Persona 3 Portable 24 - January 1

[surgeworks]

23 - Christmas and New Year | Table of Contents | 25 - January 2
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Alternate Title: Ups and Downs

Chris: Last time, we finally decided the game’s ending and complied with what Atlus was repeatedly telling us to do, accomplished by having their sue whine about how we shouldn’t. Thus, we have accessed January, the final month of the game.

Also, I have good news. Thanks to help from

themachinatorslab and an emulation, I'm able to recap the Answer properly. This is good news, as before, my only options were to watch a Let's Play (which would've worked, but felt less honest), or to just recap from memory, which definitely would've felt cheap. Now Not only have they decided to help me recap, but they've decided to join Tris and I for this final stretch of the Journey, too. So let's get going.



Shinjiro: Let’s go to Tartarus, since the final block opened up, right?

Chris: Yeah, but I’m sure there are more scenes for us awaiting, and if there aren’t, I want to at least get back into the flow of things to hear the new music before we do. Honestly, Sun was nice, but after hearing it all the way from July to January, I’m sick of it. Here’s the dorm version of Living with Determination.

Tristram: I will admit, this game does a lot of things wrong but the music is not one of them. There are some truly amazing tracks in the OST.

Empyrea: Never underestimate Shoji Meguro, my friend.

Chris: Before we go to bed, let’s look at Norn and Susano-O, the Personas we got from Ryoji and SEES. To get Norn, the three Norse goddesses of fate, you fuse Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, the three Greek goddesses of fate. First thing’s first, it has Wind Amped Garudynes and a unique spell, Panta Rhei, which is the “severe”-damage wind spell. We’re encountering a bad setup here, and might have to do what we did with Shiva and what we’re going to do with Thanatos later, which is to “strangle” it; I’m going to go in and place skill cards that the target Persona can’t learn onto the component Personas to lower the number of skills that are “in the way” of the ones I actually want.

After doing that, the skills we want come within a few tries. She learns both Regenerate 3 and Invigorate 3, and covers her own weakness with Absorb Electric. Then, we look at Susano-O, who for some reason is on the hexagon spread list twice, and one of which won’t recognize Orpheus, and who requires all previous Fool Personas. Susano-O is a Japanese storm god, one of two with Take-Mikazuchi and probably the more well-known and important one. And yet, he’s another physical-oriented one, learning the rare Brave Blade, Tetrakarn, and Vorpal Blade. Then, we head to bed.

Tristram: Norn is just so damn good. It’s a pity her SMTV version isn’t as good as usual… but then most of the lategame demons in that game really didn’t live up to their usual awesomeness. I was disappointed a lot but the demons being so heavily nerfed really upset me.

Empyrea: They nerfed Norn?! Yikes. That’s so rude, man.

Chris: 1/2. Absent our expected scene, when we head down into the lounge, we hear everyone talking about a doomsday cult that’s sprung up. Apparently, if you believe, you’ll be saved when the time comes. Television describes all the posters as being seemingly put up by one person, so three guesses who’s behind it and the first two don’t count. We go out into the city, where oddly, it’s Memories of You that’s playing, or at least a quieter arrangement, rather than Memories of the City. Many of the citizens are seemingly already members of said cult. Talk about springing up overnight. Junpei is nowhere to be found. We boost our Empress Link, and then head to Tartarus.

Tristram: Hoo boy am I going to have some things to say about this cult next update.

Chris: Welp. Nothing happened, so it’s Tartarus time. When we go tonight, sure enough, we find a large silver door at the entrance that Theodore described, waiting. We’re not going through there yet, but we’ll take a peek behind it.

Shinjiro: You investigated the door and accidentally went in, didn’t you?

Chris: Shut up.

Shinjiro: Who’s she?



Chris: That……is Margaret.

Tristram: Oh no oh no oh no oh no-

Empyrea: *groans heavily* Ugh. Margaret. I have words, but she’s not important in this game, so I shall keep them to myself.

Shinjiro: Why are you shaking?

