Parallel Worlds: Let's Play Persona 2 and Persona 2!

I... I think I want to try banana chashu ramen.

also, that ramen lady is cool.

I'd show her some bananaramen.

I'd like to think that there's a joke in there somewhere about ordering the banana ramen and have her "hold the banana"...but I'm a little too tired to think of how to make it work right now.

I LOL'd.

(to be persnickety, in a compound like that this would almost certainly go all 濁音 and become 焼かれガエル though)

It also sounds like Banana-rama?

Seven Sisters High School:

Our heroes arrive at Sevens not a moment too soon; the old clock, long broken, moves before their very eyes. Everyone outside freaks out, because supposedly a teacher died in the clock tower and warned that if it ever moved again, the end of the world would be nigh.

Okamura is also familiar with this "prophecy" of sorts, and she runs inside to check out the Naruato stone (that rock we saw her at earlier) again.

Finally, this girl's face melts, horrifying everyone, and proving yet another rumor true. The destruction of all the emblems on Sevens uniforms wasn't enough to end the curse, either...

It's time to act!

Sevens, on top of everything else, is now infested by demons! This means we finally get to start fighting battles. Admittedly, they're not as compelling as those in the PS2 Megaten titles, but I find them enjoyable enough in their own right. However, before I get into the battle system, which merits a post (and probably more) in its own right, I may as well finish up with the introductory scenes here.

One of the rooms here features a Newspaper Club meeting. The students mention Miyabi Hanakouji, a name that catches Eikichi's interest. Since she was under the nickname "Hanaji" at the Sumaru Prison, he didn't recognize her though...and she told Lisa to make sure it stays that way.

Just as they're about to reveal the "secret," Lisa cuts them off and smoothly asks Eikichi how he knows Miyabi, to which he proudly confesses that she was his girlfriend in Elementary School. Hmm...

At any rate, the real destination here is Hannya's office on 3F. We're not the first ones to be looking for him, of course...

Eikichi excitedly suggests that we all go off after him, but since Sevens students hate Kasugayama, they just beat him up and run off. So then, the teasing begins.

Michelle is sick of being "Pantsu Banchou", though, so he decides to make up a name for Lisa. He complains about her foreign looks, fluent Japanese, and random interjections of Cantonese, and then comes up with the name "Ginko" for her.

"Gin" is "Silver" in Japanese, and "ko" is just sort of a name affix, so "Ginko" is roughly analogous to Lisa's real last name, Silverman.

As the fight erupts, two new people arrive on the scene. And they're not in uniforms!

This is Maya Amano, star reporter for the teen magazine "Coolest," and she's here to greet everyone with a nice "Ciao!"

Her companion is Yukino Mayuzumi, a camerawoman who was first introduced as a student in Persona 1. They're here investigating the Joker rumors.


Eikichi, overenthusiastic to deny any involvement, proclaims that he is "NOT searching for the principal of Sevens" and "was NOT stepped on by the Joker." This wording is naturally a little suspicious. Yuki calls him out, and then demons break in.

(cont.)

Maya calls for her "Guardian Angel"...but we all know what this really is. Her persona is MOON class Maia.*


Yukino burns the other Zombie with her Persona, EMPRESS Vesta.

Lisa, Eikichi, and Maya, all say they felt strange when Maya walked into the room, but since none of them know why, they just brush it off. The next topic is, predictably, Personas, which all of them have. Yukino tells them that she gained the power after playing a game called "Persona" in high school. Eikichi comments, weirdly, that he played a game with that name "in his dreams" and Lisa and Maya don't seem familiar with it at all.


Maya ultimately suggests that they all search for the Joker as a group, especially so she can be there when the kids catch him. Before that, though, she expects that the Emblem curse can be fixed by destroying ALL the emblems. Lisa knows where to find some, because the clock faces all feature the design.

