They say hell is for children. Let's find out if that's true or not with Persona 1!

That would make even more sense! I thought I was just really bad at French! And that was "A" instead of "Ma"
:O

I want to vote for Ellie and mysterious third person, solely on the basis that, while what I've seen of Nanjou is completely awesome, I've also seen him before in the Persona 2 Let's play.

That's my total justification, though. I'll be thrilled with whoever. Heh.

I didn't mention this at the time, but since you'll clearly find it interesting, if you look back at the scene in the amphitheater in IS, the "Spade" group is wearing If... uniforms. So they (and I think some other random NPCs) are from Karukozaka, too.
Yeah, I think I would've liked the last dungeon a whole lot more if I'd actually known how to get swords, and what I could use on demons that reflect or absorb "Magic." I also never visited the "LOVE IS DRUG" clinic, and used "Magic Rocks" to restore pathetic amounts of SP, even at the end of the game.

If each member is from a different school, the one in the gray looks like a Hermelin refugee, too. Neat!

Relatively! Persona's cast is kind of weird. Ellie's got a cool base Persona, at least. As I mentioned in the Atlus thread, I was thinking of doing a Snow Queen quest run the other day. In preparation for that I was peeking at GameFAQs, so I know who's behind door number three, so I stick with my vote.

The ice, it's so thin this time of year. Best not to skate on it.

Ice is generally considered at it's thickest at this time of the year.

Part IV: Let's Game Mechanicking!


Mara Ring swings back to the Nurse's office to pick up Nanjou, and then over to the Library to pick up Ellie. Congratulations Tyrants, you made the correct choices.

Now that they've joined, we rearrange the party so that Nanjou, Mara Ring and Ellie are up front, while Yukino and Ayase are just behind them. There's nothing left to do except go to the Cafeteria, which is located directly in front of the courtyard (where you first enter the Frozen Castle).


Inside, Brown is yelling a fat kid for eating all the food.

Yokouchi Kenta. Nickname: Toro. Loves to eat and has zero willpower.

The teacher also yells at him, and then Toro starts to flip out. The Persona users in the group immediately notice that something is wrong, and both Brown and the teacher run off.


Toro has set his sights on Ayase, and begins yelling at her for something she said to him. Yukino wants to know what she said, and sends us into a flashback. Back to a simpler time when the school wasn't covered in ice, and the fat kid wasn't about to go Carrie on everyone.

Toro tells Ayase that he likes her, which shows that no only does he have an eating disorder, he also has terrible taste in wimmenfolk. Ayase tells him, in no uncertain terms, that she wouldn't be caught dead with a fatass like him. She calls him a fat little piggie (actually, she says "オニクのカタマリ" which is 100% better but really awkward, y'know?)

Back in the present, Ayase is surprised that what she said hurt his feelings. Because Ayase is apparently a sociopath.

...hey guys, guess what time it is? It's PENIS DEMON TIME~


Ah yes, perhaps the most infamous scene in a Persona game: Toro's Persona is a Giant Penis. A lot of people want to tell you that this scene is the reason the Snow Queen Quest was cut from the US version, but I don't know about that. After all, didn't Pandora's FMV stay in?

In any case, Toro's Penis spits fire at Mara Ring and Yukino, then at Ayase. This causes Ayase's Persona, Houri, to appear and blast him with Agilao. Toro's Penis isn't satisfied yet, so it spits fire at Nanjou, too. This causes Ayase's Houri to blow him away with Agilao.

Then everyone gets a free level up. Hooray!

After the battle, there's some discussion about what happened, the nature of Personas, and Toro apologizes for, y'know, trying to kill everyone. Well. I feel like we've all learned a very important lesson.

(All this happens in the comic too. The school isn't frozen over, but all the students are staying there overnight because of all the demons running around town.


Ayase's Persona is Houri. Houris are the heavenly maidens from the Islamic faith. They are the 72 Virgins you hear so much about.

Houri learns Agilao (アギラオ), Lullaby (こもりうた - 子守唄), Maharagi (マハラギ), Whip of Love (あいのムチ - 愛のムチ）, and Crimson Sublation (しようのあか - 止揚の紅). Houri kind of exists to make Vesta look bad.

Houri reflects Ignis and is weak to SCIENCE! However, since she is an Elemental Ignis-type, that means she also resists Air and Terra (but not Aqua).


Now that Ayase's Persona has awakened, Mara Ring one of the locked doors in the Castle has opened. Inside is the Velvet Room. We're not ready to be here just yet. We need to hit up Judgment 1999 first.


Judgment 1999's prize list has changed. They no longer have weapons. Instead, they have a ton of Material items, which are used in fusion to create special Personas you normally won't be able to make. They also have a ton of lithographs. Lithographs, when used in battle, have the same effect as "Maha(spell)dyne," so the Enma Lithograph (えんまのせきばん) is the same as Maharagidyne, the Touma Lithograph (とうまのせきばん) is the same as Mahabufudyne, and so forth and so on.

I don't know why these are different than the other magic stones, which are clearly labeled like "Agidyne Stone" (アギダインストーン) or "Mahazan Stone" (マハザンストーン). The effect is the same as the lithographs, though: A single use item in battle.