Chris: I’m not! …If you have to know, Margaret is Elizabeth and Theodore’s older sister. She’s an avatar of power, like them...and several measures of it stronger.

Shinjiro: *gawking* Why?! Who needs that much power?!

Chris: She reports that she’s heard a lot about us (evidently Theodore gushes about us), and she’s taken an interest. She calls this the Vision Quest Hall, and she’s prepared challenges behind all the doors. Behind eleven of them are revamped, much harder versions of the Full Moon Shadows (I had trouble beating the revamped Priestess the first time, so you have some frame of reference), along with several fights against regular shadows that are puzzle fights requiring you to think. If we beat all the doors, we’ll get to fight Margaret. Just like in Persona 4, you can fight her with a full team, unlike with Liz or Theo. And just like in Persona 4, she is excruciatingly punishing. If anyone beat her, I don’t want to hear about it. I’m pretty sure that Atlus didn’t just max her stats—they broke the scales and doubled them.

Tristram: Scaling is a thing that happens to other people. Margaret is Power.

Chris: We’re not going to do any of Vision Quest right now—we’re heading for the top block of Tartarus.

Shinjiro: So what’s Adamah like?

Chris: Silvery and chrome-y, full of enemies. Theo’s latest requests are to beat 3 golden hands in this level and to beat the Reaper, and collect one bloody button from him. With that, we take our party members on a quest to reach at least level 80.

We step into Adamah on floor 215, and are immediately informed of a strong enemy on the 220^th, and that there’s only five more minibosses, whereafter we RANK UP our Judgement Link. We also RANK UP on floor 224, where we heard of the next one. After that one is when enemies start hitting hard—level 89 hard, and using Mamudoon, Mahamaon, and Megidolaon. We RANK UP again on floor 240. After that, enemies start giving EXP out the ass, which is good.

Since this is the last damn block and it hasn’t let up since I started this game, I’m finally snapping and awarding this point:

Bad Game Design: 79

For the ridiculous and incredibly grating sound the shadows make when they’re afraid and run, which is often. It’s like a punishment for being too good at the game and I hate it.

Tristram: The scared enemy noise lives on in my nightmares. I’ve played so many games with horrible sound effects but this, this lives in my greatest terrors along with the Pokemon ‘low health’ beep.

Empyrea: *fidgets* I like it. It always tells me how powerful I’ve gotten. But I also don’t play at high volumes, so...

Chris: Maybe if it only happened at 20-30 levels below your current one, but it seems like it starts happening as soon as you’re able to beat them.

We come across no less than five Glorious Hands and all of them run, which made me cry. Akihiko gets Masukunda, Yukari and Aigis get Samarecarm, Koromaru gets Maragidyne, and that’s all anyone gets before I get tired of trying to level with the piss-poor EXP gains here, and say “fuck it, let’s take a break.” I should’ve come here last night, it was a full moon. But hey, at least Junpei’s in Great condition today. It’s on floor 240 that we start taking party members one at a time to level them faster. Yukari gets Mediarahan, Akihiko gets Maziodyne and Electric Amp, Mitsuru gets Mabufudyne and Ice Amp, Koromaru gets Mamudoon and Fire Amp, Ken gets Samarecarm and Mediarahan, Aigis gets Akasha Arts and God’s Hand (holy shit), and Junpei gets Vorpal Blade. Vorpal Blade being a move that’s actually worth its skill slot in P3, as opposed to P4, as it does bonus damage if you’re in Great condition. That’s on top of the bonus damage from the critical hits you’ll be landing in Great condition. So basically, he and I murder everything in sight with it and it is the only acceptable replacement for Blade of Fury.

Tristram: It definitely does a lot to elevate Junpei from ‘hahaha NOPE’ to ‘actually kinda usable’ but he will still never return to my party by this point in the game. After that Chidori mess he’s lucky I even talk to him in the dorm of an evening.

Empyrea: A good upgrade, but nope, still not using him.