So we head back out into the dungeon to find clocks. This is actually very easy: there's one in each classroom, at the front, above the blackboard. (Somehow I didn't end up with any good pictures of this though, so I'll try and nab one later.) Did I say "each classroom"? There are several you can't enter for no apparent reason, but apparently this is nothing to worry about, since everything gets taken care of even without you going into them.


Red means rumors, and in this case, the information that there's a rare demon haunting the halls of SSHS. These things don't just take care of themselves, though. The demon won't show up until we've enlisted Kuzunoha.

After taking care of the classrooms, our next destination is the Teacher's room. Saeko-sensei is there and when Yukino sees her they'll strike up a conversation, having been familiar with each other in the past. She ends up telling PANTS to finish the job, and that she'll take responsibility for the incident.


This room switches up the clock-smashing in two novel ways: first, there are three clocks in this room.

Second, you have to stand on the boxes to reach them. Whoo-ee. That doesn't take care of it either, and Hannya gets on the intercom to yell at the vandals so they'll stop breaking things.

Fortunately, we still forgot one, which Lisa points out is on the clock face in the tower. Nobody goes up there, though, so we need to find a key.

The last accessible room in the building is the Janitor's room on 1F. Surely he has it somewhere. After poking around for a while, Michelle eventually discovers the key and convinces him to hand it over. Success!

(continued)

* I like the persona designs in this game a lot, so I'm linking the art when applicable, since they tend to be somewhat difficult to see in-game. I forgot to do this for Eros, Vulcanus and Rhadamanthus the first time, though.

Persona 2's battle system lacks a lot of the complexity of the newer MegaTen games, but there's still something to it-enough at least, to be worth explaining.


Generally, when you enter a battle, this is what you'll see. Your party lines up, facing the enemy, with this menu showing. The menu options are, roughly, "Fight," "Strategy," "Contact," "Analyze" and "Retreat."

Strategy is not the first option on the list, but it is the most important. In the Strategy menu, you decide the actions your characters will take. You can also alter the order in which they act (though this has consequences, naturally) and change personas.


Setting up this strategy, for example, causes Eikichi to cast Aqua, Lisa to use Magna, and PANTS to perform Agi.

After your strategy is set up, you can choose Fight. Fight executes the chosen moves until you cancel, or the battle ends, whichever comes first. If you've played Phantasy Star II, it's pretty much like that.

Characters take turns based on their speed stat, or at least I'm pretty sure that's why I pumped Maya's AGI sky-high on my first EP playthrough. I think there's some sort of variable element though, as you'll get a slightly different starting order from battle to battle. On the whole, this means that faster characters get more turns, making this unsurprisingly one of the more powerful stats.

This, however, is balanced against the spell fusion system. Fusions are a sequence of spells cast in a specific order. The picture above actually outlines a cast sequence which produces the Tower Inferno fusion. However, each time it gets cast, you may need to check to see if the turns have fallen out of order, or it won't be re-used the next time it comes up.

The game puts a pretty high emphasis on fusions, as they not only do incredible damage, but contribute heavily to the lasting use of your Personas. Persona growth is kind of a different topic that I won't bore everyone with right now, however.


When you meet the conditions for a fusion, this little option appears on the screen. You can choose [confirm] to do it (unless you are using the fusion for the first time, in which case it will be done automatically) or [cancel] if it's an accident.

Analyze may or may not be very useful, I've never really bothered. Retreat is also straightforward. So then there's Contact.

Bargaining with demons is kind of straightforward in Persona 2, at the very least because you get pretty direct and understandable feedback about their responses.

Each character has four "moves" (reduced to one, in EP) to try to appeal to the demon. You can also have them team up for certain "contact combos" which may have different effects as well. No matter what you do, there are four demon reactions:

Red - Angry
Yellow - Interested
Green - Happy
Blue - Scared

After the demon feels the same emotion three times during a contact attempt, negotiations end and they'll take an action. Anger prevents further contact and occasionally gives the demon a free turn. Interest leads to the demon giving Tarot cards. A happy demon will ask you if you want a contract, if your level is high enough to make one with him. A frightened monster flees.