Well, that's the use if you're an idiot. The items have a very important secret power: If you choose to use them in fusion, they will pass their spell onto the Persona being created. Because this isn't Persona 3/4, Persona spells have a flat rate. That is, every spell a Persona has costs the same amount of SP to use. That means we can load up on, say, Scorching Lithographs (しゃくねつのせきばん) and teach Megidolaonn to as many Personas as we want!

...I mean, that would be not the best idea, because Megidolaonn is a Nuclear-type spell and we kind of need a variety in magic, but you get the idea: We have access to every Maha-dyne spell in the game right now.

Mara Ring loads up on 8 of every lithograph, not because we'll be doing much fusion, but because these items have a third, very important purpose for us playing the Snow Queen Quest: We got to get paid. Each Lithograph sells for between 15000 and 20000 yen. I spent 8000 yen for coins at the beginning, and I now have 500,000+. Lithographs cost between 3000 and 5000 coins.

...basically we no longer need to worry about money.


Time to go shopping! Fun fact: The game doesn't tell you who can equip what on shopping menus, meaning you'll probably waste a ton of money buying armor and weapons you can't use.

First up is the Frog Boy Arms Merchant. He's selling the only Sword weapons you can buy in the game, which are mostly worse than what we picked up at the Mall's Casino. The exception is the Majousen (まじょうせん) for Yukino. I don't know exactly what that is, except that it's some type of bottle cap or cork. It hits 4~6 times and can inflict sleep (and the chance to inflict sleep is per strike, too!).

Speaking of those items, Ellie takes the other Mail Breaker and Nanjou gets the Sonic Blade.

Next up: Firearms.
Mara Ring equips machine guns, which randomly hit enemies. The Ingram(イングラム) hits 1~3 times.

Yukino uses shotguns, which hit all enemies in their (unfortunately small) range. She gets a Mossberg M500 (モスバーグM500).

Since Ayase already came with a pistol, she doesn't need an upgrade just yet. Besides, her whip has better range anyway.

Nanjou and Ellie equip rifles. This is another reason why they are pretty awesome and y'all made the right choice. Rifles are more accurate than machine guns and hit more times. So both of them get AK47s.

Everyone gets Serpent Fang bullets (サーペントファング), which have a chance to cause poison.

Next is the Survival Gear store, which is run by that fellow in the gas mask. Could it be Nich? See that's a Persona 4 reference.

Anyway, Ellie and Nanjou get Head Gear (ヘッドギア). Everyone gets a Spectra Vest (スペクトラベスト) and Titanium Guards (チタニウムガード), both of which are only marginally better than the old armor/arm guards.

At SMD, they pick up some Hiranyas (ヒランヤ - Recovers HP and SP by 25%) and Chewing Souls (チューインソウル - Restores 10~ish SP). Even though SP does regenerate in dungeons, we're going to be on a time limit while walking around. Plus, gotta have a way to restores SP in boss fights, right?

SMD also offers a new service: You can exchange gemstones for Incenses. Incense will increase the relevant stat by a couple of points. They also have the lower-tier spell stones. The types of gems you need change depending on the phase of the moon.

At Satomi Tadashi, they get about 10 of everything.

Now that all that is taken care of, it's time to get down to it! I mentioned earlier that the rooms aren't labeled. The Save Point, the Velvet Room, and the stores are all marked on your big map, but it doesn't distinguish between which stores are which. None of the other rooms are marked, which makes tracking down the entrance to the towers a little irritating.

So while Mara Ring is wandering around, looking for the entrance of Hypnos Tower, he stumbles upon demons!


Er, by "Demons" I mean "THE BEST DANG NPCS EVER." Heeho-kun and Heehoko-chan are in the classroom that leads to the Devil's Mountain. We'll get to what exactly that is later.

The entrance to Hypnos Tower is located in the Fencing Room. To help narrow it down, the Fencing Room is one of the small rooms in the Castle. Once you head through the door into the tower, you can't come back until you complete it.

In other words, this would be a remarkably good time to save the game at The Save Point. I call it "The Save Point" because it's like, the only place in this storyline that you can actually make a permanent file. The rest are "Continue" files, which end the game after you save and are erased when you load them up. This being the PS1, you can get around that by copying the Continue file to another memory card.


Looks like we're headed for the Clock Tower! I reckon now is a good time to talk about what we're actually doing. Like the Snow Queen said, we're supposed to defeat the Guardian of the Tower within the time limit. And like Philemon said, we need to find the mirror fragments to break the curse. In other words: We're doing timed artifact collecting. Are you ready?


...during the first battle, I realized that I had forgotten to rearrange party after the Toro event. Whoops!

You see that clock up there? That's the clock the Snow Queen was talking about. If it hits 12, it's game over. Since it started at 10, that means we have two hours to finish off Hypnos.

That's not entirely accurate. The clock is only running when you're in first person mode. Battles and third person rooms are "safe" and you don't have to worry about time running out. Unfortunately, that means this dungeon takes a lot longer than you'd expect from something with a two hour time limit.