Chris: The first miniboss on floor 220 is three Noble Seekers. Junpei kills one and criticals both of the other two with Blade of Fury, and the All-Out Attack thereafter means they didn’t last even three turns. They didn’t have much to threaten us with anyway. Our Judgement Link RANKS UP again when we beat them, in addition to us gaining fifteen Beads and a Precious Egg. The next one on floor 228 is three Carnal Snakes. They seem to resist Wind, because we opened with Panta Rhei on one and it barely scratched it. Same with fire and electric. They have Spirit Drain, except it leeches an assload of SP instead of 20, and they’ll use Dekaja, Mamudo, Fire Break and Maragidyne. They’re also just plain tough as shit—I used a Mind Charged Panta Rhei on one after Yukari broke its wind resistance, and still barely any damage. So they’re an actual threat. Then I took out Helel and used Mind Charged Morning Star, and that’s all she wrote. We get three king-tier stat boost cards, two Precious Eggs, and a Judgement RANK UP for beating them. The next miniboss, the World Balance is on the 236^th floor. We’re told it’s the Justice Arcana—

Arcana Believe It: 29

It resists all physicals, but Aigis criticals it and we kill it with one All-Out Attack anyway. Not even one turn, but if you must know, it blocks ailments and targets weaknesses—and follows up with Megidolaon if it hits one, and which it will spam if you try and reflect its attacks. We get a Megidolaon gem, a Precious Egg, two Balms of Life, and a Judgement RANK UP for it. The fourth miniboss is on the 244^th floor, three Fierce Cyclopes. They use a lot of physical attacks, but charged Panta Rheis cut them down. We get three king-tier stat-increase cards, a Soma, and a Judgement RANK UP for beating them. The last miniboss on floor 252 is the Jotun of Grief, which Fuuka informs us is the Hanged Man Arcana.

Arcana Believe It: 30

It drains everything but pierce and will use Infuriate to have us attack blindly and heal it twice per turn, but Yukari, Ken, and Aigis can get around it. But just like with the World Balance, one critical from Aigis and the thing was toast. We get a Fine Statuette, two Somas, and a Judgement RANK UP for beating it.

Tristram: I am so jealous! I really hate that damned Jotun, but it sounds like you picked the best night to go and absolutely curb-stomped it. I usually just Mind Charge Megidolaon until it dies.

Empyrea: Ha! I bore witness to someone dying here from Megidolaon spam for daring to try reflecting and trying out Fuuka’s Oracle. It was a sight to behold. The rage was real, let me tell you. Well, it’s this or the World Balance.

Chris: Re: Tris, that’s viable, but expensive. That was my original strategy my first playthrough because I hated Ken and Aigis that much.

Then, we reach it. The final floor. The last floor of Tartarus before the roof, the 254^th. We reach a dead end, and max out our Judgement Link for it. The music plays, and we’re informed we can now fuse Messiah, the Savior.



Shinjiro: Is that what I think it is?

Yeah, basically. Yet another thing I considered adding a count for: every time this game made its protagonist out to be the next Jesus. Let’s take a look at Messiah, shall we?



Yeah. That’s clearly Jesus--and in case you're in doubt, don't worry. In battle, those wings spread upward and stop at right angles to evoke a cross. The Compendium entry has this to say:

"Appears before Judgment Day to save the virtuous. He is a universal figure, appearing in myth around the world. Many stories involve his death and rebirth."

Tristram: …pffffffffffffft *falls over absolutely howling with laughter*

Chris: *sighs* *steeples fingers*

No, Atlus, he’s not a universal figure, far from it, and I’d expect the makers of the Shin Megami Tensei series to know this better than anyone. The wiki is correct in saying Buddha is another savior figure, but he’s probably the only non-Abrahamic one I could think of. It would be more correct to say that the “messiah” is the most popular figure. He doesn’t appear in even ten percent of the world’s known mythologies and religions, but he does appear in the religions embraced by easily the most people.

Tristram: Not to mention that before Christianity got rolling, ‘Messiah’ was usually used to describe warlords, not peacemakers.

Empyrea: I got what they’re going for, but I think they forgot that “messiah” is more an adjective than a name...