At any rate, I just want 8 LOVERS cards so I can summon a Pixie. The easiest way to get cards of most arcana is to contact demons of the same arcana. However, many, like PRIESTESS, don't have any associated demons, so there's a slightly different method for that. Predictably, the number of cards you get from a contact rises throughout the game, so trying to stock up on cards in the early dungeons is a tedious and unfulfilling process. Just get what you want/need and move on.

As it turns out, there are LOVERS Pixie demons here, so we just have to work with them! Lisa's Kung Fu demonstration is a good way to catch their eye.


However, because allowing players to memorize applicable contact choices for every demon would be "too easy" or something, Demons will also ask the contacting party member a random question (or several). You get to choose one of a few preset answers, but those answers don't necessarily elicit the same response from battle to battle. It's bad enough even if you can read the questions.

Sometimes, however, the best answer is easy to guess (i.e., if a DEVIL Persona tells you he has a camera and asks what to shoot, "Pictures of naked women" is usually, though not always, a pretty safe bet). Not being able to read a lot of the questions doesn't add that much guesswork (because there's already so much) but it does add just a bit more frustration. It's not like you need many cards to complete Tsumi anyway, and the exchanges are amusing enough that the Contact system is a welcome part of the game.

(to be continued, after sleep)

This is my fave LP so far. Not only because I am an SMT fan who hasn't played this game, but also because you are doing a good job of explaining what is going on to those of us who cannot read anything going on.

Obviously, with the key, we're in a position to finish the dungeon, but as with all RPGs, the best time to mess around and do side things is when doom is most imminent!

Persona 2's overworld map is probably my favorite ever. It's surprisingly straightforward and elegant, not to mention nice-looking. There are two scales on the map. The large scale shows a huge overhead shot of the city, and allows you to choose between all currently available areas. At this point in the game, there are two: the Hirasaka ward, where Kasugayama High School, Sumaru Prison, Shiraishi Ramen and Kuzunoha are located, and Rengedai, the city's center, where Sevens and other locations of note are.


This is the map screen for Rengedai, with all the locations marked in-game. At the top of the screen are Mt. Iwato and the Araya Shrine. In the west, you can see Honmaru Park. The center of the map is SSHS, and below that, the Silverman family residence. Finally, in the southeast, the Lotus Mall ("Rengedai," itself, referring to the lotus flower, because as you may be able to see on the large map, the river which cuts through the city forks around the area).


If you head over to the Lotus Mall (or any of the shop areas, as there is one in each portion of the city, Mt. Katatsumuri excepted), a small menu will appear, allowing you to choose which location you want to visit. So, to quickly run through some of the city's notable locations:

Time Castle:

The strange man here sells accessories in Innocent Sin (sadly, your party has no real use for his wide array of timekeeping devices). In EP, he makes some unusual comments about people and the situation at hand, and I assume it's much the same here.

Rosa Candida:
Is a rather boring clothes store. These are everywhere in Sumaru City, so there are much more entertaining places to buy armor.

Satomi Tadashi:

A pharmacy chain, featuring identical purple-haired women at every location. (They are evidently septuplets, despite this being obvious nonsense) There's also an obnoxious but catchy theme song, which is remixed differently from store to store. For this reason, I generally shop in Aoba, because its music is the best.

Kaori:

Kaori is a practitioner of some new-age, homeopathic type remedies, and will use them to cure your party for a nominal fee. This is, essentially, the same as "inns" in all your fantasy-themed RPGs. There's a similar place in each area, but I hate the people at most of the other ones, so I usually either come here or go to Hiragi in Konan.

Hirasaka Ward:
Kameya Alley:


Shiraishi Ramen:
We've already been here before, of course. The ramen lady sells weapons, now that we pretty much forced her into it.

Toa Armory:
I guess they sell armor? I never shop here.

Satomi Tadashi:
Yes, another one.

