone doesn't bother her, but she doesn't like that she won't be able to see us again. With her smiling sadly, we RANK UP. Before we leave, she lets slip that her room is rather empty of much to pack.

Tonight, we visit Tartarus.

We get our Dark Hour cut-in, accept a few requests from Theodore, and get going to rescue the lost civilians. We finally get to explore Tziah, Tziah being the fourth block of Tartarus. Tziah is absolutely enthralling, being a rich-looking mansion area with gold lining the floors and walls and regal landscape design throughout, with red carpets rolled down the staircases. Fittingly, it makes us obscenely rich very quickly. Another beat is added to the track, and the enemies are once again surprisingly difficult as we go up, with the first ones having dyne-level spells and the high-tier instant kills. One of the earliest enemies is a goddamn tank with an enormous amount of health, defense, and attack that nearly one-shots Shinjiro.

We gain Taraka, Hokuto Seikun, Yaksini, Dominion, and Titania from Shuffle Time. We fuse new Personas so that we can finally take advantage of our cross-fusion to get Black Frost, fulfilling a request. We also fuse Genbu, and then Kaiwan, which is an SP-conservative Persona with both Spirit Drain and Invigorate 2. Then we take advantage of our high Shinjiro Link to fuse Dionysus, a Moon Persona with Mind Charge and adding Power Charge and Invigorate 2 on top of it, and which also covers its own weakness with Resist Wind.

Shinjiro levels up and gains Counterstrike, but Power Charge—an invaluable move—doesn't come until level 50….which he actually reaches without too much trouble. Yeah, Tziah is that hardcore. All that stupid leveling for Hanuman finally pays off with Blade of Fury, an excellent move that hits all enemies for medium damage between 2 and 4 times. If that weren’t enough raw damage, that’s also between 2 and 4 chances per enemy to land critical hits. Dionysus is also fearsome, with Mind Charge + Ziodyne and Power Charge + Heat Wave making pretty much any encounter last a maximum of two turns, the damage output is just absurd! Oh, and that’s not all—Shinjiro also gets Blade of Fury and Heat Wave. High Counter is up next! This is why we love Shinjiro! Kiss my ass, Tartarus!

We’re also strong enough now to fuse Surt, Junpei’s MAX Rank Magician Persona, which we do, and he stops leveling just short of gaining his unique skill: Ragnarok, a single-target fire spell that does enormous damage. We use Dionysus to stick him with Mind Charge and Power Charge too. We also fuse Kikuri-Hime, who nets us Diarahan and covers her own weakness, and Throne, who is stupidly dangerous considering he has boosted Mahamaon (75% chance of instant kill on all enemies) and has Mediarahan.

We take Ken, Koromaru, and Akihiko to fight three Arcane Turrets on level 122, although that’s sort of a crap decision, since Koromaru can’t hurt them with fire or darkness, and Akihiko and Ken can’t hurt them with lightning, so we relegate them to item usage. They’re quite tactical bosses, and it’s a good challenge. It’s worth mentioning that Ken’s lines in battle are...grating. We try using his Cruel Attack (bonus damage on downed enemies), but he just doesn’t have the strength to do more than meager damage with it. They’re weak to ice, and we manage to get them down with All-Out Attacks despite Mitsuru being practically necessary here. None of them even level up for it, boooooo. Got two Balms of Life.

The boss on level 135, we take on with Akihiko, Ken, and Koromaru again—because I walked up to this asshat and saw that it was the Sleeping Table. Fuck no. Fuuka informs us that it is indeed exceptionally strong, while letting us know it’s also a Magician.

Arcana Believe It: 24

For those uninformed, the Sleeping Table has Hamaon, Maragidyne, Megidola, Evil Touch (fear on 1 target), Ghastly Wail (instantly kills fearing enemies), has no weaknesses, blocks strike, and killed Koromaru twice and nearly got the rest of the party before we managed to blast the shit out of it with charged Ziodynes and Blade of Furys. It is an infamously powerful and dangerous boss, and we get a Soma and two Balms of Life for its defeat.

We do level the group, however. Akihiko gets Diarama, Elec Boost, and Mazionga, Ken gets Mediarama, Hamaon, and Recarm, while Koromaru gets Maragilao, Mamudo, and Counterstrike. As for Akihiko and Ken, that’s it—the end of their skill line. So, no more point in leveling them. Interestingly, Shinjiro’s and Koromaru’s skill lines still go well past this level. We also level Mitsuru, Junpei, Yukari, and Aigis, who gain Mabufula, Marakukaja, Mediarama, and Dekunda respectively.