The enemies aren't too tough on the first and second floor, they're mostly the same types that were at the hospital and on the streets earlier.

I forgot to mention it, I think, but Ellie's contact commands are: Tell a Scary Story; sing a spicy latin tune; dote on the demon; and invite the demon to come along.

Ayase can insult the demon, cry crocodile tears, attempt to seduce the demon, or threaten them.


Towards the end of the first floor, there's a room with four chests: Mardgeer (マルドギール - weapon for Brown), Mail Breaker (メイルブレイカー - One handed sword that we already have), Flame Shawl (フレイムショール - Material item to fuse Houri), and Raven Feather (レイヴァンフェザー - Material item to fuse Brown's Nemain). Basically, a lot of crap we don't need! Also, the chests look like onions.

Towards the end of the second floor is the Velvet Room. I think it's time we fused ourselves a Persona!


Eh. Fusion in Persona is... it certainly is. You see, all your Spell Card are brought up on a grid, with little icons to show you stuff about that fusion.

First, let's look at the colors. White means there's nothing special about it. Red means the demons are incompatible (ex: Holy Light demon fused with an Evil Dark demon), which means the fusion is unstable and you have a higher accident rate. Blue means that the demons are compatible (ex: Holy Light x Holy Light), which will result in an additional bonus, between 5 and 20, to Magic Attack and Defense. Magic Attack/Defense come exclusively from your Personas, so this is maybe a really good thing to look for!

Next, for passing on magic:
A circle means that no magic is going to passed on.
An arrow pointing up means that there's a very good chance you'll pass on a spell from the second demon you picked for fusion, as well as a small boost in all the Persona's stats.
An arrow pointing sideways means that there's a good chance a spell will be passed on from the second demon, but no stat adjustments.
An arrow pointing down means that there's a good chance a spell will be passed on from the second demon, but the resulting Persona's stats will all be lowered by 1.

You can only pass on one spell that you can't choose and you won't be able to tell if you got it or not if until that Persona reaches rank 2.

This is... counter intuitive, to say the least. Since we've got lithographs, we don't really need to worry about all passing on magic.

You can add items in fusion. We've already talked about the effects of the lithographs and material items. Let's talk about all the rest:

• Sword weapons will increase the resulting Persona's Strength.
• Guns will have random effects, ranging from giving new spells to increasing stats.
• Bullets increase Magic Attack/Defense. The best buyable bullets can give something like +40 to both.
• Helmets increase Luck.
• Body Armor increase Vitality.
• Arm Guards increase Technique.
• Shoes increase Agility.
• Incense increases the relevant stat by 3 points, except for HP/SP incense, which increase Magic Attack/Defense. You are not a smart person if you give a Persona your incense.

Most healing items are random like Guns, although you can get a few useless spells from things like Core Shields and Metal Cards.

Again, since we're in the Snow Queen Quest, hardly any of this matters because LITHOGRAPHS.


Let's use Jack Frost and Gaki, and throw in a Scorching Lithograph (しゃくねつのせきばん) for some sweet Megidolaonn action. Igor busts out his phone.

The result is Judgment Phaleg.


Phaleg is one of the most beloved Personas in the game, because he (a) is Judgment and therefor immune to nearly all magic, and (b) he has Mediarama (メディラマ), a full party heal spell. Aside from Mediarama, he learns Twin Slash (ツインスラッシュ), Tarunda (タルンダ), Tetraja (テトラジャ) and Crimson Sublation (しようのあか- 止揚の紅, I swear I don't have a thing for this spell it just happens that a lot of Personas have it at this point).

It isn't uncommon to see people using Phaleg against the final boss because he's so versatile.

...unfortunately, no one in the party is at a high enough level to equip him yet. You have to equip Personas in the Velvet Room. Each character can have up to three equipped at one time, but can only have one active to use.

...um, and that's the gist of fusion. Moving right along:


Next door to the Velvet Room is a Healing Spring. If only we had the recorder we could find a secret passage! The Healing Spring is home to Trish, the greediest fairy ever. This world is GIVE AND TAKE! She's living in exile from the fairy world. She won't be able to return until she's done X number of good deeds, and I think she thinks charging people for healing is a good deed. In some ways, she's like the fox from Persona 4.

Trish charges by the location in Persona 1. It seems like in P2 she charges based on how badly you're hurt? In any case, she wants 1000 yen or healing here, which isn't that bad, considering.

At the beginning of the third floor, there's a Rosa Candida (armor) and Yin and Yan (weapons). Both carry better stuff than what we bought in the castle.

Ayase gets a shiny new HK P70Z that's four times as powerful as what she's currently packing. Unfortunately, pistols still suck.

Mara Ring gets an HKMP5K, which is guaranteed to hit at least two times and can hit up to 4. That's an improvement.

Yukino gets a Franchi PA-3. It's a lil bit better than what she had, but it still sucks.

Ellie and Nanjou get SIG-SG550s, which is actually weaker than an AK47, but it hits between 4 ~ 6 times.