Chris: Before we fuse him, though, let’s fuse some other Judgement Personas with our maxed link, along with one we’ve yet to fuse: Thanatos.

Remember when I talked about strangling? This is a big one. We primarily want to strangle Thanatos’ component Personas because we need Thanatos and Orpheus to make Messiah, and those are the only two that’ll do it. This is the build Messiah has:

• Comes with Megidolaon
• Comes with God’s Hand (reference to God/Jesus)
• Comes with Regenerate 3
• Learns Salvation (more God/Jesus)
• Learns Invigorate 3
• Learns Absorb Pierce (literal reference to Jesus)
• Learns Enduring Soul (another Jesus reference)
• Learns “Magic Skill Up” (boosts all magic, including almighty, by 50%)

Yeah, cool and all, but not the supremely broken Persona we want that we’ve kind of earned, right? Here’s the build we want him to have:

• Morning Star (better version of Megidolaon).
• Mind Charge (because why stop at Magic Boost?).
• Invigorate 3 (this is our “SP” endgame Persona).
• Salvation (hella useful).
• Thunder Reign (critical abuse, plus fun imagery of god hurling bolts at liars).
• Enduring Soul (practically necessary).
• Magic Skill Up
• Victory Cry.

So basically, we need Thanatos, who will contribute pretty much everything to Messiah, to have the four missing skills: Mind Charge, Thunder Reign, Morning Star, and Victory Cry. Helel, Shiva, and Odin will be fused into pretty much the entire Death Arcana before this fusion happens and that’s before we even start strangling.

Shinjiro: *mouth slightly ajar* You don’t settle, do you…?

Chris: It’s why I chose to romance you.

Shinjiro: *silently shocked, blushing profusely*

Tristram: Seriously, I thought I was going overboard when I spent a good three hours making my team of ultimate demons in Devil Survivor 2, you’ve just wiped my personal record off the map for absolute Brokenness.

Empyrea: Personally, I find the set up makes absolute sense. I would’ve done the same myself if Skill Cards were a thing in P3FES. Go big or go home, yo.

Chris: What can I say, I like to have my fun. We’ll be using fusion calculators. Alice is a cross fusion, so Nata Taishi, Narcissus, Lilim, and Pixie will all need to have those skills. Actually, since we can get a skill card for Mind Charge, we only need three. ‘Scuse me while I work on that.

Let’s see… Mot, Hokuto Seikun, Loki… Loki is one who’s friendly to both Thunder Reign and Morning Star—he’s the key. Getting Mind Charge or Victory Cry with one of them is no big deal, it’s getting Thunder Reign and Morning Star in the same room...but…

Shinjiro: Michael has no excuse. That dude is electric-affinity and weak to dark, and he’d rather learn Mamudoon than Thunder Reign.

Chris: I know, right? What if we re-fused Odin? He gets Thunder Reign naturally, and I got Victory Cry on Helel earlier…

Shinjiro: Alright, Victory Cry, Mind Charge, and Morning Star are all on Helel and Victory Cry and Morning Star were fused into Mot—

Chris: So we just need to fuse those into something that’ll make Odin—

Shinjiro: Fuse Morning Star into Chernobog right there and Thunder Reign into Nebiros there.

Chris: Thunder Reign, Mind Charge, and Victory Cry all on Thor! We’re getting there!

Shinjiro: There! Baal Zebul can get Thunder Reign and Morning Star at the same time!

Chris: GOT IT! Mot with Scathach!

...I did it. I got Victory Cry, Mind Charge, Morning Star, and Thunder Reign all on the same Persona. And it’s not Messiah.

Shinjiro: ….Fuck. Well, let’s go from there.

Chris: We need to fuse Odin into a bunch of Death Personas. That, and the ones for Alice. Let’s see…

Shinjiro: Morning Star and Thunder Reign are the hard ones, get one of them onto Orpheus and get the other and Victory Cry onto Thanatos.