Oh, and guess what Junpei has to say? He is fully aware Strega intends to stop us on this upcoming Full Moon mission, and says that we have to beat them—for his own sake, and for Chidori’s.

*EXPLODES*

YOU FUCKING DUMBASS, CHIDORI IS PART OF STREGA. SHE WANTS TO STOP YOU IN YOUR MISSION TOO, AND SHE KIDNAPPED YOU AND TRIED TO KILL YOU TO MAKE THAT HAPPEN. SHE IS AN ENEMY AS MUCH AS THEY ARE AND YOU REFUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THIS.

Romantic Plot Cancer: 21

We give Theodore the Empress’ Mirrors in exchange for some footwear, bring him the Gold Handguards for a goddamn bus stop sign for Shinjiro, create Black Frost (which incidentally is not nearly as badass as in Persona 4 and is so not worth waiting for Cross Spreads to be unlocked for) and get Ken’s summer clothes, and turn in the sixth old document for five Beads. For the silver medal we got from Tziah’s golden hand, we get a bone (which is a weapon) for Koromaru, and for the Mikazuchi Munechika sword, we get fifteen pieces of malachite. We fuse Girimehkala, a much better Persona than Black Frost, and get the item required to fuse Nebiros.

Lastly, before we leave, we grind and then fuse a lot more, including Daisoujou (a Pentagon Spread), who carries Samsara, the ultimate light spell of the game like Ragnarok is for fire, gaining Ken’s winter outfit for it, and then Nebiros. The last Persona we fuse is Alice with Megido for another request, gaining with it the ultimate Darkness spell, Die For Me!, and gaining the item needed to fuse Lilith. After that, we leave. I have to say, this trip was fun! Everyone advanced, I fused an absolute crapton of Personas with good moves, and Shinjiro was the MVP and can now unleash Power Charge + Blade of Fury on some bitches.

Or not, since he’ll never get the chance.

9/30. Outside the gates, Junpei’s excited for the next shadow. I think he’d better shut his mouth and be considered lucky if he even gets to go. We sell some stuff and get our rewards for rescuing people—ten Homunculi, an item called the Slash Repeller that actually gives you Dodge Slash, not Repel Slash, and 100,000 yen—and then we go to fuse a Persona with a weapon. See, now that we have Surt, we can see the first of several unique weapons rather than just upgraded ones. Fusing him with a “Nihil Longsword” grants Laevateinn, Surt’s burning sword for Junpei, which does fire damage instead of slash damage and passively grants Fire Boost. We can get it in two days. Then, we hang out with Hidan today.

He’s not at Student Council today, and actually no one is, save Chihiro. She says today’s meeting was canceled and hesitantly asked what happened to Hidan. We ask what she means, and she reports that he was called into an upset teacher’s office. We decide to poke our noses around.

At the office hallway, we can already hear yelling. A teacher is demanding Hidan put “her” name on the list. That name turns out to be our own—Hidan is protesting, voicing that we were chosen by the council president to be here and are very responsible, and thus he considers us above suspicion. Yo man, that’s really cool of you. The angry teacher says witnesses have seen us wandering around at midnight, and irrationally suggests that such a hoodlum must be responsible for the smoking in the boys’ bathroom. Hidan stubbornly refuses to back down, and wonders openly if they’re trying to slander us. The teacher sniffs and condescendingly accuses him of being just another unreliable girl-crazy teen boy in the end, and calls off the ‘deal’. Hidan takes that as his cue to leave.

Dude, you just scored so many hot points right now.

He walks out, sees us standing there, and realizes, uncomfortably, that we were listening. We assure him we’re not the culprit, and he says we don’t have to say as much, and criticizes that asshat teacher. Even if the whole school were to turn on us, he says, he’d never sell us out.

Bro.

We RANK UP! And then Hidan warns us to be careful of that teacher, in a manner that (probably unintentionally) sounds like he might be suspecting the dude is preying on us. Regardless, he tells us to call him if anything happens, and walks off.

We hang out with Shinjiro tonight, for our final rank-up. We show him the old pocket watch, and he reacts accordingly, so it’s his. He tells us to come with him.