At the armor store, the ladies pick up Kazeyomi Headpieces (かぜよみのかぶと) that give +3 Luck, +2 Agility, and +20 defense (Head Gear gives +5 defense).

Mara Ring and Nanjou get TAC-V2 vests for an extra 3 Vitality points. The ladies get Golden Armor (こんじきのよろい), which offers +1 to all stats and a better defense boost than TAC-V2.

The ladies also pick up Hamagari Guantlets (はまがりのこて, + Strength and Tech, + 3 Vitality), and everyone gets some Hyper Fox Shoes (ハイパーフォックス, + 5 Agility).

Now that we've gotten better equipment, our ascent of the tower can begin in earnest.

Tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the majority ruled and it was Nanjou and Ellie. Brown kinda sucks. His spears are ok, but he has the same junky machine guns that Mara Ring uses, and his unique Personas are... let's say vastly inferior to Ellie and Nanjou's. Plus, both E and N have the bestest guns in the game.

...er, what are "Magic Rocks"?

It seems like Mikage is supposed to be a suburb of Sumaru. That's the impression I got from, like, so many of the characters ending up in Sumaru, as well as all the students hanging around from St. Ermine.
(Incidentally, St. Ermine also exists as a local school in the Devil Summoner TV series)

She's also a complete lunatic and I love her for it. Is it ok that I've been using so many screenshots of her? I figured some of y'all might enjoy actually being able to read something in them once in a while. (Plus her attitude is just fantastic)

The item called "Magic Rock" in the English version, since I don't know Japanese. It restores 10 or so SP, I don't remember the exact number. Tadashi sells them, at least as I recall.

That would be the Chewing Soul, I think? It only restores a few SP and
whoops folks, that should only be "10 SP" not "100"

I was going to do a post about status effects, but I think I'll just let this copyrighted Atlus USA material do it for me:
(Please don't sue)

Saving for future use as an avatar.

That manual has some awesome Engrishy stuff going on. Like, "electric magic such as Geo" and "characters will attack 100% of their own party members."

I figured out most of these just playing, but I never understood what the arrow pointing down stairs was. Didn't help that it didn't make as much of a difference as most of these! And "Guilty" status is so funny, I always liked getting hit by it because it's so amusingly absurd.

Godspeed.

I probably overstated my indifference for her, I was just trying to emphasize Nanjou. NANJOU. Although I think I like the americanized Nate's art more. The hair stands out more. Anyway, Ellie's actually pretty cool in her own right. It's just that in Persona, you've got cool people over here like Yukino and Nanjou, and over there you've got crazy annoying people like Brown and Ayase and Ellie somewhere in the middle, but definitely on the cooler side! It's also been a while since I've played, so. :P
The whole thread I've been waiting for you to show up! "Where's Pence? He should really see this..."

You are frighteningly good at Let's Play threads.

I saw this for 500 yen today, and now that I look at this thread I wish I would have picked it up, despite all the problems. (Also, despite not being likely to actually play it anytime soon...)

Daaaaaaaaamn.

Also, Toro's puberty adventure really needs to be seen in motion to receive the full effect.


Man, Igor is surprisingly tall when he actually stands up!

I was totally gonna use it as my avatar, but then I remembered that my current one is also Pence-related, so I figured it would be a lil bit too single white female of me.

Unlucky doesn't really make a difference at all. It doesn't seem to make Hell's Eye (instant death) any more effective on the target. So it pretty much does nothing! Hooray!
(Most of the other effects don't do a whole lot either, particularly the "Good" effects. But that's mostly cuz you'll probably never, ever see them in the entire game)

Pence is St. Ermine!

Oh est, don't do it to yourself! Or at least wait and see if what PSP version is.

There isn't a level in the Katamari Damacy series that involves rolling up pigs, is there? Because that would have made the best video link.

.................................................. .D:

Sorry I don't have anything meaningful to say at the moment but my mind got derailed by all the crazy awesome video links in this LP.

I think that and the fusion animation video have been my favorites thus far.

Part V: Sleeping Beauty? Mo' like sucky dumb head!


A little ways down the hall, Mara Ring and company comes across a room. Inside are Tamaki, Tadashi and Natsumi. All three are asleep and can't be woken up. Like, all RPG characters, they talk in their sleep.

There's nothing that can be done for them right now, so let's move right along.


It really is a good thing that so many of our party members can use Exorcism magic, because those Fuji Musumes up there resist magic and the Nightmares (the children) are Yama demons, so they absorb magic. Both are weak to Exorcism though!

Ooishi and Hanya are further down the hall. They too are fast asleep and can't be woken. This room is actually a pet peeve of mine: Its laid out the exact same as the first one we came too, except the entrance/exit are reversed. It wouldn't be such a problem, except the Mara Ring is positioned as if he just walked in from the exit. It makes it really easy to get turned around and accidentally backtrack to Tamaki and Tadashi's room.


There's a room near the end of the floor that has a pretty stain glassed door. Philemon appears, and I would recap what he says, but you watch it yourself. In English, even. Apparently Atlus dubbed some of the unused Philemon FMVs. Strange, that.

