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

After PANTS re-appears at the shrine with his friends, Akari and a bunch of other young children show up. One of them looks a lot like young Jun. He's even wearing practically the same clothes, because it's easier to recolor the sprite a little than make a new one!

The kids want to know stuff like why the city's flying, if their parents are going to be alright, and Maya promises that they'll set it all right. Then she asks what they want to be when they grow up. Eikichi thinks they don't have time for this, but of course they tell anyway. Maya teaches them the "Persona" game, and tells them all to chase their dreams, before they all walk away except for Jun's look-alike. Jun gives the boy a flower, to show that we really mean it, then he heads off as well.

Now that we're back out of Caracol, there are a lot of things to take care of. First though, let's look at the Personas we may be dealing with now.

Artemis reflects Electricity and Ice and may have some magic blocking properties I don't remember, but is weak to Physical as a result. I hate this because Maya already has the worst HPs by a lot (and pretty much everything has physical attacks). However, she learns Diamond Dust very quickly, which is excellent in random encounters, since it's all-target (instead of group). She also has Bufula, Diarahan, Grydyne (Group/Almighty), Recarmdra, and Crescent Mirror. She can also pick up Tetrakarn through fusions, although Ice fusions are annoyingly rare. Recarmdra is a decent "oh shit" button in IS since Incenses of Life are so easily available (6000 yen at Satomi Tadashi for a 100% HP revival), making the 4-for-1 trade potentially useful (in EP, the spell is nerfed and only revives with partial HP, but it's not as freely available either). On the other hand, the rest of this game is easy so it'll probably never come up. I don't know what Crescent Mirror does so I'm going to hope by not directly mentioning it nobody will care.

Venus gets Water and Earth elemental spells, plus Alluring Dance and Foamy Lover which are pretty annoying when used on you. Also, Medirama, but Maya has more SP and pays half as much for this spell. So Venus kind of sucks, but in boss battles Eros Custom doesn't really have anything good either. Unlike Artemis, none of these match Snipe in sheer usefulness in randoms, either.

Apollo learns multiple Fire spells (like all of PANTS' personas) as well as Dekaja and a couple of heavy physical hits. Gigan Fist is pretty sweet on bosses, if you have the SP to use it and he's still wearing a weapon from before Mt. Iwato.

Hades learns Maha Aques, Mamudo, Marin Karin, Zandyne (single/Almighty), Maha Aquadyne, and Bloody Honeymoon. So basically, Rhadamanthus' second best move, a better version of it, a fairly sweet physical (I think?) move, and some crap. On the other hand, R-C's sword slash, which was his most useful move, is outclassed as soon as Michelle gets a new gun, so Hades is something of a keeper, even if he's not being summoned most of the time.

So yeah, unlike before, we actually have Persona choices (except on Jun, who's currently saddled with wind-heavy Hermes) and some of them are not definitively superior to others!


The best stuff is in Aoba today, which means Rosa Candida. Unlike earlier in the game, I don't have enough money to upgrade everyone's armor straight up. Jun's starting armor is actually pretty damn good already and it would be stupid to blow a ton of money to get him about 6 extra points. Everybody else gets new hats. The male-only armor gives only one less armor point than the unisex items, and it's a lot cheaper. They need it less anyway.


Since I didn't know where to find the contest box, I asked Tamaki about it, and she tells PANTS that it should be arriving at Lisa's address. I guess this makes sense as PANTS is apparently some sort of vagrant who doesn't live anywhere. Seriously, you can go to Maya and Ulala's apartment, and Lisa's house, but not his? (PANTS didn't get anything)


There are new weapons at Cleir-de-Lune, but...damn, these are expensive. This isn't an especially good time to pick them up since we have a substantial shopping list at Satomi Tadashi.


PANTS also has all these incenses he's picked up through the game. STR goes to Michelle (as would AGI if we had any), everything else on Maya since she has the most action.


Finally, PANTS grabs 50 Chewing Souls, which will hopefully last a good while, the middle of Xibalba basically, when he can return to town 10 Incenses of Life for the shrines, and 99 Magazines for the laughs. Yes, that money would be better saved for a new weapon, but buying one before the next dungeon was already out of the question thanks to the need for Chewing Souls.

With all that taken care of, it's finally time to get a skull!

The Scorpio shrine is in Yumezaki, roughly where GOLD was. It's huge though, so it ate a lot of buildings. Zodiac, Mu Continent, and most importantly, Pachinko Silver were all spared.

Turnip is pretty much right as always, but I had the chance to get this one out of the way first and it's my second-least favorite dungeon-wise.