Chris: Okay, sure. That’s Slime with Morning Star and Thunder Reign, and that with Legion makes Orpheus, and he’s probably not going to inherit electric skills, so—yeah, there’s Orpheus with Morning Star. But Nata Taishi’s not gonna inherit electric skills, either…

Shinjiro: That’s one down, and with Mot and Samael having Thunder Reign and Victory Cry—

Chris: And we fuse those down into Loa, and spread them to the rest of the Arcana...Wait, here’s where we have to strangle. Let’s get light-based Personas.

Shinjiro: And then Alice…

Chris: We did it!!!

He’s got Victory Cry and Thunder Reign!

And then…through yet more strangling…

Chris and Shinjiro: THERE HE IS!!!

Tristram:
 

Watch on YouTube

 

 

Just gonna leave this here.

Chris: Alright, now we just stick Mind Charge from Atropos on there, and voila! All that’s left is to level him! And while we’re on that, let’s fuse some other Judgement Personas, why don’t we? Rebellion mutated into Revolution, and I have a Persona that I want that on…

We fuse Satan, who learns both Regenerate 3 and Invigorate 3 like Messiah, and has a unique spell: Black Viper. This along with Helel’s Morning Star are the only two spells in the game that do “massive” damage, but Black Viper is only single-target. We fuse him with Messiah to get Michael, who inherits Revolution, Thunder Reign, Victory Cry, and Mind Charge on the first try. Michael has a unique skill too, Heaven’s Blade. It does damage on par with Brave Blade (second strongest attack in the game), but with a very high critical rate, the highest in the game in fact. We’ll promptly level Okuninushi to get his Apt Pupil skill card, and stick that onto Michael to boost it further. We then fuse Trumpeter, and then Anubis, who specializes in light and dark.

And before I forget, let’s have this.

DEATH IS INEVITABLE: 70

Why eight points? Because of the eight coffins that form Thanatos’ “wings”. That number is notable because there’s one for each human/humanoid SEES member. All of your party members’ coffins are literally being carried on your shoulders.

Tristram: Thanatos is honestly too ridiculously goth to be real. It’s too stupid to hate.

Chris: Don’t underestimate me. We don’t actually manage to get our entire team to level 80, since I just got tired of that crap quickly, but Yukari, Junpei, and Mitsuru do get that far. We also manage to corner three Glorious Hands and get the Platinum medals from them that we need for Theo’s request, receiving another Berserker’s Seal for it.

We’re going to come back here tomorrow, but before we do, we might as well do the last request before the big ones: facing the Reaper. Seeing as he’ll appear on any floor, I just set my Vita aside on a random one and waited.

Overall, while the Reaper is a much more fearsome hunter than in Persona 4, he’s a lot more toothless as well. He only gets one turn, in which he’ll often spend time breaking resistances. If you use any items like a Persona fusion or an Omnipotent Orb though, he’ll go nuts and start spamming Megidolaon until you’re dead. Junpei scores a critical with Brave Blade right off the bat. Of course, he still has an assload of health and enormous stats, meaning it’ll still be a challenge. He knows every attack in the game, and resists everything but Almighty and blocks all ailments.

After messing around for a couple turns, he hits us with Maziodyne and kills Yukari with the one-more, sending Mitsuru and Junpei into critical status, too. Junpei, with his Brave Blade, Vorpal Blade, and Marakukaja is definitely the MVP here, especially in Great condition, knocking the Reaper down three times. Yukari on the other hand seems to be a bit of a liability here, as he consistently hits her with Ziodynes every turn. He seems to really like Mahamaon and Mamudoon, costing us quite a few of our homunculi.

Tristram: I still can’t quite believe you leveled Junpei up enough that he’s actually useful again. But I gotta admit, when he works, he does real good work.

Chris: This is true. Short of Armageddon, there’s no real quick way to finish the fight—except, of course, with Thunder Reign. Spamming that allows you three All-Out Attacks per turn cycle and turns the Reaper into a joke. I fully intend to abuse this the next time we face him. And I fully intend to face him again, because he grants 2500 EXP per person. We get our Bloody Button from him, and take it back to Theodore, who expresses surprise that we’ve grown this powerful. He wonders about a question he’s had for some time that we might can answer before handing us 5 million yen.