...what's with the Vishnu loading screen?

The Dream World is completely optional. Sort of. You certainly don't need to come here to complete Hypnos's Tower. But you should. After all, we can't leave our friends and teachers trapped in a perpetual sleep, now can we?

The Dream World looks exactly like Hypnos's Tower, except the floor has fog over it. Wow.


There's a room east of the entrance that leads to... the real world's Yin and Yan? No, this is Natsumi's dream.

Natsumi is asking her boyfriend what he wants for dinner. In her dream world, she's an expert chef.

...how lame.

This scene is why her intro blurb says she's not good at cooking.

...yeah.

Speaking to her gives you the option to wake her up. Which Mara Ring does. Both her and boyfriend disappear.


South of the entrance is the door to Hanya's dream. In it, Hanya is the Principal of St. Ermine and Ooishi is the Vice Principal. Hanya is power tripping pretty hard, going so far as to say that as Principal, his word is the word of God. Ooishi acts like an obedient little lap dog. Ellie is surprised that the power of Hanya's dream is strong enough to pull Ooishi in.

Mara Ring, disgusted with Hanya's attitude, ends it by waking Hanya up. Unfortunately, we don't get the option to do it by kicking him in the nuts.


Now, to find the other two. The only way to go is around the outer perimeter of the Dream World. It takes a long time. You can also see, in that screenshot above, one of the oddities of the exp system. Nanjou did nothing in that battle except cast Makakaja, and he got 107 exp. I don't get it either.


The next room they come to has some seriously bad mojo going on. It's the Fencing Club room, but something is different. Something is horribly, horribly wrong.

Tadashi: "T-t-t-Tamaki-chaaaan!! I... I like you!!
Tamaki: "Tadashi-kun... I love you."

>A cold chill ran down your spine

Everyone is understandably horrified.

Tadashi calls Tamaki "My Honey" and she calls him "My Darling." Mara Ring can't wake them up fast enough.

Now that that's over with, we should be done with the Dream World... but wait, there's still more to explore. In retrospect, I should have left this up to y'all to see if we kept going or went back to the Tower. Sorry, we're gonna see what else is here in the Dream World.


At the end of the path is a strange door. Inside, a girl in a St. Ermine uniform sits on a throne with an attractive, if extremely tall, man stands at her side.

The girl introduces herself as Hirose Kumi, the guardian of Hypnos Tower. She admonishes the TPA (Team Prince Albert) for being selfish and waking everyone up. Her companion is her Persona, Hypnos.

Let me take a moment to explain this: In this game, Personas were much closer to the Stands from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure in that they were sometimes more than just glorified spell effects. You see this concept a little bit in Persona 3 and 4 with Lucia, Medea and Himiko, although Medea seemed to be more of a convenient and somewhat random plot device. (And no Fuuka, that isn't what opposite means.)

Hypnos says that Kumi is doing the people a favor by allowing them to live in their perfect dream world. Then he shows TPA the horrors of the real world:

At the drama club, the other members ridicule Kumi for her shyness. Since she doesn't really practice, she's not getting any better and so they can't use her in any of the productions. Kumi tries to defend herself, but she just mumbles.

At home, Kumi's father bitches at her for being so late. He says that she should spend more time studying and less time at drama practice, especially after scoring so low on the last tests. She feebly tries to explain that they're getting ready to put on the Snow Queen, but he's having none of it.

In her room, Kumi is a self centered emo brat. She bitches and moans about how no one understands her and how she gets yelled at for everything and how she wishes she could just live in a dream world.

Back in the Dream World, Yukino says what Kumi is doing is still wrong. Kumi denies it, and asks Hypnos to back her up. He does, saying that it's everyone else that's wrong.

Cue party verbally bitchslapping Kumi. It isn't real, you can't just say that everyone else is wrong and you're right, you have to try and meet people half way, etc, etc, etc.

Kumi says that if it feels real, then that makes it real, and that the Snow Queen saved her from a miserable life. Yukino is fed up with this nonsense, as am I, and says that they're going to wake Kumi up. Which Mara Ring does. Kumi and Hypnos disappear.


There's nothing more to do than return to Hypnos's Tower. The trip is uneventful.


Back in Hypnos, it's time to go check on everyone.

Ooishi and Hanya are both awake now and talking about their dream. Hanya tells the TPA that he found a Mirror Fragment (かがみのはへん) in his pocket, and hands it over.

Back in the other room, Tamaki and Tadashi are contemplating the meaning of their dream. It... it would be best not to dwell on it, I think. Tadashi hands over a Mirror Fragment (かがみのはへん) as thanks. Natsumi is laying on the floor, and says that she has low blood pressure and just needs to rest. If you speak with her, she says that she was having a really good dream and is irritated that it was interrupted.

...I think that's supposed to be comic relief.

Since we're almost back at the Velvet Room anyway, we can do some fusion!


We're combining Majuu Cu Sith with Yousei Pixie to get Priestess Ame no Uzume. We're adding a Flashing Lithograph (せんこうのせきばん) to the fusion to give her Mahaziodyne. Right now, we don't have any good multi-target SCIENCE! spells, so that's why we're getting Mahaziodyne. It isn't ideal for the next boss fight, but whatever.