Inside the shrine, PANTS sees a staircase about 10 feet to his left. Up the stairs, there's a door 10 feet in front of him. Inside the door, BAM NAZIS.

This fight is pretty easy, but the minor soldiers have Snipe so it's worth trying to kill them quickly since it's got REALLY high accuracy in this game (compared to EP).

After this, the dungeon is filled with narrow corridors and pools that drain a lot of SP (most of which can't be avoided). It's straightforward though, and pretty much impossible to get really lost. Since nobody has enough SP to do anything most of the time, though, PANTS runs away from most of the battles here unless they're really easy. On the third floor, Eikichi gets a funny feeling. Let's go!


Walking into the door causes the screen to blank out and Eikichi's voice to start talking. Always the showman, the lights turn on to dramatically reveal...Shadow Eikichi and Hanakouji hugging.


Oh, and she's all skinny now. Not to mention confused by the existence of two Eikichis.


The shadow starts explaining. She joined the Masquerade, wishing to become "slim and beautiful" (to quote Eikichi back at SSHS) again. And far in the past, Eikchi had heard that she hated fat people, which is what transformed him from chubby little boy to preening glam-rocker. Then she became fat in her guilt and tried to hide it from him. That make any sense? Aliens, Hitler, kids thinking they killed one of their friends and trying to erase the memories, all that I can follow, but this, this is crazy!

So for the second time this game, Michelle has to fight for his girl. She must really be worth it. Or he must really be dumb.


Hey, imagine that, it's reverse Hades! And real Hades! I shouldn't need to elaborate on the strategy here. Shadow Eikichi has all the same moves as real Eikichi, plus a twisted Maha Aquadyne that looks like blood and has a Charm effect, and a "spikes falling on everyone's head" that works like Angel Joker's "spikes coming through the ground" move-it deals damage that nobody resists and has random kill chances.


So yeah, despite all the Bloody Honeymoons and Charms and the occasional instant death and PANTS' water weakness, this fight is a joke. It came to a fitting end when he Charmed Lisa, and she got two 350 damage crits in a row to finish him off.


Eikichi's shadow reminds him that he'll always be a part of him, and he vanishes. Hades says that his two halves have joined as well, and they'll protect him.


Predictably, and in one of the most insufferable storytelling tropes, Michelle tells Miyabi that it's always been what's inside that counted (I'm sure he's not unhappy to have a newly hot girlfriend).


I don't think this game gets many points for subtlety

After the first shrine, Michelle got a new gun. PANTS may be next on the weapon upgrade train, or may not.

The next destination for the PANTS party is Konan, where the Taurus shrine is. Honestly this is kind of weird, because it seems like it should be in Aoba where Lisa's big moment was, with the Leo shrine on the ruins of the Air Museum. In fact this is what I convinced myself of at 3 last night and it was only about halfway through that I realized I was fighting Fire masquerade troops and went the wrong way, so...reload.

The Taurus shrine looks like desert ruins, with a sandy sort of texture on the ground. This was the developers' excuse to put in conveyor belts, which compared to the SP draining pools in Scorpio or the pitfalls Aquarius, are nothing. There's not really anything to see here.

There's another fight with Nazis here, pretty much the same as at Scorpio. Afterwards, Jun's comment if PANTS talks to him is about how appropriate the Taurus sign is for Lisa, symbolizing good stuff like love, beauty, fortune...and jealousy. Awwww.


In the central room, of course, is Shadow Ginko. Considering how Lisa usually is, you can only imagine she's that much worse. The Shadow gleefully taunts Lisa about her poor English, not that she's one to talk, and a bunch of other stuff. She makes Lisa's secret life sound...interesting. Her ultimate conclusion is, Lisa is all about status. She really did want to be in the Muses, and even though she complains about being singled out as a foreigner, she craves the attention.


Lisa admits her wrongs and says that she still loves PANTS now matter how he feels about her. Then the Shadow attacks.


Reverse Venus' color scheme is hideous. She's got the same spells as Venus which means she wastes plenty of turns trying to charm Jun (I do not think that will be successful). She also has Maha Magdyne with Charm, which is not very threatening*.


Foamy Lover will kill PANTS since it does a substantial physical hit followed by a ton of water damage (which he is still weak to), but his Gigan Fist hits pretty hard so he's worth keeping alive. Another Shadow defeated, another level up.

After the battle, pretty much the same thing happens as with Eikichi.

Lisa just tries to brush it off, telling PANTS not to worry about it. But in light of her honest confession of feelings, he has something on the tip of his tongue too.