Gatten Sushi:

This restaurant is run by Kankichi Mishina. Yes, he's Michelle's father, and he doesn't know about his son's glam rocker persona. So when you walk in for the first time, Eikichi will yell at you to "STOP THE EVERYBODY!" in engrish. His dad sees him, and threatens to beat him up, so Eikichi makes up some excuse about there being a masquerade at school and tries to push everyone out the door.

Also here, is rumormonger Toro (Chunky, in English EP). The Rumormongers are your main source of rumors so it's important to hit them up between each dungeon.

Tomi Chiropractic:
A freaky middle-aged man will heal your party with his miraculous ninja doctor skills, learned in America. For a fee. I never come here either, although it is completely functionally identical to Kaori.

Kuzunoha:
We were already here of course, but I didn't really show off any good pictures.

This is a guy named Satomi Tadashi. He's based on a guy of the same name who worked on this game. He was the one trying to access the Secret Menu at Shiraishi earlier. He's Tamaki's boyfriend, but apparently he was unpopular and he doesn't appear in EP.


This is the Chief, who you talk to whenever you need rumor services. Like right now! We tell him to spread the rumor about the demon of Seven Sisters High School, and then we'll be on our merry way, for now. There's still more I could point out here, but this is one of the most visited locations in the game.

(continued)

It's worth noting that Tadashi-kun's father runs a Satomi Tadashi pharmacy in Mikage City (the city from P1) and that the Seven Sisters that run the pharmacies in P2 are his aunts.

His disappearance in EP is an injoke from Devil Summoner.

Obviously, while visiting all the stores, I had avoided one which appears at both Kameya and Lotus, and indeed, in all five wards. Players of Persona 3 will recognize the silhouette, for this is of course

The Velvet Room.


Igor is a constant face through all the Persona games, so if you've played any at all, you'll surely recognize him here. When you first enter, he'll quickly explain that he and the others here all serve Philemon, and his command is to assist visitors in their efforts.


Belladonna is a soprano who sings the Velvet Room's haunting melody. As usual, I'm not sure what most of her NPC dialogue says, but in EP her dialogue is translated as if it were originally a poem or lyrics, but it now lacks any real sense of rhyme or meter (but what do I know?). This makes it all the weirder and more interesting, to me.


At the piano is "Nanashi," literally "Nameless" in English. He provides in-context music for the Room. I forget whether this is the case in IS or not, since I only went once so far, but in EP he's actually got a nice little classical repertoire (the ones I remember off-hand are one of Satie's Gymnopédies, the first movement of Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique, and a Bach prelude that is sung over) that he may choose from each time you enter. While the default song has a lot of appeal, having the occasional change is nice as well.


Finally, there's the other useful NPC here, the Demon Painter. Modeled on Megaten's super awesome artist Kazuma Kaneko, he can turn FREE (that is to say, blank) Tarot cards into those of any Arcana except FOOL. This is useful because several Arcana don't have any associated demons, so you can't get those cards directly.

Unlike P3, the entire party joins PANTS in the Velvet room, because they are all capable of switching personas.


What we're here for today is the Persona Pixie, type LOVERS. So, enter Igor's handy menu, go to LOVERS on the left and choose it, then select the Persona. We can only see Pixie and the next lowest LOVERS persona in this menu right now, Robin Goodfellow, but it will open up more as the game goes on. (I suppose they decided that if you really wanted to grind up to level 13, or whatever it would take to summon Jack Frost, in SSHS, you're already way too overpowered).


After an intermediary screen where you can select Cards to add to the persona (which we don't have any of, yet!), the persona status screen will appear, showing what the persona will be like on creation. Pixie comes with low stats and only the skill Dia, but as she gains ranks she will also learn the following spells:

Garu
Kotoludi (cures "Posessed" status)
Zio
Mahagaru (this is how it's written in Japanese games and the EP translation, but of course, now, it's cut back to "Magaru," etc.)
Media

Personas don't use experience to gain ranks, rather, they simply become more powerful by being summoned repeatedly. This means whenever you get a new persona you should use it every turn if possible, even if it does absolutely nothing (say, casting Agi on an enemy who blocks fire). That's the most basic element of the system, and some more will be explained later.