We leave, come back, and check the request board again, finding the last two among them. Before we stepped back in, we notice another large door opposite the Vision Quest one. Accepting these two requests reveals that this leads to Monad, a secret area of Tartarus that is a basement level. We’re to find a special sword there, as well as descend ten levels to its bottom to face the “ultimate opponent”. Although we’re not going to do that right now, but when we do, we’re going to find the sword while using Monad’s utterly insane enemies and their gloriously high EXP rewards.

Shinjiro: *sulking*

Chris: There, there. On my new game overwrite, Monad’ll be there from the beginning, and we can level you all the way through.

For now though, let’s end this seven-page hell and get out of Tartarus.

1/3. We boost Mitsuru’s Link, then sell our things. We reach the money limit long before selling them, but it turns out we have no less than seventeen Luxury Coins worth a collective five and a half million yen (Harabah gave us a lot of golden shadow floors, okay…). Then, we go to bed early.

1/4. It’s a Monday, but being on winter break, we still get a call. It’s from Mitsuru to invite us out, and she takes us to the music store, where she’s wowed by all the contemporary music and artists. She also says she has a few classical records in her room (of course she does) that she’d be happy to let us listen to. We give her a lucky charm to sweeten the deal. We walk Koromaru.

Tristram: I mean, classical music can be really really amazing. Beethoven alone is worth spending the time to really just listen to if you get the chance. Mitsuru absolutely strikes me as the kind of person able to truly appreciate the intricacies of baroque works. It’s just a pity that my Dad tried to raise me on bloody Wagner and killed my love of the entire genre with The Ring Cycle.

Chris: 1/5, 1/6, 1/7. Things continue on in the same tone. Mitsuru gets Great Condition, but Junpei gets Sick. 1/7 is the last day of winter vacation, and we return on 1/8, a Friday.

1/8. On the way to school, we hear a rather touching new beat: Memories of the School. Probably one of my favorites in the game. Students gossip about the cult, one like they’re already in it. I really have to mimic the opinions SEES voice on this one: are people really this dumb? I don’t think they are. Ms. Toriumi welcomes us back with a question about apostrophes.

Tristram: To quote MIB… “A person is smart. People are dumb panicky animals and you know it.”

Chris: Right on cue, we get a scene with Junpei after school. He (and his voice) asks if we’re busy, and he wants us to come with him for something. We ask if he’s planning to take us to lunch, and he laughs and says sure, if we want. But no, not right now—it’s something serious. So, he wants to be up on the roof for it.

*Sigh* ...It’s difficult for me to hold it all against him.

Shinjiro: We can hold Atlus responsible.

Chris: We can also grudgingly thank them for this scene. We’re alone with Junpei on the roof, and he says it’s almost Coming of Age Day. He used to just think of it as another holiday, though now he has to wonder if he’ll be around to see it. We ask if he’s having second thoughts.

No, he says. But he can’t help but notice how crazy things have gotten around Iwatodai since the New Year. According to Mitsuru, he says, it’s because there’s too many Lost now and the memory revision can’t keep up...whatever that means. He blames Nyx. Oh, and the doomsday cult. Hey, we’re on the case.

But, it’s not just Nyx we have to worry about. ESJL and Evil Nerd are still out there, too, and he knows they’ve got to be up to something, and they need to be taken out. A smile comes over his face as he wonders about trusting “such a cutie” with his life.

Shinjiro: *raised eyebrow* I thought this guy wasn’t an available love interest?

Chris: *sighing* He’s not. But it’s definitely the first time he’s flirted for a while.

Last spring, he wouldn’t have been able to imagine that. But then, nothing that’s happening now could’ve been imagined back then. He looks off into the distance as he says that maybe it’s not completely hit him yet, and that’s it’s all so hard to believe. He says we’re pretty cool, and talks about how “that thing” was inside us for ten years, and we made it a Persona. He continues, saying he knows he’s been a goof-off from day one, and might’ve called us “cutie” a few times, and that we might’ve thought he was making fun of us.