Who is PANTS' dearest friend?
-Lisa
-Jun
-Maya This might not do anything because of the choices made outside of Aoba Park
-Michelle This never does anything, he's spoken for
-...... Sadly, this does not mean Yukino

*I just realized, Maia Custom blocks Mind so all the times I've said that she has to not get charmed are irrelevant-she can't.

Next time: The aftermath! And more shrines.

Artemis reflects all magic.

Pants is gay for Eikichi.

Yeah, I must have confused myself by constantly switching between Maia and Artemis. I'm such a moron.

I don't think the man below me stands for the same things that I do.

Pants/Lisa 4ever

What is this, the era of great facial expressions?

I mean, we have Zombie Hitler (whose return I dearly await, since apparently his face has been locked into a snide grin so far - I think it's a side effect of the zombie-ness),



and then we have Shadow Lisa, who is apparently trying to pull one of those "I'll hold a flashlight up to my head and narrate a horror story" expressions in a well-lit room,



and finally, we've got Real Lisa, who looks like she's preparing to perform services of a questionable nature if Pants says he loves her. Who does she think she is, Jelanda?



As a side effect, I vote Lisa all the way.

Heh, I remember when this scene was first translated into English, and the entire MegaTard community flipped out because Lisa did drugs. And it was like, yeah, she's a teenager.

Yeah, and I don't think Yukino would be interested in Pants. Unless it were Anna's Pants. Japan's explored this concept very thoroughly, I'm sure.

Nobody says Eikichi's into that sort of thing either. Even if he looks and talks like it.

But yeah, controversy. Oh boy! How brave!

Oh yeah, there's also the thing where there's still a choice about which shrine is next. Aquarius or Leo? Aquarius

Really you should have done Aquarius first to get Cronus. Shame on you for not doing it! Shame!

Lisa is very happy to hear what PANTS has to say. If he says anything else, she expresses varying degrees of exasperation, and says that someday he'll love her back. If PANTS' answer is Jun, Ginko, or Maya, he'll get a "Lovers" contact with them to use on demons. Michelle and "...." do nothing, and I've heard but don't know if it's true, that Maya's wont work if you didn't give appropriate responses at Aoba Park after the explosion. Not a big deal either way.


Everyone laughs a little bit and Lisa says that she's not going to lose to an older woman or a guy. Then she picks up the skull and PANTS is back on the streets.

PANTS didn't fight much in the Taurus Shrine either, so he's still not terribly rich, so nobody gets new weapons or armor. Time to go to the Aquarius Shrine.

The random encounters in all four shrines, as well as the end of Caracol, all draw from the same pool of enemies. Lots of Nazis, various flavors of Masquerade guys (but they all come in the same color in the shrine, based on their respective signs, which makes them total pushovers), Catoblepas (who have an Instant Death move that only ever hits Lisa for some reason), STRENGTH Taksaka (pictured here-they're pretty resistant to most spells and attacks), TOWER Aeshma (very slow so I don't even know what they do), JUSTICE Melchizedek, HANGED MAN Barbatios, DEATH Ankou, and Orthrus. Aside from Taksaka, most of them are really easy to kill and never get turns.


All of the shrines have these "Relief Room"s, which, aside from having raised artwork on the walls, make PANTS relieved to know he's going the right way. They also feature boringly easy battles. There's one group of Masquerade guys and one group of Nazis in each shrine.

On the second floor, PANTS feels that the ground is not quite as sturdy as he's used to, but he manages to miraculously escape all the pitfall traps by moving arbitrarily around the walls and forks in the path. I still hate this dungeon, because of how annoying it can be, but it was such a pleasant surprise this time I almost forgot to mention it at all.


Finally, on the top floor, PANTS and his friends are confronted by more of the Longinus, since Jun doesn't have a shadow to sit around for him. Halfway down the stairs is a third, so...


For some reason these guys are marked as a group, unlike the previous battle against three of them, which along with higher levels and better personas, makes this laughably easy. Longinus 5 is weak against water so Hades and Venus pound him with the Ominous Waterfall (two water spells) fusion and he goes down in a few turns. Everybody else uses Maha spells and pretty soon they're all gone with no real issues. At the end of the battle Hermes learns how to mutate.


The defeated Longinus laugh, saying they have no idea who's behind everything that's happened. Jun shows that he feels guilty about everything that was caused by the Joker, then he goes over to pick up the skull of Wind-his mother's. He acts strange for a second but tells everyone it's fine. Just one to go!

PANTS brings a bunch of cards to Igor and makes Taksaka. Just because he can. He probably won't get used, but that's not really the point. I was also stupid and gave Taksaka the Megido card instead of something like Dia or Posumudi that would make him really easy to level up. Oh well.