The other thing you'll notice is that the SP usage is listed as a property of the persona. This means that any spell cast on the same persona will cost the same as any other skill on that persona.


When you confirm the summoning, the central platform will float high into space, and the cards will appear brightly around it. They all coalesce into a single card, which represents your new Persona. New Personas automatically go into Igor's "bank" so you also have to make sure you grab it if you want to take it with you.

Since Pixie is LOVERS, just like Eros, Lisa is the most obvious candidate to use her. So, on it goes.

The Silverman Residence:

As Turnip mentioned earlier (though it was whited out), naming Tatsuya "Steve" is a rather foolish idea because Lisa's father is named "Steven" and looks like Steven Segal. Steven and his wife are massive Japanophiles, which is why they live in this old-looking Japanese mansion. They try to raise their (very foreign-looking) daughter as a nice Japanese lady, and Lisa resists them every step of the way. (She watches lots of Bruce Lee movies and throws out a lot of random bits of Chinese, as well as trying to lecture PANTS on Cantonese in many of the shop dialogues) Anyway, Lisa doesn't like her father (that's novel!) and like Eikichi earlier, just wants to get out of here. Thanks for being a jerk, PANTS.

Well that wraps up most of the diversions for now, so back on track.
Seven Sisters High School:
Well what do you know, not only did we not have to search hard for the rumor demon, but it appeared in the very first battle.



Naturally, since this is still the first dungeon, this thing isn't very dangerous, but it does take quite a few hits to bring down. The reward for beating it isn't really worth the "effort," but fortunately, fighting a toilet is enough on its own.

(continued)

Anyway, rush up to the top floor, beat demons up, you know the drill. Enter the clock room with the key, and...


The clock tower is one of the cooler locations in the game, graphically, with rotating gears and a pretty sweet light effect from the clock face. When PANTS and the group arrive, they're greeted by a ghost...the rumored teacher who died here! He gives the same warning about the clock that we heard earlier. And then...laughter.*


High above are Hannya and the Joker, so clearly they've been working together. Lisa asks the principal why he's been working with the Joker, and if he's been responsible for everything that's happened.


Hannya claims the emblem curse was essentially karma for the students being disrespectful and lazy, not paying attention to school. But it did come from Kasugayama, originally. Hannya's personal benefit from the Joker, on the other hand, was brand new hair! Also, the students and teachers all listen to and respect him (to some extent anyway), which is why even though everyone hates him, they can't speak badly of him.


The Joker sends another flower and disappears, and then the old man leaps down onto one of the gears.


Hannya also uses a persona, imagine that. He only seems to have three moves: a small, weak explosion that hits a few party members, a drill move that is his only remotely dangerous attack, and a weak wrench swing.


After Eikichi's first turn I found out (again) that Hannya blocks Water attacks so I had to send him to attack. Michelle's weapon, the "Standard Case" if you'll remember from when we were getting the weapons at Shiraishi, is a gun concealed in a guitar case. I love Persona 2.


After we burn him enough times, the principal is defeated. The clock face falls away, and the emblem curse ends.


So Hannya jumps out of the new hole. But wait, this was the fourth story, wasn't it?

Something else happens, which I'll bring up next time, and then a girl walks in. She asks PANTS what happened to the principal.


Talking Time! We have two choices! Did the principal live, or did he die? Neither answer is wrong! Neither answer makes much of any real difference! But we have to decide!

Next Time: Ninja Waitress Extravaganza!

*The Joker could really use a cool sound effect, like Kefka. Oh well. His theme song makes up for it.

I'm not sure what the deal is with that light, but since we don't know what happened to him I say the principal is still alive.

Good LP! I never had the chance to play either P2, so this is proving really interesting so far.

The Velvet Room really is so much more kickass in P2. Definitely a place I would like to go to chill and talk the philosophy of the universe with its inhabitants.