Shinjiro: So he wasn’t? Is he flirting or isn’t he? I’m not mad, I just wanna know.

Tristram: I think they’re just using him to torture us at this point. This scene is so much better than his entire Chidori-induced mess that I really have to wonder who wrote it instead of Hashino.

Empyrea: The same guy who gave us the Ken Romance? *drinks bleach*

Chris: But, he goes on, he’s definitely not joking when he says he’d trust us with our life. He struggles a bit, but says he’s glad to know us. Embarrassing for him to say, but true. We’ll always be friends, even after this is all over, but he phrases it as a question, like he wants an answer.

> “Of course!”
> “More like best friends?”
> “Just friends?” (Look me in the eye and tell me Atlus didn’t fully expect me to choose this one.)

Junpei’s confused, and then perks up. He gets us!

“Like, ‘what kind of friends will we be once this is all said and done?’ ”

Tristram: Oh c’mon now!

Chris: *wearing a pained expression* No!!! No, I’m asking if you’re planning on being romance-able!!! Don’t taunt me like this!

Dorm friends? No, that doesn’t sound right to him. Best friends sounds better.

> Junpei gives a carefree laugh…

Alright, we gotta be blunt with this boy.

> “Sounds great!”
  > “Friends? Not lovers…?”

Junpei takes a second to lose the smile, and gets a little stunned and accuses us of not being funny.

  > “I wasn’t joking…”
> “Just messing with you.”

We finally get that awaited blush as he struggles to answer. He stammers and settles himself, trying to answer straight and calmly, though it takes him a second. He doesn’t want us to take this the wrong way, he’s really glad to hear us say it.

“But, I’m not sure if I’m ready for something like that yet. I mean, nothing personal, I think you’re a great girl, and super cute… But…sorry. I can’t really think about stuff just like that yet. I… want to give you a straight answer someday. Like, I’d hate to leave something like this hanging...”

Shinjiro: *sourly* Yeah, especially with you-know-who turning out to be alive and kicking.

Tristram: I still can’t believe the Arena games went and made it canon! Why would they do that to us?!

Chris: *steadily getting more and more pissed off* I can’t tell if I love this or hate this. Both.

“Haha, but straight up, you can do better than to settle for a guy like me, right?”

Shinjiro: Is he wrong, though?

Chris: We already talked about it.

He goes on to say that, then again, that’s our call.

> You told Junpei of you rfeelings for him, but as expected, he told you he can’t think about such things right now…
> …In any event, you decide to focus on the day of the decisive battle that draws nearer…
> …You shared your determination for the battle to go well and left Junpei with a firm handshake.

In-game typo bolded by me. End scene.

Shinjiro: *low whistle* So, final verdict?

Chris: I don’t know, man. On the one hand, this is a really good scene of Junpei’s character and how it’s apparently developed, and it’s a rare moment where he’s solemn and serious, but still in good cheer. But on the other hand, note that this scene was unprompted. This just happens if we max Junpei’s Social Link, not if we pick certain responses or whatnot that goes down in the other guys’. It’s almost like they dragged us up to the roof to jam it in our faces how un-romance-able he is and that we’ll never date him no matter what.

I can appreciate that Junpei is giving probably the wisest response to this proposal in the face of what went down recently. He lost a girl he was involved with tragically, and he understands that jumping into a relationship again right after wouldn’t be a good idea. That’s definitely a good way to think and so very mature for a guy like him. Again, on the other hand, the tragic relationship in question was the one with Chidori—one of the worst video game romances I’ve ever seen. It’s all the worse, because Junpei here is being slow and waiting, wanting to figure out feelings and not launch himself at a girl-- exactly what he did with Chidori, which we are apparently supposed to see as high romance. I could buy it if Junpei was acting this way in acknowledgment of that sort of relationship being a big mistake, but that’s not what happens.