Also, Hermes' mutation is Cronos, the final "ultimate" persona. When combined, the five can use the fusion Grand Cross. It's powerful, but since it requires all five turns it's not always practical. As a mutation, Cronos will replace Hermes, but since Hermes was best for wind spells in the first place, it's a worthwhile upgrade, despite the steeper SP costs. (On that note, the huge numbers displayed on the status screens go down when the Personas are equipped, because of the affinity bonus. So the Greeks "only" cost about 50 SP, instead of 70+. That'll still drain Maya in nine turns, though, and she has by far the largest pool)

Leo Shrine, Aoba:

This one is my favorite. It's a deep red color with freaky, atmospheric music. And there are no real gimmicks! Plus, after all those other battles, PANTS can use Hotei's Estoma and not run into any random demons or Nazis the whole dungeon, since Taksaka, the highest-level demon, is 43, but so is everyone else at the least. (Pants is 44 and Jun is 47 or something, since he joins *at* 44)


So yeah, even though Estoma blocks random monsters, there are still these kneebiters in the relief rooms. Yawn.


In the last room, Shadow PANTS greets everyone, especially パンツ　ぱんつ、of course. Like all the other shadows, he taunts his counterpart with his failings and insecurities; in this case, being aimless in life and not really able to press for his goals (or different, if PANTS says something else to Saeko back in the first update).


Of course, PANTS can deny this, but if he does, the shadow will just laugh at him for lying to himself more. Or he can admit it, which the shadow sees as winning. Either way, with his quiet demeanor and unassuming personality, how is PANTS a leader? How can he hope to save the world?

Oh, and Shadow PANTS thinks PANTS hates Jun, too. Drama time!

-Maybe I do hate him
-I don't hate him at all
-I might have done the same thing

Next time: Paved with good intentions...

Is it bad that I think Shadow Lisa's crazy expressions make her look better than normal Lisa?

I bet Shadow Ginko's a tiger in the sack am i right dudes

*high five*

PANTS holds no grudges.


YES TECHNO NAZIS

So, where were these guys hanging out before this? It seems like Hitler being alive with an army of high-tech Nazi robot suits would be hard to cover up.

Also, was it ever explained why Eikichi hugs a guitar case in battle? Seems kind of unwieldy.

Michelle's guitar case has a gun installed in it. When he uses his standard weapon attack, the neck opens up and he shoots. He does this a lot because he has great strength and crappy SP.

Okamura, Kashihara and Sudou concluded and wrote in In-Laqetti that Hitler and the Nazis were hiding in Antarctica, but it was only after the book was revealed on the news (at Kuzunoha) that the "information" became widespread and thus true. So there was no way for them to be found and stopped until it was too late.

Oh, a couple more things things that slipped my mind once it was actually an appropriate time to bring them up: Jun is of course another Kasugayama High student; he wears the same uniform as Eikichi. He's the mysterious transfer student that Eikichi was asking a couple of random guys about 15 hours earlier. KHS is kind of the "bad" school for delinquents and stuff, which is why they have a mutual hatred with SSHS for the most part. Michelle and Jun ended up there I guess because they were injuring people with their personas. Eikichi took advantage of this more though and threatened everyone into being the Captain, a position he used to pretty much keep everyone in line (nobody smokes for example, unlike that nasty Anna Yoshizaka) except for those jackasses he had to beat up.

The Nazis went to Antarctica with the Lance of Longinus, and built robots with souls to use the Lance so they could fulfill an ancient prophecy Evangelion? What's that?

I don't know, I would be pretty pissed off if my former best friend went crazy, started a cult and tried to kill me numerous times.

This choice doesn't actually do anything, unless PANTS had chosen Jun in Konan, in which case he would be able to ruin his relationship. PANTS says he doesn't hate Jun anyway, though, so Shadow PANTS calls him a hypocrite and a liar and attacks.


Shadow PANTS is a completely pathetic opponent. All I've ever seen him use is Gigan Fist and Maragion, neither of which are of the remotest danger. Everyone just wails on him with their best Persona moves, except Venus who heals, and he goes down before anyone runs out of SP and reverts to attacking.


Jun tells PANTS that he wouldn't blame him for being angry after everything that's happened, but everyone else reassures him that normal friends forgive and support each other. You know, instead of putting on crazy costumes, starting shadowy organizations and making death threats.


After PANTS picks up the Crystal Skull of Fire, Maya gets a call on her cell phone. (Its ringtone happens to be her character theme, much like Eikichi's theme is also his band's song) It's Tamaki, who informs them to make sure they never hire Tadashi as a babysitter. Prince Taurus apparently kidnapped Okamura from Kuzunoha while she and the chief were out, saying something about a "human sacrifice."

