surgeworks

17 - October 3 | Table of Contents | 19 - November 2
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Alternate Title: The Plot Re-Inflates

I'm not sure what difference it will make to anyone who's been following along so far, but people do actually commit suicide in this chapter.

Chris: Last time, we maxed out quite a few Social Links, including the Hierophant, Hanged Man, Chariot, Hermit, Emperor, and Priestess. A lot happens in November, so I came with a friend. Ready, Shinji?

Shinjiro: *from his infirmary bed* As ready as I’ll ever be. Let’s do this.

Chris: 11/1 is a Sunday, but we don’t get people calling. We’re instructed by the guide to go see Akinari. Once again, he’s coughing up his lungs, and asks us to stay and see him until he’s recovered.

As he describes, he got too into his reading last night and didn’t sleep. He thought it’d be alright, since he has many sleepless nights where his illness keeps him up, but now he’s paying for it.

Shinjiro: I know his pai—well, I won’t be that arrogant. But I know how it feels to cough and hack all night, at least.

Chris: Hey, in the game, you’re bedridden in a coma right now, about as close to death as this guy is. You’re closer to his problems than you think… We tell Akinari harshly not to push himself so much, and he actually smiles at being yelled at, as no one’s done that in a long time. He says that he actually came to the shrine today hoping to see us.

He then reminds us of when he said he likes reading upbeat stories. He’s doubting that they can truly make him feel better, as they were written for “someone else”, and calls himself selfish for it, in addition to calling himself selfish for taking up so much of our time. According to him, we’re spoiling him, but he admits to liking that, and smiles. We rank up, and he says he wants to see us again before leaving.

Shinjiro: That was short, but depressing as hell. Would you be doing this if you weren’t getting a Persona out of it?

Chris: You got me. I probably still would, since it’s a game and gives me the chance to bring him some happiness. I feel a lot more helpless in real situations with those who lead sad lives like his, like in nursing homes and hospitals. I don’t want to look anywhere when I’m there, and I feel guilty when I leave and for letting my mind go to other things when I’m gone.

When we get to the dorm, we talk to Junpei, who intends to visit the hospital as soon as the last Shadow is beaten soon. No, it’s not to see his senpai, who’s hovering on the edge of death. It’s to see his quote-unquote girlfriend who’s in league with the guy who shot him. Your thoughts, Shinji?

Shinjiro: ...I’m not mad he wouldn’t be seeing me, it’s not like I knew him well. I am kinda pissed he’d rather go see the Strega chick than me, though, c’mon man.

Romantic Plot Cancer: 31

Chris: We go for a walk with Koromaru and Yukari.

11/2. Fuuka meets us outside the gates to remind us that a Full Moon Shadow and Strega will be waiting for us tomorrow.

After remembering again to visit the faculty office where Mr. Takenozuka is, we go to the shrine to boost our Ken Link. Then, we go back to the dorm, where a scene is waiting for us. Everyone’s in the dormitory lounge, except for Shinjiro of course, which the game reminds us of. Everyone reflects on how this is the last mission, and how far they’ve come and how long it’s taken them, with Mitsuru confirming she’s had her Persona and been aware of the Dark Hour since she was a child, and revealing she awakened her Persona when she was a child and watched a group of shadows attack her father’s research team. The air solemn between us, we rank up our SEES Social Link.

…...It’s November and this shit’s only at level 6?

When spoken to, Fuuka says she thinks Shinjiro will wake up after the Dark Hour is ended. Not for any reason, she just thinks so. We head to Tartarus tonight. Unlike usual times, there isn’t much to say here—we rescue the three people who need rescuing, and we complete the quests concerning the Outenta Mitsuyo sword, for which we get three rubies.