And yet, I can’t be entirely certain about all of this because of those end lines. For how un-date-able Junpei is, that conversation ended on a decidedly “maybe” note. It’s firmly in the “no, for now” category; his answer in the future might still be no, but he’s admitting that right now, it’s because he can’t say yes. A future relationship, while not guaranteed, could be on the table.

I guess what I really hate about this scene is that Atlus managed to do such a good job of making a great, appreciable scene out of something they royally fucked up on every imaginable level with zero shame. But for the lack of awareness of their own damn plotlines, namely both their and Junpei’s refusal to acknowledge Chidori as a giant hot mess, I am awarding it a point. In fact, another point, because I just realized: Chidori served no purpose whatsoever in this game. She was just there to be Junpei’s love interest; any other factors, such as her allying with Takaya and Jin or her Persona berserking, were just there to add drama to said romance.

Romantic Plot Cancer: 67

Man, that’s just annoying.

You can watch the scene we just went through here. I think my favorite comment is this one, sums it up real neatly:



Tristram: Amen, mochigamer. A-bloody-men. What a ridiculous troll this entire scene is.

Shinjiro: Man… you just got friendzoned by Junpei.

Chris: *punching him on the arm* Shut up!

Tristram: It’s still better than everything to do with Ryoji? I guess? Honestly I’m just more cross that we got such a well-written scene after so much guff than anything else at this point.

Empyrea: *taps chin* Personally, I like this. We need more non-romantic relationships between guys and gals in media, and this one hit all the good notes. The problem is, well, it’s also obviously because they stuck Junpei with Chidori, so nope for us.

Chris: Task failed successfully, I suppose. As one Social Link closes, another begins… hello, Aigis.

She has many things to consider, and wants to know if she can walk home with us, and there’s a place she wants to visit before going back to the dorm. That place is the shrine.

She opens by telling us she’s been coming here a lot lately, when before, she couldn’t understand the significance of a shrine. She reminisces on finding Koromaru here last summer, where he waited even though he knew his master had died. She claims to understand his reasons for doing that; what drives people isn’t always fact, but feeling. The fact was that his master had died, but the feeling was the desire to stay by his side. She then claims that she feels the same way: can’t protect us, yet here she is, by our side.

…Is that worth a point? Yeah, it is.

Aigis I’m Stuck With You: 42

She says she was subconsciously following her feelings rather than available data. Confused, she didn’t realize it at the time, and she now thinks her reasons behind her behavior changing while she’s with us…she trails off. Thus begins our Aeon Social Link. The game outright points out that this isn’t a standard Arcana.

Arcana Believe It: 29

She corrects herself, as she and Koromaru aren’t “people”. This gets her a little down. We then go back to the dorm.

We’re going to go to Tartarus again tonight, but only to level so that we’re prepared later, so it isn’t worth mentioning. Next post, my team will be at level 90 and we’ll be finishing up January starting on 1/9.

Counts:

• DEATH IS INEVITABLE – 70
• Calm Down There, Edgelord – 53
• Villainous Cancer – 33
• Romantic Plot Cancer – 67
• Ill Logic – 102
• Arcana Believe It – 29
• Bad Game Design – 79
• WISTLH – 75
• Aigis I’m Stuck With You – 42

____________________ 
23 - Christmas and New Year | Table of Contents | 25 - January 2

Comments

[pangolin20]

No problem!

[surgeworks]

Aaaaand done.

I'm surprised you had backups of these, you would've had to save them before Das Sporking deleted them, wouldn't you?

I've still got most of these images saved to my computer, so I was able to put them back in pretty easily. These posts were back when I was trying to split the difference between image-heavy recaps and varying internet speeds, so I'd host an image-less version on my journal and the full version on the comm. Obviously that's not a concern anymore, so I'll probably scour the rest of the P3P posts later and fix them up.

[pangolin20]

Good to see it worked!

I'm surprised you had backups of these, you would've had to save them before Das Sporking deleted them, wouldn't you?

Yep, I saved all the posts on there (to be able to search them easier) in August/September 2022, and I've been saving every post since. Seems it's paid off!

And best of luck with putting the rest in, I'd say.