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

If Michelle asked to handle it himself, sure let him. But it was someone else saying that, how the fuck would they know whether Michelle wants our help or not. I say help him.

マンです、ベイビイ！He didn't ask for help either. I'm not sure he knows PANTS is here.

Voting is still tied, but I decided. I've logged the battle with Sugimoto anyway!

Kasugayama High School sucks though, so next update is still a bit off.

I did now, because you started the rumor and it became reality.

SO META

I'd like to think that I'm not ruining everything (I'll be playing through the patch, certainly) but I definitely understand this view, too. Encouraging people who have only played the newer games to at least try EP was a large part of my hope for this thread. It's definitely sort of clumsy, compared to Nocturne/DDS/P3, so failing people enjoying playing Persona 2 I hope they can still get something out of it. And thanks to all for the encouragement so far!

At any rate, the next dungeon is the worst in the entire duology (not that it even takes that long) so I'm having some trouble mustering the effort to finish it right now. But to prove that this LP is not dead, I can at least close out the Zodiac chapter.

Eight people voted, and it was split 4-4, so I had two choices (well okay, there were more than two ways to look at resolving it, but they all inevitably mean choosing one of the two options in the prompt):
a) Swing the vote the way I wanted it, or
b) Ignore Turnip's vote because I know he knows what happens.

Neither of these options was very good, but I chose "a" for my own convenience. For the record though, here's what happens if you think Ginko is right:


By running in there and flashing their little Persona auras, Maya and Yukino scare everyone out of the room except for Sugimoto and Hanakouji. It seems the tables have turned!


But of course, he has a trick. The bastard manages to summon his own Persona, one that reminds PANTS and Lisa of something they've seen before. Sugimoto's Persona is actually an "evil" or "Reverse" Rhadamanthus.

He blocks water, and Eikichi's gun attacks are also useless. On the other hand, Maia learned Media after two turns, so the battle strategy quickly settled into this:

(Maya: Media
PANTS: Agi
Ginko: Zio
Michelle: Defend
Yuki: Zio)

There is a fusion spell which Vulcanus and Vesta can do just by having them both cast Agi. The two Zio's do not serve the same purpose, and I would actually get about 10 more damage per round by fusing fire (which is a lot considering how weakly I was hitting the guy). Maya's SP runs deep though, and this gave me the chance to get up and grab a drink. I needed it, too.

Eventually he went down, everybody gained two levels, and unable to resist anymore, he spills the beans...

Obviously, if you leave Michelle alone, the confrontation goes down a little differently. Eikichi pretty much surrenders, so Sugimoto waves off his goons and comes over to humiliate him personally.


He swings a few times and misses. Or maybe he's really pounding Michelle, it's kind of hard to tell given the animation here. Eikichi isn't fighting back, but he's not going down, either.


So the Head backs up and begins to call on his Persona. Right then, Michelle suddenly shouts "I quit!"


Then he decks the bastard. The Head may be stronger than the Captain, but Sugimoto is not stronger than Mishina, and by relinquishing his title, he broke the rumor's power.


He looks about ready to cooperate. But first, everybody congratulates Michelle on how much of a badass he turned out to be, even without his persona.


The Head explains that the Kasugayama High president is working with the Joker to bring down Sevens. He cooperated in the scheme for his own personal gains, but he seems to be regretting it (I wonder why!).


The Joker actually commands a pretty large organization, according to Sugimoto, but he was just about to be inducted into it today and doesn't know very much. One "Lady Scorpio" is a high-ranking member, though, and seemingly the ringleader at KHS.

I think the next destination is obvious.

That's actually quite brilliant. Incredible use of the game's internal logic.

Well, I'm interested enough in this that I have to stop reading your thread now. Thanks, spineshark!

Alright, the last update proper having been over a week ago now, it's really time for some more! As I mentioned before, this part is really not fun to play, and it was compounded by a pretty busy week (my grandpa's law office needed someone to fill in, which has become me until the end of the week at least), me forgetting one of the triggers, and playing the game on a stupidly dark monitor...but here goes!

Kasugayama High School:
The students here are setting up for something. It's a...masquerade. No, really. Eikichi's bizarre and ridiculous lie became true (though this seems not to be the Rumor Effect).


There are a lot of students around KHS, but most of the conversations are pretty boring. There's also this one, where Eikichi asks about a transfer student in this room. He hasn't been seen much, according to a couple of the guys, and it's speculated that he may not be very healthy. This reminds me of someone...