Living with Determination is playing as we arrive at Naganaki Shrine. It’s a quiet night and we’re alone. Shinjiro asks us, fully voiced, where we found this, and we reveal that we picked it up at the police station. He plays around with the pocketwatch, saying he thought he’d be fine if he never saw it again. But, he never imagined we’d bring it to him, us of all people.

 

“This isn’t really to pay you back, but I want you to have this. I was hesitating about if I should give it to you or not. I thought it’d look good on you...”

It’s a leather watch. We ask him why a watch, and he smiles, looks embarrassed, and tells us that it keeps track of time, and was all he could think of. When he turns his face back to us, he looks miserable again while telling us to look after Aki. He’s an idiot, after all. He calls back to the story he told about their first fight. He’s remembered, or knew all along, that it was because he stole a doll from a toy store. Aki’s sister Miki couldn’t make any friends, so he stole it to cheer her up.

Awww…. Aki found out, and cried while beating Shinji up back then. They both went back to the store to return the doll, and so Shinji could apologize. They both got smacked. He smiles as he figures Aki hasn’t changed at all since then.

“He’s stupid, honest, proud, kind… and a crybaby.”

That’s why someone needs to be by his side, Shinji says.

> “I’ll be by his side.” (submitting to the bait.)
> “We’ll by by his side.” (refusing the bait, but leaving the “we” vulnerable.)
> “What about you, Senpai?” (attacking the bait head-on.)

“Of course, I’m gonna stick with him.”

Excuse me while I just think about his broken face while he says that and how much of a lie it is. He smiles though, saying that because we’re next to him (Aki), he’s not worried at all, so he’s leaving him in our hands.



He looks at us kindly, and we sense a strong trust from him. We reach MAX Rank, the music plays, and we are informed that we can now fuse Sandalphon, the Angel that Conveys Prayers, as well as the twin brother of Metatron.

Shinji says the wind is starting to pick up, so if we’re cold we could go back, but…he’d like to stay here a little longer.

“Hey, you’re gonna catch something. C’mere...”

We stay and talk with Shinjiro late into the night.

You’ll recall that when I finished the first Social Link, Junpei’s, I said that his was probably the strongest Link, and I stand by that. Recall that in every version of P3 except the female route of Portable, the male party members don’t have Social Links. Junpei was, for the longest time, a dork who was sexist, perverted, childish, and suffered a terrible bullshit hetero-mance that did his already flat, barely-likeable character no favors. Shinjiro was arguably little better; he lasted for a month and was essentially the other half to Akihiko’s Angst Train to talk about Chains to the Past and Traumatic Orphan Backstories. Speaking of, never gave Shinjiro that point for being an orphan, did I?

DEATH IS INEVITABLE: 37

For the orphaning, the death of Miki, and the unspecified person Shinjiro killed. Anyway, he did come into his own about the same time Junpei’s drain-circling came to a close, revealing something of a backstory package that impacted more than his own character and the story. Junpei has the best Link because it provides him with immense amounts of depth he desperately needed; Shinjiro’s is my favorite Link though, for capitalizing on all the ‘hidden depths’ that he already had.

It’s immensely well-done. Shinjiro’s walls come down bit by bit, and it’s enjoyable seeing him smile and laugh with the rest of SEES despite his gruff, tough, don’t-touch-me-I’m-a-thug exterior, and it’s impressive how you can do it all in just one month. Like Naoto from Persona 4, he projects a cool, calm, and detached exterior that you have to bring down to reveal his desires for companionship, and like Kanji from the same game, he wants friends, but he also doesn’t want anything to hurt him, and so acts like a tough guy and hides his more gentle qualities and hobbies. In the beginning of it, he’s a loner who won’t talk much and tells you to keep your nose out while also investigating how his crew’s matured since he left, and by the end of it, he’s either giving you his coat, or holding you close against the cold, without even a hint of denial or doubt.

Yeah, Shinjiro’s Social Link is definitely one of the better additions to this game.

10/1. Gossip tells us winter wear is coming in, as well as the fact that someone is hearing voices. Mr. Ono is excited to talk about Masamune Date, and we stay awake throughout it. We spend time with Saori again today.