Fuuka’s Juno would have new skills to receive, but we’re already too high-leveled on her, so she already has them. They’re Oracle (random effect in battle), and Escape Route, which acts as an auto-return to the Tartarus Entrance and will be very valuable if we’re being hunted by the Reaper. Akihiko’s Sabazios gloves not only offer Evade Ice, but do ice damage as well, and he levels up and gains Ziodyne. Ken gains Spear Master and Ziodyne, Mitsuru gets Bufudyne, Aigis gets Heat Wave, Koromaru gets High Counter (!), and Junpei gets Gigantic Fist. Also, since I didn’t note it last time, both Ken’s and Akihiko’s resistances (light, electric) have upgraded into nulls since their Personas ascended.

Cybele levels out and gains Spell Master, an invaluable passive that halves SP cost for any SP uses. We fuse Thor, the MAX Rank Persona we got from Rio who has High Counter (excellent move, repels any physical attack 50% of the time), and Odin, Thor’s dad, who we got from Hidan. Odin is notable, as he has the unique skill Thunder Reign, which does severe electric damage on a target and is a guaranteed shocked status, which is hella useful. We also fuse Bishamonten, Okuninushi, and pentagon-fuse Attis, our MAX Rank Persona we got from Maiko. He has Samarecarm and Megidola and covers his own weakness with Repel Light, and has Enduring Soul in higher levels, which is why we’ll grind him. Lastly, we fuse Baal Zebul.

Shinjiro: Took ya long enough.

Chris: *closing his eyes for a second, then opening them* 11/3. We stay home all day, until we’re greeted with a Dark Hour cut-in. Fuuka pinpoints the last Full Moon Shadow at the south end of Moonlight Bridge. ESJL and Evil Nerd are also there. For this operation, we take Junpei (for his Blade of Fury), Mitsuru (for her Mind Charge + Bufudyne), and Yukari (for her wind + healing).

Not that who you pick really matters. The game tries to amp up the two Strega villains as “powerful adversaries”, but even for an underleveled team, they’re pathetic.

When we get there, ESJL has another villainous monologue where he accuses our goals of being hollow, stupidly.

Villainous Cancer: 13

Rather than draw his gun on us and cutscene us to death, Takaya and Jin draw their Evokers and summon their Personas.

Takaya’s Persona is Hypnos, of the Fortune Arcana and the Greek god of sleep. In Greek myth, Hypnos is generally one of the more benevolent, or at least non-malicious, gods. He’s also one of the few whose powers could work on the mighty Zeus and who got away with it—twice, though only because Zeus didn’t dare piss off his mom, Nyx, the titaness of night itself. He married Pasithea, a minor goddess with the powers of illusions and hallucinations, and they fittingly produced the child Morpheus, the god of dreams, and together they lived in the underworld next to the river Lethe, whose waters caused those who touched it to lose their memory. He repels light. If you’re wondering why I’m going so in depth here, it’s because I love the myths related to Hypnos.

Jin’s Persona is Moros of the Hermit Arcana, a Greek god who doesn’t see much action, but was hysterically feared due to being the personification of doom, and was believed to appear before people who were soon to die before Thanatos came to take them. His Persona repels fire and darkness. Naturally both are also immune to light and darkness to prevent you instantly winning the fight. Takaya will attack with his gun and mind charged -dynes of all elements, while Jin will use hand grenades, fire spells, and darkness spells.

Take note of their Personas, because remember something about ours? We started with Orpheus, but when we first summoned it, it transmogrified into something else to take on the Magician: Thanatos. Also known as the God of Death in Greek myth and feared to ridiculous extents not only by the Greeks, but even the supposedly-immortal gods. All three are brothers and all three were the sons of Nyx, aforementioned titan that Zeus feared and the personification of primordial night. So these guys are sort of our brothers.

They have pathetic health, 1500—as much as the Hierophant boss—and go down with ease.

“I never imagined that your power would rival ours!”

Really? You didn’t foresee getting taken out by four Persona-users (or eight if we go by logic instead of gameplay) who’ve had seven months of fighting Shadows to gain skill over your profession of murdering defenseless people? That’s the sort of crap logic to expect from bland, eeeeevil villains.

Ill Logic: 82

Villainous Cancer: 14

Oh, and while Jin uses an Evoker, Takaya summons his Persona by falling to his knees, holding his head, and screaming.