Meanwhile, when Eikichi enters the student council room, he's informed that Yasuo, the president, is hiding in the schools bomb shelter. The council members seem to be turning on him, and want the former Captain to stop him.


The demons here are quite a bit hardier than the ones at Zodiac, but if Michelle wears some of the stronger ones down it's still possible to fuse out most encounters. You just have to run away from the funny floating guys with spirals on their bellies and the imps in chef hats, since they block fire.


Practically right inside the basement is the entrance to the bomb shelter. The party can hear the voice of someone who is apparently the President.


So of course we have a couple of idiots run straight inside. We have no choice but to follow them now.


It's dark down here, but Maya has a flashlight, and with it the party finds a transceiver, relaying Yasuo's messages. He informs them that there is a rumor about the bomb shelter, stating that the exit cannot be seen. But, he will help everyone escape if Lisa agrees to date him. Clearly, he doesn't know Ginko, if he's asking for that.


Eikichi gets really fed up and breaks the machine, which Lisa gets angry at him for. Obviously, she's just looking for an excuse, but at the same time, that was their only way to contact anything outside the bomb shelter. Not a good way, but better than nothing, perhaps.

Anyway, it's time to start looking for the way out. Maybe we can find it!


There's really not much to see, though, and especially on my dark monitor I was blundering into everything while playing this part.

(cont)

Kasugayama High Bomb Shelter
The premise of this part is that the party runs around in the dark, blundering back into the same room over and over, until the game takes pity on us. Here is what I had to say about it earlier tonight:

<VorpalEdge> how's the let's play coming?
<spineshark> I'm working on it right now
<spineshark> this dungeon is the most accurate depiction of being locked in a dark hellhole ever made in video games =(
<spineshark> it's so powerful, even the player feels desperation slowly overcoming him

However, it's not a total loss. First of all, lurking down here is a portal to one of the best locations in the game:

Trish's Fountain:

Trish is a greedy fairy, who appears in a lot of dungeons where you can't get out easily. Presumably she's here so that you can't really get perma-stuck by saving yourself in a really bad situation. But she's really only worth a laugh, because SP is restored when your characters level up and also as they walk around, and this early in the game, that regeneration far outpaces their possible consumption.


For comparison, healing up at Kaori (or Tomi/Bikini Line) costs 1200 Yen. Seriously.


If you refuse to pay her outrageous fee, she will respond accordingly. I think this picture is understandable to everyone here. In EP, as I recall, she will cheerfully tell you to "Die, for all I care!"


One of the more amusing things that happened as I was tripping over things down here was that I walked into a puddle that poisoned everyone. I rarely buy Antidotes, especially in IS where I forget which item they are, and usually "cure" it by letting the afflicted person die, finishing the battle, then healing them up afterward (as they are returned to 1 HP after the battle, like in Chrono Trigger or Dragon Quarter). I'm really a master of efficiency in this game! This method turned out not to be a very good option, so I just stuck with it the rest of my time down here, healing frequently, and cured it when I got out.


After six rounds of wandering blindly around the area, Pants and friends finally realize that this isn't a very productive way to go. Michelle then notes that:

1) somebody did get out of the bomb shelter
2) they had a mirror
3) he's traveling with three women and he's the only one who carries a hand mirror?


Then he gets it out and starts messing with his hair. Ginko makes him drop it. Wonderful. Really, really wonderful.


But hey, let's all calm down, cheer up, and get some rest. We can always be trapped here in the morning!


But she can't sleep, so she sits down for some quality time with Pants. She shows him her most treasured possession: a funny little bunny who cheers her up. And she wants to know about his lighter...

(cont)

(Watching this again, this is maybe actually my favorite scene in Innocent Sin)
Flashback:
Pants thinks back to a time when he is spending time with another young boy. A boy who looks and acts a lot like him, in fact.


Because they're friends, the other kid offers Pants his dad's lighter, his most treasured posession. Pants declines at first, but is assured that it's okay! They're a lot alike, so it's like he's not really losing it at all.


So in kind, Pants offers his fancy watch. The boy declines at first, but then realizes that it's merely mirroring his previous gesture, and accepts the exchange.


Immediately after this, a drunk comes out of the door across the street, and he can be seen reflected in the window. He crosses to see the boys, and tells them that it's getting late and they should go home.