Also, be a dick and say he's dead.

It's worth pointing out that Hannya's Persona is, quite naturally, based on the classical Japanese Hannya mask.

I say the principal died. That's the kinda story that sticks with people!

I say dead. I'm guessing the clock tower is pretty high up and the fall would kill him? Also, if we start a rumor that he is dead, maybe he will stay that way.

He's dead. He just jumped out of a clock tower.

Also, for no reason in particular, this thread is making me want to play Clock Tower.

Seven Sisters High School: Clock Tower

So, looking back a few seconds:

Maya just had her first encounter with the Joker, and since she's following him for her job, she can't exactly stop thinking about him. She comments that he feels somehow familiar, and then for no apparent reason, recites a bit of poetry.

PANTS and the Joker are a little alike, she says...but despite the lack of much backstory for him at this point, PANTS doesn't strike me as a secretly crazy guy who goes around granting absurd wishes and stealing people's dreams...


A large portion of Maya's dialogue in IS is basically her telling everyone else to cheer up (her catchphrase being a tortured english "Let's positive thinking!" in kana). It's time to keep going, wherever the search will lead.


Lisa's idea is to catch up with Hanaji again, as she may have some new information. The most likely place to find her at the moment is Yumezaki's Peace Diner.


As at least one respondent realized, the question isn't "Can a sixty-year-old man survive a four-story fall?" (there's no debate there) but "Do you want Hannya to be dead?" After we tell her that he didn't survive, she praises him for heroically saving the school from the emblem curse and leaves to spread the news. Sure enough, this becomes the "fact" that he died on this day, and we never have to see him again. (If you spare him, [not that I think this is really spoilers since I don't think most people are likely to play the game but just to be safe] he returns a changed man and earns his popularity as the principal of Sevens, as well as becoming a badass hero with his Persona. I killed him when playing the first time, with a completely unfounded fear that he'd come back with a vengeance.)

So, we can head outside to find a new area on the city map, in the north.

Yumezaki Ward:

I've come to the conclusion that this is Sumaru City's touristy area (and for all I know, this is actually stated somewhere that I never saw). Here's what's around:

GOLD:
This is the "Gold" Gym, which at least a couple notable Persona 2 characters are patrons of. We haven't met them yet, though.

Zodiac:
A club which has become the hangout for many Kasugayama High students. Yes, that was blunt, blunt foreshadowing.

Pachinko Silver:
Truth be told, I'm not an expert on Persona 2 by any means (particularly IS). When I took this picture I didn't remember that this building existed at all. Now that I spent some time thinking about it, I recall what it's there for...one of IS' amusing "go away if you can't read Japanese" puzzles.

Mu Continent:
A casino, where you can engage in boring, time-tested minigames (but with your party members' portraits! It is actually a decent excuse to sit down at the Blackjack table for five minutes in EP) for prizes which may or may not be fabulous. Actually, after five minutes of poker saved me at least an hour of grinding at the end of EP, I really shouldn't be so harsh on it.

Giga Macho:
A huge, hilariously named CD store, also the location of one of Sumaru's more popular radio stations.

Yumezaki Shopping Center:


Tony's Shop:

The big-nosed foreigner here sells accessories. Like the Shiraishi lady, we can also use rumors to open him up as another black market weapons dealer. Right now, in fact!

Anima Mundi:

Between the Latin name, my prior interpretation that the whole area is a tourist trap, and the fact that the clothes displays here are all hideous, I can only assume that this is supposed to be some sort of high fashion store. This is another armor store, but there might as well only be one (as long as it's the right one, which we can't visit yet, natch).

Satomi Tadashi:
That store you've come to know and love, this time with goofy breakbeats! YEAH!

Bikini Line:

In this Hawaiian themed locale, you can get a tan as ugly as this guy's! Or use magical UV powers to repair your demon-inflicted wounds, apparently. The music here is kind of cool, but if it's not obvious, I hate the place.