She starts to ask us to take over the shift, since no one wants her checking out their books anyway. Right on cue, we overhear a male student talking about her, “the girl from the magazine”. He and his friends crack jokes about what a doormat she is, saying it’s like she can’t say no. We offer to go punch them, and she holds us back, though she appreciates it. She starts to get upset about all the slander in that article, saying it’s all a lie—she wants us to know that, not caring what anyone else thinks. We believe her, of course, we know her. We wonder silently if it’s really true she doesn’t care, and muse that staying silent and transferring to another school seems like confessing to all the lies. We open up about this, saying we should clear all the lies up and make everyone see the truth. Saori asks how we’re supposed to do that, and right then, an announcement comes on. That’s it, the intercom! We tell Saori she can broadcast to the school, and though she tries to back down, we encourage her, and she reluctantly agrees to give it a shot.

Surprisingly, we go do it right now. The PA office is empty, and Saori nonetheless is very nervous and about to cave. We take her hand, and she swallows her fear and reaffirms that she needs to do this. Speaking from the heart, she says, is terrifying, but remembers something spoken to her a while ago: “It feels good when your feelings match your words”, though, she’d never believed in it until she met us. We RANK UP.

She walks, by herself, into the broadcast room. It takes a minute, but we eventually hear her speaking.

“This is Saori Hasegawa of class 2-C. There’s something I’d like to say. Everything in that magazine article is a lie. I never said anything to a journalist. That picture is of me. I didn’t know how it would be used, and I deeply regret not considering that when I agreed to let it be taken.”

Teachers are arriving on the scene, including Mr. Ekoda, who tries to bitch us out and bully us out of the way of the door. Failing to do so, he turns to blame Ms. Toriumi’s bad teaching ability for our misbehavior and hijacking of school equipment. Ms. Ounishi pipes up, finally being useful, saying that hey, she’s not broadcasting anything that isn’t true. She’s about to mention who tried to cover up the truth, but Ekoda of course interrupts her, the guilty asshole. Saori’s broadcast continues over them.

“I love this school. The teachers are kind but strict, and I have a friend who believes in me… I’m very sorry that I caused all of you, students and faculty, any trouble. I really am sorry… From the bottom of my heart…”

The teachers quiet down, and students begin to wonder about her announcement and gather at the PA room door. A single threat of extra homework, of course, sends them scurrying. Afterwards, Soari walks out of the broadcast room, saying she’s sorry, but she doesn’t care if she gets suspended or expelled for it. Ms. Ounishi congratulates her on trying to prove her innocence, but wonders if this was the right way to go about it. We ask if there was some other way, and she shrugs, but says that we should’ve consulted a faculty member first. Ms. Toriumi agrees and says that this is thus their responsibility, and tells Ekoda to hit the bricks. When he protests, she cheerfully reminds him he’s been hassling her about taking on more duties as a teacher, so he should can it and get lost, which he does.

Sniffing, Ms. Toriumi blatantly doesn’t bother, telling us to write up some report about how we all sat down and should’ve given this more thought, blah blah. Ms. Ounishi remarks she’s letting Saori off rather easy, but Ms. Toriumi refuses to be ashamed—that broadcast made her feel better, too, considering she’s grown weary of her students always gossiping, and compliments Saori on her guts. Ms. Ounishi concedes, if a bit snippishly, and says we’re free to go, no punishment.

We walk home with Saori, able to laugh and be cheerful.

At the dorm, we ask Aigis for some oil, she gets us silicon oil, and we take it back to Theodore, which he mistakes for cooking oil and drinks. Holy shit. He gives us a goddamn railgun for Aigis in exchange. We hang out with Ken again tonight.

Aren’t you getting tired of restaurants, kid? Guess not, since he’s chowing down on his Calcium Meal this time. We spot something black on his wrist, and he gets embarrassed as he says that it’s Indian ink from a calligraphy class. He starts rubbing at it, we tell him not to worry about it, and responds that he hates being dirty. He also forgot he had homework, which was to write the name of something he liked, but he couldn’t think of anything. We ask if he didn’t write anything, but he did eventually: “omelette and fried rice”. Oh, so he likes those? We offer to make it for him, and he hastily denies wanting any. Ken complains that we’re really nice, and so is the rest of SEES, who often treat him to things like ice cream or toys. But, this makes him upset, since he figures they’re doing it because they just see him as a child. We tell him that’s just the way we are, which makes him feel a little better, if it really isn’t because of his age. Kid’s about to cry, and softly remarks that there’s only six years of age difference between us and him. I imagine that wasn’t supposed to make me uncomfortable, but it did. We RANK UP. He says he’d like to ask us something, but quickly gets cold feet and tells us to nevermind.