Ame no Uzume is Holy Light, so she's weak to Curse and Necromancy. She reflects Nerve, and resists all magic. In addition to Mahaziodyne, she learns Media (メディア), Happy Dance (ハッピーダンス - Inflicts Happy), Agi (アギ), Paraladi (パララディ), Diarama (ディアラマ), and Sexy Dance (セクシーダンス - Charm). So you see, she really need a good offensive ability. Media is a great to have, and probably the biggest reason people use her.


Ame no Uzume goes to Mara Ring, because his Shomen Kongou isn't hacking it. Plus, he's tired of the bondage monkeys looking at him funny when he uses a spell. (No, really, the artwork for his Persona has monkeys in bondage gear crawling all over it. One of them is wearing leather assless chaps)

One of the peculiar things about the Velvet Room menus is the cancel option switches place depending on which menu you're looking at. I think Atlus did it just to fuck with us.


Mahaziodyne for 5 SP. Nice. It has the chance to cause shock status. Well, it does if anything was ever left alive.


After the Dream World nonsense, the rest of Hypnos Tower is straight dungeon with very little interesting happening. Mo Shobos are running around the middle floors. They're dangerous enemies, because they come in groups and have a habit of using Binary Strike (reduces everyone's HP to 1) and follow it with Mahazan (hits all allies) which can and will wipe you out if you're not careful.

The 8th floor is the final floor. There's a treasure room that contains an Amethyst (アメジスト), two Magic Stones (ませき), another Sonic Blade (ソニックソード), a Chakram (チャクラム) for Yukino, and another Strike Tail (ストライクテイル). None of this the least bit useful. The Chakram is stronger than what Yukino has, but it doesn't hit multiple times, so we're gonna pass on it.

On the way to the boss's room, TPA is ambushed. But, instead of telling you about that, I think it's time for TALKING ABOUT LITERARY DEVICES!

Before heading through the stained glass door, we rearrange the party as you see up there. Since Mara Ring is the only one with a party wide healing spell, he goes to the very back to avoid damage.

It probably would have been a good idea to move Nanjou back, too.


Eh? That's not the formation I wanted! D:

Through the door, they run into Kumi. She's still unwilling to listen to reason, so she summons Hypnos to attack the party.


Hypnos has four different version, depending on two variables: Hypnos is tougher if you wake Kumi up in the Dream World, and he's tougher if you do Hypnos Tower last. Since we woke her up but came to this tower first, he's at his second weakest level.

Hypnos can cast Dormina (ドルミナー, inflicts sleep), Western Crush (せいげきは - 西撃破, like Crimson Sublation except with Weak Boson damage）, Maelstrom Barrage (どとうのれんだ - 怒涛の連打, axe damage to one）, Hellish Sleep (あんこくのねむり - 暗黒の眠り, damage + chance to cause sleep). Allegedly he can also cast Saika (クイッカ - gives Counter status) but I've never seen him do that.

Hypnos drains Ignis, Air, Photon and Weak Boson magic. He's allegedly weak to guns, but I've never noticed a serious difference in the damage done.

For this battle:

• Mara Ring pretty much does nothing but cast Media. He can't do much else, because neither of his Personas have spells that'll effect Hypnos.
• Ellie casts Rakukaja for a couple of turns, then switches to using Rough Waves.
• Nanjou does nothing but cast Makakaja for a few turns, then Sukukaja until the battle is over. He spends a lot of time asleep though.
• Yukino casts Frei. It would have been better if she had Freila, but she hadn't learned it yet.
• Ayase can't do much because Houri is based entirely on Ignis spells. For the first couple of turns, she just shoots at him. Then I remembered that I have all those lithographs in my inventory. She starts popping the Scorching Lithographs (Megidolaonn).

Hypnos isn't particularly dangerous, and the whole thing would be a lot easier if we just used the Lithographs from the beginning. He only has about 1200 HP.

He gives helluva lot of experience.


After the battle, the party gives Kumi a talking to about living in the real world/facing your problems/etc/etc/etc. Kumi realizes the error of her ways, thanks the party for showing her the light, and disappears. She leaves behind a Mirror Fragment (かがみのはへん). Yukino takes a moment to think about it, and decides that Kumi wasn't really a bad person, just misguided.

"You have conquered Hypnos's Tower"

One down, two to go!
We're deposited in the Heeho-kun's classroom.
Let's run to the Velvet Room real quick and do some fusion. Our current Personas just aren't hacking it. Mara Ring's level is high enough that he can equip Phaleg, so he does.

Magician Urvashi is born!


Urvashi is a the most beautiful apsaras in Hindu mythology. Man, what is with the Magician Personas so far? First a Houri, now an apsaras. She learns Bufula (ブフーラ), Mahabufu (マハーブフ), Sexy Dance (セクシーダンス), Mahabufula (マハブフーラ) and 99 Needles (つくもばり - 九十九針). I gave her a Hellish Lithograph (えんまのせきばん) so she'll learn Maharagidyne.