So, that's Yumezaki, aside, of course, from a door to the Velvet Room and the place we came to visit.

(continued)

Peace Diner:

PANTS and the gang arrive here only to not find Hanaji chowing down on a Peace Burger. Darn. However, only a few seconds later, another girl in a Sevens uniform appears. This isn't her either, but Lisa eventually recognizes her as Ueda Chika, another newspaper worker.


Chikalin is Tsumi's formal introduction to the rumormongers, although it's possible to get rumors from the ones Hirasaka and Rengedai once Hannya dies (or doesn't). She also has the exclusive information that Hanaji went to the Zodiac in an attempt to investigate the rumors coming out of Kasugayama High.


Between this and what Hannya said, Lisa has enough information to rail on Eikichi, but he claims he had nothing to do with the evil rumors coming out of the school. She finds this pretty suspicious, since he's the "Captain" after all, an unofficial leader who controls the students by intimidation and fear (aka, his Persona). Rather than let them bitch each other out, Yuki and Maya suggest just going and finding out the truth once and for all.


Chikalin stands next to the counter, from now until the end of the game, and you can "trade" rumors with her. She'll ask what you want to know a rumor about, and if you have any information for her, then she'll give you her rumor, which you can cash in at Kuzunoha.

Yes, I promised a Ninja Waitress, but apparently I didn't actually manage to take a decent picture. It's best not to get too excited anyway, but there'll be one next time.


The same process can be repeated with Toro in Gatten Sushi...


and the homeless Toku in Honmaru Park in Rengedai.

The rumormongers really all have the same rumors, but slightly different versions. For example:

If you ask about Mu Continent, Chikalin will give you the rumor that the Blackjack is a profitable game. Toro will tell you that the Slots pay out well, and Toku tells you that enterprising players should hit the Poker table. However, if you go to Kuzunoha, you can't spread all of these rumors, so you have to pick the one which you like best.

The rumors in this round are:
What game to play at the casino.
The Time Count at Time Castle sells weapons.
Tony sells weapons.
You can win stuff in a magazine contest (I love this and we'll have time to play with it once we're not poor anymore).
Rosa Candida sells armor.



In general you want to spread the rumors that shops sell high quality items for high prices, because it's easy to get money, but if you go around making all the shop inventories crappy, you're mostly stuck with the dumb weapons and armor you can buy from your self-fulfilling prophecies.

Now that we're done messing around, it's time to press onward.

Club Zodiac:

In this room we're introduced to SSHS students Noriko Katayama and Anna Yoshizaka. I forget how much of Anna's backstory is around to this point but suffice it to say that she's not very happy with life. Noriko cares a lot about her and tries to get her not to smoke, but after she doesn't seem to be getting through, she just gives up and storms off.


Yukino picks up where Noriko left off, and while she doesn't seem to be successful either, she irritates Anna to the point where she just storms off rather than being harassed.

Three KHS students come over and start messing with the Sevens students and Michelle. Eikichi scares two of them off, and intimidates the third into telling about what's happening in Zodiac. He reveals that another Kasugayama student, Sugimoto, has spread rumors that he's now the "Head," and stronger than the "Captain." Additionally, Hanakouji entered the secret club in the back to investigate the situation. This is enough to get Michelle to run off recklessly on his own, so he won't be joining us in the next area. Alas, it's time to rescue some people.


This Zodiac employee has apparently never been through the door ten feet to her right, but there's a rumor that there's a big maze in the back. In an effort to grind the Pixie Persona and drag out this segment longer, I of course choose to backtrack to Kuzunoha and spread this one too.

(continued)

The Dark Side of the Zodiac:

Actually, even after spreading the rumor, the hallways back here are pretty straightforward and quick. There's not a lot to see here. Sure, there's some cool furnishings, but this isn't "Let's Look at Everything spineshark Took Pictures Of." (On the other hand, if you want to see more, I take way more pictures than I actually use for each update, and for now they all end up in my album)


There's nothing worth contacting in Zodiac, although the first MOON demons begin appearing here. There are also Zombies. Zombies don't go with any Tarot symbol, so you can't contact them, even if you wanted to.