Then he refers to himself as "Kaoru" and talks about finding his dreams, all while denying his drunkenness. As he shambles off, the boy says to Pants, that he's heard adults drink to forget their dreams...

Back in the present, everyone's had a nice rest and so the adventure continues on.


(I just included this picture because I like the portrait of Pants smiling)

Maya gives her standard encouragement, then she has a pop quiz to go over what we know about getting out. As far as I can tell, these dialogue prompts are meant to uncover two categories of people: (mild) perverts, and people who cannot recognize any Japanese writing. However, it's a fairly convenient opportunity to go over the whole thing again.

Maya's questions are basically:
"Why does the rumor say nobody gets out of the bomb shelter?"
-Because no one can find the exit.

"Has anyone escaped?"
-One person.

"What did that person have?"
-A mirror.


Finally, she asks what's so special about a mirror. You don't only have to look at yourself (Eikichi would fail on this part, obviously)-you can see other things too! Like what? One of the options here is "looking up skirts," but the answer is that you can see things indirectly.

Do we have another way to do that? The answer is yes, and we can follow the same logic that was used in the second Harry Potter book. No, really.


Yuki attacks the darkness with her magic missile...err, camera, and the exit miraculously appears. Another day, another rumor circumvented!

But we still have to stop a guy. We race toward the Gym, which is where the main event is, and after picking up masks (again), Pants and the others find this:


Pants steals Maya's mask, saving her, but everyone else is being drained by the power of the skull, and of course


Yasuo is the one holding it, with a stupid, smug grin on his face. Eikichi scares him off for the time being, however, and he rushes off to go be a coward, interrupting the process.


There's someone else here too, watching the events...

(cont, tomorrow)

Yasuo flees into the school, and by all reports he's headed for the roof. Pants and the party emerge to find another one of the President's devices, but Eikichi spots him and smacks the bastard.


Here comes this villain's monologue, of course. He just wanted what was best for the school and its students! With the Joker's help they'd become better, stronger, more popular! And if Eikichi will only help him, they can go even further!

And of course he had no idea what he was doing with that skull. He can't reverse it and he certainly can't hand it over, under threats from Lady Scorpio.

Like all of the joker's previous minions, he also has a Persona. Use of force is authorized.

I'm pretty sure this is just an easy battle, but it's a very easy battle after Pants and friends were stuck in the bomb shelter for so damn long.


Pixie learned Media while down there, so basically we have Michelle and Yuki attacking, Maya and Lisa overhealing, and Pants casting Agi (yes, that's not what the picture says, but it took about two seconds to find out that he resists sword damage or something).

Yasuo's main move is Maha Garu, which hits everyone for light wind damage. His other trick is to try to enrage the party, which mostly just kills him faster. Eikichi and Maya were enraged-Maya's attacks proved worthless since I didn't upgrade her weapon (and also making me glad I had Pixie for backup), but Michelle just did what I wanted him to do but better. He also wrapped up the battle with a nice 225 damage crit.


So Pants has the skull. It's kind of blue. Yasuo once again claims that he doesn't really know what it's for, he was just supposed to use it and turn it over to the "Masquerade", and maybe he'd become more powerful. Eikichi's been having dreams about a "Masquerade" too. (He must be making this stuff up to sound cool.)

Then the group, especially Yukino, and their Personas feel a very strong presence. It's Anna, and everyone recognizes her, despite her Executive mask.


I know Dr. Jones is getting old, but it looks like he just got outwhipped by a teenaged girl! After she looks at the skull, she explains that the only ones who can really control the skulls are those with some Zodiacal signs, and complains that Yasuo didn't gather very much energy.

Suddenly, there's another presence, this one the most connected to Maya.


King Leo is the leader of the four executives, making him the Joker's second-in-command, more or less. He explains that most people's energy is low, which is why the Joker has been making people's dreams reality. After incinerating Yasuo, he tells off Scorpio for revealing her identity and abandoning her duties at the "Shadow Feast" and tells her to go back and finish it off. He then threatens everyone else, especially "the witch" Maya, and disappears.


She breaks down, and it's revealed that Leo has been stalking her for years. But there are immediate things to attend to, so we all head back down to the Gym, where everyone left has been turned into Shadow People. Yuki swears she'll save Anna from the Masquerade, while the others wonder what to do next. Let's try the Peace Diner again?

All we get there is Chikalin telling us there's a fortune-telling mystic in the Konan area. I don't know whether this is useful or not, but who cares? We can go to Konan now.