Urvashi reflects Aqua, resists Air and Terra, and is weak to SCIENCE!


Since Ayase is most compatible with Magicians, she gets Urvashi. Yukino gets Ame no Uzume. Let's hop over to the Devil's Mountain!

The Devil's Mountain is accessed from the Heeho-kun's classroom. It's a place to level up and get Spell Cards without a time limit. It's like the Ruins in the SEBEC quest, the Factory in IS and the Bomb Shelter in EP. There's a Velvet Room and a Healing Fountain (which you won't ever need to use because the area it's in has no encounters so you can just regenerate your SP by walking).


The enemies get increasingly difficult as ascend the floors, however, the floors are sealed by the Tower Guardians. The lower floors are sealed by the Hypnos, the mid floors by Nemesis, and the upper floors by Thanatos. The enemies contained within are the same ones that you met in that tower.

Our first encounter is a group of zombies. Let's let Yukino blow them away with Mahaziodyne.

...except Yukino can't actually use Ame no Uzume. She can equip it and get the resistances, but she can't use any of the magic.

...there's no way of knowing if you can use a Persona without trying it in battle.

...thanks, Atlus.

There are four levels of Persona compatibility:
A: Excellent compatibility, reduced SP cost. Every character has excellent compatibility with their "base" arcana (ie, Mara Ring and Emperor).
B: Good compatibility. Can equip and use the Persona.
D: Poor compatibility. Can equip but can't use the Persona.
F: Incompatible. Can't equip or use the Persona.

Exciting.

Next time: Nemesis Tower! Will we be seeing mopey children with spears that are twice their body length? Let's hope not!

Current Mirror Fragments: 3

I ran into that second one when I was trying to give Alana a healing Persona so she'd actually be useful, and the first one works similarly in Persona 2, as well, though I still haven't tried to use the Annihilation Card on Pixie yet, to see if I can cast Megidolaonn for 4 SP.

My favorite quirk was finding out the thing Turnip mentioned here where Alana's whip has better attack range than her gun, though. I mostly liked the positioning system after I got used to it, but it still managed to create some bizarrely frustrating targeting circumstances.

Who's "Hubunoise"? Tell me he's not trying to say "Hypnos."


Is it different in the Japanese version?


Wait... That...on the right...

What is that?


I had to look.

Man, I'm in awe of all this. There's stuff here I didn't know about Persona (like poor Persona compatibility) and those videos are amazing. (the related P4 dancing video (warning, there's a spoiler there, I think) is pretty awesome too)

Does the time limit really ever matter? One of the FAQs said the time limit can expire with no ill effect. I wouldn't push it anyway, but still.

The second one is really irritating, especially if you don't realize it until you're halfway through a dungeon with no Velvet Room in sight.

Yukino's shotguns have worse range than her throwing items, too. And Maki doesn't even need a gun because she has bows. Plus she uses shotguns and handguns, which are, shall we say, bottom tier.
This game is weird.

Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies. There's no loading screen in the JP version.

It's, uh, one of the possible outcomes of Sweet Trap. It appears to be a leather biker bunny.

Yes, it matters. You'll get game over if you let the timer run out.

This is the single greatest thing I have seen in a video game, ever.

It's so weird to see where the modern incarnations of Persona had their humble beginnings. Between this and Persona 2 it's kind of a miracle that the series not only survived, but actually evolved into something comprehensible to ordinary mortals.

Graphically, this game has a surprisingly euro vibe. I am probably just making connections to SNES Shadowrun (developed in Australia by Beam Software), but the fixed-camera isometric view, realistically-proportioned characters, and abstract/quirky world map seem like traits of a PC game that got lost and ended up on PSOne.

The penis monster though... that's Japan all the way.

Part VI: A person, she is quite twisted.


We take a moment to fuse up a Hermit Fuutai. Fuutai is a little strange, he's weak to guns and whips, Curse and Necromancy. He repels Nerve, and drains Exorcism. These are weird properties for an Elemental Persona. He learns the spells Bufula (ブフーラ), Garu (ガル), Panic Voice (パニックボイス, inflicts Panic), Petrifying Scratch (せきかひっかき - 石化引っ掻き, damage + petrification）, and Rough Waves (ごうのなみ - 剛の波）. Let's throw in a Quaking Lithograph (しんまのせきばん) to give him Mahamagdyne (マハマグダイン).

Fuutai goes to Nanjou, because even though Aizen Myouo's Makakaja is fantastic, it'd be nice if Nanjou could actually damage the enemies himself.

Onward to Nemesis Tower. The entrance is located in the Library.


Nemesis's Tower is actually a ziggurat covered in thorny vines. It'd be really neat to explore the exterior, I think, but we won't get that luxury. We're going inside, baby. There's a door directly in front of the entrance.


As the TPA enters, they hear laughing. The obnoxious "OHOHOHOHOHO" type of laughing. A girl with blonde hair appears. She introduces herself as Matsudai Michiko, the Guardian of Nemesis Tower. Her speech pattern is... really irritating. She says "watakushi" which... eh. She says the group should be honored they get to be killed by her.