They are also weak against fire, and most demons here are vulnerable to it, so it's time to bring out a wonderful new fusion. This one ("Mega Blaze") requires Fire Spell -> Wind Spell -> Fire Spell, and then it hits all enemies. Unless the encounter features the annoying fire-resistant imp-things, it will one-shot all enemies, as if the place wasn't already trivial enough.

This is a Very Good Thing, as it means that basically every fight offers an opportunity for a fusion bonus. If the last blow of the battle comes from a fusion spell, then any persona involved in the fusion has a chance to get a fusion bonus. These are:

2 Rank Increase (only available until the Persona reaches Rank 7)
Parameter Increase (Persona stats increase, these build up over time and become extremely strong)
Learn Spell (each persona has exactly one spell which is learned through this method instead of direct rank increases)
Hidden Ability (I saw this once, but it's rare and only applies to certain Personas)
Mutation activated (only happens when the persona is at the max rank, 8)

All of these can be pretty useful, so the more battles you use fusions in, the more likely they will happen. In particular, the stat increase can allow you to continue using old personas for a very, very long time. Between this and the card system, it's often easier to just coast through with Personas you already have than to raise new ones. Given this, Persona 2's relatively low difficulty is really kind of a blessing, since if you had to make and raise new Personas as much as in P3 it would quickly become tedious. On the other hand, it is a kind of unfortunate limitation on the system.

To get into the "secret" room in the back, we need to be wearing masks, which are conveniently stashed in a nearby storage room. After grabbing them, we can return to see


Sugimoto's goons beating up Eikichi. He threatens to hurt Hanakouji if Eikichi summons his Persona, so he doesn't have much choice but to sit there and take it.


Even to this point, she's tried to hide her identity, but Sugimoto finally just spills it. Even though she's no longer the "slim and beautiful" girl he knew years ago, he still ferverently stands up for her.


So the Head nicks her with his knife, and Lisa just can't take it anymore. She says they have to help Michelle. Yuki, on the other hand, warns that this is Eikichi's business and that he can handle it himself.


*gasp* Another choice! Is Lisa right? Is Eikichi such a pussy without Rhadamanthus that he needs PANTS and three women to bail him out? Or is Yuki's faith in our (second-?*)favorite PS1-era rocker well-placed?

I'm still not sure I want to really open this up for debate, because if you guys pick the wrong one, Eikichi (and PANTS, as far as I know) will be temporarily gimped later on. But have at it!

(and yes, nobody is wearing a mask in that last picture. Clearly we just took them off after we got past the door guard)

Next Time: Circular Logic!

*Eikichi is my favorite character in this game, but I'm sure some people like Nikki from Chrono Cross as well. The latter is definitely a better musician. Also: Um Jammer Lammy.

Michelle needs to man up and take them himself. That's what he gets for painting his face like that.

Yeah, let's give glam rock the respect it so desperately needs by letting Michelle totally kick those guys' asses.

Anime is full of the cliche "It's his fight to fight." Screw honor! Kick their asses.

I own EP (but haven't played it yet), but the IS translation project seems to be coming along nicely (it's already at 80 percent! But it probably won't be released until the end of the year at the earliest with all the debugging to do), so I'm thinking of playing that first, so I'm not sure whether to keep following this thread. I enjoy reading it, but spoiiilers!

PANTS and Eikichi are now rock 'n' roll blood brothers. You mess with one of them, you mess with all of them.

Even though we didn't get to help Hannya you bastards at least we can help Eikichi. Take 'em on!

He's a big boy, he can handle it himself. Besides, Yukino is an adult, Ginko is a Japanese(esque) teenager. Who's judgment do you trust more?

Wait, are those squirrel girls? Did Mopinks do enemy design for this game?

I say let him handle it himself. Have some faith in the dude.