10/2. We hang out with Rio at volleyball practice today.

Everyone’s here, enjoying practice, and Rio is right back to her old driven, aggressive coach self. The team members aren’t put off, and if anything answer her vigor with their own! A few of them suggest taking Rio out on a group date, to which we express interest, but she catches us talking and reprimands us. A while later after practice, Rio is thrilled that everyone’s so committed now—but corrects herself. They were committed to each other the whole time. She compliments us on our help in bringing the team back together, and calls us a great leader, for which we thank her. Rio having matured, we RANK UP. We go home, stopping for burgers on the way.

At the dorm, Junpei says he’s so excited that Strega is crippled without Chidori’s support, since she’s on his side now. Yes, that’s not my own phrasing, he says his side, not SEES’ side.

Romantic Plot Cancer: 22

Not only because that statement is arrogant as hell, but I happen to know how untrue it is. He also describes the remaining two members as a jock strap without a cup when without her.

Shinjiro’s in a corner of the lounge, and we go talk to him. Even though we’ve already maxed our Social Link with him, and he says he feels better, we have the option to spend some time with him, and we do. He protests, saying he can’t give anything to us or do anything for us. We insist, though.

Tender Feeling starts up as we’re taken to a bonus scene, also fully voiced.

“...You can stare at me like that all day. I got nothing for you. Haven’t you wasted enough time on me? What more do you want?”

> “I want to talk more with you.” (Always, but…)
> “I love you.” (YES!)

Shinjiro’s thrown off, blushing and mouth dropping open. He stammers and accuses us of teasing him. We ask if he doesn’t believe us.

“That’s… not it, but… I mean, why just blurt out something like that? Here, of all places...?”

> “Can I go to your room?” (PLEASE?)
> “Won’t you come to my room?” (We see that every day, nah.)

“What? ...Y-You moron… I… I ain’t a nice guy. I can’t let you in my room. ...Don’t you get it?”

> “I still want to go.” (Yes.)
> “I know what I’m saying.” (I KNOW WHAT I’M ABOUT, SON.)

Shinjiro starts to panic a little, saying no way Jose, and tells us not to bother with “someone like [him].” We just tell him again that we love him, probably with the smirk that says there’s nothing he can do to stop us from loving him. He calls us an idiot… and we cut to his room.

The game describes us as having made excuses and basically forced our way in there, and I laugh. It’s very bare, just a bed and a desk. Shinji asks if we’re happy, now, and accuses us of pushing us around and ignoring what he wants.

That ain’t gonna work, son. Unreliable narrating will not fly here, we know there’s warm affection waiting in you and now is the time to draw it out.

Is it me, or does Grant George put a little… purr in his voice when he says “two can play that game”?

> Shinjiro suddenly embraces you tightly.

The screen is all black.

“This is your fault. I’m all confused. You’re all I can think about, day and night. Dammit, this isn’t how it’s supposed to be...”

The screen comes back as he lets go. He looks a little upset as he tells us that hey, we get it right? Now get back to our room, he says. If we don’t go now, we’re not gonna get another chance.

> Go back (FUCK no.)
> “I’m not going anywhere!” (FUCK YES.)

He sighs, and gives us another compliment disguised as an insult.

“I’m gonna make myself clear. ...I ain’t holding back any more.”

The screen goes black.

> …
> You spent a long time with Shinjiro…



Well if that wasn’t the best damn feeling in the entire game.

And with that, we have finished Shinjiro’s Link and all its extra content.

I promised that I’d be comparing this romance to the main one in the game, Junpei and Chidori, and seeing how they stack up. Why is this one so much better? After all, although we’ve technically known Shinjiro for many months, we’ve only really spent this one month in close proximity with him. Junpei has spent that same amount of time with Chidori. So why do I complain about Junpei’s romance being rushed and forced, but not this one? And what else do they do similarly and differently?