...then she notices Nanjou. She says that she'll spare him if he agrees to be her pet.

Nanjou, the proud, stuck up rich kid, takes this about as well as you'd expect.

Michiko, in an effort to win him over, decides that she's going to show the group how merciful she can be: She's going to cancel the time limit in the tower, so Nanjou can have as long as he needs to think it over. With that, she leaves.

If you speak to your party members, they say the same things: Bitch is up to something.


There are still clocks here, and they say you have four hours. However, I'm reasonably sure that nothing happens if it runs out while you're in this tower.

The enemies give pretty good experience, and with Phaleg's Megidolaonn, Mara Ring gets most of it.

It should be noted that Urvashi doesn't get Maharagidyne. Since Urvashi is an Aqua Persona, it seems that she can't obtain Ignis spells. Whoops!


The second floor has the obligatory weapon and armor shops.
For weapons: Mara Ring picks up a Phantom Killer (ファントムキラー), which is significantly weaker than the other one that's up for sale, but it gets a guaranteed 6 shots to the other one's 0~7; Yukino gets a MADMAX; Ellie and Nanjou get FAMAS Carbines (FA-MASカービン). Everyone gets Mage Killer (メイジキラー) bullets, which are about twice as powerful as Serpent Fangs and can inflict Close (mute).

For armor: The boys get Plate Helms (パレードヘルム, + 5 Luck), Plate Armor (パレードアーマー, + 5 Vitality) and Plate Guards (パレードガード, + 5 Tech).

The ladies get Dawn Armor (あかつきのよろい, + 3 Vitality and Luck), and Dawn Gloves (あかつきのこて + 3 Tech and Agility).

Everyone gets Plate Boots (パレードブーツ, + 5 Agility). I'm not sure why, but the female-only equipment in these towers is always a few ranks better than the men's equipment.

Moving right along, there's a Velvet Room and a continue point on the 3rd Floor. Since Mara Ring is at level 20, he decides to grind a few levels up to PLevel 21. He skips into the Velvet Room and fuses Moon Lilim.


Lilim is yet another fan favorite. Here's why: She drains all magic except for Nerve, Exorcism and Wonder. Instead of draining Nerve, she reflects it, and I don't think I've ever seen an enemy cast Wonder attack magic.

That sounds completely broken, don't it? It is, but it also looks like Atlus was trying to balance her: She can only be equipped by men, and she costs a whopping 21 SP to use (for comparison, Level 16 Fuutai costs 7 SP). Likewise, her spells? They suck pretty bad.

She learns Poisma (ポイズマ, inflicts Poison), Slumpa (スランパ, inflicts Unlucky status), Poison Pin (どくばり - 毒針, Damage + Poison), Mudo (ムド, same effect as Hama except Curse-based), Candy Voice (キャンディボイス, inflicts charm) and Shishirika (シシリッカ, inflicts Sick).

So yeah, she's pretty much a massive wad of suckage as far as offensive capabilities are concerned.

...but that's nothing a Scorching Lithograph can't cure!

I've given Megidolaon to a lot of Personas. Even though it isn't almighty, they apparently forgot to balance its strength down to match the other maha-dyne spells. So it's still absurdly powerful. For comparison, the first tier spell, Megido, is about as strong as most single target dyne spells in other elements.

Lilim goes to Mara Ring, and Phaleg gets passed to Ellie since she has the best compatibility with Judgment Personas. You might want to pass it on to someone else and leave Ellie with Nike so three characters can be immune to magic.

There's a door that's right beside the Continue Point. Inside is... well, let's just look at the picture:

Apparently, we've walked into the filming of Saw VI. Even though this is in 1996.


A demon teacher is overseeing the torture of Toro and Akuma-kun. Toro is strapped to ground, his mouth has been tied open (I'm... I'm not sure how that works) and forced to drink milk. Akuma-kun is a having to do push ups over a bed of spikes. They both beg for him to stop.

Nanjou deduces that this is Michiko's doing, and says that to come up with this, she must have a twisted mind.

Michiko appears and says that these two are being punished for being ugly. Under her law, ugliness is a crime.

"But Michiko, you're ugly on the inside!" blah blah blah, Michiko laughs at the idea that friendship is beautiful, but says that if they want to release Toro and Akuma-kun, they'll have to defeat her.

She says that to get to her room, they should take the left door. But then she tells them that the Mirror Fragment is located on the first floor, and they'll have to go right to get it. She reminds them that they have all the time in the world, so they can go down and get the fragment and then come see her at their leisure.

She disappears. We're supposed to be saving Saeko, and we need the fragments to do that... but we can't just let Toro and Akuma-kun suffer, can we? I mean, sure, Toro tried to kill us recently and his Persona is a giant penis, but...

Let's think back to what Philemon told us: If we gather enough fragments, we can save Saeko. He didn't say all, he said enough. So, with that in mind, let's go smack that uppity bitch around with the power of friendship!

I thought there might be treasure (besides the fragment), so I went right. Akuma-kun needs to build some upper body strength anyway, and I'm still irritated at Toro anyway!