Calm Down There, Edgelord: 27

And the icing on the cake is that their Personas look absolutely ridiculous and stupid, especially Moros.

And for being so absurdly easy to take down (none of them did any damage to us), I award each of them a Bad Game Design point. Nice job backing up those terrifying villains, Atlus!

Bad Game Design: 47

They at least have the dignity to give out an assload of experience. Considering it wasn’t quite enough for anyone to level up from it, I tried to go and re-do the fight alone just so that I could absorb all that experience into Attis, but they won’t let you go without a full party. So I had the pleasure of crushing Strega twice.

Shinjiro: This guy’s the weak fuck who put me in a coma?! Man, that’s so lame. If I were in that fight, I’d have cracked his skull in one go.

Chris: I know, buddy. There are people who’ve hacked the game and put you there to prove it.

They confirm in passing after the fight that their Personas were not awakened naturally, and were forced in and thus have to be forced out, and again claim that the Dark Hour is an end to their Personas. They still don’t explain why.

Takaya goes into a rant, and actually does try to cutscene-shoot us this time. Or at least, that’s what the portrait shows. According to the text, and his dialogue, he’s pointing an Evoker at himself, but Jin swats it out of his hand and tells him not to be reckless. They then commit fucking suicide.

No, seriously, they climb the railings of Moonlight Bridge and jump off. They confirm they intend to die, and from this height, they will.

DEATH IS INEVITABLE: 44

Maybe I should’ve made a different sub-count for just suicides? Well, with them no longer barring our way, we prepare to face the Hanged Man, taking Akihiko, Aigis, and Koromaru this time.

The Hanged Man descends from the sky. As you can see, it looks equal parts scary and utterly ridiculous.

As you can also see, it’s flying. We can’t attack it yet. In order to get it down, we have to attack these three statues on the ground.

One uses and nulls fire spells, another ice, and the last one lightning. Not that it matters—one Megidola from Attis puts them all down, causing the Hanged Man to fall and become stunned, open for an All-Out Attack.

The Hanged Man itself, surprisingly, is actually pretty damn tough. The All-Out Attack, even with our high levels and great gear, only takes away about a tenth of its health. He’ll use physical attacks only and has no weaknesses, so any party can take him on. Also, the first attack he uses is fucking God’s Hand, one of the two strongest attacks in the game, so props to Atlus for not fucking this last Shadow up. After a couple turns spent getting abused, the Hanged Man slams its fist on the ground and summons more statues. When it’s almost dead, it summons a Devious Maya, which it promptly turns into a fucking bomb. After some attacks that would be a genuine concern were we not leveled high enough, it goes down. Everyone but me levels up, Aigis gains Marakukaja, Koromaru gains Mudoon.

SEES’ mission is finally done. Aigis, of all people, is the one to propose a celebration, and we respond that we should get some food. Junpei promptly asks Mitsuru to arrange a party, which she agrees to. Everybody divvies up food, and a happy tone fills the air while they argue over it. A shame Shinjiro isn’t here to, ya know, cook it for us.

Shinjiro: …….

Chris: I won’t apologize. This is a particularly dick-ish move on Atlus’ part.

The Dark Hour’s come to an end. Or has it?!

11/4. You sense that familiar presence….

Psych! Pharos appears, yes, but it’s during broad daylight, for the first time since we’ve met, as he spells out. *Inhale*

YOU MANGY FUCK, YOU WERE ABLE TO APPEAR DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS THE ENTIRE DAMN TIME, AND YET YOU STILL DECIDED TO WAKE ME UP AT MIDNIGHT TWICE A MONTH?!? I’M GONNA RIP YOUR GRINNING LITTLE HEAD OFF, YOU—

Shinjiro: Dude!!! Easy on my ears!!!

Chris: Sorry. That little brat is getting WISTLH points for that. How many times did he wake me up in the middle of the night from a peaceful sleep? The answer is thirteen. And it was fucking rude all thirteen times. Not counting the times when he didn’t appear in our bed at the start of the game, he’s appeared to us at night thirteen times (four of them in June alone). How appropriate. So it’s getting thirteen WISTLH points.