Jun knows what this means. Maya Okamura supposedly has Maiyan blood which means she'll be sacrificed in the Mayan underworld of Xibalba to complete the Oracle of Maiya. So PANTS and everyone else had better go save her before the world gets destroyed. The way to Xibalba is in the center of the city, at SSHS.


More shopping! Everyone except Jun gets new boots, PANTS buys 50 more Chewing Souls because he's rich, and Michelle and Jun get their mana restored at Kaori. It never rises in price in IS, costing 1200 Yen just like it did at the beginning of the game.


Nazis invaded SSHS after the Masquerade took Ideal-sensei to the courtyard. It's cool though, everything's under control because some jackass actor is killing Nazis. This is "Brown," ("Brad" in Revelations, his "real" name is Uesugi or something) who PANTS actually met at the Sumaru TV a long time ago. He's a Persona user who like Mary/Maki and Elly (who are also here kicking asses in other classrooms) went to St. Hermelin a few years ago. He still has no fashion sense at all.

On the other hand, if PANTS allowed Hannya to live at the beginning of the game, he would be in all the classrooms where the Persona 1 characters are, perplexing Lisa and everyone else by somehow getting ahead of the party every single time while still beating up copious amounts of Nazis. It's pretty cool though, because where he was a bastard who became "popular" by wishing on the Joker at the beginning of the game, he earns it instead with his inspiring strength and bravery.


Out in the courtyard is the large phallic rock Okamura has been obsessed with for years. It's now the gateway to the "Milky Way," a river which will lead to Xibalba. PANTS steps in.


The Nazis were kind enough to leave a boat. Maya has a driver's license, which in Persona 2's most common and possibly stupidest running gag, makes her completely unfit to operate any sort of vehicle (in her defense, the blimp was fucked as soon as it took off, since it was on fire). She spends a few moments driving it in circles and crashing it into rocks before PANTS is elected to new driver.


The boat moves automatically down the river at a leisurely pace while random demons attack PANTS. With all the powerful group attacks (plus Diamond Dust!) and strong physicals from Michelle's gun and Apollo's Gigan Fist there's barely anything worth talking about. It's possible to die thanks to some strong physicals, but only if Maya and Ginko don't slaughter everything before it moves.


There are a couple of dialogue prompts here, about which way to go at a couple of forks in the river, but it'd be stupid to interrupt for them and they all lead to the same place: this waterfall. Probably three of them, actually. Everybody freaks out but it's too late to turn around.

Behind the last waterfall (not really, but I found Indy 4 completely hilarious thanks to this game) is the path leading to the entrance of Sumaru City's great ruins, Xibalba. Lisa and Maya are sure it's going to be filled with deadly traps, but lacking specific imagination about what they might be, they ask PANTS what he thinks will try to kill them first.


-Something like a laser
-Something like an oven

Actually, this decision is completely inconsequential. Not only is the thing it affects of absolutely no significance, but later on you get to see what happens if you pick the other one anyway.

It's a good breaking point anyway.

Next time: Let's Positive Thinking!

It's really the portraits that make this scene. The expressions on Jun and Maya's faces, coupled with their dialogue, is funnier than it should be.
Jun: "You can drive a boat! You're so cool big sister!"
Maya: "Well, I don't know how to drive one per se, but I have a car license so it should be ok!"
Jun: "...?"

Lasers are the first thing that come to mind when PANTS thinks about deadly deathtraps of death, so he just says that.


As they enter the first hall, Eikichi sees all these little holes in the wall. Fancy that. Maybe somebody can see through them! Then Jun sees lasers shooting through holes just a little further down the way. He dragos Michelle through, while PANTS and Maya dodge through. Lisa dances between the lasers, but eventually ducks under the last one to make it to the end of the hall safely.


Ginko's not very happy with Eikichi, since he probably almost got all of them killed, so she screams "LOOK AT ME!" back to mock him and knocks him down.

Right in front of the laser hall is a special room. Here are more memories of Summer 1989. The masked kids look through a telescope; Jun says his father's a great guy who can tell them all about the stars. Maya's jealous because she doesn't have a dad anymore. =(


Suddenly some jackasses come over and say that Jun's father is actually a real lousy dad. Everybody stands up for him, and PANTS knocks them down, causing them to run away. Jun wonders why this memory is coming up, but ends up deciding that it must have to do with how proud he was of his father...