• First of all, we can see every moment between us. Although there is a “you spent time talking offscreen” moment with Shinjiro, it happens when we’re in control and we’re given details and context, as opposed to the many times Junpei is visiting the hospital offscreen to see Chidori.
• Second, we are not forcing our company on Shinjiro. We invite him to spend time with us, and the Social Link meetings follow. Although Chidori may have recently said she enjoys Junpei’s company, it’s out of left field considering so far all she wanted was for him to get out of her hair. Not that that really matters—Chidori is bound to her hospital room, and can’t leave should she want to get away from Junpei, thus she is a captive. She could demand he leave—spoiler alert, she will—but, spoiler alert, he won’t.
  • Or, are we forcing our company on Shinji? After all, in that special bonus scene above, he accuses us of doing just that. However, in Shinjiro’s case, it’s made pretty clear that he is putting walls up to prevent himself from showing affection or warmth and looking less of a man for it, or being more vulnerable for it, and it’s clear that he wants to be real with his feelings, but his ingrained facade won’t let him. If Chidori is feeling anything for Junpei, it’s not visible, and is not stopping her from talking down to him or getting violent with him. When Shinji lets us decide whether to stay or leave, the “penalty” for staying is affection. Affection that may include some nice romantic sex, but that’s another story.
• Shinjiro’s Social Link meetings bring other people in and spread love and affection among the group, like with the dinner he prepared. By contrast, Chidori’s romance with Junpei involves shutting other people out. Junpei effectively betrays SEES, showing more desire to kiss her ass (despite what she wants) than to acknowledge that she hurt him once, will do it again, and wants us to fail in our mission. She is cut off from the only people she’s remotely close to, is surrounded by enemies who are keeping her captive, is being hounded by a boy determined to start a relationship with her, and the only thing she regards as her friend has tried to kill her. She is isolated, and although Junpei is in the right to try and bring her out of isolation, he can’t seem to hear any indication that she might not like how he goes about it or that he shouldn’t for safety’s sake.
  • And actually, Junpei’s interaction with Chidori encourages that isolation. He barges in when told that he can’t see her, laps up any attention she gives him, and is eventually abandoned to try and make her talk on his own, whereupon he just gets excited about her because he thinks he’s in a relationship with her, and becomes hostile towards anything that might limit his time with her. He bowed up just at the idea of SEES trying to keep him from seeing her, saying we’d better not try, and starts bad-mouthing some receptionist who’d like this kid to get the fuck out of the hospital, it’s after hours, and the patients need sleep, and just seems to have been trying to do her job. He outright says Chidori is on his side, not our side. Junpei isn’t trying to pull Chidori out of isolation. He’s trying to ingratiate himself to her and make her isolated with just him.
• Both the romances with Chidori and Shinjiro deal with suicidal people—and I know, I know, spoiler alert. It’s hinted at repeatedly in his Social Link and interactions with Akihiko, and not clarified until the full moon, but Shinji’s not expecting to be around for that long and intends to walk freely to his death. With Shinjiro, the topic itself isn’t brought out into the open when we’re around, so there’s no telling how we could handle it given the option, but it is explicitly brought up with Junpei and Chidori. The chick is not just able to use an Evoker, she regards something incredibly hostile and destructive towards her as her only friend, and cuts herself at the wrists. She seems not only unafraid of death, but very eager for it. How does Junpei react to this distressing news? By telling her she shouldn’t die, of course….because of how it would make him feel.
  • Shinjiro is also clearly suffering from depression and extreme guilt about the as-yet unspecified person whose death he caused in the past, which caused him to leave SEES. He is suicidal because he intends his death as atonement, and cannot see anything for him to deserve in a life with happiness and love. Chidori, by contrast, feels no guilt whatsoever for trying to kill Junpei, participating in paid murders, and in trying to keep us from reducing Apathy Syndrome.

In fact, the differences extend as far back as their first significant meetings. Soon after we first meet Shinjiro, we are properly introduced when he saves us from some thugs who were about to hurt us. Chidori, a few days after rebuffing Junpei, plays him like a fiddle and uses him, then attacks him and hurts him, and threatens to kill him.

So! A point for that, plus those bullet points highlighting how Atlus wrote a really good romance and a really shitty romance simultaneously?

Romantic Plot Cancer: 30

But now we gotta go, and get ready for the full moon next post.

Counts:

• DEATH IS INEVITABLE – 37
• Calm Down There, Edgelord – 25
• Villainous Cancer – 8
• Romantic Plot Cancer – 30
• Ill Logic – 55
• Arcana Believe It – 24
• Bad Game Design – 38
• WISTLH – 51
  
• Aigis I'm Stuck With You – 15

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September 3 | Table of Contents | October 2