WISTLH: 66

And yeah, that is so getting Calm Down There points too, seeing as it was never necessary for him to appear right then at the spookiest moments possible instead of literally any other time.

Calm Down There, Edgelord: 40

He refers to it as a new day, for both of us.

“All the fragments of my memory have come together… I now know my role clearly… The time has come…”

Though he says it’s difficult, he has to tell us goodbye now.

He wants us to know that for him, his friendship was a miracle. Yeah, a miracle’s about the only way I could’ve made friends with you. If only miracles lasted forever, eh? He spouts more nonsense about our unbreakable bond, and gets teary-eyed. We achieve our final rank-up (completely skipping Rank 9).

The music plays, and we’re informed we can now fuse Thanatos, though we don’t get a cut-in labeling him as some specific being. Pharos disappears. For good?

Shinjiro: Why the question mark?

Chris: Wait.

Junpei greets us outside the gates to remind us of the delicious celebration awaiting us after school, which we are immediately taken to. A sushi spread is laid out on the lounge table. Ken wonders where Aigis and Ikutsuki are, and Akihiko anwers that Ikutsuki took her to the lab and they’ll join us later. The sound of a car is heard, and Mitsuru’s dad, Takeharu, strolls in. He gives us a heartfelt thanks for our work. He thanks Yukari especially, given her circumstances. We can return to normal school life tomorrow, when SEES is officially dissolved. Everyone gets a little down, but before anyone can have their it-was-kind-of-fun-while-it-lasted speech, Mitsuru announces that dinner’s ready.

> Minutes before midnight… The party is still going on...

Shinjiro: *looks uneasy*

Chris: *unbothered* Junpei says that now that we’ve eaten, we should get a picture together. He explains that he wanted to take one last night, but forgot that cameras don’t work during the Dark Hour. But, he remembers that Ikutsuki and Aigis aren’t present for it. Man, fuck them, take it anyway. Oh, hey, he does.

Junpei’s a bit unsatisfied by it, and wants to take another one once the two are back. There’s good cheer in the air.

> You spent a moment of relaxation with your battle-weary friends…

We rank up! Our SEES Link hits rank 7.

There’s some chatter; everyone’s stuffed, and Junpei remarks that it’s taking Aigis and Ikutsuki an awful long time. It’s almost midnight—but hey, we don’t have to worry about that anymore, right?

Wrong.

Show of hands, who saw that coming?

Shinjiro: ……

Chris: *hand raised*

Shinjiro: *hand reluctantly raised*

Everyone’s alarmed, and Takeharu’s crew have coffin-ized. A bell tolls from somewhere in the distance, everyone is uneasy, and no one knows what’s going on. Takeharu asks where Ikutsuki is, knowing he has Aigis with him. Everyone turns to Mitsuru, who can only tell us to prepare for battle. The only thing she knows to do is head to Tartarus, which seems to be where the bell tolling is coming from.

We arrive at the entrance, which is definitely still there. Ikutsuki and Aigis are here, too. Akihiko and Yukari ask what they’re doing here. Aigis doesn’t answer, and her face is blank, her eyes strangely wide and pupil-less. Ikutsuki explains that she’s here to fulfill the role of a weapon.

Akihiko demands to know what’s going on, as Ikutsuki said that Tartarus and the Dark Hour would disappear if we defeated the twelve Shadows. Mitsuru calls him out not on making a mistake, but lying his ass off. He villainously calls her correct, but too late.

Villainous Cancer: 15

Everything’s going according to keikaku—I mean, plan!

Villainous Cancer: 16

He never intended for us to rid the world of all the fucked up things associated with the Dark Hour—just the opposite.

Villainous Cancer: 17

The twelve were meant to be part of a whole, and reunited.

...Okay. So why does destroying them accomplish that, which is what he says happened? It doesn’t feel like it makes sense.

“Soon, Death, the almighty, shall rise and bring forth the Fall...”