Xibalba is pretty bright, with neon blues and gold stuff everywhere. The beginning is also quite straightforward. On each floor is an elevator going up one floor and one going down one floor. There are also treasure chests and cutscene rooms, but overall the first several floors are quick and easy.

The battles here are a little tougher than the river, particularly the Nazi packs featuring four-legged robots (while none of the other NAZIS do damage anymore, these robots can shoot everyone at once for triple digits, and twice as much on Artemis. It sucks. They are, however illogically, vulnerable to most status though, including Poison). It's also kind of tedious to fight the magic-resisting Succubus teams, since most of the team's physical attacks are merely okay.


On B2 are the remains of some Yellow Masquerade troops and a man in a suit whose face has been burned off. It's Prince Taurus, obviously. Everyone is pretty creeped out, Eikichi saying that the traps are probably going to get more deadly and "the next one might be like an oven." Lisa thinks he had it coming.


As everyone enters the next major room, on B3, the door locks shut and these long bars begin to glow with heat. Damn it. Maya encourages everyone to stay calm, as their Personas will help protect them, and they make it to the other side, where fortunately they can escape.

Also on B3: Maya remembers her father. They're at the shrine, and she's begging him not to go. But he's landed a very special job taking photographs and reporting in a warzone. He's worked and dreamed his whole life for it, so he tells her he has to go.


She begins to cry, but he pulls the "If you cry, the bunny will laugh at you!" trick, holding a silly stuffed bunny, that Maya uses a couple times earlier in the game. Maya remebers that he didn't come back and starts to cry. PANTS can tell her to suck it up or that it's okay to cry, but it doesn't make any difference and I didn't want to break off there so it's not a choice today. (PANTS told her not to cry, like at Aoba Park)

Maya gets all mopey and drags the mood down by reciting a depressing poem, "Le Calmant" by Marie Laurencin (in Japanese, of course). "Worse than alone, exiled/worse than exiled, dead/worse than dead, forgotten." Or something like that. So what's the point? Good question. Maya says if they had all truly forgotten about her, she wouldn't be here with them now. Lisa and Eikichi also mention how memories are in a sense, all that's really left of the dead.

On B5 everyone is sick of this already, and Lisa begins thinking about how wonderful it would be if there was a recovery spring somewhere. The comical cutscene theme starts playing so it's obvious that everything's going to be just great. Suddenly, a door appears. Eikichi wants to see Igor again in case we need any new Personas (psst, Michelle, we don't, but it's a nice thought). Another door shows up. And Jun says they're even marked properly.

As if that's a good sign. Ginko heads into her door, Michelle into his. Maya follows him, and Jun and PANTS head in after Lisa. Of course she's nowhere to be found, the doors lock and the walls start closing in all Star Wars-like.


Jun finds that if he thinks hard enough about the walls stopping and NOT crushing him and PANTS, they start to separate again. How cool is that! Of course, if he stops they encroach again, but in a moment they head back into the center room to meet everyone, safe and sound. That's a relief.

Right next to the lift down to B6 is another mysterious room. It's marked "Terminal." Hey, those are good in Megaten games!


Inside is a strange machine with a swastika pad on it. Like everything else here, it must be perfectly safe! Eikichi hops on and disappears. Maya gets on after him, and Jun's catlike reflexes or something allow him to jump on simultaneously. Finally PANTS goes, while Lisa's still dragging her feet.


Turns out this is hooked up to an identical machine in Classroom 1-C at Sevens. How convenient! Aside from killing all those people, those Nazis are really making PANTS' life easier.

Oh, but even though we're back in town, is there anything useful we can do? The answer is a definitive "maybe." See, now that PANTS has been to Xibalba he can hunt for each characters' ultimate weapons, but it's a complicated and unnecessary process I've never tried before, so I'm not going to attempt it unless people want to see me try.

So, this isn't a dialogue prompt, but there it is.

Next time: The potentially amazing powers of Lisa's brain!

You sure Nazis didn't impersonate them when you weren't looking?

I don't think you need to get the secret weapons. I'd rather see more zombie Hitler. Plus, you're making this game seem easy enough already.

All the remaining IS parts are going to be really brief (the cut here is because of one the funnier dialogue choices around) so I'm absolutely aiming to wrap this game up in the next couple of days. I may try to put up the weapon stuff and some other things skipped/not done between the two games after everything's done, if I still feel like it. I'm getting really excited about EP though.

As long as they're back in Sumaru, PANTS decides to finish upgrading everyone's armor at Rosa Candida Aoba. It costs a little over 100k each for Maya and Lisa and 66k each for PANTS and Michelle. Then it's back down, down down.