Konan's locations of note are:

Police Station
Lunar Palace Konan
Seaside Mall
Ebisu Beach
Abandoned Factory
Sky Museum

Police Station:

This is where Pants' brother Katsuya works. Katsuya is hard-working and motivated, unlike our hero, and he always seems to be in Pants' face about his future and whatnot. At least in IS. In EP, the changed perspective makes him seem at least a little different...

Seaside Mall:

You can various characters' faces do that in a lot of scenes. I really wouldn't be surprised if it's already appeared in one or more earlier updates.


The Jolly Roger is a restaurant (and weapons shop, act surprised) run by this melancholy pirate. Awesome.


The London shop, on the other hand, is pretty much my favorite store in Persona 2 (sadly, it doesn't return in any form in Eternal Punishment). This is my armor store of choice, generally, because I find it so funny.


Hiragi Psychotherapy is Konan's healing location. A woman in funny glasses is in charge, but there's someone of consequence here too. Maki (or Mary, thanks to the first game's Americanization) is a friend of Yuki's from back in the original game, and she...well, doesn't do all that much, but she's familiar with Philemon and Personas and all that.


Here's the Sumaru Gypsy, whom Chikalin told us about. She gives rumors, mostly.

Out on the streets, everyone's raving about the upcoming musical debut of the MUSES (this game really is a "Greekfest" as another member of this board has noted). Two of the members are known to be Juniors at Sevens: Lisa's classmates "Asacchi" and "Miipo." The third, however is being kept a secret, but there are plenty of rumors flying about who it could be...

Next time:

!

What a racist bitch.

Awesome.

I just noticed that the spell names are in katakana. Some of the later spells with long names must be a challenge to fit into the space given, much less pronounce. Now I'm still left trying to figure out where some of those names came from - Agi makes sense, but what are Zio or any given -kaja prefix from?

Is it just me or does Captain Edgar Allan Poe not have any eyes?

Note: Blonde white girl(s) in this update are not actually racist. I apologize for any inconvenience.

I'm also sorry that this one took a while to put together, but this part isn't much more fun than Kasugayama was; from here until after Caracol should be more enjoyable and therefore come out faster.

None of the four rumormongers have any information we didn't already know about the Muses, but when PANTS and his entourage visit Honmaru Park there's a group of SSHS students who pester Lisa to give them an autograph.

Eikichi is all too eager, of course, while Lisa has no idea what they're talking about. They tell her to look at the poster, then run off, frustrated.


Alas, this one small area is the entirety of the visitable portion of Honmaru. The rest is blocked off, with a sign stating that it's closed for a construction project overseen by a "Tatsuzou Sudou" started in 1980, or about 20 years before the beginning of the game. There probably wouldn't be anything to see anyway.

Well, fortunately, the rumormongers are not the only people we have contact with who are into the scene.

Kuzunoha:

Tadashi has a Muses poster set up inside the office. After taking a good look at it, and Lisa, he points out the conclusion which has been all but obvious since this whole subplot started - Lisa is the "mystery" Muse. Despite small protestations from her and Michelle, he's nonetheless confident that he's right-the third member has a crazy blonde hairstyle, according to his rumors.


So he wants her to sign for him. He's really kind of annoying! Tamaki leads him off-camera where (hopefully humorous) violence evidently ensues. The party realizes that since this is the rumor going around, it's going to be true, whether it was already or not...in fact, the poster was probably made for this exact purpose. Is the Masquerade behind this too? The investigation isn't nearly over.

Mu Continent:

Over at the casino, a director is grabbing extras for a music video starring the Muses. Our slapdash group looks good enough, so he motions everyone to head into the back room. Of course, there's enemies back here.

The monsters all get another pretty big buff from KHS. There's still nothing especially threatening, though, aside from these blob monsters.

They have an explosion move which they'll use after being hit a bit. It does about 70 damage to everything else (all demons and human characters in the battle) so two in a row, following some bad hits, could kill everyone (this is so unlikely that it's not worth worrying about, though). There's no chance of this happening as long as they get attacked with the AOE fusion though, which is still worth spamming on everything it'll work on. Which is to say, basically every enemy, except for the masked guys in red robes.

Yes, the game doesn't really draw attention to it yet, but there are Masquerade troops in a lot of random encounters from here to the end of the game. They're associated with four Zodiac signs and four elements, based on their colors:

Red - Fire - Leo
Blue - Water - Aquarius
Yellow - Earth - Taurus
Green - Wind - Scorpio

At least I think I got that right. Anyway, after fighting through some people and taking a dead end or two, the big, important room is here on 4F.