DEATH IS INEVITABLE: 45

Calm Down There, Edgelord: 41

Villainous Cancer: 18

There was no point to him suddenly talking in Ye Olde English except to be spooky and villainous. The rest of SEES rightly ask what the hell he’s talking about.

“The end of all shall come and free this world from despair...”

Calm Down There, Edgelord: 42

Villainous Cancer: 19

The death of everything, but also the beginning, as he villainously describes. Yukari asks if he’s out of his mind. As he explains, he was a scientist for the Kirijo project ten years prior. The experiment went wrong, but that’s not why Tartarus and the Dark Hour were born. They manifested as a result of the experiment going right, by harvesting the Shadows’ power.

So, either way, it still happened due to the experiment?

This, he says, is the thing that Mitsuru’s grandfather wanted: to gather enough shadows to bring about the Fall. Mitsuru is shocked and upset.

“People have filled the world, yet turned it into a void! The only hope of salvation lies in ruin!”

That’s going to get an Ill Logic point in just a minute when I explain.

Shinjiro: What the hell is this guy on?!

“According to the prophecy… The Fall will be orchestrated by the Prince. And once the Prince has delivered us all, he shall rule the new world as King!”

Calm Down There, Edgelord: 43

Villainous Cancer: 20

Chris: Begging your pardon? The hell kind of prophecy is this?

Ikutsuki doesn’t explain, but does say he’ll succeed where Mr. Kirijo failed. Junpei calls him on his insanity, and this moron actually apologizes for tricking us and says that we can find salvation if we follow him for just a little longer.

Villainous Cancer: 21

We ask what’s going to happen, and he just says we’ll see. Yukari pipes up again, asking about the video of her father wherein her dad said to kill the twelve Full Moon Shadows, and asks if that was a lie, too. Ikutsuki confirms that Mr. Takeba recorded it, but it was doctored.

I actually had to go and check to see if I awarded Takeba himself points, and was prepared to remove them and replace them with Villainous points, but I did not. However, that does still earn a Villainous point for the doctoring itself.

Villainous Cancer: 22

Ikutsuki calls Dr. Takeba brilliant, but unable to comprehend the magnificence of the Fall. Mitsuru and Yukari are royally pissed that he doctored the footage that Dr. Takeba gave his life to record.

‘Used’ is such an ugly word...”

Villainous Cancer: 23

According to him, it was for the sake of the world, so how could it be wrong? Except that that fits no one’s definition of ‘for the sake of the world’ except his.

Mitsuru is now pissed off enough to act, and grabs her Evoker, pointing it at herself. Ikutsuki calls himself disappointed. And then he sics Aigis on us.

“Aigis! The time has come for you to fulfill your role. Capture them, and prepare them to be sacrificed!”

Villainous Cancer: 24

Shinjiro: Oh, come on. No matter how you’ve reprogrammed her, you can’t seriously think that one machine is going to take on eight Persona-users, Fuuka, and Mr. Takeharu!

Chris: *steeples hands*

Shinjiro: Even if she is at ‘maximum power output!’

Chris: *sighs*

Shinjiro: Why did the damn screen go white?!

Chris:

> The Gekkoukan High School observatory, now part of Tartarus…

Shinjiro: OH, YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! There's no fucking way Aigis, alone, took out Aki, Mitsuru, Koromaru, Junpei, Yukari, Ken, Mr. Takeharu, and Chris all at once in a single scene!

Chris: Offscreen, by the way. Because we’d never believe it anyway, so no use showing it. We’ll do this like we did the October 4^th scenes and award the points after the whole thing is done.

The scene clears up, revealing us to be…

...on fucking crosses.

Villainous Cancer: 25

DEATH IS INEVITABLE: 46

Calm Down There, Edgelord: 44

Except for Koromaru of course. Yep. Aigis beat us all offscreen. We’re chained to the crosses, not nailed to them, thankfully. Everyone slowly wakes up, and all begin struggling against their crosses, with the exception of Mitsuru, who yells for her father.