B6 is more mazelike than the previous floors and features some fun damage tiles. The battles start getting harder, too, with more enemies at once and even newer Nazi robots that like to blow up in everyone's face.


It's really a relief then, comparatively, to open this chest and find five STAR Valkyrie demons. All five are frozen by Diamond Dust and then obliterated by Maha Magdyne.


Jun has another flashback for all to see. Everyone is leaving the shrine after another day of playing, and Maya and Jun watch as Lisa's mom walks off with her.

Little Jun says he's jealous of Lisa and Eikichi for having nice moms, because he really doesn't like his. His dad arrives to pick him up, but when Maya asks about him, Jun says that "no, this is my uncle!" He's no longer proud of his father, but ashamed.


In the next big room, Michelle complains again about how long this is taking. Jun thinks it's going to be a long time before they reach wherever they're going, based on the pace so far. Maya is positive thinking! and says that it can't be too long. Eikichi says he's somewhere in between, and Ginko just doesn't care. Maya decides to ask PANTS how long he thinks it'll be. PANTS decides to "agree" with Lisa's non-statement. Maya says "well that's 2, to 1, to 1, to 1, so let's see what happens."

On the next floor is a maze. It's pretty short and easy, so PANTS is happy. At the other end is another room. I wonder what's inside this one


Damn it. The last four Longinus think they have better odds than the first nine. Well, they have a point, since there are four of them here rather than three. They're impressed that Maya has discovered the "secret" of Xibalba, which suddenly everyone else wants to know. But the Longinus say that PANTS and his friends are doomed. Never heard that one before!

Maya says that she and the others are going to win. She encourages PANTS to do the same. He can either agree or admit that he's not very confident. Afterwards, the battle starts.


Like the trio at Aquarius, Maha magic works on all these guys at once, which makes it a lot less of a headache than it could be. On the other hand, there are still four of them, which means things can get messy really quickly. At this level they really are kind of threatening (I still died a couple of times from really bad combos), but Maya knows a cheap trick. >_>

Maya equips Artemis when it's not her turn, and switches to Maia Custom immediately before acting. This lets her cast Mediarama while reflecting spells back for 100 damage apiece. More importantly, this prevents her from ever being shocked by the lightning move. Lisa and Eikichi use Aqua moves, because Longinus 4 is weak to Water. Jun casts Garudyne on 3, and PANTS uses Maragidyne to hit 2's weakness. Ginko also heals with Venus when the party's really in a pinch. Anybody who gets hit by the persona-sealing spear throws around Chewing Souls for their next couple of turns until it wears off. Everybody levels up.

Longinus 1 says more mean things about Jun's mother (damn Nazis, why do they keep doing that) and tells them they should've died there so they wouldn't have to suffer. Then it dies. HOORAY NO MORE OF THOSE BASTARDS.

Maya says she'll explain what she knows about Xibalba later, and then confidently declares that they'll find Jun's father very soon.

On B8 there's an Elevator, which PANTS can currently ride back up to 5F, right next to the Terminal. He's got money again, and another little shopping list.


PANTS decides to buy more Incenses of Life and Chewing Souls. He and the others used about 20 fighting the Longinus mechs since they got screwed by an SP draining pool right before that. So he decides to play it safe and get all of them he can. After this he's only got 85,000 Yen left, which isn't enough for anything good, not even another ATK Up accessory from Jolly Roger. Oh well. He could buy magazines, but he's not sure he'll be back to get anything from it.


On B8 Maya is disappointed, since things don't seem to be working quite the way she's been hoping. Finally everyone convinces her to tell what she knows, so she sums it up: the reality in Xibalba is being directly altered by their thoughts.


Suddenly everyone remembers the traps, predicted by Michelle and PANTS, and the doors to the spring and Velvet Room. (PANTS' input also influences the maze and battle mentioned only moments ago)

Eikichi stands off in the corner, telling himself over and over that he's going to be a rock star. Lisa concentrates hard and asks PANTS a question he doesn't really want to hear: "Do you like me?"


-Yeah
-No
-As a friend

Next time: So Metal!

Let's just be friends.
With benefits.

They're totally made for each other.

PANTS won't commit until he knows what the hell that exclamation of hers is all about.

(Aiyaaaaa~)

Lisa uses a lot (well, only four or five, but with high frequency) of random Cantonese exclamations and expressions she picked up by watching Bruce Lee movies. She'll also lecture PANTS about them in a few of the shop dialogues early on. She calls him "Ching-yan" a lot too, which is pretty much the equivalent of Michelle's "Hanii!"

This is also where she "learned" kung fu, but the real reason that contact works on a lot of demons is because the skirt on that Seven Sisters uniform isn't very long.