After the video shoot, the other two Muses explain to Lisa that they were scouted by a record producer named Ginji Sasaki after they took a picture together and wrote a wish to become stars on it. Their big song is about to come out, and it has a solo part in English for Lisa.


Ginko rejects them, saying that they only want her because they can't handle it without her. They leave, but Yuki suggests that they keep following them, and Maya grows more worried that the Muses are just another trick of the Masquerade.

(cont)

Giga Macho:

This dungeon has a lot of fairly interesting art design, with all sorts of posters and markings on the walls. Unfortunately, it was also made more "dungeony" by leaving lots of illogical flotsam around, which makes it kind of a pain to navigate.


For example, this big metal door blocking the stairs up from 3F. After running around a little longer, we come across a nice elevator...


and after taking it up two stories...

PANTS is greeted by a nice, big, metal door, that blocks it on this end.

Nonetheless, after taking the elevator to the fourth floor, there's a staircase that leads up, and soon we're in the Sound Max studio.

In the booth are the host, the group's producer Ginji Sasaki, and the first two muses. And on Lisa's arrival, Sasaki is ready to make his big announcement.

She is, as has been made obvious repeatedly, the third member of Muses. Maya and PANTS send Ginko into the booth so they can see how the situation develops, but Maya starts to feel uneasy about it-Ginji seems to have a persona too.


In the meantime, the radio show is still going on, and lots of people want to know if Lisa has a boyfriend. She tells everyone he's here in the studio right now and indicates in the general direction of both PANTS and Eikichi.


So Michelle takes it to mean him, or maybe he's just teasing Ginko. Either way, they get mildly angry at each other and making goofy punching motions for a minute.


After that calms down, Sasaki announces the Muses' debut song, which is called "Joker" and is about the Joker Charm, unsurprisingly. And Lisa will have an English speaking part. Believing that she's fluent, the host asks her to say something in English.


(Well, that's certainly something)

Finally, he announces the Muses' concert schedule and their early premiere, which is going to be on this very day at the concert hall in Aoba Park. Lisa has no choice but to leave with them, separating her from the party...

(cont)

Aoba Park is in the Aoba ward, naturally, which opens for us just now! Although it can't be shown in one picture, this is the fifth and final major section of the city (in IS), which are arranged in a big cross-formation; Yumezaki in the north, Aoba in the east, Konan in the south, and Hirasaka in the west, all placed around Rengedai.

Aoba:

From the east, there's:
A fire station (this is completely inconsequential, but at least you can go there, if you feel like it)
Aoba Drive (the shopping center)
Kismet Publishing (Maya's workplace)
Sumaru TV [station]
Aoba Park

So there are a few people to meet.


At Sumaru TV you can encounter this woman, Junko Kurosu, a famous actress who tells PANTS that he is not worth her time, essentially. She's mysteriously young and beautiful, even moreso than she was ten years ago. (Also, look at the sprite; damn, that's some crazy hair)

There's also another Persona 1 character who happens to be here, but he sucks (always) and is not worth discussing right now.


Meanwhile, at Kismet, the guy standing in the lobby is Yukino's mentor of sorts, Fujii Shunsuke. Yuki acts differently (feminine, basically) when he's around. Which isn't all that often, but still notable.


Aoba Drive features another Velvet Room, another Pharmacy, and a second Rosa Candida (which is exactly the same as the first one, except by what rumor you posit).


Cleir de Lune is a restaurant and weapons shop, staffed by "Garcon Soejima." Soejima is of course, another developer cameo-he drew P2's in-game portraits and did the character designs themselves in P3.


Etheria is another place where you're healed by nonsensical magic powers, only this time there's absolutely no pretense-I'm pretty sure it's supposed to come off as completely, bizarrely mystic.


Last, there's the Double-Slash internet cafe (represented by a "W" in IS and "2x" in [English, at least] EP). Here you can chat with the enigmatic fifth rumormonger, Baofu.


Without Lisa, there's no Mega Blaze, most demons are resistant to Fire which two out of four characters use, and she won't benefit from any encounters here. So why bother? Escaping is massively overpowered in Persona 2, anyway, unless you wait until the last possible moment, since any time it becomes any party member's "turn" you get another opportunity to use the menu and select the retreat option. I have never died in random battles in Persona 2, which is actually kind of disappointing given some of the stuff that happens in the main-line games and DDS.

After a short jaunt through the demon-infested park, we approach these guys, who are standing idly at the door.

PANTS has to fork over 10,000 yen to get them to let the group take over their job, so this isn't really a choice at all. You pay and get through, or you don't.

(cont)

Backstage at the Amphitheater:


This place has my favorite dungeon track in the game. It's a shame that this tiny area is over in about three minutes.


After you head into the room adjacent to the stage, Eikichi tells everyone they can hear Ginko if they're close enough to the door. On the other side...


Lisa reveals that she doesn't know any English at all. The other Muses try to tell her that it's cool that she's different, but Lisa doesn't buy that. She was teased about it when she was younger, so how could it suddenly be "cool?"


There's another option, of course. Just call the Joker, and wish to be a fluent English speaker! That would take care of it all right away. Lisa protests, for various reasons, but probably most of all because the Joker is still planning to kill her, even if she doesn't mention that part.


Sasaki goes into a rant about dreams and how Lisa needs to find her own rather than just clinging to PANTS and their group of superfriends. Her story, and her song, will be inspiring! Yeah!


Backstage, some sort of manager comes back to chew everyone out for being lazy, but conveniently he waited until the group was finished eavesdropping. Eikichi is worried that Lisa will turn against them, but Maya is sure everything will be fine.


And sure enough, as everyone heads into position, Michelle asks PANTS if the two of them should go save Lisa from the Muses themselves, or not.

according to the script, the options are roughly
wait and see what happens
go to intervene
"let me think about it," (which may not do anything, I didn't even test. This is a lame answer anyway, if you're given a decision, decide)

I wasn't even going to make this a choice (initially I picked the "best" one and moved on, since there's another choice soon), but as it turned out I wasn't ready to beat the boss and I really felt the need to put up this update anyway. So that's kind of convenient.

Next time: Dial J! (it's going to be a short one)

Hrm... this is a tough choice. Let me think about it.

I'm all for trusting your party members in times of crisis. Wait and see.

She's white - doesn't that mean she's honest? That's what I've gotten from this thread anyway.

She knows kung-fu, so she can handle it.

Also, Scorpio is Water/Aques and Aquarius is Wind/Garu. Yes I know that's sort of retarded.

Not really. In Astrology, Scorpio's a water sign and Aquarius is a wind sign - perfectly reasonable.

Well I could've just analyzed it. I didn't think of it because I just saw the guys in blue robes and thought "Oh man, weak to fire! HAHAHA DIE!"

I also forgot that Lady wears Blue and Queen wears Green. (We've met her too) It's so obvious now!

The obvious best choice is "let me think about it" (yes, I know).

Failing that, go help Lisa. This isn't a gang wars, and the evil guys have conveniently indicated that they want Lisa to be a part of the Muses. Go spite them.

Contrary to my vote on helping Michelle, I think we should let her do this herself. He was getting the crap kicked out of him, but Lisa is being asked to decide between us and them. This is the kind of situation where us jumping in could do more harm than good.

Like last time, I trust Spineshark just to go ahead with what he knows is the best option.

I remember there's a part in Persona 3 that's vaguely similar to this, and I accidentally Reversed Yukari's S. Link and had to reload my save. It really pissed me off that I screwed up. So I say do whatever is "best" so you don't go through the same mild frustration.

That way, we can screw up the next decision for you and hypothetically really screw you over.

Well, a majority of supporters came out for making the "right" choice (and indeed, "Let me think about it" does nothing). I decided to mess around with the other option anyway though since I'd never seen it before...besides, this lets me preview the next decision so I can just roll through the concert scene and the following dungeon right in a row.

Anyway, as I noted before, I was having a bit of trouble with the boss here, so I needed to go back and upgrade everyone's weapons again. Physical attacks are actually a pretty major staple in IS, particularly Yukino's, because she gets great strength, excellent weapons, and fewer enemies block her blade throw than the other physical types. Unfortunately, I bought weapons from Time Castle last time and the ones there and at Shiraishi are still the lousy ones I was using before. Chikalin has the rumor for good weapons at Cleir-de-Lune, and after redeeming that I can get new toys.