Our attention is drawn to Aigis, who is restraining Takeharu. He asks Ikutsuki what’s going on, and Ikutsuki answers:

“It is just as it appears… They are to be sacrifices—harbingers of the Fall.”

Villainous Cancer: 26

He talks about a prophecy again without explaining it, and Junpei makes me proud by threatening to rip Ikutsuki’s head off, who merely directs Aigis to aim her gun-fingers at Takeharu.

As Mitsuru screams out for her father, Takeharu calls Ikutsuki a traitor and insane, and he responds that Takeharu’s dad was unlucky that his son doesn’t understand his vision after all this time. Quite reasonably, Takeharu says that death as deliverance isn’t something anyone should embrace, only for Aigis to be instructed to kill him then and there. Mitsuru screams for Aigis to stop, and strains against her bonds.

Despite her apparent reprogramming, Aigis hesitates. She struggles to speak, and lowers her gun as though it’s costing her a lot of effort, aggravating Ikutsuki, who pulls out his own gun and cutscenes Takeharu to death. It’s then that Takeharu yanks himself free of her grip, and pulls out his own gun!

Mitsuru sobs out for her father, before yelling for him again. Takeharu falls to the ground, apparently dead, but got Ikutsuki in the stomach, who orders Aigis to execute us on the spot. She turns to us, eyes still unfocused, and SEES yells for her to snap out of it. She’s still hesitating, and starts to murmur our name on repeat.

The screen goes dark, and we hear the sounds of machine gun fire. When we get our screen back, it turns out she shot our restraints off, and we’ve fallen to the ground. Well, even for a machine, that’s some damn fine aim to do that without ripping open anyone’s arms or wrists.

Ikutsuki yells in rage, and the scene transitions to the edge of the platform we’re on, wind sounding. Can you guess what’s going to happen? Akihiko ominously points out that he’s finished. He has this to say:

“Don’t you get it? It’s useless to search for hope or reasons to live in this pathetic world! A world this depraved must be started over from the beginning!”

Villainous Cancer: 27

“And then, at long last… I will rule over the new world! Hahahaha!”

Villainous Cancer: 28

Shinjiro: *jaw dropped* He...he did it. He doubled the VC score. He did in one scene what it took Strega four or five to do.

Chris: Ikutsuki gasps about how close he was, and laughs, blood dripping from his mouth, and falls off the damn tower. Everyone tries to collect themselves past their shock, and Mitsuru drags herself over to her father’s body, crying. He has a special portrait of his corpse, because yes, he’s already dead.

Shinjiro: ……

Chris: She collects herself too, and describes a promise he once made: to atone for endangering the next generation, even if it took his life to do so. Despite that being one prophecy that definitely came true, Mitsuru says she awakened to her Persona in order to protect him, and breaks down crying again.

> Everyone is at a loss for words…
> Mitsuru slumped to the floor, crying like a child…
> Soon, the Dark Hour will end…
> Akihiko picked up the stunned Mitsuru…
> Everyone returned to the dormitory in silence…

That’s ellipsis abuse again. The scene is officially over, so let’s go back through from the beginning and take it piece by piece, why don’t we?

First, Ikutsuki actually being eeeeevil the entire time. It came completely out of left field, and there was really no reason for it. Although any idiot could’ve seen that the game wasn’t over right here, never was there any reason to doubt Ikutsuki. Yes, he’s secretive and whatnot, but so are most of the people in this game, who can’t stand but to clam up about things at the right moments. That’s a harder character swing than anything I’ve ever seen. For that alone, I am giving it a point.

Bad Game Design: 48

Could’ve just had him be wrong about the source of the Dark Hour, but no, we had to get in more campy, hammy, flat evil-ness, since Strega have gone off the radar.