It must be love it sure can't be common sense amirite

PANTS broods for a while. "Maybe it'd be fun to mess with her head," he thinks. Finally, he says a carefully articulated and deeply pondered, "Yeah." Lisa's excited. It's just like Maya said! (If PANTS says anything else, then Maya becomes a liar. Natch.)


Maya shakes her head. That's not quite what she meant. For one thing, "positive" things are much, much harder to make happen than "negative" ones. She can't explain why some things work (like Lasers) and other things don't (like, "the end is right in front of us!")-it may have to do with Jun's father, who could be just messing with them. Who knows?


Then a strange object suddenly appears in Maya's hands. It's...canned crab? Everyone was getting hungry? Maya tells everyone to think positively, not about bad things, and so they'll move on.

Guess who screws up first.

A golden thing, which has the appearance of Eikichi's dad, suddenly walks out of the wall. And he's going to kick Michelle's ass, just like he always said he would.


Metal Daddy is a joke. He doesn't have any resistances of major consequence; instant death and ailments obviously, but that's never a big deal. His attacks are pretty much just a wussy melee (with a higher-than-average crit rate, but it won't kill anyone but Artemis) and a single-target Lightning bolt with high chance of shock. Everyone just spams spells on him, including Maya (though she heals a bit too), and he dies really fast.

After that battle, Ginko's mad at Michelle again. Imagine that.

Next room has the last flashback in this game. All right!


Everyone's waiting to go home with their parents. Eikichi complains about eating Sushi every night. Kashihara shows up first, telling Jun they'll go home to his mother. He doesn't want to.

Suddenly, they're yanked out of the flashback. A voice gets angry with Jun. Another statue pops out of the floor, and this one resembles Junko Kurosu. She tells Jun to disappear. And he does.


Metal Mom reflects magic, so Lisa and Apollo punch her in the face and Eikichi shoots. She hits a little harder than Metal Daddy and has all-target attacks. Jun comes back and Maya tells him that their friendship will always hold them together. *Yawn*

Practically right outside this door is the lift to B9. In the center of this floor is the Cold Sleep Chamber. PANTS wonders what's inside.


So does somebody else. Okamura is seen calling out to the aliens who she's sure are here. Their sleeping chambers rise from the base, and then everyone else walks in.


Jun tells her to stop, but she's completely out of it. She bangs on the chambers trying to release them. She rejects Jun's claims that, essentially, the whole thing has been a big mistake, saying that she was the only one who ever understood Kashihara. She was really, really jealous of his wife.


Then the Bolontiku wake up. They walk over, knock Okamura down, and attack.


Despite the previous picture, this battle is against only 5 aliens. It's not nearly as overwhelming as might look, either. They all count as a group, but unlike the Longinus they're all named the same too, which makes them somewhat hard to tell apart. The aliens have a lot of different moves between them, including reversed versions of the Greeks' ultimate moves. They're all very weak though, and most of the time they'll just use Asteroid Bomb, which hits one character with a rock that does 200 damage. The damage from all five at once is easily healable with Mediarama, and if Jun chips in too there's very little chance of dying.

Killing them is a bit more complicated. Their elemental properties as far as I can tell:
One reflects Magic. This one starts on the far left, and can be targeted by pressing "Right" from the default target. PANTS and Ginko punch this one while Michelle shoots. The Bolontiku's HPs aren't very high, I'd think 2500 at the most, so this one dies quickly.

One blocks Physical. This is irrelevant, though I think it's also weak to elements since it's presumably the one that died several turns before the others.

One blocks Fire. One blocks Wind. One blocks Water. Everybody just says "screw it" and casts their Maha-Dyne spells anyway. One by one the Bolontiku die off.

After the battle, everyone talks about Kashihara. Jun says his father really did die at Sevens, and whoever this guy is must be a fake evil one, like the shadows, created by "rumors" spread by the kids about how Jun's dad was a deadbeat. Maya gets a little philosophical, saying that everyone's "selves" are just reflections seen by what everyone else thinks. The whole concept of "self" being one of the central points of the series, this is probably worth mentioning.

Anyway, someone else is behind this, and everyone decides that it must also be the being who's making rumors come true. By now we must getting close to the bottom of this whole thing.


Sure enough, pretty much right outside the Cold Sleep Chamber, Jun says he feels something. An extremely short walk, and PANTS finds himself staring at the last door-the heart of Xibalba.

Next time: I am your father!

Hitora! Hitora!

Ideal-sensei's such a nutty bitch. Too bad the aliens don't put her out of her misery.