As you can see, this is a pretty notable damage boost, especially for Maya since she's still using the starter pistols that...oh, shit, I never mentioned this. Back when we first meet Maya and Yuki, when Pants tries to leave the Principal's Office, Michelle interrupts him, and says he has a present for the ladies. He pulls out a pair of matching pink pistols and offers them, but Yukino declines. Maya takes both and shoots a few holes in the wall.

Maya's poor strength and the fact that her Personas have increasingly awesome healing spells make her ill-suited for physical attacks in IS, but it's worth upgrading her weapons occasionally in case you have a reason to pull them out in a pinch. (This is not that time, aside from the fact that I did gun down a couple of random encounters running through Aoba Park again and she got a couple of decent criticals)

There's also a rumor that the flowers in Aoba Park can talk to you. I didn't do this, since it's in EP as well and more fun/useful there.


One of the chests here is trapped with this battle, which you can escape from if necessary. Fortunately, they're weak to fire, but they do hurt and can screw you over if you're not careful, because they appear as random monsters four dungeons from now when everyone will almost twice their current level.


In the side rooms at the amphitheater, you can learn from Eikichi that Sasaki reputedly has something of a loli complex. But he says not to worry about Ginko because if anything, her violent temper and special power would endanger him, not the other way around.


The other room is the dressing room for "Spade," another Sasaki group which I'm sure is just as dumb and at least as awful. Unlike the all-Sevens trio, the girls represent three different high schools, although this fact isn't remotely important.

After Eikichi asks you Pants what to do, if he offers to help Lisa, the two of them will jaunt alone through the backstage again.


Meanwhile, another Masquerade executive, with another skull, is sapping energy from the Muses and Spades. Even though he has a different tie, this man is obviously Ginji Sasaki, aka Prince Taurus. Lisa, of course, refuses to go along with his plans, but she does give in and make a call on her cell phone, which I'm pretty sure is meant to summon the Joker (this part wasn't translated, so I admit I'm treading on thin ice with my interpretation). And nothing happens. Spade files out, leaving only the Muses, when Michelle and Pants break in.


You meddling kids!

Either choice requires that you fight the Prince, but since Maya and Yuki aren't here it's just the three against him. And Pixie has an Earth weakness. Oh dear. Taurus uses Reverse Eros, and uses Marin Karin, Magnus, Maha Magnus (definitely his most dangerous move, even without an earth weakness), and a gun. Since Lisa is the only healer, the entire group is screwed if she dies. Oh, and Prince blocks guns, because he's a bastard like that, and Eikichi's TEC stat is so bad he can't hurt him with spells either. At least he's a decent meat shield, and he can throw items to supplement Lisa if she's in danger of dying.

My attempt at this battle was supplemented heavily with a couple of lucky crits and Sasaki casting Marin Karin without it ever landing, but anyway, he's not that bad, even with three people, just kind of tedious.

At the end, Maya and Yuki appear, and they even get experience despite not doing anything. Leechers! Actually since they're the best party members I guess I have nothing to complain about, except that they weren't here to help me beat up this guy.


After the battle, King Leo appears again and chides Taurus for his failure. The Prince sucks the two Muses dry and vanishes. I'm pretty sure we never see him again so hopefully he just dies. In Megaten, the people responsible for terrible music are always punished justifiably, (just ask the first boss of Soul Hackers) so Michelle better change his ways if he knows what's good for him. And he is a vegetarian, so he does. (Did I just write that?)


Then the maniac reveals his "game"-the auditorium is filled with time bombs and the whole park is going to explode in just over ten minutes. They have to find a clue here about where his next target is, so they can prevent further incidents...

A counter appears in the corner of the screen, and it doesn't go away except on the Level Up screen (a fact which is kind of handy if you're going through the Air Museum and suddenly realize you need to go hit the dining hall before it closes >_>), so you only have 10 minutes, counting any battles and menu usage.


The necessary item is in a locker in the Spade room. Pants can look at it (and make fun of Yuki and Michelle for not seeing it despite being so close) after everyone gets out of here, though.

Once you've hopped outside, a short FMV depicts the bombs exploding. Maya freaks out again (so if it's not obvious, she's really afraid of fire) and Yuki notices a scar on her arm. Lisa implores Pants to do something for her.


He can either give her a little slap to snap her out of it, or gently comfort her.

Also, there's a dialogue prompt right after that-do we tell her she doesn't have to act tough, or that Pants will protect her?

(Although admittedly, this is usually one of the least important choices in the game)

Enough molly-coddling! Tell her to buck up, buttercup!