Calm Down There, Edgelord: 45

Villainous Cancer: 29

I’m also going to award it another BGD point, because there were massive missed opportunities. I’m sure I don’t have to point this out to anyone, but notice something? Ikutsuki looks virtually identical to the other resident flat, hammy villain here: Takaya Sakaki. They look so alike it’s eerie. In fact, during my first run through, I probably figured that Ikutsuki was evil all along, and was going to betray us, based simply on the fact that I thought he was a disguised Takaya. But no, nothing of the sort. Two different characters. You could even cast them as separate halves—maybe make that why Takaya is so unafraid of dying: he knows he’ll just continue to live on as Ikutsuki. You could even play Takaya as Ikutsuki’s son! We know Ikutsuki was implanting Personas into kids, being in on the whole Kirijo project, and we know Takaya has an implanted Persona. Nope, that’s not it.

Spoiler alert: Ikutsuki actually does have a son with an implanted Persona, who shows up in a later game. It has nothing to do with Takaya and he doesn’t even look like him.

Bad Game Design: 49

You reuse character models and portraits and don’t even write it into anything, Atlus?

Next, the twelve Shadows. They are still definitely the result of the experiment ten years ago, splitting from Death, the gigantic powerful Shadow, into the dozen we’ve beaten. However, it makes absolutely no sense for killing them to bring about Death. That just doesn’t work. Why would it? You would think allowing them to run unchecked and coalesce back into Death would result in that. Generally, that’s how the principle of split-and-reunite works. You have to kill the parts to keep them from regenerating into a whole.

Ill Logic: 83

Spoiler alert: I should point out that the Fall, as he describes, is Apathy Syndrome on a mass scale. I suppose there’s no use coming back to this point later, but yeah, that’s what the apocalypse is. Everyone being lobotomized into mindless zombies.

Now, be reminded that this is what the twelve Full Moon Shadows were already doing. Our killing of those Shadows had an observable, repeated effect on Apathy Syndrome! The cases only slowed and stopped when we killed that month’s Shadow! That causes the whole ‘killing the twelve brings about the Fall’ thing make even less sense! Doing something that decreases Apathy Syndrome actually causes it instead?

So you get the apocalypse whether you do anything about it or not. Let the shadows run around unchecked, or kill them, the result is the same. Fucking thanks, Atlus. Thanks for letting me know all our efforts weren’t just manipulated, they were useless.

Bad Game Design: 50

I sure do love having my progress so far in any endeavor being revealed to be for nothing. And by the way, considering Ikutsuki knows more about any of this than anyone else, how does he get so much blatantly wrong? I mean, yes, he’s a lunatic, but you’d think he’d be able to understand, given what he knows, that there is no “start anew” after the apocalypse. Because that doesn’t happen. The Fall threatening us in this game is very much definitive and final.

Ill Logic: 84

He’s taking the literal meaning of the Death Arcana and applying it to a situation which represents the Reversed Death Arcana. Just thought you should know that, Atlus. By the way, who is he sacrificing us to? Death? Why on earth would he think killing us would do any good except to be evil about it?

Villainous Cancer: 31

And another for that prophecy nonsense. Let’s see, what else? Oh yeah, two DEATH points for Ikutsuki and Takeharu dying, and another for Mitsuru’s talk about his promise.

DEATH IS INEVITABLE: 48

And lastly, Aigis being able to overpower us. That’s bullshit of the highest order, equaling that of the cutscene abuse used in Shinjiro’s death, and so we’ll give it points on a point-by-person basis like we did then. A point for each Persona-user and Mr. Takeharu that Aigis single-handedly overpowered, despite me knowing for a fact that even at her maximum offensive output (Orgia Mode) she’s not capable of that:

Bad Game Design: 60

It also gets Aigis points, seeing as Aigis is apparently that much stronger than everyone else, aren’t you just so intimidated?

Aigis I’m Stuck With You: 25

Another Aigis point is awarded for her turning on her programmer when faced with hurting us. All that murmuring our name and what nonsense.

Aigis I’m Stuck With You: 26

One last point, for the bell tolling for absolutely no reason.

Calm Down There, Edgelord: 46

And here is where we have to stop. We’re overly long as it is, and this is the perfect place to leave off. That out of the way, Shinji and I will see you next post, for more November nonsense.

Counts: